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I'm a 27 year-old nurse who has come to embrace a healthy lifestyle filled with adventures and challenges.  I had the typical experiences after high school, I went away to college and picked up bad habits.  I came home, and found that having a great life didn't always have to mean trying to fit in with what people around me were doing.

I am married to an amazing man, Nick.  He inspires me to be all the things I have never thought possible.  He is my best friend, and I can honestly say I have no idea what my life would be like with out him in it.  We got married this past New Year's Eve, it was the best decision I have ever made.

I never set out to be a nurse.  In fact, I set out to be anything but a nurse.  My mom is a nurse, and the idea of following someone else's path was the last thing I wanted to do with my life.  So I set out to be a variety of things, but never a nurse.  When I came home from my three semesters in NYC, I got a job at a local hospital just to get a job.  It was about three weeks into the position that I realized the medical world was the one I belonged in.  So I changed my major, graduated, became an ER nurse, and now, 4 1/2 years later, I'm halfway through my Acute Care Nurse Practitioner degree.

I also never set out to be an athlete.  I was the kid who always forged a note to get out of gym class.  Around the time I was 20 I joined a gym that offered kickboxing classes, before I knew it, I was hooked.  During nursing school, I would spend up to 3 hours a day at the gym, squeezing in classes whenever I could.  Eventually I discovered spin, and before I knew it, I had bought my first road bike and started riding with my Dad who is an avid cyclist.  Now, I've completed multiple century rides, and countless shorter distance rides over the past 5 years.  When I first met my husband, I was into cycling but never thought I could run.  Well, he got me out the door, and now I've completed 2 half-marathons, and I even completed a full marathon (ok, it was slow, but I crossed the finish line upright and smiling, and what matters more than that?).  Nick is an Ironman, and right now I can't swim, but given my history, I know I'll be figuring that out in a matter of time, and I have a goal of completing my first triathlon by this time next year.

Then there are all of the other things I fill my life with.  I bought my first house days after I met Nick, so I have a few years of home ownership under my belt.  Along with that comes home maintenance, repairs, yard work, gardening (with a worm phobia--it is quite amusing to watch me), house cleaning, etc.  

I have also found myself in the kitchen and its taken a few years, but I have gone from following other people's recipes, to altering them slightly, to just making things up as I go and ending up with a product that is edible (some days are better than others).  

I am a voracious reader (when I have time), and have been known to devour books in a matter of hours.  I never remember character names, and I often forget what books I have read because titles don't stick with me, but during the time I am reading the book, I will be consumed by it.  I love movies, but rarely stay awake to watch them in their entirety.  I have a ridiculous habit of crying over everything.  Commercials, movies, books, songs, even sitcoms have proven to be fuel for my tears.  Don't even try to picture what it is like for me to attempt to buy a greeting card at Hallmark!

I have a dog, Cooper 

and a cat, Dr. Theodore Emerson-we call him Kytens.