Author: Abe Darais

Lydia’s Quest and Creativity, Ammon’s Sharky and Walking Date with Lily & Giant Pizza.

Lydia’s Quest and Creativity: Lydia designed an entire quest for Ammon and Clarissa to go on that involved multiple rooms, every family members’ involvement, costumes and props. Below are some videos of the fun we had. Lily and I have been truly marveling at the creativity and fun that Lydia has brought to our family culture again and again:

Ammon’s Sharky: We stumbled upon a photo today of Ammon in a sharky blanket. We were delighted because we had forgotten about it, and he loves his sharky blankets so much today, so the baby pic with a sharky is so fitting. If I remember right, I think Georgia might have gotten it for him. We love you Ammon!

Walking Date with Lily & Giant Pizza: Today Lily and I walked Basil downtown in the Union Square area. It was fun to see the old capitol building as well as the old churches on each corner of Union Square. We also went to a really great pet store and stocked up on things for our two beloved animals. It was so nice to spend the evening together. We picked up a giant Benny’s pizza on the way home (28″) for the family. Benny’s was the first restaurant we ate at in Raleigh when we visisted a couple of years ago, so it was fun to eat their food again!

Hurricanes Game & Exploring Downtown Cary

Hurricanes Game: Thanks to the generosity of one of my coworkers, I got two tickets to the Carolina Hurricanes and I took Clarissa. She immediately started holding her hands over her ears due to the noise, but fortunately they gave out earmuffs for the sound. Clarissa really paid attention to the game and was often torn between going to get treats or staying to watch more of the game. In the end, the Hurricanes lost 5-3 after being up 3-0 heading into the 3rd period. But it was a very fun game to watch and a special experience to share with Clarissa.

Exploring Downtown Cary: After Clarissa and I got home from the Hurricanes game, we all went to a Turksh restaurant in Cary and walked around the downtown park while eating icecream. The kids (especially Ammon) also played on the playground at the park. It was a great evening!

Walking Home, Death & Taxes & Lily’s Pneumonia

Walking Home: Mary has loved her routine of walking home (made possible by her new Gabb watch) and today she walked home with both Ammon and Clarissa!

Death & Taxes and Lily’s Pneumonia: Lily and I have loved having date night every Thursday night and tonight we went to Death & Taxes. It’s another Ashley Christenses restaurant (like Beasley’s and Poole’s Diner). We loved it, perhaps even as much as Irregardless. The beet dish was especially incredible. Unfortunately Lily wasn’t feeling the best and was feeling progressively worse throughout the evening so we didn’t linger. But we did enjoy our date together. Lily has had a lingering cough since her Asia trip. She likely has pnemonia and the doctor gave her an antibiotic. We are thinking Lily must have viral pnemonia because the antibiotic doesn’t seem to be helping much. Some days she feels better than others and today she just wasn’t feeling great from her sickness and also probably from some other things going on. We are all hoping she gets feeling better soon!

XM Day, Orthodontist and Cuddling Stilton

XM Day: Today was a day of service for Qualtrics, so I had the day off. Through our wonderful neighbor Tom’s coordination, my work peers and I were able to pack over 100 bags for children with food insecurity at the local Methodist Church. They even wrote about us in their church newsletter (see below). Lily was able to join at the end and she also joined us for lunch at The Yard House. It was all so fun!

Orthodontist: Today Mary went to the Orthodontist. Apparenty the Orthodontist was incredible, very engaged, and very skilled (the only Orthodontist that works directly with Invisaline). Lily said the whole experience was a bit like Disneyland, including a gift bag with a T-shirt and a giant Stanley Mug. Stanley mugs and Athleta leggings are apparently extremely popular for girls in middleschool at Raleigh. Lydia gave me that report which is why I even know what a Stanley is (although apparently “real” Stanleys have handles!) In short, Lily gushed to me about Mary’s Orthodontist. We feel very lucky!

Cuddling with Stilton: The kids are enamored with Stilton and are trying to make him feel at home and giving him a lot of love and attention:

Scenes From Home:

Scenes from home:

We’ve been enjoying our new marble table, but more importantly, we’ve enjoyed having family meals where conversation flows seemingly endlessly. In our old home, the table was very long and hard to sit around since half of it required scooting down a bench to sit at. Also, with the counter island in our last home, we often just served the kids there. In our new home, with two smaller, more accessible tables, and with all the kids at great conversation ages, we are finding family meals to be our new heaven on earth. I’ve prioritized them more and now I rarely miss a family dinner when I’m in town. These meals are one of the most special things in my life right now and I actively look forward to them. Also, it turns out marble is very finnicky and stains easily. Lily picked out some table setting pieces to help protect the table, and we also love how they look.
Enjoying the daybed!
This was a hard day for us, the cat owners, but it was surely a harder day for Stilton. In the middle of the night, he walked into Lydia and Mary’s room, where Basil was sleeping. Basil lost his mind, barked his head off and [I am sure] tried to chase Stilton. Stilton could have run away, but he bravely stayed right put in the room, hiding under a piece of furniture, for the rest of the night. We found him in the morning in a giant puddle of his own (very stinky) pee. We had to bathe him twice, and work to get the smell out of the room, but eventually we did. We then tried to get Stilton to get used to using his litter-box (so he doesn’t have future accidents when Basil scares him), but it has been a work in process. Here he seems to think he has found his new bed, not his new potty!

Bubbles in the Park, Family Movie Night and New Couch

Note: We are going to password protect our blog starting April 1, so please reach out if you would like the password.

Bubbles in the park: Today after church we went on a walk at the campus at the local art museum. They have great walkways, a lot of outdoor art installments, and many other people walking their dogs. We all enjoyed being outside, and at the end Ammon and Clarissa had a blast running through the bubbles that a sweet man provides every day at the campus for free. He sure made a lot of children smile!

Family Movie Night: Back at home, we all watched Pets 2 together. Basil has been freaking out about having Stilton around (barking at him and trying to chase hime) and so it was a great opportunity to have Basil and Stilton be near each other while we all monitored. The movie is one of our favorites already, but it was even better to watch while snuggling with our animals:

New Couch: Also, we got our new couch this week and we are loving it!

Welcome shy kitty! And Zenful Clarissa

Note: We are going to password protect our blog starting April 1, so please reach out if you would like the password.

Welcome shy kitty! Today we picked up Stilton from his delightful owners. The husband cried at their parting, which was truly sad. But it did cause us to also feel that we chose a great cat. We chatted at length with the prior owners/breeders. They are wonderful and they have come to feel more like friends than vendors. We also ate again at Bojangles and loved it. When we got home, we let Stilton out of his crate and he immediately crawled under the display case. He stayed there until the next day and Basil stayed in his crate so that he and Stilton could get used to each others’ smell before meeting. Basil was seriously stressed out at the cat smell. That was especially problematic since he’s been so stressed out lately anyway. I think he hasn’t fully settled down from the new move, and also the windows in this home go much lower than the windows in the old house. That means he can now see everything in the front and back yard, so he’s constantly barking at things he sees, which he did not used to do. Lily is going to get him on anxiety medication soon because he truly is stressed out!

Stilton under the display case

Zenful Clarissa: Clarissa has been loving the yard, and today we found her meditating in it. She explained to us that she wasn’t meditating, but rather, “I was breathing deeply to be calm and to try to remember, because I’ve only remembered one and a half things from my life.” I thought that was truly sweet.