D&D Brief Update (March 2020)

Hey Family! 

Since everyone is providing their family updates - I guess it's added incentive to do it as well! Here are a few things happening with our family: 

• We decided to finally build a bigger/better deck off our main floor. We've wanted to do this since the day we moved in (7 years ago), and one of our biggest regrets is not just rolling a nice, big deck in with our mortgage loan! Every year I tell Danielle "this is the year - the year of the deck." And then every year we get bids from a few contractors and it's too expensive and we need other things more (car or other home projects/improvements or repairs) so we fund those instead. But this year we were determined. I was kind of wanting to build it myself, but I'm so glad we just hired it out. It would have taken me a long time -- but our contractor did it all in a week (including the tear-out of our old deck). It will be so nice to have during the Spring - Fall months, and we're hoping to do a nice space underneath it to be outside (and actually have a little shade). :) I'll attach some pics. So, we have a deck guy if anyone needs one (you always need certain "guys" information in your phone, Scott's "dirt-guy," my "sprinkler guy." etc. We are in need of an "appliance repair-guy" if anyone has one!
• We moved Layla to twice a week tumbling since she loves it so much and is so good at it. More driving for Danielle, but Layla is getting so good and just does cartwheels and tricks wherever she goes. :) Danielle and the girls have run into Taylee at Tumble-Tek in Draper. Ani is starting voice lessons this week and we're excited to see how that goes! She also starts tennis lessons up again so we're getting busy as all these lessons take up lots of time with driving to and from!
• Danielle's birthday was February 20th. I made her some Russian nesting dolls of our family and the girls have loved to play with those. I also (funny-enough) got her a ticket to the Qualtrics Summit marketing conference. :) Haha - I was going for work, and told her about some of the speakers: Chip and Joanna Gaines, Ellen Degeneres, Michelle Obama, Brene Brown, and told her there was a concert by The Killers and she was so sad that I was able to go to these things without her - so I worked a few of my Qualtrics connections and got her a ticket. We were so excited to go next week, but they just postponed it due to Coronavirus concerns! So who knows what of those speakers will still do it when it happens in the Fall! For her birthday, we invited some of our ward/neighborhood friends to go to Classic Skating with us. It was a blast. We've been married 13 years, but had never been skating together until recently and it's been really fun! I think some of Jen's kids and some of Scott's do Disco night sometimes. :)
• For Valentines' Day we got a reservation at the UVU Cooking school - they do a 4-course meal in the basement of the UCCU building. Haha - we got there and there was a state-wide wrestling tournament happening. There were HUNDREDS of sweaty, singlet-clad boys from all over, and we had to make our way to our romantic Valentines dinner. :) We looked at each other like "what are we doing here?" But it was actually VERY good and a fun date. You just sit down and they bring their courses one at a time -- all cooked by the students but overseen by a chef. It was really great food and a fun dining experience. I'd recommend it! It's called Restaurant Forte.
• Danielle has been working out consistently (ever-day) for years, and I've just had a really hard time finding the right time and exercise to do. I've tried running, and ran a few 5Ks and 10K's and a half-marathon, but I don't like to run in the Winter -- but Danielle talked me into trying her weight-lifting program and we're in week four. It's from Beach Body on Demand and I've liked it so far (except that I'm constantly sore). We converted our guest bedroom into a permanent workout room and that's been a fun project. We wanted to eat healthier too so we watched a Netflix documentary called "The GameChangers." It has some language, but we'd highly recommend it. It talks about the benefits of a plant-based diet, so we decided to give it a try for at least 40 days. We're on day 9 or so of no-meat. We'll let you know how it goes! I think Callahan and Kate are vegetarians right? :) For me, it's been much easier to give up meat, than to give up sugar!
• We got another family flu yesterday that knocked us out for a day. We're recovering and feeling lots better today. We already had Influenza B a few weeks ago, and not sure what this one was, but similar (not as bad). Got 4/5ths of us. Ani somehow avoided both (great immune system on that one!) We're following the Coronavirus news as closely as we can and it seems scary -- still, it also seems hyped up and maybe somewhat media-driven. We stocked up on Food Storage and supplies about 5 weeks ago so we were grateful to not be buying TP and bottled water during the craze of the last few days! That, and medicine is sold out everywhere!
• We heard from Ani's birth-mom this week that her Grandpa passed away. He seemed like a great guy (we met him and his wife once right after Ani was born and he and his wife were really funny). Ani's birthmom had kept the pregnancy a secret from her whole family until after the baby was born until her Mom got an insurance bill with a birth and c-section delivery on it (haha - she was still on her Mom's insurance!) Anyway, after the news was out, the whole family wanted to meet us and see this little baby so we met them (Caylah's (Ani's birthmom) Dad and stepmom, and his parents) at Murray park. Here is his obituary if anyone is interested (Ani's biological great-grandfather): https://www.russonmortuary.com/obituary/Mac-Call He had been a mission president and a temple president, and had lived all over (Hawaii, Mexico, Columbia, and Peru).

Hope you're all doing well! Love hearing your updates! We're looking forward to some warm-weather! I have some of that seasonal depression and just get gloomy as these Winter's drag on and on, so I'm ready for some temperature change!

Email sent 03/04/2020