Congrats on your graduation, Tom

Tom, Beckie and niece Maizie at his party

We built our new patio this weekend!

Patio, originally uploaded by onebigswede.

Starting on Friday we built a new patio on the back of our house. Three days later we are very sore and in pain, but we now have a patio! We can't wait to have you all out and share it with you all!

Maizie in May (Mai?)

I think I've added most dates correctly, except for Mark & Nancy's and John and Lynda's anniversaries (for which I only remember the month).

Joel, Liv, and I babysat Maizie last night while Matt and Janelle went out for their 5th anniversary. She was a lot of fun.

New Google Calendar

You'll notice that something has changed on the old anderson blog! I have posted a new google calendar app to the right so that we can all keep track of upcoming family events, birthdays, etc. I have given everyone with an account for this blog permissions to post to this calendar as well using the same email address as you use for the blog.

I have entered a few birthdays and events into the calendar, but if you could all fill in all of your own birthdays (as well as any upcoming events) I would appreciate it.

Hopefully you'll all find this useful.

May 20

Happy 86th birthday Mom!

Today May 20th marks the 86th anniversary of Mae Christine Anderson's(our mom or grandmother or mother in law, etc.) birth. Her sacrificial love for her family was such an important part of our growing up years and influenced who we are today. I wish she would have had a chance to know and enjoy four daughters in law and the grandchildren. Peace to her very special memory.

Double Celebration - May 18

A Very Happy Thirtieth Birthday to

Incredible Ingrid & Marvelous Mae.

I hope you had a wonderful day with double fun.

Nancy

End Of The Year

Hello Family-Pants! How are you? I am doing well. I have one final left (today at 5:05) and it's Russian, so I'm sure I'll do fine (but that's because they're nice graders, not because I'm some sort of super genius).
In even more awesome news (I know---how could there be more awesome news?!) I am probably a certified yoga/pilates (aka Powerflow as we say at the UW) instructor. I took my exam yesterday. The written part was medium hard, but I think I rocked it, and I know I rocked the practical exam because no one showed up to take my class (the two other people who were scheduled for my test exam spot). But I'm so awesome that I didn't even need people to take my class and taught an invisible classroom. I think I impressed the teacher as she said that I "definitely passed" that part and that pretty much provided I didn't fail the written part (which I don't think I did) I have a job in the fall as a yoga/powerflow instructor (hopefully more powerflow because that's more hardcore/awesome).
Well, that's my news. I'm coming home on Monday for a bit.
Good bye!
ps That picture my most recently finished cross stitch project. Not counting a bib for Maizie.

Peter's 31st Birthday Bash

Hi Everyone,
I just wanted to let you all know that we have sent each of you and evite to your email accounts for Peter's birthday party on Saturday, May 12th. Please make sure to view the invite and RSVP by this Thursday, May 10th. When you RSVP, please select an item to bring in the drop down box and type it in the comment box as well. There are only 7 items listed in the drop down box, so if there aren't any items left when you RSVP, please just type what you will be bringing in the comment box.

Thanks and we look forward to seeing you there!

Someone stole the attention from the birthday girls...

Up, up, and away!

What could be better than a fine spring day to fly a kite?

R2D2!

As you may or may not know, the Post Office is celebrating 30 years of Star Wars with some interesting promotions.

One of them is the special R2D2 mailboxes - and there is one near my work, so here are a few pictures I took of the little droid today:

Happy Easter!

The many moods of Maizie

R.I.P, Lillian Colton

The grande dame of Minnesota crop artists is dead at 95. To see a selection of her art, go to: www.cropart.com/lilliancolton/index.htm

Happy Birthday Nancy and Maria!

Easy Rider

I've been checking in on John's bike trip across the southern U. S. via the group's blog. This picture was titled "John Anderson - our "Easy Rider."" I think the picture was taken in Florida. It looks cold. Here is a link to the blog.

Maizie laughs!

What up, family?

So, I thought I'd fill you in on some of my Mad-town goings on, not that there's anything too exciting to report...
About a month ago, I went to a shooting range with a friend from Olaf who was home in WI for break. Here are some fun pics:

















(The fellow in the background is a cop practicing, not my friend)
Besides that, nothing much interesting has been happening. I've been getting up early to go do yoga, which is fun. I hope my family is doing well!

Happy 59th Birthday, Dad

Happy 59th Birthday, Dad! Dad is doing a three week bike-ride down South after he comes to see me in Bloomington to watch some basketball next week--way to celebrate! See you soon! (Here he is on an earlier bike-riding adventure)

Speaking of Amazing Maizie...

She can smile! (picture by her babysitter)

Yay, I'm right next to Maizie in the header! I haven't gotten to meet her yet, so--hi Maizie! I hope to get up to Minnesota soon, see you all then.

header replaced

ok, i replaced the header above.. let me know if i'm missing anyone - it is easy to lose track.

I noticed...

The banner picture is missing a few people...

Maizie's Baptism

Maizie's baptism was a wonderful experience. We are so happy we could share it with you!
- Matt, Janelle & Maizie

Farmers FIGHT!

Hello dear family!
I just returned from Texas visiting a friend from my summer language program (she studied Chinese). Here is a picture of me with all three of Texas A&M's (where she attends) "yell leaders" (*male cheerleaders, like W was).

Maizie's Baptism

Hello everyone,
We hope those of you Andersons who can make it will come to Maizie's baptism on Sunday, January 14th at 10:30 am. The baptism will take place at Fairmount Avenue United Methodist Church, 1523 Fairmount Ave., Saint Paul, Minnesota. We will have some food at our house afterwards.

so for christmas and kwanzaa my mom and dad and I all went down to the farm in illinois. we had a very fun time there just chillin with family and eating good food and playing fun games. one night the sun was nearly setting and the light was really soft and golden. I thought it looked very nice so I went out walking and decided to take a picture of some stuff and this is what it looked like.








then a little while later, the sun was setting and there were some nice clouds that were glowing with pink and orange and peachish colors. it was really beautiful so I climbed into a tree to get a better view and took a picture of that too.






we had a very pleasant time

Milwaukee

Joel, Liv, and I just returned from a quick trip to Milwaukee. We most enjoyed Captain Pabst's beautiful home decorated for the holidays. Here we are at the fantastic addition to the art museum.

Celebrating Christmas in St. Paul!

Food,
family,
music and...

of course - Maizie!!!

Christmas!

Here we are over at Mom and Dad's house showing off our gifts during our immediate family's Christmas get together - as well as for Dad's Birthday. Everyone had a great time, even if we all look a little goofy in the pictures. Merry Christmas All!

Mom and Dad came over to our house tonight and we all made gingerbread houses. It started out pretty rough with sagging roofs, cave-ins and running out of frosting (I admit, i ate a lot of it), but all in all we had a fun time. We can feel the Christmas season coming on!

I may not be as cute as Maizie, but I sleep through the night

Baby pictures

Click here if you want to see some cute baby pictures!

SNOW!!!

HAPPY WINTER EVERYONE!

Maizers Might Have Stolen My Present Opening Position, But I Still Get A Present!

Family,
When are we getting names for present exchange?

Making the Thanksgiving scene at Buford.

Thanks to everyone who came to celebrate Thanksgiving! It was great to see you all!

Introducing Maizie Tangonan Anderson

Congratulations!

Congratulations Matt and Janelle! And welcome to the world little Maizie!

When Maria heard that it was a little girl - i think she just about did a flip for joy!

Congratulations!

Congratulations Matt and Janelle and little Maizie! We can't wait to see her!

Tom and Beckie

US News knows about Klingons!

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/biztech/articles/061112/20share.htm

...But in the past few years, behind-the-scenes upgrades have made it easier for ordinary people to take control of the Web, to broadcast their perspectives, whether that happens in a video clip of a guy demonstrating the "Evolution of Dance" or a downloadable recording of weekly Bible verses in Klingon. And all that expression is fast becoming more of a conversation. ...

[In case anyone doesn't know, that refers to my "A Klingon Word from the Word" podcast, found at http://KlingonWord.org]

I went to CHicago last weekend with my friends JOhn, Eamonn and Micah. Unfortunately I didnt take out the camera until after micah had already left for home, so I dont have any pictures of all four of us. we really did have a lot of fun, even though we may not look like it in this picture. before I snapped this photo, john said "let's take a serious one." so of course eamonn and I are looking really tough while john has a goofy grin on his face. we spent most of our time at depaul visiting friends from high school, but we did visit north park too. I can definitely say that while I do miss living in the grand city of chicago, I am happier at the univerity of minnesota than I was, or would be at north park.

Housewarming - Thanks to all!

Kitchen - View 1, originally uploaded by onebigswede.

Just a quick post to say thanks to everyone who came to our housewarming party a week or so ago. We had a wonderful time, and we hope to have you all over many times in the coming years.

For those who weren't able to make it, or who didn't get the full tour, here are the final photos that we took of our house after all the painting, and other house work was finally done - as well as a video showing our house being built. Thanks again!

House warming Party Photos

Happy Halloween!

You'd think we still had kids at home or something...

MR NOISY

As I told several of you at Pete and Maria's lovely open house, I was given a citation for "noisy assembly" on friday night. while most of the people at the party also received tickets for underage consumption of alcohol, I passed all three of my breathalizer tests with .000's. my friend micah who was also sober and also ticketed for being a part of a noisy assembly emailed Darcy Pohland from WCCO about the incident since she had recently done a story about the U of M party patrol. Micah called me up today to say that Darcy was coming over to his house to interview him and wondered if I wanted to come too. So I was on the six oclock news today. here is a link to the story on the WCCO website.

http://wcco.com/topstories/local_story_296203431.html

Love,
stevie

Three weeks and counting...

The expectant couple at Janelle's shower Sunday night.

Coming attractions!

Hope to see you all there! click here for directions.

First again!

As the oldest member of the Anderson boys I have celebrated many firsts: first one to go to kindergarten, graduate from H.S. and college, get married, start a family , turn 20,30,40,50 and soon 60, etc
Tomorrow due to elevated PSA tests last summer and a couple of weeks ago I will, as far as I know ,be the first Anderson to experience a biopsy of my prostate gland. I have experienced no pain or symptoms. The PSA scores do not indicate a definite problem but determine the need to have the biopsy to remove the question mark and decide what needs to be done if anything. I will get the results on friday. I appreciate your thoughts and prayers.

Fall retreat

Joel and I just returned from three days on the North Shore. The weather was beautiful and we did a lot of hiking. Here's Joel on top of Sweetheart's Bluff, looking down over Grand Marais.

Happy Birthday, Paul!

Congratulations on reaching the milestone of 55 (with apologies to Gustaf Tenngren)

Happy Birthday Lynda!!!

Four cousins and a wedding

My "little" cousin David (age 37) got married Sunday night on the shores of Lake Minnetonka. It was a bit chilly, especially for the bride in her strapless dress, but a great ceremony and party. The first picture is of my cousin Tom (left) and newly-discovered cousin Ron (facing), the second is of my cousin Ann with my parents, and the third is of Dave and Kelly.

Thanks!

Janelle :)

                                         ____.......__ 
               |\      .'           _.--""''``             ``''--._ 
               | \   .'/      ..--'`                             .-'` 
        .._    |  \.' /  ..-''                                .-' 
         '.`'"-:  '  .-'`                                  .-' 
           '.             __...----""""""""""--..           \ 
           -         ..-''                       ``""-._     \ 
         .'  _.      \                                  `"-   \ 
        _.-'` |  /-.  \                                    `-. \ 
              | /   `. \                                      `.\ 
 ______  __  |/      `-\                                       `.
 ___  / / /_____ _____________________  __ 
  __  /_/ /_  __ `/__  __ \__  __ \_  / / / 
  _  __  / / /_/ /__  /_/ /_  /_/ /  /_/ / 
  /_/ /_/  \__,_/ _  .___/_  .___/_\__, / 
                  /_/     /_/     /____/ 
       ______ _____       ___________ _________ 
        ___  /____(_)________  /___  /_______  /_____ _____  __ 
        __  __ \_  /__  ___/  __/_  __ \  __  /_  __ `/_  / / / 
        _  /_/ /  / _  /   / /_ _  / / / /_/ / / /_/ /_  /_/ / 
        /_.___//_/  /_/    \__/ /_/ /_/\__,_/  \__,_/ _\__, / 
                                                      /____/ 
               _________                  ___________    ______ 
                ______  /_____ _______________  /__  /_______  / 
                ___ _  /_  __ `/_  __ \  _ \_  /__  /_  _ \_  / 
                / /_/ / / /_/ /_  / / /  __/  / _  / /  __//_/ 
                \____/  \__,_/ /_/ /_/\___//_/  /_/  \___/(_) 

Happy Birthday, Janelle!

Happy Birthday, Janelle, have a great day!

Big Ten Again

Just to tie in the University of Michigan for John and Lynda's sake, here is a picture of the Little Brown Jug. Because it is so rare for it to be in the Gophers' possession, it is on display at the State Fair this year. It's pretty cool because you can see scores dating back to 1903!

So I was all like "Stevie's switching schools? Crap, I better too!" So I switched too. Yep. I'm going to Madison. Basically it boils down to a) bigger b) Russian c) more options d) Russian. So yeah, that's my story. Go Badgers!

News

Welcome to the Big Ten, Stevie! Liv has some news too, which I will let her disclose. I noticed that the State Fair posts dozens of photos each day, and Day 1 featured this photo of Liv looking bored in her root beer barrel.

I am living at home and attending the U of M this fall. I dont know if everyone, or anyone knows about that yet. I have had a good summer teaching and playing tennis, riding my bike around and swimming, and doing heaven knows what else. I wish it didnt have to end, but I think that most of my classes will be pretty sweet

State Fair

Joel is volunteering for the State Fair Foundation in the new Miracle of Birth building. I took this picture of a three-hour-old lamb there today.