A Peek at Life as a Natic

Check out our photo gallery to see Super Bowl 2010 pictures or click here.

Last Saturday, Mike and Aubree made plans to come over to make New Orleans Saints shirts for the babies to rock for the game.  Kara, Lin, and Bobby also came by to hang out for the day and do dinner. 

Preston's Reggie Bush shirt

The ladies bought shirts, iron on numbers, and iron on logos for to make some New Orleans Saints gear for Sunday’s game.  They came out really good!  Alisha made Preston a Reggie Bush shirt and Aubree made Kaitlyn a pink Saints shirt.  They were so cute.  Alisha and Aubree also made shirts for themselves to wear to match the babies.

On Sunday we headed up Kevin and Ash’s house to watch the big game and hang out with friends.  Alisha and Aubree were sure to get the babies together to take some cute pictures!  The game was so-so in my opinion, but the commercials and half time show were horrible.  Ill start with the commercials.  What happened to good, funny, commercials?  They were so lame this year!  Then we have the halftime show.  What the heck?!  What happened to Aerosmith with Britney Spears killing it up there?  What happened to mainstream music artists?  What is up with these multiple years of boring classic rock artists from before my time???  If you are going to do that, then throw a modern day artist in there from a different genre to get more people interested!  No one wants to see people nearly break a hip on stage in their old age!

Be sure to click the pictures link above to take a look at the two babies together.  So cute!

Last Saturday we made plans to leave the kiddos at home and head out for an adult dinner at Maggianos in Buckhead.  Alisha’s birthday and Ryan’s birthday are only a day apart and we always make an annual trip to Maggianos – and this year was no exception.

In the afternoon I had tried to get all of the guys together for a good game of football.  We had about 10 people that were in but most of them backed out due to a little rain.  Four of us showed up and we said “screw it, lets play”.  We played for a while just as a QB and one receiver taking turns trying to make it into the end zone.  It was fun on its own, kept us active, and made for a good time.  We were soaked, but it was still so worth it.  Afterwards, we headed over to Taco Mac for a quick beer and then headed home to get ready for dinner later in the evening.

We made plans to leave little Preston with Alisha’s mom and head out with friends.  Bobby and Courtney came over to our house and we headed out to Buckhead to meet up with Mike, Aubree, Ryan and Andrea.  We had an excellent dinner and had a great time.  It was very nice to see everyone again and as always the food was spot on.

Alisha has been wanting to stay active so that we she asked me last week if I wanted to go to Athens on Saturday night.  Are you kidding me?  Of course I want to go to Athens on Saturday night!  Bobby was in for the ride in a heartbeat.  I asked Hector and Reagan to join as well as Reagan still has never been out there and she was actually quite interested in going this time!  She has been wanting to come along but being pregnant and not able to drink has deterred her thus far. 

We had Alisha’s mom watch Preston for the night and we headed off with Bobby, Dan, Hector and Reagan out to Paradise City; I mean Athens.  We headed to Terrapin, as always and enjoyed some great local brewery beers and then over to Copper Creek for some excellent dinner.  Dinner and drinks were great but man was it FREEZING.  It was in the teens in Athens and unfortunately Copper Creek’s heating system was not working so we froze.  LOL.  Hell, it was still worth it.  We then headed over to Trapeze for a few more drinks and hung out.  By then we were cashed in.  We are old now but we still had a great time.  I Love Athens!!

I am so glad you came Reagan.  I hope that you had a good time and I look forward to you being able to come when you are able to enjoy it more!  Little Preston did well with his Grandma at home.  He slept and ate well and was very easy to care for while we went out.

Don’t forget to check out our photo gallery for pictures of Football with the Guys here

SOME of the guys

Thanksgiving evening the guys in the family took a ride over to Sharon Springs Park in Cumming.  It is right around the corner from Edwin and Geni’s so it was perfect.  When we got there we found that it was a fully artificial turf field and was completely numbered!!  It was AWESOME!  Ever since that night I had been itching to play some more football with the guys.  It was a great time and was a great way to keep active.  My legs were SHOT after playing.

So last weekend I organized for a lot of the guys to get together and play and nice game of two hand touch / flag football.  While we played the ladies planned to get together at our house as well.  We had a great turnout of 17 guys!  A huge turnout even though the weather was in the low 30’s as a HIGH.  It was VERY cold but we all dressed warm and showed up to play a great game of football.  It was such a blast again!  We had some great highlights and just an all around great time.  Everyone got along very well and we had no injuries.  A total success!  I was sore for like 4 days after playing.  That sprinting over and over again really beats the hell out of inactive legs. 

After the game we all headed over to Taco Mac for some food.  The ladies and kiddos came up there as well to meet up with us.  We had TERRIBLE service (always do at 141!!!) but ohh well… we still had a good time.

Shirt Lin and Kara bought

After Taco Mac everyone kinda did their own thing.  We headed back home to hang out with Andrea and Ryan (and the kids).  We all just hung out and talked until about 11:00 or so and then they took the trek back to D-Vegas (Douglasville).

We had such a great Saturday.  Man did I have a great time playing football.  It was awesome!  We are hoping to get the guys together every other Saturday to play.  Hopefully we can make it happen!

The shirt that is on Preston is quite a funny story.  A while back Kara and Lin came over to watch a football game.  Lin and I were in the living room watching the game and Alisha and Kara were in the kitchen.  So Alisha must have caught a glimpse of two linemen pushing and shoving at the line and said, look at those two guys fighting at the hut-hut line LOL!!!!!!!!!  She was referring to the line of scrimage but did not know any better.  She will NEVER live that down.  When Preston was born Kara and Lin got him a shirt that says future member of the hut-hut line  on the front and Natic with a number on the back.  It was a perfect gift!

Don’t forget to check out our photo gallery for pictures of Preston’s first Christmas here

With Preston being born such a short time ago, we were very hesitant to take him to our family Christmas Eve gathering that we do each year.  Since we have such a large family, it is usually about 35 people getting together to celebrate such a great time of year.

We were thinking that it would be too many people to worry about, all in once place, at one time.  The last thing that we would want is for Preston to get sick from someone who was not feeling 100%.  We decided to check with our doctor and see what she thought when we were there this past week and she said “dont do it!  Blame it on me if you have to.  Just dont do it.”  We decided to go with the doctor’s orders.  She mentioned that fortunately swine flu was on the decline but RSD was on the rise and unfortunately that would put our little bundle of joy in the hospital .  It is just not worth the risk.

We were home alone for evening which made for a boring night.  We love hanging out with our family and it was really tough to not go.  We watched a lot of tv and just relaxed.  Before long I got a text from our awesome neighbors asking us if we wanted some sushi.  They had people over and ordered way too much and wanted to know if we wanted some.  HECK YEAH!!!!  Heather came over to see Preston and to drop off a ton of sushi.  It was excellent!  Thanks guys!

We headed off to bed shortly after and had a decent night’s sleep.  He was up for a bit, but all in all, we couldn’t complain.  We got dressed and came downstairs for breakfast and to open the gifts that we got.  After that we sat around while Alisha’s mom went crazy cooking.  She was cooking up a storm as we were having my parents (with the kids) and Kara and Lin over for Christmas dinner.  The food turned out excellent and we had a nice chill evening together.

It was a very chill Christmas but was a much needed one.  Hope everyone had a safe and great Christmas as well.

On Friday night we headed into the city to check out a brew pub that I had been keeping an eye on with some of our friends.  It was called Max Lagers which was located right by the SunTrust building in downtown Atlanta. 

We went down with Bobby and Dan to grab some dinner and drinks and met Andrea and Ryan there.  We had a great time just talking it up but I will say I was not impressed at all with the beers.  I felt as though they were very watered down.  It was almost like good beer Bud Light style…I don’t know… there was absolutely no beer taste there.  Let’s put it this way.  We all know Alisha hates beer…. she actually liked this. 

I dont know if we had a bad batch or something, but it was no good in my book at all.  We were one of three tables on a Friday night and that may be why.  The food was okay, nothing great really, but the service was great.  Our waiter really went out of his way for Alisha and that was really cool of him.

It was a chill night with some good company to wrap up my birthday.

Two Saturdays ago (ugh i have been slacking so badly LOL) started off with some haircuts and ended up with a night in Athens!  It was such a great day!

Alisha had a hair cut appointment in the morning in Alpharetta and somehow convinced me to tag along…. ohh yeah…I remember how… she rubbed Athens in my face LOL.  Since I had so much time to kill I decided to get a haircut of my own at a Sport Clips up the road.  After getting all trimmed up we headed over to Einstein Brothers Bagels for a quick lunch before heading back towards the house to get ready for Athens. 

Terrapin Brewery

Alisha has refused to come along and decided to stay back while Lin, Dan, Bobby, and I headed off for one more night of fun.  Kara and their mom left in the morning to head down from Pittsburgh as she is now living in Georgia!  As you should already know I LOVE Athens and could not wait to head up there to enjoy what may be my last trip up there for a little while.  We had a blast!  The night started off with the traditional visit to Terrapin Brewery.  It is my favorite brewery period.  That place rocks and their beer is just unmatched.  We enjoyed many of their year round beers as well as some special brews.  They had their Wake and Bake (an oatmeal stout with coffee added to it) and Pumpkinfest (an octoberfest with pumpkin) which were both stunning.  That Pumpkinfest has come a long way since it was first introduced and the spices are starting to come through so well.  The Wake and Bake this year was just insane.  I think they may have reduced the amount of coffee added this year which made it the best it has ever been.  mmmmmm!!!!! 

Copper Creek Brewing Company

After Terrapin, we headed off to Copper Creek, another one of our must have stops for Athens.  It is a brew pub that makes some absolutely incredible beers and serves the best food.  I wish this place was in Cumming becuase I would live there!  We had a great dinner and a great time.  MMMMM  I love that place.  Afterwards we headed off to The Globe which happened to be our last stop this trip.  We ran into this chick at the bar that Dan called out for wearing a Tim Tebow jersey.  Turned out that Lin knew her from college and that started a whole night of interesting conversation.  She was a trip.  Next thing you know we are at a table with her and her friends just talking all kinds of college football trash LOL.  This chick was a total trip and her friends were hilarious too.  We had a great time just talking it up before calling it a night and heading back home.

Ahhhhh Athens… I love you

Dont forget to check out our photo gallery for pictures of our Thanksgiving here

The setup

On Thanksgiving we headed over to Edwin and Geni’s house to stuff our faces like we have not eaten in 2 weeks  – ohh and spend some quality family time.  This Thanksgiving (and quite a number of  past) was about 15 minutes away at Edwin and Geni’s house.  The whole family as well as Reagan’s family all gathered for some good ol’ family time.  Geni made two turkeys, ham, rice, and stuffing.  Everyone who attended brought a dessert and a side dish to share.  We brought sweet potato casserole and s’mores brownies for dessert to add to the long list of other items that people brought. 

When we first got there we took pictures with Susan (some of which you saw in the belly album) for about 45 minutes or so.  We then headed inside to get ready to stuff our faces.  We ate and ate and ate and demolished the food plates that were setup.  It was excellent. 

After eating the guys decided to head out to Sharon Springs Park to play some football on their field before it got dark.  Man…. we are old…. and even worse…. we are out of shape.  We played on a 50 yard field and we were dying.  At least the adults were LOL.  It was miserable and great all at the same time.  As we played some of Reagan’s family showed up to watch and happened to record one play.  It happened to be the touchdown pass from Hector to me in the end zone.  Hector sat back looking for an open reciever and patiently watched for someone to break free.  He threw it to me in the back of the endzone and it was tipped by Danny / AJ and I dove for it keeping the ball from hitting the ground, bringing in the reception.  It was a great catch.  In the video it looks like it may have touched the ground.  I promise you on anything that it didn’t and Dan was in the area from the opposing team to confirm it.  As you could tell I was a little hyped up by the catch as I celebrated LOL!

After football we headed home to spend the rest of the night with the family.  We had a great time as always and loved the food till the very end.  Thanks for having us Edwin and Geni!

You may have noticed that we stopped playing BINGO quite some time ago.  I think everyone got a little tired of the food and we all got busy for a few weeks in a row and BAM! no more BINGO on Wednesdays.  Well, Alisha and I got bored and missed everyone so we decided that it would be a perfect time to get everyone back together for a hump day dinner.

I sent out an email to everyone and we got a ton of positive responses.  We initially wanted to do dinner at Chepe’s, a Mexican restaurant in the area but they could not accommodate the reservation so we moved it to Jim and Nick’s BBQ.  We had a huge table!!!  It was Joe, Carol, Dan, Hector, Reagan, Geni, Edwin, Danny, Kelly, mom, dad, Zach, AJ, Chris, Patti, Dave, Cookie, Frankie, Alisha and I. 

We had a great time getting everyone back together.  We love our family and our family friends.  They are great and make for a fun time.  We laughed, drank,  and joked and just had a hell of a time.  It was so great to see everyone again!  We will need to do it more often for SURE!

Saturday morning Alisha and I woke up and got ready so that we could make it out to North Point Mall to get some shopping done before I head out to Athens for the night.

Alisha wanted to stop by a few stores in the mall to get Preston some clothes.  I think he has more clothes than I do lol.  Afterwards we left the mall to head to Rubin Brothers to see if we could get Alisha’s rings dipped in rhodium and have them cleaned as well as check DSW to see if I could find a pair of sneakers to wear for the night.  Fortunately I was able to grab a pair and we headed back to the house.

Terrapin Brewery

I had plans to head out with Bobby, Dan, Danny, and Kelly out to Athens to hang out.  As you should know it is one of my favorite places to be so I was really excited about it.  I tried to get Alisha to come along but she just doesn’t care to be out there while she is pregnant which is pretty understandable.  We headed out at about 4:15 to Terrapin Brewery for their brewery tour.  They had their depth charge as well as their newest side project Pumpkinfest which are both awesome beers.  Unfortunately, they ran out of Depth Charge before I was able to have it there, but fortunately there was another bar that was serving it in the area.  While we were at Terrapin and a few beers deep, Danny asked me if I would be a paul bearer for his wedding LOL!!!  He had no clue it was even wrong.  I thought he was kidding, but after being called out he corrected himself and asked me to be an usher.  ha ha ha ha. 

Copper Creek Brewing Company

After Terrapin we always head over to Copper Creek for dinner and a few more drinks.  For the first time ever, they had a milk stout (my favorite style of beer) on tap as well as their pumpkin beer.  Both of them were absolutely incredible.  I want to go back already to drink them.  As always, we LOVED it there… the best food and the best beer around.  Period.  I wish we had a place like that around here.  I would trade Taco Mac for that place every single time.  It is a no brainer.  After Copper Creek we headed out to Trappeze where we called it a night.  They had the Depth Charge on tap (MMMMMM!  – Terrapin’s Milk Stout with coffee) which was our final beer and we headed back home.  It was an early night compared to our previous visits, but still great.  I love Athens!

Trappeze Pub Athens GA

If you have never had Terrapin beers, you need to.  Period.  They are a nationally recognized brewery that happens to be right here in Athens.  They have different beers for every different beer drinker.  If you are unsure which to try, ask me.  Ill give you a recommendation to meet your taste.  If you are ever in Athens, you must visit Copper Creek and Trappeze.  Both are excellent places!

Dont forget to check out our photo gallery for pictures of Alisha’s Family Baby Shower at pictures.neilnatic.com or here

This past Saturday was Alisha’s baby shower which was thrown by Kara and Alisha’s mom.  Her grandmother and her Aunt were scheduled to fly in from Pittsburgh in the morning so Denae picked them up and headed up to the house to finish getting ready. 

They were cleaning, cooking, and decorating which was my cue to get the hell out .  I took Envy to my parents house and picked Dan up to head to Taco Mac to watch the UGA game.  Mike and Bobby also met us up there for some lunch and drinks.  We had a great time – until kickoff that is.  The Dawgs played like total shit which really ticked me off!  They have had a terrible season so far and it has been very tough to watch the games each and every week.  Hopefully it gets better, but I have to be honest, it is not very likely.  We may just need to write this season off and chalk it up to experience. 

Well, obviously I was not at the shower, so I cannot say much about it, but I can tell you to here click the link above to see the pictures, and maybe it will bring back memories, or it will tell the story for itself

Thanks to everyone that came.  It means a lot to us and your gracious gifts are SO appreciated.  We cannot thank you enough. 

After the shower and cleaning up, Denae and her mom had to go back to the airport.  Yep you guessed it – she flew in and out in the same day and Denae was here for one full day.  That was so nice of them to fly in for this shower.  Once everything settled down, we headed to the Cumming fair for the evening.  We had a good time people watching (a must at the Cumming fair) and just hanging out.  We had some carnie food, walked around, and then headed out.

It was a great day!

Dont forget to check out our photo gallery for pictures Preston’s Nursery at pictures.neilnatic.com or here.

Preston's room painted - visit the gallery for chair rail pics!

Saturday was the day!  Earlier in the week I had gone to pick up the wood that we will need to complete the nursery as well as the playroom downstairs.  Our plan is to put chair rail in the nursery, paint sheen stripes below the chair rail, add crown molding in the nursery and the play room, as well as bead board with chair rail in the play room.  Yeah – lots of work!!

In the morning my dad came over to get a start on this whole project.  We are trying to get it done before Alisha’s family shower, but we dont know how possible that really is.  Either way we are going to give it a serious shot.  The worst part about these projects is that none of them can really be done on my own.  I always need an additional hand measuring, or cutting, or nailing… it kinda is frustrating.  I know that other people have lives of their own and I feel like I am always bothering them when I ask for help.

Well throughout the day we did pretty well.  We got the chair rail up in nursery and it looks great.  Now I need to caulk it and paint it.  We really tried to get the crown molding up in the nursery as well but we were confused as hell.  Seriously, we wasted about 16′ of crown molding before giving up for the day.  We were told it was a chore, but I had no clue.  The cuts just didnt make sense at all. 

Time flew by and we grew more and more tired and to top it off the damn mitre saw kept tripping my breaker so we had to call it a day.  I was not too happy about the ending and it just put a damper on a rather successful day.  I just get frustrated when things should be easy and end up being so darn hard -ugh!

btw, dont mind the wall color in the pictures.  The lighting is very poor in there and the color just comes out very off at times. 

Kevin and Mike's steak trumping Alisha's and mine lol

So after working all day we headed over to Mike and Aubree’s house to watch the UGA game, cook some steaks, have a few beers, and just relax.  The game was painful to watch and was a nail biter for sure, but it was still great to watch it with our friends.  Kevin and Mike had steaks to throw on the grill as well, but both of them were like 4 times the size of mine LOL.  They were massive!!!  It was a great night – Sunday was set to be another busy day!

On Sunday we went out with Dan, Bobby, Ted, Danny, and his girlfriend, Kelly to dinner and then out for some drinks.  I had really wanted to try out 5 Season’s Grille in Alpharetta because they are a respected brew pub in the North Metro area.  They also have some interesting food such as antelope and quail. 

We met for dinner at about 7:45.  We spent some time just talking, enjoying some great beer, and eating some delicious food.  I won’t say that it was just insanely great, but I did have an excellent antelope burger!  Some of the others were not wowed by their meal but no one was really unhappy either.  If you like good beer and some different dishes, give it a shot.  It was good.

After dinner, we wanted to go out and enjoy a few beers.  We all went to the only place to drink – Taco Mac of course.  We went to the one at 141 and regretted it.  Not because the service was poor, just that we like the staff at exit 14.  We had a few pumpkin beers and headed home.  It was a nice Sunday with good friends.  So excited we have Monday off.  4 day work weeks ROCK!

Saturday was the day that I was looking forward to for months!  Motley Crue was in town doing Cruefest 2 with several other bands (including Godsmack Drowning Pool, and Theory of a Dead Man).  Before the concert Bobby, Dan, Courtney, Hector, Kevin, and I all went out to Sweetwater Brewery to have a few beers and to try out the beer that we picked blueberries for several weeks ago called Big ol Blue Balls.  It was a great time at Sweetwater as always – until Courtney broke her sandal walking out LOL!!! 

We took a side trip to Target to get a replacement pair for her and then went into Atlantic Station to eat a quick dinner and head to the concert.  While we were out Alisha hung out with Kara to pick out the dress that they are going to get for Denae’s wedding next year.  She tried to meet up with Ash as Kevin was out with me, but schedules did not happen to match up.  We’ll catch you next week girl!  Reagan was also free because Hector was with me so the two of them did some shopping and hung out for a while.  With Reagan being pregnant, they have been spending a lot of time together and talking a lot.  Its an exciting time for both of them and it gives them so much in common to talk about!

The concert was awesome – for me at least ha ha.  Not too many others knew much Motley Crue stuff but I loved it!  They played the entire Dr. Feelgood album cover to cover.  I bet they may have been kinda bored, but whatever – it was awesome!  Aside from the music, I have never seen so much trash in my entire life.  These people must live in the woods or something.  Within 10 minutes of us getting there, two fights broke out with multiple people fighting the security staff and all kinds of crap.  It was CRAZY!  90% of the concert goers must have just come from a Meth party or something.  These people were cracked the hell out, dressed like total trash, and just nappy!  While we were there we also ran into my old boss from Publix.  That was pretty crazy too.  Hadn’t seen her in like 7 years plus. 

We got home at about midnight and spent some time talking to Alisha before we headed off to bed.  Unfortunately Courtney woke up with flu-like symptoms and left before being able to go to Andrea’s baby shower.  Hopefully she does not have the flu, but it sure sounded like it.  Alisha headed out to Douglasville to celebrate Andrea’s baby shower today while I just killed some time at the house.  I started trying to paint the nursery but unfortunately I really need another set of hands to get any of it done.  Trying to just mark off where the chair rail was going to go was nearly impossible and I just got too pissed to continue.  Another day – ugh… I really want to get it done!

We had been wanting to head back to Athens for a while and Dan being back home since graduating didn’t help LOL.  We had originally planned to head up there last weekend but we decided to push it back once I found out that Terrapin was doing a “Back to School Bash” this past weekend.  Let’s just say I am SOOOO glad that we did. 

Alisha was not fond of coming along this time as the last time she felt awkward in the bars being knocked up.  To put the icing to the cake while we were in Generals she went to the bathroom and some student whore ( ) asked why there was a pregnant woman in the bar as she walked by.  I can see why she decided to stay home.  I love when she comes with us (for more than designated driver reasons!!) and was kinda bummed she was not going to join us.  Hector, Bobby, Dan, Mike, Paul, and Rickii all decided to join and we all had a great time!

Well we pushed the trip back to Saturday and like I mentioned I am so glad that we did!  Not only did we get a special Terrapin glass (with the UGA schedule on the back BTW ) they had FOUR new beers on tap to try out including two casked beers.  I had been DYEING  for this beer (Depth Charge) to come out.  Terrapin collaborated with Left Hand Brewery for and it was on tap for the first time!!!!!  In addition, they had their new seasonal release, Gamma Ray, a casked version of Gamma Ray, and a casked Pumpkin beer.  The Pumpkin (not casked), Gamma Ray (not casked) and Depth Charge, will be available for retail purchase mid next month.  The brewery was very busy and we had a hell of a time.  We enjoyed talking, drinking, and listening to the bands play.  I met the owner of Terrapin as well as one of the brewers which was cool and enjoyed the HELL out of the Left Hand collaboration called Depth Charge.  Even those in our group that are not too fond of stouts really enjoyed the beer.  It was an excellent milk stout brewed with Jittery Joes Coffee added to it.  Perfection!  For more of my posts on Terrapin Brewery click here ( scroll past the first few posts as I mention Terrapin often ).  For more on Left Hand Brewery click here. 

After Terrapin we headed to dinner at our favorite restaurant in Athens, Copper Creek!  As always we had a hell of a dinner and some beers that are brewed on site.  I LOVE this place.  The food is excellent, the beer is excellent, the atmosphere is excellent!  After dinner we headed to The Globe and then to All Good before heading back to the house.

As ALWAYS we had an excellent time in Athens and am already looking forward to returning.  If you have never been to any of the places mentioned, I highly recommend you do.  You wont be disappointed.  If you would like some company… I’d love to join you.  As with all breweries, check the tour dates on Terrapin’s websites as there are very specific hours on specific days that they are open to the public.