House to Home Transformation: Stage 1

This weekend was filled with an insanely large amount of tears, hugs, hello's, and goodbye's.  I'm not sure I can cram them all into one joyful post, but here's a little sneak peak of why we all came together: 

Redden, Big Mike, and Jolly

Cal Poly Pomona, Class of 2010

Yep, here come those tears again.  These yahoo's all graduated this weekend, and I can tell you between all the families that were shedding tears of joy and the graduate's jokes about college, I was shedding tears of joy and laughter all weekend long. 

Some of you may not know this, but Mike is the first in his family to get a college degree.  His younger sister, Lauren, isn't far behind in attaining her degree from Cal State San Marcos.  A single generation with 100% college degree success?  Well to me that shows that their parents and grandparents did an excellent job instilling good values in them. 

Well what is a graduation without a party?  So Mike & I opened our home for the first of (hopefully) many gatherings.  Some of Mike's family came up from the Imperial Valley, while most of our friends and family were just a short 15-20 minute freeway burst away.  We threw carne asada on the grill and kept the La Tolteca chips & salsa stocked at all times. 

But more important than who was there or what we ate were the memories that we made.  In my humble opinion, it isn't who or what is inside of your house that makes it a home; instead it is the memories created inside of those four walls that make a house into a home.  Believe me, we made an excellent set of memories this weekend. 

Maddie showed off her sleeping skills by falling asleep anywhere she wanted. 

Mike's father impressed every one with his excellent carne asada and grilling talents. 

Mike's grandfather hugged each and every person telling us all, "At my age, I need to get all the hugs that I can get!"  With his warmth and kindness, we were all happy to oblige him. 

My family was greeted with a long-lost cousin that I recently came back into contact with.  I invited him to the party, but "forgot" to tell everyone he was coming. 

Many friends were greeted at the door and astonished with all of the progress that has been made on the house since their first visits a few months ago.  When they had first come to see us, we were still beginning our dramatic facelift of the interior, and now they're beginning to see the final product. 

For the first time, our home was filled with babies and toddlers.  Mike's cousin, Megan, brought her tiny little girl followed later by Lucius (10 months) and Devin (11 months) who were eager to play and give Maddie open mouthed kisses. 

I can honestly say that this weekend was more of a blessing than I could have ever imagined.  If you were part of it, please pat yourself on the back or give yourself a big hug from Mike & I.  We are truly thankful for each and every one of you in our lives and we cannot wait to have you all over again for another gathering. 

Love, Mike & Kipp

4 years? No, I'm not talking about a Presidency!

Some of you may have read or heard me say that today is Mike & my 4 year anniversary.  However, what you may not know is how many of you were there the night that we started our relationship. 

Mike & I had been on a few dates and spent time together before June 9, 2006, but it wasn't really until that night that anything got serious.  On that Friday, I graduated from Cal Poly Pomona and was planning a party for my family & friends.  I had invited Mike to both the graduation and the party, but in all honesty I did not expect him to sit through a boring 2 or 3 hour commencement ceremony. 

Well, let me tell you how shocked I was to discover that Mike had showed up to the ceremonies and sat with my friends & family throughout the whole thing.  He then headed back with us to my parents house and stayed for the entire party! 

Now because it was such a great party, the details are a little fuzzy in my head.  What I do know is that he was by my side the entire night and was up again the next morning helping my father and I clean up.  I'm pretty sure that the sight of Mike's true character was enough to get our relationship going. 

I am so blessed to have him in my life, and I'm grateful to all of the people around us that have supported us over the past 4 years.  As we get are preparing to host Mike's graduationg party at our home together this weekend, I get to look back at the last few years and just be grateful.  I guess all of his hard work paid off in school, and his patience with me has pulled us through a lot in our time together.  I could not imaging anyone else in my life, and I look forward to all of the wonderful times we have ahead of us. 

The truth is, I think Mike loves me because of my family's ability to make amazing tacos in large quantities.  Just ask him. 

I've never liked this woman...

...Elizabeth Hasselbeck. 

A few days ago on her show, The View, Mrs. Hasselbeck showed photos of Ms. Erin Andrews on Dancing With the Stars.  Mrs. Hasselbeck then proceeded to imply that if Ms. Andrews' stalker would have just waited a few months, he could have seen Ms. Andrews practically naked and wouldn't have to be in jail. 

Really?  Are you kidding me right now? 

First of all, Erin Andrews had her privacy stolen.  Through holes in her hotel room, a man was able to view and photography her in every aspect of her life.  She was a news correspondent, not an exotic dancer! 

At the moment I heard Mrs. Hasselbeck's comment, my heart sank.  Nothing that a woman can do or say is an invitation for her to be objectified, stalked, or assaulted. 

So I want to hear what other people think.  Do you think Elizabeth Hasselbeck is out of line?  She is 100% on the conservative side and makes no attempt to hide it, however has she crossed a line by verbally slamming a victim of stalking? 

Does this couch make my head look big?

So if you've attended Cal Poly Pomona within the last decade, you've seen them:  Fraternity rush "booths". 

Yes, the word booths is in quotations.  It's because they are no longer booths like they were initially intended to be.  Information booths or tables have now become hot spots or hang out locations.  This may seem like a great idea at first, but I've come to see them as horrible excuses for recruitment tools. 

I would like to slap the idiot that decided to start bringing as many old, smelly, broken couches as they could to the recruitment events.  Perhaps he decided that passively sitting down and making potential new fraternity members approach his group was a good idea?  Or perhaps he thought by creating conversation spaces for guys to hit on girls or catch up on homework instead of actively recruiting new brothers was the right idea? 

Maybe the guy that wanted to bring a half-dozen couches to recruitment was the same one that decided to give out free shirts to sorority girls to recruit for them?  That's it!  He said in his meeting, "Hey guys!  Let's get cute girls to wear our rush shirts with their short shorts and jeans skirts!  Then we can sit by and let the girls advertise for us while we chill on our old and dirty couches!" 

Then someone else chimed in, "I second that!  If I were a freshman, I would definitely join the fraternity that has the hottest girls wearing their shirts and the most amount of couches in the quad!  But, I think we should add a DJ to our couches because everyone likes music and we won't have to talk to the new guys if the music is really loud!" 

And that's how it was born: the worst idea for a fraternity recruitment booth.  Girls in short skirts and fraternity tee shirts.  Couches so the fraternity members can sit by and intimidate potential new members.  DJ's so you can't hear a word of what is said between a fraternity member and an interested student. 

Here's a little advice to avoid the "tools." 

Don't ask ladies to wear your shirts.  They have shirts of their own to wear.  Believe me, that shirt will soon become a gym shirt, a rag, or a goodwill donation.  Heaven forbid she becomes an ex-girlfriend, because that shirt will be burned.  Oops.  I mean that I've heard rumors about girls burning the free shirts.  Besides, if guys are trying to join your organization just because you know the hottest girls, then do they really deserve your bid?

Don't let the fraternity guys sit around on their butts doing homework or eating at the recruitment tables.  If they need to eat, have them eat at a table away from the recruitment event.  If they have homework to do, send them to a computer lab or the library.  Your fraternity will benefit and their grades will benefit as well. 

Don't bring a DJ to the recruitment table.  It's a huge distraction to potential new fraternity members as well as the rest of the students that are in class or having meetings while your group is dancing around to the latest stupid rap song. 

And finally, learn to recruit.  A very intelligent man once told me that his fraternity used to give their members a single objective during every rush: Recruit someone better than yourself.  Teach your members that and I guarantee they will realize that they (1) are not the greatest person in the world and God's gift to your fraternity and (2) your membership pool will improve greatly. 

Happy Birthday Dad!

So it's my dad's birthday today, so I thought I'd give you guys a little glimpse at why I'm pretty sure he's the most amazing father in the world...

He rode Dumbo about 1,000 times with me when I was little.  And I always got to control the up & down switch! 

He took me to Las Vegas on my 21st birthday and toasted me at midnight with my first legal drink! 

He's been married to the same woman for over 30 years. 

He joins in when I go off on my crusades to raise money for breast cancer awareness. 

And I join him when he wants to walk around and look at plants and birds. 

So Happy Birthday to my plumbing, tile laying, kitchen remodeling, bbq-ing, book reading, sci-fi watching, scotch drinking, amazing father! 

So today I was counting my blessings...

I was sitting back today and counting my blessings.  I like to do this every once in a while when I'm stressed out just to re-focus myself and get my priorities in order.  I have a lot to be thankful for and usually I count about 10 things in my head that are blessings and my tension has decrease by half.  You should all try this technique some day! 

So today something at the lab was really bothering me.  Things bother me every single day at the lab, but I usually just fix the problem and walk away.  Today I couldn't do that.  So in my head I started counting blessings. 

"One: I am blessed to have a roof over my head that I share with someone that I love so fervently." 
"Two: I am blessed to have that roof so close to such amazing friends and family like Rose and Devin." 

I stopped.  Those last two names were pretty calming and soothing by themselves.  I didn't need to count any higher than two today. 

Mike and I moved here on March 25th and we didn't have a kitchen set up or a laundry area.  Since that time, Rose has fed us and opened her home to us to do laundry on several occasions.  As an added bonus, he son Devin is a playful little booger who likes to have his picture taken! 

Rose mentioned something about the pulled chicken sandwiches that I was making for dinner sounding yummy and I immediately invited them over for dinner and a time to look at Devin's photographs.  Let me tell you, we had so much fun!  I love watching Devin motor around and pick items up off of the tables and floor!  And seeing my dear friend Rose as a mommy?  Well that's fun too!  She's so calm and matter of fact about everything.  She knows what he's going to do even before he actually does it. 

So today they are my blessings.  May you all find yours...

A Little Family History

I really have some of the greatest Californian family history!  My father's father was a pilot and worked for Mr. Howard Hughes at one point in his career.  My mother's father was an accountant who for a short time played for a little baseball team known as the San Diego Padres.  But today's discovery takes the cake in my opinion: today I found a tie between my father's mother and myself. 

Before I tell you about her, I should warn you that my grandmother passed away in 1994.  I was 9 years old and she died on one of my friend's birthdays.  Sure, I have photographs of her reading me books as I sit on her lap.  Yes, I remember her at Christmas Eve dinners and Easter brunch, but I never really got to know her.  My grandmother's memory began to slip when I was growing up.  Instead of calling me her granddaughter, she would get confuse and lump me in with other children our family.  She then thought I was her great-granddaughter, but she always remembered my name. 

"Pink" Gramma & I

Easter 1988

My favorite thing that she did was giving us our presents in a paper or plastic bag with the wrapping paper and the unsigned card in the bag as well.  She remembered to buy the present and get out the card and wrapping paper, but for some reason that last step of wrapping the present and signing the card just slipped her mind. 

These are the memories of my grandmother. 

But the stories?  I loved the stories.  The romance story between Pearl and her husband is one of great laughter and length.  I'm sure in my head it's been blown up and dramatized, but it truly was a great story.  It's one I'll save for another day and another blog, once I've gathered up more details. 

Ms. Pearl Steele was born on April 27, 1905.  I don't know much about her childhood, but I do know that she went to UCLA in the 1920's.  At that time, not many women were going to universities and her acceptance was very prestigious for her family.  It was there that she studied to become a teacher and according to the members of my family, she was in a sorority.  Some folks in my family even said that not only was she in a sorority, she was one of the first members of that sorority at UCLA.  Of course, no one could ever prove this or even say for sure which sorority she was in. 

Most family members recalled her talking about being a Chi Omega or an Alpha Chi Omega, but we never found her badge to know.  She spoke once about having a car sent to pick her up for a southern California sorority luncheon and they were honoring her with a 50 year pin or some sort of award.  This would have been somewhere in the lat 1970's or early 1980's. 

A few years ago, there were rumblings about UCLA going through an extension process and gaining another sorority on their campus.  Well last year, that rumbling turned in to a reality and a wonderful and beautiful chapter of Alpha Chi Omega was welcomed back to UCLA's grounds.  Recently, I emailed their chapter president in the hopes that she could supply me with more information about my grandmother.  It was a long shot, but I took it! 

But she had no information for me.  My heart broke.  I was back where I started and still didn't know much about my grandmother.  I should have known better than to get  my hopes up; they were a young chapter and the President wouldn't have access to national records.  But at the end of her letter she said she would forward my question on to one of their National Officers.  Well, I had imagined that it would take weeks or months for this lady to find out any information, but today I got my answer in the form of a very nice email and a cell phone photograph. 

"Hi Kipp! 

I looked up your grandmother's name, and found her right away -- so yes, she was an Alpha Chi Omega initiated at our UCLA chapter in 1926.


This date might not seem significant to you at first, but I know that the UCLA chapter was founded in 1926.

So not only was your grandmother a member of Alpha Chi Omega, she was a charter member!!! Her photo is hanging on our wall, and her name is on our original charter!
 
Fraternally,


Amy Kalnoki
Chapter Consultant"

She wasn't just an Alpha Chi Omega, she was a charter member and he photograph is hanging in their halls!  All those rumblings and recollections of my family were true! 

Now all of you Zeta Taul Alpha's know why I was so damn Panhellenic for all of my collegiate years: I had the legacy of another sorority behind me and the love of ZTA around me!  So here she is, my grandmother and the other members of the charter class of Alpha Chi Omega at UCLA.  I feel so much closer to her just to know that we shared the love of a fraternity and warm bonds of a sisterhood that we carry throughout our lives.  I'm also so incredibly proud of her, that her photo hangs in those halls and she is forever remembered by beautiful young ladies that follow in her footsteps. 

Pearl Steele

April 27, 1905 - March 8, 1994

Bottom row, third from the left

Alpha Psi of Alpha Chi Omega Charter Members

UCLA 1926