Member Spotlight: Baak Family

Daren and I both grew up in Huntington Beach 6th Ward.  We first met in 1982 on our way home from a ward beach party.  This was before the seat belt laws and one of the youth leaders had agreed to take a bunch of us home and I was the lone Beehive in the back of a Suburban full of Priests.  (Woo Hoo!) We were listening to some Ska music and Daren kept hitting me on the head during the drum beats.  I ended up becoming friends with all these boys and through Daren I met his sister, Debbie, who is still my best friend to this day.  How many women are lucky enough to call their best friend their sister-in-law?  Anyway, because Debbie was my best friend, Daren was more like a big brother in those days so we never dated.  In 1987 Daren married my friend, Lara, and later that year Chelsea was born.  But they were divorced a year later and Daren raised Chelsea on his own.  I got married in 1991 and in 1994  Kelsey was born 2 1/2 months early and weighing a whopping 2.5 lbs.  Two years later Hayden came along but their dad and I were divorced before Hayden's first birthday.

Fast forward to Thanksgiving 2001. Kelsey and Hayden were going to spend Thanksgiving with their dad and my parents and brothers were living in Missouri.  Lucky for me Debbie invited me to have Thanksgiving dinner with her family and since I knew her whole family well, including all the cousins, I agreed.  Of course Daren and his daughter, Chelsea, were there and Daren asked if I'd like to take the kids to see Harry Potter the next day.  I thought we were just hanging out as friends like we used to.  It wasn't until the 4th date, when he put his hand on my back, that I knew we were dating.  It took him 7 months to tell me he loved me, but he asked me to marry him the next day.  Our newly formed family was blessed with Hailey in 2004 and she was the link that bound us all together.  We lived in a nice big house in Corona for 4 years but never really felt like we were home. So in 2006 we moved back to Huntington Beach into a 2 bedroom apartment and have never regretted it.
 

Daren went to school in San Diego where he got his Bachelor's in biology with plans to become a doctor.  But raising a child on your own and going to med school at the same time is not an easy task.  He eventually got a job as a T.A. teaching calculus at UCR and found he loved teaching.  But with the economy the way it is he was laid off while I was pregnant with Hailey.  But that's OK, we had opened our own smoothie shop in 2002 and I was already managing it so we were able to keep up on the bills.  We sold it in 2006 and Daren tried to go back to school to get his masters in mathematics so he could teach at the high school level.  But when I lost my job in 2009 Daren gave up that dream and started doing property maintenance with Richard Haglund.  Daren has learned a lot and he can now fix anything in our home.  In his down time he reads.  He also enjoys scuba diving when we have the money to travel.  And if we didn't live in an apartment he'd be playing the drums.

I originally studied marine biology but when it came time to transfer to SDSU my dad thought it wasn't a very smart career path and talked me into going into court reporting school instead.  But, since court reporting was not my dream I didn't finish school and I went into customer service/inside sales.  When I lost my job in 2009 I decided I wanted something part time so I now work at a pediatric dental office 3 days a week.  I am a devout 49er fan and hope to see them win the Super Bowl this year. I enjoy playing the piano (privately at home) and dream of swimming with whales.

Chelsea is now 25 and married with 2 little girls of her own, Kaylee and Annabelle  They live in the Santa Barbara area and we visit as often as we can.  She has a passion for animals and loved working as a veterinarian assistant but now stays home being a mommy.

Kelsey was a Pop Warner cheerleader for 5 years but really found her passion in music and theater.  She credits this passion to Terri Wilson (Kristi Ward's mom) who taught Kelsey's 8th grade choir class where she won "Best In Choir."  She was in Honors Choir and participated in Edison's school plays all 4 years of high school.  Her sophomore year she won "Best Performer" for her part as Little Red Riding Hood in "Into The Woods."  Kelsey helped me coach Hailey's cheer squad last year and I realized she's also got quite a talent for choreography.  She just left on Thursday to go up to BYU Idaho where she will be studying music so she can take over as Edison's choir director someday.

Hayden is currently a Jr in high school and spends most of his time playing video games and creating his own future website where you can go and rate games.  Think "Good Reads" for gamers.  He also taught himself to play the piano.  Kudos again to Terri Wilson for teaching him to play the trumpet and helping Hayden discover an interest in music.

Hailey is 9 and is a great cheerleader.  She is the flyer on her squad and she has the best high kick of any 8 year old I've ever seen.  Her squad will be competing for a National Championship in Las Vegas later this month.  GO CHARGERS!!  When not at cheer practice Hailey enjoys playing with her friends, Monster High dolls, and her American Girl dolls.

That's our family.  We love each other and we love being a part of the HB 4th ward family.