Christmas 2024

Merry Christmas! Fröhliche Weihnachten!  Alles Gute in neuen Jahr 2025!

December 2024

Address update 104 Orvieto Ln., Liberty Hill TX 78642 (we hope to move again in 2025).

2024 has been an adventure. Sean’s deployment brought one good thing – the ability of Mayland to break the lease on the house in Harker Heights. Anyone who heard the story of finding 2-year-old breastmilk in the freezer knows it was not the house that Mayland wanted to live for a day longer than necessary. In March, Mayland moved to the North of Austin to a house with clean baseboards and no breastmilk.

This deployment was interrupted by the passing of Sean’s brother, Kevin on April 25th. It has been challenging to lose him so young. This was after his mother, Cindy, had a stroke in March that left her near blind and in a wheelchair. Cindy was able to come home after 6 months of rehab with a home health aide. The blows kept coming, with Newton passing our cat for 17 years.

He had kidney and pancreas issues and had lived with lots of medication for 4 years with Clark in Germany. It was hard to not be there, as Clark took him one last time to visit the vet. He and MJ were able to spread Newton’s ashes in the woods behind the house in Landstuhl where he had caught mice for 9 years. This week, we received news that Tatzie, 10 years old, has a mass on her lung along with arthritis. We will take her to an oncologist to understand the ramifications of this finding. Fortunately, she is more mobile with anti-inflammatory and pain meds.

The good news is that MJ has found an amazing group of friends at Lesley Univ. and is nearing the half-way point of being finished with a BFA in Illustration. We also enjoyed visits this summer from two Lesley friends, Donnie, freshman roommate and Aviv, MJ’s partner. Clark is wrapping up his bachelor’s with a research project and started coursework in the master’s degree program, some analytical branch of theoretical math – leaving it there. This Christmas, he will make the journey to Texas. Russell and Baleigh are still together and buying a house in Charleston, SC area. How are they all so grown up?

Mayland did a visit in with Clark and Newton, it was interrupted by the passing of Kevin. It was still good to spend time with him and see his friends. Living an ocean apart is not easy.

We have stayed very busy. On the professional front, Mayland continues to serve on boards for non-profits one in providing free health care in Augusta GA and the other restoring the Quaker Meetinghouse of her youth. In addition, she is more than halfway through the dissertation, and still on track to graduate with an EdD Spring 2025. Sean returned from deployment and has been busy helping to usher in the next generation of military critical care physicians and covering ICUs when needed (sometimes traveling). We are working to get back to the DC/MD area this summer, but the military is not always as cooperative as we would like. As with every year, we take what comes, find the good and love that we have such amazing family and friends. Thank you for sharing this journey together.

Love, Peace, and Happiness,

2023 Christmas Letter

Merry Christmas! Fröhliche Weihnachten!  Alles Gute in neuen Jahr 2024!

December 2023

2023 ushered in a change we just didn’t expect, living in central Texas. Sean was assigned to the 9th hospital center of the 1st medical brigade, Ft. Cavazos (formerly known as Ft. Hood), translation – he is going to deploy to Iraq by the end of January for 6 months. It was not what we expected, but the Army is rarely predictable.

In other news, Sean and Mayland are also very close to being full-time empty nesters. Tatzie, our 9-year-old Bernese/Greater Swiss Mtn dog, is our only full-time living-at-home baby. Marcel left us in May to return to Canada. MJ spends most of the year at Lesley Univ., where they are in their 2nd year of an illustration major. 

Clark is coming to the end of his bachelor's studies in Mathematics (Functional Analysis) with a minor in Physics at Kaiserslautern Univ. in Germany. The plan is to complete at least a master’s degree and then decide if the doctorate is necessary. So, he will be staying put for at least 2 more years, giving us a great excuse to keep going back to Germany (which Mayland managed to do twice this year.) 

Russell has found full-time work in Charleston, SC, as a leasing agent in the apartment complex he is living in; can you say short commute? He and Baleigh will have been together for 3-years this Christmas. We miss seeing them! Mayland continues to serve on boards for non-profits and is helping to author a couple of papers on burnout in medical students. Having completed the coursework for a doctorate in education, the topic for her dissertation has been accepted, and the first two chapters are complete. Planning to finish by Spring 2025.

This year was busy with visiting friends and family, the sale of the house in GA, and the move to TX.

This fall was the capstone with a trip to Washington, DC, for two weeks. Followed by Jamacia for Sean’s childhood friend Erik’s wedding. We flew directly from Jamacia to Germany, where Sean was awarded the Order of Military Medical Merit (02M3) at the Landstuhl Ball. Our dear friend George Smolinski nominated him for this lifetime achievement award. We are so grateful for the friends who are like family that we have accumulated through our time in military medicine. 

If you really want to make people stop and scratch their heads, wear winter snow boots  on a plane landing in Jamacia. 😁

Below are some photos from this year!

Love, Peace, and Happiness!

Sean & Mayland

(Tatzie, Russell, Clark & MJ)

 

    

Carol, Erik & Sean

2022 Christmas Letter

 

Dear Family and Friends, 

 

Welcome to a new year and a hope that it holds a lot of exciting adventures and an opportunity to see our friends and family. As each year passes, it seems the highs get higher, and the lows are more challenging. Fortunately, while we had a few difficult moments, none of them were as scary as almost losing Sean in 2021. 

This year’s highs clustered around June, MJ graduated from Westtown, Russell graduated from Augusta Technical College, and Sean pinned on Colonel making the decision to extend his service to 25 years. That means at least one more move over the next five years. We anticipate that the next move will be this summer of 2023. 

We had two sad, but not unexpected losses this year, Mayland’s Uncle Marlin Troutman (just shy of his 86^th birthday), the last of the uncles and we also lost our dear friend Art Shurlock (84 years), he received a heart transplant in September of 2000, and was given 5-10 years, he made it 21, medical science is truly amazing.

The fall found MJ moving to Cambridge, MA to start studies in illustration at Lesley University. Russell found a job working for Amazon doing deliveries in Charleston, SC, which allows him to be closer to his girlfriend of over a year. Clark continues his studies in math and physics at Kaiserslautern Technical University. We are grateful Clark is still in Germany, as it gives us an excuse to visit at least once a year. 

Mayland gave us the health scare this fall, having a nSTEMI, which is a heart attack caused by stress and not blockage. After a lot of careful consideration, it was determined that the work environment at the Medical College of Georgia was not ideal for maintaining any form of work-life balance. So, Mayland resigned at the end of October deciding to focus on other activities and resume more volunteer work. She will start looking for other work opportunities once we know where Sean is going to be stationed. 

Christmas was spent in Europe where we saw many of our friends in Germany and had some quality family time in Florence, Italy. We know how truly fortunate we are to be together. Here is to 2023!

Love, Sean, Mayland, Clark, MJ, Russell, Tatzie and Newton

Christmas in Florence

Mayland's friends in Germany - Elke and Erika

Sean and Marcel for Halloween

Spending time with Grandma and Papa at the Biltmore

Air Force / Army - Friends!

Russell and Tatzie

Cousins! Alex and Cat with the Alex's girls

Catching up with Elizabeth and Don in NJ

MJ Graduates from Westtown

Sean puts on the Eagle (Marcel our friend from Canada)

The new BMW convertible

Russell Graduating from Augusta Tech

My nephew David

Harry Potter world with Tod and Jerry

Bumped into my cousin Carol and family from OK in Universal Studios, FL

2021 Christmas letter

 

Dear Family and Friends,

    On 22 June Sean walked down the steps from doing a workout saying “if your chest hurt like mine does I would be calling an ambulance.” While he was able to walk out to the ambulance, they were not able to make the 20-minute drive to Eisenhower (military hospital where he works) but had to turn the opposite direction with lights and sirens blaring to take him to the hospital 4 minutes away, where Mayland works – Augusta University. They were doing chest compressions while wheeling him into the emergency room, used the defibrillator, and needed two shots of epinephrine to get a pulse and then rushed him to the cath lab to put a stent in his left anterior descending (LAD) artery. The placing of the stent was successful, and he was only in the hospital for four days, but those 4 days were long and exhausting. 

     Our military family was amazing, in contact, showing up, and really helping – even those who were 12 hours away still connected and supported. We will be forever grateful for the friendships we have through the military. 

    For MJ, the focus for the summer of 2021 was visiting colleges and making a rank list. Fortunately, the college tour had been completed by the 15th of June. The list had two Boston colleges at the top, Northeastern and Lesley Univ., followed by George Mason and then Drexel. While MJ really loved the Northeastern campus, when applying to the schools it became clear that Lesley was the perfect fit with their amazing art school. We are thrilled that MJ will be starting Lesley Univ. in September of 2022 after graduating from Westtown in June of 2022. 

    Clark continues to progress toward getting

his degree in Math from Kaiserslautern Technical University. He passed the written exams, but the first oral exam was a lot more than expected. Fortunately, the Germany University system expects students to struggle the first time and have a system in place for retaking the oral exam, but still progressing through the rest of the curriculum. After a wonderful visit to Germany this Christmas as a family, we know he understands what studying really means and will finish his BS/MS by 2024. 

     Russell will be finishing his diploma in welding this summer and we are very excited for him to start on this new journey of being a skilled welder. 

     We were thrilled to welcome a few people into our home this year. Mayland’s nephew David into our home during the Master’s golf tournament where he worked with the Golf Channel TV crew. Our dear friend Tod Winston for a brief but lovely visit and Sean’s parents during his recovery and for Thanksgiving. 

     Christmas was spent in Europe where we saw many of our friends in both Germany and Paris. We know how truly fortunate we are to be together. Here is to 2022 being more normal. 

 Love, Peace and Happiness, 

 Sean, Mayland, Russell, Clark and MJ

 

Dec. 2020 Merry Christmas! Fröhliche Weihnachten! Alles Gute in neuen Jahr!

Dear Family and Friends, 

Greetings from 2037 Gardner St. Augusta, GA 30904!

Thanks to our change of address, 2020 was not a year where we just stayed home, but rather we lived in three different “houses” under three very different conditions, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

Throwback to January, Sean was deployed in Africa, Clark was in his final months of Gymnasium (German secondary school), Russell was living in Colorado (liberated adult), and MJ was also in Gymnasium (10^th grade).  Mayland had accepted a new job at the Medical College of Georgia (MCG) as their Sr. Program Coordinator for development of a new medical school curriculum and was no longer volunteering with the Red Cross at Landstuhl.  We were still planning a lot of travel including a 2-week trip to S. Korea in April and a transatlantic cruise on the Queen Mary II to relocate our beloved Tatzie to the US in May.  Our lives were and have stayed very busy this year!  Just not exactly the way we had expected.

January started off looking fairly normal with travel and visits: Clark, MJ, and Mayland made it to London to see “Hamilton” and spent a week exploring the Salisbury region of England to include an incredible full day tour of stone henges found throughout the region.  We discovered just how wonderful winter hiking can truly be, when done with great pub food!  At the end of the month, we were delighted to welcome our dear friend Erica Murray for a couple of weeks.  It was so much fun having her brilliant, loving, and joyous personality filling the house.  Double bonus, Mayland got to pick her up from the airport in our new Audi (she was the first person to ride with me).  Between trips and visitors Clark took his written exams for Das Abitur in Math, Physics and French.  The exams went exceptionally well.  He received the top score in math (the only person in his school this year).  His teacher commented it was the first year (veteran teacher of over 30 years) he ever had a student get a perfect exam score in math – this is an 8-hour written test that determines college placement – can we say incredibly proud parents?    

February, Sean returned home, via a long weekend with Mayland in Catania, Sicily.  Lots of great Sicilian food and walks through the streets of a very beautiful city.  They then made a quick trip to hunt for a house in Georgia.  Mayland had a chance to meet her colleagues at MCG, returning home just in time to enjoy winter break where the family managed to get away for a week in the South of Spain.  Visiting Malaga, Granada (Alhambra), and Cordoba before flying home from Madrid.  They checked body temperatures at the airport and asked to see our passports to move around Europe.  We became very aware that COVID was about to have a serious impact on our lives. During the pandemic, MJ was accepted to both Westtown and George school and eventually would decide to attend Mayland’s alma mater Westtown in the Fall of 2020.  We managed to sell the Volvo just before Germany shut down all businesses, including used car lots.  Of course, Sean was back in the ICU at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center caring for COVID patients evacuated from deployed locations.  The German schools shut down, did a little bit of online teaching and quickly realized it wasn’t working.  So, they devised a schedule for students to attend final classes and take exams over a 4-week period with shortened class times and only essential classes – allowing MJ to complete her 10^th grade year at the Gymnasium.  Clark’s graduation was cancelled right after we bought him a new suit, but he wasn’t disappointed.  It was cancelling the trip to S. Korea that was hard to accept.  We continued to hold out hope that we would be able to enjoy a trans-Atlantic voyage on the Queen Mary II with Tatzie and our friends Elizabeth Sagehorn and Don Lipper, but ultimately, that too was cancelled.  Tatzie would return to the US in May via Lufthansa and stay in Pennsylvania with Mayland’s mother from 

May – July.  She was reportedly wonderful company and won the hearts of the neighborhood. 

Due to the pandemic, Russell was having a hard time finding steady work in Colorado.  So, we started making plans for him to come and live with us in Georgia.  Clark found an apartment in Kaiserslautern Germany within walking distance from the campus of the university he was planning to attend.  One unforeseen issue was the need to install a kitchen (which apparently isn’t uncommon in Germany).  Fortunately, there are plenty of kitchen and bathroom stores nearby offering installation services.  

Mayland started working at MCG and closed on our new home in Georgia in May.  Then, returned to Germany to move Clark into his new apartment in June and pack up the house we had lived in for 9 years.  From 11 – 15 July, we all lived in Clark’s two room apartment… very comfy… we all survived… barely.  Then, we flew out on 15 July 2020 after living in Germany for nine years (since we arrived at Frankfurt on 13 July 2011).  There were a lot of amazing friendships made during those wonderful years.  They fundamentally shaped Russell, Clark, and MJ into the good people they are today.  We are forever grateful for our time in Germany.  The farewell party at Salvatore’s was bittersweet and the list of people who impacted our lives is far too long to list here, please know you are all loved and always welcome in our home.

July was a very busy month.  Appreciate the Troutman family helping to move the antiques that were stored at Mayland’s mother’s house.  Appreciate Russell helping to unload the trucks and unpack the boxes which arrived from two locations (both stuff from Germany and stuff that had been in storage in Virginia for ten years).  Mayland started going into work at the office right away while Sean in-processed at Fort Gordon.  Fortunately, most everyone in Augusta Georgia was good about social distancing and wearing masks, and none of us has suffered a COVID-19 infection… yet.  

MJ started the school year distance learning, but she struggled with the format.  So, when the dorms opened, she moved into a single room at Westtown.  The rules are strict, but she is thriving as a boarding student.  She has returned to Georgia for the holidays and will be back in Pennsylvania in mid-January if the pandemic numbers allow it.  Clark returned to Germany in September to start his first year at the University in Kaiserslautern majoring in Math and Physics.  They started doing full-time distance learning in November, but he has been able to meet some classmates and establish a network of friends.  Sven and Mindy, his adopted uncle and aunt, have continued to provide loving support – from masked grocery shopping to socially distanced Sunday morning “waffles and gravy” breakfasts.  Russell intends to start welding school in January.  

We don’t know when we will see you again, but if you wear a mask and wash your hands until the vaccines arrive, we anticipate that we’ll be able to get together sometime during 2021.  Never have we looked forward to the New Year more than this year.

Love, Peace, and Happiness,

Sean, Mayland, Russell, Clark and MJ