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.
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!
We are in the new crib! It’s beautiful, big….and BROWN. Don’t get me wrong, this house is amazing. With that being said, almost every single room is going to get redecorated. I love the ‘country’ feel the house has nestled in a cute subdivision and tucked back in the trees, but it needs some fresh color, some light, some updating…..some “Turner”. Looking around and starting my list of “to dos” has been a bit overwhelming so far, so I’m narrowing it down to one room at a time. First up, the laundry room. Before/Progress/After pics will come soon. Wish us luck!
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!
As you can tell, it’s been a while since the Snipers have had a post! Life is happy, and busy, and lovely. Here’s what we’ve missed….and I’ll try to fill in pics from any of these events if I can soon!
-Jess turned 30 in style! A weekend at the lake with awesome friends and so much fun.
-A week long beach trip with the family. Chase grew fins and Lane fell in love with the water…especially the pool.
-School started! How do we already have a 5th grader? Yikes.
-A little baby who is suddenly a BIG eight month old.
-A car accident with SB that lead to a totaled car, surgery, and a few weeks of not fun times around the Sniper house
The boys and I went berry picking this morning! The loot was amazingly delicious so cobblers must be created. Step 1 & 2 are below. Stay tuned for the finished product!!
We have amazing friends. Honestly. The Friday before Memorial Day weekend SB gets a call asking to go to the beach for the weekend. Um. YES! The last few weeks of school are brutal for a teacher so I was in desperate need of a getaway. We packed, bought sunscreen, and hoped in the car by 8pm that night. 6 sleepy hours and one speeding ticket later we arrived in the middle of the night to the beach house. I could hear the waves in the distance. I swear I could live at the beach. I’m sure having sand in every place possible would eventually get old, but…..nah, it wouldn’t. I LOVE the beach. Chase does too. Also, this was baby Lane’s first trip to the ocean! Now I can’t downplay this next statement: taking a baby to the beach is one of the hardest damn things ever. After lugging chairs and beach tents and bags and coolers (well yeah), and sand toys, and SAND SPURS….well you get the idea. However….once you do make it down to the water, unload the loot, get that baby in the water and open a cold one…all is right in the world. Thankfully Lane loves the water and slept like, well, like a baby for hours on the beach. The fresh air and natural noise maker made for some good Zzz’s for all of us. Kit and Bob were fabulous, gracious hosts and we owe them big time. Their little one is very close to Lane’s age, so it’s really nice to spend time with another couple that understands the ups and downs of infants. Here are some pictures from the weekend. Thankfully, we are heading BACK to almost this same location in July with some of SB’s family. This time for a whole week. That way we can drag the shit down to the beach and leave it there for 7 days. Happy Freakin’ Summer!!
