A Peek at Life as a Natic

Check out our photo gallery to see pictures of Preston’s shots and chillaxin in the swing or click here.

There was talks all week that we were supposed to get snow here in Atlanta.  Everytime they mention it I roll my eyes and just tune it out.  We have not had snow where it sticks for at LEAST 7 years.  I think it has been even longer. 

At first it was supposed to come on Thursday, then it was Friday morning at 6:00, then at 9:00, then at noon, and finally at 2:00.  Well, they were wrong at elast 4 times before getting it right.  It certainly did snow here in Georgia and it was actually decent.  We ended up with 3.75 inches of snow at our house and the area was just gorgeous!  The snow just kept falling and falling.  Everyone was out with the kids playing in the snow, building snow men, and sledding down the hills in our back yards.  It was great!  We took a few pictures with Preston and then headed out for some more fun in the snow! 

We headed to the neighbors houses to hang out and sled down the hills in their back yard.  It was an absolute BLAST!  Man that brought out the kid in me again!  We went down a ton of times, wiping out time and time again to avoid sledding straight down into the woods and the creek LOL.

Thanks to our awesome neighbors for letting us come play and hanging out with us.  We had a great time!!!

We took a bunch of pictures of our time in the snow.  Be sure to check them out from the link at the top of the post.  Some are just beautiful shots of the neighborhood and others are just haveing a great time!

Check out our photo gallery to see Preston’s one month pics or click here.

I can’t believe that our sweet little boy is already 1 month old!  He has already gotten so big!  I remember when we were in the hospital, I would just hold him in my arm like a football.  Yeah… not anymore.  He is already out of most of his newborn clothes and weighs somewhere around 10 lbs.  Jeez.  His facial features have changed so much.  He moves so much more, and has many more expressions.  He feels much more solid and has quite impressive head control.  He is no longer the limp baby that we took home from the hospital. 

This month has been tough from getting used to the lack of sleep and constant care to the issues with his poor little tummy.  Everytime we think we make some headway on that situation it seems to rear its head yet again.  Man… we HAVE to find out what the heck is causing him so much discomfort and / or pain at times.  It is heart wrenching to see him like that.  He is so young, but already dealing with things like that.  He is currently taking Zantac (not for much longer), Prevacid, gripe water, and a tummy relaxer.  It is like he is an old man already – jeez! 

Even through the tummy issues it has been such a great month and we love our little boy so much.  We cannot wait to see how much he changes in the coming months!  While I am away I just want to rush home and hold him as he sits so contently in my arms.

Holy cow!  Preston is now in his first 0-3 month clothes, wearing size 1 diapers and is 4 weeks old!  My goodness!!

Click here to check out his pics from tonight.

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.

I got a text message asking if I wanted to go to a Hawks game with Jarrod on Monday and obviously that answer was heck yeah!!

I have been to a few games this year and it has really changed my mind about the sport of basketball.  In the recent years I had really begun to just not care for it at all and going to a few games has really changed my mind about it all.  I have loved it every time I have gone and now will actually check the scores to see how the Hawks are doing.

Jarrod and I headed down to the city for the game on Tuesday and grabbed dinner at Taco Mac before catching a royal butt whipping at The Highlight Factory.  The Hawks killed it and went up by 30+ points making for a huge win with plenty of action.

We had a great time and a great way to break up the work week.  Thanks for inviting me Jarrod.  I had a blast as always.

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

This afternoon I decided to spend about an hour and half brewing a new cider recipe that I had found.  The first cider that I brewed came out terrible due to a wild yeast strain that took over fermentation.  I recently brewed another cider which is currently in a keg to age in the garage.  Ciders are easy to brew and also very cheap, but unfortunately they need to age for quite some time before they become very enjoyable.  Knowing that, I decided to throw another batch together with the intent to age.  This particular recipe is kind of a hybrid between beer and cider but is supposed to be very good.  It has grains and hops added to it as well as 4 gallons of apple juice to complete the “cider”.  I am looking forward to this one and can’t wait to see how it turns out.

After brewing Bobby came over and we headed to dinner at Bucca di Beppo.  We had a great time catching up on events from the week as well as enjoying some good food.  I will say that I was very shocked by the new pricing.  It costs quite a bit more than Maggianos and the food is NOWHERE near as good.  That may be my last trip to that place for me.  Great atmosphere but those prices are kinda ridiculous even though you are supposed to share. 

After dinner we headed to Cold Stone for some ice cream and then to Taco Mac so that Bobby and I could have the limited beer from He’Brew called Jewbilation 13.  It is a 13% alcohol beer and is made with 13 hops and 13 grains.  It was pretty damn smooth for that kind of alcohol content and was a perfect way to wrap up the night.

notes:  The cider (Graff) has an OG of 1.064 (expected an OG of about 1.060).

On Friday night we were invited to dinner with some of our wonderful neighbors!  We have now lived in our neighborhood for 3 + years and while we all love our neighbors, for some reason we have yet to actually get together and do dinner.  I guess everyone has their own things going on with their family and friends that we just never made it happen.  Well, Diana shot us an invite to come on over have dinner and chill.

She made a nice baked ziti with cheese toast (LOVE IT!) and let me tell you… I ate that UP!  LOL.  We then had an apple pie with ice cream dessert that I also stuffed down my face ate so Diana would not be offended LOL.  It was excellent and we had a great time chilling with our lovely neighbors.  We ended up staying and talking until after 11:00 or so and then headed back home to get to bed. 

Thanks for having us over Diana, it was a great and hilarious time!

Last Wednesday I was given tickets from one of our so excellent neighbors to go to the Hawks home opener! 

We had gone out shooting the week before and had some dinner and a few drinks at Taco Mac and he shot me a text stating that he could not make it to the game and wanted to know if I wanted the tickets.. hell yeah!  I have not been all that into basketball but you never turn down tickets to see an event live.  It is a totally different thing compared to tv of course.  I tried to convince Alisha to come with me but she was not interested LOL.  I called Bobby up and of course, he was down.

We planned to leave my house at about 4:00 to make it there around 5:00, grab some dinner and then head into the arena to check out the game.  On the way down we decided to head to a place called Porter’s which was in Little 5 Points.  That was the 2nd to best decision we made all day!  That place was excellent!  They had great food, a huge beer list (like brick store, or like Taco Mac with not as much on draft but TONS of bottles).  It was fantastic!  We had a great dinner and wrapped it up with a Wells Banana Bread Ale.  That was tasty as well and made me want my banana beer that much more that is fermenting at home LOL.

After Porters we headed over to the arena to watch the Hawks take on the Indiana Pacers at Philips Arena.  Once we got in we stopped by Taco Mac (inside the arena) and then headed up to our seats.  They were quite nice.  They were on the first row of the upper level of the end which made for a perfect view.  It was really great.  The game was awesome especially since they won!  The crowd was into it and there were plenty of exciting plays to cheer on.  I had such a great time and am thinking about picking up tickets to head back for another game.

It was an excellent way to spend hump day (Wednesday)!  Porters may be my second favorite non-Athens bar to go to behind Brick Store.  The food was unbelievable and the beers the same.  I highly recommend you go!  The game was excellent as well.  Thanks a ton to my neighbor for the tickets.  We had a freaking blast!

Dont forget to check out our photo gallery for pictures of my banana beer here

On Friday I purchased 5 lbs of bananas to add to my banana beer that I am brewing along with 2 ounces of pure vanilla extract.  MMMM 

Once home, I sanitized a plastic container and cut up all 5 lbs of bananas (about 23 bananas) and placed them into the container.  I then took the glass fermenter and transferred the fermented beer into another fermenter.  This new fermenter had the 5 lbs of bananas and the vanilla extract in it.  The finished beer was then “racked” on top of the bananas to mix with them and the vanilla.  This will create another fermentation while the yeast eat up all the sugar that is in the bananas (AKA a lot ).  The fermenter is then sealed and an airlock is placed on it to make sure that it remains air tight to prevent infections.  Becuase the temperatures in the house result in the beer being higher than 68 degrees, the fermenters are are placed in a plastic container.  Water is added to the container to surround the fermenter.  Water bottles with ice in them are then placed in the container to chill the water around the fermenter.  A shirt is then draped over the fermenter to act like a wick to pull the water onto it, cooling the fermenter.  Almost 6 days later the air lock is still releasing air from the fermenter which are signs that the yeast are still fermenting the sugars in the bananas.  Unfortunately, I will still need to wait about two more weeks to be sure that this has completed before I can keg it.  Then the dreaded two weeks of carbonation before I can drink it

While I was out I also picked up 4 gallons of apple juice to use for a hard cider.  The last one that I brewed was terrible as wild yeast must have lived through the flash pasteurization that the apple orchard did resulting in a TERRIBLE apple cider.  We had to dump them all .  This time I used pure Apple Juice some grains (for taste) and yeast.  I did the normal with the grains, combined the liquid with the apple juice in the fermenter and added the yeast.  It fermented away like crazy and is now beginning to calm down.  Making sweet cider at home is tricky because yeast will eat sugars until there is none left, or until it consumes its maximum amount.  Well in this case it will take it until the cider is dry.  Some like it that way – I cant imagine that I would.  Since I am kegging, I can chill the cider down very quickly in the kegerator (which makes the yeast “sleep” and drop to the bottom.  Then I can transfer the cider to another fermenter with the hopes that I removed enough yeast to stop the fermentation.  This is what I plan to do.  Then I can keg the cider and carbonate it with CO2.

I cant wait for both of these to be done!  I will most likely carbonate the cider and then bottle it up so that I can free up the tap for the banana cream ale.  Either way it will be a while before that happens.

Note:  The cider started out at 1.052 and finished at 1.010 on 11/6/09.

Dont forget to check out our photo gallery for pictures of our day in Helen here

On Sunday morning we went out to breakfast at IHOP -MMMMMM!  I LOVE IHOP! – before heading up to Helen for the day.  Alisha’s grandmother (who’s name is Helen) had never been up there so we figured this was a perfect time being that it is Oktoberfest.  We went up to the winery (which can sell alcohol on Sunday by the way!) to pick up some wine for her grandfather, and then headed to the grainery.  I love this place.  I don’t really care for the grains in all honesty.  Grits and poridge are not my thing, but the place is so neat.  It backs up to the river and they use the water to turn a turbine below the grainery.  This turns one huge adjustable stone overtop of another one which grinds the grain so that it can be used for cooking.  Behind the grainery they have a dam that they built which creates a beautiful waterfall and such nice scenery.  It is awesome!  A guy that works there is very passionate about his job.  He loves meeting people there and really enjoys telling how the grain mill works and what modern technology has done to grains (the significant reduction in whole grain products because the parts of the kernel gum up modern machines).  Yes they are much more efficient but also much less healthy. 

After the grainery we headed into the city and walked around for a while.  We grabbed some chocolate goodies and did some shopping as you always do while you are there.  Afterwards we headed back home to make some dinner with Kara before calling it a day.

It has been great having our family come and visit us in Atlanta.  We wish it would happen more often, but I guess we can take our happy asses up there as well LOL.  Well, maybe after the pregnancy.  Alisha is in her third trimester and is therefore grounded.

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!

Click here to check them out!