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Introduction
November 6, 2003
Finally – an update!
October turned out to be a fairly busy month for us and November doesn’t really seem like it is going to slow down!
Birthdays:
I can’t believe that my little boy is going to be 5 this month! November 19, to be exact. He is SO excited about his birthday this year. We are having a family party on November 22 and each day we count the days until his actual birthday and until his party. I’m afraid that his ‘friend’ party is going to have to be in December. But that is OK – it will prolong the celebration a little for him. At this point Jake wants a ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ themed birthday – but that can change at the drop of a hat so I am waiting for the last minute to order the cake!
October:
I’m really not sure where the month of October went! Mac and I both have birthdays during October – Mac had to be out of town on my birthday, but apparently as I get older, I worry less and less about my birthday. Of course, I had to give him a bit of a hard time about being gone – and I think he felt pretty bad – but his industry’s annual convention was that weekend and he couldn’t miss it – he did make up for it. For Mac’s birthday we had the first ‘official’ party at our new house. I was a little nervous that things would get out of control, but lucky for me, everyone basically congregated in the kitchen around the island so there were no spills on my carpet (amazing!). All I had to do the next day was mop the wood floor in the kitchen, do a few dishes and take out all of the garbage and you never would have known that there had been a party. We had quite a few kids over and none of us could believe that they were all still going strong at 2:00 in the morning!
New York City:
We left on Halloween night to fly to NYC. I was running the marathon and Jake and Mac were planning to have some fun in the city. We stayed at a hotel in Chelsea and arrived just before midnight on Halloween. We were all still wide awake, so we took a walk around the neighborhood – there were TONS of people in costume, returning from the (in)famous Greenwich Village Halloween parade. Jake was in awe. We spent the day on Saturday shopping and seeing the sights. We visited the site of the World Trade Center – I can’t really even put into words the emotion that I felt there.
Sunday I left very early to head to Staten Island for the start of the marathon while Mac and Jake slept in and then headed up to Central Park. They visited the Central Park Zoo, and then did a bit of walking around. They ended up going to FAO Schwartz and then across the plaza to where CBS was filming their Sunday morning football TV show. Mac and Jake ended up on TV briefly when they were outside doing a play demonstration. Mac was able to take a picture of the two of them on the TV monitor – can’t wait to see that!
I’m sure that most of you have heard that P. Diddy ran the NYC marathon for charity. He raised $2.1 million for the children of NYC. Pretty amazing. I may not agree with some of the things that he does/has done, but I give him credit for raising that much money and for finishing the marathon. He beat me by about 20 minutes. Mac got pictures of P. Diddy, but missed me – go figure!
We spent Sunday night seeing Times Square – Jake was just amazed by all of the lights (I was too). Then Monday we did some more sightseeing then headed to the airport for an early evening flight. That’s where it got interesting. When we left NY they told us that storms were rolling into Chicago, but we should be able to beat them. Ooops – not happening. By the time we were over Chicago, both Midway and O’Hare were closed. We circled for about an hour and then the captain told us that we were being diverted to Peoria, IL – as we were low on fuel and had to land. We were on the ground in Peoria by approximately 11:00pm (we were supposed to land in Chicago at 9:20) and were held on the plane until after midnight – they were still hoping that Chicago would open up. No such luck. We were then let off of the plane and into the (closed) airport. The county sheriff actually had to come open the airport for us. Then the captain told us that a shuttle bus would be there in 20 minutes to take us to a local hotel. Two hours later, still no bus. But of course, the crew of the plane had been immediately whisked away to a hotel in a van so that they could get their sleep. The crew hadn’t even told us what time the plane would take off again the next morning! At this point, it was about 2:00 am (thank goodness Jake is a night owl – he was being such a little trooper) and the sheriff had managed to get two of the car rental agents to come back to work. Mac went to rent a car while Jake and I stayed with our bags. Finally, as we were getting our rental car, a shuttle VAN from a hotel pulled up. They sent a VAN to transport over 200 people to a hotel? The driver said he could take about 10 people at a time and the round trip was about 20 minutes! YIKES!!!! We hopped into our rental car for the 3-hour drive home. So – we ended up getting home around 5:30am – needless to say, I didn’t’ make it to work that day! I’m thankful that my company is understanding – my boss’s words were ‘get some sleep – enjoy the day – we’ll see you tomorrow. I didn’t even get the day counted against my vacation time!
Overall the trip was a great adventure. I’m glad that the flight debacle happened on the way home rather than on the way there. I am also very grateful that we arrived home safely. Jake loved NYC and can’t wait to go back.
The Rest of November:
Like I said – this is going to be another busy month for us. Mac is out of town for the next week. Then the following weekend I have a bridal shower to attend for the future wife of one of Mac’s cousins. Then the following weekend is Jake’s birthday party and then comes Thanksgiving. I am hosting my first Thanksgiving dinner this year – YIKES! Any thoughts, comments, suggestions? I plan to serve all of the ‘traditional’ dishes, but I seem to have a problem with timing – I can never get it all done at the same time! I think Mac’s brothers pushed to have it at our house so that they can spend the afternoon watching football on the big screen TV! Secretly, though, I am happy at the prospect of being home on Thanksgiving and not having to go anywhere!
Holidays:
I truly can’t believe that we’re so close to the holidays! I have probably 50% of my shopping done, but still have many things to do to get ready. How do all of you out there deal with the stress of the holidays? I’m thinking of trying to get some girlfriends together for a ‘home-spa’ day…the problem is finding the time!
That’s All for Now:
Well – that is all for now! I must get back to work. I will try to be better about updating more frequently. Time just gets away from me so quickly!
Hope everyone is well!
Kristi
Mom to Jake
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