The anti-smoking medicine that's saving us over $2,000 a year

Nobody is paying me to say this: If I ever meet the person who invented Chantix, the anti-smoking medicine, I may have to give him or her a hug. If we ever have another child, I think we have a name picked out (well, maybe the middle name). If I were a dying billionaire and Chantix were a person, I'd probably adopt Chantix, so I could leave something for him or her in my will.

Well, you get the idea. I'm a big Chantix fan. And with good reason.

My wife has been a smoker for most of our 10-year marriage. She promised me several times when we were dating that she would quit. She vowed that before our wedding, she would quit. She vowed after our wedding that she would quit. One year, as an anniversary present, she announced her intention to quit. When she was pregnant, she, of course, swore she would quit.

She once actually managed to, several years ago. She had had foot surgery and was on pain medication for three days. She couldn't leave the house, I refused to buy her cigarettes, and she was loopy for those three days, managed to get the nicotine out of her system and summoned the willpower to stay off them for nine months -- and then she had a fairly serious wave of depression, possibly related to some postpartum depression that she had had, and fell back into smoking.