i like cookie dough ice cream

so tomorrow morning i'm driving to philadelphia with michelle, aaron, and her friend amy for 4th of july festivities! i'm so excited.
michelle is travel nursing in boston next, so she drove through durham today, and we're going to go hang for the night at her cousins' townhouse. veRY patriotic. there's going to be an ice cream festival, fireworks, a parade, and john legend. should be a rockin' time.
in other news, our new apartment is almost FINALLY completed. my chi is in order, and i'm feeling gOOd.
that is all, happy weekend :)

yO!

so i guess i've been gone for forever..and now i guess i'm back!
for the longest time i felt like i really had nothing to say, or that no one really cared whAt i was saying..so yes. now i am back and ready to ramble.
our new neighbors called the COPS on us the other night. CAN YOU BEIEVE THAT?!!? it makes me angry just to think about. we had some frieds over to have a 'family dinner' (our group's newest fun thing..to avoid spending money out to eat, and just to be grownups and have dinner parties).
so yes. the family dinner. we were waiting for the chicken tortilla casserole to finish (best food ever-will change your world)..and playing catch phrase. it was like 9:30. our building has "quiet hours" between 10-8 everyday, so whatever. only 9:30, we're good, right? WRONG. one of our friends kelly saw someone she knew in the hallway (a cop) and he was like 'oh, you must be down the hall'. he'd apparently gotten a 'call' about us...WHAT!? he didn't come by, but jeez-i was so angry at these invisible neighbors we don't even know yet! we were playing catch phrase for goodness sake..
so now i send little stink-eyes at their (we're guessing) door every time i take mason out. so if you're the one looking at me from behind your little peep hole, i hope you've got the funk. and i DON'T want to meet you. by the way, i'm whitney.

exquisite

so basically, august rush is the best movie ever. it was heaven (in the voice of the little boy from 'the holiday'.
everyone should go see it tomorrow. and that's that. it was perfect and i knew it would be, but really. delightful.



in other words.
i didn't have to work thanksgiving, so that was aWEsome! well, i worked the night before, but the night of..they got to send a patient home, so that meant I got to stay home! yipee :) aaron decided around 2 pm that he was going to cook thanksgiving dinner. it was awesome. he made stuffing, sweet yams, green bean casserole, chicken (i know. turkey's overrated) and rolls (which got burned...boo!) it was fantastic. i'm married to a regular paula dean. or rachel ray. i guess he'd be more like rachel ray, seeing as she's also hip and cool.
so this morning i ate burned rolls and pumpkin pie for breakfast. it was perfect.
operation:organize house is almost done...so that's fun. i might put up our christmas tree tomorrow.
i CANNOT BELIEVE IT SNOWED IN DALLAS ON THANKSGIVING! i'm SO SO jealous! it was cold here, but not snow-cold.
i think about snowboarding all of the time. i really hope we can go this year...the alternative makes me very sad. come on aaron's job! we're trying to be patient..but it's getting tough!
mason is sitting next to me intently chewing a rubber bone. he's making funny squeaking sounds. he's really the coolest dog ever.
hope everyone has fun weekends. stay away from the malls!

thanksgibing

so thanksgiving is coming up...hooray for rolls! except i have to WORK on thanksgiving! so basically it won't really feel like anything. can someone plEAse eat some rolls and pumpkin pie for me and tell me how it was?!


disney was really fun. florida was much more rainy and cloudy than we expected...but still exciting to be out of town. our race was good. and by good i mean good that we finished! holy cow. i can't believe we did it! i stuck with aaron, and we stopped a couple of times, but we mostly ran it all. HOORAY! if you would have told me 4 months ago that i could run 8.2 miles i would have just died. well, we did and i just feLt like i was dying.
one plus: we saw joey fatone and got a picture with him! how funny

i guess he was there seeing a friend do the race. random!
disney was great...i got to have my picture taken with the princesses. so that was cool.
and seeing everything was really fun. we got to ride a lot of stuff. too bad it rained on us though! that's why we look so crappy :)

aaron had fun in the gift shop-















sea world was awesome it's like aaron's ultimate place, so he had a blast. we took a behind-the-scenes tour, so that was really cool. we got to touch a penguin, feed the sea otters, feed and pet the dolphins, and eat dinner next to shamu's pool. the shows were pretty awesome, we (of course) got some neat pictures:











so yeah. we had a good time. if you want to see more of the like MIlliON pictures, you can go to
gallery.mac.com/adhendrickson
and you can even download from there, if you so choose :)










miss you already michelle!







we even got to rent these dirt bikes in daytona beach with michelle's brother. that was rAD.


so since we've gotten back i've done hardly aNY running, and gotten a bunch of stuff done around the house. we are almost FINALLY moved in! about time-5 months later! i'm making aaron put up shelves and things, and i've been organizing...basically just a lOT of fun. i'm excited to not have an agenda at home. i can just be dOne, with no piles of anything laying around.
i'm excited about christmas! me and aaron still aren't doing any presents this year (he's still jobless), but at least i'm not working..so it should feel like a real holiday :) and we've got some friends who are also stuck here this year, so that'll be nice. i'll post pictures of our christmas tree this weekend when i put it up.
till next time!
ps. july-i got a tray of chicken bitties the other day for me and aaron and i thought of you.

mickey

so we're going to disney world in like 3 hours!! wah-oo!!
i'm super-excited to get to go on a rEAl vacation! we're going to universal studios, magic kingdom, epcot, animal kingdom, sea world...we're seeing it all! it should be absolutely FABulous. i can't wait.

PLUS i ran 8 miles today for the first time ever. HOLY COW. maybe we can do this 8.2 miles after all :) pray for us on saturday...we will MOST definatley be struggling :)
adios!

i love pf changs.

we just ate at pf changs (big surprise) and it was delicious.
i don't know what i would have done, michelle, without you showing me the light. i guess i'd be a lot sadder. and smaller, probably :)
so a lot has happened since i last posted...
so we went to texas and it was aWEsomE! it was so nice to see everyone, and EAT good food every day. i acutally gained 6 pounds.
in a week and a half.
and not just "i'm so fat! i gained six pounds!"
but really.
so ANYWays, since we've been back me and aaron have been trying to run as much as we can, so that we can actually DO this race next weekend. we are SUPEr excited to get to go to disney world, though. hooRAY! aaron has never been, and i went when i was lik 8, so it should be a good time. plus i get to hang out with michelle and liz, so it'd be fun either way. we're going to spend a couple of days at the beach, and a couple at disney world...it'll be a blast!
work has been really sad lately. i guess they say it comes in waves, but our 'wave' doesn't seem to be going away. one of my favorite patients is really sick, 2 died this week, and one more was told he relapsed. yikes. i just can't imagine living day to day with that kind of burden on your heart. these families are really amazing. one little boy that passed the other day had a really sweet christian parents and an older sister. when he was gone, the dad cried for a bit, and then composed himself and immediately rushed over to his little girl and told her that they couldn't take her brother home with them. he said that he needed to go to heaven, and he was waiting for them there. the little guy's favorite thing was eating cheetos..and his dad was talking to him once he was gone, and said 'you know the best part about eating cheetos in heaven? you don't get orange fingers" what an amazing spirit..i just can't imagine.
sorry to be sad..
on another note: i had a girl doctor appointment last week and they found a "fibrous" lump, and she wanted me to get a mammogram and ultrasound to get it checked out, since my grandmother had breast cancer. scaRY! i know it would probably be fine, but still..i was nervous all week. (this was last wednesday). so THEN aaron got FIRED from his job at apple on saturday-and we lost our insurance that day too! god must have really been testing us this week. it's a long story, but basically, it was a policy thing, but he really had a peace about the whole thing.
so, we were short a job, insurance, and i had appointments for PT and mammograms with no insurance. hmm. so after many prayers, i was able to re-sign on with duke's insurance, effective the DAY that aaron lost ours. prAISE JESUS! so i got to keep my appointments, and turns out everything is FINE. i guess it's just a fat glob.
that's right, i have a fat glob in my left breast.
ps. mammograms are tOTALLy weird. i wouldn't reccommend them. especailly if you don't have much to work with in the first place :)
deep sigh.
so it's been a tough week, but we know we'll get throught this. aaron has been working on his portfolio and getting certified in photoshop so that he can "beef up" his resume, so he can FINALLY do what he really loves-graphic design/photography. so send prayers out to north carolina, so that aaron can find a good job. i think the perfect one is out there somewhere, but if he was still working at apple, he couldn't find it.
so that's that.
i took mason to the puppy groomers the other day, to see if he could be shaved since he's a shedding machine (he couldn't by the way), but they dID bathe him and brush his teeth and such..and even got this cute bandana! i was a proud mom.
BUT also the worst mom, since we looked up mason's info the other day to see when his birthday was..because we knew it was at the end of october..and we'd miSSED it. it was oct 6th. we are such bad parents! so happy late birthday mason.

Holy COW

how funny is this?! this is how i feel every day with aaron.

workin' girl

so yes. this is my 7th night in a row to work. that's right. life stinks a bit right now.
this is partly planned, so that i could get in my on call hours before we left for TEXAS, and i usually do one overtime shift a week, but yikes. i had to work my on call day this week, and yes. i basically feel like a zombie. YOW!
on another note, i've been precepting at work lately, which is a change. it's kind of fun..especially because i only did this a year ago, so i remember how scary it is. so that's that. did i MENTION that i have to do charge nurse too?! yes. manditory charge nurse training. no fun. i get 6 training shifts, and i've done 4. hopefully my last two come in like a YEAR when i feel like i'm ready.
guess what people...i ran FIVE miles the other day. yip! so it looks like this whole race thing might actually be feasible. which is...unexpected. and my knees are getting better every day..my pt lady said i could come back in 2 weeks this time, instead of every week. so that's good :)
(i feel like these are boring blogs...perhaps i should tell a story)
the other day, the old lady who lives across the street came banging on our screen door, to ask if there was a man in the house because her brother fell down in the bathroom. aaron was there, luckily, and he went over to assist. then the crazy lady comes back, and yells through the screen agaIN, and wanted the "nurse" who lived there to come over and help. umm. i'm a "nurse", but i don't know how to take care of people who don't have cancer. and aren't kids.
**now i'm off work**
so anyways, i went over there, and aaron had gotten this little guy up and back to his room. he had a pretty good knot on his head, and a cut on his foot, but otherwise good. but i don't knOW if this guys got a concussion, or how bad his foot was bleeding (becuase he wouldn't take off his sock)..and this lady was rambling, like all old ladies do, and i just felt very incompetant. she took us into the living room afterwards and started telling us his life story and offered us ginger ale. it was funny. we kindly declined and then went back home after assuring her that he was ok, and to take him in if she has any doubts in the morning.
well, we got back home and i was just so unsettled. i kept bugging aaron like 'what if he's not ok?' and 'should i go back over there and hand her this printout on concussions?!' i felt VEry nervous for him. well, i think he's good, because she hasn't come back over here.
THEN yesterday when i got home from work, i was watering the flowers, and all i hear from across the street is that little, cute old lady muttering explatives at her shrubs as she watered them. for like 10 minutes.
seriously, it was like a sailor.
i'm not sure why she was so mad.
the end.
anywho,
i'm mad at victoria's secret. i ordered this super cute swimsuit from them last month and i've been WAITING for like forever for it to be shipped. they were moving into a new distribution center..blah blah, and it took like a moNTH to process. i got another confirmation email from them this morning, and it looks like they shipped it finally, but the wROng size. BLAST! but the nice girl on the phone assured me that the correct size would be here by next thrusday. we leave for dallas on thursday morning. what the heck am i going to do with a swimsuit in OCTOBER!? come on!
tonight is my last night. i am SO excited. i'm going to sleep.
:)

so wow.
this was a post on one of my patient's websites:



i don't even know what to say.
it breaks my heart how much hurt there is in this world.

i'm hungry.

so WOW. a lot has happened since i last wrote.
1. i am OFFICIALLY a north carolina driver. (i have a license AND a new plate!) you know what's cool? you get to pICK your background when you get it done..like, either a plane, lighthouse, state seal, or state map. obviously i picked the plane.
2. i went wakeboarding for the first time-super fun, by the way. it's like snowboarding in the summer! yip.
3. i re-arranged my flower bed, again. but now, everything is where it should be. it wasn't cooperating with the shade/sun requirements because of all the trees. but it's better now.
i guess that's it.
oh, and
4. mason SWAM in the water all by himself. i am SO proud! he jumped off the boat into the water, aLL on his own.
5. the ivy is STILL not dead (in the backyard). aaron tried to kill it with a round of round-up, but geez. i think it'll take 3 more tries.
6. we found out how to get into the door that goes under the house! it was all covered with ivy and spiders, but it's cool under there.

so i thought of a few more.

so our race is still ON. my physical therapy is going well...a couple of weeks ago i started having siatic pain, and then like heel spurs (?) or something, but they told me to stop running, and so far, everything is better. hmm. BUT i got new shoes, so that's probably something.
7. i got new running shoes.
8. and running clothes.
9. and michelle gave us those nike running things that go with your ipod, that tell you how far you've gone and how many calories you've burned. ! sounds exciting.

we get to go to TEXAS in a couple of weeks!! i'm so excited. i haven't been home since last november! so that should be fun. we'll get to go home to hang with michelle, see my family, go to austin to see courtney, go to lubbock to see aaron's family, and stop by ol' abliene too. should be fun. the tour o'texas round 2.

10. i FINALLY got my oil changed. all that's left is the inspection. !
me and aaron are going to the beach on thursday for the day. i think that will be fabulous. anne and some other friends are going, too. so hooray!

our debt repayment is going ok. i gave anne our credit cards, so that we aren't tempted to use them. it's SUPER hard, but i can't WAIT until they are gone! i've been working an extra shift at work every week, so hopefully they'll be gone by the time we go to disney world in october.

back to this:ewl=2 pounds.
i think i should start posting this, since i slack so much. esPECially since michelle is doing so well.
someone asked me the other day if i was on a diet.
"i've been on a diet since december".
wow. that's a long time. maybe i should stop eating on the border every now and then. (p.s. i can't WAIT to have texas food when we come home-abuelos, chuy's, bueno, SNO hut, cheddars..yUM!)
i'll try to post some pictures in the next couple of days of what we've been up to...maybe even a link to the wakeboarder-of-all-time clip. that'd be fun :)
anyone else excited about grey's anatomy coming back? i AM. i wonder when america's next top model will come back? hmm.
http://www.cwtv.com/shows/americas-next-top-model
well there you go.
one more story.
at the dmv, i was waiting in those little chairs, and the girl next to me asked me if i was getting my license for the first time too.
oh my gosh.
i think i need a new look. more highlights, perhaps?

EXPLATIVE!!

so i hate the dang dmv!
i tried AGAIN yesterday to be legal and get a north carolina lisence, and AGAIN it sucked! i waited foreVER yesterday before work, and then i was processed and started to take my test at 4:57 and the computer shuts off at 5:00. so there you go.
"come back tomorrow"
so i go to work. get off this morning, and then pick up my sleepy (also illegal) husband, and head off to the dmv. this time, no wait (!), but turns out i am a MORON, because i missed ONE question more than i could have to pass. CRAP! so now i have to go back aGAIN to retake the stupid thing. I"M SO MAD!
but what's sad it that i'm mostly mad because i got ready like 3 times now, and STILL no cute lisence picture. arg. i got my hair to the just-right amount of poofyness or whatever, and nothing. it takes FOREVER to dry. july, you know what i mean. the sprunch was in. i was READY!
except the lady in the weird patrol-person uniform told be to "come back monday".
i'll show HER monday.

jibber jabber

hello people. well mostly just july, michell, and aaron.
i don't think that anyone else reads this.
so HELLO favorite people!
me and aaron are going HERE today:



hooray for getting outta here today! i'll come back tanner than before, so that's good.
some news:
1. the mustache man is no more. i cancelled him. it wasn't going to work.
2. my flowers are getting bigger.
3. i OFFICIALLY signed up for the 13K run in october.
4. my friend liz is moving to orlando right next month right next to an IKEA.

i guess that's all. i'm really not very exciting.


hopefully we'll see this soon!

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!

i'm sleePY.

so, it SEEMS we are going to have 2 visitors in the next month! yip! we haven't had any official visitors since we moved out here besides the accidental crashing of merryl on their us tour...so that should be fun. MICHELLE and MY PARENTS all within like 2 weeks, what to do! i feel like i should plan something fun, you know, to show them how life here is really like..but we haven't really done a lot of exploring yet. we just saw the duke chapel for the first time last week..how pitiful. so maybe we'll take a trip up somewhere like dc, or something. any suggestions? i'd like to do an 'elizabethtown' sort of road trip. like stop at the world's largest lipstick statue or something. that'd be a great picture.
i got sick last week, yucK! norovirus=disasterous.
on a lighter note, the "gettin' skinny" is going well. ewl= 19.5 pounds! WOOT. so now, i'm basically where i was before we moved out here. but i'll keep on trudging. i've got a lot of skinny friends out here that want to have pool parties...so yes.
no luck on getting out of our lease early. the earliest we can move is june. so until then, we have to walk softly around our apartment, and send hate beams through the floorboards to our downstaris-neighbors.
aaron bought me 'the holiday' to cheer me up the other day when i was under the weather. it makes me want to dance around in a party dress. hooray for aaRON.
ok, must give report now. hope everyone's monday is SUPERB.