As I sit and try to think of words to describe the details and attributes of myself the words from a John Denver song calls out–

“Well Life on the farm is kinda laid back
Ain’t much an ole country girl like me can’t hack….
Thank God I’m a country girl

Well a simple life never did me no harm
A rasin’ me a family and workin’ on a farm
My days are filled with easy country charm
Thank God I’m a country girl.

When the sun’s coming up I got cakes on the griddle
Life ain’t nothing but a funny, funny riddle
Thank God I’m country girl. “


I have been extremely blessed from Day 1. I was raised by Christian parents. Their faith in God has always been the glue that keeps us together. My mother is my biggest fan. She thinks I do no wrong, well now that I am older and don’t have to make curfew that’s her thoughts. My father taught the importance of hard work. As a child, my school breaks were filled with the joys of hard labor. Which now as an adult I appreciate. Summer days were spent loading watermelons and tobacco baling hay or whatever else needed to be done. The best part about working on the farm was the friendships that were formed. For some odd reason, a lot of my cousins would want to spend their summers working with us--- can you imagine --- working in the sun for a vacation. In all honesty, it was fun. We would turn up the radio (when dad wasn’t around) and sing, tell stories about the weekend and plan our events for next weekend. It was great growing up on a farm. I loved it so much I married a farmer-- a tobacco farmer at that.

October 23 or 24 depend on who you asked, I married the love of my life Steven Hines. The first time I met him I was totally taken by his sweet smile and twinkling eyes. We dated for what seemed like an eternity, and out of the blue he said “wear something nice to work tomorrow and well go to the courthouse”. Yeah I know he is so romantic. We got our marriage license that next day. Nobody knew we were engaged until they read it in the JOURNAL. I won’t get into the details of the “wedding” I would rather my friend Cheri not be put in jail for illegal documentation. We’ve been married for a little over 6 years and I do occasionally, get the seven year itch but I can not imagine anyone but Steven seeing this body naked. It’s an ugly sight. He may not be perfect all the time but God made him just for me and I thank him for that.

We have two girls Katie 16 and Charlee 4. Let me do the math for you—16 take away four would be 12 year differences. Yeah, I know I ask myself the same question “what were you thinking?”. Dr. Cook was so excited she said “Oh, think of the relationship these girls will have.” I sat straight up and replied This isn’t a relationship, it’s a generation gap.” This is most evident in the car when Katie wants to listen to 105.3 and Charlee wants to sing Jingle Bells. They are as different as a missionary and a politician. I’ll let you decide which one is which.

Katie is my companion. I enjoy her more everyday. We love to sing as loud as we can to the 80’s. It always take me back in time to the days of riding in Kelley’s truck with the girls –singing as loud and off key as we can. One morning, I woke up and my little girl had been replaced with this beautiful woman. She is brilliant, a jack of all trades, and as cootie phobic as me. She loves to play the piano, especially songs from Disney movies and eighties. She was a varsity cheerleader and absolutely loved it. She enjoys being outside with the wide variety of animals we have on the farm. Katie has a small herd of Black Angus heifers and shows them at local events. She was the 11th grade homecoming attendant at THS. Her favorite place to be is Church. She is planning a trip to England in the spring with our youth pastor and his wife. No matter how old she is, she still thinks that when she is at meme’s they are suppose to swing and sing. She never ceases to amaze me. She has the Maidus touch.

Charlee is a typical four year old--- very self absorbed. She lights up the room when she walks in. She loves to teach school and play momma with her dolls. She can be found reading books to her dolls and teaching them songs and of course ‘getting onto them for not listening. Charlee loves to clean. If I am vacuuming she will take the vacuum away and finish the job. She loves to do homework especially if Katie is doing homework. It seems as though she always needs to do an “art project” which means she wants to make a mess and that’s the excuse to drag everything out or overflow the sink. She loves to jump in pink Jeep and drive across the yard to Grandma’s. Her vocabulary and stories blow us away. She so petite, and then her mouth opens. Unlike her mom, Charlee requires very little sleep. Needless to say, she keeps us on our toes.


As for me, I am reading coach at the elementary. I think I got the job because I was the only one who had a Masters in reading. I didn’t really want to make that public knowledge since I am awful at writing and seldom pick up a book to read for pleasure. I have a BA in Psychology which explains why strangers want to stop me in Wal-Mart and tell me their life’s story. I have taught school around 12 years and counting the days until retirement (15 and ½ years). I love going to church. I teach second and third graders in Sunday school, the College and Career on Wednesday nights and serve on the Youth committee and occasionally I might be spotted in the choir singing bass.
Since I life on a farm, I spend a lot of time cooking, baking and canning. I love to entertain but our small cracker house makes that impossible unless we entertain on the deck of the pool or huddled around a bond fire. I collect cook books – good one. I like the ones churches and social groups put together. They use have recipes people actually fix. Once again I made the New Year’s resolution to read my Bible through, I want tell you where I am at with that.

I used to be an immaculate house keeper until I had Charlee and the house grew smaller. Like I was saying earlier, we live in a 2 bedroom, 1 bath Cracker House. My father-in-law, Robert and Steven were both born and raised in this house for periods of their lives. When we brought Charlee home from the hospital it was a unique feeling for her to be the third generation to grow up here. Lucky for me, I have air conditioning and heat, an inside bathroom, a larger kitchen and two closets than the mothers before me had. Storage space is limited so my house always looks like somebody robbed us and ram sacked my house. With only two beds and two closets a lot of “stuff” has no place to call home. Needless to say, my house could use a makeover. Hopefully, one day we will build our dream house.

Why Aunt B’s Adventures?
Over the years, my dad has always called me Kimbee. When my nephew Tyler was baby he picked up the B and so the story goes I became Aunt B. I picked adventures because I am always in the middle of some wild escapade no one would believe. I hope you enjoy my blog and the ridiculous and poorly written events of my life.

Love Kimberly