getting to know all about me…(name that movie)
For anyone who already knows me, it shouldn’t surprise them that I’m starting this out with a cheesy old movie reference. In a nutshell, I’m an unapologetically cheesy adventure seeker, and a bit of a hot mess most of the time. Most of the time it’s easy to make me happy; a good pun, a spontaneous trip, and surprises of *almost* any kind will do the trick! I am the proudest-ever-aunt, a passionate acute pediatric occupational therapist, a lover of red wine, good food, far off places, and my {gem of a} high school sweetheart husband Kyle. Still not sure how I hit that particular jackpot. While we don’t have any littles of our own, we are have two fur children, Moxie (a Pome-huahua), and Bridgette (a Chiweenie) who basically run the show at our house 🐾
I have one sister Whitney who is two years older than me, and four older half siblings from my dad’s previous marriage. We joke that we are my dad’s “second litter”, and as a result, he had us later in life (my parents are about the same age as my husband’s grandparents!) I think one benefit to having older parents is that they had done all their own things for long enough that by the time we came around, they were absolutely selfless in their pursuit to make my childhood a grand adventure. We had limited resources and didn’t travel much, but there was no lack of fun experiences to be had. We always lived in the country and my mom homeschooled us (there’s a right and wrong way to do it – she is a pro!), patiently and passionately spending her days figuring out what made us “tick” and molding our learning towards whatever that was. My dad worked hard to support our family and spent his weekends restoring whatever house/land we lived on, and creating ziplines and treehouses for us. As as a result I spent most of my formative years learning through experience-based education instead of a classroom. We did a ton of reading and I was a super-nerdy bookworm as a child/teenager, and I believe this type of upbringing lent itself to the type of free time that cultivated a rich imagination and drive to explore. I also think that (along with my personality type) is what instilled this drive I have to see and experience the world.
In high school my mom decided she wasn’t good enough at math and science to do us justice, and enrolled us in a University Model School (UMS). If you’re unfamiliar, feel free to research it, but UMS is basically like part time private school with accredited teachers who model education progressively towards university-level teaching styles. Through this, I met my husband Kyle, and my best friend Beth, and the rest is history!
*fun fact, I actually tried to set Kyle up with TWO of my best friends before I realized Kyle was into me and/or reciprocated that interest…Beth being one of them*
Presently, I work full time as a pediatric occupational therapist in a children’s hospital which is really heartbreaking and difficult at times, but truly so rewarding. I love my sweet little ones so much! My husband is a chiropractor and runs his own successful private family practice in our hometown and is well loved by his clients. He is truly as close to perfect as any man can be (don’t tell him I said that) and after all these years I still find myself crushing on that guy. I have a myriad of odd health issues including chronic migraines that I’ve battled since I was a little kid, and we spent the first 10 years of marriage working and with one or both of us in school. Then Kyle decided to start a debt-free practice fresh out of school *weeeee* I say all that to tell you, we’ve had our fair share of obstacles, and had to work at it some days more than others, but I wouldn’t trade him for the world.
Kyle and I love being on-the-go, and we travel more than the average working class couple our age, so after months/years of friends begging me to tell them how we’re doing it, I finally caved and started this blog…mostly as a more efficient means of documenting and disseminating information about our travels for others. {disclaimer} I don’t know anything about blogging, I’m not a talented writer, nor am I highly qualified to be giving travel advice…but I’m happy to share my experiences, advice, and opinions if it means helping YOU all work towards making more room for adventure in your life.
Though we seldom traveled when I was a kid, since I was very little I’ve loved adventure and always knew I wanted to see the world! With every passing year, my desire to get out and explore this beautiful planet of ours just becomes stronger. While it would be lovely to have endless disposable income to do that full time, I really am just an ordinary girl living an ordinary life, working her booty off to make travel and adventure a priority.
Elena Levon said it best “I choose to collect memories instead of things.” 🤍
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