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Personal Notes

New house, New School, New Garten

by Toiny 9 January 2013
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With new houses, come new schools.  Dane especially was very anti-new school.  He knew he would hate it.  He knew he would hate the kids.  He would hate the teachers.  He would hate the garten.  There was an awful lot of hate & anger in that little body.  Then we went for a visit. The [...]

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The Big, Red, Intimating, not-out-of-order Machine

by Toiny 6 January 2013
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Much like our other house, our new home requires a degree in engineering to run properly.  We’ve got four, big, oil tanks in our basement, encased behind a spill-proof enclosure.  Refills happen by big tanker (Dane can’t wait till it’s time!) through a special hole in the wall.  The big, red, intimating, not-out-of-order machine sucks [...]

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New Years Eve 2012

by Toiny 2 January 2013
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Not only is there no snow, it’s beautifully sunny today.  Dane has been waiting all morning to go explore the new village, find his new school and see if the move was ‘worth it’.  I’m not sure he understands that even if it’s not ‘worth it’, we are here to stay. Our first experience with [...]

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Winter Garten

by Toiny 29 December 2012
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Every muscle in my body hurts.  Even ones I didn’t know I had, hurt.  My respect, admiration and appreciation for the legion of packers & movers we’ve had in our lifetime has risen a thousand-fold. Despite being evicted from our home, through no fault of our own (in Germany landlords can break the rental contract [...]

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New House

by Toiny 22 December 2012
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On Thursday we finally got the keys to our new home!  It was, again, a completely new experience.  We met the “old” home owner at our new house.  After some handshakes & pleasantries we all trooped into the not-so-empty house.  We bought the house fully-furnished. A win for us, after six kids, and countless military [...]

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Santa

by Toiny 19 December 2012
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On Sunday we ran out of tape.  A pretty big deal when you are stuffing all your worldly possessions into boxes.  Boxes that are going to be driven through snow, sleet & rain to a brandnew (to us) house thirty minutes away.  I really needed tape!  Luckily I also needed a break, and thankfully we [...]

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Prayers for Newtown

by Toiny 15 December 2012

I woke up with a start this morning.  My heart was pounding, my eyes wide open, I was halfway to the door before I realized I was awake.  All I knew is I had to get to my children. My children who are home safe, asleep in their beds, here with me.  My heart is [...]

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Toys for Tots

by Toiny 12 December 2012
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I thought I couldn’t be prouder of my boy, and then, yesterday, he couldn’t talk.  He was driving.  He was collecting toys for the Marine Corps Toys for Tots program. As much as I’m struggling to come to terms with my baby being all grown-up, and a Marine to boot, I’m thrilled to pieces that [...]

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My Superhero’s

by Toiny 8 December 2012
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I had a little bit of sentimental babble planned today.  How Christian had a dream to be a Marine from the time he was small, I even had a photo of him at five, and him now in his Marine uniform.  I also planned to spin it a little woe-is-me.  He graduated from bootcamp yesterday, [...]

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Sinterklaas

by Toiny 5 December 2012
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We celebrated St. Nicholas day (aka Sinterklaas in Dutch) on Sunday with the Dutch/German club here in Stuttgart.  It was a very international affair with not just Dutch & German folks, but also Greek, American & Turkish people.  Despite all our differences, we were there to really celebrate Sinterklaas and have a fabulous time.  Dutch [...]

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