A Peek at Life as a Natic

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!

On Friday night we headed up to dinner at a new restaurant with Kevin, Ashley, and Spence.  It had been a while since we had hung out so it was great to grab some dinner and drinks.

Ash, Kev, and Spence came over and had a few beers before we headed out to a new restaurant at Vickery Village called Robinhood’s Tavern.  It had just opened up earlier that week and took over the place that the excellent Atkin’s Park was in.  I always like to try out the new places so I was quite excited.  Unfortunately, I was very disappointed.  The food was so incredibly average.  For a restaurant that was taking over Atkin’s Park (which had excellent food but a little pricey unless ordering a burger or a sandwich) it was a huge miss.  The menu was very small with nothing appetizing on it and the food was just so so.  It wasnt bad… it just wasn’t anything special.  I will never think to go there when thinking about getting dinner.  Mark my words – closed within the year.  No doubt about it.  If the previous place failed, you better come with a great menu, food, and drinks.

While the dinner was not memorable, the company was.  We had a great time just BSing and talking before heading to Haagen Dazs for some delicious ice cream.  I had a Belgian chocolate shake.. holy crap!  It was incredible!  A great recomendation from the server. 

We then headed to the house to chill out and wrap up the night.  Thanks for coming out guys.  It was fun!

Friday was much needed – as it always is!  It was Danielle’s birthday on Thursday so we went up to Alisha’s dad’s house to eat dinner and cut a cake for her birthday.  He had made some pulled pork for dinner and they had a red velvet cake for dessert.  We hung out for a while just spending some good ol’ family time.  Before long we headed out to head back to the house. 

As we hopped onto 400 I asked Alisha if that is where Kevin and Ashley’s new house was and she said yes.  I decided to pull a u-turn to swing by real quick.  We got the tour of the house and hung out for a while.  We had not seen them in about a month so it was great to do so.  The new house is beautiful.  Congrats guys!  We got to see Kevin, Ash, Stan, Kristen, Grant, and Spence.  It had been forever so it was good to catch up.

We ended up leaving not too long after as we had a big day Saturday and we were exhausted.

On Saturday Alisha was going with the girls to Laura’s bridal shower in Alpharetta.  Since the girls were all out doing their thing the guys got together at Matt’s pool and just hung out and drank some beer.  Matt’s brother (Will) got a keg so a few people chipped in to just drink off of that for the day.  I picked up a six pack of beer and my cooler and drank my own stuff (you know I cant drink Miller Lite ).  We hung out, talked, and had some beers, before meeting up with the girls back at Matt’s house.  It was a nice chill day in the sun. 

I am normally not one to just sit around and do nothing, but with so many people there it was actually a great time. 

Because Alisha and I were out of the house for so long, we had to leave Matt’s house early.  In addition, everyone was on Matt’s deck and they were smoking, so Alisha could not be out there.  We headed home and I gave Bobby a ring as I saw that he had texted me earlier.  I told him to come on over and we just chilled, caught up, and had a few beers until about midnight.  I tried to get ahold of Hector and Reagan but Bobby thinks that they may have been in Greenville. 

It was a great Saturday.  Hopefully we do something fun today as well!!

On Saturday we chilled around the house until later when we met up with Mike and Aubree for dinner and a quick shopping outing.  Afterwards we headed home to meet Bobby and then headed out to Cinco’s to listen to music and chill with Ash, Kevin, Spence, Matt, and Laura.  We stayed there until about 11:00 and then headed towards the house.  Bobby and I still wanted to go out and Alisha did not want to join so we dropped her off at the house and headed back out to Taco Mac.  We had a great time chilling with our waiters and waitresses there as we had a few beers.

Saturday was a fun day!

Lyerly Wedding

On Saturday afternoon we headed over to a church right by our house to attend Krystle and Phil’s wedding!!!  It was a rather large wedding with nearly 200 people attending.  The ceremony was great, short, and was very nice.  After the ceremony we headed out to the Windmere Clubhouse for the reception.  It was well setup with drinks, food, and people.  They had such a great turnout.  The place was packed!  We had such a great time hanging out with our friends to celebrate such a great occasion!

Krystle and Phil's Wedding!

We are so happy for Krystle and Phil and want to take some time to wish them many many many years of happiness and love throughout their marriage.  We are so happy to have been a part of your wedding.  Congrats guys!  It was beautiful!

Be sure to look at our pictures from the wedding here.

This weekend we made plans to head up to a new pub in Cumming called the Firkin and Crown.  It was a hit for sure.  We had made reservations (after some drama) for 11 people and planned to meet there at 8:00.  Dan didn’t initially plan on going but last minute decided to tag along as well as he was really looking forward to going there soon.  He met at my house as did Bobby, Jen, and Spence had a few beers, and then headed out as planned.  When we got there it was pretty damn packed.  Seems like it has been a hit since it opened.

We sat down and everyone else got there fairly shortly after.  Alisha and I ordered some cajun seasoned chips that were insane!  They were so delicious!  Bobby and Jen ordered these waffle fries covered in cheese and bacon – HOLY CRAP they were good.  We were so impressed with the food thus far and it did not end there.  Alisha got a Reuben which was excellent and I got a mac and cheese with ham that was also excellent!  The beer was a little to domestic and typical for me.  Yeah they had Guinness, and Smithwicks, etc. but nothing you cant get at a decent bar.  I was really looking forward to something different and unique.  I stuck with Boddingtons the whole night which was not my preference in beers.  All in all, this place was excellent!  The food was perfect, the atmosphere was awesome, and everyone had a great time together!  We will definitely be back there again in the future.

If you have not been there yet – and most likely you haven’t, you need to go!

I had seen a few times from Facebook and some professional photo websites where people take a photo, convert it to black and white, and then bring the color through to certain parts of the photo.  I have always thought that this looked so cool, but had no clue how to do it.  Well I took some time this week to figure it out.  Here is a picture that we took in Decatur when we went to the brick store that was originally a color picture.  I converted it to black and white and then brought the color of Kevin and Dan’s UGA emblem and lettering back through the black and white conversion.  This makes for some cool pictures.  Below is a pic of Spence’s eye ball tattoo that I did the same with. 

Whatcha think?

This week we had a lot going on which was really nice and definitely helps the work week go by that much faster.  On Monday I met Alisha, Andrea, Ryan and the boys for lunch at Fridays.  It was great to see them again!  Later in the evening Alisha and I watched they typical tv shows – House, John and Kate Plus 8, and Midgets (aka – Little People Big World).

Tuesday we went up to Kevin and Ashley’s house to do dinner and hang out with them Spencer, and Jason.  Kevin was expecting some new furniture and thought he would need help as well but unfortunately they did not come when planned and they had to push it back to Wednesday.  We had a great time eating dinner, hanging out, and have a beer or so.

On Wednesday I had some free time and figured I would give Kev a quick hand with the chairs before heading up to Bingo with Edwin, Geni, Joe, and Carol.  Wednesdays are the best!

Thursday I met up with Spence and Jason Lucas for some after work drinks.  We met up at taco mac and upped my passport while we chilled out and had a great time. 

Then came the weekend!  I wish every week was so full of things to do.  Felt like the week just flew by.

Don’t forget to check out our photo gallery for pictures of the SLAH Party at pictures.neilnatic.com  or here.

Saturday afternoon we headed over to Kevin and Ashley’s house for their SLAH (Southern Living at Home) Party.  The girls were supposed to stay upstairs and spend all of our money while we were downstairs drinking away our pain from the spending :crackup:

Upstairs, the girls got together and did the Southern Living thing.  Downstairs the guys ate, drank, played pool, listened to music, and had a great time.  After the party was over the girls came downstairs to join us and we all just hung out and chilled.  Alisha got very camera happy and decided to take Matt, Laura, Bentley (their pug), Envy, and me down to the golf course behind Kevin’s house.  We took a number of pictures of Matt and Laura for their recent engagement.  Alisha had a blast as she loves to do this sort of thing.  We had a bunch of fun taking the pictures and a LOT of them came out great. 

When we went back inside, things got a little crazier and Alisha learned a little bit about our camera.  I spent some time showing Alisha what aperture is and how it effects a picture.  She really likes when pictures show the subject very clear but the background or foreground is blurred out.  She spent some time playing with that and started to get an understanding of how to do so. 

Everyone had a great time.  It was a blast!  Thanks for having us over Kevin and Ash.

Don’t forget to check out our photo gallery for pictures of my birthday dinner at pictures.neilnatic.com  or here.

This past weekend we decided to get everyone together to come out to have some dinner and drinks for my birthday.  We had an excellent turnout. We had to make reservations for 20!  Ashley, Kevin, Mike, Aubree, Jason, Amber, Krystle, Phil, Spencer, Shawn, Hector, Reagan, Bobby, Jen, Paul, Rickie, Lauren, and Craig all made it!

We grabbed dinner at Loredos across from the avenue in Cumming.  It was a little tight there but we made it work.  While we were there I got the typical birthday celebration at a Mexican restaurant with the sombrero. 

Is that a Dirty Sanchez??

After dinner, we were sure to show Kevin http://1guy1cup.net.  I know most of you have not seen this and if you are one of our grown folk readers…. I urge you to proceed with caution… as a matter of fact I can almost assure you that you do NOT want to see this video.  Now that your curiosity has the best of you, if you MUST proceed you HAVE to be ready for the biggest shock of your life.  It is not at all what you expected… and you have to watch it all.  It is NOT work safe and certainly not child safe either.  To see Kevin’s reaction check out the photo gallery.  It explains it all.  :crackup:

After that I had Kevin watch the video above.  It is a humorous take on puberty from a talking penis with some nasty adult humor tossed in.  Quite hilarious but you must have a sense of humor

We then headed over to Taco Mac to have some drinks before calling it a night.  Thanks to everyone that came out… and I am sorry to those that could not make it.  We’ll catch ya next time!

This week we purchased a new bedroom set from Broyhill Furniture in Alpharetta.  We are not sure what their deal as they are having a sale that says everything must go and that they lost their ATL warehouse, but they claim that they are not closing.. maybe the employees are just that … clueless.  Either way we searched around at every furniture store that we could think of and have not been able to find a set that compares to the one that we saw there.  After looking around for a week, we decided to say screw it and picked it up.  We bought a King bed, dresser, chest, and 2 night stands all of which gets delivered on Saturday the 15th. 

While we were out on Saturday we purchased the mattress for the set.  We found one that we liked for about $1,550 at one store.  We went back and forth between two beds and eventually the sales guy tried to aggressively close a sale at $1,158 including delivery.  I told him that I wanted to think about it.  He told me that I had to come back today in order to get that price.  I went home and found that mattresses are called different names in different retail stores so price matching was nearly impossible.  I called a competetor and told them what i was looking for and they had me come in to check out the different models.  When i got there they had the same mattress but it was $1,799.  I told them that i could get the same one for $1,158 across the street and they called their manager to see if they could match the price (which ALL mattress stores do… they are like car salesmen )  While they were doing that she had us lie on an upgread to the one we were looking at to see what we thought.  Of course it was a TON better but was priced at $2,000!  When the lady came back she said if I give you the $2,000 bed for the 1158 will you buy it right now.  I said yep and it was a done deal!  The one we got was a Simmons Beautyrest World Class Line.  I cannot wait to sleep on this thing.  It is SOOOO much better than the one we have now.

After shopping during the day, we called everyone up and invited them to come over to have some food and beers.  Dan, Kevin, Ash, Jason, Amber, Matt, Laura, Bobby and Jen all came over and we just chilled and had a great time!

Don’t forget to check out our photo gallery for pictures from dinner at the Daly’s  at pictures.neilnatic.com or here.

On Friday evening we went over to Ash and Kev’s house to have a few beers, chill on the porch, and hang out with some friends.  Ash, Kevin, Mike, Aubree, Matt, Laura, Spence, Alisha, and I were all meeting over there around 7:30ish.  Ash was unable to cook as she has to relax so she asked Alisha to give her a hand.  She made some marinades and toasted some coconut for the dinner and we headed over to the Daly’s.  Alisha had planned a Cajun shrimp and toasted coconut / chili lime chicken with a side of grilled corn on the cob.  For dessert, Ashley had some pumpkin cookies and Alisha made her vegan brownies to add to the mix.  On the way over, we stopped at Jax to pick up some tasty beers.  I grabbed an Imperial stout and a great Dogfish Head Pumpkin Brown Ale for Ash to try (It was DELICIOUS!!!!).

Once we got there, we threw the corn on the grill and Alisha got started in the kitchen.  The guys just chilled out back and talked and drank until we were ready to put the meat on the grill.  After the ladies were done prepping everything they brought it outside to be grilled.  The guys took over and shortly after, dinner was served. 

Alisha, you did an EXCELLENT job.  Honestly, that was one of the best meals I have had in a while.  Every part of it was great!

On Friday we had made plans to get the guys together for a guys night out on the golf course.  This was mostly a distraction so that Kevin did not find out about his birthday party that was set to happen at his house.

We had a large turnout for golf as Kevin, his dad, Jason Weber, Ryan, Shawn, Paul, Jason, JR, Schwappe, Brett, Mike and I all got together at Lanier Golf Club for a 6:00 tee time.  Phil, thanks again for your help in arranging this.  We cannot thank you enough!  Although I totally suck, I still had a really great time.  After a nice round of golf, we all headed back to Kevin’s house to celebrate.

It was a great turnout for the party and it was good to see many of the people that we have not seen in quite some time.  Happy early B-day Kev.