SniperBen – Page 5 – Sniper Bear

Laundry room remodel

Jess and I finally got around to re-doing the laundry room. I say that like we’ve been in this house for ages and the room has been the bane of our existence. Well, the truth is, we’ve only been there for a few months and though the wallpaper was hideous, it really wasn’t like walking into Disaster DIY with Bryan Baeumler.

The project took us a week or so longer than it probably should have, but we eventually got it done. I mean, it’s not like you can just start something like this and finish in a single day, or even a weekend when you have a 1yr old. The end result was a much more inviting space that was bright and cheerful! I love the way the colors turned out. We painted all the walls, Jess made a new curtain, we painted the counter top, and even put a stencil on the wall.

Here’s the progress pics:
[nggallery id=1]

And if the pics weren’t enough…. I decided to time lapse the whole thing. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llu3lqhAk90[/youtube]

I’d say this project was a total success. Can’t wait to start in on another project. Oh wait, we already have. Pics and a post coming soon!

Settling in nicely

So a few weeks ago, or what seems like a week ago I posted about a shittaculer week that we had. I mean literally it was an assplosion of epic proportions. Since then we’ve rebounded quite nicely and have managed to get everyone else around us sick! Well, maybe they got themselves sick, but either way it seems that everyone is now falling victim to the dreaded mud butt.

Enough about that… This December has FLOWN by. But I reckon that’s the way time usually goes. When your in the weeds things may seem to drag on and weeks never end and you have “the longest day ever” syndrome, but when you look back there’s always the sense of “where has this month gone?!” That’s the case with the past few weeks around here. And now, its two days before Christmas and it seems like just yesterday was Thanksgiving. That doesn’t mean we’ve not enjoyed ourselves this holiday season. It really has been a great month and we’ve adjusted well to living in the new house. It just seems like things are more accessible. For example, I’ve had two work holiday parties in the past few weeks and had we still lived in Hampton I would have most likely bailed on both of those. Now it seems like work or downtown is a short drive from here and hanging with co-workers for the holiday parties is doable.

And its not just getting to/from downtown, its everything else as well. I mean if we need to go to the grocery store, Starbucks, Target or to do some shopping out and about, its accessible. Its just very easy living where we do now. We even managed to host a Christmas/holiday party and have people show up! City folk that would have otherwise never ventured to our home had we not lived within close proximity to civilization.

So thats that. Its been a swift month and looking back, a crazy year. 2012 is coming to a close and we’re already planning far into 2013.

Next level productivity

Whether it was the fact that we hadn’t done shit all week or it was some sort of voodoo magic in the air, but man we knocked it out today! This morning BLT was all trying to kick things off as if it were any other day by waking up at 5am. No one wants to be up at that hour on a Saturday. We quickly squashed that by taking him over to my mom’s house. She agreed to watch him for the morning so we could get some stuff done around the house for a change. The goal was lofty, but we were up for a challenge.

Ever since moving in we haven’t had the time or energy or care level to move the rest of the stuff from the basement/garage to the attic. After all, we now live in the equivalent of a three story house. Factor in the trip up the ladder in to the attic and that was not something we wanted to get all up on. Today, however was different and we got everything that was to be stored moved up and that was that. Granted it took a trip to Home Depot for some boards to put down for flooring, but that was a minor setback.

After all that was done, we proceeded to do some more organizing the basement in preparation for the gym equipment that was going in down there. Have I mentioned that we’re doing Tough Mudder in like 4 months?! Eek! We were all getting pretty hungry so we decided to go grab some food and pick up the youngin’ from Grammy’s.

Back at the house and Lane went to bed so we could start in on decorating the rest of the outside of the house. Nothing quite like having the family outside decorating and just having a grand time. Most of it we were able to get knocked out before BLT woke up, but the last piece was a huge ass wreath for the upper middle window on the house. Luckily it was a simple hang out the window two stories in the air and put a nail in the window frame kinda procedure.

The day got a little crazy after that and JT kinda went rogue, but we found her.

The rest of the day was spent finishing up some other chores like installing the second IP Camera, a trip to Hobby Lobby for some supplies to make Chase’s school play outfit, dishes, etc. Basically, we got shit done.

Oh, and two other things. First off our gas oven can die for all I care at this point. I mean, I love cooking with a gas top range and all but that oven is bajank. Its too small and always burns shit. We’ve tried adjusting the temp and time and all manner of things but no matter what everything we cook is always either burned or not done at all. I miss my electric oven. Secondly, a carpenter I am not, and I am also not the handiest of mans on the planet. But despite that fact, I’ll give it my all. Those boards in the attic are most likely not up to any sort of code or whatnot, but hey, they’ll hold our stuff. And the ice maker line that I installed tonight, despite me doing it exactly correct the damn thing still leaks. Not from anywhere that I connected, but from the actual shut off valve bit. So I’m now going to have to call a plumber and get them to tell me its going to cost a bajillion dollars or tell me that I f’d up and did it wrong… which I’m fairly confident that I didn’t.

Ok, that’s all I had. I’ll most likely post something again tomorrow or at the very least in the next few days. For now I’m gonna go get in the bed with my beautiful and amazing wife. Bam!

The week that never ended

Well, I mean eventually it ended, but damn this week was a pain in the ass.

When I say “pain in the ass” I literally mean it when it comes to what we’ve had to deal with this past week. Lane, Chase, Jess, and I all have had the doom stomach sickness. It started with BLT puking in his bed last Thursday night and rolling around in it all night. He proceeded to throw up again all over himself and highchair Friday morning. Then Saturday, it hit me like a ton of bricks, or a ton of feathers, either way, I was down for the count. JT was a trooper and took care of Lane and I… that is until she got smacked with the black death around 3am on Sunday. Now we had a baby that was recovering from being sick, Jess feeling the effects, and me doing my best to hold it together. We thought our lil’ guy was on the mend, that was until he lost the contents of his stomach all over again.

We went into the weekend with such high hopes, even visited the local farmers market in search of fresh produce and such. But it quickly turned into a festering pool of dispair and unmentionables. Surely come Monday we could kick it into over drive and plow through the week.

Oh, my bad… I must have been thinking of some other week. Jess was still writing on Monday and had to stay out of work. Since she was mobile for the most part she stayed with BLT and Chase and trucked on through the day. Got the sheets clean and windows open. Things were looking up and by Tuesday we were all back to work/school!

BAM! In your face good mood! Tuesday afternoon turned out to be probably the worst, or at least second worst day of the week. For starters Lane is getting to the point where he just LOVES to hear him self babble and yell and blow raspberries and spit out his food and… well, here lemme show you.
Lane in the car:
[youtube width=”640″ height=”360″]http://youtu.be/NnqC-qDcHP0[/youtube]

Lane “eating” dinner:
[youtube width=”640″ height=”360″]http://youtu.be/rQ5h66HBi_U[/youtube]

This is what Jess has to put up with for upwards of 3 hours a day JUST in the car. She gets home before me and has to try and get him fed too. That’s just insane. Anyone else’s kid and they would be out back with the coyote. Yeah, we have those now apparently too. I mean bajeeze this kid is loud. Any way, she puts up with this and has a splitting headache on Tuesday only to find out that she does not have a key to get in the house. So now she’s suck outside of her safe haven with a fussy baby, a hungry 10 year old, and a migrane. Damn you Tuesday, you suck worse than the whole weekend combined.

So Wednesday rolls around and its rainy and we’re running late in the morning and this weeks in the shitter, but we’re gonna push on, right? Well Wednesday is my usual work from home day and I am usually able to get work done because the fam is off at school/work. Well Jess has asked me to keep Lane home with me. Admittedly I was somewhat of a turd and didn’t want to keep him. I wanted my peace. ME ME ME!! That’s totally not fair to her at all, do you remember the videos? So stomped my feet, pouted like a little girl, but kept BLT home with me. We made the best of it, I put on my big boy pants and I got the majority of the work I needed to do done. By the time Jess got home I was needing a break just as bad as she did on Monday.

Whew, time for a breather. We had dinner, watched Survivor, and did our best to just be calm for the remainder of the night Chase had to go to the bathroom a few times, but honestly that was nothing new since he really chew his food as much as he inhales it. What we didn’t realize was that it was the precursor to the mudbutt.

Thursday morning and we’re getting ready to head in as if it were any other day and SLAP! Reality hits us in the face. JT calls me to come to Chases room where we are greeted with a delightful ~~crime scene~~ art project. This kid has some how rolled over in the middle of the night, and blew chunks from the top bunk down to the white carpet below and went back to sleep. I mean, hot dog bits mixed with ketchup and vegetable soup. It was literally a 4 foot splatter radius. I don’t think he ever even knew he did it. Earlier when I said that Tuesday was the second worst day, it was second to this. There was simply no way that JT or I would be able to handle this day alone so we both elected to stay home. She watched BLT while I went to the store to rent a RugDoctor.

The rest of the day was spent tending to a sick Chase and a fussy Lane. Oh and working and cleaning the house and doing other chores and you know… living. The afternoon wasn’t that bad and we even managed to squeeze in a family walk, which is good considering we’re doing Tough Mudder in like 4 months.

So we made it to Friday and just as we’re on our way out the door Lane’s baby sitter texts and says that her grandson has the stomach bug. WTF?! Can we not escape this damn thing?! Now we have OTHER people’s kids preventing us from simply having a normal day. Well, we decided to take Lane to the sitter and she would just quarantine the sick child in another room. Whether or not that work remains to be seen and I’m sure if anything comes of it we’ll be cleaning it up in the morning.

At this point the house is pretty much sterile, the carpet is pearly white, the family is happy and resting and we have a game plan of attack on the leaves and duties of the house tomorrow. Grammy is gonna watch Lane while we move stuff to the attic and deal with the leaves outside and then its shopping and decorate-fest 2k12 all over again!

This week has been a bitch, but we pulled through so far. There’s still two days to go, but I feel like we can make it. It’s not the worst this family has ever been through and I’m sure we’ll deal with this sort of thing again. We’re better than little things like puke and yelling babies. We can pull through the strife. We’re the Snipers! Its what we do.

Oh, and in case you were curious how our Friday night went, this should give you a good indication.
[youtube width=”640″ height=”360″]http://youtu.be/WhxAQs5pDQc[/youtube]

11 months and counting

Eleven moths ago Jess was 20 months pregnant and most likely nauseous and miserable. Today, and this past weekend we were nearly in the same… except for the being pregnant part. Instead we were doing all we could to take care of our 11 month old. How in the world did we end up with baby nearly ONE YEAR OLD?! Didn’t Jess just have him like 2 weeks ago?

Nope, she had him WAY back in January. So much has happened since then. Trips to the beach, new cars due to car wrecks, Josh’s Speed Boats, new house, and on and on. We may not have done a great job of keeping up with all things going on but we have pics and we have the memories. And speaking of pics, here’s one of our little guy… and his little guy.

Lane-11mon — You are NOT going to post this!

One more month and we’ll be celebrating his one year birthday! Hard to believe, but such a wonderful year its been. Can’t wait for the years to come.

Tough Mudder – The Beginning

First off, what is Tough Mudder. Watch this video to find out!
[youtube width=”800″ height=”450″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vh5HdPM_QuE[/youtube]

Now that you have an idea of what Tough Mudder is, you can appreciate why its going to take at LEAST five months to get prepared for it. Jess has done several 5Ks and I have like 2 “obstacle” runs under my belt, but nothing of this caliber. This thing is 10-12 miles and 25 military grade obstacles! Are you freakin’ kidding me?

Well today we signed up for it and if all goes well, we’ll be in shape and running that beast in April. In the meantime we’re looking for donations to support the Wounded Warrior Project. If we can raise at least $150 then we’ll get a discount on our submissions. And regardless, its a great cause to donate to.

So wish us luck, we’ve got our work cut out for us. Stay tuned for updates on the progress.

Decorating at the Turner’s – 2k12

Well, we are not ones to dillydally when it comes to getting stuff unpacked and decorated around the house and this year would be no exception. So despite having only been in this house ONE week, we decided it would be a good idea to go round up a 8+ foot tall tree and decorate that mug with as many lights and ornaments as we could muster.

We headed off to our local tree farm where Chase picked out the perfect tree and helped me cut it down. Mom and Lane sat by taking cute pics of and enjoying the weather. Once we got the tree home it was just a matter of finding the right spot, hauling up all our Christmas decor from the basement, doning our best decorating attire and getting this party started. It wasn’t long before we had the living room decked out and we ready to enjoy the rest of the night longing at our beautiful tree.

As with every year, I made a time lapse video of the festivities. We look a little goofy, but that’s what its all about. Having fun, and just enjoying time with our family. Lane really loves looking at the lights and so far neither of the animals has been tempted enough to tear anything off the tree. Now if we can just keep it watered for the next 30 or so days, we’ll be doing just fine!

[youtube width=”810″ height=”608″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nY7Irsby3Z4[/youtube]

Stay tuned for more pics and videos of all things holiday!

[flickr-gallery mode=”photoset” photoset=”72157632107566743″]

Moving on up!

In lieu fo going back several months and doing all sorts of updates, I’ll simply use this day as an opportunity to move forward, or in our case… north!

Let’s go back a few months. This summer was a hot one. The heat was unbearable, there was nothing really awesome to do around the house, and the Turner’s had a few misfortunes that set things back. All this coupled with yet another year in the ever shrinking house that we were occupying and we started to feel a little out of place. We always knew that we would be moving at some point. After all, our family is growing, but the house we’re in as well as this town are not. Like I’ve told many of our friends, this one horse town doesn’t even have a horse anymore. So as the months went on we perused through listings of houses, dreamed of bigger spaces for our kids and better overall surroundings to continue this amazing family.

Fast forward to about a month ago. I reached out to a real estate agent that helped me sell my old house back in Powder Springs (thank God she came along when she did) and enlisted her to help us track down the perfect house. Well, low and behold it only took us about 3 weeks and we found what we thought was the house! But it was too soon… it… no, it was only October. We had a plan. A plan that didn’t have us moving until next year. Possibly not even until the school year was up. We didn’t have the savings account built up enough, we didn’t have all our ducks in a row, we didn’t even have ducks! But like any adventure, we went and walked through the house. Well… it was not THE house. It was nice, had a pool, hot tub, great area out back to entertain, decent schools, sturdy build, and some potential. But the more we thought about it, the less we liked it. This was a good thing, cause we surely were not ready to buy a house yet.

Well, that was until we found ANOTHER perfect house. Again, we scheduled a walk through and as luck would have it, this was the house. We simply could not believe what we were looking at. It was almost like that house in property brothers that they show people to kinda shell shock them into what they can/can’t afford. Well, that was not the case with this house. Not only did it have everything we could possibly want in the house, but it had great schools, a fine neighborhood, it was close to my family and a better commute for me. Granted the commute for Jess royally sucks, it was only temporary. Oh, and the price… UNDER our budget! Our agent suggested we put an offer on it that day. What?! No… this isn’t right. We JUST looked at this thing and she wants us to put an offer on it? Nah, we’re good. But, this is the house we thought. So we did. Oh a whim, we put an offer on the house!

Like any good initial offer it was lower than it should be. We didn’t expect to hear anything back for a while, but we got a call back the SAME night with a counter offer. Oh snap! This thing is really moving forward faster than we thought. Well, “unfortunately” the counter offer was still a great price and actually was about where we wanted things to be in the first place. But we through back one more offer just to see if it would stick, and as of last night, the offer has been accepted!!

So as of today, Jess and I are in the process of closing on this house in less than 30 days!!! We held off on telling people that we had put an offer since we weren’t sure if it would even be accepted. Hell, until Sunday afternoon we weren’t even considering buying a house this soon.

Its been a whirlwind past few days, but it’ll be worth it. We finally have the house we’ve always wanted. It may be several months ahead of schedule, but that’s part of the adventure. We will have Christmas at our new house. Our kids will come down the steps and see the tree lit up and Santa will have brought them all kinds of what-nots. We’ll have a fire going in our new fire place, Jess will be in the kitchen cooking me a delicious breakfast while I sit in on the couch. She’ll then clean our huge kitchen as I continue to lounge around in our home that is our very own. When the kids have wore themselves out from playing with the toys, or simply pooping in Lane’s case, then Jess will make us some lunch and we will watch some TV in our living room… or the huge master bedroom. Either way and no matter what, we’ll be in our new home.

This story is only just beginning. We have a few more hurdles to get over in the next few days, but that’s all part of the process. I am happier and more in love than I have ever been in my life. I have everything a man could want, beautiful and wonderful wife, 2 handsome and sweet boys, a job that I enjoy going to every day, a home for my family to continue to grow in, and peace of mind knowing that all the work over the years has brought me to this place. That it didn’t come easy and without struggle, but it happened.

Sappy bits over, back to the goods! Did you see that house?! I mean… it’s like a friggin’ mansion! Three stories, a spot for a gym, a fireplace, gas stove…. what?!!! Cooking on a gas stove is teh rox! A yard to do my yarding, a pool for us to get our swim on! Bam! Hotness!!

Check out the pics from the listing of the house. Or don’t cause I know I’ve looked at them a million times so it doesn’t matter to me!

[flickr-gallery mode=”photoset” photoset=”72157631748794089″]

P90x: 40+ days

This post is about 10 days over due. Here’s my 30 day pic for P90x.

As you can see, I have achieved results! On day 30 I had more definition in my arms, legs, back, shoulders, stomach, and smile. I was feeling fantastic and wanted more. This however was short lived. Shortly after my day 30 awesomeness I departed for a 3 day field trip for Chase’s PC class. It’s hard enough doing P90x at home, but it’s impossible to do any sort of exercise while tending to a gaggle of 4th/5th graders and walking around learning about maritime forests and such. So when I got home I was feeling rather bleh. Three days of cafeteria food and sand in my ass had taken it’s toll. However, I was ready to jump back to it on Thursday! I crushed another workout and was back in the swing of things. That is, until the next day when we were invited to hang with some friends at a beach house for the weekend! How could we possibly turn this down?! The beach trip in general is for another post and I’ll let Jess handle that one. I had great intentions and packed my DVDs and some gear for a few workouts at the beach. Well as anyone who’s ever been to the beach will tell you, that is pretty much a wash and workouts are most likely not going to happen. Tack on a few kids, some wicked sunburn, and a few drinks and I can kiss those days goodbye.

By Tuesday I was feeling dreadful and wanted to either exercise the toxins out of my body or die. Well, I have a family to look after so I decided to exercise. Again, there were obstacles all over the place. From a sunburn that left me itching all of my skin off to a hand that looked like a zombie attack (an injury suffered while digging a trench from our sand castle to the ocean), it looked as if it was going to be another battle to get my routines in. I would do my best to exercise here and there, but it just wasn’t the same. I felt like I had lost my drive. I could feel myself slipping further and further from my goal and the scale was certainly reflecting this.

Then came the wall. The 215lb wall that I was either going to bust through or let stop me. Some how I had gained 3 more pounds that my starting weight. Luckily I didn’t let it stop me. It took some time and a lot of internal struggle, but as of this morning I feel like I’m back in the driver’s seat. I am now at 209lbs and am ready for my next exercise.

Last nights workout was probably one of the toughest ones I’ve done in the past 40+ days. I did not eat well yesterday and certainly did not provide the right fuel for my body to do a great workout. But with the encouragement of my wife (who is also doing daily exercise routines btw) I got out there and did some Plyo X. It wasn’t easy, and I threw up before finishing, but I finished. I got over that hurdle and am so happy I did. I’m not ready to finish the second half of this program and get to that goal fitness level that I have set for myself. I feel great and I can’t wait for my next routine. I know the next 45 days will bring struggles, hurdles, and all manner of things to slow me down, but I am determined to see this thing through. I may be exactly where I am today in terms of weight and muscle or I may be “fit as a fiddle”, as Tony Horton would say. Only time will tell.

Oh, and as I mentioned earlier my wife is now doing her own daily workouts. She’s stuck to it so far and I am exceedingly proud of her and can’t wait to see her awesome results. I have faith in her and know she will bust through it. Stay tuned for more!

This day can suck it.

Let me count the ways:

Baby was fussy this morning and wide awake at 5:35, a mere 10 mins before my alarm was set to go off. Don’t you just love waking up BEFORE your alarms goes off. Also, he didn’t feel it was necessary to go back to sleep.
I weighed myself today, thinking I would be on track for my P90X goal. Nope. Looks like I’m right at where I started. Things fit better, I feel and look better, but I want that damn scale to reflect something!
This thing: Delights Turkey Sausage Quesadilla, probably made me more hungry than I was before I started eating it.
I got a reminder this morning that I should check the cap on anything prior to shaking it. My reminder came in the form of a bottle of coffee creamer splattered all over me, the floor, and the inside and out of the fridge.
My cat may or may not be outside today. He’s never been outside for more than a like a minute. Here’s hoping for the best.
Might as well be driving to hell

I mean… what the deuces man?!
While driving through construction you might encounter a rock on your windshield. That is unless you are me, in which case you will definitely encounter a rock to your windshield. Also, said rock will indeed crack your windshield and you will have a delightful time cursing out the world in your anger.
Someone at work thought it would be acceptable to simply turn on the warmer and NOT actually make more coffee. So my coffee this morning at the office was a little funky tasting. Good thing I had time to stand around and make another pot.

So far that’s it. Just nine mishaps or plans go awry today. Luckily it’s only 9am and I have the whole day ahead of me to either get it together or Hulk smash everything into tiny bits. Let’s hope for the sake of my co-workers that it’s the former.

Happy Monday y’all!