BLOGAHOMA

Avoid the craziness and find unique and made in Oklahoma gifts. The owners are personable and helpful and will make your shopping pleasant.

In the past I have bought gourmet treats from Lulabelles, a stuffed buffalo toy from the Laughing Lizard, lucious home made fudge from the Medicine Park Ice Cream & Candy Co, wine as a hostess gift at the Winery of the Wichita, blankets from the Rusty Buffalo, fun jewelry from the Raspberry Leopard, and motorcycle tshirt from Chaps My Ass. This year the puppies will find a treat from the Cobblestone Doghouse.

It happened that (one of several) serendipitous events for me this year was the interview, via Skype, with one Kirsten Dunst on Friday afternoon. Yes, THE Kirsten Dunst. It began with her friendship with Leith Clark the editor-in-chief of Lula: Girl of My Dreams the International very hip fashion magazine (out of the UK).  Leith and Kirsten discovered that they both loved the early childhood toy, Strawberry Shortcake and friends on which, as most of you know already, I was the concept artist, creating no less than 32 characters for the line. It must have been Leith that found me through the internet and  then she contacted me for a possible interview. I said yes, because that’s what I do, especially if it the publication is a brain child of the Strawberry and Care Bear generation. It wasn’t until a few months later that she said Kirsten Dunst was to be my interviewer. And I responded “which Kirsten Dunst?” I had in fact seen her in a few movies but it never occurred to me that it would be THE Kirsten Dunst but I came to find out that Kirsten is also a writer.

And so it came to pass yesterday, she at her office and me at home in my easy chair, dogs at my feet, Skyping from my Macbook. The interview, from this side of the screen, went great other than both of us energetically wandering off topic. Nonetheless a great connection personally though the digital connection had a few hiccups. Kirsten had me laughing and talking as if we just had not just walked or talked into each other lives.

I will only say that I was completely smitten by Kirsten.  And I will be listening to some of the music she recommended and watching some more of her performances on DVD. She suggested watch her in the “Virgin Suicides”. So I’m off now to the Hastings Video to pick up a copy.
…. I am back. Hastings does NOT have a computer base with searches other than by title. Nuts right! So they hand me this big telephone book sized reference that has movies listed by performers. The young man assisting me was dumbfounded to find Kirstin Dunst had 2 columns of movies to her credit. I was able to snap up Spiderman 1 (used) for $2 and the Virgin Suicides (new) for $8.

Would you like to know what we talked about? Well, you will just have to wait and read the article when it comes out, stay tuned. Oh yes, for all you Shortcake fans their will be a wonderful treats in store in the next Lula edition. Lula is a gorgeously put together magazine with a very creative edge.

In these days of recession and cutbacks with the economy is at a standstill one area of my life that continues to be a growth industry is my family, especially my maternal side. Now at 265 (with news of 2 more from my sister’s family coming next year), the count of direct descendants for my grandparents, Lucille and Aloysius Wunderle, is mind-boggling. It started in 1917 with grandma’s first born, my Uncle John, now 92. Mathematically it worked out to nearly three new members of the family a year. Jumping forward to 1941, when the first grandchild was born, and dividing the number by the 68 years that has passed since the average is 3.72 per year.  My grandparents had 10 but one of their daughters had 11. Of the grandchildren the largest family is 6. The families are generally smaller but most of them are still having children.  In the mix includes seven adoptions just among my branch.

I am not the keeper of the family records merely an instigator who asked that a roll call be made.  Aunts & cousins came back with the numbers. Because I can name all of my Aunts & Uncles and their spouses, my 6 siblings and their spouses, 43 first cousins, my 26 nephews and nieces and 29 great nephew and nieces I will give myself a star.  But it isn’t about remembering names it is about being part of the troops my Grandparents began. From what I have learned from my Facebook connections the Wunderle family lives up to its name, a family of Wunderkinder. a fun loving, life enjoying, hard working and emotionally generous group. This last year I encouraged the family jump on the Facebook train and now randomly peak into their lives, if only to see the latest grand nieces and nephews, and first cousins 2 times removed and what they are up to not to mention the kitty and pooch parade that are part of the families.

On my paternal side (Norris) my sibs and their offspring are probably 2/3rds the count. There is a handful on Facebook and from what I can have discovered, they too, love life, family and travel. I feel I have some strong genetic links to the Norris side. My love for writing is one and maybe this whole thing with statistics and analyzing comes from the Norris side. As the Norris side originated in Minnesota and most moved to the West Coast I know less about them. Thanks to cousin Bobby I have pictures and stories that keep me linked in.

At bedtime my mother had me and my six siblings say, what I have discovered, is a 18^th century prayer….

Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep;

If I should die before I wake,
I pray the Lord my soul to take.

We would end it with the “God bless Mommy and Daddy, sisters and brothers, aunts and uncles and cousins and all”

Now I understand why we didn’t bless them by name….we would have never got to sleep on time.