My sister Kellie was closest to me in age and we were pretty much inseparable when we were children. Older than I by two years, she was the leader of every activity. My earliest recollections are of Kellie and I sitting on the roosts in the chicken house, singing. We would spend entire days at the chicken house! I think a large part of who I am was formed by our dreaming, scheming, pretending, and growing up with the chickens. We did a lot of singing there, and at age three or four, I told my mom, "If the chickens won't lay an egg, you just throw cobs at them!"

Kellie and I had stick horse rodeos. Her horse, Brownie, was homemade from a slat board and brown fabric stuffed with old panty-hose. His eyes had been drawn on in black paint, and he was a wonderful horse. I got my stick horse for Christmas one year, made of formed styrofoam and painted brown. I named it Jasmine. And my brother Kevin's horse was a plastic white one with a black halter with a star on the side of it...he named it Charolais Star. Our stick horses could enter any event...bronc riding, barrel racing, jumping, you name it.