By Patricia Hudson –
After raising three children, Cypress Creek Lakes residents Matt and Sandra Wissing became “empty nesters” in 2007, when their youngest went off to college. It was quite a surprise when in 2015, siblings Christina, John, and Jessica each wound up buying houses in the CCL community. Sandra was ecstatic. “I was so excited to have them all so close, I had always teased them that if we paid for college, they could not leave Houston. If I don’t see them every day, I talk to them on the phone multiple times, especially my girls. We are a very close family.”
Sandra recalls when she first met Matt, “It was at a mutual friend’s high school graduation party in Galveston in 1980. I had a boyfriend at the time, but thought Matt was cute. Another girl told me ‘Hands off! Matt’s mine!’ That’s when I decided I was interested!” After dating for 2.5 years, Matt asked Sandra to marry him over sandwiches on her lunch break. “He’s become more romantic over the years; we’ve been married for 39 years this coming November,” shares Sandra.
Matt has been working at NOV since 1987, starting as a welder/machinist, and is now a design engineer. “Matt traveled the world for work, sometimes for 90-100 days at a time; I stayed home to hold down the fort,” explains Sandra. “I went from stay-at-home mom to stay-at-home grandma, always there for the grandkids.”
The oldest of the Wissing children, Christina, is a sale experience lead at HPE. Her husband, Bryan “Rip” Ripkoski, is a senior vertical engineer at Thyssenkrupp. “We call them the rebels of the family because they moved out of CCL last year, but they are only two miles away, in Bridgeland,” says Sandra. The Ripkoskis have two children: Samantha, 17, and Kaleb, 15, both students at Bridgeland High School. Kaleb likes golfing, fishing, playing Call of Duty, and driving his golf cart. Samantha enjoys spending mom and dad’s money shopping. She loves to organize and hang out with her friends.
John followed in his dad’s footsteps, and works in the same department at NOV. John and Nikki are engaged; they dote on their fur babies, Jemma and Maya. An athlete, John likes to go for 2.4 mile swims, 112 mile bike rides, and 26.2 mile runs. “He’s an official Ironman,” comments his proud mom.
Jessica, the youngest, married her brother’s best friend, Colin Apostolo. Jessica is a 1st grade teacher and Colin is a sales manager. They have two children, Hudson, 3, and Ellie 2 months. Hudson recently told his mom that he wanted his grandma and papa to move next door to him “…because 1.8 miles is just too far.” Most days you’ll find Hudson dressed up as a superhero, asking why to anything and everything. “He has the whole family wrapped around his finger. But his little sister has him wrapped around hers. He’s constantly telling her ‘Ellie Belle, you’re so pretty! Love you so much,’” says grandma. Ellie enjoys napping and looking cute for her mom’s daily photo shoots.
“Our son-in-law, Colin, swore they wouldn’t be joining the rest of the family in CCL but now his family drops by our house the most,” smiles Sandra. “You can stop by our house on any given day, and I can guarantee at least one of our kids or grandkids will be there, usually unannounced. Some nights they all show up at once. And just like when they were kids, they expect to be fed one of their mom’s delicious home cooked meals.” Jessica says that her mom is “…hands down, the best cook in the house. She’s one of those people that doesn’t ever follow a recipe so you can only truly enjoy her cooking at her house. She specializes in Mexican.”
Imparting advice is an important aspect of parenthood. “Our advice to our children has always been to work hard and to be responsible for their actions,” states Matt. “We tried to teach them the value of a dollar from a very young age. From the time they turned 16, we expected them to have jobs. We bought them cars, but they were responsible for their car insurance and phone bills. Once they graduated from high school, we helped them land internships to work towards figuring out what they wanted to do with their own careers,” explains Sandra. “Once they went to college, we rewarded them for earning good grades. It didn’t mean that we didn’t understand that sometimes they might get bad grades, but we wanted them to take responsibility for their grades. We didn’t want to find out they were struggling at the end of the semester; we taught them to talk to us if they were struggling and that we would get them the help they needed in tutoring. We’ve taught them to work hard but to remember (that) nothing is more important than your family.”
“Family time usually involves chaos, good food, wine, and doing whatever Hudson James asks of us. Sometimes we have dance parties,” comments John. “Sometimes, you’ll find the whole family dressed up as superheroes. Mostly, we enjoy sitting outside, having a fire in the gazebo Matt built and watching the Astros play,” reports Sandra.
The term “Handy Man” does not come close to cutting it when describing Matt,” says Jessica. “When he’s not designing and building for NOV, he’s busy designing and building stuff at the house. He spent the last year and half renovating the backyard; he built a gazebo, fireplace, and an outdoor kitchen.” As for Sandra, she enjoys hanging out in their backyard with a glass of wine, shopping, and spoiling the grandkids.
