Youth Conference

I just had youth conference. This year it was multi-stake. We had Annandale, Woodbridge, Mt. Vernon, and McLean stakes. And there were around 450 kids.

We were privileged to hear from Sister Mary Cook. As most of you know, she is the 1st counselor in the General Young Women Presidency.

I was able to be in one of the classes she taught, and was able to help her out, so that was an amazing experience. It was cool, cause she told me I had a wonderful spirit, and that I was helpful and everything. I know its dorky, but I also got a picture :)

It was amazing having her, and her husband there!!

Our theme was "Stand Up, Stand Out, Stand Together!"

It was based on the mutual/scripture theme for the year, Mosiah 5:15. "Be steadfast and immovable, always abounding in good works".

We also had one of the counselors in the temple presidency come, and his wife, and they taught us SO much about the temple, and the making and building of the temple.

Brother Andre also spoke. He spoke about lepers in other countries, and how they don't have feet, or hands, or fingers, and he taught us to be grateful for everything we have.

We did a fun service project, which was painting, building, etc. things at  a local rec center. 

We did a lot of workshops, and they were all amazing. I loved learning many things from dancing, to scripture reading, to preparing for a mission, to not using sarcasm. 

Youth Conference was soo fun! And tomorrow, I am off to EFY at Southern VA University! :)

Do I Need To Update??

So here is an update on my life.

School was good... I started out with straight A's the first semester, and continued to work hard (well, as hard as I know how to). I took some interesting courses this past year. I took a computer class, a business course. We have learned how to do everything regarding multimedia, design and web technologies. I have officially learned how to maneuver powerpoint. And boy am I proud of it. English was a pain, I did well in the course, but my teacher was literally nuts. She lost half the stuff I turned in. It was extremely annoying. I took ASL 3 (American Sign Language) this year, and I was surprised that I did maybe only 10% of signing, and the rest was watching videos of people signing, and my class attempting (and failing) to interpret. Geosystems was interesting. That's all I can say about that. Government was pretty fun, and I learned a lot about the candidates, the government, and about why and how everything works. I didn't think I could possibly learn all that I did. Lastly, I took Applied Statistics which was an intriguing class. I knew a lot about probability, and graphing, but I didn't know the may steps it took to graph something in complete detail.

Speaking of school, we recently had our senior awards ceremony. I had known of one scholarship, so I arrived in my dress slacks. The scholarship I received was from the Springfield Rotary Club. I had applied for the scholarship, and out of the 8 finalists, I was chosen of one of the 4 winners of the 2,000 dollar scholarship. The basis of this scholarship, is service about self. I had to compile a service resume, and to my surprise, I saw that I had around 1,000 hours of service throughout my 4 years in high school. So I guess service does have its own rewards. I was very honored, and extremely grateful to receive the scholarship award. While at the award ceremony, my name was called to receive another scholarship. I had not known about it until that exact moment. The scholarship was the Leslie Ann Conners Memorial Scholarship. The basis for this one was someone who was currently using ASL outside of class, had a high GPA in ASL, had good recommendations, and was planning on pursuing a career in ASL. (I had determined that I wanted to do something with ASL, so with the application in hand, I decided I would minor in ASL interpreting). Near the end of the ceremony, my name was called yet again, for a scholarship I had no clue I would be receiving. There were 2 scholarships awarded for this specific scholarship. The scholarship was named the Carolyn Grace National Honor Society Scholarship. It was named after a beloved teacher, and mother, at my high school who passed away last year from cancer. The first award went to the president of the honor society, and then they called my name. I swear, I was in so much shock. It was an honor to be given an award in her name, and I was pleased to accept it.

And going off on a schpeal of awards (not meaning or intending to be selfish in any way), we recently had our Scripture Mastery Tournament. My ward has won it since it began. Not just because we're 'that' good, but because our ward is quite competitive, and kind of obsessed with winning. So, we all work SO hard to learn all of the scriptures. We memorize them before the seminary year starts, and work at knowing them throughout the year. It is pretty crazy cause we even hold extra practices on the weekends, after school, and every other chance we got. Since we always seem to win, this year they changed the entire tournament to make it more fair. We were told of some of the things that would be done, but some were kept secret. Luckily, all of our practice and hard work really paid off. We ended up with the same number of points as the other class in our ward, so both classes got first. We were so excited! And its not like we didn't work for it. We worked so hard every morning at 5:50 am till 6:40 am. We practiced, and worked, and practiced some more. Then at the end of the tournament we have an individual round of scripture mastery chasing. There are probably 8 tables with 8 students on each. Students face each other and the judge says the doctrinal teaching for a scripture mastery. Then when she says "ready, chase", as she says that you and the student across from you race to find the scripture. When you find it you raise your hand, and the teacher/judge over you, decides who gets the point. Winner wins the majority of 3 games. Then the winners find a new person to go against (not in your own ward), and the competition continues. I was 5th last year, and I really wanted to do well this year. I practiced so hard. I had my sister quiz me for hours. I had my mom practice with me. I had my friends at church and school test me. I still felt that I had some heavy competition. I talked with them all, and we decided we would not go against each other until we absolutely had to. So, as the competition went on, I didn't end up having to verse any of them, luck was in my hands. I was so flipping nervous. Ask anyone there, I was shaking so hard. I'm surprised I was able to find any scriptures with how hard I was shaking, and how nervous I was. Well, I did well. I didn't lose a single scripture chase. And in the end, the competition was against me, and another girl in my ward (in the other class), and she creamed me the first round. It was definitely a humbling experience. I was in no way as good as I thought I was. Second round it was close, but I beat her by a millisecond. I was so nervous. She told me she wanted me to win, cause she's only a freshmen, but she didn't want to just hand it to me. She wanted me to win fair and square. Last scripture... I got it. I did it! All my hard work paid off! All the work I put into the competition paid off. I did what I had worked so hard for, for 4 years. I was ecstatic!

oh. I graduated. No, I was not like my sisters, and I was not a valedictorian, but I was in the front!! (ok... I'm a baker. my last name starts with a B....) I was proud of my honor chords (from the honor societies I am in), and the stoles I wore (2 other honor societies). So at least I wasn't like 'naked' or anything. haha.

And then there was prom. I went with a girl in my ward: tawny Gorbutt. She and I, decided we were going to make our prom dresses. We decided that we wanted the PERFECT dresses, that were the perfect color, perfect style, and that were modest. So, we worked on making our dresses together after school for the last couple weeks of school. Below are some pictures of us, and my dress. I also made our corsages.



oh yeah, i forgot. We had our school musical recently. I was a pick-a-little lady, the farmer's wife (american gothic), and a featured dancer (one of the teenagers that dance/sing in songs such as marian the librarian and shipoopi). I had so much fun, and since I wasn't in any chorus class this year, I had a blast being able to hang out with all my old friends, doing something I love to do.






and did I mention that this year in school I was VERY spirited? This is from rock star day.

um. so my senior year I decided to venture out of my comfort zone and join the powderpuff football team (tournament for girls). We lost, but we had a ton of fun. So i guess thats all that matters in the end, right?

Oh, and for those of you who have not already heard, I was nominated by a couple members of my ward, to receive a wig from locks of love. They run around $5,000. It is beautiful, but it takes some getting used to.  You see, it is a giant suction cup, made to the exact shape of my head, so that it won't come off, or move around. Because it is made as such, you have to break it in like you would new shoes. And I haven't quite broken it in yet.

Oh, and I know this is even more random than all the other stuff... but I thought it was cool. This is a picture of me, and the guy who played Seaweed on the Hairspray musical on broadway. I went to New York with my business class, and we had seen the musical while we were up there. It was so amazing, especially being so close to the stage, and seeing Seaweed SOO close. It was WAY too cool.

Alrighty then. I'll probably find more things to add here, but as for now... this is it.

So enjoy what I've written, and make a comment if you feel so inclined.

Adios for now.

Jenna Baker

(and yes, I've changed the spelling of my name again.)

I know I should be writing more often, so I promise to start up again.

As my debut for my new type of blogging (based off of my beautiful and talented cousins Janae and Sam), I have a special little video I have compiled.

I hope you enjoy:




Thanks ya'll.

Random & Seminary So Far...

(this is part one, the rest of the song is on the second clip)





This is me at EFY this past summer. I attended EFY in Virginia at Southern Virginia University.

When I sang this I had a fever, had been throwing up all day, and was barely able to stand. I hadn't even eaten real food for over a day.


I thought I'd add this... you might enjoy it.






Thanks for all those people who are commenting on my blog :) I love you guys!!

SEMINARY :)

My teacher is Sister Gardner. We meet in our church building, and it takes me between 2-5 minutes to get to seminary. I wake up at 5:42, leave at 5:45 and get to seminary by 5:50 am. We end at 6:40 and I drive home and put in my contacts and make my lunch, and then I leave for school. I get to school around 7 and school starts at 7:30. For seminary this year we are are studying the Old Testament. We have studied the creation up to Abraham and Isaac. Today we had a lesson on sacrifice. Our teacher took something from each of us. She took a real diamond necklace from one girl, shoes from me and another boy, and random things from other people. It was a pretty good object lesson. Then we were asked to draw something that meant a lot to us (actually this part came first), I drew my eternal companion. Its actually quite funny, and serious. I wanted to draw something that would be important to me forever. That's the thing that popped into my head. I was pleased with the outcome. It was a really good lesson and I learned a lot about what Abraham had to go through, and how today we have our own sacrifices. We just need to remember that the Lord's side always win. If we put our trust in him and stay on the right path, we will end up on top, with him. And though we think we're missing out on something... In reality, we've won a lot more in the eternal spectrum.

Livin' for Life, Life IS for Livin'!!

Today is TERRIFIC TUESDAY! We have our little schedule, and a new starting tradition.

Stunning Sunday? How about Sparkling Sunday? Successful Sunday? Sweet Sunday?
Marvelous Monday? How about Miraculous Monday? Merry Monday? Merciful Monday?
Terrific Tuesday? How about Tranquil Tuesday? Tidy Tuesday? Truthful Tuesday?
Wonderful Wednesday? How about Wacky Wednesday? Witty Wednesday? Warm Wednesday?
Terrific Thursday? How about Thriving Thursday? Thorough Thursday? Timely Thursday?
Fabulous Friday? How about Fortunate Friday? Fantastic Friday? Fascinating Friday?
Super Saturday? How about Some Saturday? Special Saturday? Spontaneous Saturday?

Why not think of each day as a new, fantastic, wonderful day?! I read on a quote wall that "Happy people have happy thoughts". At first, the quote made no sense to me. Then I thought about it. No wonder happy people are always happy, and always finding happy moments in the times with the most gloom! They start each day with a happy thought. They tell themselves that, no matter what, today will be an amazing day. Nothing can get in their way!

What a marvelous idea! Can you imagine how much this world could benefit from more people finding good in the world, in people, and in every day lives? Its almost ingenious!


SO... I encourage each of you to start each day with a purpose, and, no matter what, make sure each day is an amazing day. In each moment of despair, find something to laugh about. In each trial, find something to rejoice in. When you think you'll cry, think of something wonderful. When you want to complain, say 10 things you are thankful for.

If you do this, i promise you, your day will be 1000X better than the days when you don't//

JUST DO IT! :)

Yesterday and Today's "Good, Bad and the Ugly"!

First: Today I got my hard copy license!! yay!! I'm OFFICIALLY official!

Second: Yesterday I get this call from my mom asking if I could do I huge favor and drive over to this one lady's house and help her out with something. I find out that while unloading HER groceries, she managed to drop a 50 lb. bag of something on her foot, and she broke it. So I went over there and got the remaining groceries. I was to put them in my car and take them to this ninety something year old who we help take care of. While putting them in my car, I accidentally dropped a HEAVY bucket of liquid detergent on my foot. Here are some pictures of the "horrific" event (see bottom).


Third: While in my first class today I tripped over a computer leg and my toe ripped on the sharp edge of one of the ends. It was like 1 cm gash. Bled for a long time, hurt like no other, and bled through 12 band-aids.

Fourth: I got yelled at, and sobbed, and cried some more, and got yelled at more. Here's the deal. I decided to tough it out at school, but then it just got worse. So I went to the clinic. Two minutes later she said I had to go back to class. An hour later, I went back again. This time the pain was so bad that even just sitting I thought I was going to cry from all the pain. The clinic lady kicked me out, the resource office kicked me out, and so, balling, I went to my guidance counselor and she helped everything deescalate. Finally I calmed myself down enough to figure things out. But it was a far from pleasant day.

Pictures of my injuries:

A
B
C
D
E

F

CLICK ON PICTURES/LETTER OF PICTURE TO SEE ENLARGED PICTURES!

(A) My bruised foot. The shaded part is ALL a bruise. It hurts SOOO bad!
(B) My crutches and my bruised foot again.
(C) One more bruised foot.

(D) View of the slice, and the 12th band-aid, and all the blood. EW!
(E) Another view of the foot that got a toe sliced.

(F) Me being sad cause of my rotten day.

First Day of School Pictures/News

The last picture is my favorite :) I think I may make it my new facebook picture!

This was the first day of school. I had to coordinate my outfit with the jewelry I wanted to wear, haha. But yea, VERY successful first day. I loved it.