Son number One

It's not my birthday, or my oldest kids birthday that makes me start thinking about how much time has gone by. It's always Kid Number Two. Not this year so much, even though he turned 15.
Yep, Fifteen.

On January 10th.

Because his birthday is right after Christmas, it sort of sneaks up on us. We plan his gifts when we plan Christmas presents, but it really is difficult to ever do a party.
It's still during Break, so that was difficult when he was little....

This year, he wanted to movie hop with his friend all day - and the rest of us had plans, so we sang in the morning and gave him his Crazy Chocolate Cake I made. It was 4 layers of a 6" cake with mini chips on the side. Twix Bars and Milky Way Bars chopped up on top and then a Hershey Bar melted on top of the whole thing.

He didn't have to share.

He did a little happy dance when he saw it.

DJ at fifteen.

Well he isn't homeschooling it anymore. He wanted to go to High School with his sister. Well, he wanted to go to the same high school that his dad went to (never mind that I went there too, I don't count)
He's trying new things. Even if I have to force him at first. He's still doing well in school. We have had a couple of things come up. With kids. Now with a teacher. It's okay. He has to learn how to get along.

He hated Cross Country at first, now he loves it and is also joining the Track Team

It's funny, he and I argue - but I think it's because he reminds me of my brother at that age and I go into the Big Sister Your Annoying Me mode. I didn't realize it for a while, and I was just furious with him, like All The Time! Then I heard, HEARD my brother's voice come out of his mouth, and I went...ohhhh. So I don't get into it with him as much anymore.
And he's taller than me.

Mikey ADORES him right now. DJ tries really hard to be a good Big Brother to him.

He is a really great kid. He's kind. And thinks the world should be fair to everyone. He gets super excited over the wildest things. He wants to be funny, but he's not...BUT he finally-FINALLY is getting other people's humor OR playing it off until we can explain it. I think Fifteen is going to be a fun year for him!

{the paper mama}

Because I planned on taking pictures of eyes this week, you can easily guess that I didn't take even one... Not one. But that is okay, since I was not at all lacking any ~
As you might recall in

in your eyes
in your eyes, part 2
and
in your eyes, part 3

After taking into account all the nice comments and opinions everyone gave, I narrowed it down to two. Which is great, but I need only one...
{sigh}
I still couldn't decide. So, since Mike doesn't read my blog, I briefly explained my dilemma -- and just showed him the choices.
Yep. You guessed it --
He picked the two I was stuck between!
Yay?
and since football was on, and that was all I could get out of him, I ended up choosing this one of the baby

This weeks photo challenge from
The Paper Mama
Eyes






I also decided this week to enter in the i heart faces

photo challenge for Eyes ~

in your eyes, part 3

I did not plan on part 3.
I guess I just underestimated just how many eye photos I had.
I have been going though all of my Picasa Albums and keep finding more and more.
I want to join in The Paper Mama Photo Challenge for next week when the challenge is Eyes

I first told you about it in my post
in your eyes
and again in the post
in your eyes, part 2
and even I can't believe I have enough pictures for part 3!

These first few are all from January 2010
-- and my awesome new camera!

Let's not leave out Liberty Hognhog!

September 2010

October 2010

January 2011

April 2011

June 2011

I am worried about taking more this week, only because I will have more to choose from!

Let me know which one you think I should enter in the challenge ~

john teter hendrickson

I am intrigued by many people that I find on my searches though ancestry.com My husband's family even has people tied to the Gold Rush, which is an exciting chapter that I have yet to explore, and as I said before, I really like looking at draft cards.
I also like passport applications. They can have a TON of information and sometimes even pictures!
(we all know how I am about pictures)
A couple months back I posted about Pedro Aisa (Peter Aissa) and I am hoping to someday find out even more about him, but I have hit a wall for now.

But the person I think I am most obsessed about is
John Teter Hendrickson.

John's parents were Jesse Hendrickson (PA 1818-1878) and Mary Ann Teter (OH 1824-1907) John was the youngest of 10 children and was born on August 1, 1868 in Joplin, Missouri.
At the age of 12 he lived in Prairie, Missouri with his mother, sisters Rachael and May along with his brother Edward.

On December 15, 1892 in Bates, Missouri he married
Minnie Elizabeth McElroy who was the oldest of three children. Her parents were William Allen McElroy (1839-1925) and Sarah Jane Durm (1844-)

In 1900 John and Minnie were living in Grand, Day, Oklahoma with the first two of their three children. Rena Louise (1894-1990) and William Roy (1897-1880) John was working as a farmer.

* When I looked up Grand a "frontier village", I found out that Day County itself was only around for 15 years -- Oklahoma History
Why did they go there?

In 1902 they had another child, Jennie E (Jennifer Elizabeth?) who was born in Missouri.

1910 the family was living in Riverside, California. John was still a farmer and his industry is listed as being 'fruit'.
I can't find where they were in 1920, but
Minnie was still in California in 1930 and was living with her youngest daughter
and granddaughter in Los Angeles and was "widowed".

Well, if we back up to 1917 we find that John has applied for a passport to

come back into the United States from

Agua Prieta, Mexico.

At this time he is a Hotel Keeper

"Established in business, hotel in Agua Prieta, Mex. where I am at present domiciled."

John was 50 years old, 5' 7 1/2" and had blue eyes

He had a 'high' forehead.

He had a 'regular' nose.

A 'firm' mouth and a 'square' chin.

His hair was gray-brown, his complexion was 'ruddy' and his face was 'regular'

John had to get people to vouch for him as to having been born in the United States.

One of those people was his brother,

Edward R Hendrickson.

On August 14, 1917 John married

Maria Mercedes Luna.

She was born on August 10, 1898 in Hermosillo, Mexico

and was (barely) 19 when she married John.

Her parents were Merced Luna (1854-) and Clayetans Zaneo Garcia (1864-)

John and Mercedes had two children, Edward Ruben (1918-1991) and Carlos Roy (1920-1921).

Carlos Roy died when he was 11 months and 28 days old.

John and Mercedes' son Edward R was my grandfather. The story that was told to me was that John's ancestors were from Finland

and that he had a "white" family before he married my great grandmother.

(and didn't necessarily divorce his first wife) 

John meet my great grandmother in Mexico after he fled there when he and his brother got into trouble with some 

San Francisco "outlaws".

From what I understand, John traveled back and forth from Mexico to San Francisco, but my grandfather never met him.

My aunt told me that there was a rumor that John was in San Francisco once when my grandparents were newlyweds, and they tried to contact him, but never found him.

Even though I can't find John's brother Edward R between 1880 and 1930, except for the letter that was written for John to prove he was a citizen, to me it seems that they were pretty close  --

And in 1930 Edward was in San Quentin Prison. Which is in Marin, across the bridge from San Francisco.

Is that why John came to San Francisco often, to visit his brother?

(since it wasn't his wife)

My grandfather is Edward R too and so is one of my uncles. My brother's middle name is even Edward, so were they named after him?

Did John also give two of his son's the middle name Roy because his first wife's maiden name was McElroy or was his brother Edward's middle name Roy?

I do know that John Teter died in Sinaloa, Mexico in 1943.

Here is the craziest part --

I was contacted on ancestry.com from someone who lives in Mexico telling me that her grandmother, Herlinda Pena was also married to John Teter Hendrickson.

(with no divorce?!)

They were married in Culiacan, Sinaloa, Mexico in 1924.

They had 8 children between 1925 and 1941.

John, Nelly, Rose, Ernesto, Josephina, Emma, Charles and Roy.

{love}

GeoTagged, [N37.78642, E122.47711]

blue

So, I am looking through my pictures that I have on Picasa trying to find a good photo that represents BLUE. I'm doing this for a photo challenge coming up. I plan on taking some shots this week, but I had an idea that I should show Mikey's eyes -- because people always comment on how blue they are.

I took a great photo of a close up of DJ's eye (and enlarged it, and framed it) when he was younger, that I thought about using, but my camera is SO much better now, that I feel that I want to choose a different one.



Now that I started to look through them, I can't decide which one I want to use... Ahhh!
So I am posting a few of my favorites. Let me know what you think. The challenge is on the 21st and maybe I will be able to come up with something by then --

{love}

comforting her brother

 a teenager's 'look'

smile's for The Mama

blue eyed ancestry

Lately, I have been working on our tree adding the old photos from Aunt Betty. I have also been filling in information I found on the back of them and doing new searches on that set of Hopper's and Lively's.

I think my favorite thing to view on the ancestry.com website are the original WWI and WWII draft cards. They are usually in the individuals own handwriting, which I find really cool, and they sometimes have more information than just the name and date of birth. It might have *name of individual that will always know your whereabouts* which is helpful in making sure it's your Thomas, John or David. It usually doesn't say their height or weight, but instead asks -- tall, medium or short, and thin, medium or stout. It does ask for hair color and eye color.

My mom and her mom had blue eyes, but her dad had brown. My dad and his parents had brown eyes.
I have hazel eyes -- and most of my girl cousins on my dad's side do also.
My brother has brown.
Paige has hazel eyes, like mine.
DJ's are blue. And like I said, my mom has blue -- and DJ's bio dad has blue, so it was not a surprise that he got blue. It's funny, DJ looks like my brother, but with blue eyes.
Kelly has brown like Mike's, but lighter.
Mikey has blue!
We have been laughing about it for 17 months! Who figured we'd have a blue eyed baby? Oh, and they are blue. We even thought he could be a red head, since Mike and I each had grandmothers with red hair. We will see. That is, if he ever gets hair!

Now... I have been digging around all these draft cards and realized that there have been many blue eyed men in our family -- on both my sides.
My grandfather from my mom's side had brown eyes, but his father and all those male relations were blue. So my mom and her brother got their blue eyes from both of their parents.
My dad has brown eyes, but his grandfather on his dad's side had blue eyes and so did all those male relations that I have been able to track down.

Next I will be tracking down the blue eyed Aissa's!