The Woolf Pack

4-Wheelers, Apples and Kylie

This past weekend the whole fam (parents, us and the 5 Rice’s) went to my sis-in-law Greta’s hometown to go to the Apple Festival. We got there Friday night just in time for some corndogs and fries with vinegar. I am a sucker for fair food and fair people watching. If people watching could be considered a hobby, I would for sure be an expert at it. Saturday morning we took the kiddos swimming at our hotel. After the boys went 4-wheeling for a while, we all went to the fair for the kiddos to ride rides and again for me to assume my people watching duties. This is going to sound really rude, and please do not take offense to it…but when you’re in a small town at a fair…do you ever feel slightly better about where you’re at in your life? Ok, I hope I haven’t lost any readers or offended anyone…but I’m just sayin’.
The parade was the highlight of the day, Corinne and Mason almost got a full bucket of candy! We drove up to Cleveland Sat. night so we could hangout w/ the fam. and go to my old roomie’s daughter Kylie’s baby blessing. It was so neat to see her as a mom! Kylie is beautiful! I didn’t take any pictures, but you can see her here. I also got to see my cute little cousin Mitchell (I want to eat him up! so cute!) Oh yeah, and some other family members :). The day went fast and before we knew it was back down to C-bus.

After a night of yumminess and one scary fair ride

How they take kids to school in Hartford, lol.

Rice-a-roni’s and some Woolfs

I haven’t really posted about what we do on a weekly basis. It pretty much consists of going to work, going to school, coming home, and then going over to my Brother Tony’s house. We are lucky that they live less than 5 minutes from us and were even nice enough to give us a key to their house! Should we be trusted? Not sure! But at any rate, we are lucky to have them by us, they take care of us for sure. I think Greta my sis in law has cooked more meals for my husband than I have! Sad, but true. We watch lots of shows with them, go on walks with the kiddos and just have a good time! Here are some pics from last week when my mom was here. Seriously, I love my family. We are awesome. Families are awesome. The end.

Visitors

In short, I LOVE visitors! We’ve been fortunate enough to have some out our way these last couple of weeks! First we had John and Marcy my in-laws for a weekend. I took a Friday off and we just had a good time hanging out, we went to Cheesecake Factory, rented some movies and enjoyed their company. Then John and Jamie my in-law’s for a week with their little baby John. It was so fun! John was here taking some tests for some jobs out here and Jamie and John came to entertain me :). I love seeing James with his family. Sadly, we didn’t get to be together too much as I had this thing called work in the way. But they were gracious guests and hope they come back soon!

Next we had one of Jame’s BFF’s Adam and his friend come visit us for the weekend. We did lots of fun things! We went to the Columbus Art Museum, ate hibachi, watched a lot of football and went for a little hike ( I was in flip flops of course.) We topped it off by going to the dollar theater to see Kung Fu Panda. If any of you have seen it my favorite quote was “There is no charge for awesomeness and attractiveness.”

We are still waiting for a few friends (ahem, Matt & Sarah hehe) to come visit us. We would love to see ANYONE who would like to come and see our beautiful new city!

We have been up to Cleveland quite a bit, but it’s always for a specific event, not just to go up, you know? So I feel guilty that I haven’t called everyone, I want to hangout with everyone…not that anyone is dying to hangout with me!

It’s kind of weird now, since for 6 years I was thousands of miles away from family and friends…now that I’m only two hours…It feels harder to get together with eveyrone!

Spontanaiety

Sometimes it’s fun to do things on the fly with little or no planning. That’s what we did a few weekends ago. We hopped in the car and drove an hour south to Jeffersonville to go here. We booked a room at a hotel that had a jacuzzi in the room, and had a fancy dinner at Bob Evans! It was a quiet evening and were able to enjoy sleeping in, swimming in the pool and the continental breakfast. You know how you go to a hotel and you don’t really get your “money’s worth” b/c you either, sleep in, don’t have time to go swimming or watch tv…well we got to do it all. Saturday was fun, we walked around the stores for a few hours, of course it didn’t take me long to find a few things (cheap of course). We browsed through the Pottery Barn outlet…now I don’t consider myself a label snob (couldn’t afford to be if I wanted to) and as we were walking around, they had lots of items from ottoman’s to headboards…some of stuff looked like they were from a thrift store, or had been sitting there for years! I thought to myself, do people really buy this stuff JUST b/c it’s Pottery Barn? Believe, me I would love to afford their stuff…but thanks to places like Value City Furniture I can pretend I live in luxury!

On our way home wasn’t so peaceful….here’s us on the highway right after we had come to a complete stop:


Here’s James after about 45 minutes of coming to a complete stop:


There was a big accident that was really far up, cars to the left of us were driving on the grass and turning around…after waiting too long, we did the same got off at the next exit and took back roads hope. Bless our GPS. Bless her. http://thewoolfpack.com/wp-admin/categories.php
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Here was our view on the way home, so beautiful. I love Ohio.


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Say it isn’t so!

Seriously, say it isn’t so!

Ridin’ Easy

So after 12 months of wishing, wanting and dreaming…I finally have a bike again!!!! This is the first time in over 5 years that I’ve had a bike of my very own. When I lived in Utah I had a hard core mountain bike , thanks to my old roomie Julie we rode our bikes almost everyday! Then I sold my Gary Fisher bike b/c it didn’t fit on the back of my car.

Last summer we actually bought bikes, but then returned them the next day b/c I had buyer’s remorse…since I didn’t have a job at the time.

We found a great deal, and after sweet talking the sales guy, he gave us additional 15% off all our stuff. I have to say, I’m not very good at a lot of things, but I’m pretty good at negotiating! I am so gitty! We rode around our neighborhood tonight even though it was dark outside! I love bike riding!

Here’s to discovering all the cool bike trails in Columbus!! If you’d like biking partners, let us know!

I probably should have waited until tomorrow when its light outside…but I was too excited!

One of the features that sold me on this bike, the nice comfy seat for my big booty!

Off I go!! Ridin’ easy….

Mom and I enjoying the fair. Isn’t she cute?

What can I say? My dad likes himself a turkey leg every once in a while.

p.s. Thanks Tony for fixing my site! YAY!

Ohio State Fair

Saturday my parents came down from Cleveland, and we went to the Ohio State Fair, it was a blast! It’s one of the largest fairs in the country and has said to attract over 800,000 visitors!

It was a beautiful day and we spent 8 hours there…here is a list of fair food that I ate in 8 hours:
2 corndogs
Roasted Corn on the Cob
Lemonade Shake (fresh lemonade-the best!)
Bucket-o-fries (shared by 8 other people btw)
Chicken on a stick (again shared by other people)
Funnel Cake (you cannot leave a fair w/o one. Repeat, cannot.)

Here is my favorite moment from the fair:
While waiting in line for a kiddie ride with my nephew Mason and niece Corinne a certain group of people just kind of meandered into the line (which of course, they entered the wrong way) - you can imagine what a commotion this stirred…there was a cute lady behind us w/ her two children who helped me out when said group of people’s children started pushing ME out of the way in which I kindly reminded them, MY kids were first. My new friend went OFF on them, then looked to me for a high five. All that for a crappy mushroom ride…but hey, it made my niece and nephew smile, so it was worth it.

Here is my favorite quote from the fair:
Again, while waiting in line for the HUGE slide my niece Corinne turns to me and says “Steph are you heavier than me?” Trying not to laugh I replied, “Yes Corinne, I am slightly heavier than you.” (my SIL Greta told her that the heavier you were the faster you’d go down the slide). I kissed her little face for even having to ASK if I was heavier than her.

I’m still a little slow…and can’t post any pics up, but please click here to see all the fun we did have

July 2008

{Pictures of this Post can be seen HERE since they’re not loading directly to the post, boo}

I’ve been a lazy blogger which should come to no surprise for anyone that reads this. July was quite the month. I can’t believe 2008 is coming closer to an end, I am getting excited for fall my favorite season. Although, I still have some summer plans, I’d like to make happen.

Overall it was a good month, lots to talk about, but I’ll try and create a synopsis of it.

July 4th - Went to Cleveland to hangout with Family had a great time. I love my family and everytime we have to leave, it makes me sad. My favorite part was having a get together at my parents. I hope I didn’t leave anyone out, I am glad I got to see so many friends…and Thanks everyone for putting up with small space! My Aubelita came to visit us from California, so it was an extra dosage of good family times. My favorite was that she had my niece Corinne watching the Novelas (spanish soap operas), however, I wouldn’t recommend them.

July 8th - I received a call that my Grandma Rice had passed away. It was an early morning call, that of course I wasn’t expecting. Grandma had a stroke a few weeks ago, but was slowly recovering and we were all optimistic, however, someone upstairs had better plans for her It was a bittersweet celebration of her life, one of simplicity and powerful love and testimony of the gospel. I am a better person because I knew her. One of my favorite things about Grandma was her ability to make me smile and know I’m loved, even when she would take me out for my Birthday in November (my bday is July 25th.) I love you Grandma.

July 11th - James parents came up for the funeral, then we handed them over the keys to our place in Columbus to wait for us (I have the best in-laws!) After returning from the services, it was time for more family (did I mention I love being around family?!?) The whole Woolf Pack was in attendance including Little John (my 3 month old nephew). Too bad James and I had to work/school - thankfully they were able to get out and see some sites. I’m glad they came, we had a good time.

July 16th - Flew out to Utah to be a bridesmaid in of my BESTIES in the whole world, Amber. I am so excited for her, we had a great time, and we were true bridesmaids (buying supplies for the reception the day of!) I even ran into some old choir buddies, and met a few new ones. I love seeing old friends, we all have such busy lives, yet, when we’re together again it seems that we just pick up where we left off.

July 25th - Had to bold this one b/c it was my LAST 20’s Bday, yup, I turned a whopping 29! This was the first weekend pretty much the whole month we were actually home, so it was nice to spend it with just the Mr. We started out the night by going to the Melting Pot , then we walked around this huge shopping center called Easton, and topped it off with seeing Mamma Mia (Abba might I add is one of my fav. groups). It was quite, but really nice Birthday. Normally I am the party type, but this suited me this year. Be on the lookout next year though, we’re gonna have a dance party for my 30th (already got the dj!)

July 30th - My sweet nephew Ethan turned one…man, I keep telling James I have no idea how I can love little children more than I do my 3 nephews (Ethan, Mason, Little John [Woolf]) and my niece Corrine. I guess time will tell if I’ll ever get to love my own, but in the meantime, I don’t mind squeezing these precious cheeks and listening to hear their sweet prayers at night!

July came and went in a blink of an eye, but didn’t go by without some tears, laughter and new experiences. August is a fresh month, which I’m looking forward to!

I will post some pics whenever I can get it to work, but till then check some out HERE

“I don’t want you to be skinny either.”

So as you know, I am very good at talking about my bad qualities, which there are too many to write about. Tonight, a simple sentence reminded of why miracles do happen (me getting married!):

James & I watching a movie:

me: See, I want to look like her, she’s not fat, but she’s not skinny…I don’t want to be skinny, I just don’t want to be fat anymore.

James: I don’t want you to be skinny either, you are beautiful.

me: whatever….

I have a hard time taking compliments, I always have - I’m used to focusing on my ‘bad’ qualities (according to me anyways.). Although tonight, it was nice to hear, James does a good job of reminding me that I’m an ok person. A girl needs to hear that every once in a while, you know?

p.s. I have lots to blog about (like the entire month of July.) I will soon and will include pictures.