We've been away

Sorry, we've been away doing some really important things, like going on vacation. Then we came home and I started my job and my real life is consuming all of my free time. No more mid day runs, no more mid day strumming on the ukulele, no more petty grocery store runs, you get the point. I'll be blogging more, hopefully. But until then, here are some pictures.



*this last pic was taken in Utah. Natalie was there, but busy chatting

Who thought this was a good idea?

I own a blue tooth head set.
I have a real person job.
When I go to the dentist, I fill out my own paper work with my own insurance numbers.
I'm okay with these things, I am becoming an adult.
However, I'm not okay with this...
I understand metallic blue stretch pants probably wouldn't be the most "professional" thing to wear to the office, but high waisted plaid pants (pictured above) are?

Ted is coming.

I know some of you were probably worried when I would get Ted back. Luckily, my dad and bret worked out all of the kinks and I'm glad that I found this in Bret's gmail account. (Mind you, "me" is bret)...

Richard: what is your office address?? I want to mail Ted to you, but thought it would be safer to send where I know it will be received!

1:27 PM me: 12345 Monarch St. Alameda, CA 99999

i only want the best for ted

1:32 PM Richard: Wendy thinks I am going to insure him...

1:33 PM me: haha

Two grown men, talking about Ted while at work.

pitter patter

When it rains it pours and when it's not raining lemon drops and bubble gum it's not a good idea to watch Schindler's List alone on a Friday night while your husband is at a bachelor party. 

I'm sorry I had to use the word husband, I'm trying to eliminate it from my vocabulary because I feel so awkward when I say it. I like when you find out what words people hate, like how Laura hates the word moist. I wish I hated the word moist, but I don't. However, there are a few words that I don't like but the only ones that get in the way are husband and fiance. 

It's very, very rare that I'll call bret my husband. Whew, it's hard to even type. I prefer "best friend" or "eternal room mate". The only word I feel is more uncomfortable than husband is fiance. One time I had to introduce myself to Bret's Berkeley ward and I thought, 'I can do this, I can use the word', so I said "I'm Whitney, Bret's Fiance". I said the word with a thick french accent thinking it would maybe camouflage the word and because I always feel like it's such a fancy word. It didn't camouflage anything, it just made people think I'm "spicey" which is just what you want the people at church thinking.  

I left my heart...

This is Ted and I, he's under my left arm, somewhere in Asia.
I never really had an emotional attachment to him, he just assists me when I sleep. I sleep on my stomach and he props my right shoulder up, I've been doing this for years. He's been everywhere with me, and I suppose over the years we may have grown close. However, Bret and I went to Utah and I LEFT him, so I called my mom, and this is the conversation we had.
Me: I FORGOT TED.
Mom: Where is he
Me: He's in Haileys bed, put him in a special place till I can find a way to get him
Mom: Okay, yeah I'll go do that right now
Me: DON'T WASH TED
Mom: I know, Ted can't swim.

Why is it so fun to give personalities to inanimate objects?

half dome: check

We hiked half dome.
No one mentioned that it is really scarry.
Those cables you take to the top are pretty slippery.
It was also really hot.
Cousin Brian's shoe fell apart with 5 miles left.
Cousin Devin threw up.
Bret got a piece of sediment in his eye.
We all ran out of water.
But in all seriousness, it was the best granola adventure we've had yet

Warning: Girly Post

I love looking at the different color boards on websites like snippet and ink, so I made one of my own (it's my first one, so don't judge me). I wish that while we were engaged I wouldn't have been living in the wilderness because then I could have seen the millions of wedding and design blogs. Actually come to think of it, it probably wouldn't have changed anything because I probably would have still said, "I don't want to talk about it" whenever asked about wedding plans.

The Corner Store

If Bret and I were to rate our favorite things to do, going to convenience stores would be somewhere near the top (well, it's kind of a top heavy list, but still). We LOVE to look at all the different candies and snacks, open the freezer section and look at the various popsicles. I love when I find things like lime filled cheetos or reese's big cup, I rarely buy the treasures, but it is just so fun to look. We make a point to always go to convenience stores wherever we are. If not, we may have never found the chocolate dipped, glory heaven donut from Holiday Gas and we may have never found this...
When did coke come out with a 16oz. can? I mean this isn't a foreign country where we have strange, unseen coke products, it hasn't even been advertised. Or maybe it has, and this is all old news and your all laughing at me right now.

put it in the freezer

If you've ever been to my house there is probably a 90% chance that I offered you a frozen cookie. I love frozen cookies. I also love frozen dessert bread, frozen candy bars, frozen fruit, frozen muffins, frozen anything. Apparently I'm not the only one

So I've had an embarrasing amount of free time lately, even as a substitute I had lots of free time. I feel kind of guilty about not being a contributing member of society, but I've been having a pretty great time. Being that my free time may be coming to a close, I thought I'd recap all the pointless/great things I've/We've been up to.

So I've read a lot of books, I'm not saying this in the "I'm such a prolific reader, it's incredible" way, but more in a way that every day I had two choices. Choice 1: do whatever worksheet the students were doing and feel really bad about myself for not knowing how to do 9th grade geometry or Option 2: read a book, and feel good about myself when I finished book. I chose the later option. (Actually, sometimes I chose option 1, but then I'd start feeling really worthless and dumb so I'd quickly switch to option 2). Here is a small review of some of the books I read (mind you, I am no master of literature, these are just my opinions):

1. The Road- Cormac McCarthy
-Lame. I'm not into pseudo philosophy

2. The Heartbreaking Work of a Staggering Genius- David Eggers
-Fascinating. Although it was crass, it was so interesting.

3. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close-Jonathen Safran Foer
-WONDERFUL. There was a lot of hub-bub going into this book, but for right reasons. It did something a book has never done for me, it set my mind free and let it explore and begged me to find the answers for the silly questions I think about all day, like what happens when the mailman gets sick, is there a sub, or do others cover their shifts? Who thought of the lint catcher in the dryer and how exactly does that work? As well as deeper things, which I never blog about.

4. Into The Wild -Jon Krakauer
-I LIKED. I would recommend this to boys who don't read much and well anyone else. I thought it was great. It made me want to go into the wilderness and explore, however I love my family, friends, warm weather, frozen yogurt, and pizza too much to ever forsake them for a life of cold, lonely wilderness nights.

I read a couple others, but you're probably getting sick of this. So onto the next. Bret and I went to Beirut, not the country, the musical group. It was wonderful. Everyone there was INDIE EXTREME. Imagine the Urban Outfitters catalog times 1,000 and you'll have the crowd. I don't remember my exact thinking as I was getting ready for the show, but somehow I ended up there in jeans, running shoes, and a sweatshirt. Apparently an Indie no-no.

We also have been perusing local garage sales, a couple weeks ago we found a great table.


We also ran a race (we didn't take our camera to the race, so this is post race. After the race we also ate an entire large pizza, pizza is pretty much the motivation behind any running I will ever do).