Tag Archives: Emily

48 Things about Linda – by Emily

Linda celebrated her 48th birthday the other day – and normally I wouldn’t share the particular number, but it’s kind of hard to hide when you consider the loving tribute that Emily wrote on Facebook the other day. With her permission, here is her post:

For Linda Maag’s 48th birthday I wanted to share 48 fun facts about my dear mother

1. She hates eggs
2. She is truly convinced that I will not be able to live on my own
3. She has to take a nap everyday or else she cannot function
4. One semester in college she didn’t have classes on Friday and now refuses to teach on Fridays
5. July is a month you should not talk to her because she is too busy watching the Tour de France
6. She took me to my first royals game when I was only 2ish months old (I do not remember it but appreciate the sentiment)
7. She spoils Sally and Suzy like no other
8. She loves Winnie the pooh and our dining room when I was little was basically a Winnie the pooh shrine
9. She is the best example of being a badass that you can ever find
10. She keeps her cool very well, but you better not mess with her
11. She doesn’t like to admit it, but she loves the chaos Anna and I add into her life
12. She knows a large amount of Spanish even though she refuses to admit it
13. She claims that she doesn’t have a favorite child except for Sarah
14. She is the one who taught me the most about politics
15. Linda Maag is her maiden name if you didn’t know and that is the name that I use when I am describing sassy or slightly angry Linda
16. She is a fanatic Royals fan
17. She is a true believer in the jinx
18. She cannot eat yogurt in the morning
19. She has a library problem and I mean that she puts too many books on hold at once
20. Somehow she trusts that I will work out all my relationship issues on my own
21. She will always say that she does not want a new electronic device, but Dad will always get her the new electronic device
22. Kill them with kindness is her best advice that she has ever given me
23. I can count the number on one hand the amount of times she has read a book on an electronic device
24. She refuses to be hooked up to machines aka the Apple Watch
25. She has the best Christmas lights in the world (it is spectacular)
26. She is a supporter of KPERS because both of her parents are public employees
27. Kenny Chesney, is in fact, her boyfriend
28. She is going to rule the world one day
29. She insists that Christmas does not start until after her birthday, but for the past two years has put up the Christmas Spectacular during Thanksgiving break
30. The only two drinks that I have ever even seen her seem to enjoy are a mimosa (90-10 orange juice to champagne) and a margarita
31. She cannot drink milk in the morning
32. There is nothing better to her (and me) then an 8am coke and a donut
33. She has three Christmas trees because she owns that many ornaments
34. If you cannot find her in the morning she is downstairs on the couch with two dogs on top of her blocking her from doing anything
35. She will single-handedly keep the library open with her small donation of 35 cents (?) a day (she swears by it)
36. She reads the newspaper everyday and refuses to do it on the Internet
37. I am going to come home one day to find that our entire yard was converted into gardens
38. If it was up to her she would still be using her blackberry but she is married to Mr. Technology
39. She is the type of mom that does not butt in my life but will fight my battles when I am too weak to
40. She will set up Christmas lights in the middle of summer if it means she gets to be on the great Christmas light fight on HGTV
41. She is a tiger mom when it comes to music
42. Her favorite kind of ice cream is chocolate chip ice cream
43. She does not like the pulp in orange juice
44. She does not read fiction anymore because she overdosed in middle school
45. She once didn’t get full homework credit in a math class because she was too shy to do more than her required one problem on the board.
46. She once rode a century in a day on the trails because she felt like it
47. She has two degrees from K-State and she uses that to tell us what kind of music sucks
48. She is by the far the best mother I could ever have and no one can convince me otherwise because this is a list of facts

I love you mom. Happy birthday! You are by far the strongest woman I know. If I end up being ¼ as strong as you one day, I know I will be fine.

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Emily’s High School Graduation

So, Emily graduated from high school last week. In fact, we’ve been spending the last few weeks trying to get ready for the big day. I was able to post everything on Facebook and twitter, but somehow totally forgot about creating a blog post about graduation.

The day started out with a special recognition for students with academic honors at the Senior Recognition Ceremony.

All of Linda’s family arrived, but mine were unable to come due to my mother’s health.  The weather in the evening was gorgeous and much more pleasant than the cool weather that occur during Anna’s graduation last year. We gathered for pictures in the backyard.

SONY DSCAfter the graduation, many of the graduates attended and after– graduation party at PowerPlay (a grownup Chucky Cheese). Linda was one of the parents that helped organize this after party and we worked a shift until 3 AM. In fact, I even ran the bumper cars for a while. It was a long evening, but totally worth it.

Finally, this was us as we got home at about 4:00am.

A party was held just 3 days later – with a large number of people stopping by to congratulate Emily on her accomplishment. Unfortunately, it was raining and we were unable to enjoy the backyard and all of the work that Linda has done over the past 6 weeks (and more). However, we were able to keep everyone indoors without any horrible overcrowding . Food was plentiful and drinks flowed.

Here is the video that was on a continuous loop in the living room – a lifetime of Emily (created by Linda).

Emily’s Senior Pacesetters Banquet & Speech

Emily enjoyed her last evening as a member of Pacesetters the other night. The annual end-of-year banquet was held and honored all of the team members, but especially the seniors. Each senior gave a small speech – some of them actually completing the task without crying.

It was good to be there to help acknowledge her great accomplishment of being on the dance team for all four years of high school (JV as a freshman and then varsity the other 3 years).

Congratulations, Emily.

Here’s Emily’s short speech; we were sitting directly under a loud air conditioner vent in the lobby outside the gym. The audio has been cleaned up as much as possible.

Finally, here are some fantastic pictures of the Pacesetters team:

Emily’s Last High School Band Concert

Emily had her last high school band concert the other night. It’s been amazing listening to her grow in her talent of playing flute over the past 8 years. She was among those few recognized as a State Band participant and also received several awards for her work that she does with the different bands.

Despite being a wonderfully talented flutist, she has been stuck playing in the Freshman Band through all 4 years of school. Her dance team, Pacesetters, is scheduled at the same time as the upper level Symphonic Band (in which she would’ve been placed). She made the decision 4 years ago that she’d rather play in the Freshman Band so that she could keep up with her love of dancing.

In the role of upperclassman in a younger band, she has often assisted with sectionals and playing tests. There are times, it seems, that she sometimes functioned as a student teacher, albeit unofficially. This past year, she also played in the Concert Band (the next level up) – being allowed to do so by just coming and sitting in and practically sight-reading. She’s quite a talented young gal.

Enjoy a short piece, played by the Concert Band – John Phillip Sousa’s “Semper Fidelis”. You’ll see Emily and her section stand up to play at about the 1:35 mark.

Finally, here are some pictures of Emily among the other award winners and also being presented a rose by fellow senior, Jonas. All of the senior women were acknowledged and presented a rose by one of the guys.

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Happy 18th Birthday, Emily

Emily turns 18!

Wow, the youngest child is now an adult. She’s been telling us regularly over the past month, “You only have ‘x’ days left that you’re legally responsible for taking care of me.” Frankly, I’m still quite happy to take care of her – but she is clearly not the little girl that she used to be.


Happy birthday, sweetheart. We love you.

Early 18th Birthday Celebration

Emily is about to turn 18 years old. Anna came home from college to celebrate. Linda surprised Emily with a small gathering of her friends at a local restaurant for some decadent desserts. 

Emily was truly surprised and it was fun just sitting around and talking. 

Emily plays KMEA All-State Band

Emily was selected to play for the KMEA All-State 5A and 6A Band. What an honor and a testament to the hard work she has done with the flute. The whole family was there to listen – Linda was there for professional purposes already, Anna drove down from Manhattan, and I drove down from Kansas City. Additionally, Linda’s parents drove down from Topeka. It was great having the whole family there to listen to Emily and the rest of the All-State Band.

Unfortunately, we were unable to record any of the concert, but I have a nice picture that was taken during the final bow.

Emily chooses K-State

After a year of going back and forth about where she was wanting to go to college, Emily announced to me and Linda last night that she has chosen to go to K-State. This makes us so very happy, not only as K-State alumni, but because she’ll be going to school where her older sister is currently going. Having that support will mean so much. Also, she’s going to be around when we head to Manhattan for games.

She started looking at schools 2 years ago and was convinced she was going to go Boston University or Providence University. After visiting Boston, she ruled it out, but loved Providence. So, it was Providence for quite a while (assuming there would be lots of scholarship to help make it affordable).  Then she visited Truman State in Missouri and fell in love. However, it was such a small place and she’s a city gal.

Iowa State came on the radar and she was full tilt for moving to Ames. A visit to the school helped solidify her resolve to go there. However, we explained to her that she really needed to give K-State a real chance to show her what they had to offer. She’s known K-State and Manhattan her whole life, but she needed to really know what she could get from it.

Linda and Emily visited K-State a couple days ago and she fell in love. She got all of the information she needed to about K-State and the programs in which she’s interested.

#EMAW