chocolate milk and cheez-its

Ben and I have been very busy lately and our nutritional standards have been compromised. here is is the evidence.

Telia and the cake

MMMM. CAKE!!!!!! Telia made this scrum-diddly-umptious Devil's Food cake for halloween. Very, very chocolatey. We tried to resist it, but after a while just sort of lost our minds...

Wreaths!!

Just wanted to show off a wreath Ben made. We snuck into the Arboretum, clipped some branches and stole off into the night like squirrels with our contraband. Here are a couple of incriminating photos.

Game Day

Mike and Kate.

Today's cold, losing battle between UM and the OSU Buckeyes served to deepen the rivalry. But game day isn't just about what happens on the field, it's about what happens with friends before and after the game. Our house was the hot place to be this morning as breakfast burritos and cinnamon rolls met their happy gastric demise. Thanks to all of you who came and we hope to see everyone else next time.


James and Bill, his father in law chowing down on some tasty breakfast burritos.


Andrea and her mom


Daws and some White kids


Telia making cinnamon rolls for an army.



Mike White saving my bacon.


Logan and Brett being crazy Michigan fans...because they ARE crazy Michigan fans.

So, I was talking to my brother Daniel tonight. After reading our recreation log, ie. our blog, he was mistakenly led to believe that I have this semester off. For the record, this blog represents exactly 2.25 % of my time (time spent having fun + vacations - see figure 1). In fact, last night I logged precisely 2.5 hours of sleep in preparation for a practical exam today. My question is, what happens when a candle burning at both ends, meets in the middle?

Here's a pumpkin over our little pumpkin.

fertile snowflakes

Here is a little paper snowflake shout out to all of our pregnant friends.

Kickin' it...colonial style!

We recently had a chance to visit colonial Virginia during Ben's Fall break. Our adventures included Jamestown, Williamsburg, Virgina Beach, The College of William & Mary, as well as Thomas Jefferson's "architechtural autobiography," Monticello.

It was fun to discover the origins of our nation as well as explore the mid-atlantic states a little bit.

Jamestown: We saw three real wooden ships with their crews preparing for another voyage, a woman making a burn-out canoe from a log, a fortress, glass blowing and blackpowder musket shooting.

Williamsburg: We spent two days walking through Williamsburg trying to soak it all in. Between the re-enactments, the architecture and the tours we were able to gain a sense of what it might have been like to live over 200 years ago.

Monticello: We found some inspiration for our future home. Thomas Jefferson integrated neo-classical architecture with some contemporary French ideas. His entry way was meant to impress and educate, if not altogether intimidate his house guests. His parlor was large by even today's standards with high ceilings. Also, impressive was his collection of portraits of persons he found inspirational. Mostly philosophers like Locke and Bacon. The predominately open floor plan connected his room to his study to his famous library to his contiguous greenhouse. All very cool. Maybe we could just buy it from the state of Virinia, but where's the fun in that?

After we came back, we found a small apple orchard, similar, but not as cool as Apple Hill, where we went pumpkin hunting after we threw back a few doughnuts with cider. Being a fun, farmy little place meant for young families, they had these silly painted plywood photo ops. We couldn't resist. Especially in light of Telia's pregnancy, thinking that someday we might explain the birds and the bees to our children using this picture.

IT'S A BOY!!!

Say hello to baby-man anderson! We are beside ourselves to have a visual image of our child, even if it is only a sonic reflection. So, for all those of you holding your breath as you wait to discover the gender of our baby, please breathe. It is a boy. I guess that means I don't have to buy a shot-gun just yet. If you'd like verify the sex of the baby for yourself, you can reference the bottom-left ultrasound image that we have posted...No questions remain in our minds that he is a man-child. So, if you're looking for a reason to celebrate something tonight or for the upcoming week, or month...you can party with us.

What a weekend! Erik (Ben's youngest brother) received his mission call to Yekaterinburg, Russia, UM pulled off another win against Illinois, we found two perfect pumpkins, and had some Indian food with our friends Kyle and Amber Walkington. We also had some cider and donuts at an apple orchard to celebrate Autumn.

It's funny Erik should get his call to Russia, because I think there is a movie with him in Russia on a mission...Here is the poster. We found it on the internet. We thought it was quite a coincidence!

Baby Anderson

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Baby Anderson and heartbeat

U of M vs. Notre Dame

Saturday was an amazing day of football. University of Michigan played Notre Dame. And we destroyed them (sorry Zach). I do have love towards ND (my brother went there) and would normally cheer for them if they were playing any other team besides Uof M. But, It was so nice to see Michigan win. I think that it was good for the team, the die-hard fans, and just the city. Football is like a Saturday religion. If things aren’t going the way they should be, people loose faith, they doubt and become unsure of who they are. I think these feelings are temporary because people will still know that they “Bleed Blue.” It was an exciting day and I felt grateful we could share it with my parent. Good luck U of M.

The Heartbeat

One of my favorite sounds now in the whole entire world is the sound of our little baby’s heartbeat. Yes, we are pregnant!!!!!!! It was hard to believe in the beginning, especially since you cant really feel the baby, although you begin to have all of the symptoms of being pregnant. Tiered, hungry and of course emotional, these are all great things to have. I have been reading every book they have on pregnancy and have come to this conclusion. Whatever happens, bring it on and I am grateful. You only are pregnant for 9 months (per child), and how I want to enjoy every minute. It is a surreal experience knowing that you have a little spirit from god that is sharing your body. And the motherly instinct comes to protect and do anything for that baby.
So I wanted to share that I love being pregnant and am grateful for this opportunity to bring a little spirit into this world. The doctor said that everything looked great. We are healthy and happy. Hopefully next time we cant record the heartbeat and let you all hear. We love you all.

Waxing Teeth

This week has been fun and exciting. Telia is still working lots and lots while Ben is in school 24-7. He started about 4 weeks ago and has been in full throttle ever since. He took his first huge test last week and scored a 93%!! Amazing!! He is continuing to wax different teeth, which consists of making an exact replica of a tooth using only wax. I have tried this and it’s a lot of fun but takes talent learning to use the different temperatures to properly manage the wax. He is also continuing to lead and manage SPDL (Scholars Program in Dental Leadership). He thrives on using his creative mind and thinking up different ideas about how to make this program successful and enjoyable for his fellow classmates.

My parents are coming into town this week and we are thrilled to have them here. If anyone wants to come visit, you are always welcome to stay at our home.

Eli Brown in Deep Thought

Unhappy Face by Baby Wes

Back to School

We have now been back in Ann Arbor for a couple of weeks and are just now starting to settle down. I have been working lots and lots. I am enjoying the work but miss the quality time that I was able to spend with Ben. It is great to see each other and feel fortunate to spend time together when we can (which is still lots). However, Ben starts his second year of Dental School tomorrow. It will be another busy semester, but as all things go, it to has an end so we are trying to be thankful for every opportunity that comes our way.

We love and enjoy Ann Arbor. We think that this is a perfect place for us at this time and are grateful for the wonderful friends and family in which we have been able to meet. We have met such great people at church, school, and work and feel fortunate to live here. If anyone needs a place to stay, just let us know and you are welcome here anytime.

Today has been an amazing day of rain. The grass is green and everything is so clean. We are so happy for the rain.

We love you all and hope to hear from each of you as your beautiful lives progress.

The Andersons

Telia

Sometime after midnight, the bedroom light still burns down. She fades by degrees, occasionally pausing to fold her body in a position more conducive to what we should both be doing. She's not quite there, and I know because she keeps flinging prolonged, sultry, eyes-mostly-closed looks as if to say, "You're missing the best thing here..."

I continue to crick my neck and flex my wrists and strain my eyes, bent over the pulsing life of our lap top. You can't force good art, right? But she's not alone. My vitality also wanes until I am a new moon. Not fresh, not full, but empty and dark. Not even new.

Incandescent orange filters the room in strange colors like an old photograph. Like I'm not me and she's not her. Like maybe we're people from a long time ago living in this room doing what we're doing. Steadily the rhythm of her body slows to long ins and outs casting a small circus of shadows in the bedsheets. And its crazy because I realize that in spite of her complete unconsciousness, she is still more alive than I am straining, awake and red eyed over this humming computer trying to eek out my last semblance of cohesive thought. It would be better to cast off the moorings of wake, drifting into dream where i can cast living shadows with my wife and renew.

The Garden where it all started

One of the exciting things we were able to do was take pictures of the garden that Ben and I build while we were dating. Ben says that that was one of the reasons he knew that I was a keeper. Good thing I helped build the fence and sported the tool belt!!

We had an excellent time on our trip to California.