Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Maschger Family Photos 2010

So, about 3-4 months ago, our family spent an afternoon down in Ellicott City, Maryland getting our pictures taken by our incredibly talented friend...here are the results...FINALLY!

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Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Last Post for the Day. I Promise, but You Are Not Going to Want to Miss This

Many of you have probably already heard, but we figured we should probably put the word out officially.

I will be getting orders soon to Bahrain for a year. Tam will go and live with her parents during that time. I am scheduled to begin training the end of November.

Now for the really really exciting news!!!

WE ARE PREGNANT!!!!! Well Tam is pregnant, my work is done. I now get to sit back and relax.

We are excited for number four. Maddie is praying that it will be a boy and Emma is praying that it will be a girl. Originally they were praying for twins. I am glad that they switched what they were praying for. Because we know that Heavenly Father definitely answers prayers. (Is it bad that I prayed that my daughters twin prayer NOT be answered? Something to ponder.)

The due date is December 5, 2010 and I am scheduled to leave the week before that. Thankfully, Tam's doctor does not want her to go past her 38th week because of Tam's health issues. So, basically this is how the delivery will go: "Breath honey. Now Push Honey! Oh look its so cute! Well I gotta go dear have fun and see you later!" In all seriousness I am grateful I will be her for the delivery, but I am saddened that I will leave so soon after.

I am also using these blog posts as a way to procrastinate writing my 5 assignments that are due this week. (Only about a combined total of 30-40 written pages and two presentations.) No biggie? Right?

I hope everyone of you is doing well. Take care. Love the Maschgers

Run Run Run Around We Run Around

On Earth Day April 22, 2010, Fort Meade held a 5K race and our whole family ran. Mom and Dad ran with the girls. We were so proud of them. Emma ran the 5k in 42:56 and Maddie ran it in 59:03. Emma ran over a mile and half before she needed to stop to walk for bit. I think it was her competitiveness that motivated her. She hates getting passed. I am so proud of both my girls for their efforts. Emma wants to run another race and Maddie, well afterward, she told us she hated running.

Here is the link to the race results. So check it out: http://ftmeademwr.com/events/RunSeries/EarthDay5kResults.pdf

Maddie's become a Canadian and her facebook friend

Maddie has started to end just about every sentence with the word "eh" as in "I am going upstairs to put on my pajamas "eh'" and then Emma immediately follows by saying "b, c, d, e,..." Good Canadian times in the Maschger Household.

Maddie has also decided because one of her friends has imaginary friends that she needed to have an imaginary friend as well. So she created one, named George. They met on facebook and during nap time she took a two hour flight to Texas to met him for the first time. We had to negotiate his age with Maddie. Originally George was 17 years old. We told Maddie that Mom and Dad would not allow her to have a 17 year old friend. She then countered with a 10 year old friend. We finally settled on 7 and half years old. So now Maddie has a 7 and half year old facebook friend that lives in Texas and she talks to him incessantly on her cellphone.

Is that not a product our day? My daughter's imagery friend is on facebook. The imaginary friend is probably more active on facebook than Tam and I are.

Love the Maschgers

Gotta Love your Kids!!! No really you do!!!

So here is a simple new recipe Emma and her friends created.

Ingredients:

1 Large Bowl
1 Full Roll of Toilet Paper
Enough water to fill said bowl
1 Bathroom sink.

Steps:

Fill the bowl with water
Begin to unroll the entire roll of toilet paper into the bowl full of water ensuring that all the paper becomes thoroughly soaked and mushy.

Now taste your creation to ensure proper consistency. If it is to your liking you are done, if not add more toilet paper.

For an extra flourish make sure to spread the water to the bedroom soaking one of the dressers in the room.

After you are done then dump the entire bowl of water and toilet paper down the bathroom sink drain to clog it up.

I hope that you all enjoy this family favorite as much as we do!!!

Love the Maschgers

Saturday, March 6, 2010

Socks in Soup

Today, while the family was sitting down to lunch. We were feasting on a sumptuous fare of soup and grilled cheese sandwiches. Tam and I looked up to see Maddie taking her sock out of her bowl of soup. Well, Tam's and my interest was peaked. We have heard of crackers in soup, but socks were new. I wonder if socks improve the flavor. Maybe they make the socks extra soft, or maybe footsweat is more pleasant when it smells like tomato soup. Tam asked her what the sock was doing in her soup, and Maddie's simple reply "I took off my sock." Well of course, it all makes sense. What were we mere mortals thinking. When you take off your socks, it is only logical that you would place them in soup. Needless, to say Maddie ate her sock flavored soup and now we one REALLY red sock.

We are also the proud new "Pet-Parents" of two new small Koi from Wal-mart. Tam is teaching the girls about fish in Home-school. Tam and I also thought it might be an opportunity to teach a little responsibility to the girls too. It also helps that fish don't bark or chew up carpets or shoes. Our girls have been so excited by the new fish. Maddie named her fish, "Karen"... cause nothing says fish like the name Karen. Emma named her's, the same name she names everything, "Sarah Capia". It is difficult to keep them from harassing the fish. We almost had to get a restraining order against our girls.

That is the latest from Maschger the front.

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

The FIRST Blizzard...

On February 5th, it started to snow in what was predicted to be a record-breaking snowfall. I was VERY excited, and wanted to document the occasion. So, every hour, on the hour, I snapped a picture of our backyard and a picture of our front yard....here it is:

Thursday, January 7, 2010

A Video/Photo Catch Up...

Here are some pics and video of some goings on around our place lately...the details are in the post that follows...

Love ya!

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A New Year...

SO much to say, and who has the time? Can we sum up? Probably...not...

Suffice it to say, we are all here and alive...

Miles started back to school on Monday after a brief holiday break, during which he had to write several papers and prepare a presentation. His first week back and he has written a 10 page paper, prepared a 15 min presentation, and written another 6 page paper. SIGH! The nights are getting later and later, and we are beginning to wonder what the heck we were thinking!!!!! He has had absolutely NO time to even think about a thesis...which is due the end of June. RIGHT! SIGH! Just thinking about it causes my stomach to start eating itself...so let's move on!

Maddie and I had our first homeschool review at the beginning of December, and we did well...think I over prepared, but that is kind of my thing! :-) Because of the insanity that is the month of December, Maddie pretty much got the whole month off...while she was super excited at the time, now that Mom has her nose back to the grindstone, she and I are thinking that a month is tooo long to not do school. You just forget sooo much! Maddie is reading sooo incredibly well. The other day I checked out a couple of "third" grade chapter books that she and I could read together. She took one to "quiet time" and emerged two hours later having completed the book. I quizzed her, she read it. That night she asked to take the other book to bed, and a couple of hours later (when she should have been sleeping), she came out of her room to announce that the book was really scary, and she was going to have nightmares. We assumed that she'd read to a "scary" point (please keep in mind that my girls had to turn off Tigger and Pooh's Halloween movie because it was too scary...scary is relative around here!) and had stopped. In a coversation the following day, it became readily apparent that she had actually read the entire book. HELLO...SIX! Today we got a new science program, and during lunch Maddie read through the first five chapters, and then spent the rest of the day drawing cell "cities". I am frantically trying to keep up with her, and it is AWESOME! The ability to read is soooooooooooo important...and she not only knows how, she LOVES to read...she is unstoppable!

Then there is Emma. Emma, who will be 5 next month, is quickly gaining some momentum. A couple of months ago she wanted nothing to do with reading, just loved singing her letters and playing sound BINGO! Now, she has several primary readers under her belt and loves to "read" them to whoever will sit still long enough, including her little sister Ellie. She loves to write, and since she plowed right through the kindergarten handwriting book, she has started in on a first grade book. We have told her that until she turned 5 she was only required to do "reading" in "school" (She liked to be a part of school, but working through all the subjects just was a BIT much) I think that she is definitely going to be ready to take on a full school day...and she will be awesome! Emma also continues to be my bestest helper. She amazes me with her innate ability to perceive what others need, and then to quickly respond to that need...without being told. I can't tell you the number of times that I have walked into a room to begin a clean-up to find that it has "magically" cleaned itself...care of Emma, or how often Emma has sat down with Ellie and played with her, or reads to her, keeping her busy so Mom can get stuff done. She is truly a blessing!

That brings us to Ellie. Sweet little Ellie, who will be 1 on Saturday...impossible to believe. Ellie is everywhere and into everything...very age appropriate. Her favorite things in the whole world are her family...she loves to be in the middle of the family, no matter what! Whether we are cleaning, or watching a movie, or snuggling on Mommy and Daddy's bed, or singing...she is right in the middle doing her best to figure out a way to "help" out, or participate! She is also developing a love for books, and wanders around the house carrying one in each hand, looking for somone to read to her.

I am left, in my rare free moments, to ponder the seasons of our lives. To contemplate how even the best laid plans are often revised, and revised, and revised, etc. Wondering what tomorrow will hold...and I'm not talking in the metaphorical sense...I mean, literally, TOMORROW! ;-)

With that, I am off to do dishes, and maybe even get some yoga, or a spin in before Miles gets home from his night class...hmmmm...

Stay tuned for next month! :-)