Hey Family!
Here are some things that have been happening with us recently:
- Trips: Danielle turned 40 in February and we took a quick trip to Moab to celebrate her. We hiked Arches the first day and it was perfect weather and so beautiful. The kids did great with the hikes (even though they let us know that not every vacation should be a "hiking trip.") The first night, we drove back into Arches after the sun set and the stars were out, and were able to see SO many stars, and even acutely see the milky way as a stripe down the sky. The next day we saw Canyonlands and Dead Horse Point. That area had 500 foot drop-offs and I was a nervous wreck with our little ones! It was a fun trip and we were able to take Roxy, so that was fun. We are going to St. George this Friday to Monday, and I have a work trip to New York City next week.
- Shows: Danielle and I went to Nate Bargatze (one of our favorite comedians) at the Eccles Theater, and we came into some free (very expensive) tickets to John Mayer last week so I took Ani to her first Rock concert. It was really fun. We got tickets to see Regina Specktor this Summer and I'm sure we'll see more. Ani really wants to see Olivia Rodrigo at UCCU Center, but tickets are so crazy!
- Home Projects: We ripped out our carpet upstairs and laid down LVP. This was a big project! We ended up ripping out our tile in both upstairs bathrooms using a demolition hammer (Home Depot rental) and laying all the floors ourselves. Removed and reinstalled two toilets, and while we were at it all, we did a big bathroom remodel of the girls bathroom. :) The girls are having "sleepovers" (where L or N sleeps in the other's room) a lot so we decided to get bunk beds for one of the rooms. They arrived yesterday and we got them all setup. The girls love it! We didn't plan to be in this house as long as we have, but we have an awesome interest rate (2.0 percent) and great friends and neighbors, so we are sort of making our starter-home into our "dream home" one project at a time. Danielle is amazingly consistent working out every day not matter what, so the one room that I wish we had was a dedicated workout room. It's a crazy idea, but I'm actually playing with the idea of creating one in our attic space. Haha. Pretty ambitious, but stay tuned. ;)
- Doctors: We've probably seen more doctors in the three months of 2022 than all the prior years combined! Danielle was having numbness in her fingers and tongue and our primary care doctor wanted us to see a bunch of different specialists to get to the bottom of it (gastroenterologist, thyroid specialist, neurologist, etc.). After lots of blood tests, endoscopy, MRI and other tests, it was finally the neurologist who figured out that her vitamin B6 was too high and adjusted her vitamin supplement intake. Crazy that he was able to find that, but it's totally working! So grateful for modern medicine! Also, had it not been for this, I wouldn't have been diagnosed celiac (since I just did it as moral support for Danielle). Final thing - some of you know that I've had some strange intestinal stuff for years. As simple as it sounds, someone recommended eating two activia yogurts a day. I started several weeks ago and without getting into too much detail - it's been life-changing. Literally has fixed my long-standing issue!
- Collaborations: Okay, funny story. A while back, I was invited to give a presentation at work about collaborating with "influencers" to something called "Area Committee." I present to all sorts of committees all the time so I didn't give it much thought. The day before the presentation, my main General Authority (boss) Matt Holland said "so, this is a pretty big meeting. It's the entire Quorum of the Twelve, Bishopric, presidency of the 70, RS, YW, YM, SS, Primary and all of the Area Presidencies." Still, I've presented to all of those people before in smaller settings so I was okay. I set my alarm to get me there with plenty of time the next day. Woke up, showered, and opened the curtains to 11 inches of snow and blizzard conditions. Frantic, I put "work" into my Waze and it showed that it would take 90 minutes to get in. I was going to be late! I called the Quorum of the Twelve office from the car and said "hey, can you move me later on in the agenda, this commute has me all backed up." They said "Derek, you ARE the agenda, You are the only item." It was literally the most stress I've ever felt driving in, knowing that I was keeping all those people waiting! Elder Jack Gerard, who is a former lobbiest for big oil and gas, called and got my slides and said "I'll do it for as long as I can." He knew literally nothing about the topic, but is great in front of a crowd. He covered 5 slides, and I got there 14 minutes late. Security whisked me into the room and he handed me the clicker and I started where he left off. I later learned that no one even knew that we didn't plan it this way. I got lots of compliments afterwards and invitations to meet with several of the leaders one-on-one on the topic. I committed to always be 90 minutes early for these big presentations in the future! So speaking of "collaborations" here are a few that I've been part of recently:
- Wallpaper Man: I've been known to hide in the newly wall-papered walls. Three of these are me - one is someone else (but also in our family). Can you guess who?
- Poems: As you know, Chris, Scott, myself and other Westras enjoy poetry. Chris writes these "prosperity poems" and had the idea of turning one of them into a song. I hired a singer on Fiverr.com to sing his poem to the tune of Spirit in the Sky and made a little video out of it with my mad iMovie skills. :) https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=oCDAQbQJg_I
- Home Projects: Our recent bathroom remodel got picked up by the website familyhandyman.com. It should be there next week. :)
- Worlde: Danielle and I play everyday. We got Mom and Dad hooked. Sometimes we try to talk about before the other person has played, and we have to remind them "We Don't Talk about Wordle." I started writing a little parody song to the tune of "We Don't Talk about Bruno." Probably won't ever complete it, but if it do, it will be funny. ;)
- Joseph Smith Portrait: I had the idea years ago to hire a famous digital artist to create photo-realistic portraits of Joseph Smith and Emma to show what they might have looked like historically and today. I just hired this Brazilian artist to do that job and it should be ready next week. I expect you'll see these in LDS Living and other publications soon. https://www.instagram.
com/hidreley/
Hope you're all doing well! Hard to believe all of the suffering and devastation happening in the world right now. Sure makes us grateful for what we have, recognizing that life can change in an instant.
Love,
Lehi Westras
Update (04/01) No one guessed the wallpaper man correctly. Top Right is Scott. :) Due to the adhesive nature of peel and stick wallpaper - being bald is a distinct advantage. :)
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