yowza.

there's nothing like wearing spandex in front of people you don't know to make you feel good about yourself.
i know.
SPANDEX.
so, i've been going to physical therapy for my knees the last month. it's been really great, i can actually tell already-they don't hurt as bad :) so, they told me about a research study that duke was doing on knees, and how to better focus their exercises. they wanted regular knee people and hurting people (me) too. so i went to this lab, and they put me in a SPANDEX shorts and SPANDEX shirt with all of these electrodes on me, so that they could follow my muscle movement. pretty cool. EXCEPT that there was an inch or so gap between the shorts and the top, where my little belly found it's way out. eek. AND everyone in physical therapy basically has to be in shape, so that was awesome. and there were boy athletes around, too. eek!
it was neat, though, to see the results..apparently my knees hurt so much becuase certain muscle groups are really weak, and they default to other muscles to do their work, so my knees don't hurt. hmm. so now i have to force these guys to get stronger and vouila! i'm better.
so another funny story. when me and aaron joined our gym in march, it comes with 2 free personal training sessions. i never got around to doing them, but since i'm trying to whip my butt into shape, i thought i'd give it a go.
my trainer has a MUSTACHE. a MUSTACHE that moves when he talks.
so i kept laughing while i'm doing everything because:
1. i'm really (embarassingly) weaker than i thought
2. it's not fun to have your face shake in front of someone you don't know.
3. his mustache would move when he talks.
so yes. i'm basically a big wenie. but maybe robert can whip me into shape. if i go back.
rob: "next time, i'll work you much harder. you'll be really tired, then!"
whit: "oh, hmm. see you then."
rob: "come prepared to work!"
whit: (waving, with half-smile) "ok. see you."

so what i don't understand about personal trainers, is that the whole point is to get you TONED or whatever...but you can't get toned if you don't go back, right? why in the heck would i want to go back to something that isn't fun at all?!? i would do like 15 somethings..and then he would say "great! now we're adding 15 pounds for the next set!" i'm like "next set??!" followed by the face shaking and laughing. i'm a GIRL! you're not supposed to add 15 pounds to anything! gosh. i could barely use my pen tonight at work. i really am a pansy :)
in other news, i'm getting my hair cut/colored next week by a profeSSIOnal. a professional STUdenT, but still. i'm hoping that the color lasts longer than when i do it, being professional and all. yea for haircuts!
me and aaron's anniversario is soon. almost 2 years! that's a lONG time. it feels like we're official married folk. like people will stop going "oh! newlyweds!" whever they ask how long we've been together. my mom sent us an email the other day saying "well, i guess you really will make it! HA!" that's why i love my mom.
i hope everyone has wonderful fridays!

so i bought a green bench yesterday from world market, and it makes me really excited. i also bought a little coffee table thanks to michelle's consultation on the phone. i can never make these decisions on my own. i get so excited about all the possibilities, that i just want everything..or 50 different combinations of something. i think i have a problem.
maybe i'll work at world market instead of pier one when i start again in the fall. hmm.
aaron had all of his apple people over last night for a shin-dig at our house and it was so fun! it was the perfect little ideal bar-b-que moment with my globe-y lights and fun chairs and queso. yum. we were fINally able to have people over and i wasn't wishing i had done just one more thing. it was SO nice. my friend anne said "this is the first time i've seen your house tidy". how funny is that!? it has been randomly tidy, but then we tear it apart again. so that, more than anything makes me excited. hooraY! we are almost settled!
i've been going to pt for my knee for the last couple of weeks, and it's been awesome. who knew that it could actually get better?!? i've been doing these little strenghtening exercises and i can already tell that it's getting stronger. praise god!
i've gotten 2 packages in the last 3 days that are totally exciting...kelley sent me a print of one of her photos that i wanted, that she framed-very fun. it's brown and blue and just veRY artistic, of course. and JULY sent me this delightful package with magazines and the perfect green bag. wah-oo. i wish i had a million dollars to send packages to everyone, because there's really nothing better than that. well, maybe sno-hut. will someone please go to arlington and enjoy a sno hut for me? i've been deprived.
my garden is growing quite nicely. my zinnias are like 2 inches tall. they're so cute. it's amazing how easy it is to grow stuff. you just dump out a packet of seeds and god goes "grow" and it does. pretty cool.
me and aaron and michelle have decided to RUN A HALF MARATHON!! geez. what are we thinking?!?! well, i lied. first we're going to do a 13K (8.2 miles) in october, and THEN we'll do a half-marathon in like january. baby steps. are you so impressed? i just really need something to kick my butt in gear, so that i can be young and in shape before it gets too hard. well, it will be hard now, but at least we have age on our side. so HOPEfully once we become athletic and toned, we can just maintain with yoga or something, but right now, yoga won't make my ghetto booty go away. so yes. we are officially runners. weird. especially because i HATE running. oh well. any takers?
href="http://disneyworldsports.disney.go.com/dwws/en_US/endurance/events/detail?name=EnduranceTowerofTerror13K2007EventDetailPage&bhcp=1">
ceramics has started again, but i've missed the first 2 weeks-dang! so i'm really excited for this week. ceramics makes me happy. the end.
has anyone bought the kelly clarkson cd yet? is it good? well, it HAS to be. come on.

i planted poppies from seeds. i hope they grow.

hello people.
so we MOVED into our perfect little house with a big backyard...and it's fabulous. the only thing NOT fabulous is the fact that i have to do regular life things-like work. it's not nEArly as fun as hanging pictures and fixing my little italian kitchen. we have to be out of our little apartment by TOMORROW, so pray that we can get the last of our junk out in time! i'm so sick of those stairs.
COURTNEY is in TOWN!
how fun! she came with the boyfriend-taylor-and it's exciting. they can only stay until tomorrow night, but it's still nice to see them. i just wish i was less tired...and the house was perfect. oh well.
so WHENEVER stupid time warner hooks up our new houses' internet, i will post some sassy pictures of the last couple of weeks. a recap:
dodgeball pictures.
landscaping with the best of 'em.
painting up a storm.
courtney.
the ultimate tempur-pedic mattress.
SO there you go. be excited!
whit

the garden CLAW

so i'm getting REALLY excited about moving into our little house!! we move this weekend- well, really we can get into the house on friday. BUT we have to do a bunch of yardwork and painting first, so we'll probably move stuff on like monday. i'm so excited to have a little flower garden and a backyard for mason. the backyard right now has ivy all over the place, so we're going to rip up the stuff on the ground, and PLANT grass on friday. i'm excited. i went to home depot the other day with my friend rachel, and i bought all the stuff. i'm going to have a fancy little garden. i think i'd like to try to grow some veggies or maybe pumpkins...but i guess i should just stick with flowers first. hopefully i can be the next martha stewart. or some other famous gardener. i can't WAIT to use my garden claw. i will be aerating with the best of them.
so AARON comes back tomorrow!! he went to texas early friday morning to his great-grandmother's funeral (sad), and i've missed him terribly! it's sad really. but i've just been talking to myself and mason. we've had a good time, though. but i've kind of hit a wall with the packing thing, so at least i'll have some help :)
i cut my friend anne's hair the other day. it looks FANTASTIC. we did highlights, too. it was super-fun. i guess in the last month, i've cut like 4 of my work friend's hair. it's fun to make people look good :)
julie-i can't believe you are counting down the days until you come back, you are crAZY! enjoy it while you can! the rest of us are just jeaLOUs as can be :)
i want these from crate and barrel:

i think it's so sassy. aaron has some new pier one furniture (surprise) that's black and kinda textured, so it'd go perfect! i can't decide, their shipping is like $15. hmm.
i PROMISE, pictures to come on our photo website from the april visitors. sorry!

i wish i could have watched the bachelor, but i'm at work.

so i hate north carolina drivers, i've decided!
me and aaron had a horrendous experience the other day driving to raleigh for this art-fest thing downtown (way fun, by the way). they closed down the major interstate to one lane, so of COURSE people have to drive crazy and try to go past the line, and cut over...and basically just screwed everything up. it took us one hour to go 1 1/2 miles to the next exit. CRAP! people kept going around the line on the shoulder and it was SO annoying. one point, me and aaron decided to take a stand and get half into that lane, so we could stop those jerks, but they STILL kept going around us in their little jeeps and stupid acuras. even an ELEMENT betrayed us! blasphemy! it was terrible. at one point, we thought we had a backer behind us, but alas, they too were just trying to go around. one honda civic hatchback against the world. we lost.
when we fINAlly made it to the art festival, it was totally fun. it reminded me of austin. there was a bunch of pottery, so that was neat. i can't wait until i can take my next class! this time, a bunch of work girls want to join me. should be fabulous.
me and aaron move soon, and we haven't packed at ALL. i can't wait to paint our new walls and buy patio furniture and plant a garden. i think i'll buy a 'garden claw'. do you think that they're only available thru the info-mertial? mertial. that looks wrong. we're going to cut down a bunch of ivy that's all over the backyard ground, and try to plant some grass-seeds so that mason can have a backyard. does anyone have any tips on growing grass? i know you need to water it alot, but that's all i got.
i want to get one of those seat-hammocks for our front porch. i think that will be excellent. i can't wait to read magazines and watch the passerbyers on duke street. !

aaron wants to get mason a friend. like a bulldog or a dalmation. i think that sounds fun, but i can't decide if that would make life easier, or harder. i think i'd want a more chill dog, like a BASSET HOUND. so that he/she can sit and watch movies with me. but then would mason drive him/her crazy? should i get another hyper dog?

pros:
another dog=fun
mason can run himself silly and quit jumping all over us
mason and the new dog can be friends

cons:
one more dog to have someone watch for us if we go out of town
more moo-lah
probably has to be a boy dog so that there's no 'issues'


i guess that's it.

so those puppies are CUTE. oh my gosh. july- is it easier to have 3 cats vs 1? you, my friend, are the pet expansion exPERt.

does anyone listen to amy winehouse? because you SHOULD if you don't.

i thought she was supposed to be all scandalous and angry, but she IS FANTASTIC! she's all bluesy and woNDerful. i wish i could sing like that. me and mason were listening to her today while i was trying to clean the casa.
still no progress on losing more weight...dang! summer is here, and i'm not bikini-ready! oh well. i bought some cute shorts today, so that's something.
i wish i were in london and paris. julie, have SO much fun for me, ok?
what do we think about the grey's anatomy finish? what was THAT about? sometimes i just wish people could be happy and not so self-depricating. !
i want one of these:

hopefully my car can hold out until the end of the summer, and we can save up!
i'm excited.

tah-dah

so it's been forEVER since i last posted. it seems to be a trend of mine..but i don't usually feel like i have that much to say, so yes. here we go.
so the work-a-thon was terrible as expected, but it was awesome to get to senda big check to the ol' credit card company. so now we've cut down our debt by about $3000. so WAH-HOO! soon enough we'll be debt-free and i can get my little element! eep!
otherwise, we are MOVING in a couple of weeks out of our stupid apartment, so that's exciting. the people downstairs finally moved out, so no more mason lOCKDOWn at 11:00pm! that was getting annoying. but we haven't started packing at ALL, so wish me luck. hopefully i can just plop a bunch of stuff in my backseat and make a bunch of trips over there. like 31 times.
my parents and michelle visited us out here a couple of weeks ago, so that was WAY fun! it was nice seeing people from home, and it was REALLY nice just to not be working. we got to go to washington dc, and see all of the capitol stuff...that was cool. and with michelle, we got to spend a night at the beach. i got some sun, which my white body desPERately needed. aaron lost his wedding ring, and then found it (well, the guys with metal detectors found it). it was SO fun to get to hang out again.
we got some new dining chairs for our lovely pier one table! yipee! they are FABulous, as expected. they are on our picture website. i'll try to post the vacation pictures soon...i usually have to ask aaron all kinds of questions, but i'll try!
speaking of, i think aaron might be getting a promotion soon! way to go aaron. he'll soon be a CREATIVE. which sounds so elitist to me, but translated means "the guy who does one-on-one training to help people learn how to use their computers". but he LOVES doing that anyways, so perfect!
i've been cutting a lot of people's hair out here lately...so that's been fun. i'd love to go to cosmetology school out here part time, but the only one i've found is only full time. plus, it takes like 9 months to complete. yikes! i figure i'll either do hair or interior design when i get tired of nursing in like 15 years. should be fun :)
my little man at work got discharged like 2 weeks ago, hooraY! it's great to see kids going home...sometimes i forget that some people actually DO get better. it's been hard up here lately...sometimes i don't know how i do this everyday! i never thought i would want to do pediatric oncology-especially with the kids where treatment didn't work before...but i really do like my job. i think god has been able to lift my spirits through my little support system of aaron and mason. plus, i have a lot more friends out here now, so that's always good. and ice cream doesn't hurt either.
so the whole get skinny program is back on. i stopped for a little while because, basically it's no fun being on a diet. but APPAREnTLY it's really easy to gain weight back, so my progress has been stunted! drat! so my ewl of 20 lbs went to about 14 lbs. oh well. back on :)
go see "in the land of women" with adam brody, it's fabulous. and eat lots of popcorn for me.
july, i hope your trip to oxford goes peachily-i'm sure you'll be GREAT! i watched "you've got mail" last night, and thought of you :)

visual aides

how FANTASTIC is this little dinner set. does it scream whitney or what?! i think i need those. (thanks july for the online tutorial, i'm JUST NOW going back and figuring out what you said.)
perhaps this can go in our new little RENT house that we found last week!!!!! i'd post a picutre, but i only took some with my camera phone....so we'll see. but it's this perfect little house in "historic duke district" that has wood floors and a perfect, bright kitchen, a front porch that is as wide as the HOUSE is, and a big deck out back for summer bar-b-quing. plus, it's fenced in so our little mason can have a place to play. june 1st, here we come!


this is a picture of the little guy i've been taking care of at work lately. he's awesome. obviously. look at that hat.

so otherwise, my life's been pretty crazy lately. i've been working like a ToN of overtime, for our unit and another pediatric icu stepdown unit. it's been NUTS. but i'll be glad in a couple of weeks when we can pay off a lot of our credit cards. i can't wait!! maybe then we can finally get a mattress that fits our bed. and a coffee table. and chairs for our dining table. anyways.
i bought a giant ceramic tomato for our italian kitchen from target. i love any store that will sell giant fruits.


well, i should go work now. look at me and all of my pictures!