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DANVILLE, Ky. (AP) — It's hard to catch Danville native Jaime Kendrick.
A mother of three, two elementary-aged, a bus driver for the Boyle County Schools and a real estate agent are just a few of the hats Kendrick wears.
"I guess I'm unusual. I enjoy going to work," she says. "I can't sit still. I think it's just me, I think it's just who I am."
It began when Kendrick and her husband, Larry, decided to adopt. She was working at Boyle County Middle School in special education classrooms. She has one stepchild, Raechel, now 24.
The couple had unsuccessfully tried to get pregnant after seven years of marriage. Instead, they turned to adoption in December 2003. In January 2005, they brought Jacob, now 11, home from Taiwan.
Kendrick was able to take the remainder of the school year off under the Family Medical Leave Act. That summer, Kendrick decided to remain a stay-at-home mom, and, on the advice of a friend, decided to get her commercial driver's license so she could be a substitute school bus driver.
"Subbing automatically turned into an everyday job for a lady who was off on medical leave. The next thing you know, I was hired in. They hooked me," she said. "Eleven years later, I'm still there."
"I enjoy it. I enjoy the people I work with."
Her mornings start early, as Kendrick rolls her bus before 7 a.m.
"I try to be on time. Kids get dependent on you. They're standing out there in the rain and snow," she said.
Kendrick drives two routes, one from 7-8 a.m., and a day treatment route from 8-9 a.m. She then returns in the early afternoons to drive the first route home before returning at 4 p.m. to pick up the students from the day treatment route.
"You get attached to the kids," she said. "You pretty much know them their whole school career."
She says the characteristics of her late father James Dotson keep her from sitting still for too long.
"I have a whole lot of my dad in me," she said. "My stay-at-home mom turned into three jobs."
Kendrick also began job number two that first summer. Adoption Assistance is the organization through which the Kendricks adopted Jacob, and later his sister MacKenzie, now 8. She was hired to do its accounts payable and accounts receivable through the office in Danville.
Jacob and MacKenzie are biological siblings, and when MacKenzie came through the orphanage, the Kendricks got the call because the agencies wanted them to be adopted together.
The third job was one she and Larry had talked about doing for years. It was during a trip to Gatlinburg that her husband decided to do something about it, and signed her up for real estate school.
"I started school the next week," she said. It was around 2009 when she obtained her license and got to work.
"It's changed a lot, even in the short time I've been in it," Kendrick said. "Real estate comes in spurts. You have to be ready to roll with it when the call comes in."
Seeing the homes is an interesting look into the person.
"You learn a lot about people walking through their homes," she said.
She and Larry have often talked about moving, but only did so once, about 15 years ago. Kendrick said she never moved until she got married, so "there's still that itch."
"We get on a kick and say we're going to move. We'll start looking at houses. Fifteen years and we're still here," she said.
"Now I work all three jobs, because I can't say no to any of them. I'm often asked, 'If you had to give up one, which one would you give up?' I couldn't. I couldn't give up any of them," Kendrick said. "I just enjoy all the people I work with."
There are other jobs she would like to one day try, such as working on a food truck, working at Subway, her fast food restaurant of choice, and being a family budget counselor.
"I don't have high expectations or dreams. I just want to try many different things," Kendrick said.
That also doesn't account for her many other ventures, including being a buyer and seller. It's not uncommon to find her at auctions, partially because of her real estate work, but mostly because she just enjoys it.
"I enjoy doing it. Larry says all the time, 'But it's work,' and it is work, but I enjoy it," she said.
It's a challenge, she said, to find things and then see if she can sell them.
"You'd be amazed at what someone will buy. I get a kick out of that," she said.
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Information from: The (Danville, Ky.) Advocate-Messenger, http://www.centralkynews.com/amnews
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