D&D (June 2017)

D&D Update - Ani's Birthday, Car, Backyard, Work

Wed, Jun 14, 2017, 2:57 PM

Hey Family,

I'm so bad at writing these updates, but it sits on my to-do list (literally, I have a to-do-list and third from the top is "write family email" so here goes). :)

Today is Aniston's 7th Birthday. She has been so excited about it -- it's really sweet. She is having a friend party with "Moana" coming tonight to sing songs and teach hula and things. Moana is a lady from our ward who does this as her job now. She looks like Moana and I think makes great money doing it! 

Layla and Ani and Noelle are having a fun Summer so far and Danielle has them signed up for some fun activities. Ani took tennis lessons and loved it. She is really good -- better than lots of the kids years older than her. We'll have to keep practicing that! A and L have swimming in the mornings now and Ani is taking piano lessons this Summer. 

I bought a new car last week - my first ever salvaged title, but it was a really good deal. We're Dave Ramsey disciples and he says to save money like a car payment and when you have enough, then you can buy a new car for cash. We did that and sold my beloved Acura RL to Chris. I've loved that car and babied it so it's nice to sell it to family. :)

Work has been really busy for me lately, but rewarding as well. Several months back I observed some research about the needs of members, and began to put together some thoughts and recommendations into a presentation. I started showing my presentation to a few people, and it started to attract some attention. I've been invited to give it to a few different Executive Councils of General Authorities and some of the Quorum of the Twelve. Last week, I was able to present it to Elder Bednar in a small meeting with a few other people and he was very supportive. They've decided to give some research funding to this effort and allow me to lead a research proposal that I'm very excited about. 

A few months ago I was working with the Deseret Industries branding folks and I threw out an idea. I told them that I bought a piano from the DI before Danielle and I were married and I fixed it up and painted and gave it a new "second-life." I said that it was a metaphor for what the DI does for things and also for people. The DI exists to take people who can't get a job, and they employ them and teach them job skills. How to show up to work on time, how to deal with co-workers, proper hygiene, etc. I said, "wouldn't it be fun to do a little campaign with the piano as a metaphor for people, and show how something that has seemingly lost it's value can be fixed up and provide value once again?" I thought it would be fun to take some pianos that were donated to DI, and have them painted fun colors and put out on busy streets downtown with a sign that says "Donated by the Public to the DI. Donated by the DI to the Public." I didn't hear much, but the content teams liked the idea and created this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PoGNaV2s0k

We are also doing the street piano idea starting on Saturday downtown. It's fun to see some of these ideas come to life. :)

I'm so proud of Danielle -- she has been working out consistently for months now. Every day she does a different workout through an app that we have through the Roku. I have not been as consistent and I really need to start running again. Danielle does it every morning no matter what, even when she has kids climbing over and on top of her while she's doing it! 

The girls are all growing up so fast and are being so cute. Noelle is getting so big and is just walking at babbling all the time. She can repeat any two syllable word that we say. Her favorite word to say is "Layla" and she says that all day. 

We're trying to finally "finish" our backyard this Summer and we got curbing last week and now we need to get mulch back there, and then plant trees in the Fall. We'll do a firepit eventually, and probably a big deck at some point, but decks are SO expensive! Our quotes have been $12K-$16K! Yikes! 

I met a guy at work who started a little company called MissionaryMemories.com. He has created a great product that allows you to very easily create a printed book of missionary letters and photos in just a few minutes. I did one for Janika (since I had all her emails in my gmail - and I don't for some of the others). It turned out really nice -- but I accidentally missed some of the first letters (which was my fault). I've agreed to help this guy with marketing in exchange for a percentage of the company if we can hit certain sales targets. You should give it a look and tell me what you think. :) 

Hope everyone is doing well. We are praying for Chris's health and that the tests all come back okay!

Love,

D&D