Maliks, Schenks & Roes 2023
Roes
Merry Christmas, everyone! 2023 has brought us two middle school boys! Cole started 6th grade and spends most of his waking time playing soccer or games with his friends. He can’t have enough double bubble and still hangs out with us…he’s 12 and that may all change next year! Dylan is 14 and is fully a teenage boy – talking on the phone or wandering about our neighborhood with his friends. Andrea remains busy at work and continues to play tennis when able. Steve has been consulting with marketing services firms and tinkers around our continuing house project. We’ve had a few low points with a ruptured appendix and some bouts of COVID and flu. We’re excited to get into 2024 with family weddings and bright spots ahead of us. We hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season and fantastic 2024!
Andrea, Steve, Dylan and Cole Roe
Malik-Schenk
Tania Malik, Jeff, Kristi, Connor and Marlowe Schenk
Maliks
The Malik Family Update:
This year we learned that Life in Plastic is NOT Fantastic. Here’s all of us with our fabulous pink house and pink sports car when we thought everything was awesome:
Note the confused look on our dog Coby’s face. He’s enlightened and knows that the Real World, despite its flaws and struggles and pain, is the only place to develop our authentic selves and our best selves. The paradox is that the true path towards happiness involves experiencing life’s valleys — and figuring out how to travel from peak to peak through those valleys. When the Barbies and Kens start seeing their plastic pink world for what it is, they decide to Journey to the Real World. Here are Jordan, Bethany, Macey, & Sammey flying in our pink spacemobile:
When the Maliks get to the Real World, Ken is immediately drawn to the benefits of belonging to the Patriarchy, as seen in this pic in his Mojo Dojo Casa House:
The Barbies and Kens decide to join forces to create a better Real World where everyone is treated equally and everyone is viewed as beautiful BECAUSE of their unique differences. Mattel’s CEO (Steve) realizes that if the Barbies and Kens take over the world, his empire will be destroyed. He chases the Barbies and Kens, trying to put them in The Box. Fortunately, Steve was the one who ended up in The Box:
They’ve all now adjusted to Life in the Real World. Mattel’s CEO is basking in the glory of his NCFC men’s team winning the USL National Championship on Nov 5th:
“ADHD Barbie” (Skylar) is enjoying her Sophomore year as a Communications Design major at Pratt in Brooklyn. She loves being a New York Barbie. “Pumping Iron Ken” is successfully climbing the corporate ladder as an auditor at PwC in Raleigh. He and Bethany have some other news that we will let them share. Our 15-yr-old Barbie Twins are involved in varsity track in the winter & spring, and they both do club volleyball which involves extensive travel. Macey had the lead in the high school play this Fall, and Sammey’s varsity volleyball team won the conference championship. “Weird Barbie” (Kat) is looking forward to not having to drive the twins to all of their activities when they get their licenses in less than 2 months. She’s hoping to start or deepen lots of endeavors with that extra free time from not chauffeuring the twins, but most likely she’ll soon become overextended as usual. If you want to see the Barbies and Kens in action, watch The 2023 Barbie Malik Halloween Movie, which did not make it to your local theater but it makes for a great 3 1/2 minutes during your time in the bathroom.
Kathleen (Kat), Steve, Jordan, Skylar, Sammy, & Macey Malik