Day 24: 4-5 relationships have had the greatest impact on my life

1.  My Maternal Grandfather

Here I am as Grampa watches me get stuck in a plastic folding chair.  He somehow always knew I'd be a smart cookie, although I'm not really sure how. 

Donald Kipp.  Wife, Lou.  Daughters, Kandi and Terri.  Granddaughters, Kipp and Cierra. 

That's right.  I was named after my Grandfather.  Not many women can say that, but at least my parents had the sense to call me Kipp and not Donald!  You see, my grandfather was surrounded by women.  He was raised by a single mother.  He has a sister named Dorothy.  He then had two daughters and two granddaughters.  Even the family dogs were girls.  He once said (in the heat of the moment) "I'M GOING TO DROWNED IN A SEA OF KOTEX AND PANTHOSE!!!" 

To be honest, he wouldn't have had it any other way. 

Everytime I saw my Grampa, I got a hug and a couple of dollars.  He used to take me to his golf course and show me off to his golfing friends.  Then we'd swing by McDonald's to see his retiree breakfast club and I'd get one of those free mini ice cream cones that they used to give away to children.  From there we would take stale bread and go feed ducks and other farm animals in Ontario and Chino.  Of course, that was when they still had farms and you could buy your eggs fresh from the farmer. 

As I got older, his devotion never changed.  He supported me when I thought no one else did.  He didn't speak very much, but as a teenager I really appreciated that.  He was hopelessly devoted to his wife, and as a subdivision of that he was devoted to his daughters as well.  He helped me mentally frame what I hoped that I would one day find in a huspand. 

2-3. Radar and Caitlyn
Male Welsh Corgi and Female Welsh Corgi

I know what you're thinking.  Dogs having impacts on people's lives?  Well these 2 did. 

I am an only child, and there weren't many children around me to play with.  In the summer, I would head into my back yard and I could play for eight or ten hours by myself.  I would only stop to eat a quesadilla or some mac 'n cheese 'n peas.  (That's why they call me a mouse.) 

My only playmates were Radar and Caitlyn.  They were the best friends that a little girl could ask for.  I could pet them, I could play with them, or I could ride my bike around in the yard and they would leave me alone.  I would play in my sand box and they'd come sit with me and lick me.  Sometimes I'd take the kumquats off of my mother's tree and I'd eat the outside off and feed them the sour insides.  I'd help my dad give them baths in a large cast iron bath tub we had, and they'd always love me afterwards.

4. I think this easily goes to my parents: Larry and Kandi

My parents, 30 years after they wed at the Queen Mary Royal Wedding Chapel.  They'll celebrate 33 years in September, 2010. 

I'm an only child and if you've ever seen the movie "The Holiday" and remember how Cameron Diaz's character is talking about how she grew up, then you know my background: the three musketeers. 

I'm a nearly 50:50 mix of my parents.  I've got my mom's ability to talk and my dad's love for science.  They both enjoy learning and so I guess I picked that up too.  I can cook like my mom but I eat chocolate chip cookies as fast as my dad. 

The downside of everything I just told you is that when people say that they don't want to end up like their parents, I already have.  I'm trying to follow financial advice from my dad more and more everyday, and when it comes to my mother's passion for travel and her free spirit, well, I've been doing that for years already.  It's too late not to be like either of my parents, because every day I wake up more and more like them. 

And it isn't a bad thing at all.