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!

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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!