November 7

Garage yet again: 3:00, November 1

At least Koko has a snow fence!

Garage again: 9:00 am, November 1

Soon to be the Taj Mahal

After discovering rotten studs in our 79-year-old garage, we decided to take the plunge and have a new one built. It will be a treat to have a floor that doesn't resemble the surface of the moon and a garage door that doesn't have to be opened with brute force. We had to clean out everything that couldn't pass as "building materials" and it looked pretty sad, as you can see. It was supposed to be torn down today but no one showed up--perhaps they thought it would blow down in the strong wind without any assistance. We'll keep you posted!

all hallow's eve

Madison's wins. Although the man completely coopted Halloween this year. Not only did the police charge admission for access to State Street, it was officially called "Mountain Dew Presents Freakfest."
My friends and I had our event the day before "Mountain Dew Presents Freakfest," but it was still pretty crazy. I included the pretty adorable picture of my roommate and I as Lucy & Ethel.
Last night (the official MDPF) I babysat on Madtown's East side and coming home was like going through a war zone. Pretty crazy stuff...
-liv

Mum's the word

What's the wilder Halloween celebration--UW-Madison's or our next-door-neighbor's? Here we are before setting out to Barb's party. Liv had a lot of leftover gauze from her surgery this summer!

obamarama

Hey family! I know that we try to keep politics off the ol' family blog. But how bout put this under the "celebrity meetings" category rather than politics.
Today I went to an Obama rally and it was pretty awesome and I shook his hand! For photos check out my political/craftacular/hiphopsical blog.
That's all.
-liv

Fun with rockets....

I was inspired by the recent flights at PlasterBlaster of an X-Wing and Y-Wing. (click here to see) So here's my attempt to create a flying X-Wing out of paper:




(I'll confess - the real X-Wing did not fly very well. The stunt doubles for the main flights are conventional three-finned rockets.)

Apple Festival in Bayfield Wisconsin

Bayfield, Wisconsin, originally uploaded by onebigswede.

Maria and I went to the Bayfield Apple Festival on the southern shore of Lake superior this past weekend for a little fun and relaxation, and possibly to see some beautiful fall colors as well.

The entire weekend was a bit chilly, and it was extremely foggy the entire time as well. We still managed to have a great time, eat lots of delicious food, and to even catch a peek of some pretty leaves.

When we left Bayfield it was about 50 degrees and windy. By the time we got home the temperature had risen to 80 degrees. Go figure. Oh well, we still had a good time!

North Shore

Joel and I just returned from three days near Grand Marais. We had a good time (as usual) although the weather was not ideal. We spent a lot of time playing Trivial Pursuit on Tuesday as it poured from about 1:00 on. This picture was taken from the top of Mount Rose overlooking the fort at Grand Portage, shortly before the storm began.

Happy Happy Birthday Birthday

Happy birthday, Lynda & Tom - I hope you each have a wonderful day on this 24th day of September. And Janelle, I hope your birthday was a very happy day as well. The Anderson family's last post was the day before your birthday, so I guess I'm the first to say it via the blog. And on the 27th - Paul, have a great birthday. I'm going by train to Illinois on Wednesday. I hope to see you all in October.

blog

Hey family! I just thought I'd let you all know that I have a new blog (still at www.livvii.com). It's about crafts and cooking and stuff.
Yep. That's all. Oh, and I have a store, too.
Bye fam-fam!

9/11 A day for remembrance.

Our day at the fair

We had a great time at the fair today, eating all sorts of assorted foods - anything from deep fried and breaded spam curds, to a huge basket of french fries. Of course, i also got an overflowing cone full of sweet martha's cookies as well. We're both feeling the pain now - we ate way too much. But hey, it only comes once a year - right?.

 

What I did on my summer vacation

* Take care of Maizie
* Watch Maizie grow. She's 9 months old now!
* Watch her learn to creep, sit, pull up, say "da da", eat simple solids
* Nurse. And more nursing.
* Cook dinner. Feed Maizie.
* Play with Maizie.
* Try to sleep.

Janelle :)

Pete and Maria - 6 Years Later

Pete and Maria - 6 Years Later, originally uploaded by onebigswede.

You're right Teresa, we haven't been putting much on the blog lately. Sooooo.......here we are at the spot where I asked Maria to marry me, but 6 Years later - 8/11/07. We got engaged on - 8/11/01. We always find it easy to remember the day we got engaged because it was exactly one month before 9/11.

Doesn't anyone else have anything to contribute to this blog?

Saving money, but not time...

One day Liv and I were walking through Rosedale and saw some beautiful embroidered clothes in the Baby Gap window. Unfortunately, they were not only expensive, they were a little small for us. So Liv took a couple pictures with her cell phone, we bought two jean jackets at Goodwill, and set out to create our own masterpieces. Here are the results.

Swedes into Space!

Last week I was asked to show rocket launching to some neighborhood kids for their Science Club activity. One of the things I used was "Air Rockets" (click here for details). Here's a gathering of some Andersons trying out the rockets near Matt and Janelle's house.



Click here to see the video
or the full version here.

Shall we dance?

Insulted on our anniversary

Joel and I went to see the latest Harry Potter movie last night to celebrate our 32nd anniversary. We were entering the theater behind a 20-something couple when the guy kiddingly slapped his girlfriend on her rear. They turned around somewhat embarrassed and the young woman said, "It's okay. They probably were feisty back in the day too."

Joel kept saying "By cracky!" in a quavery voice the rest of the night.

The Cousins

The Cousins, originally uploaded by onebigswede.

We attended the wedding of our cousin Jennifer Holmes this weekend to her new husband, Joel Johnson. We all had a good time, the food was great, the music was stupendous (thanks to the anderson fiddlers). Here's a picture of all the Anderson/Holmes Cousins.

Back Home

Hey family! I'm back home after a month in Boston and a little under a week in DC. I had a awesome 4th in the capital. Here is a picture of me with my favoritest person:

I saw the parade and fireworks and lots of museums. I stayed at a hostel and met some fun people from around the world, including a French-Canadian who is making his way across the US and Canada all summer, planning on covering 14,000 km of this continent---including coming through Minneapolis later this summer.
Well, that's all. Love you!

Pool Party

We had a great time over at Maria's parents house on Saturday for a little pool party. They were gracious hosts, had tons of great food, and the afternoon was sunny and warm - perfect for an afternoon in the pool. Here we are playing volleyball in the shallow end.

 

Take Me Out to the Ball Game!

At tonight's Twins vs. Blue Jays game, "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" was lead by the 'Washington Senators' from the Damn Yankees production Norris is in this summer. (If you click on this picture of the Jumbotron, you can see Norris in the upper left)

Pete & Maria - 5th Anniversary

Pete & Maria - Riviera Docks, originally uploaded by onebigswede.

Maria and I just got back from a short vacation in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin for our 5th anniversary. We had a great time eating out, going for a boat tour, and seeing the Yerkes Observatory on Lake Geneva. You can view our pictures here..

Saturday morning jaunt

After reading about the Mill City farmer's market in the paper this week, Joel and I decided to check it out. I was especially interested in the homemade mini doughnuts. We took the bus to the Metrodome stop and walked to the market. Unfortunately, it was extremely busy (guess other people read the newspaper) and many food vendors were either sold out or had very long lines, including the mini doughnut stand. Joel toured the Guthrie and its 'endless bridge' which he had not seen before. We then walked across the Stone Arch Bridge and found our way to the newly opened Water Power Park (accompanying picture is taken from there). Deciding it didn't make sense to backtrack to the Metrodome stop, we ended up walking all the way from St. Anthony Main to the University of Minnesota to catch a Como Avenue bus back home (we could have caught a connecting bus on University Avenue if Joel hadn't been in a Dunn Brothers buying iced coffee when it went by). But Joel did want to bike in the first place, so he gets credit for that.

Patio nears completion

On friday we had carpenter come out and build a set of stairs down from our sliding patio door. We now have a beautiful set of cedar stairs, a fire pit and a new patio set which makes the new patio almost complete. Only a couple of finishing touches (staining the stairs) and we'll be done!

 

Bahhston.

Hey Fam. I'm chillin' in Boston taking two international public health classes at Boston University. It's pretty sweet. This week we went on two field trips for one of my classes and we saw a lot of cool community based health initiatives. Plus the one we went to today has a tight charter school that they run that is just amazing. And the school invited us to attend their hip-hop opera that they are performing on Sunday, so a bunch of us are going to go. It's called "In Chains, We Lay This Rose" and it's "a hip hop chronicle of race, class, and prisons in the American Labor Movement." How cool is that?!? Plus we watched a cool documentary that Harvard made about this school. Oh, and the Irish Minister of Education has called it the best school in the nation and possibly the world. How cool!

Oh, and Maizie, I met two babies about your age today. They were twins and being brought in by their dad to the health clinic for their 6 month checkup today. They were adorable and stopped our tour for about 5 minutes while all the people oohed and ahhed. The dad seemed unsure of what to do with all the attention from us and all the nurses. Just thought you'd like to know, Maizie.
Here is my school:
Although I am not cool enough to be in that building (the School of Public Health) since that is only for the administration and what not.






Here is where I spend my time:


(The Medical Instruction Building)






Well, that's all for now. I'll tell you more about all my pinko commie adventures in public health. Just kidding. It's totally capitalist. In fact, for my less liberal family members you'll be glad to know, we worked on a model in class of how to promote market capitalist and career training into refugee camps. Yay!

Shakopee Sunset

We had a beautiful sunset last night down here in Shakopee - thought i'd share it with you.

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...