My Life in Photos

My name at birth was Kimberly Ann Reimer and I was born on January 20, 1981 which makes me a whopping getting older 31 years old!

Little baby Kimmy

My family moved to beautiful Powell River, BC from my birthtown of Summerland, BC when I was five years old and about to start Grade 1.

Aerial shot of Powell River

My parents separated when I was six years old and I lived with my mother Joanne while my biological brothers lived with our father Wayne.

Me and my wonderful Mama outside the trailer we lived in after my parents separation

My brothers are very important to me. Chris is 4.5 years older than me and Ben is just about 2 years older. Both have left Powell River and now have families of their own.

Random growing up photos of me and my brothers.

When I was 8 years old my mother got together with the most wonderful man that I know, my stepfather George. Since I was an older teenager I have called this man Dad and he is truly the one that helped make me the person I am today. He and my mother have been together for almost 23 years now and have a happy and fun relationship that I respect and look up to.

Me and Dad at my 9th birthday with the cake that he made and decorated for me. 

My favorite photo ever taken of me and Dad as he walked me down the aisle on my wedding day

With George came my step-siblings, Ryan and Andra. Ryan is 9 years older than me and Andra is 6 years older. When we were growing up Andra and I were definitely NOT close but once I moved back to PR as an adult we have grown a lot since then. I am not very close to Ryan at all but with the age difference and very different lifestyles we live it makes it hard to find common ground sometimes.

My sister's wedding

My wedding

My favorite photo of Andra and I taken at Ryan & Sam's wedding.

I started working at McDonalds when I was 15 and worked there until I graduated at 18 and moved away from home to attend college on Vancouver Island in Nanaimo. Just 3 short hours away from the two people I was closest too it was a scary but also thrilling time of my life. I learned so much those first few years away from home and made some amazing friends throughout the years that have lasted through to now.

My best friend Melanie. Most of all my high school memories (good and bad) have her in them! To this day she means the absolute world to me and I look forward to growing old together as best friends.

Once I graduated from my two year Hospitality management diploma program in Nanaimo I struggled to know what I wanted to do with my life so I took on some part-time jobs and just worked to survive. I often worked 50-70 hour weeks and still just barely made it by, but boy did I learn how to take care of myself in those years. It was during that time that my parents told me no the first time I called and asked for money because I had pissed mine away on a skirt I knew I wouldn't wear. Hearing that no was a shock to my system but boy did it teach me that money was not going to be handed to be freely without earning it.



Shortly after that time I decided to go back to school to become an Administrative Assistant. When I was in high school and looked at the program, I remember thinking to myself that I wanted to be more than just a "secretary" so even though I knew I would be great at it, I thought I was destined to do something different. The second post-secondary school experience was very different than the first. I didn't live in dorms and I paid for school myself so I knew I had to succeed, and succeed I did. I graduated near the very top of my course, in fact getting almost complete straight A's for the first time in my life! I was doing exactly what I knew I should be doing.

Me on the day I graduated from Malaspina from the Administrative Assistant Program

It was just before I started school this second time that I met the love of my life, my hubby Jim. We met a local Save-On Foods store we worked at together. I worked in the deli and he worked in the dairy department. Within a few months of chatting friendly in the staff room we starting hanging out more and became a couple in August 2003 and Jim moved into my apartment that very first month we were together.

Jim and I in our thinner first dating days!

2 year anniversary

Fancy awards event

Rare snowall in Powell River

Romantic weekend away to Tofino

When I was done school and got a full-time job at the local health unit in Nanaimo we moved again into a basement suite near our jobs and began our grown-up relationship. It was while we were living in that place where many wonderful and not so wonderful things happened to us.


In 2005 I was diagnosed with Crohn's disease which drastically changed our lives but once we were able to cope with it we discovered a new normal for us. Throughout the years of my illness my Jimmy has been wonderful to me and has shown me what true love is.

My hospital stay where they took my perfectly healthy appendix out and discovered I had Crohn's disease.

We travelled to Alberta to celebrate Christmas 2005 with my family and it was there that Jim asked me to be his wife, after years of jokingly threatening that if he didn't do it before our 3 year anniversary (coming up that August) that I was gone! It was a memory that I am glad to share with my family and one that was a very special moment for us.

Bringing out the ring!

This picture is so our life...my Mom right there beside us for the big moments in it!

In May of 2005 we went on a big family vacation to Disneyland and a cruise home from LA with 18 people. This crazy group included Jim and I, my parents George and Joanne, my best friend Melanie, my sister Andra, my brother-in-law Bill, her daughter Tyanna and Tyanna's step-sister Autumn, Bill's daughter Michaela and her friend Angelica, Bill's ex Tammy (Michaela's mom), Barb (my step-dad's ex-wife and my sisters mother), my brother Ben, my Uncle Ron (Mom's brother), and my Auntie Karen, Uncle Bruno and their son Brody. A big group to travel with but we had a blast.

The whole crazy crew of us

That same year Jim went to the mainland to work on the road doing construction while I stayed in Nanaimo and continued my work at the health unit. We should have known that things were not meant to stay that comfortable for long. Within 2 months he was laid off and had a to make a decision to either go back to his job at Save-On (which he no longer liked) or to make a career change. Well he surprised me by saying he was ready to move to my hometown for me to be closer to my parents and sister and for him to start a job in the window factory where my parents were the managers. I wasn't ready to leave Nanaimo but was ready to go home again. Who knew that home was where my heart was? Jim did and knew that we would be happy here.

Moving from Nanaimo to PR. Jim brought our stuff and I followed a few weeks later.

Our first year here in Powell River had us settling into new jobs, planning our wedding, and moving into a house just a few blocks from both my parents and sister. We started a regular Sunday night dinner with everyone and I realized how happy we were to be here. These Sunday dinners are something that we all look forward to because we know we are guaranteed to see each other at least once a week.


On August 4, 2007 we were married and I legally became Mrs. Kimberly Ann Barrows. As I no longer have a relationship with my biological father I couldn't wait to get rid of my maiden name and take on the name of my wonderful hubby!  We were married in my parents backyard where I had always hoped to marry. They went through a lot of trouble to make our day special and it was a day that I know we will never forget. We had less than 90 people attend and it was a perfect day that I had spent over 18 months planning for.

Rehearsal

I look way more nervous than I actually was!

Just after our kiss! aawww...he loves me!

Us with my parents George & Joanne

All of my siblings, from left to right: Chris, Bill, Michaela, Andra, Ben, Me, Jim, Tyanna, Teresa, Samantha, Ryan, little one in front is Cassidy

Wedding party FUN!

In January of 2008 we took a belated honeymoon/couples trip with Andra and Bill to Las Vegas for a week. It was a fantastic trip and so much fun. I doubt I'll go back to Vegas anytime soon but it was nice to get away from life and work for awhile and seeing Jim experience travel was nice for me too. Both big trips we have taken were to places I had been to on a big family vacation back when I was 15.

Celebrating my 27th Birthday at Mon Ami Gabi in the Paris Hotel in Las Vegas!

Outside the Luxor

Just enjoying our vacation

Less than a year later we bought our first home together in the Nootka Place Strata where we moved in right across a sidewalk from one of my best high school friends Theresa and her hubby Kevin and their two little guys Linden and Dane. We often joked that it was our very own F.R.I.E.N.D.S episode when we would get together. Our home is a 5-bedroom 3-bathroom 3-storey townhouse in a great family oriented complex. Since we moved we have since made some new friends, Ashleigh and Sean Tassell and their little guy Jaxon, and they also moved in so now we really are the Friends group!

Ashleigh, Theresa and Me

Jim and I with Kevin and Theresa Slack. Can you tell we are slightly intoxicated?!

Probably my favorite picture from that night!

When we decided it was time to start our family it was decision that neither of us took lightly. We had certain criteria we wanted to have done before we did it and all of those things had been checked off the list. We owned a home, we had travelled a little bit, we weren't too much in debt and we finally felt like we were ready to give up our old life and start a new life together with a baby. And let's be honest, we weren't getting any younger either, and I was finding that the older and more settled I got the more I was beginning to wonder if maybe I would be fine without ever having children. I'm glad that thought went out the window quickly because in the summer of 2009 we became pregnant with our first child.

My pregnancy with pretty good and flew by quickly as I was planning one of the biggest events that has ever come to Powell River. The Olympic Torch Relay planning took up almost my whole pregnancy and it was a project I was so proud to say I organized. I first felt James move when I was in Victoria watching the start of the Relay. When the Torch arrived here in PR when I was just over 7 months pregnant I remember standing there watching months of my hard work come together in a spectacular event and knowing it was a memory I would never forget.

Joyce, Michele and I in Victoria for the start of the Olympic Torch Relay - October 2009

Me with the Torch in Duncan

With my favorite mascot Quatchie at the celebration here in PR

At the ferry terminal, following the Torch all the way to Vancouver

The closest we ever got the actual flame

Jimmy and I holding the torch

On April 13, 2010, Jim and I welcomed our handsome wonderful son named Alfred James. He is named after his Daddy and was born on his Grandpa Colin's 60th birthday. He is now 2 years old and is truly the light of our lives. I'm sure if you keep following this blog you will get to know much much much more about him as he is the best thing to have ever happened to me and I can't wait to write more about him.

Here are some pictures of him from the past 2 years! There aren't a lot in this post because it's already super long and I'm sure you will see many many more posts about him in the coming months and years.

The BEST moment of my entire life, meeting my son for the first time...and being done being pregnant!

My little troll baby on the day we came home from the hospital.

NEWBORN PHOTO SHOOT - 8 Days old

1st Birthday - April 13, 2011

2nd Birthday - April 13, 2012

* That's it folks! That's the last for this post. If you got all the way to the end I thank you so much! I look forward to sharing so much more about my life with me and my two boys!