Happy Halloween decorations!

First off, Halloween decorations at my apartment are pretty slim. I'm working on it. BUT thanks to my dear mother she sent a care package with the works: candy corn (delicious for only a few weeks in the year) Reese's pumpkins, orange sprinkles, a ruffly cami, and this!

I love it! (The pumpkins were provided by yours truly.) 

A good friend of the Reece's gave this to David and I for our wedding. Included in the gift were other decorated bricks for various holidays. 

And last but not least:

Such a good idea! I'm totally having huge spiders crawl on our house. 

And guess what! I am so happy! My dad is in town for the weekend and tonight is our ward Halloween festival. It will be a great opportunity to show my him our fantastic ward and community that I have been talking about for that past couple months. 

My assignment at the party tonight is to supervise kids while they paint pumpkins. Shouldn't be too hard... 

Eat lots of candy this weekend! I don't know about you, but I bought a Costco size bag of the good stuff (i.e. Reeses, Snickers, Milky ways, Almond joy...) It's for tonight...promise...

Piedmont Park

My new friend Jennifer Tanner and I decided to go on a walk to and around Piedmont Park. We're in the same ward and both of our husband's go to Georgia Tech, which pretty much guarentees that we are going to be friends. (Besides the fact, of course, that she is awesome and cool and conversational to begin with.) It was such a lovely day. 

I posed because I really liked this building behind me. Notice the sign? Yes, the Margaret Mitchell house is right inside the city. You can't see the house from here though, I think. 

I really like these flowers, or whatever they are. Who doesn't want a nice, busy plant with pretty purple things on them?

     

We're pretty sure this is an apartment complex. Correct me if I'm wrong. But honestly, who wouldn't want to live in a castle? 

Piedmont Park is HUGE. We walked around for a couple of hours and didn't see everything. Concerts, and festivals are almost weekly occurrences. 

I heard about this monument on NPR the other day and I felt so cool that I knew what they were talking about! Sorry it's hard to tell, but this is a peace statue erected after the Civil War. The angel is holding an olive branch. 

And introducing the beautiful Ms. Jennifer who is so gracefully reenacting the part of Angel from the statue. 

An unfortunate doughnut location

David and I made a terrible realization a week ago: We can walk to Krispy Kreme. Oh, but you see, it gets worse. We are only 2 blocks away. This means that I can't justify fat and calories because I'm walking there. Maybe if it was a half mile away... We knew were were close, but, well, didn't realize how close... This wonderful doughnut chain started in Georgia, you know.

You can kind of see the Hot and Ready sign. 

I hereby swear that I will not go to Krispy Kreme more than once every 3 or 4 months. 

Saturday Night Ritual

David laughed at me one Saturday night and said, "haha! You're just like your mom!" Anything- JULIE STOKER WOODFIELD-like is a compliment to me, but the circumstances under which he said it were a bit odd. 


I was vacuuming. You see, the sentence following was: "It's Saturday night. Almost time for bed. And you're vacuuming." I stopped what I was doing and laughed at the de ja vou-ness of it all. For you see, David finds my family funny. Yes, in the "That was a funny joke!" way but also in the "your family's crazy!" way. Oh, he loves them dearly, but he finds some habits down-right hilarious. 


Why? Because they vacuum too. On Saturday night. Every time we come over late Saturday night (for whatever reason) to my parent's house my Dad was right there vacuuming. For some reason it ALWAYS happened at the end of the day right before things settled down for the night. Never, during the middle of the day. Procrastination, perhaps?


I laughed at the hilariousness of it all. I suppose feeling compelled to vacuum at 9:00 at night on a Saturday is a good thing... 

I guess you could say habitual vacuuming is in our blood. My Grandpa Stoker was a very unique fellow, and we LOVED him for it and we miss him terribly. One thing we often joke about was his urgent need for cleanliness. As in vacuuming ever day. It's really quite funny.

My Grandpa, Travis, and Abby in 2005

My mom was also born with the cleanliness gene, but she soon realized that all good "things should be done in wisdom and in order" and that it was ok not to be quite so excessive. Prudence is a good thing. So  once a week is her motto. 


And mine too. I'm bursting with pride David likened me to my mom. :) I bid you farewell, for it is now time for my weekly Saturday night ritual.  

beautiful homes in Midtown

One of my favorite things to do in Georgia is gawk at the beautiful homes. Not all of them are large, but they each have a certain charm and inspire one's imagination. David told me on one of our escapades that he wants to live in one of these houses. I'll specify down below. Personally, I think they are lovely, but I would prefer one with a yard. I might change my mind if we ever get the chance to buy one. ;)

I mean, the neighborhood where these are located are just a few streets over from BUSY streets and tall sky scrapers, but you wouldn't know it by looking at the houses and streets themselves.

 

Oh my gosh! Aren't these so charming! Notice the sky scraper in the background. These houses I might be persuaded to live in some day. :) But I'm sure they are...quite pricy...considering the location. 

I can not tell you how refreshing it is to see houses that aren't cookie cutter to the one next door. Western architecture is so not my thing. 

Stay tuned for more beautiful homes posts.

A Walk to the Library

The library system in Atlanta is really different than Provo's. There are over 20 branches all over Fulton County, as opposed to one, central library. I suppose there are perks to each system, but I miss the Provo library. All the books are in one place and there is an atmosphere of learning, cleanliness, and friendliness.   I find it a tad annoying that if the book I want isn't at the Ponce de Leon library, for instance, I have to order it from another library. Not to mention that the children's section in the library is anything but a cozy nook. The library is also a hangout for those less fortionate...and homeless.

But a library is a library, and for that I am thankful. Before we discovered the library on Ponce de Leon (the one closest to us) we figured the central library in the heart of DOWNTOWN Atlanta was the one we would be going to. So we decided to take a little stroll downtown.

FACT: Downtown atlanta is different than Midtown (where we live). Both have really tall buildings...but downtown can be likened to the West side of Provo compared to Midtown which is akin to the Riverwoods. Ok, maybe not that dramatic.

Take a tour downtown with us!

I don't think we'll be eating here. It is about 2 blocks from us. 

David and I totally need to visit this. It is also 2 blocks from our apartment. 

The Civic Center. Also about 4 blocks from our apartment. 

The big buildings start...

So close to the freeway!

If I'm not mistaken, this is a home for Women and their children. 

This looks like a really snazzy place to grab a bite to eat! 

Art right outside the library. Oh, and by the way, it was a good thing we walked the 2 miles or so. Don't expect to find parking that is free. It doesn't exist. New concept. 

The sky bridge is SO far off the ground! At least 20 or more stories. 

A silo that stores grain?

A peak at some of the scary parts...at least it was scary-like to me. Broken windows are never a good sign.