So I wrote a "holiday" letter for 2009, but couldn't bring myself to send it out because it marked our second holiday letter that wasn't announcing that we're expecting a little one. So I thought I'd post it here so you could see what we did last year, when we weren't getting pregnant...
"Dear Friends,
We hope this update finds you all doing well and enjoying the holidays with family and friends. 2009 was another very busy year for us…
After nine years with TS, S started a new job in May as a senior engineer with SC in Chicago. He is working in business development and helping them build their transportation practice. Even with the stimulus spending, it’s been a tough time for infrastructure projects, so we are hoping things pick up in the new year. After passing his professional engineer exam last fall, he also passed his professional traffic operations engineer license exam this spring, so now he can now put all of P.E., PTOE after his name, which I like to tease him about. He also started his own business last year, MME, which has gained momentum in 2009. He is the U.S. sales rep for pedestrian simulation software firm SS, based in Switzerland. He pitched to NYC Transit, sold their software product SimW to a professor in Canada and is now working with a consulting firm in Atlanta on the design of an entertainment complex in Saudi Arabia.
After two years with A, I started a new job in October with Z, where I am a senior manager on their proposition development team. I develop new commercial insurance products for a broad range of industries. I am also taking professional development courses through Notre Dame which will lead to an executive certificate in business administration at the end of February. In my free time, I continue to serve on the associate board at the Ravinia Festival, and was this year nominated to their executive committee. Ravinia is an outdoor music venue and the summer home of the CSO, but they also do community outreach in schools to provide music education to under-privileged children. It’s a great organization and don’t be surprised if I ask you to help support the cause. S is also doing pro bono work for Ravinia, in their development of a new pedestrian tunnel under the Metra tracks.
This year we continued to travel as much as our busy schedules and vacation time allowed. We went to Miami/The Keys in January, which was lovely even though we were there during a cold snap and given the recession things were very low key on South Beach this year. In March, we traveled to New York City, where in addition to visiting with friends and family, we took in the sights and experienced the first tornado to hit near the city in some time. In May, we went to Bermuda. It was one of the best places we’ve been in awhile, sunny and gorgeous every day. We did a lot of walking, sightseeing, laying on the beach. There weren’t many shells, much to S’s dismay, but we both enjoyed the blue skies, pink sand and can’t wait to go back. In July, I took a solo trip to Cape Cod to catch up with some old friends. Lastly, we went to Montreal and Quebec City over a long Labor Day weekend and had another great trip. Lots of good shopping (Rue St. Catherine…) and sightseeing.
On the family front, we welcomed niece N just before New Year’s and we are looking forward to a new nephew’s scheduled arrival in late January.
This Christmas, instead of heading home to Wisconsin as we usually do, we traveled to Ohio to visit my grandmothers, E (92) and L (87). My younger sister, J, has moved in with E so that she can live at home as long as possible, and L is “wintering” nearby in assisted living. E is doing quite well after fracturing her knee cap over the summer, which kept us from her 70th college reunion at Berea, much to our shared disappointment.
Next year, we hope to see more of S’s family, perhaps meeting his parents in Dubai (where his brother V lives), even though we’d love to take another long trip to India.
Here’s to a blessed 2010 to you and yours!
Best, K&S :)"
What didn't make it into the letter is that we went to the RE in April to figure out what was going on with our reproductive parts. A okay except for the polyp and septum. Polyp came out in May, and septum is just now coming out this week. I thought I was going to lose my job after my project got cancelled and A had massive layoffs. I sat around for over three months until they put me on anything new. I then got a great job offer in Boston in the Spring that even included an amazing relocation package, but S decided that we should stay in Chicago. :( S heard he was going to get an offer from SC the same day, plus there's that pesky housing market and finding a new job for him where he has no contacts. Spent six months talking to Z before I finally got an offer. The same day I got my results from our first RE visit, my sister E found out that her three month old N needed neuro surgery (which she had in July at Mayo) to fixed her skull bones which had fused prematurely. When they were at Mayo they announced that they were again three months along with another baby (this one unexpected). So three babies for E in less than three years. My mom has now retired to help her take care of them. My best friend from college announced she was having her second, since getting married in 2007. I joined FB, late I know, but now I can see all of the people I grew up with with all their kids and all their pregnancies. I say good riddance to 2009...
