life.

last saturday we made the familiar drive with my parents from boise to nyssa.

i hadn't been in years, and it was nice to have olive meet my grandma and grandpa frederiksen for the first time. we spent the afternoon talking around the kitchen table as i remember doing so many times as a child. i watched my grandma sleep, i admired the quilt that was stretched in the living room, i watched my dad feed his mother, i took a walk with olive in the field by the barn, i listened to grandpa play the piano. nothing unusual happened, but it was deeply memorable and reflective for me.

my grandma passed away last night.

she was 77 years old and she had been battling alzheimers for several years. alzheimers is a mean disease. she digressed in stages from forgetful to confused, to delightful, to combative, to sedative, to helpless. I wasn't around for a lot of the process, but I was able to see her on occasion and it was a difficult journey to witness, it took her from us long before last night.

she died peacefully on wednesday, february 24, 2010 surrounded by family, a reminder to me that the most important things in life are our relationships with others.

my grandma lived a simple life in terms defined by many, but she was a great example to me of creativity, determination, and service. she was the only one that called me andrea.

we will miss you grandma.

"a helmet for twins"

who knew one of these could be so much fun for my clever husband and darling daughter.

someone had a birthday!

happy 1st birthday baby girl!

we love you olive!

hurry spring.

this time of year i start wishing for warmer weather, and often give in to the temptation to splurge on fresh cut flowers.

hurry spring...i shouldn't have to pay for you.

ah what!

so, boise just opened a hobby lobby and my mom and i went to check it out. we had a few different stores in denver that i loved and frequented regularly, so it was exciting to welcome one here.

as we mosied around, i saw a whole aisle of hardware that i had never noticed them carrying in all of my hundreds of trips there over the years. and this was not just any hardware, the same hardware they carry at anthropologie at a fraction of the cost. is this new??? is the boise store just awesome??? $3.99, $5.99 vs. $12.99, $16.99, disclaimer: not to knock anthropologie, you know i love them, and their new spring line is killer.

and, if we know hobby lobby, we all know this stuff is destined to go 50% on a regular basis.

yeah! wahoo!...so excited!

if only i had more furniture to facelift...go alisa go.

yet another reason to love

jason mraz

a wild and wonderful christmas

dec 14

spencer's birthday, dinner and "princess and the frog" with olive.

dec 19

farewell tour of all our favorite colorado spots: boulder, salvaggios deli and university cycles, happy cakes, rei flagship, wheatridge cyclery and nordstroms cafe

dec 20

9am pick up and pack up a 26ft moving truck with a car trailer (thanks for the help heather, jared, and tara!)

6pm clean our apartment

11pm stay the night at nate and julie's

dec 21

6:30am spencer heads out on the 13 hour trip from denver to boise

7:30am andi drives to the circuit city near i25 and hwy36 to bring him his cell phone

9am-3pm andi's last day and send off lunch at the water for people office in denver

9am-4pm julie wrangles two babies all day without any catastrophies (she's a saint!)

dec 22

1am spencer arrives safely in boise...whew

spencer spends the day unpacking 1/2 our junk into my parents basement

andi works from home and andi, olive, nate, julie and clara anxiously await the trip home the next day.

dec 23

6am andi, olive, nate, julie and clara load up and head to the airport

11am andi, olive, nate, julie and clara finally board a plane to boise and barely make the connection (thanks for holding the plane mr. southwest! stupid air travel.)

3pm andi, olive, nate, julie and clara finally arrive

5pm unload the contents of our moving truck into a storage unit and ditch the monster at penske, thank goodness.

10pm the peterson's arrive and the christmas holiday begins!

10 adults 2 kids and 3 babies all under one roof, you can imagine the chaos, and it was wonderful!

dec 24: goofy gift exchange, highlights include a fart in a diaper, a french fry phone, a hobo survial kit and lots of popping balloons...poor clara. we had christmas eve at great grandma's as usual, and the kids loved great grandpa's annual scavenger hunt for gifts

dec 25: christmas day starts at 7am (thanks to owen and ella) and it was so much fun to all be together.

the rest of the week included, a shopping day for the girls, beatles rock band, a day of snowshoeing for the boys, beatles rockband, "where the wild things are" and "fantastic mr. fox" at the theater, the marshall family secret toffee, a snowman, plastic sack boots, a snowball fight, a gingerbread house, a blond dyed brunette, dinner with old friends, late nights, good food and a traditional midnight trip to merrit's (don't ask, it's not a classy joint), and this surprise package from aubry, genius in gift giving, genius!

jan 4: we finally unpack our boxes and settle in.

i completed my first week of working remotely. spencer hit the books hard, and olive is starting to get adjusted to a more consistent schedule and familiar surroundings.

happy new year. we're excited to see what's in store for 2010.

...a wedding in march for one thing. yeah cindy and travis!