December
9, 2000 NEWSFLASH!!!
"It’s over!"
No, we’re not talking about the 2000 Presidential
elections. Laurie just finished her 2-year Executive Masters Program
(M.B.A.) at Northwestern University’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management!
This has been a busy period in our life, and she doesn’t exactly know what she’s
going to do with these extra initials (yes, that’s "Laurie
Pearlman, B.S., M.S., M.D., M.B.A."!!!). She has already added incredibly
to the efficiency of her practice, but we’re sure she’s got more tricks up her
sleeve. We’ll update you in coming years as she expands into new areas of interest.
It’s hard to remember that we started this year wondering whether airplanes
would fall from the sky and banks would fail because of Y2K! Yep, we all survived the Millennium. The Helseth-Pearlman clan started the 21st
Century in the last time zone to enter the new century, Hawaii. We decided
that, if we had to be stranded somewhere it should be somewhere great, so went
to our timeshare on the island of Kauai for two weeks.
After the celebration, it was time for the start of Laurie’s second year at
Northwestern’s Kellogg graduate school. Larry returned to begin running Baxter’s
entire web site (http://www.baxter.com
and 25 other smaller web sites) after a co-worker left. This "short term" duty
dragged on for five months, after an individual was hired to do run everything
full-time but quit 30 minutes after Larry left on vacation
over Spring Break!
Laurie’s Spring Break was different than Sarah’s & Kim’s, so we didn’t
go anywhere as a family this year. Instead, Sarah went with her 8th
grade Social Studies class on a four day trip to Washington DC. She had a great
experience, and kept saying "I’ve been there" during the November post-election
events!
In April, Larry had a "business trip" to (ahem!) Cancun, Mexico. It was a
lot of work (really!), and Montezuma exacted his revenge upon his return to
the States! April was also when Sarah decided to quit skating!
This was a hard decision for her, after skating for nearly eight years, but
the jumps were starting to destroy her knees and the early mornings were becoming
a battle between Sarah and her "transportation coordinator". At any rate, she
soon became involved in a school play, "Bye, Bye Birdie!" and became hooked
on school musicals!
In May, Sarah & Larry had a unique opportunity:
they got to hear a survivor of "Schindler’s List" speak on the 55th
anniversary of her liberation. It was very moving to see an auditorium full
of 8th graders listening quietly and asking respectful questions
of this amazing woman. May also brought us a reminder that we live in a community
full of trees. We experienced a strong thunderstorm, with several "micro bursts"
(like small tornados with the air rushing down to the ground). Someone was
killed near us when a tree branch fell on his car, and several houses near us
had their roofs crushed. We were lucky to just experience a few days without
power. Later that month, Larry began working with the "Global Healthcare Exchange",
a "dot com spin-off" from Baxter and other companies. This went on for months,
but they moved to Colorado before offering him a job! It’s probably just as
well, given the (current) apparent waning of "dot com’s".
June was a month for celebration. Sarah graduated from 8th grade!
(Yes, it really has been that long since we’ve seen each other!). A few days
later (after Kim finished 5th grade), we got on a plane for Denver!
We spent a week visiting family, and the girls became reacquainted with their
cousins. We even had time to launch some rockets and to go
whitewater rafting with Larry’s brother’s family!
The "big folk" (adults plus Sarah) went through category IV rapids, and then
the younger folks joined us for another hour of fun. Though it was June, the
water was ~34 degrees, having come off a high mountain glacier the night before!
We had wet suits, but were glad for the warm showers after rafting.
We spent our summer as a "scattered" family, with one or the other child gone
to camp most of the time. After Denver, Sarah went to summer school for a month
while Kim went to camp in Boston. Then, it was Sarah’s turn to go to Boston
for almost a month while Kim was at camp in Michigan.
The summer flew by quickly (and quietly!), with our usual July
3rd bash & fireworks growing into a barbecue for 25! Larry manned
the grill for 1½ hours, but the weather cooperated and we made it to the Wilmette
beach in time for the fireworks. When August rolled around, we regrouped with
a week in Hilton Head. Kim came home on a Thursday (with several weeks of dirty
laundry!), then we flew to Washington DC the next day to meet Sarah (on her
way from Boston). Between United Airlines and "weather delays", Larry spent
9 hours wandering Dulles Airport before Sarah arrived, then flew with her to
Savannah, Georgia, where Laurie and Kim had flown earlier. We had a relaxing
time, swimming in the ocean, riding bikes on the beach, and even learning how
to catch shrimp and crabs! Kim thought she was in heaven watching dolphins
race in front of the bow of our boat!
After summer vacation Sarah started as a freshman at New Trier High School,
Kim began her last year of middle school (6th grade), and Laurie
started her last quarter of her MBA. Normally we would get a new Au Pair at
the end of summer, but decided not to this year. Luckily for us, our former
au pair, Ewa, decided to stay in the US and attend school. She’ll continue
to live with us for a while.
Sarah is thoroughly enjoying high school! Besides her academics, she is having
fun with dance and theater. She also joined a New Trier service group that
helps teach reading to inner city kids. She’s also enjoying the freshman dances
and other activities such as the Homecoming. Larry helped shuttle Sarah and
several girl friends between their dinner and the Homecoming dance. They had
a blast!
Fall flew by quickly, with Larry coaching Kim’s
soccer team, Kim’s first horse show, and leaves, leaves, leaves. This culminated
with a
wonderful Halloween. Our house looked great, complete with headstones ("Here
lies, Fred. We think he’s dead!"), cobwebs, and a hanging skeleton blowing
in the wind. There were even reports of a giant "Super Chicken" handing out
candy on our front porch. Actually, the "chicken" had a great time sitting
stoically holding a bowl of candy until an unsuspecting Trick or Treater came
up to help themselves to candy, then saying, "Only take two, please!" Luckily,
the Wilmette police weren’t called...
November was welcomed for the promise for an end the interminable
Presidential campaign. Little did we know it would drag on into December!!
We had made plans for a short visit our friends, Saeed & Myra, who’d moved
from Wilmette to (of all places) West Palm Beach, Florida. Little could we
have known that West Palm Beach would be the center of the media universe when
we landed two days after the election-that-wouldn’t-die! But, no, we didn’t
find any chads lying around!
Laurie was on-call for Thanksgiving, but we still managed
to arrange to work at a soup kitchen in Evanston. Laurie and the girls baked
twelve (yes, 12!) pumpkin pies to take with us, then Sarah and Kim passed out
the plates and gravy while Larry got cranberry duty.
December started with Laurie’s last class ("I know I’m
not going to graduate!") and, finally, graduation. Laurie survived her
two years of business school because a) she’s smart (we knew that!) and b) she
was paired up with a great study group! (Larry was adopted as
the unofficial "7th member" for helping with some of their technology
questions; no diploma, but he did get was his wife back! ;-))
Here’s a picture of her group, dubbed "The Firm". Thanks, guys!!!
Friends and family joined us in celebrating Laurie’s success,
and much celebrating occurred! Now, we’re preparing for the holidays
and more time with family. We’re also dealing with ~27 inches of snow so far
this month, almost our annual average, and winter doesn’t officially
start until tomorrow! The snow piles and icicles have taken on a permanent
look. We hope you and your family had a great millennial year (see, I got that
word in one more time!)
and wish you health and happiness in the coming year.
Larry, Laurie, Sarah,
Kim,
& Milo
PS-Why wait for these annual missives when you can
check us out on-line?!? Yes, folks, be sure to visit http://www.geocities.com/lhelseth/
for updates throughout the year (please sign our guest book so Larry knows someone’s
looking at all his crazy rocket stuff!). The password for the Family pages
is "Milo". You can also send us e-mail at: