Half a year later

I honestly don’t even know where to begin. My last post was in December of 2014, and it’s now July 2015. That’s WAY to long to go without posting. So today, I start again.

But where to start? Do I make a post about Jack, Lane, Tough Mudder, my new tattoo, the basement, work, beer, the gym, or somewhere else? Too much has happened over the past 7 months to capture it all. There’s just no way to get it all into a post, and I’m sure I’ve forgotten more things than I’d ever be able to share here.

So now that I’ve wasted the first two paragraphs talking about how much I haven’t talked about in the past year I’m just gonna get right down to things.

65839600-5811-4401-B20E-63067F4660BEJack:
Jack is about to be 9 months old. We love this guy! He’s got so much personality and is such a Turner that it hurts some times. He’s not quite rolling over consistently yet, but he’s certainly done it a few times. He is on baby food, eats everything, and is growing like crazy. Right now he’s teething and about to cut his 8th… or 9th tooth. We’ve lost count as it happens so rapidly. The other week he started saying “dadadada” and then “mamamamama”. So talking isn’t far off. We’ve got a walker that he really enjoys being in because he’s mobile. I have a feeling this kid will be walking before he can craw, which is something he’s not really been keen on as of yet. So, this is a far cry from the last time I posted about Jack. He still frustrates the hell out of us, but I don’t know of any 9 month old that is just always the perfect baby. Oh, and he’s trending about 8-9 months ahead of his age as far as clothing, so that’s always fun.

OCR (Obstacle Course Races):

Watch these. That’ll pretty much sum things up. Jess and I have done both a Tough Mudder and Warrior Dash this year. I have 2 Spartan races coming up in the fall and can’t wait!

Work:
Work is work. I’ve been working on the same project for the better part of 2 years now. The good thing is, its not something that has either a budget or end date. I can always add more features and functionality and as long as our sales team sells it, I’ll be in demand!

The house:
I don’t know what I have / haven’t posted about in regards to what’s been done around the house. We’ve done more landscaping in the back yard, had some more trees cut down, painted some rooms, re-arranged furniture, contemplated finishing things, started new things and generally been home owners who own a home that always have something to do. Also, it seems that no matter how much water I put on the grass it doesn’t want to turn into a golf course.

Jack and LaneLane:
Where to even begin with this kid?! He’s grown so much in the past year that it’s hard to capture it all even if I posted every day. There’s nothing this kid can’t do, especially if you ask him. As a general rule he really can do most things, and even things he can’t he’ll give it a try. This kid surprises me all the time. He wanted some yogurt out of the fridge the other day, so he found a stool, took it into the kitchen, climbed to the top shelf of the fridge and got it. He only likes to ask for help, so you can watch him do something on his own. He loves his family, gets frustrated and communicates why, tells jokes, remembers things that both Jess and I have long since forgotten, is able to follow even the most complex of directions. I want to freeze time so I can keep him at this age forever, but I am also excited to see what’s next in his big little world.

Friends:
It seems that these days its becoming more and more difficult to make time to hang out with my friends. We’ve all got kids now and syncing up schedules and such is always such a chore. On the off chance that we do get to hang out, its a great time. I love my friends and have some really great people in my life.

Jess:
Speaking of great people in my life…. This woman. She’s my best friend. My companion. My wife. My everything. There are days when she frustrates me, days when I frustrate her, but at the end of EVERY day there is such a deep love and respect that I can’t imagine any other life. She has grown so much as a mother, teacher, and person in the past year and I am just so proud of all the things she has accomplished. There really is a never ending list of ways I love her.

The gym:
First off, I still HATE pull-ups. I have continued to get stronger, faster, better, and more well rounded in the gym. But my hands and my grip are still weak and no matter what I do, I will most likely rip. I did the Memorial Day Murph, which has 100 pull-ups and despite finishing I did some serious damage to my hands. Despite my pull-ups not getting much better, I’ve increased the weight that I can lift via deadlift, clean, jerk, push press, drastically. But with that being said this past week I discovered that we all have bad days and my bad day was an abysmal performance while trying to do a bench press. In my attempt to simply do the same weight/reps I’ve done before I failed. A lot. This left me with a sour taste in my mouth, but at the same time, it gave me a drive to get back in the gym and work on my weakness and turn it around.

Varicose veins:
I had them, not so much any more. Many, many, many years in the making and I have finally gotten ride of the veins that were so unsightly in my legs. I’m only about a week out from my final procedure, but I can tell that things are improving. In about 5 more weeks all the swelling should be down and I’ll have some silky smooth legs! Well, maybe not that much, but they’ll be tenfold better than they were.

Chase, Jack, JessChase:
We have a teenager. And a teenager he certainly is. One minute he’s dancing and singing in the kitchen with us, the next he’s completely shut him self into his room and won’t join us for anything. He has some massive mood swings and they come out of nowhere. With that being said, he’s still a really good kid. There are other teens out there that are just unbearable, but not Chase. He has all the signs of being a teen, and just like with our other two kids, eventually he’ll grow out of that phase and move on to the next one. Hopefully the football he’s signed up for that starts in the fall will help him with that.

All the rest:
Like I mentioned earlier, I can’t begin to cover everything. My goal is to keep posting and try to capture as much of the day-to-day as I can. Pics, videos, Tweets, etc., I’d like to get it all, or at the very least a majority of it.

Time’s a changing!

And so is the bloggins. For the past several years, SniperBear.net has been dedicated to the life and times of Jess and I, and our growing family. Posts would range from new additions to the family to vacations to struggles with putting together furniture and even CrossFit. However, now that our family is complete it’s time to move things over to a new blog. So with that, I will now be posting over at Turner5.us. I feel the new blog, at least in name, represents the family as a whole now. Where as before, with SniperBear it was more of the beginning and middle of Jess’ and I’s journey as we started a family. I consider it the prologue to the full story. At Turner5.us, it’ll mostly be the same format, but hopefully posts will come in more frequently. I want to really capture the life of my family. Life isn’t all rainbows and kitten and uni-horses, there are struggles and aches and days when things are stains. But for every bad day there are countless good ones. Long nights lead to longer days, or maybe they don’t.

So that’s that. I may come back here and post from time to time, but my focus will be over at the new site. I’ll still post about CrossFit and end up making posts will a few manhattan’s into the evening, but that’s all part of being a dad to 3 wonderful boys and a husband to an amazing wife.

Thanks for sticking with us for the past 4+ years!

You don’t know Jack!

Jack Edward Turner
Jack Edward Turner

Jack Edward Turner was born at 5:32 PM, on October 27th 2014. He was a few weeks early, but came out screaming at nearly 21 inches long and weighing 7lbs on the dot! Had he gone to full term, he would have been right up there with his brother in birth size. But never fear, what Jack initially lacked in weight or overall stature, has been eclipsed by so much more.

Here’s the thing. Jack was born SEVEN weeks ago. Over a month has gone by with out even a mention on this blog. Nothing has been written or posted or anything in regards to the actual birth or the weeks proceeding. With Lane, it was like a daily habit to post something. Certainly there have been Facebook and Instagram posts, but this is the place where we’re supposed to document our family’s growth. Yet, with Jack, that hasn’t happened.

With Jack, things feel different to me. In my world he has not been an easy baby. We did everything we could to make sure things went well with the birth and even after. Yet despite our best efforts there were still complications from the beginning. For starters Jess had some pretty substantial blood loss in the hospital after Jack was born. So much so that we had to have the doctors come back in and get that stopped. It was one of the few times that I can recall nearly passing out at the sight of blood. Jack on the other hand was put in the NICU to get his breathing/oxygen under control. Oh, and his jaundice too. Cause you know… jaundice. He was over there for like 3 full days. That is crucial bonding time that both Jess and I missed. Certainly we could, well I could, walk over there and see him, but that was only for a few hours a day at most and we weren’t allowed to hold him.

After we got him out of the NICU and his breathing under control, we were faced with getting the jaundice sorted out. At the hospital they gave us a bilirubin bed to get his levels under control, but really all that did was keep him out of our hands even longer. Jess and Jack got to come home on Halloween, just in time to take the other boys out trick-or-treating. On Saturday we went to his pediatrician and were told that the jaundice had not gone down enough. So again, bili-bed! On Sunday back to the doctor and were told that his levels were to a point were we actually needed to go to Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. Ugh… can we just catch a break. So we went and let me tell you… that place was so very uninviting. It was just cold, and hectic. I don’t feel like anyone there knew what they were doing and it was just very depressing to say the least. They wanted Jack and Jess to stay over night. And yet again, Jack would need to stay under the blue lights to get the levels under control.

Styling in my BiliBed

Eventually we were able to get Jack’s numbers down and were given a clean bill of health. Back home and we could finally start bonding and the journey of life with a new born. Chase and Lane were SUPER awesome older brothers. Those two boys are just amazing with occupying each other when needed and also helping out or doing what we need. I mean, not every day, but still.

So that’s like the first two weeks. Fast forward to today and I feel like I still haven’t made the deep connection like I did was Lane and honestly Chase, who isn’t even my biological son! What’s up with that? Jack, my second born son only wants to be comfortable, full, and interacted with. And here I am, struggling that on a daily basis. We’ve determined that Jack has colic and let me tell you… that is NOT fun. Lane had night terrors and I thought that was bad, but I’ll take them over colic any day. At least with a night terror its occasionally and is usually over in a relatively short amount of time. With colic it never seems to end. Jack is awake, alert, and literally inconsolable. It is every day, and several times a day. It sucks. The worst is at night. Mainly because I don’t want his crying to wake the other kids. It’s hard to get Lane back in bed these days and I don’t need my 7 week old waking my 3 year old.

I find myself getting angry at Jack, simply because he won’t eat, or he just spit up everything he DID eat, or he won’t stop moving for 10 seconds so I can change or burp him. I get mad cause he’s clean, fed, dry, warm, and I’m holding him and he’s just pitching a fit. There’s nothing I can do at that moment to make him better. He can’t tell me what’s wrong, but I know something is. I can’t fix it, so I get mad. Jack is hurting or ill or something and no matter what I do, it doesn’t get better. I hate that I take that out on him. He didn’t ask for it. The more he fusses and cries the more distant I get and want less and less to deal with it. That’s so unfair and not a healthy thing to do. In my last post, I talked about resenting him for taking my wife away from me, now that he’s here, I feel like he’s taking everything else away.

Its my job as his father to provide and love him. I’m not doing a very good job at that. But… I recognize that. I would say that I’m getting better and am gaining more patience. Its not easy, fun, or something I really want to be doing, but it is necessary. I love Jack. He’s my son and always will be. I know Jess is dealing with things in her way, and for me, I feel like I just need to keep trying and going back to the well so I can help my son through these next few months. It could be SO much worse. Yeah, it could be better, but it can always be better. That’s how life is, right?

#life
#life #grassisgreener

So, that’s where things are. I won’t say that they are easy, but at the same time it could be worse. I bet someone reading this could say “you have no idea how good you have it” or “at least you are able to have children.” And that may be true, but each person deals with and handles things differently. For me, right now, this is a struggle. I am grateful for Jess and her reminders. We are each other’s rock at this point. The thing is, neither she nor I are very patient people. But with Jack, that’s what we have to be. In the end he will teach us how to be better and we will continue to love and grow with him. We are in the middle of an unpleasant season, but like anything else it’ll pass. And things will get easier and before I know it all three boys will be running around and playing. They will be eating every possible thing in our pantry and I’ll miss the days when I could just hold them.

This post has been a long time coming. I’ve started and closed it countless times, but feel the time is right to get my thoughts and feelings out there. I love all my boys and Jack is no exception.

My mini-me!
My mini-me!

Seven days to Jack!

Jack!Where to begin…
What a whirlwind of an adventure these past few months have been. I can honestly only speak for myself, as I know Jess has had her fair share of ups and downs with this pregnancy.

In 7 days, yes SEVEN days Jack will be here. I can’t believe how quickly that crept up on us. Some how it’s flown by and crept along all the same. There were weeks and months that just wouldn’t end, but in hindsight they were gone in the blink of an eye. Jess has had a heck of a time with this one. A week ago we were in the hospital dealing with an ungodly migraine the likes that she had never experienced. A headache so bad it kept her home from work for 5 days! That’s not something you want to go through at the end of your pregnancy. Luckily, they subsided and she was back on her feet. I don’t envy what she went through, but am happy that it was relatively short-lived.

For me, I can say that I’ve gone through a lot of emotional turmoil, especially here recently. There were days when I resented Jack for taking away my wife and causing her pain, and for making her unable to enjoy things with Chase, Lane, and I. Before he was even born, I was already at a place where I was angry at him. How totally unfair is that?! My own child, who is merely growing and has no knowledge of anything other than his mother’s womb was making me angry. That only made me even more angsty. I got mad at myself for getting mad. But those days were few and far between.

There were other days when I thought how lucky I am to be able to have another child, and a boy at that! I would look at Lane or Chase, and just be utterly surprised at how wonderful they were. Two boys roughing around the house playing and laughing and having the best time of their lives. Not really knowing that in no time at all, they would have a 3rd joining their party. Lane would become an OLDER brother and get to pass down things that Chase taught him. The two of them would be best buds and go on adventures and play and do all the things that brothers do. Chase would be the older brother in the crew shuttling around his little brothers and rasslin’ with them. All the while, Jess and I would get to sit by and watch it all unfold in front of us. How did we get so lucky? Those days were far more numerous!

It all happened so fast. Just yesterday we were TALKING about getting pregnant, right? But at the same time, we had done so much these past nine months. Granted this summer was not as adventurous as last summer, but we still did a lot! We had still managed to cram a ton of things into our plate and get here to the end.

The house is ready and stocked with clothes and all the necessities needed for Jack’s arrival next week. Jess is eager to have him, if only to start the recovery process, and I simply can’t wait to meet him. I think Jess has made more of a connection with him than I did. I feel like with Lane I made a quick connection, mainly because he was my first child by birth. I had never been through something as wonderful as holding my son for the first time and all the preparations. So I was able to connect and really get involved. With Jack, it seems to me that I’ve actually grown closer to Lane and Chase. Mainly because at least over the past month or so, Jess has been unable to really participate in everything and I typically take the reigns when it comes to managing the boys. Getting them to/from school, baths, play time, shopping, etc. I’ve really had to stay on my game when it comes to their day-to-day happenings. So that has brought me closer to them. On the flip side however is that it hasn’t really allowed me to be as close to Jack as I want to be. That will all change next week. I will actually be able to hold him, see him with my own eyes, care for him, and provide the things he needs. Something only Jess has been able to do for the duration of this pregnancy. I just can’t wait to hold him and talk to him and give him all the love and attention I can.

Jess said it when she was pregnant with Lane and I didn’t fully understand it then, but the love in our lives doesn’t get divided amongst our kids, it simply grows. We somehow get more! We don’t love one kid more than the other because that’s all that we have. We love all our kids more because they bring us love in return. Jack will be a wonderful addition to our family. There will be days when we’re all fed up or sick or frustrated or tired, but those days just like any other will pass. We’ll go on adventures, take vacations to places we’ve never been, tell stories, take pictures, and keep on being the amazing family we are. Jess and I can’t wait for the next chapter in our lives, and lucky for us, we don’t have to wait much longer to experience it!

 

The new routine

Over the past week Jess and I have been consistent with our routine, discipline, encouragement, and interactions with Lane. It took some getting use to on all of our parts, but things are finally starting to click. No longer is there kicking and screaming when going to bed. He doesn’t fight the sheer mention of going in bed. It’s still not perfect, and he still comes and gets in our bed at random hours of the night, but it’s light years ahead of what it was a week ago.

In addition to the nights getting easier, Lane’s mood in general this weekend has improved. Certainly he still has outbursts of either yelling or crying, but they seem to be getting fewer and fewer. I’ve also implemented a new timer system. Basically when I need him to do something I give him a heads up and we set a timer for when he needs to do that thing. For example, if I want him to go to bed at 8, we’ll set a timer for 10 minutes at 7:50. If I need him to wait 3 minutes for his oatmeal to cool down, a timer is set. He gets to push the start button and I tell him when he hears the timer go off it’s time to do X. So far it’s working great. He has actually requested the timer a few times. In the past time was an arbitrary number for him. Waiting 3 mins on his oatmeal was forever. Going to bed in 10 minutes might as well have been 2. Now he knows that I don’t mean right now, but in the future. And that yes, his oatmeal will be ready for him. It’s a great tool that seems to be working for now. And at this point, I’ll take it.

So things are looking up. We are making progress and every day is a new victory. This weekend was fantastic for many reasons. Went to White Water and to see our friends new baby. The house is clean and we’re all caught up on general chores. Should make for an easy start to next week. Chase went for his baseball skills assessment and was looking great on the field. Should be an exciting season. I’m looking forward to watching him play some fall ball. I’m also generally looking forward to some fall anything.

Stay tuned for more updates on this ever growing family! Jess is rocking the baby bump and I can’t wait to meet baby Jack in just over 2 months!

IMG_5424-0.JPGIMG_5425-0.JPG

And another thing

Lane has decided that anytime between midnight and 4:30am, it’s a good idea to come and get in bed with Jess and I. This has been going on for at least a week now. It was kinda cute at first, and it still is very endearing, but the nut check kicks are starting to lose their appeal.

I have no qualms about Lane sleeping in bed with us, especially since it’s a large bed. However when Jack gets here in November we will be nursing a baby and Lane will need to hang in his big boy bed. This may mean that one of resume our position bedside for a while.

So that’s that. More ongoing struggles with napping. Oh, and as of this week he’s moved up to a new room at school and now doesn’t want to go there either. So it’s a battle at night and a battle in the morning. Fun time!

But you know what, I wouldn’t trade it all for the world. This little boy and what ever he has going on in his brain are worth it to me. I love him more than I could have ever thought. He struggles just as I did when I was a kid I’m sure. His energy and smiles and spirit and bigger than life. When he’s sad or scared, I feel it too for him. I hate to see him not happy and I will do what ever I can to make sure that his transition from one season in life to the next is as easy as possible. My parents did it for me and he’ll do the same for his kids some day.

Stay tuned for more updates!IMG_5313.JPG

Whole30: Day 4 – 6

Meals Day 4 – 8/22/13

  • Breakfast: Bacon and eggs
  • Lunch: Grass-fed beef patties with bacon, jalapeño, pickles, lettuce, guacamole, tomatoes
  • Dinner: Roasted chicken with mashed sweet potatoes and green beans
  • Snacks: Apple with almond butter / Larabar

Meals Day 5 – 8/23/13

  • Breakfast: Sweet potato hash, 2 egg omelette, 2 sausage patties
  • Lunch: Salad with all manner of topping (Whole30 approved) and grilled chicken
  • Dinner: Steak with roasted curry sweet potatoes and brussel sprouts sautéed with pancetta
  • Snack: Apple

Meals Day 6 – 8/24/13

  • Breakfast: Sweet potato hash, 2 eggs omelette, 3 strips of bacon
  • Lunch: 2 grass-fed beef patties, fried eggs, lettuce, tomato, pickles, jalapeños
  • Dinner: Prime rib, pork tenderloin, steamed veggies, salad with balsamic vinaigrette dressing, sautéed shrimp and vegetables, sweet potatoes with walnuts, cinnamon, and bacon
  • Snacks: 1/2 gluten free wedding cupcake, banana

The breakdown

Man what a whirlwind days 4-6 brought. On Thursday I actually was a bit smarter with what I fueled up on prior to the gym. My previous Whole30 gym experience was less than stellar so I was determined to not repeat that mistake. Before heading to the gym this time I had an apple and some almond butter (quickly becoming my favorite snack btw). This was clutch as the apple gave me a little sugar boost and the almond butter gave me some fat and protein. After the gym I didn’t feel like I wanted to die, or make other people die. Winning! For lunch I met up with a friend and had a burger with some toppings (lettuce, tomato, bacon, guacamole, jalapeños) and no side! This was a pretty big step as I typically have some sort of side with my burger. Then again, I usually have a beer, and a bun, but those are also out of the picture. Any way, the rest of the day was pretty good. I had high energy and was generally in good spirits. For dinner, we were smart and had a rotisserie chicken, some mashed sweet potatoes and green beans. This certainly made for a dinner reminiscent of a non-Whole30 meal. That’s something I can totally get behind!

Friday was another pretty good day for the most part. I worked from home which gave me the opportunity to go and have lunch with my wonderful wife at school! We hadn’t had a massive salad in a while so I went and picked up one from Jason’s Deli with all manner of toppings that were wholesome and delicious. Since she now works so close to home, and there are many more eatery options around, having lunch with her is a lot easier! Apparently Friday was “have things we haven’t had in a while day” cause for dinner we had steak and brussel sprouts sautéed with pancetta! Yum!! Well, this would have been a lot more “yum” had it not been for me over cooking the steaks. Its not something I typically do, but this particular time I did, and subsequently paid for it. See, I have an issue with my teeth that causes me some serious pain when I eat tough cuts of meat or generally get things caught in them. Its a long and boring story, but needless to say the meat was tough and eventually led to a SERIOUS toothache (one I’m still nursing today). When my tooth gets to aching, its all down hill from there. That pretty much ended the night.

Saturday was my friend Daniel and Lacey’s wedding!!! The plan was that Jess would go to her CPR training in the AM while I went to the wedding (who has a noon wedding anyway?!), and after the wedding I would pick her up and we would head to the reception (noon wedding and 6pm reception). The wedding itself was beautiful and it was over in a flash. I met up with Jess for lunch and had a repeat of Thursday’s lunch and off to get ready we went. Now here’s where the “fun” begins.

We both knew going into this that there was a wedding to contend with right at the beginning. Weddings have receptions, and receptions have alcohol and off-limits food. We both decided that we would be moderate in our consumption and stick to the plan as best as we could. Upon our arrival we were both having doubts of being able to hold strong. We gave each other pep talks and went in sticking to our guns. Then the wheels started to fall off. It had been 2+ weeks since either of us had drank any alcohol or had any real sugar or grain or anything. The waiters started bringing around trays of wine and other tasty concoctions and of course we had to at least have one (each) to celebrate with everyone. Well, one led to two, and two led to “lets just have one bite of [insert food item here]”. The next thing we knew it was 11:30, and we were a bit tipsy on sugar and the little alcohol that we consumed. We were lightweights and it didn’t really take much. In our former days, this quantity of booze and food wouldn’t have even put a dent in our demeanor.

The rest of the night was downhill. For the past two weeks I had been more connected with my wife than in quite some time. We were on the same page with most everything. I had been feeling great overall. She was feeling the same way. We both looked and felt fantastic after only two weeks, and all it took was one night to set us back. First drink in weeks, first “fight” in as many days. What is it about the consumption of alcohol and overloading of sugar that makes people just get stupid. Oh, that’s right… it’s alcohol, that’s what it does. One poor decision led to another and things just ended poorly. All we had to do was not take that first step back into that realm and we would have been fine, clear headed, and capable of simply enjoying each other’s company.

Definitely learned our lesson on this occasion. Just like we eased into this challenge, we should probably ease out. We climbed up this mountain slowly and it was a great view from the top, but the plummet down was swift and painful. Never-the-less we picked up our bootstraps the next day and started the climb again. I don’t think two weeks of hard work was gone in a flash, but we were certainly set back.

Stay tuned for days 7-9! More startling revelations around food at energy and all things Whole30 related to come.

Moving on up!

The Château de Turner

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!

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