My Heart Belongs to Iowa

There are so many things I love and truly miss about Iowa; I can't even begin to list them. A few weeks ago, I made a very quick (as in drive up, stay a day and drive back) run to Iowa to see my mom. During the one day I was there, we loaded my van with REAL sweet corn and also went driving. No particular destination, just taking in the sights, sounds and smell of HOME.

 

My heart will always belong to Iowa.

Stolen Idea

Spencer LOVES being outside, even though it is triple digit hot, he loves it. Justin and I are always trying to figure out something for him to do. So, after reading my blog buddy's post I stole this idea.

I took some of Spencer's cheap toys (like the McDonald's kind) and placed them in a container with water and froze it.
We dumped the container out onto the patio and he hammer and chiseled away at it with his handy dandy tools. He LOVED, LOVED, LOVED this. He played for almost an hour. THANKS HEATHER for sharing this.

What Happens When...

On Sunday my friend Becky and I went to see Rock of Ages. I loved it. If you grew up in the 80's the movie is a great nostalgia movie. It was so funny to see records and a record store instead of just an iPod or iPhone playing the music.
Now, one thing WE had growing up that today's kids don't was the ability to blare our music through a boom box. I mean think about it. Put the Bon Jovi tape in, crank it up until you got yelled at.  The only thing that kids (including my teenage daughter) does is put her ear buds on and ignore the rest of the world while listening to Green Day.
That all changed today thanks to a small little PLUG.
I have to give Madi some credit here.
I wouldn't have thought about it.
So, what happens when you mix
this:

 

with this?

You get a really loud boom box.
Yes, she plugged her phone into her AMPLIFIER for her guitars.
Pretty genius if you ask me.
Pretty loud if you ask Spencer.
Pretty totally awesome if you ask Madison.

Meet the Family

Saturday afternoon arrived with some anxiety as we were to meet the Kirkpatricks. Donna and her mother Marjorie (who is 85 years old) arrived first. Things quickly were put at ease as we shared photographs and some history of the family.
Many other members of the Kirkpatricks began arriving; all with curiousity and open arms. We told the story of how Donna and I discovered that we were truly related over and over as family members arrived. Each member bringing photos and stories to share.
It was truly overwhelming to see the family that joined us. We shared many coincidences between each side of the family as well as shared pictures and compared family resemblence.
What a wonderful weekend.

Kirkpatricks/Cunninghams/Lucas

Donna, Marjorie and Doris

We finished lunch with the exchange of emails, addresses and Facebook information. I truly hope that the conversations continue.

A Mystery Revealed

This is LONG, so pull up a chair; it is worth it.

Justin's mom and dad (Doris and Dan) were here visiting in March. During that time we discussed some of our family history. Madison wanted to more about her "roots." Doris' dad, Dewey, was born in Sulpher, OK. Ironic that Justin and I now live in Oklahoma. We knew very, very little about Dewey, let alone his parents or where he came from.
We decided to find out.
I started searching using Ancestry.com with the information we knew, Dewey was born to Naomi Carson and Dewey M. Kirkpatrick in 1925. Naomi died in 1928 and 3 year old Dewey was raised by Naomi's mother somewhere in Arizona. He had NO CONTACT with his father or his father's family. This was my starting point. All through March, April, and May I plugged at find information. I was able to find out that Dewey's dad, Dewey M., was born to a Native American woman (Choctaw tribe) and a white man. Dewey M. had three brothers, Leroy, Alexander and John.
I found a few surprises along the way, Dewey has two half brothers, we knew about one of the them. The other thing I found was how much inaccurate information is out there.  Due to my scientific brain, I'm hardwired to only look at things that have PROOF. SO, I followed the paper trail of proof and was 90% sure the data I had collected was accurate.
Two weeks ago I received an email message from someone on Ancestry.com looking for information on the Kirkpatricks. After many back and forth emails, this woman, Donna, reveals to me that she has pictures of Dewey M. that were in her grandmother's desk. She didn't know who the pictures were except for the name Dewey Kirkpatrick written on the back.
She emailed the pictures to me and unfortunately they were not Dewey M., but they were Dewey A. (Doris' dad)! I about fell out of my chair.

Dewey Alexander, South Pacific Islands WWII

1942

1942

We unraveled one mystery, Donna's mother was actually Dewey's cousin! Dewey had sent these pictures to her when he was in the WWII. Donna had never known who these pictures were, she had assumed it was Dewey M. because they didn't know Dewey M. had a son. PURE CRAZINESS.

We emailed back and forth only to find out that Donna lives in Mesa, AZ and she was flying into OKC to visit her mother.
SO,
YEP,
IT'S GONNA HAPPEN...
Justin's brother and us were able to fly Justin's mom, Doris, into town to meet Donna and the rest of the Kirkpatrick family that we didn't know existed.

We will be meeting this Saturday and yes, lots of pictures to come!!

June Holidays

There are three holidays in June, so we typically celebrate them together: my birthday, Father's Day and our anniversary.
We honestly didn't do much and I don't even have pictures to post. I turned a year older. Justin got the Daddy of the Year award and we celebrated 18 years together. WOW, that sounds like such a long time.

Fall Awake

My cousin Lisa is a singer/songwriter. She is pretty amazing. She is getting ready to record her second album and I got a sneak peak with her new song because I backed her on her Kickstart Project. Check it out:
Lisa Ritchey Fall Awake

If you want a pretty cool song, you can donate, just $1 and get it.