A Peek at Life as a Natic

Check out our photo gallery to see pictures of Preston’s Trip to PA or click here.

My cousin Denae was having her bridal shower and my Mom and Kara were planning to fly up so they could attend.  I was going back and forth on whether or not to go due to Preston being so young. I talked to his Pediatrician and I was given the okay so I figured it would be alright to go. 

I decided that since my Grandparents had not yet met their Great Grandson I would surprise them by “just showing up”.  I also wanted to surprise my Denae as she did not think I would be coming either.  But, for some reason I thought she found out about it so the surprise was less than enthusiastic. Sorry again Denae!

Our flight left at 8:30am on Saturday..ugh!! I got up at 4am to get ready and finish packing up the last minute things.  Preston slept for his usual 6 or so hours and gave me plenty of time to get dressed and ready while he slept.  When he woke up I nursed him and passed him off to my Mom so I could finish packing and she could dress him. Lin was kind enough to take us to the airport, so off we went, making sure to stop by D&D on the way of course!

When we got to the airport I put Preston in the Moby Wrap and off we went (man did that make things so much easier) we managed to breeze thought the airport only having to stop at security for them to check P’s medications and then  we were off.  We got to the gate with time to change P’s diaper and then be the first to board.  We found our seats and shortly after the flight attendant brought Preston his fist pair or wings!!  I got comfy and nursed Preston and off to sleep he went! He slept most of the flight waking up about 20 minutes before we landed and he was in a great mood! I let him lay out on the tray table and do his favorite thing, stretch! (only after I sanitized the entire thing)!! Once we landed I put him back in the Moby Wrap and we were off to baggage claim. Kara got us our rental car and we headed towards Greensburg!

We ran into a lot of traffic for no apparent reason and ended up needing to change and get ready at my Aunt and Uncle’s house rather than my Grandparent’s.  This is where Denae came in and stated “I hear a baby”! Preston was fussing while we were getting him dressed.  This should have been my cue that she had no I idea I was coming but I still had no clue so I threw out a “hey” and kept dressing P. Again, SO sorry Denae!!! I am however glad that it was a surprise after all!

After getting dressed we headed to Denunzio’s Restaurant and this is where we surprised Grandma! Check out the video, it was so sweet! She was thrilled and just kept asking how we did it! Needless to say I only saw Preston to nurse him while we were at the shower! He was passed around to many but mostly held by his Great Grandma!

After the shower he headed to my Grandparents house to surprise Pappers!  He was so happy his Great Grandson was there and loved on him all weekend!  Saturday evening I could not help myself and I had to go play in the deep untouched snow in my Grandparents back yard!! I had so much fun! Later that night  we went to Jioio’s for dinner (not sure why everyone loves it so much).  That night P took a bath in Great Grandma’s sink  and then was off to bed about an hour early and slept for a full 8 hours nursed then back down for another 2!!! He was WORN OUT!!

Sunday Grandma made a wonderful breakfast for us and I defiantly ate my fair share! We then headed out so my mom could meet her friends for brunch (she didn’t eat breakfast) and show off her grandson! Preston and I stayed around for a little while then Kara picked us up and we headed to Tasha’s house to see her and Edward. He is growing so fast and is so smart!! We then headed back to my Grandparents house where Angie stopped by and we all headed to Hosses (yum) for an early dinner.

After dinner we were off the airport again and this time with no traffic. I put P in the Moby again and we actually made it to the gate just in time as they decied to board us early. Ugh..bad move! We got our seats and I decided to repeat our ride there since it worked so well. I nursed P but instead of falling asleep this time he pooped! People were still filing onto the plane as some were unaware of the early boarding so the “early” thing was pointless! Anyway, I grabbed Preston and his stuff and headed for the bathroom, I managed to use the bathroom while holding my son and then proceeded to change him.  Everything was going just fine until we were walking out of the bathroom..Preston began to scream a HORRIBLE scream and I could not get him to calm down!! Back in our seats I tried to nurse him, cuddle him, give him is passy, taking off his pants and socks thinking he may be hot, NOTHING worked! I felt horrible for him because it sounded like such a painful cry!! One of two things was all I could think of may be wrong; 1. As we were leaving the bathroom I flushed the toilet, turned off the light (it turns off when you unlock the door) and an announcement came on nice and loud. Maybe this over stimulated him? Or 2. The diaper cream I used on him was burning his precious little bottom!? Well, I had my Mom wipe off the cream as we sat in our seats and tried nursing him again. He nursed a little this time and the crying stopped!! Phew!!  Poor guy!! He slept most of the flight again and was decent when he woke up even though they kept us on the ground when we landed for about 30 minutes waiting for our gate ugh..all with no circulating air!

It was a whirlwind of a weekend but it was so worth it!! I am so happy I got to introduce Preston to his Great Grandparents!! What a precious moment!!  Preston has been recovering from his busy weekend and we spent all of today at home napping and lounging! 
–
~Alisha Natic~

Check out our photo gallery to see our family pictures or click here.

Last Sunday morning we went with Kara, Lin, and Alisha’s mom up to The Original Pancake House.  Although this place is a chain, I have only eaten at one once before.  Holy COW is it good!  They try to use healthier ingredients, not to say it is “healthy” in the least.  Their food is just flat out incredible!  I had bacon pancakes, yes bacon pancakes, and holy CRAP are they good!!  I added a side of delicious home fries and Alisha had a waffle and some eggs.  If you have never been to one you have to go.  To my local readers, the only one I know of in the area is on Windward. 

After breakfast we made a quick stop at Babies R Us and then headed off to Ryan and Andrea’s house.  We hung around for a bit and then headed to Andrea’s neighborhood parks to take some pictures outside.  Some of those are in the photo gallery and can be seen by clicking the link above.  It was very sunny (yeah i know…. hard to believe) so many of the shots were of me squinting and ruining the shots LOL. 

Later on, Nathan and Sarah came over with their two lovely children for dinner and to hang out.  It was a great night chilling with the DiRocco’s as always.  It was good so see them again.  Unfortunately their moving habits have us about an hour apart now .

Thanks Andrea for taking the pics!

Friday night we went with Dan, Bobby, and Kara to Gordon Biersch down in Buckhead.  Gordon Biersch is a brewpub / restaurant chain that has a few locations in the Atlanta area.  I had been wanting to try it out for quite some time but my fear of lagers has kept me away.  Well I was wrong.  I should have gone there years ago.

I am a big ale person and love my dark, bold, thick beers.  Since most of the American popular beers are lagers, I have built up a large amount of hate for this type of beer.  I should have opened up sooner.  These beers at Gordon Biersch were quite good!  They are not as heavy or as bold as the stouts that I typically like, but they were still quite tasty smooth and flavorfull.  I am a fan and will be sure to give more lagers a shot when out drinking at Taco Mac or similar bars.  I will certainly look for ales first, but I will not turn my head to the lagers anymore.  Well most of them that is.  I still dont care for the typical American Lager, but the darker more complex styles were good. 

The food there was also very good.  We had some hiccups with our order but they were polite and very quick to resolve them with no questions asked.  The management staff came by to make sure all was corrected as well which was nice.  Without a doubt, I would return to Gordon Biersch.  I really enjoyed it!

I would certainly recommend you give them a shot!  We loved it!

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.

Now that we have the XC90, it is time to get some of the stuff done that we need to make it our own!  The rear windows were tinted but the front two were not which drove Alisha nuts.  I made an appointment with a tint place in Cumming to have them tint the front two windows on Saturday morning.  I will be posting their information once I am sure that everything is well with the tint job.  They were great people and I am sure everything is perfectly fine, but I want to make sure that it is before I tell my readers all about them.  The only thing holding that up is that it had been so rainy and cold recently that the water used to apply the tint has not been able to dry out which is very normal process when you tint.  It has been hard to not roll the windows down for these past 5 days though lol.  I have intentionally avoided toll booths and going through the parking garages has been a pain because I have to pass the ticket thing and open the door to reach back LOL.

Last week, Heather had sent us an invite to head over to their house to throw a little surprise party for Jarrod with a few of our neighbors and some their friends / family.  We headed over at 12:30 while Jarrod was out with Ethan to get ready to surprise him.  Heather did a great job planning it and picking up lunch for us to enjoy.  It worked out perfectly and Jarrod was quite surprised.  We hung out for a few hours and then headed back home to get ready to go out for Kara’s birthday dinner. 

Kara’s birthday is a day after mine and she wanted to head to Maggianos to grab some much needed birthday dinner!  We headed up to Maggianos at Perimeter Mall with Alisha’s mom and met Kara and Lin for some dinner.  As always the food was delicious and we had a great time.  After dinner we were all heading up to our house to spend the night.  We decided to hit Cheesecake Factory for some dessert before continuing home.

Two Sundays ago (LOL) we took a day to chill out.  After Debbie’s long drive from PA to GA and our long 2:30 AM trip to Athens we decided to just have a chill day.

Alisha and Kara and their mom made some hard tack candy which is basically just hardened sugar with food coloring and little bottles of flavoring such as spearmint, strawberry, etc.  After making the candy we took Kara back to home in Atlanta and headed home for bed. 

It was just a nice chill Sunday.

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

Sunday afternoon the ladies wanted to go shopping… who knew?  Lin and I told them that we would go to Target with them, they could drop us off at Taco Mac to watch some football and have a beer, and then they could pick us up before heading home.  It worked out pretty well I’d say.  LOL

After shopping we heading over to La Casuela for some nice Mexican food before heading back to the house to chill.

It was a nice chill Sunday and a great way to wrap up the weekend.

Kara and Lin came over on Saturday to hang out and to watch the UGA vs Ga Tech game.  We started the afternoon by heading over to Hobby Lobby for Kara so that she could try to pick up some decorations at like 90% off.  Unfortunately they had already sold everything and we walked out empty handed.  Heck… maybe that is not such a bad thing LOL.

After some shopping we headed out to dinner at a Southern country restaurant at the Vickery Village shopping center called Mommy Francis Down Home Cooking.  It was a little country restaurant above Sidney’s Pizza which was pretty good.  It was such a cute atmosphere and good food.  If you are ever craving some country cookin’ give it a shot.

After dinner we headed home to get ready to watch the UGA vs Ga Tech game.  Tech was ranked 7th in the nation and UGA was unranked   Tech was looking great this year and was on target to get a nice bowl game and if the right teams lost, they had a chance at the national title game.  Last year UGA was in a similar position and Tech robbed them in Athens with a stunning win… well UGA came back for revenge this year!  They pulled off a HUGE win against tech at Bobby Dodd Stadium in Atlanta to send Tech crying home.  Hell yeah DAWGS!!!!  Great win!!

While the guys watched the game, Kara spent the evening putting up and decorating our tree for Christmas.  She also setup all of the other Christmas decorations around the house.  Thanks Kara.  It looks great!!!  Will you come back to put them all away????  LOL

Saturday morning was a big day as Hector and Reagan were heading back to the 3d/4d ultrasound studio to get their gender confirmation and I was excited to watch the UGA Auburn game with Lin.  It was bound to be an excellent day!

So in the morning we woke up, got ready, and headed out the door to meet Hector, Reagan, and Geni and the ultrasound studio on Marketplace blvd to do their gender confirmation.  This was the same place that helped us out when we were in need and I highly recommend them to EVERYONE trying to get a 3d /4d ultrasound done.  See the bottom of this post for a full shout out.  We went back and confirmed…. ITS A BOY!!!  Looks like Preston is going to have another partner in crime to hang out with just like I did with Hector when we were young.  It is going to be great for these two to grow up with another family member their age.  I know it was huge for me.  After the ultrasound we headed over to ihop for breakfast with Hector, Reagan, and Geni.  We had a delicious start to the day and then headed off to go shopping at the outlet malls while they headed up to North Point Mall to do some shopping of their own.

After brekfast we headed up to the Dawsonville Outlet Mall to check out Baby Gap and pick up a few things for Preston.  I have fallen in love with that store and before anyone gives any lectures, I’ll be sure to mention that we buy things when they are on sale and they are no cheaper than any other place we look for clothes and they are much cuter and nicer.  We use coupons and watch the sale racks and love every bit of it.  I can’t wait to dress Preston!!!  We then grabbed lunch and headed back towards the house to meet up with Kara and Lin before the UGA Auburn game.

As you know I am a UGA fan and Lin is an Auburn alumni and huge fan as well.  Well… today was the day.  UGA was playing Auburn in Athens and it was bound to be a great game.  Before it all got started Lin and I headed out to Home Depot to pick up some double sided sticky tape and then over to Taco Mac to grab a few beers and watch a little bit of the games on the tvs there.  We had a some good guy time and then headed back to the house to meet up with the ladies.  We caught some shit about disappearing for a while, but hey… we had some bonding time right?  When we got to the house Jason Lucas had come buy on his way home from work to drill a hole in a keg for me before having to head back up to his house to get things done preparing for his move back to MD… damn you Jason…. we will miss ya buddy!  Courtney was also there as she was in the area to work for the night and stopped by.  I did not get to see her much but it is always great to see her.

We had Bobby, Danny, Kelly, Kara, and Lin over to watch the game and had a blast doing so.  Auburn took an early lead and then after the half it was a battle to the end.  UGA pulled off a HUGE win over the Auburn Tigers making my weekend!!!  GOOO DAWGS!  It was a great day full of things to do and excitement.  Congratulations to Hector and Reagan!  We are so happy for you two!

I want to recognize A Window to the Womb on Marketplace Boulevard in Cumming GA for helping us out when we were in need and providing such a great service to people.  It was a beautiful studio with a huge screen and amazing technicians.  If you are in the market for this type of ultrasound, please support them!  Window to the Womb

Dont forget to check out our photo gallery for pictures of the Atlanta Gay Pride Parade at pictures.neilnatic.com or here

On Sunday morning we woke up and tried to figure out what we wanted to do.  We had been talking about heading down to Andrea and Ryan’s house as we had not seen them in a while but were not sure what to do for the morning.  Alisha then got a call from Kara who was heading down to the Gay Pride Parade in Midtown Atlanta so we decided to go as well.

It is no secret that Alisha and I support gay couples and believe that they should be treated equally and we figured, why the hell not?  Let’s check it out.  We hauled ass to meet Kara, Lin, and their friend Bobby down at Kara’s apartment.  We then headed off to find parking and get a spot for the parade.  We certainly underestimated the parking situation as we got down there but it all turned out fine.  We had to walk several blocks to the parade but at least we got to check it out. 

The parade was NUTS!  There were so many people there to watch that I NEVER would have thought it would be such a long parade.  We were there well over 2 hours and it was still going.  There were just a ton of groups walking to support their cause and it was a good time.  It was really incredible to see so many people support equality and pride for gays.  While we were certainly outnumbered as a straight (pregnant) couple, but our support was certainly welcomed by everyone.  It was a good time even though it was as long as it was. 

Check out our link above for pictures from the parade.   

After the parade we headed out to Ryan and Andrea’s house to hang out and have dinner with them.  When we got there Andrea had told us that they also invited their friends Nathan and Sarah over as well.  We had not seen them in a while and really like to hang out with them as well so it was a great surprise.  We brought Andrea our Kitchen Aid mixer so that she could whip up some of her oh so delicious pumpkin cookies.  DAMN those things are soooooo good!  You just can’t stop eating them.  MMMMM!!!  Ryan and I took Anthony and headed out to his data center down town to grab some pictures for their website while the ladies baked away.   Shortly after we returned Nathan, Sarah and the kids came over and we threw some chicken and pulled pork on the grill to get dinner started.

As always, we had an excellent time with the DiRoccos.  We dont get to see them as often as we wish we did, so it is always a great time seeing them whenever we can.  Thanks for having us over Andrea and, of course, thanks for the cookies… I wont thank you for the 5 lbs I’ll gain eating them though LOL

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!

We have been spending quite a lot of time around the house prepping for Alisha’s baby shower which was last Saturday.  We were doing everything from setting up furniture in the nursery, to steaming curtains, to just the basic cleaning around the house.  It was a ton of work but it all needed to be done before we had everyone over.  Many of the people coming had not seen our house in over 2 years.  Others had never been here at all!

Alisha’s mom flew in from Pittsburgh PA on Thursday and stayed in the city with Kara until Friday morning.  She then drove up to our house to help get everything ready.  They did everything from cooking to shopping during the day.  Later on, Kara came up from the city (after work) with their cousin Denae, who flew in from Florida.  We did a nice dinner with them and just got as much done as possible.  Denae went back to the city to stay at Kara’s hotel as her mom was flying in from Pittsburgh on Saturday morning along with Grammy B and she felt it was just much easier to be closer to the airport.

Saturday was the big day and there was still a lot to be done – good thing I was getting the hell outta there to go watch the GA game lol