Lights of Life

Tonight I took Alex to see a bunch of holiday lights at Life University in Marietta, GA.  Alex loved all the lights and wants to go back tomorrow to see how the lights are able to move and stay upright.  Click below for the pictures we took:

Lights of Life

Snow Storm in Atlanta

Snow storm?  Hardly!  If they think this is a snow storm then I wonder what they would say of all the snow on the ground in Minnesota. 

I was also surprised to see that so many churches we're closed today.
http://www.wsbtv.com/closings/index.html#D

Christmas in Atlanta

This year we were not able to go back to Minnesota, but luckily we were able to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with friends.  Christmas Eve we went to see the children's service where Alex got to see her friend, Castlin, be a sheep in the Christmas play.  Afterwords, we went to Castlin's parents house, Jen and Shannon, for dinner.  It was a great night and the girls had so much fun playing together. 

Alex was so excited open all her gifts as Grandpa and Nanna watched from Skype.  She and I spent the whole day playing her toys until we left to spend Christmas Day with friends we had met while living on the island.

Alex is now in bed after a fun filled day.  Click below for pictures:

Christmas in Atlanta

Alex and Bentley

We are watching a little dog named Bentley for a few days while the owner flies home to visit family for Christmas.  Alex has been so excited about this dog coming to stay with us.  She is constantly following him around and trying to get him to do what she wants to do.  She is putting a santa hat on his as we speak.  Poor dog!  

Ice Skating on Alex's Birthday

Today Alex turns 5!  I can't believe she is already 5!  She already had a birthday at Build A Bear Workshop and a little party at school, so today we went ice skating with a few of her friends from school.  This was Alex's first time ice skating.  I wasn't sure how it was going to go so I'm glad they let Alex in free for her birthday.  After getting our skates on we went on the rink and Alex did pretty good.  She slipped of course but I didn't let her fall.  She wanted off right away and started to cry.  So we went to sit down and ate some crackers.  She was adamant about not going back out there but after a little prodding we went back out and things got a little better.  She was a real trooper for her first time.

Christmas Caroling with Alex

Christmas Caroling with Alex and Castlin

Tonight we went Christmas caroling with Dunwoody Baptist Church.  We only went to three places but could of gone to more because we really had a fun time.  Alex especially had fun with her friend, Castlin.  We went to three places and everyone really enjoyed having us come to sing carols.  I took a short video from the second place we went:

The third place we went we we're invited in for cookies and hot apple cider.  The kids just loved it!

Tomorrow we plan to go ice skating with some of her friends from preschool.  This should be interesting!

Alex and her Finger Puppets

Here is Alex putting on a puppet show for us with her new new finger puppets she got from her cousin, Alex.  She loves it and they are so cute.

Last night we had an ice storm here in Atlanta.  They aren't really prepared for that sort of thing down here.  In Minnesota, they would of started salting the roads before the storm, but not here.  There we're hundreds of accidents and a friend of mine who came to visit got stuck in traffic on the way home.  It took her three hours to go 10 miles!  AT 10:30 pm there we're still traffic jams.  I heard one news station say that if you have been in an accident with no injuries please do not call 911 until tomorrow morning as the police are only responding to injuries. 

Alex had her Christmas party at school today and she really didn't want it to be canceled.  Luckily, they didn't close but opened late and she went in at 10am. 

Snow

On Sunday and Monday of this week we saw snowflakes in Atlanta! Alex was more than excited! As soon as she saw them she rushed to get her shoes on to go outside and touch them. Unfortunately for her, we didn't get enough snow to stick.

Build a Bear Workshop

Alex met up with a few of her friends today at the Build a Bear Workshop to celebrate her upcoming 5Th birthday. She turns five on Dec. 20th, which is so close to Christmas and usually a busy time for people so we celebrated a little early and Alex didn't mind at all! She LOVES the Build a Bear Workshop. She picked out the softest little dog and named it "Rudolph the Red Nosed Dog", even though it doesn't have a red nose! She picked out a safari type shirt for it to wear and tighty whitey underwear! That underwear is so cute! She also got a little backpack to carry around her new dog from her friend, Castlin, and a Lalaloopsy doll from Kara and Kaya. Alex was really excited about that because she wanted one so bad. That lalaloopsy doll is soooo cute! I want one! She also opened some gifts from Grandpa and Nanna, she got some more Littlest Pet Shop, cute little pandas, a new outfit, new pj's, and a few art project kits.

All these toys kept her pretty busy the rest of the day and night. And now it's time for bed! Good Night. :)

More of Brook Run Hospital

Here we are walking around the abandoned building. You can see the door is clearly open so of course we go inside, but we really can't see anything because we don't have a flashlight! It appears it's a building with a bunch of bedrooms, because every room has a closet. There's also a bunch of graffiti all over the place. We'll have to go back again but with a flashlight!

Sunday with Alex

I had some leftover cookie dough in the fridge so this morning we decided to make dinosaur cookies. I didn't have any dino cookie cutters so I did my best cutting them out with a knife. I think I did a pretty good job on Apatosaurus! Since we we're talking about dinosaurs, Alex and I decided to have an herbivore lunch! :) I can't believe how excited she was about that!

Later in the evening we we're invited by some friends to watch a Christmas concert at Dunwoody Baptist. We saw Alex's little friend, Castlin, sing some Christmas carols with a bunch of other kids, and then we heard Larnelle Harris sing! Wow, is he a good singer! I posted Oh Holy Night on youtube! I wish I had a better camera because the footage isn't really that great, but the music is!

Thanksgiving in Atlanta

The last two Thanksgivings we we're in Dominica and celebrated with friends there and this Thanksgiving we celebrated here in Atlanta with friends we met while liking in Dominica. Devin and her husband made a delicious turkey with some awesome stuffing and mac and cheese. Lily and her family made some awesome green beans and cranberries and we brought the pies and cranberry bread. We had such a fun time, especially Alex because she did not want to leave! Here she is with Kaya, Kara's older sister.

Alex Striking A Pose

A few days ago we took another walk around Brook Run. It is such a big park. Alex really isn't too excited about walking in the woods but here she is posing for a quick picture. She does love coming here because of the playground. She asks to come here almost everyday! I wonder what we will do when it is 30 degrees and windy.

Keith has been enjoying his IM rotation and especially enjoying his TV. We got a free trial month of Netflix and have been absolutely addicted to it. We started watching season 1 of Nip/Tuck and have been addicted. Alex loves it too because she has unlimited cartoons to watch. I'm trying to get Keith to cancel cable all together but he just won't do it yet! I'm still working on him and one day he might just come home to no cable. :)

Christmas Tree

Today we went out and got a Christmas tree.  It's the first time in three years we have put one up.  Alex was so excited!  She can't wait to show some of her friends and of course, Santa.  Since we we're short on Christmas tree ornaments we made a bunch of snowflake ornaments as we listened to Christmas music. 

Piedmont Park and Oakland Cemetery

We decided to spend the day doing some sightseeing since we really had nowhere to go on Thanksgiving (we are celebrating with friends tomorrow) and the weather was super nice- in the '70's.  We went to Piedmont Park, a 189 acre urban park near midtown in Atlanta.  You can see a little of the skyline in the background of this picture.  Alex had fun at two of the playgrounds we went to and had fun swinging on the many benches overlooking the lake.

Here is Alex watching the dogs play around at the dog park below!  She wants a little fluffy dog so bad, but she'll have to be happy with her teddy bear hamster.

After Piedmont Park, we visited Historic Oakland Cemetery.  The area pictured above is the Jewish section.  They also have an African American section and areas for Union and Confederate soldiers.  Before leaving we decided to search for Margaret Michell, the author of the famous book, Gone with the Wind.

Fall in Atlanta

Today was such a beautiful day in Atlanta.  We decided to head back down to the Zoo to watch the gorilla feeding and see some of the other animals.  The Atlanta Zoo has the biggest selection of Gorilla's than any other zoo in the United States.  There are five different habitats and today we watched them feed one of the habitats where ten of the gorilla's live.  Here is the video ( plus the video from the last time I was at the zoo):



After the zoo it was still nice out so we decided to walk around Grant Park.  Wow is it beautiful, especially in the fall!  There we're leaves all over the ground and they we're full of color.  We took a few pictures of course, mostly of Alex in the leaves!  But it was fun and we will definitely go back, maybe for a picnic or something.

Here is the LINK to the pictures we took.  I have basically used up all my picasaweb space and I really don't want to pay 5.00 a year for more space so I went back to my Flickr account that I rarely use.

More of Brook Run/ Georgia Retardation Center

So this is a view I got from another website of the main building/hospital.  When I drove through there with Keith the other day I saw all this land with nothing on it, just a bunch of dirt and no trees.  But I also saw fire hydrants with pain peeling off.  I figured something must of been over here at some point and I was right.  That spot was where the above pictured building used to be.

You can see from google earth clearly where it used to be.  See that building with the swimming pool in the bottom right hand side, that's where I live.  You can see how close I live to this place and I have been wondering a lot about it.



THIS website has pictures of the building when it was there if you are interested in checking it out.  I wonder what those buildings are that are still standing.

The building in the middle of the screen is the one I was near yesterday.  There is a dog park right next to it.  Anyone know what these buildings we're for when they we're in use?  You can also see some other areas where there was once a standing building. Interesting stuff.

Brook Run/ Georgia Retardation Center

Last week I decided to drive around the Liane Levetan Brook Run park.  This park is huge with lots of roads leading to abandoned buildings.  The abandoned buildings are boarded up with graffiti on the walls.  I was really curious what this place used to be.  Someone told me it was a boarding school for boys.  So a few days ago I took Keith here and he thought it had to of been owned by the state because of all the land.  He thought there was no way a private school could afford to own that much land.  So today, Alex and I we're there again and we decided to walk down one of the roads to a dog park, where there is an abandoned building sitting next to it.  This is a picture of that building above.  After watching the dogs we walked around the building and I found some papers with the words, "Georgia Retardation Center" typed on it. 

This picture above is a packing slip I found at the site from what looks like 1993.  After seeing this I decided to go home and do some googling.  Interesting stuff!  Lots of ghost stories and such and references to an "insane asylum".  The main hospital was torn down, as some other buildings.  Here's a LINK to some more info and pictures from the hospital when it was still standing.

Light up Dunwoody Parade

Light up Dunwoody Parade

Today Alex, Keith, and I went to the Light up Dunwoody Parade.  Alex was so excited to see Santa, although she didn't want to go talk to him.  She also got to decorate a cookie and drink some hot chocolate and listen to Christmas music.

Alex's Preschool Artwork

A common theme in Alex's artwork at preschool is Fluffy (Alex's Teddy Bear Hamster) and the family.  You can see from her picture above (from left to right)- Mommy, Fluffy (eating his food), Alex, and Daddy.

So she drew another picture at school today and came home with this:

Alex was so excited about the picture she drew when I picked her up from preschool.  When she got home and showed it to daddy.  Daddy is the one on the left.   Noticed the difference between daddy in picture one and daddy in picture two?

Indian Alex

Alex had a Thanksgiving Feast at school yesterday and they made these little Indian headbands.  She was so excited to show it to me!  I just love this picture of her in the little hat.

At school they are also reading about Pilgrims and she has been telling me that at the time of Pilgrims little kids didn't get to play they had to work!  So she has been wanting to help me vacuum and clean up!  I love her new school she is learning so much and making new friends!

Atlanta Zoo

Atlanta Zoo

Today we went to the Atlanta Zoo.  We left first thing in the morning, Alex was so excited to see her friends and the animals.  I was excited to see the Pandas!  They now have four Panda's and two of them we're out for us to see and the other two (Mommy and new baby) we could only see on a live cam.  I took some video of the Pandas.  They are so cute!

They also had a lot of Gorilla's.  I took some video of them but it's not showing up on youtube yet.  I'll post it sometime later.

At the end of our time there we saw the line to get into the zoo was at least a mile long!  I am so glad we got there first thing in the morning!

Fall in Atlanta

This time of year is really beautiful here in Atlanta. The leaves are so colorful. I took this picture today at Brook Run Park.

Tomorrow Alex, Keith, and I are going to the zoo. We are so excited!

Keith Starts Back on Monday

So Keith finally found out today that he is going back to his IM rotation on Monday!  So he did his two weeks of Nephrology and now he will be doing outpatient stuff..  I hope we don't have anymore issues with Ross.

Ross Clinical Rotations at Dekalb

So Keith started his IM clinical rotations at Dekalb on Monday.  Ross had told him to keep on the low down and not talk to anyone.  He kind of figured it was because he transferred from another hospital and didn't go through orientation there but it wasn't!  Apparently there is a dispute going on between Ross and Dekalb and because of it Dekalb Hospital isn't taking on anymore new students!  So today, after an hour of being there, they told Keith he had to go because they weren't taking on any new students until Ross University School of Medicine and the hospital work out their issues.  Great!  First of all, I can't believe they put Keith into this situation knowing what was going on!  The doctor that Keith was with today told him that they are bringing in too many new students.  Apparantly there are 107 new students scheduled to start at Dekalb Medical this month, and most of them are Ross students.  This really bothers me!  What if they don't settle their dispute, then what?  Do we move again?  We signed a one year lease, what do we do about that?

More details to come.  Keith is now trying to get a hold of someone in the clinical department.

Excited Alex

Today when Alex came home from school there was a big package here for her from Grandpa and Nanna. She was so excited to see some new dvd's come in the mail. She also loved her new outfit!

Alex is on her second week of school at Kingswood School and is loving it. She loves to show me her artwork that she does for the day and loves to tell me about her "job" at the school. Last week her job was to hold the flag for the pledge of allegiance and this week she has been telling me that she puts up the day of the week on two calendars in the classroom. It's so cute to hear her talk about school!

al

Alex had a fun day today

Today some friends from the island came over to visit.  I got the whole place clean before everyone came over.  Here is Alex's room above, all clean!  You can see, if you follow this blog, that I keep rearranging her room.  I love rearranging furniture.  Anyways, here is the after picture:

While the kids played the mom's played cards.  So we really didn't pay attention to what they we're doing- which was taking out every toy possible. 

Baby Panda

Zoo Atlanta has a new addition to it's Zoo- a new baby panda!  We have yet to go to the zoo and now we can't wait!  Of course the panda and her cub won't be out for guests to see until the spring, so I think I'll be able to wait a little longer!  If you want to check out the panda on the zoo's panda cam click the link below:
http://www.zooatlanta.org/1212/panda_cam


There isn't a name yet for the new panda.  He won't be named until he is 100 days old which is a tradition in China.

http://www.ajc.com/news/nation-world/zoo-atlanta-panda-gives-715253.html

Perimeter Mall

We live near the Perimeter Mall in Dunwoody, GA and we love it! It is so nice to be so close to a mall with with lots of nice restaurants and of course little rides for Alex. I had to sneak this picture of Keith going on a little ride with Alex. He could barely fit but Alex demanded he sit with her on the ride! So cute!

Alex's First Day of Preschool

I had mentioned in an earlier post that we received a call from a church preschool where we had Alex's name on a waiting list. They had an opening so Keith and I went in to take a look at the place and signed Alex up. Luckily I had already received her immunization records from Mankato and Miami so all I had to do was go to the department of health so they could fill out a form and she was set to go.

Alex had her first day today! She was so excited to go to school with her new Littlest Pet Shop lunch pack. She had no problem leaving me and didn't cry a bit. I think I was the one with separation anxiety. When I picked her up her teacher told me that she did great and a few of the girls gave her a hug good-bye. We ended up stopping by the park on the way home and ran into her little school friends again. Alex had so much fun at the park that she didn't want to leave!

Keith has now started his second week of Nephrology. The other day he got to see someone with calciphylaxis. Apparantly this is something you get from kidney dialysis. He thought that was pretty interesting and a great learning experience. After this week he will be heading to Dekalb Hospital to continue his Internal Medicine rotation which he is very happy about because he won't be spending so much time in the car.

Trick or Treating

Last night we had so much fun going trick or treating from door to door. As we we're walking outside I realized that this was Alex's first experience going door to door trick or treating. The last two years we were in Dominica and it just wasn't the same although she still had fun. And the year before that she was just under a year old and we went to the mall. Alex had a lot of fun last night and is so proud of all the candy she got!

So much for a clean bedroom!

This picture was taken on Friday when Alex's friend, Kara came over to play for awhile.  It was clean but as always Alex has to take all her toys out and spread them all over the place! 

Biking with Alex

The weather here is great! It's been perfect, not too hot or cold. Here is Alex riding her bike to the park. She did a great job and rode her bike the whole way. She also brought along a little tablet of paper to draw pictures of things we saw along the way- worms, leaves, sticks, acorns, etc. She had a fun time!

This past week I've been trying to keep her busy with Keith gone and having the car. It's been tough being without a car! We've done art projects everyday, dance the hokey pokey, and spent a lot of time at the park. On Friday, we got a call that an opening came up for Alex to go to a nearby preschool. So on Monday she starts preschool at Kingswood School from 9-1 monday through friday. Since Alex turns five in December she is going into the "Young 5's" class. Here she will get prepared to go into Kindergarten. The school is only a half a mile away so I can walk her there and pick her up. So this will work out perfectly until we get a car!

Traffic!

I took Alex to a Halloween Party yesterday in Lawrenceville. I had to drive north during rush hour traffic and it took me over an hour to get there! Look at all this traffic!

Out of curiosity I did a google search on the cities with the worst traffic.  This Forbes article is from 2006 and it lists Atlanta as 4th in the U.S. for having the worst traffic:
http://www.forbes.com/2006/02/06/worst-traffic-nightmares-cx_rm_0207traffic.html