2005 In Review

December, 2005

The time is finally here when you can grab that cup of coffee, sit back and enjoy the ongoing insanity, also known as our Family Holiday Letter. Here goes….

December/January – Dave and Su took their first adult-only extended vacation after Christmas to none other than Puerto Rico. But no travel experience is complete without at least one final, year-ending travel curse. While our plane tickets were redeemed using our Merrill Lynch miles, apparently Su’s ticket was “ticketed” but never “purchased” – in other words, we walked up to the gate, had our confirmation number but was denied boarding unless we purchased a new ticket (this only took 90 minutes to figure out). You don’t want to know what a last minute ticket costs to Puerto Rico…..

February – February always seems to be the month where relatively little happens (I realize I am now sending a curse our way every February for committing this to writing….) Jack fell and hit his head on the armoire creating quite the gash…being the little trooper we played “Operation” at home and thought all was well. Recently, Jack pointed to his “still-there-scar” and said, “Mommy, I like the hole in my head.” Good…looks like it will be there for a while.

March – Nothing says family like bringing the Su's extended family clan together for a Disney Family Vacation and Cruise. And to start off the cruise, Dave conveniently “meets Su” in Florida (two years in a row) and leaves Su with two kids to get through Midway (poor Max stayed back home). Su realized that the travel curse really is hereditary when the gate agent for Southwest denied boarding to Delaney because she was on the FBI no-fly list. After showing passports and at least convincing the agents that Delaney was not a terrorist (we just wanted to see Mickey), Su then steps in the longest security line to board the flight. Two Chicago police officers pulled Su out of line saying, “You match the description of someone we are looking for.” Su said something along the lines of, “You mean harried mom traveling alone with two kids, one of which is on the FBI no-fly list. That description?” Oh yes, Max also turns the big one.

April – We could write an entire novel on April…seriously. First it started with Dave conveniently forgetting Su’s birthday…okay, not entirely, but Barb had to send Dave an e-mail with an end-of-the-day reminder that it was her birthday. But that pales in comparison with Dave’s next banner moment. Dave thought he had signed up for e-pay for People’s Gas where they magically suck money out of your account to pay for your gas bill. When Su couldn’t get the stove to light, we quickly realized that Dave actually signed up for e-bill there they magically send your bills to your e-mail account...an account that Dave never checks. Yes, it’s true, we got our gas shut off. And to add insult to injury, the gas company refused to hook us up for another week – this was the coldest week in April with highs in the 20’s. No gas means no heat, no stove, no hot water. So Su pulled her best Desperate Housewives act and rang multiple neighbors’ doorbells with various excuses to shower while Dave conveniently skipped out to a pre-work workout at the club with the hot showers. And the kids, well, they smelled for a week. Jack turns three!

May – Spring is here which means it’s never better to live close to Wrigley Field than when they have Neighbor’s Day. Through the lottery, we won a spot to have a picnic with the kids on Wrigley Field. Being city kids, they didn’t quite know what to do with all that grass. In fact, Max crawled around the outfield eating the grass like a cow. Before leaving the event, Max appropriately “christened” the outfield – I guess the chemical-enhanced grass did not sit well in his tummy.

June – We were about to start rehabbing our Michigan house when Dave casually suggested that we look at other properties that might be available. While Dave enjoyed the Red Sox/Cubs game, Su headed up to Michigan to look at a couple of properties. The first property Dave had already saw and was ready to make an offer. When Su saw it, the dead dog in the backyard was a sure sign that the house was not meant to be and therefore ventured to house #2. House #2 had 15 acres on the Galien River and while not exactly Su’s idea of a beach cottage, had Dave’s name written all over it (we don’t have grass in the city, this house has LOTS of grass for Dave to cut). In a strange turn of events, our realtor told us she had someone that might be interested in our cottage (don’t they all say that?) but indeed it was true and the stars were aligned. We had an acceptable offer on our home by noon and our offer on the new house was accepted by 12:30 that same day.

July – July was a busy month. First, Su went to the NFL Mom’s convention for a cookbook she was working on with the group and Campbell’s – her claim to fame was getting “Honorary Mom Lucille O’Neal” (if you saw the pictures, you would know what famous basketball son she is the mom of) in the Congo line after dinner. Su also pitched in as make-up assistant for the Mother/Son fashion show (hard to believe, I know) and was then interviewed on ESPN with such stimulating questions as, “How long does it take to get the moms ready…what’s your make-up secrets.” We then went to Boston and the Cape with Dave’s family to celebrate Rick’s 60th birthday. And we capped off the month with a trip to the emergency room when Su suddenly had a “water baby” (gained 6” to my waistline in two hours – this is the third one). Since my charts said something along the lines of, “Mom of three complains of getting fat”, they made me wait in the chairs for six long hours. Finally, after Max was teased for being the last kid that still crawls, our neighbor Cindy suggests that Stride Rite makes great walking shoes (I guess the Payless versions weren’t working) so Dave took Max to the Stride Rite store to be fitted. Max crawled into the store and – no kidding – walked out of the store all the way to the car. For months to come, he would only walk if he was wearing his magic (read: expensive) shoes.

August – Delaney turns six and we close on the house in Michigan. Su get her fourth “water baby” and it looks like this one is here to stay for a while. Darn….we gave all of Su’s maternity clothes to our sister-in-law Sarah who is expecting their first child in March.

September – In case you didn’t know, Su sidelines as a ticket broker to the rich and famous. After scoring good seats for the Red Sox/Cubs game, Su tries her hand for Buffett tickets. Not only does she get great tickets, but gets Center Stage front row tickets. Needless to say, we sell the tickets for $800/ticket (paid $130/ticket) to the ticket broker and bank the money for our next family vacation. Su finds out that her magic touch is only effective for concert tickets and sporting events and does not apply to Body Worlds. After waiting far too long, Su and her sister Kim, venture out to Body Worlds with the only time slot available over Labor Day weekend…3:00 a.m.

October – Nothing says city living like Halloween weekend. After being awakened from a deep sleep around 4:00 a.m., Dave yells to Su to call the cops as two people are trying to break down our front door. When asked by the cops to give a description, Dave says, “Zorro with a Sombrero hat and a fat guy in a wig.” Turns out our very drunk, young, neighbors mistakenly thought our house was theirs. An expensive mistake to learn after shattering the custom glass in our front door.

November – After spending six months attempting to find the source of the Water Baby in Chicago, Su heads to Mayo Clinic with her sister-in-law Lisa acting as medical interpreter and Dave. Su’s medical knowledge is limited to what she learns by watching ER and quickly learns that saying “stat” at the end of each sentence when talking to her docs is rather annoying. The source of the water baby is discovered and manageable with medication. After a couple of pills, it magically goes away and Su can forever (really) hang up her maternity clothes.

December – We once again hosted the annual Lakeview Pantry Toy Drive where we collected 650 gifts, raised over $2000 and had 300 people turn out for the event. The following weekend, (because Su is legitimately crazy) we also hosted a Santa Party at our house for the kids. We thought this year’s party would be a breeze as Su worked out a deal to use the vacant neighbor’s coach house. About five minutes after bringing supplies into the coach house, we hear a crack and a gush of water. Yep – the pipes burst and the coach house flooded. What a way to end the year!