Abe blogs – Page 3 – Darais Days

The Daily Grind

Quick blog today. Lily is still on her way home from school and it is almost midnight. Yikes! I’m sure the reason she is late is because she has a big heart and she is giving rides to her classmates in need. She is so wonderful.

My day was a bit of a roller-coaster, but overall very good. My department is having a competition to see who can perform the best and I am pretty squarely in the middle of the pack. I sometimes get discouraged about my mediocrity, but it helps to remember how amazing everyone around me is at Qualtrics. They truly hire the best and I am so fortunate to be surrounded by such wonderful people.

I don’t know too much about Lily’s day. When we talked on the phone, she spent most of the time listening to my frustrations and giving me a pep-talk. She is seriously so supportive and perfect….o-k, I’ll stop gushing. I’m just so blessed to have someone who is always willing and capable of being my cheering squad when I need it. I truly love her.

But this is what I do know. She had a piano lesson with Lydia. Mary completely refused her eye-drops today. Lydia napped. Lily just got home and told me she absolutely loved cooking class today.

Pictures!

Crying while Lily does her homework

Lily's plate from tonight. Isn't it great! She says her secret is to copy the photo the teacher provides exactly. — Lily’s plate from tonight. Isn’t it great! She says her secret is to copy the photo the teacher provides exactly.

Another amazing plating job by Lily. This is from last week, but we just now got it to load.

Birthday Eve

Hello all, it’s Abe again.

The day started by me leaving to work, and Georgia babysitting Lydia and Mary while Lily went to a yoga session. Yoga is one of the few really great ways Lily can excercise without aggravating her shin splints. After Yoga, Georgia got a ton of things done on her t0-do-while-I’m-in-town list and Lily started the festivities with Lydia. They baked her cake and made cupcakes together.

Meanwhile at work, I found out that I am interviewing for promotion on Monday. I am very excited to take the next step in my career and I hope it goes really well. I also hope that I don’t have to interview with a case of pink-eye. Lydia came down with it today and I’m hoping to last at least three days until I too have the bug!

On my drive home, I finished Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis. Of the four C.S. Lewis books I just read, I would say it is my least favorite, which is interesting because C.S. Lewis says it was his least favorite book to write. He said it was fun in the beginning, but after a while it was not fun at all for him to have to spend so much time thinking and writing from the point of view of a servant of satan. My reading experience echoes those sentiments. In short, it was insightful, but not uplifting.

Then I met Lily at school and picked up the kids. Lydia was in a better mood than Mary on the ride home in the beginning. Lydia was cheerful as she talked about the fact that she is going to watch Disney’s Frozen on her birthday tomorrow and as she had imaginary conversations with her cat (which was at home, not in the car). Her mood soured later in the ride, though, and she got really upset because Mary was crying, and Lydia said that Mary was being too loud and just woke up her cat. I started to explain that Mary could not have woke Lydia’s cat, because Puss (the cat) was not in the car. Lydia didn’t buy it, so I just kept driving while they both fell apart…..I think my tolerance for crying is increasing!

We then stopped at Smith’s to get Lydia’s eyedrops and animal crackers. We got the ceremonial free treat at the bakery and made our why home where we had a great pasta and brocolli dinner with Georgia. Mary was crazy about the brocolli Georgia made (it was delicious) and screamed when her plate ran out. Although I was not happy about her antics, I was happy that her antics were over wanting more brocolli.

After dinner we had family home evening where I taught a lesson about the organization of the church. We have Stake Conference Sunday and I wanted to try to explain a little bit to Lydia about why this Sunday will be different. I’m not sure that I was able to communicate anything meaningful to Lydia, but it felt good to be spending time as a family and talking about meaningful topics. After the lesson I drew a cat on the chalkboard per Lydia’s request. Before drawing the cat, I whiped the chalkboard clean and Lydia had a complete meltdown because there was a red mark on the board that simply would not come off. It completely threw her off her emotional equilibrium and it was a few minutes before we were able to calmly move forward with the cat-drawing.

Pictures!!!

Welcome Home Nanna!!!!!

Lily is at cooking school, so it’s me, Abe, again! I’m a little worried about Lily because earlier this week she developed killer shin splints while working out and her cooking school involves five hours of standing……..let’s just say I’m impressed that she is gutting it out.

I left for work around 7AM and made it in time for our weekly company TGIT (Thank Goodness It’s Thursday) breakfast and meeting. After that I commenced grinding it out on phone calls and e-mails. I did not have any great results today, however, I know that I did great work and the results from that will surely manifest in time. Not too much more to report on the work front.

Meanwhile, back at the house, Lily had a play-date with her friend Jen. After that she took flowers to Marilyn, one of the great ladies she hometeaches, because Marilyn just had surgery. After that, Lily took the girls to a lunch date with Misty at the City Creek Food Court. The only complication was that afer Misty and Lily met up, they split to buy meals at separate places and then could never find each other after that. And so, they didn’t eat or play together, but they certainly intended to!

At home Lily put Mary down for a nap, cleaned the house, taught piano to Lydia, cooked dinner, and then picked up Georgia from the airport once Mary woke up.

You heard right! Georgia was back in town today! We’ve missed her greatly and it’s so nice to see her again! Lydia was so excited to see Georgia (Nanna to her) that on the car ride to the airport she forced herself to stay awake so she could see Georgia, even though she was so tired that her eyes were rolling to the back of her head. When she finally did see Georgia, Lily reports that Lydia gave the biggest smile she has ever given to-date. Mary was very happy too and played peek-a-boo with Georgia in the car.

Lily and Georgia got to catch up a bit at the house before Lily dashed off to cooking school. When I arrived home, I ate with the girls, bathed them and put them to bed, and Georgia cleaned the kitchen and the kid’s room. After the kids were down, Georgia and I had a great time chatting for an hour and a half. She gave me updates about her life as well as how Grandma Cullen is doing (Hi Grandma) and I told Georgia all about how much I am liking my new job at Qualtrics. And now I’m blogging!

Pictures!

Lydia having a tender moment with her cat

Mary laughing in the car as she played peek-a-boo with Georgia

Rainy day, but good

This is Abe. Lily is at yoga right now. Life has been very good in the Darais house lately, and today is no exception. Two days ago, Lily and I had a pow-wow about our worsening sleep deprivation and made a plan for gettting more sleep. Last night, I slept about seven hours and today I felt great!

Today was very much a recovery day for Lily. Yesterday was a very intense day for her so she caught her breath today as much as she could while still taking care of the children. She even had a poetry session with Lydia, teaching her multiple poems! Lily told me that Lydia likes the poem, “Grandeur of God” which pleased Lily because that is one of her all-time favorites.

Work is going really well for me. Although I was frustrated this morning about my performance, I had a really good lunch-time walk where I prayed a lot and felt like everything was in God’s hands and progressing as it should. Though my afternoon was only mildly successful, I found joy and satisfaction in my work. The last work note is that one of my collegues today told me that today was John Steinbeck’s birthday. My collegue also told me that East of Eden by Steinbeck was one of his all time favorite books. Whenever someone reports to me their favorite book, it makes me think I should read it. Maybe I’ll get it on audio book?

At home I had a breif moment with Lily before she left for yoga. I then put Mary down because she was so exhausted (she was starting to fade in her high-chair) and then I colored downstairs with Lydia before putting her to bed.

Tomorrow I have a regional lunch meeting and there will be a competition for the craziest hair. I’m determined to participate because I’m interviewing for Region positions on Monday and I want to prove that I know how to have fun…..I have no idea how I am going to do my hair…….I’ll try to have a pic to post tomorrow!

Speaking of pictures!

Today was an incredibly rainy day. So great for a desert!

Lydia climbing on a mountain/overturned chair

A good shot of Lydia's braid. — A good shot of Lydia’s braid.

Late nights and early mornings

It’s me, Abe, again! Lily doesn’t know it yet, but I’m blogging for her so when she gets home at 11:30 from cooking school, she can go straight to bed. She also doesn’t know it yet, but I’m staying up for her tonight because we haven’t seen much of each other lately and I miss her. I do wake up at 5:45, but I’m sure somehow that will sort itself out.

Work is going extremely well, thanks to lots training and divine intervention. I ended last week feeling bad at my job, and this week I had a training that gave me knowledge on how to progress. I’ve prayed a lot for help and I’ve worked at applying the training I’ve received and so far I am on pace with my goal of setting one meeting per day for a sales representative. Today ended on a positive and dramatic note when after a whole day of not setting a single meeting, my last phone call of the day turned into a meeting set. Yay!

Lily literally recapped her day for me in two and a half minutes as we met and did the car swap in front of her school. I’ll probably butcher this, but here is what I remember:

She visited Marilyn Brinton, with her new visiting teaching companion, Jen. Lily completely adores both Marilyn and Jen and loved spending time with them. Then, Lily fed the kids and cleaned, went to the Library, fed the kids and cleaned, practiced some piano, fed the kids and cleaned, did some homework, fed the ….you get the idea. Our children eat a lot and I marvel at Lily’s ability to keep the kitchen clean.

After briefly meeting up with Lily I took the kids home and fed them (I cleaned after they went to bed!). After dinner, Clark and Swathi faced timed us which was super fun! No one got a word in except for Lydia who dominated the entire conversation either talking about her cat or talking directly to her cat and expecting us to watch the interaction with rapt attention. Swathi, Clark and I all made solid efforts to exchange complete sentences, but alas we could not compete with dear Lydia’s passion for her cat combined with her love for attention. I think the reality is that we were all quite entertained.

I’m going to crawl into bed and buy a white elephant Christmas gift for one of my friends. We postponed our exchange to February 1, and somehow that still did not give me enough time to be on top of things.

If Lily has the energy, she may add to my post when she gets home.

It appears we didn’t take any pictures with our camera tonight. Ciao!

Happy Birthday To Me!

Today was my thirtieth birthday and it feels like kindof a big deal. I feel like I just lost the last part of me that felt sort-of young. I mean, when I was in my twenties, I was lumped in with college undergrads etc., but now I’m lumped in with the thirties, which I’m sure is even a cooler group, but it does feel like a change!

Lily and I each had great days today. I had an awsome training session at work that gave me a lot of insight on how to succeed, and at home Lily was, well, accomplishing crazy amounts of stuff.

Her day started off with a two and a half hour playdate with Paige Anderson and her daughters Ada and ‘Liv. After that Lily somehow managed to practice piano, feed the children, clean the entire house, write me an incredibly touching birthday letter, make me a happy birthday door poster, paint me another happy birthday poster and finally set Lydia up with paints so she (Lydia) could paint me a happy birthday poster. The crazy thing is that when I arrived home, she said she was not tired because she had rested during the day…..um…….when?

But I have to say, all her efforts to make the day feel festive really changed the complexion of the day for me. At work, most people didn’t know it was my birthday, and so not much of a deal was made (I’m still very new), but at home I felt truly celebrated and I thank my sweet wife for that.

As soon as I got home, we had dinner with my mom and Jay at the Spaghetti factory (per my request). I love the Spaghetti factory at Trolly Square because spaghetti speaks to my inner child and yet the atmosphere is classic vintage. It’s hard to explain. I just love how it feels there and the food is great. Dinner conversation was very delightful with topics ranging from Obama raising the minimum wage to 3-D printing to why Payton Manning deserves to win the Super Bowl on moral grounds (because he’s such a dog gone awsome guy). At the very end of dinner, it was time to go, but Lydia wanted to eat more of her Spumoni ice cream. Lily told Lydia that she could take five more bites and then it would be time to go. Lydia quickly took four bites and then, before she could take the fifth, she froze and started gazing into space. We all assumed she had just acquired a massive brain freeze and then after her period of gazing she finally piped up, “I feel cold, does anyone else feel cold?” It is truly hard to recreate how funny it was when she said that, but we all got a great belly laugh.

Now it’s time for bed. I’m eager to get to work tomorrow and start applying what I learned in training. Pictures!!

Finishing week two of new routine

Abe here! I’m blogging in Lily’s place since she will be in school until almost midnight and then she is getting up at 5:30 am tomorrow to do hot yoga before a four-hour cooking school event. Yikes, she sure is packing it in!

Things are still going well after week two of our new routine. Lily has been rocking on her new reduced budget by being creative, frugal and frankly cooking lots and lots of beans, which I love, so it works out great! She is also enjoying her cooking school especially now that she is actually cooking.

Today Lily spent time at Misty’s house and she (as usual) gushed on the phone to me about how much she loves spending time with Misty. It sounds like the play-date went really well, other than the spinach-pineapple smoothie that Mary dumped all over herself (requiring her to return home half-naked under her coat). Lily has some really great photos of some crafting she did with Misty, and those pictures will be posted as soon as Lily gets them from her phone. After the play-date, Lily went home, fed the girls, read to them, played piano and worked on homework.

As for me, the new job is going really well. I love the company, love the product, love my co-workers and love the culture. I will also say that it is certainly harder than I expected, but I truly enjoy the challenge. Something about my ego makes me assume that I will walk into situations and naturally be better than everyone else. At Qualtrics, I’m finding that I’m surrounded by so much talent and drive, that quite frankly, if anything I will have to work harder than the next guy to get ahead. Yet, I am o-k with that. I really feel Qualtrics is where I’m supposed to be and it’s just so easy to feel good about a place that has unlimited free burritos and Seagram’s sparkling lemon water…..mmmmmmm………..

Pictures!!!!!

Recovery and Talent Show

Lily is currently making my birthday cake (yum!!) for one of my birthday celebrations tomorrow and so I offered to blog in her place. We are both hoping to get to bed early tonight.

Today was the first weekend day after Lily and I have started our new schedules. We’ve both agreed that the new groove is going very well, and today we also agreed that especially with us both being sick, we should get a little R&R.

I spent a lot of time with the kids in the morning which was so lovely since I see them so little during the week. I’d like to say we did a bunch of activities, but actually most of what I did was feed them and let them wander around house and somehow that filled the morning. Lily has been quite sick today (much sicker than me!!) so she got a little rest in addition to helping with the kids.

Lily and I both rested while Mary napped and Lydia watched the Ipad. She’s watched it a lot lately, but Lily and I have really needed rest to kick our bugs so it has been nice for her to be entertained while we rest.

When we got up we did some quick errands and then we went to our ward talent show. It was absolutely amazing. I could not believe how much talent was on display in my ward. Someone sang “Marry me” by train and I swear his voice was every bit as good as Train’s. Mark Walton drew live caricatures of people and I heard a lady sing a song she wrote that could seriously air on the radio. Also, Lily played La Campanella by Liszt. The whole ward was floored by her talent. She got a really loud applause and she and I both got a flood of comments from people afterwords. I was so proud of her, especially the way that she played with passion and nailed the ending, which is definitely my favorite part.

Afterwords, we let our two children run around with other kids in the gymn for a long time. It was so great to see them running so much because it’s harder to get out of the house in the winter when it is so cold outside.

Qualtrics is going great so far. Thanks for reading!!!

Here are the pictures from today:

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3	4	5	6	7	8	9
10	11	12	13	14	15	16
17	18	19	20	21	22	23
24	25	26	27	28