Kimberly Pattison

Q: Please tell us a little bit about your family.
We have three adult children Cole, Koral, and Carson and we are grandparents to Camilla and Hudson.
Q: Please tell us about your current, past, or future career. What do you love most about what you do?
I have been a hairdresser since I graduated high school. I love to make people feel beautiful inside and out.  Until now, this is the only job I’ve ever known.

Q: What are a couple of your favorite restaurants in our community?
Our favorite restaurant that we love to feel romanticized by is Tsunami. We love to eat outdoors!  Being able to view the activity of the Mississippi River as the sun sets over the levee is our favorite date night view.  Sushi rolls are our favorite!   We love to close our eyes and choose rolls we’ve never tried and be surprised by their flavor.

Q: How long have you lived or worked in our community?
I have lived and worked in and outside of Baton Rouge since my junior year in high school. My husband was in the military and shortly after we were married, we moved to Fort Bragg, North Carolina.  Being far from home was hard, and we could not wait to return to our Louisiana roots and start a family.

Q: Who is the most interesting person you’ve met here in our community?
The most interesting person I have met in our community would have to be Elaine Ellis.  She rented me my first salon on O’Neal Lane in 1991 and has been a faithful friend and follower ever since. She is a businesswoman who throws herself into local charities as well and is very generous by opening her home to others.

Q: If you could travel anywhere in the world right now, where would it be and why?
I would love to travel to Italy. My husband visited Italy while in the military and his passionate description of his time there has always made me yearn to visit.

Q: What is one of your favorite movies? TV shows?
My absolute favorite movie has always been Charlotte’s Web. I have always loved Children’s picture books not knowing one day I would write one of my own.

Q: What advice would you give to people?
My advice to others is only see the GOOD in ALL people! My husband jokes that I live in my own bubble. I can’t say that I disagree! He, being a police officer and having fought in Desert Storm two months after we were married has experienced lots of ugly in his lifetime and myself working in the beauty industry all my adult life has only seen the beauty and good side of people.

Q: What is something on your bucket list?
I would love to see whales up close and personal. I am truly fascinated with their size and beauty. I think they are a perfect example of God’s existence.

Q: What is your go-to band when you can’t decide what to listen to?
Lauren Daigle hands down. I get the biggest lump in my throat listening to her belt out her lyrics!  If you don’t believe me just go listen to HOW CAN IT BE! 😭

Q: What current or former local business makes you the most nostalgic about our community?
Goudchaux’s was my very first job as a hairdresser. Sternberg’s impeccable customer service as well as their attention to detail still resonates in my soul. In 1987 we had to dress up to go to work. You can ask anyone on my clients to this day I still wear a dress and high heels to stand and cut hair! I had no idea I was old school but I guess I am and pretty proud of it.

Q: If you could choose anyone that is alive today and not a relative; with whom would you love to have lunch? Why? And where locally would y’all meet for this lunch?
Funny you ask I am about to make this happen, it would be my friend Darren. He is the most inspirational, motivational, and hyper-Christian I have ever met. I reached out to him for advice on how to market my book and he sent me his calendar immediately to “make it happen “ as he likes to say

Q: What is your favorite thing or something unique about our community?
I am very proud of our southern hospitality and our heritage. I am proud that we not only eat but used to make boudin, cracklings, and hog head cheese. I am proud that the family tradition I keep is making my Ma’s chaudain, better known as the stuffed lining of the pig’s stomach. Before you knock it, have you tried it?

Q: Where do you see yourself in 5 to 10 years?
I see my husband and me standing on stage in front of as many people that will listen to us as we pray for our country and specifically our first responder families. Everyone who has a negative opinion of a soldier or a first responder has never had one in their family. If they had they would know what’s it like to not have them during hurricanes, or holidays or know what it’s like to be a “married single “ it’s very hard to stay married in a world where everyone else is relying on YOUR significant other to save the day. I’d be honored to help just one wife know it’s going to be okay or pray to overcome a marriage that’s hanging on by a string. Joel and I have probably been through just about every rainy day that can pour down on your marriage but in the end, we push through and credit God for our marital existence.

Q: (Even for friends or family), what is something interesting that most people don’t know about you?
Most people don’t know that I have social anxiety. Refuse to submit to my fears. I can feel confident all day long in my own “behind-the-chair world “ but please don’t ask me to enter yours. I challenge myself daily because I refuse to submit to fear. If I give up satan wins and that’s not about to happen! I’m a twin so someone being alongside of me and sharing the conversation comes naturally but put me in a room full of strangers and I want to shut down. God had a different idea for me. He is teaching me how to stand confident in front of children reading my book to prepare me later to stand before adult strangers! I’m working on it 🙏

Q: What is the most beautiful place you have ever been to? Why did it make such an impression on you?
The most beautiful place I have ever been was Bar Harbor Maine. I loved renting a little cozy cottage where one part of the day you could walk as far as you could see and then when the tide came in the space looked totally different. I liked that we needed coats in June and we could scale their sandy shores collecting sea glass.

Q: Favorite month? favorite holiday? and the best single day on the calendar?
I absolutely love Thanksgiving. I love that your presence is your family’s present. I love that each one of my siblings makes one of my grandmother’s best “know-for “recipes. I love that even though we are “full as a tick “ we immediately have coffee and desserts! One year I decided I didn’t like being too full for the desserts so I piled my plate with all the desserts first, then ate a piece of ham and that’s all!

Q: What would you rate a 10 out of 10?
Chick-Fil-A and their family. Joel and I have experienced their hidden treasure, the Winshape Foundation retreats! The Chick-Fil-A family has a heart for marriages.  Joel and I lucked upon an empty nest weekend and were asked to return and learn to be a host couple. I know God has big plans for us! AFTER you see me on stage reading my children’s book, He will groom me to be brave enough to shake my social anxiety and love his married couples. Get ready Mr.Pattison because you know when God says jump I not only say how high but I skip and dance alongside of him.

Q: Who inspires you to be better?
My adult children inspire me to be better. They loved me when I had no idea how to parent. They loved us when we were not only broke financially but broken spiritually. They have given me lots of do-overs and now have made me a “Sweetie” to their children.

Q: If you stop at the corner gas station, what is the one food item that is begging you to purchase?
This is so funny because this is a real thing for me! My drug of choice is Race Track taquitos and their chicken sticks! Only I call them all “chick a sticks”🤷‍♀️ Joel knows if he wants to make me happy don’t buy me flowers, take me riding in his Jeep and buy me TWO Chicka Sticks and a Diet Coke! He always sneaks in snickers with almonds and pretends it’s for ME!

Q: Finally, what 3 words or phrases come to mind when you think of the word HOME?
Home to me is comfy, cozy, and fluff.