Hey Family!
I don't believe I've written an update in 2023 yet - shame on me! The problem is that the longer I go, the more I have to update on - and then it just gets overwhelming. :)
Here are some very brief updates from the last little bit from the Lehi Westras:
- I got released as the Stake Executive Secretary and called as Ward Choir Director. Danielle was released as Activity Day's Leader and called as Young Women's activities specialist. I definitely didn't ask to get released, but we have an older, very traditional counselor in the Presidency and I think he wanted someone without young kids, so they could fully dedicate all their time to the calling. It's been a relief to be honest (to get some time back).
- St. George Vacays - we took two quick trips to St. George - once just our little family for a few days and once with us and Danielle's parents for a little longer. They were both pretty rainy and cold (the second trip we got a lot of hail - which I imagine is pretty rare for St. George) but it was still fun to get away. On the way home, we hit a microburst of freezing hail/rain (I've never seen that before). We lost control for a second, but were able to recover - but there was a bad accident from that same storm and a fatality - we feel very fortunate. We also took a little one-night trip to Midway and hit the Homestead Crater. We're trying to get some trips in while we do not have a dog. We are dog people, and will absolutely get another dog at some point, but travel is the hardest thing about dog-ownership!
- We've had non-stop home projects.
- G-Suite Shelves: In December, I took on the basement shelves of the Mom and Dad's storage room. Shelves all along 4 walls, and then a big rolling shelves unit, and another good-sized unit for canning jars and binders to help with storage. It was a big project that required lots of early mornings and many, many trips to Home Depot for lumber. I was happy to finish, as we had some projects piling up at home.
- Basement Workout Room: We decided to make a workout room from the last, unfinished space in our house (small, basement storage room). It has been quite a project - we had to move the ceiling HVAC, run a new electrical line, do insulation in the ceiling, frame in the walls, drywall, thin-brick (that's where I am currently), then mud and tape, flooring, baseboards, paint, etc. Jen and Gray offered an older spin bike for us to put in there and are probably wondering what in the world is taking me so long! I'm creating the space for it, and I'm almost ready!
- Home Office: Since our new workout room was a storage room full of boxes and bins, I built big cabinets in my office that store 15 bins each. Now, I'm finishing the flooring in my office and building a fireplace (it's SO cold in here)! I haven't had much time, so all these things are taking a while.
- Main Floor Bathroom: We decided to pause our many projects and take a weekend to knock out a powder room remodel. Danielle designed it, and we just went for it. Funny story - months ago, we were at a thrift-store and found this adorable, old-school toilet-paper holder. It was old, and adorable and Danielle said "I'm going to design a whole bathroom remodel around this one little thing." It stoked her vision. Months passed and finally we had the weekend to do it. We bought a bunch of wall tile and gold trim, a new light fixture, new faucet, and wallpaper, all inspired by the $4 thrift-store TP holder. We left the TP holder as the very last thing to install to complete it all. AAAANNDDD.... can't find it. We've looked everywhere we can think, and can't seem to locate the one thing that started this whole project!
- We've gotten into a new hobby - hydroponic farming. We bought 4 of these little hydroponic gardens (which is basically a system of grow-lights, and water pumping into seed pods) to grow lettuce and herbs indoors. Right now they are in my office and we harvest almost every-day. We love them. They are like our little babies.
- Danielle read a book several months ago called "Glucose Revolution" and learned all about sugar, and insulin, and insulin resistance. Since then, she has been on a learning kick, digesting books on glucose, healthy eating, longevity, etc. She eats so healthy and works out every day! I'm so impressed! I started eating better too (not just avoiding sugar, but also intermittent fasting and eating foods in the right order) and I've lost about 20 lbs. Danielle wears a continuous glucose monitor, and I wear one when I can (I don't have a prescription for it).
- Work has been busy. One interesting project that is more visible than others is around SEO for Church Buildings. Long story short - I'm leading a large-scale project to make sure that our buildings appear in searches for "Church Near Me" - they currently do not, even in Utah. Part of this project involves the map pin - the little icon that Google displays for the category of "business" that the organization is in. Our Google map pin is a little Moroni with a trumpet. We never asked Google for this - they just created this for us, and that's the pin that shows up for all our 19,000 meetinghouses. Well, that pin icon does not mean anything to anyone, and is a turn-off for those looking for a Christian Church. I took a proposal to the Quorum of the Twelve to change the pin to a cross for all meetinghouses. It was approved and we're rolling that out over the next 6-8 months worldwide.
- Ani is starting softball tryouts soon and is a full-on pre-teen now, hanging with friends every possible second. She is really fun, and we love watching shows with just her after the little's go to bed. Currently introducing her to BBC's Sherlock. Layla and Noelle just had their tumbling showcase and they are both great little tumblers.
Hope you are all well! Love you!
Derek
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