2023 has been a remarkable year for the Fredericksburg area Sephoras, making memories, and the development of Arielle and Jacoby’s frontal lobes. As always, the contents of this article may be exaggerated, misleading, or entirely erroneous, and we claim no liability for the implications laid therein.
Boo was born into our family in June. He wasn’t much more than a bundle of fur when Arielle created him at the animal shelter. Jacoby was searching for a girl cat around a year old to help keep Teller in line, so an eight week old boy was the perfect option. Boo has grown quickly, much to Arielle’s chagrin, but still enjoys sleeping on her chest every night. He’s a mischievous one, evident by the necklaces and doubloons that disappear from their stashes each night. Though he has not shown Teller’s audacity, he has quickly embraced his role as the brains of their operation. We believe he’s orchestrating a run for local office, but it’s hard to say.
Teller turned one this year! He has embraced his role as big brother - introducing Boo to all of his tricks to control and gaslight their parents. By the time Boo was picked up, Teller was too chunky to show off his fearless behavior of jumping onto the thin top to the shower door - only time will tell if he has communicated this challenge in another manner. Teller is dedicated to serving his numerous roles of the Capitol, including window watcher, water sommelier (Jacoby’s sink is the perennial best-of), and chemist. He is thankful to Boo that he no longer has to bear the weight of the title of “smartest man in the house.” He does not really like people; he has no dreams of politics.
Arielle has courageously adopted (and quickly mastered) many new roles in this period of change and life-building. From scheduling vet appointments, managing Jacoby’s fluctuations during his quarter-life crisis, and managing their new investment, Skelly’s, personal wardrobe to caddying for a disabled person (in the US Disabled Open, but more generally, in life), home maintenance (car detailing or shower sealing needs? We have the person for you!), and being the only person in the house with the hand dexterity to do most of anything, she has her hands full. In her free time, she spends her time assisting many of the beauty and wellness professionals around Fredericksburg in growing their brands through the internet, and monitors the latest trends in curly hair-care, dermatology, and anything Paris Hilton in her 20’s might be doing today.
Jacoby is searching for whatever he is searching for - but luckily, seems to produce enough entertainment in his daily tribulations for the universe to reward. He captained the NSWINGC twilight league team to another playoff berth, where his inability to handle being outside during July & August post-stroke handicapped the team again. He’s found his place looking at, taking pictures of, and talking about clouds - both those during sunset and the ones he gets PagerDuty alerts for at 3am. Between periods of reflecting on every mistake he’s ever made, he’s done some fun things like: watch the Book of Mormon for the first time (surrounded by what looked like the men’s cast of Love Island (UK)) on Broadway on Valentine’s Day, book a honeymoon to Fiji (without telling Arielle about his plans to film her Survivor cast application), and finally learn basic web dev skills.