Oh Ethan, you are soooo funny!

After Ethan got home from school he and I headed out for some errands. At his latest book fair at school we picked up the book "Diary of a Wimpy kid" which had been highly recommended by one of his good friends. So we decided to try it out. Anyhoo, today while we were out he was talking about it and kept referring to it as "Diarrhea of a Wimpy kid". After he repeated it a couple of times I realized what he was actually saying. So, of course I asked him "Are you saying Diarrhea?". And he looked at me a little puzzled and said "Yes." I tried to correct him and after completely failing numerous times I gave up. It was pretty funny watching Ethan try to assure me that it was in fact "Diarrhea of a Wimpy kid". I wonder if when he has finished the book he'll be upset that diarrhea was never mentioned?! LOL.

Halloween has come and gone!

It wouldn't quite be Halloween if there wasn't a party at the Wolffs! Even though we are very new to the area and only know a handful of people at church, somehow we ended up with a full house. Chad dressed up as Dr. Dreamy, myself as a lady bug, Edyn as a kitty kat and Ethan a zombie. This was for Friday night as Saturday brought a completely different lineup.





We had such a great time that I was glad we had decided to throw one even though we didn't think there would be anyone showing up. We played halloween jeopardy, Halloween sound bites, and pumpkin bowling in the garage just to name a few. Oh, and the food! So yummmmmmy! The food you see was only the half of it! Uggghhhhh, time to hit the gym hard core again.




On Saturday we had a baptism for Ethan's friend in the early afternoon after which we raced home to change into our costumes for trunk-or-treat at the church. Chad was Al Capone (he left his tommy gun in the car), myself as his little sidekick, Ethan a soldier, and Edyn was back into her bumblebee costume. Hmmmmm, I look really weird with a short black bob of a haircut. Thank goodness it's only a wig!




After trunk-or-treat we headed out to the the neighborhood for some good ole' fashioned trick-or-treating and did my kids ever load up! In total they ended up with 12 pounds of candy, and we really weighed it! What am I going to do with 12 pounds of candy?! This morning I hid it but apparently I didn't hide it good enough as it only took seconds for my children to find it. Actually, I'm not really too worried about them, it's me I'm worried about! Hope everyone had a fun Halloween!


The following picture was taken just before we left to go to our ward trunk-or-treat. Edyn had first put on her witch costume and after I had finished her makeup she looked in the mirror and tears started to appear. She kept saying "I'm not cute!". Chad took her outside to take some pictures of her and she just wasn't a happy camper. We took her back inside where she changed into her bumblebee costume and the tears disappeared. I don't know, as I look at this picture she couldn't have been more wrong about her appearance. But then again, I'm a biased mommy.

Experiencing the Fall season in Idaho

We sure have been a busy family this past month making sure we make the most of the fall and Halloween season. Two weekends in a row we made sugar cookies, carved pumpkins and made caramel apples. It was great fun but waaaaayyyyy too much sugar for my family to consume. LOL.

Last night we went to an outdoor Halloween party put on by one our ward members and I must say . . . WOW!!! And that would be an understatement. We showed up at 6pm and not a minute sooner we found ourselves the target of Halloween candy. A small private plane flew over us three times and let a downpour of candy and chocolate fall like rain from the sky. The kids went crazy! How could you not, it was the coolest thing I'd ever seen. Inside one of the barns they had a huge screen set up to play a movie for anyone who would like to sit and watch along with face and pumpkin painting. This sweet little old man was in the corner popping popcorn for anyone who wanted any. I tell ya, they didn't pay him enough for all the droves of people who waited in line for it. Now when I say droves of people I really mean it. There had to have been close to 250 people there. Brave, brave family! Down the road a bit they had a haunted house set up for ones who wanted scary and for those who didn't. Ethan loved it and Chad admitted that Ethan (because Ethan never would) got a little jumpy. Wished I could have been there but Edyn would have nothing to do with it. The weather was nice when we had first arrived but by an hour and a half later the rain and wind came in like a hurricane which cut the party a little short. They ended up canceling the haunted hayride and a few other outdoor games. Unfortunate, but what we were able to do we had a lot of fun. I remember saying that it would be hard to top a Hoboken, New Jersey, Halloween but this is coming pretty darn close. Thanx Palmer Family we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves!

Here's a few pictures of pumpkins that were carved, cookies that were iced and of course the candy plane.

CLICK ON PHOTOS TO ENLARGE

Birthday Boy turns 34!

Dang he's getting old! And of course, Chad would just say "Look who's talking." Still, it's nice to know I'm not alone! Ha, ha. When Chad came home from work on Friday he was greeted by two very excited children who were beside themselves waiting to wish him a Happy Birthday. It was pretty cute to watch how impatient they were. Edyn even spent a half hour making a card for him in which she didn't let go of until daddy got home. We then headed out for dinner which ended up being the longest dining experience ever and realized eating at home probably would have been just as nice. Oh well, maybe we'll rethink that one next year. I tried making this Nutella cake that I had found on one of the baking blogs I follow and it actually turned out really yummy. I always hate it when I try something new to serve to others and it doesn't taste so well. So thank goodness this one worked! So here's a picture of our family while Chad is embracing his age!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHAD!
We love and adore you to pieces!

Here's to Half Marathon Number Two!

Chad and I were silly enough to get out of bed bright and early Saturday morning to go for a run! A long one at that. Really, who does that?! The whole drive to our Prison Break Half Marathon (10K for Chad) we kept saying all the things that we would rather be doing at that moment. Funny how running wasn't one of them. LOL. We were tired, it was dark, and really cold (which actually turned out to be in our favor).

Opening ceremony started at 9am and it was pretty darn cool. It started at the Idaho State Correctional Institution with a flyover of an old British WWII spitfire plane followed by a riot squad lining up just short of the start line to make sure they could control all of us escapees and to begin the race the prison's escape siren roared in the air. Then we were off! Chad and I ran together for just a short while and I then I looked at him and waved and started to take off faster. I wanted to hit that finish line and the sooner the better.

During the beginning of the race we were told to run off side the road while a convoy of army trucks drove by and I really wished Ethan was there to see it. He would have loved it. By mile 11 I was graced by the presence of uniformed soldiers handing me gatorade. I actually thought that was pretty cool. I asked a couple of them if they wanted to carry me the rest of the way and they said they would love to but noone picked me up! Their words meant nothing! Geesh. LOL.

The remaining 2.1 miles went really well except for the huge arse hill just off of the finish line. I ended up walking it when I realized that walking was about the same pace as my attempted run up the hill so why waste the energy. Pretty sad. But once I got past that I was moving pretty good and I think Chad was a little surprised when I saw him at the finish line taking pictures and he asked how I was doing and I smiled and told him "pretty good" as I ran past him. Actually, I surprised myself by that response. But boy oh boy once I stopped and started walking around the soreness hit like a ton of bricks! Nothing that won't be gone in a few days! I think Chad did awesome for his first race. He told me he felt kinda sheepish that all these older women kept passing him but I say who cares! He finished and he rocks!

I've Led a Sheltered Life!

Here's the latest project that Chad and I have been working on. Since we moved to Star I've been looking for an antique iron bed for Edyn's bedroom (very hard to find an inexpensive one). All I have to say is I love my CRAIGSLIST!

Shortly after moving here a lady had posted an old iron bed and luckily by time I called her it was still available. We went to take a look and it wasn't in the greatest shape. It was full of rust, painted bright orange on the rails, gold on parts of the bed and the iron slats on the headpiece were bent out of shape. But for $40 I couldn't just walk away. Now that I think about it, I really wish I had taken a "before" picture to show you the difference. Anyhoo, while looking at the bed trying to decide whether we were going to take it or not the lady asked us if we wanted to know where the bed came from. Well sure, we were up for a good story. She went on to tell us that this old bed came from Reno, NV and came from a Brothel. I felt a little dumb as I had no idea what a brothel was. So of course I just replied "Really!". Then Chad spoke up and said with the hugest grin ever "I guess we know it's been well used." And all I could think of was "Well, yeah dummy! It's an antique!". We loaded up the bed on top of the van and when we got in I quickly asked Chad "What's a Brothel?". He just looked at me and chuckled (I think because he couldn't believe that I had no idea) and then laid it all out on the line and dropped the bombshell. I was horrified!

After a good laugh we headed home and got to work on it. I must say, it turned out better than I thought it would and it's become one of my favorite pieces in our home with quite the story to go with it. A special shout out to my sister, Shaneen, for helping with the glaze! Thank you!

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Here's the Skinny!

How about that?! I went from reporting my exercise routine and weight loss constantly to not at all! I didn't think anything of it until I've had a handful of readers ask me how I've been doing and if I'm still losing weight. So why not make a post about it?

I'm happy to report that after my 1/2 marathon in April I did not revert back to my old ways. Yes, believe it or not, I kept on running. It really has become an addiction for me. Throughout the summer I was running 5 miles a day, 5 times a week. Now, you'd think I'd lose a ton of weight but I pretty much just maintained it. When you don't have a regular schedule, your camping, your hoteling it, your not living at home, and there is so much family stuff going on, I pretty much ate everything and anything. I'm sure if I watched what I ate, said NO to desserts, Canadian candy bars and licorice then maybe I'd be down to my goal weight (10 more lbs. to go!). All in all I was happy that I was at least maintaining and not gaining any of it back.


A couple of weeks ago I participated in the St. Luke's Women's Fitness 5K. What an amazing event! Yes, it was only 5K but to be a part of it was amazing. I took a shuttle to downtown Boise to the start line and WOW! There were thousands of women everywhere. Women in wheelchairs, women over their 70's, women with babies in strollers, women, women, women! The first wave, the wheelchair competitive timed, was very emotional as we watched them take off. After a couple of waves it was my turn. I was in the red wave which was a timed running wave. I came in 220/864. And for my age group I was 40/131. Not bad for only beginning running this year and this being my second race. Next year I hope to better my time. And now here I am training for another 1/2 marathon, the Prison Break 1/2 Marathon, which is October 24th. I'm really excited and nervous about this one as I don't have Kaycee to run beside me like I did for my first one. It's all me. Well, I did talk Chad into running the 10K for the same event while I run the half. Still not the same though but really excited for him to experience a race. So stay tuned for pictures and results.

Well, enough about my running. Here's what you've been waiting for--it's time for weight and inch loss results as of October 1st.

TOTAL WEIGHT & INCH LOSS
WEIGHT – 30 lbs.
ARMS – 2.25 inches each
HIPS – 6 inches
WAIST – 9 inches
THIGHS – 3 inches each

NYU College of Dentistry Graduation

May 26th, 2009, seems soooooo long ago. Just over 4 months ago . . . so I guess it kind of was. I can't even describe the overwhelming feeling we had realizing that Chad was finally done school and thoughts of NOW WHAT?!. We have been married for just over 11 years and 9 of it Chad has been in school. So, I'm pretty sure you can imagine how excited we were!

The ceremony took place at Madison Square Garden and it was so nice to have Chad's parents their to support him on this special day for him.

After the long ceremony (which my kids sat through amazingly well, shocker!) we decided to walk down to Carmine's for some dinner. Chad and I had always wanted to try it out but every time we went the line up was over an hour and a half long. I guess that's what we get for thinking we could get in before a Broadway show. Well, today we knew it would be our only chance to try again as we would be leaving Manhattan in a few days. Thank goodness it was mid day as we got right in and oh boy--it was so yummy! So it was a nice ending to an eventful day! Really what could be better than NO more school and DELICIOUS food!

Our friends for the past four years!
At School AKA "The Mormons".

Where to Begin . . . . . . . .

Seriously, have we been away from our blog for that long! I'm ashamed of myself. This is unacceptable!!! LOL. Well, I do have a good excuse, I think? It all started on June 1st as we packed up our family and got into our lovely minivan and started heading away from (one second, let me wipe a tear) Manhattan! A very sad day for us as we left everything we had known and which had become common place for us for the last four years. On a positive note Chad was finally finished school and he was no longer a student!

To make a long story short, for the next month we drove from one end of the country to the other and absolutely loved it! We visited a few church sites, got caught in the worst rain storm in Kansas where we actually had to pull off to the side of the road, a two week stay with my sister in Utah (thank you for being so kind to us, love you!), a first trip to Lake Powell, for me and the kids anyway, with the Hafen family (Ethan loved trying to catch the lizards and sleeping under the stars), stayed at "The Nugget" in Reno where Chad came in second in a poker tournament which paid for our very expensive seafood buffet--YUMM!, drove through the Redwoods in Northern California which was one of the highlights of our trip and then drove up the Oregon Coast which was soooo breathtaking! To conclude our expedition we spent the 4th of July in Seattle. When we had all the fun that we could possibly take we headed home to Canada.

Ethan and Edyn were in love! They had so much fun spending time with their cousins and having a backyard to play in that Chad and I realized we definately had to settle down closer to home. So, after interviews in Colorado, Oregon, Washington and Arizona we actually have ended up in Star, Idaho (Boise area). Which is kinda funny as Idaho wasn't even on our list of places we wanted to end up living. Chad just got a great opportunity and after checking it out as well as the area and seeing how close to home it was, we were sold. We've been here almost a month now and loving it! We live in a home all to ourselves and pay almost half the rent we paid in Jersey to share a house. We now have a backyard and our next door neighbors have a boy Ethan's age who play non-stop. When his friend is away he goes into major depression. LOL. It's also just so nice to have Chad come home at a decent time everyday and for the kids to be able to spend time with him now.

I guess what I'm trying to say is we are really happy and excited to start our new life. We still really miss Manhattan and I think we will always. How could you not?! But going from the craziness of the city to living in a small town of less than 2000 people has actually been really nice. Well, so much for keeping it short. We have soooooo many photos so I'll have to break them up into smaller posts and stretch it out so I don't overwhelm everybody, especially myself! LOL. Anyhoo, it's good to be back on our blog and hopefully I can keep it up. A shout out to all our friends in Jersey - WE MISS YOU!!!!

UTAH Readers - I have a question for you!

So I'll be in Utah for a couple of weeks in June and started looking for marathons that might be going on in the area. I found a couple of 5K's that I might like to run (there was a full-marathon but nowhere near ready for anything like that!). One starts in Eagle Mountain on June 6th and the other starts and ends at the Provo Town Centre Mall on June 13th. Anyone want to join me if I decide to do one of them or both? A 5K is only 3.125 miles so you know you can totally handle this! Let me know when you get a chance, I'd love to have a running partner. Debbie, Shaneen, Mistie, Katie, Rachelle, and others . . . I'm talking to you! LOL.

Crash AND Burn . . . In a BIG Way!

So much for eating healthy today! What is wrong with me?! Well, I'll tell you! "That time of the month" just started today and all I've eaten today is CRAP!!! I've been so good for months and then all of a sudden today I was craving warm homemade choc. chip cookies with icecream and I caved! Not only once, but twice! Later came a full bowl of Captain Crunch, harvest chedder sun chips, more cookies, guzzled Chad's Orangina that has been sitting in the fridge (sorry hon!) and I'm still thinking what else is in this house that I can get my hands on! To make matters worse I had no desire to exercise today and so I didn't! Yuck! Yuck, yuck, yuck! Dang, if this happens tomorrow I'm going to have to find the duct tape and tape my mouth shut! So if you happen to try and call me tomorrow and I'm not answering my phone it's cause I can't get the stinkin' tape off! LOL.

Aunt Flo = 1 vs. Self-Control = 0

"Wicked" is WICKED!

I know I've seen it once already but who could pass up the chance to go again?! My mom came to visit for a couple of weeks and on her to-do list before she headed back home was to go and see "Wicked" the broadway show. Hmmmmm, I wasn't about to object. However, getting tickets was going to be quite a challenge since shows are usually sold out and tickets are soooooo expensive. But I have to tell you, craigslist is the bomb!! A day before the showing someone had something come up and they weren't able to attend the Wednesday matinee and listed their tickets on craigslist just below face value. And, to make the deal even sweeter they were dead center six rows back! I loved every minute of it and I believe my mom did too since she couldn't stop talking about it. For those of you who have seen it I'd have to say my favorite part is the "Defying Gravity" scene and I can't hold back the tears when Elphaba and Glinda sing "For Good". Seriously, if you haven't seen it make sure you add it to your bucketlist! It's a must! THANX MOM!

Quite a Retro Hotel

So I forgot to post the retroness of our hotel we stayed in before my half marathon. It was a pretty cool hotel that was right across from the boardwalk in Asbury Park, NJ. It was an old brick hotel but it had been renovated with retro limes and browns. My mom absolutely loved it and so did the kids!

Lookie what we found outside our house!

It was actually really disgusting but of course I couldn't help taking a picture. Really, who finds possums outside their house? It looked pretty tattered and almost sick but we couldn't get over how it wasn't scared of any of us and didn't even run away from the dog that was a couple of feet away from it. Hope he doesn't show up again as I'm pretty sure he was full of all kinds of disease. Just watching him eat the plastic bag you knew something wasn't right. Oh, and sorry for the quality of pictures. I zoomed in as much as I could as I wasn't about to get too close to that thing! LOL.

Are you wondering if I survived?

Ladies and Gents I am proud to announce that I am alive and kicking! Well, barely with the kicking part. LOL. I still can't believe that I actually survived a Half Marathon! Do you remember when I started, when running wasn't my thing and I could barely run a mile? Well guess what?! I just ran 13.14 miles straight! Yup, just like that! Well, ok the honest truth was I did pretty good up until 13.1 miles. The finish line was right there in front of me and all of a sudden, like a ton of bricks had just hit me, I felt like I was going to pass out. It was incredibly hot that day and to run in that for over 2 hours was insane. So here Kaycee and I are almost at the finish line when I feel that pass-out tingle (which I know very well - that's another story) and I just blurted out to Kaycee as I was veering off to a bench "I've gotta sit down, I'm going to pass out!" And all I have to say to Kaycee is THANKYOU! She immediately grabbed my elbow and in a very stern voice said "Oh, no you don't! The finish line is right there!" She talked me into slowing it down a bit and staying focused and in one more minute we were across the finish line! I can't even begin to tell you how amazing finishing felt. I honestly have never seen myself as a runner and had never even thought that any type of marathon/race was even an option for me. So I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'm feeling pretty good about my accomplishment. I think my favorite part of the whole thing was when we were a few minutes away from the finish line and out of the blue Kaycee and I hear "Mommy, mommy!" and there is Edyn and Kaycee's little boy, Carson, cheering us on! Just typing that moment brings tears to my eyes. It was definately a sweet moment. Chad wasn't able to be there which made me a little sad but my mom flew out to be here so that was really nice to have her there for support and to cheer us on. The race itself was pretty cool. We ran 6.5 miles out along the ocean on the boardwalk and then the same back. It was absolutely beautiful. I think the view really helped with ignoring the pains of the race. I really think my legs turned to stone half-way thru. They are definately feeling it today. So all in all who knows if I'll ever do a half marathon again in my lifetime. But what I do know is that I COULD DEFINATELY DO IT!

TOTAL LOSS AFTER 12 WEEKS
WEIGHT – 20 lbs.
ARMS – 2 inches each
HIPS – 4 ½ inches
WAIST – 8 inches
THIGHS – 2 1/4 inches each
BUST – 3.5 inches

A Celebrity Siting in NYC

This has got to be one of my favorite things about New York that I will miss. They don't happen very often but when they do it's pretty fun when you are actually seeing someone famous, in person, with your very own eyes. So a couple of weeks ago Chad had Friday off so we drove into the city in the morning to get some things from his locker that he didn't want to haul home on the train. After that was done we weren't about to head home until we had some good eats. So we had some yummy Thai food (ThaiNY is amazing for those of you who live in the area) and to finish it off we had Pinkberry. When walking back to our car we were walking behind a blonde girl and really at the time I didn't think anything of it until a girl who was standing off to the side of the sidewalk talking on her phone kept staring at this girl until she was out of sight. I thought that was weird, why don't you take a picture it will last longer! LOL. Well, we got into our car and started to drive away when we rounded the corner past this blonde girl and all of a sudden it made sense. We were walking behind Julia Stiles!

I bet that girl on the phone sure wish that she would have taken a picture! LOL. So we tried to follow her for awhile but between traffic and lovely cabs that stop all of a sudden and you are unable to get around them, we lost her. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted and for a second we felt like the paparrazzi!