Still here just busy

It has been over a year and while I am blogging pretty frequently over on the other blog mainly about how the Mini Maus is growing leaps and bounds I have not been keeping up with this one. I would like to say I'll do better but I have said that before and didn't so I won't.

So yes Mini Maus arrived on January 5 of last year and has been the most amazing gift ever. She is beautiful, bright, funny and so much more. She is so smart too its sometimes scary. She is very active loves to move around, so we are always on the go it seems.


I switched positions within the company last year so I no longer travel the country every week. While I miss the travel I would miss Mini Maus more and I cherish so much being there when she wakes up and when she goes to sleep.

We took her to Germany over Christmas and she had a ball she loves meeting new people and got to try lots of new foods and received presents - whats not to love. It was great catching up with everyone, with my travel days being over so are free flights with miles. So we are not sure when/how we'll get back across the pond for the next visit. Tickets are pretty expensive these days and now there are 3 of us. So we'll see.

High school meme

I got this MEME from Real and since I have not much else to say today ... Check out the photo from my senior class - can you find me??????


1. Who was your best friend?
Daniela and Sylvia but I didn't met Sylvia until Dani and I got to our High school (the german school system is a bit different and not everyone goes to high school) Dani and I were together in Grammar school and then went on to the same gymnasium while some of our classmates went to realschools and vocational schools ...)

2. What sports did you play?
Sports teams in Germany are not tied to schools - but I was in a swim team and was part of a life guard association

3. What kind of car did you drive?
well I had 2 simson bikes my first was a red S51 and I loved it but it was old and kept breaking so I bought this really cool metalic blue one which kept breaking too.




So when my mom drove me to the repair shop she saw this brand new red scooter and bought it right then and there and I had that one until I was 18 and got my car divers license and for my birthday I got my blue Trabant.
The trabant used to be built in my hometown before the wall came down and it was out off all the once I have driven since my favorite. Who cares that it only goes 60 miles an hour. You could fix everything on it with duck tape!

4. It's Friday night, where were you?
since the age of 13 I went out every weekend so the chances were I was at the "Erle"

5. Were you a party animal?
ahmmm yeah I was famous for my parties everyone loved coming since there was allways enough booze and food

6. Were you considered a flirt? I don't know I never knew when guys were interested. I guess

7. Ever skip school?
Who me? ahmm gee

9. Were you in any clubs?
none but my own but then again there were no clubs in our schools

10. Suspended?
never !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! As far as my teachers knew I was a grey mouse that didn't do anything bad

11. Can you sing the fight song?
whats a fight song?

12. Who was your favorite teacher?
I don't remember honestly it wasn't like I paid THAT much attention. I was to busy catching up on sleep so I'd be fit for practice and dancing.

13. What was your favorite class?
Swim class in 11 & 12 grade we had to choose 4 different PE semesters I picked swimming, volleyball, judo and tennis. In swim class all I did was goof off since i already knew everything so unless the teacher had me demonstrate stuff I got to just play in my own lane. loved it!

14. What was your school's full name?
Georgengymnasium

15. School mascot?
no such thing

16. Did you go to dances?
what? like school dances now I told you we didn't have those school is there to be learned in nothing more - and yes I may have attended a few back in grammar school when it was still east germany.

17. If you could go back and do it over again, would you?
I mean it was great no responsibilities and stuff but no i don't think I would

18. What do you remember most about graduation?
skipping it to go camping with my friends, my social life was never in school or with school people i had my friends outside school and thats who I hung with (except for Dani and Sylvia but they didn't hang out with me to much since I was kind of wild but they'd come to my parties)

19. Favorite memory of your Senior Year?
field trip to Paris I guess oh and last day of school were we TP's the principals car and spraypainted it.

20. Were you ever posted up on the senior wall?
i doubt I would have if we had one - well maybe next to a condom wrapper since I was the one person everyone would hit up for condoms thanks to me having an unlimited supply at the AIDS foundation.


22. Where did you go most often for lunch?
Grahams Bakery they had the best french baguettes with lettuce and eggsalad. To this day I will not be in my hometown without stopping by there. (my school was in the city so we could walk everywhere in town in no time)

23. Have you gained weight since high school?
oh hell yeah liked doubled

24. What did you do after graduation?
i didn't go to gratuation remember I was camping and that night drinking with some lifeguards I had met until midnight and then drove 6h to get to my life guard duty station.

Oh you mean like after in general - ahm got married (twice) moved across the world ...

25. When did you graduate?
July 1996 don't know the exact date since I wasn't there


26. Where are most of your classmates?
Germany

27. Did you have a high school sweetheart?
no I don't believe in dating people from your school or work. I did see someone be he was part of the clique I hung out with. I loved when he came to pick me up from school in the winter and we rode the bus (public transportation there are no school busses) home together.

28. Have you changed since?
mhh yeah my hair is back to its natural color I work on the weekends instead of going out and so forth. Being a grown up sucks!

29. Have you been to your high school since you graduated?
yes last year for the first time it was my 10th high school reunion. oh but wait it was somewhere else and my school is not a school anymore so I guess the answer is no. (I did walk past it a few times)


So did you find me in the picture above??? No well here lets take a look again click on the photo to enlarge it.

Schutzengel - Guardian Angel

02-16-07_1131.jpg
Originally uploaded by dino0477.

Fahre bitte, denk daran, nie schneller, als ich fliegen kann! (Remember never to drive faster than I can fly!)
This little guy was in the box too and is going to be taped to my dash board from now on. He was handcrafted in the Ore mountains where I am from (my hometown is Zwickau).

Memories to keep from 2006

January: I was naturalized. I am now officially an American citizen. I also got to see my old friend Paul while at a meeting in Dallas. It had been a few years that we had seen each other. I had dinner with him and his girlfriend and we had a few hours of catching up. It was very nice.
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February: V-day was nice we went to my favorite restaurant the day before (we both had to work v-day of course) otherwise nothing special just work. Got to go on a business trip to San Francisco which is one of my favorite cities.
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March: mhh nothing much the AP's and I continued to write cards to recruits. The local press heard of it and came out to do an interview with all of us.
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April: I went to see Maureen graduate from Marine boot camp in South Carolina. It was something else. (the oldest of the kids whose au pair I was a long time ago)The nice part was her whole family was there so I got to see everyone. It was great. We are all so proud of her. She was 17 and a Marine so grown up. I took her back with me to Virginia since her boyfriend was at the music school near me. She would go there to after she went home for her high school graduation. She was the first person ever to walk in Dress Blues for her ceremony. I wish I could have seen that but I am sooo glad I got to at PI.

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May: Oh there is too much, my 1st anniversary with Grumpy which got cut kind of short because I left for my 10 year highschool reunion in Germany that day. Due to that I missed his college graduation :(.
The 2 weeks at home were wonderful but my favorite would have to be the Saturday before I left. I had gotten in touch with a few friends including Uwe and old childhood friend, who I had not seen in 8 years.
I met my best friend Dani and her man at 3pm and we went into one of the many Ice cream parlors / cafés that you have everywhere. There we met another childhood friend of ours and celebrated her first pregnancy (it is a baby girl) and birthday.

A little while later another one of my friends and her husband joined us. After 3 hours of amazing looking Ice cream cocktails we said goodbye to the soon to be mommy and walked down the street to my favorite Chinese restaurant. [The Chinese food in Germany tastes different than it does here - so does all the other chain food].

There Uwe joined us. We had a great time. Around 9pm we said good bye to my best friend and her boyfriend as they left to go watch the German version of Dancing with Stars. The rest of us sat and chatted for a bit longer before walking down the street a bit further to a bar. There we stayed until we said good bye after midnight. Uwe and I chatted a bit longer outside my moms house until I finally go home a bit after 1 am. It was great. I got to see everyone and have a great time.

Thinking back about that night makes me homesick I do miss my friends from home a lot.

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June: Well it was Grumpy's b-day but he had to go into work. I was obsessed with the Soccer world cup since it looked like Germany had a chance. I switched my blog from myspace to the blogger. My mom came to visit so we could do her green card paper work. Since we were near Virginia Beach we went down the prominade and then hoped over the the Little Creek base where the school of music is to visit Maureen and Austin. My mom had not seen Maureen for 9 years.
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July: I got to go jet skiing as part of an Au pair meeting. This was awesome I love jet skiing. Its like riding a motorcycle on water. I also got to go to Chicago for a meeting where I saw my former host family and my friend Evelyn who was an AP with me. She and her boyfriend had flown in from Switzerland for a wedding of the niece of our host mom. Also

*drum roll*

I got to meet our very own Miss Jin and Brioche in person (well and Mister Jin and ....). Jin made lunch for Erin (she is the youngest of the kids whose AP I was) and I, then we got to sample all her goodies. OMG talk about a kid in candy land. I can't wait to go back and try the things I couldn't fit.





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August: Mhh nothing major - I got to go to Seattle for the first time. While I was waiting to go up on the Space needle I get a call form one of my girls saying she got kicked out by her host parents. WTF. So when I got home I had to house my first AP. After I found her a new family, Grumpy and I took the puppies to the beach Mac hates the sound of the waves and will not go in the water. We don't know what it is with her and the ocean. Sassy was in the water , swimming and having a good time. We took a nap on the greens later but I couldn't read my book because people kept coming up to us to ask if they could pet the doggies. What can I say to cute for their own good.

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September: Well there was Ernesto the nice little tropical storm that cost us power for a few days and caused quiet some damage. We got lucky while it snapped of a tree limb the size of most trees, the limb missed the house by inches.

There was also my first Sweetbox from Jin. It was a early b-day present so we could take it with us to our trip. MHHHHHH so good.
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October: Happy Birthday to me!!! I got my wish and Grumpy, the pups and I went to a cabin in the West Virginia mountains. It was sooo pretty. I loved it. The cabin was so isolated in one of the valleys no one would ever find it. We saw the local sights and took a drive to the Maryland side where we got to see the beautiful colors of the leaves. It was soo relaxing and the pups loved it because they got to come with us everywhere we went.

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November: The house turned into Hotel Katy as I housed one AP for 2 weeks in the beginning of the month (I will see her when I go to LA next week) and then after Thanksgiving I got another AP that needed a place to stay until we found her a new family. Thanksgiving was nice and I since I was off the day after I went and did my Locks of Love donation. I think Grumpy is still getting used to the short hair. I am mean I never tell him when I do it, just show up with short hair.
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December: Ohhh so many things. Mhh I got a Cherry box, a Jin box and I saw the Transiberian Orchestra live. And most importantly Grumpy and I got to go out for New Years ever for the first time in 6 years. We had a ball. We went to the bar where we met and just hung out. Mhhh what a way to finish this year.
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When I started the post I didn't think the year was all that, but now looking at it it almost makes my life sound interesting doesn't it? Wonder what this year will hold I mean I am supposed to graduate from college with that a new job, Grumpy and I are planning on going to Germany for Christmas and New Years (I haven't been home for the holidays in 10 years!) .... Lots of potential

Smart

smart
Originally uploaded by dino0477.

So my mom just called me at work to tell me that FINALLY the smart car will become available in the US. Ever since Grumpy and I saw them in Europe last year (above is Grumpy with one of the cars we saw then) we knew we wanted one. So now I will have to start saving up for it, I have until 2008. Grumpy and I want one that is the two door version and one with four doors. I just think it is the cutest thing ever. If you want to learn more go to www.smart.com.