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I never uploaded Christmas pics! whassupwidat? Well…it’s been a crazy few weeks. We made it through Christmas with flying colors and everyone was spoiled with lots and lots of goodies. New Year’s was lots of fun and we are slammin’ through January. We’ve moved SO much, and we’re finally feeling settled in the new place. We have a few more things to hang, and a ‘to buy’ list…but it feels like home already. Regretfully…we didn’t snap many pics during the movapaloosa, and additionally, I had the WORST virus for the better part of it. What I do hope to do is get a few pics of the place once everything is complete. For now, I want to make sure I post our Xmas pics. Hope everyone is having a Happy New Year so far!

First off… Jess and I now officially live together. That’s the deal. There will be more post about that in the future. That’s a fact. We’ve had a Thanksgiving and a Christmas and a New Years and a Ben moving ever f’n thing in the apartment while Jess is totally sick weekend extravaganza. That is truth. I promise at some point I will get to that and I will post pics and all will be glorisou. Tonight is all about Heroes though.

Listen to me when I tell you this. This week’s episode of Heroes is the reason I LOVE this show. First off they brought back Adam. I know he really only had like 1 power and that was talking British and healing, but he was still pretty awesome. I mean it took Peter’s dad sucking the life out of him to kill his ass. But that’s another sotryt. He came back and was in this trial type dealy with Hiro and Hiro’s dad and Hiro’s frind Ando and a bunch of other people. I swear it wasn’t the rum talkinb but the cinamatogrophy in these scenes was just like a little better than the rest of the show. I mean, it wasn’t like watching Avatar in IMAX but still. It was pretty damn good. To top that off Sylar totally made out with Clair. That’s gross, so I’ll go back to Hiro.I really just did like that whole story line about him being on trial. It was kind of a cop out, but what ever. That’s what makes the show awese.

The story with Sylar and Clair was a bit weak, but there’s really only so much you can do with a lesbian cheerleader, a chick with no powers, and a dude with every power in the world in cluding poers he forgot he had (liek the mechanic lady he killed that could hear anything). This story only served to progress the lovefest of Clair and what’shernuts. Either way it was decent, but still enjoyable.

The story of Samnuts and chick was passable. I almost felt like they threw that in there just to get Sam to be a bad guy again. He was getting to be kind of a P word. I mean he was all like “hey you, come be a carney and if you want to leave that’s cool, lemme make you some pancakes and have my tattoo chick lick all up on you.” That was really the only thing he did in the show. But now that he’s pissed I’m sure that he’ll bring dowm some more jail houses and/or magically appear in random placaces with out the ability to jump through time like F’n Hiro!!

So where were all the other characters? Petere is off with sound chick and/or flying around with his ability to fly. Mom Patrelli is off scowling at people and predicting 10 mins into the future. Matt is off being Matt and not doing a damn thing except for that stupid face he does. And the rest of the cast is just kinda fartin’ around while Hiro and Adam do battle to the death in some light filled tunnel. I kinda hope we see Adam again, but seeing as he’s died, yet again, I don’t think we will. Fail on the writers part.

So that’s my story of the night. I’m writing about Heroes and not about the funtastic time Jess and Chase and I have had over the past few months. Not about how I am in love with the most amazing woman in the world. Not about how I am happier than I have ever been in my life or how I have some amazing friends. This post is not about the dramatic changes internaly that I’ve gone through over the past year or how people that I once thought I would never be able to hang out with, spent the night at our place on New Years. I’m not here writing about friends lost and friends gained over the past 14 months. Nope, this post is about Heroes. Stay tuned for all that other nonsense.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Truth.

It would appear that I’ve found it. My Jess is by my side. The Viper has been taking down. It took quite a lot of doing, but it happened. I know we still need to make a New Years AND Christmas post, and we will, but for now, this is my random Saturday night post. Everything is pretty much exactly as it should be.

I didn’t really have a whole lot else to add. I just wanted to throw a quick post out there to say that I am on the pursuit of happiness, and I do believe I’ve found it.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Truth.

It would appear that I’ve found it. My Jess is by my side. The Viper has been taking down. It took quite a lot of doing, but it happened. I know we still need to make a New Years AND Christmas post, and we will, but for now, this is my random Saturday night post. Everything is pretty much exactly as it should be.

I didn’t really have a whole lot else to add. I just wanted to throw a quick post out there to say that I am on the pursuit of happiness, and I do believe I’ve found it.

Our family adventure begins

A few weeks ago Jess and I decided it would be nice to take Chase to Stone Mountain to see all the Christmas decorations, the laser show, the Atlanta skyline at sunset, and the building of the Snow Mountain area. Despite living in Georgia my entire life, I have never been on top of Stone Mountain. I know…it is a shock to me too! We packed up the camera, got bundled up, made a quick stop to get a snack, and we were on our way.

The park was NOT crowded at all. Then again it was a Monday afternoon and people still had to work I reckon. We walked around for a bit, checked out the Snow Mountain area, snapped a few photos, then decided to take the sky bucket thing to the top. I was pretty excited. I mean, it’s the top of Stone Mountain! I had heard how beautiful the city was from up there, but I never imagined it would’ve been as beautiful as it was on that day.

Got'cha!

Chase pretty much took off running as soon as we got up there. Jess and I just took our time and enjoyed the view. We couldn’t have asked for a more perfect day. Yeah it was cold and the wind was kickin just a bit, but the sky was perfect and the view was amazing. There were a good deal of people up there, but not too many where we couldn’t just sit down in a nice cozy spot and enjoy it all. Chase had fun jumping over puddles, climbing on trees and rocks. However, he got a little ambitions and slid off the side of a big on. Luckily, Jess was there to catch him. Using her Super Mom abilities, she pulled him to safety! To celebrate, we decided it would be a grand idea to walk down instead of take the lift.

I had always wondered what it was like walking up/down the mountain. I mean…where did it go? How steep was it? Were there steps or was it just huge rocks you had to navigate around? Would there be bears or timberwolves? Perhaps there was a great chasm that one could fall victim to if you stepped in the wrong spot! Unfortunately there was no such thing, instead it was a gentle walk down a steep graded rocky mountain. Don’t get me wrong though, the walk down, far outweighed the ride up.

The sun never sets on happiness

Neither one of us were really prepared for the mountain excursion we had just embarked on, but we weren’t going to let some mountain get in the way of our fun. So we took off and every once and a while would stop, take it all in, enjoy the view, holler at Chase for going to fast, slip on a slippery rock, or race each other to the next tree before realizing we were running down a mountain…and there were slippery rocks all around. About half way down we paused at a clearing and watch the last few moments of the sun set. It was beautiful to see the sun just slowly move out of view before saying goodbye and dipping just below the horizon. It was definitely one of the best sunsets I’ve witnessed.

Once we got to the bottom we realized we were now standing in a random parking lot on the other side of the mountain. The train was no where in sight and there didn’t appear to be any easy way to get back to where we started. Never fear, Jess and I are not one to let a little diversion stop us from having a good time. So we pulled out our map and decided on the best course of action, which was simply to walk back around to the front of the park. Chase was tuckered out from all the scurrying around, but that was nothing a quick piggy back ride couldn’t alleviate. We finally made it back to the front and were all set to walk around the shops, get some hot chocolate, and fill our bellies with what ever wonders the great people of Stone Mountain Park could come up with. Unfortunately, the only thing they could come up with was an additional $26 PER PERSON to just walk into a shop. Wait…what?! Yeah. In order to walk around the “towne” we had to pay MORE money. If we wanted to go into a shop and buy a glass blown ornament of a fat Santa snoozing in a chair or a snow globe of Stone Mountain it would cost us about $80. Even if we DIDN’T buy anything, it would still cost us. We couldn’t even walk around the village and look at the lights!

So rather than hang around any more, we chose to pack up the kiddo and head on back home. After a stop by Garcia’s for some delicious Mexican food, we got home, got warmed up and settled in for a long winter nap. Well, more like a few hours, but still.

And there you have it. Our first trip to Stone Mountain. I have to say that it is an adventure that I’ll not soon (or hopefully ever) forget. There were so many “ahhhhh” moments that I can’t even begin to recount them all. Despite the fact that we had to walk around the mountain to get back where we started and the steep price to pay for some extra fun, we found our way. We got back to where we needed to be. We made our own adventure. We made the trip ours.

Our family adventure begins

A few weeks ago Jess and I decided it would be nice to take Chase to Stone Mountain to see all the Christmas decorations, the laser show, the Atlanta skyline at sunset, and the building of the Snow Mountain area. Despite living in Georgia my entire life, I have never been on top of Stone Mountain. I know…it is a shock to me too! We packed up the camera, got bundled up, made a quick stop to get a snack, and we were on our way.

The park was NOT crowded at all. Then again it was a Monday afternoon and people still had to work I reckon. We walked around for a bit, checked out the Snow Mountain area, snapped a few photos, then decided to take the sky bucket thing to the top. I was pretty excited. I mean, it’s the top of Stone Mountain! I had heard how beautiful the city was from up there, but I never imagined it would’ve been as beautiful as it was on that day.

Got'cha!

Chase pretty much took off running as soon as we got up there. Jess and I just took our time and enjoyed the view. We couldn’t have asked for a more perfect day. Yeah it was cold and the wind was kickin just a bit, but the sky was perfect and the view was amazing. There were a good deal of people up there, but not too many where we couldn’t just sit down in a nice cozy spot and enjoy it all. Chase had fun jumping over puddles, climbing on trees and rocks. However, he got a little ambitions and slid off the side of a big on. Luckily, Jess was there to catch him. Using her Super Mom abilities, she pulled him to safety! To celebrate, we decided it would be a grand idea to walk down instead of take the lift.

I had always wondered what it was like walking up/down the mountain. I mean…where did it go? How steep was it? Were there steps or was it just huge rocks you had to navigate around? Would there be bears or timberwolves? Perhaps there was a great chasm that one could fall victim to if you stepped in the wrong spot! Unfortunately there was no such thing, instead it was a gentle walk down a steep graded rocky mountain. Don’t get me wrong though, the walk down, far outweighed the ride up.

The sun never sets on happiness

Neither one of us were really prepared for the mountain excursion we had just embarked on, but we weren’t going to let some mountain get in the way of our fun. So we took off and every once and a while would stop, take it all in, enjoy the view, holler at Chase for going to fast, slip on a slippery rock, or race each other to the next tree before realizing we were running down a mountain…and there were slippery rocks all around. About half way down we paused at a clearing and watch the last few moments of the sun set. It was beautiful to see the sun just slowly move out of view before saying goodbye and dipping just below the horizon. It was definitely one of the best sunsets I’ve witnessed.

Once we got to the bottom we realized we were now standing in a random parking lot on the other side of the mountain. The train was no where in sight and there didn’t appear to be any easy way to get back to where we started. Never fear, Jess and I are not one to let a little diversion stop us from having a good time. So we pulled out our map and decided on the best course of action, which was simply to walk back around to the front of the park. Chase was tuckered out from all the scurrying around, but that was nothing a quick piggy back ride couldn’t alleviate. We finally made it back to the front and were all set to walk around the shops, get some hot chocolate, and fill our bellies with what ever wonders the great people of Stone Mountain Park could come up with. Unfortunately, the only thing they could come up with was an additional $26 PER PERSON to just walk into a shop. Wait…what?! Yeah. In order to walk around the “towne” we had to pay MORE money. If we wanted to go into a shop and buy a glass blown ornament of a fat Santa snoozing in a chair or a snow globe of Stone Mountain it would cost us about $80. Even if we DIDN’T buy anything, it would still cost us. We couldn’t even walk around the village and look at the lights!

So rather than hang around any more, we chose to pack up the kiddo and head on back home. After a stop by Garcia’s for some delicious Mexican food, we got home, got warmed up and settled in for a long winter nap. Well, more like a few hours, but still.

And there you have it. Our first trip to Stone Mountain. I have to say that it is an adventure that I’ll not soon (or hopefully ever) forget. There were so many “ahhhhh” moments that I can’t even begin to recount them all. Despite the fact that we had to walk around the mountain to get back where we started and the steep price to pay for some extra fun, we found our way. We got back to where we needed to be. We made our own adventure. We made the trip ours.

What a day! It started off earlier than I’ve been up since Christmas break started. Tea, coffee, oatmeal with fruit..we were off! I am too tired to go through the details, but we got SO much done. We packed up my living room, sold my living furniture, and got Chase his own room up here in Dwood. It’s temporary until the middle of Jan., (moving to a bigger apartment here at 2Blocks with more room…phew!) but it gives him his own space and a place to keep his things and I love that. He really seems happy up here and I am so so thankful for that. Oh…did I mention we de-Christmas’d TWO apartments today? Yeah..trees, outdoor lights, decor…all of it. Packed up and ready for storage. I have so much to blog about…our Stone Mtn. trip, our official move to Dunwoody, and Christmas of course! We all got so many awesome things from Santa and each other that I can’t wait to brag about. I’m hoping for a calm, relaxing few days. I have some things on my to do list in anticipation of the move, but other than that I want to play games with Chase, watch movies with Ben, and enjoy the rest of my break before heading back to work. A great way to start that is to plan a nice, calm week eating in. Here’s what on the menu.

Sunday
Spaghetti and Meatballs with Bacon Marinara (yes…bacon. everything’s better with it!)

Monday
Broiled chicken with green beans and rice

Tuesday
Fish Tacos. Muy delicioso.

Wednesday
Brunswick Stew

Thursday
New Year’s Eve dinner in the city.

Friday
Our first attempt! Roasted chicken, collards, black eyed peas, cornbread. stfu!

Now…off to enjoy a hot bath with my new products from Lush!

Tis’ the season for ballz!! Sausage balls that is. They are a must have and a staple of almost every holiday ‘get together’. Someone says ‘finger food’ and sausage balls’ll be there! Now don’t misunderstand me, sausage balls are the bomb! SniperBen and I started a conversation about a month ago playing around with different versions of the balls. “Bacon balls…Oh..I know! Jalapeno balls! …wait…what about..” and it basically went on from there. The amazing ideas never really came to fruition, however, we talked about it again while walking down stone mountain yesterday with chase (blog on that to come btw!). I needed a good ‘finger food’ dish to bring to Girls’ Night gift exchange and we remembered the balls!! Here’s what we came up with.

Bacon/Ranch Balls
Regular sausage ball mix (the bisquick kind)
add chopped up bacon (pretty small)
ranch dressing mix (powder kind)
*these may need to be cooked a few extra minutes

BBQ Balls
Regular sausage ball mix
add your fav. bbq sauce
we added extra chopped up white cheddar cheese and spices

MexiBalls
Regular sausage ball mix
extra texmex cheeses
LOTS of chopped japs. yummmm….

Maple Balls
Regular sausage ball mix
maple syrup (go on and get the good kind, it’s worth it)
brown sugar

They were great!! I don’t really have exact measurements or cooking times, but you can wing it! The idea is, think of some awesome things that YOU would like and go great with sausage. Cook them until they look “done”. I promise you’ve never ’sausage’ a great finger food for the holiday! {disclaimer: that corny but funny joke was brought to you by SniperBen}.

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Yeah. for. seriously! That’s how serious it is. So what is on my mind? Well for starters a lot of things. But I’ll get started with this. I noticed the other day that I was on the elevatore and there was a gaggle of ladies all bundles up. They were all in there dark grey or black over coats shivering or what ever t is that people do and I was mearly standing there in my short sleve or long sleve t-shirt. what caught my eye was the fact that here were several people acting as if it were the plague of God and some sort of absence of heat encroaching upon their existence…and here I was just chillin’ in my skivies. Well that was just funny and/or odd to me. It’s happened a few times, but there was that one time that really stood out to me.

You know what sucks? When you ar about to write something down and you kinda fall asleep. Not the kind of sleep you get if you’ve had mor ethan enough to drink, but the kind of sleep you get if you had just run a amarathon or faught Kimbo Slice in the octagon for 3 rounds. That’s what I’m talking wabout. Wait…what am I talking about”? All I knos is that I just said something about Kimbo Slice.

Oh yeah… Wait. I lost it again. What ever. So I’ll start on something new. For starters, I’m in love with Jessica Canning. This woman has encapusulated my life. I love her more than there are words and I will continue to do so until the dawn of time. I just want to go ahead and put that out there. In case any of you didn’t know, she is moving into my aartment complext on the 15th of january. that’s like les than a month away. Now, I don’t live in Milner so if you ar wanting to hang out with her you might want to go ahead and book reservaitions.

I kinda lost my train of thought again. At this pint, I’m pretty passed out, but he, that’s what people….

Totally lost my train of thought. I should sleep nopw.

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Not just 1 or 2, but 3 dancing machines!

Our week of thanksgiving bliss was trucking right along. I had good food and traditions with the Turner’s and lots of rest and cooking in Dwood with the boys, so the only thing left was turkey time with the Birney’s (Sniperjess’ family). For those of you that know us…the Birney house is always an interesting experience. It’s untraditional, and slightly unorthodox…but it’s always a good time with genuine intentions from all. My growing time in Dwood lately lead to what I would call a “catch up” session when we got there. The adult beverages were poured and we chatted about the previous week and just life in general. SniperBen had leftovers, but I was somewhat tired of turkey so I passed (which I would later regret…aLOT). SniperBen got yet another look into the life I grew up in. Our holidays are about celebration and believe me…we celebrate. There was laughing and jump roping and Madonna tunes blaring and dancing. I won’t sugar coat it…things get a lil crazy. It’s a lot for a person to take in if they are not accustomed to the Birney house, but SniperBen held his own. (and later held my own….blegghh). I will admit I may have over done the turkey day festivities, but I was still very thankful to have my guy there to load us up and take us home at the end of the night. (Sorry you had to tomtom your way back to my apartment babe…I owe you one! ..or two.)

Aww, we found our perfect tree!

The next morning (after some much needed Tylenol on my part), we had plans to get our tree! Going to the tree farm and cutting down the perfect tree is tradition I have always had and I could not wait to share with the boys. Believe it or not, this was the first time SniperBen had experienced this tradition! That made it all the more exciting for me. Chase ran around pointing out his favorites, and we scoped the place for the best tree. Of course…we found it! Ben cut down his first tree like a pro and we headed home to watch some football and trim the tree…sounds simple, right?

Um… no. We got to my apartment and fought with the #$*& tree for about an hour (at least). We put it in the stand, everything looks great, let go and…wait for it…lean. Try again! Loosen this part…tighten this part..wait for it..it looks great!…wait…lean! GRRRR! This is a classic scenario where SniperBen’s patience is just what I need to keep me from throwing the damn spruce out the back door and getting another one.

Merry Christmas from the Snipers

A deep breathe, and big ol’ hug, and that smile of his and I was laughing about it with him. He suggested dinner and a new, snazzier tree stand. While we were at it…I decided to switch up my boring ol’ theme and have a multicolored party tree!! And that we did…in addition to jazzing up the outside of the apartment too! I love our Milner tree and I love the decorations. We finally rested that night in a warm, cozy apartment filled with the glow of our hard work from the day. It’s the first Christmas I’ve had in a few years now that hasn’t felt like a chore. It’s an absolutely awesome feeling and I can’t wait to make more Sniper adventures this holiday season! (and believe me…stay tuned b/c they are coming!!)

You know we can’t do anything with out taking a ton of photos. So here’s the rest of the photos that help tell the tale of our very first Thanksgiving week together.

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