April 2010 – Sniper Bear

Date Night Duel!

Remember that awesome date night I planned for SB?? It was all thought out and planned ahead and unique?? Well…I’ve been one-upped…er like…10 upped!

SB had a date night planned for us, complete with Sniperhints throughout the week. He used words like ‘dark’ and ‘not too light’ and I thought he just needed words to rhymn with ‘park’. Turns out his hints lead us to Dialogue in the Dark at Atlantic Station Friday night! I was beyond stoked. I’d heard about the exhibit from friends and couldn’t wait to experience it!

Let me tell you…at first I was a step or two away from an anxiety attack. We got our walking canes and the lights went off and we were let go to ~~bump into everything~~ explore. I felt totally out of control and cramped. I was unsure and stumbling and just ~~semi~~ freaking out. I would NOT let go of SB’s hand, but eventually I had to. I would occasionally smell him or hear his voice close and that calmed me. About halfway through the tour I started to relax. I stopped trying to “see” (I know, silly) and really tuned into my other senses. I explored a little on my own and used my hands a lot. By the end of the tour I was navigating my way around like a ~~pro~~ not so crazy person! Our guide was totally blind and so awesome. It was an amazing experience to spend an hour in the shoes of someone with a disability. If you haven’t tried it you really should!

Our next stop was dinner. After the tour we were both starving so I was thrilled to see that our reservations were at Geisha House. We drank wine and ate the most delicious sushi! (Ok..not as good as our first date sushi…but damn good!) Me becoming the old prude I am was content with heading home after dinner, but Ben had one last surprise up his sleeve. Date Night @ 10:00 right down the road. I’ve been wanting to see it since it came out b/c let’s face it…is there ANYone funnier than Tina Fey or Steve Carrell? Exactly…

We stopped here for a delicious little dessert and went to the movie. It was hilarious and did NOT disappoint. It was just the perfect date night. The weather was awesome and there’s no where I’d rather be these days than hand in hand with my guy. 🙂 We finally made it home to crash and get ready for the rest of the weekend=Ben’s camping trip with the guys. He better blog about it soon…and I promise you’re gonna wanna stay tuned for these stories. (Don’t worry guys…I’m sure he won’t share ALL of them with blogland.)

Take me (us) out to the ball game!

Being from Philly, SJ’s mom gets tickets to the Braves vs. Philly’s game every year they are playing in Atlanta. It just so happened that this was one of those years. Also, with Jess’ spring break coming up she decided to take a look at the Braves schedule to see if there were any games that week we could take Chase too, it just so happened that the Braves were playing the Philly’s that week. Jess gave her mom and ring and come to find out, she had 4 tickets. We totally jumped on board with that and were all set for some good old fashioned ball game fun.
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A Very Turner Easter!

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Here are some pics from Easter! It was a very Turner Easter indeed. The SniperJess family still has some things to work out as far as ‘holidays sans domestic disbutes’…so we kept it the three of us. We also went to SniperBen’s family’s church cabin for food and egg hunts!

We started the holiday off by dying easter eggs. This is a childhood tradition for me (and most really) so it’s something I would love to pass down to Chase. We made striped eggs and pretty pastel eggs and the ever so crucial ‘everything’ egg which turned out much prettier than I remembered! We had a few mini hunts around the apartment for Chase then hit the kitchen…

Ahhh…our happy place. We are getting SO much better at planning and carrying out our big meals lately. This holiday called for cupcakes and muffins! I’ve been addicted to making cornbread muffins and putting creamed corn in the batter. They turned out delish! We also whipped up some stellar cupcakes. SB on the cake…SJ on the decor! They turned out so cute!

Lunch at the church cabin was traditional Easter lunch but very delicious..then the kids grabbed up what felt like 483290483 easter eggs from the field. We all had fun, got lots of great pics, and enjoyed the warm weather. In fact…after the egg hunt we stopped by for some swim suits and had our first swim of the year. The pool at the apartment is lots of fun and I anticipate some bloggin about the good times to come there.

So that’s it! Regular ol’ sniper fun on Easter. Hope yours was sniperrific as well!

Planting the seeds!

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We can haz green thumbz??

We’ve had some beaauutiful weather over the past few weeks! We’ve even dipped our toes (and heads) in the pool already! We also planted a few really awesome things to put out on the porch! SB and I love to cook, and you just can’t beat cooking with fresh veggies and herbs. The domestican in me wants to be in the fields…with a big straw hat and some overalls picking all my fresh goodies, but apartment living = porch growin’! It’ll definitely do for now. We’ve used the herbs in several dishes but we’re still anxiously awaiting the arrival of our peppers! We have 7 different kinds plus a tomato plant. Fresh salsa here we come!!

*editors note…i will begrudgingly leave the awful pic of myself extremely hungover, but let it be known that my spirits were much higher than they look!

**note to self…recovery from night(s) of drinking is now extended an additional 24 hours due to old age. *sigh*

Rite Aid!

I finally had one of “those” couponing trips! Here’s the breakdown…

11 tubes of Crest Pro Health @ 2.29
2 coupons @ -1.50
3 coupons @ -1.00
3 coupons @ -1.00 off two
11 SCR @ 1.50
Total = $0.31 profit!

3 Oral B Toothbrushes @ 2.29
3 coupons @ -2.00
3 SCR @ 1.50
Total = $3.63 profit!

3 Gillett Fusion Power Razors @ 8.00
3 coupons @ -4.00
3 SCR @ 4.00
Total = FREE!

I also used a $5 off $20 coupon I got from watching coupons on Rite Aid’s website.

Total price before any savings $56.06
After coupons and rebates +$5.88 PROFIT!!

I just MADE money and will have toothpaste for daaaays! How awesome is that? And kudos to the lady at the Rite Aid in Canton. Double kudos to Britt and Monica at work who helped me get completely hooked on pharmacy deals! Love it!

Stone Mountain Date Night

It all started with an email I received on Tuesday Apr 6th.
Jess:
while I was walking around monitoring my kids…i came up with the BEST idea. 🙂

I know it’s going to be a long week for both of us, so I want us to have something to look forward to….so do me a favor? keep your plans for Friday night free. the whole night. I got a lil something up my sleeve. 🙂

We both knew that Friday didn’t really have any thing going on, and Jess could sense that I was feeling a bit of the gloom monster. So she cooked up this crazy idea. She wouldn’t tell me, but she did send me several hints though out the week. Actually, they were “sniperhints”.
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Movies for sale!

Ok, so you know you want to buy some movies. I have 140 movies/TV shows for sale and they all must go. I’d like to sell them in bulk rather than the 1-off type deal, but if there’s just one you gotta have, we can make a deal. Speaking of deal, how much am I asking for these you might wonder. Well for starters all regular movies are $4 each. That’s right FOUR DOLLLARS!!!! I’m looking to get $12 each for the TV shows. However, the more you buy, the more you save. If you buy 3 TV show sets, I’m only asking $30. If you buy 6 movies it’s only $20. I’m sure we can work out other deals if there’s something that catches your eye.
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That’s right…s’mores cupcakes!

A few weeks ago, Jess and I were tasked with preparing some food for our friend Kit’s birthday. She’s getting pretty old and was probably thinking something like ovaltine, tapioca, and melba toast, but we had something a bit cooler in mind. I mean, after all, us whipper snappers like our food with a bit more flair!

Since we pretty much rock the block when it comes to cupcakes we thought that we’d do it up right this time. What better way to kick start spring than with s’mores. I mean, nothing says spring and fun and awesome and money like graham crackers, dark chocolate, marshmallows, and fire. We scoured around for just the right recipes and set off to make the perfect cupcake.

At the base was a traditional graham cracker crust (crushed crackers, sugar, butter baked to a golden brown). We topped that off with a light yet rich dark chocolate cupcake. Then to really sell these as s’mores, we made our own marshmallow fluff. Now it is possible to buy this stuff, but why do that when you can make it, I mean… home made is always better any way. So we made our own fluff, then piped it on top of the cupcakes. One thing was missing…fire. The thing that makes a s’more a s’more is the melty chocolate and burned marshmallow dripping all over your hands and pants as you try to cram the whole thing in your mouth. So we got us a dandy kitchen torch and toasted them suckers right up.

The result was a perfect chocolaty, creamy, crunchy cupcake that captured the essence of all things s’mores. They looked as good as they tasted and they were a hit. In conjunction with the cupcakes we made some pinwheels (3 varieties: Greek, American, Italian), some candied sweet and spicy mixed nuts, ultimate guacamole, cheesy sausage dip, and a buffalo chicken dip. Everything turned out exactly as we anticipated.

The icing on the cake, if you will, was that during the process of all the cooking, Jess and I (mainly Jess), got the hankering to start up our very own catering business. We’ve not ironed out the details yet, but we have the idea and drive to really get it started. For now it’s just a notion that’s floating around in our heads. We’ve got a ton of prep to do and will need to get some research done before we really get started. In the mean time, we’ll do small events, parties for friends, etc.

So that’s that. A great weekend filled with s’mores cupcakes, friends, and amazing ideas of a catering business that I know will be a success.

S’mores cupcakes on Flickr

Recipe will be posted once we get a better handle on the catering thing.