Spring

Finally, the sun is sticking around a bit longer in the day. It's setting around 6pm and it is out when I wake in the mornings. My daily commute to and from the rail station is now in the sunlight instead of in the dark. Well, it's not exactly sunny, but it's certainly brighter. Early spring flowers are also appearing here as well. It's certainly a nice perk after a long seemingly sunless winter to have crocus and daffodils out already. I'm highly enjoying their presence.

This picture is of crocus blooming in front of St. Andrew's Church- a view from my journey to school/work from the rail station in Newcastle.

Parker Dance Party

Todd and I, along with our friends (the McFarlands) babysat over this past weekend for our friends (the Parkers), so they could have a weekend getaway. They have four children ages 8,7,4 and 1. It was a fun weekend with lots of games and fun outings. One of the things we did before bedtime each night was to have a dance party. Here are two clips of the kids dancing. (Bad video quality is because it was shot on a cell phone)

Graham (4) in front with his book light "microphone", Isaac (7) and Ewan (8) dancing from the sofa:

Graham and Jude (1):

Dog Intelligence

When we are not trying to turn Maggie into the first pea-diving aquatic dog, we have fun with Maggie and Belle in other torturous ways. To further procrastinate on my school work today, I set up a camera to see if Belle really is the "Pinky" of this "Pinky and the Brain" duo or if she is just "unmotivated". Here's what I found:




Turns out we have a new Brain!

Maggie diving for peas

We made it a bit harder to see if she would still go for them! Here is the video in slow motion:

Silly Dog Tricks

Nothing gets between Maggie and her food!

Car drama

Sad me at the accident site with unnamed car

A week ago today, our 2001 Vauxhall Astra was hit by an oncoming car. It wasn't a long time that our car was with us- just six months.

I had just been saying to Todd and Jonelle the week before that this car had a death wish and would turn on us like old yeller!

But some kid from down the road took care of that for us.

Bumper and headlight-shouldn't take long to fix?

We thought it would not cost too much to fix the car- it just looked like our front bumper had come off of the car. But upon body shop inspection it would have cost twice what our car was worth to fix.

At least we remembered how to do this car buying/searching/taxing/MOTing stuff in the UK. 

So, with our Mercedes rental car (I know, right- not our pick, but we likely) we drove to see this little no-frills beauty- 2005 Hyundai Accent.



 

New nameless car- maybe we'll name her so she'll be good to us

The first car I ever purchased was a Hyundai and I never had any problems with it until it finally said "when" and died where two lanes converged 20 feet in front of a single lane bridge. I liked my first car and generally felt amicable toward Hyundai automobiles thereafter.

This is a picture of our new Hyundai parked in front of our house. We got a great deal (so far, so good) and I'm hopeful it will prove as reliable as my first Hyundai experience. 

Jonelle's visit

It's so nice when friends from home come to visit us here. We spent just under a week with Jonelle, who I lived with for six years in and beyond school. We had a nice time catching up and seeing some pretty cool British sites.
Here are some pictures from her visit:

Alnwick Castle

Parts of Harry Potter where filmed here and we got to watch some school children have a flying lesson

View from the bridge

We found a castle!

Lindisfarne (Holy Island)

It was windy and cold, but still Lindisfarne was beautiful

Proof that Jonelle has been to the North Sea

A little break from the cold

Smoking her Dad's pipe on Holy Island

A large section of Hadrian's Wall. The wall was built by the Romans in AD122 and parts of it still exist spanning across Northern England

Ruins of Benwell Roman Temple- Part of Hadrian's Wall

Sitting in a turret

The barracks at Chesters Roman Fort.

Ancient monuments can be hazardous- especially when you can climb on 2000 year old buildings!

The baths at Chesters Roman Fort

Museum of things they found near the fort

 When we were in Alnwick, Jonelle got a great shot of Todd doing his favorite thing!

We had a great time Jonelle! Come back and visit us again!