Home Sweet Home

Well today (for England standards) was a scorcher! The highest was 75° with the sun shining bright... thankfully the weather says it is going to start cooling down tomorrow and there might even be some rain.  Yay!

So I figured I would give everybody a glimpse into where I have been spending a lot of time lately...

As you can see... This is my treadmill.  Of course I have a much needed fan pointing right on me.  I have my iPhone plugged into speakers next to me.  I don't listen to music though, this is used for my Couch to 5K application, it tells me when to switch from walking to running.  Instead of listening to music I choose to watch TV which honestly seems to make the time go by really fast.  I use the time to catch up on all of my shows, right now I am catching up with Brothers and Sisters.

Today I also bought some cool new wrist weights.


They have nifty little thumb holes that make it so that they don't slide up and down, which can really hurt.  They had two sizes so I went with the smaller ones for now, they are just over 1 pound each.  I was surprised at how much I actually felt it when I was walking.  I didn't use them while doing the C25K (Couch to 5K) Week 1 Day 2 as I don't need any extra weight during the running portions right now!  But after that 30 minutes was over I continued on walking for another 47 minutes so that I could make it to 4 miles so I used them then.  Yes.. Me.. 4 miles.. It's crazy! I hate walking, but again I come back to the TV, it makes it so much easier to just focus and watch it.

Here is how it ended up...


The distance is in Kilometers and not Miles so I always have to convert it but I have already remembered what 2, 3 and 4 miles are so that is all I really need to know.

Tomorrow will be a rest day so that on Monday I can attempt C25K Week 1 Day 3.  But even more exciting than that... Andy and I only have 5 days of work left until we are off for 2 whole weeks! I am so excited to have 16 days off in a row... And that will be filled with tons of football watching, I am SO excited for the World Cup!!!

We were driving home at around 5:45pm and realized the sun was still out. Another sure sign that Spring is on the way.

I would be depressed because it also means warmer weather is on the way but here it doesn't really ever get that hot so it's all good!

Terrible fog on the way into work this morning. It didn't last log though.. was sunny by around 11am.

Spring is coming!

It started out really sunny this morning. Then it turned really dark and hailed for a little while and then sunny again. Then when we were out in our car at lunch it started hailing again. Ended sunny but still very cold.

Was very strange weather all day!

Was snowing really badly again on our way home tonight. I love the snow however most of the others at work hate it.

This didn't stay around very long though... by around 9pm it had turned to rain and everything was gone.

Shame.

Weather can be so odd.

The bottom clouds were the whitest puffiest clouds I have seen yet this year and they didn't seem to be moving very fast at all.

But then you can see the dark almost rain like clouds that were above me and they were moving super fast across the sky.

Very odd.

So... they got the weather right for once. It did started snowing at around noon today. It got very heavy and there was about an inch or so at 5:00pm. However it then turned warm and it started raining... Everything melted. Shame.

These pictures were taken when Andy and I drove to the Co-Op at lunch. I felt like crap all day and had a horrible sinus headache. I had to get medicine.

I am happy to say though that the medicine worked and by the time I got off work at 8:00pm I was feeling much better.

So 17 Days later the snow pile is still around but it is getting much smaller!

The forecast is calling for a little bit more snow tomorrow but I'll believe it when I see it.

By the way... Happy Groundhog's Day!! I used to love Groundhog's Day when I was in the US so I did not let it sway my fun today. I quoted the movie all day and announced that Phil saw his shadow as soon I found out. Yay! Six more weeks of winter. That makes me happy.

I then went home after work and watched Groundhog's Day... just as I have on every February 2nd for the last 15 or so years.

There has been some pretty heavy rain over the last few days. All of the snow is melted except for the large piles where parking lots were cleared off.

Snow is so beautiful but how ugly is this?

I wish it would snow again.

Even though it is bitterly cold out it must be warm enough for some of this snow to be melting as there is proof just outside our door.

High: 28°
Low: 21°
Forecast: Sunny
Sunrise: 8:25 AM
Sunset: 4:07 PM

Well you guys may be tired of all of the snow pictures that I post but I'm not! Today was the best snow we have had so far.

Went to bed last night with a tiny bit on the ground... would call it a dusting. And woke up at 6:45am to this! Our 10 minute drive to work took an hour and somehow I was there on time.


Now... other than the beautiful snow that was still falling (hard) the above photo was the highlight of my day. This semi-truck decided to stop by our office to ask for directions, bad mistake! As you can tell in the photo there is a bit of a hill and... he got stuck. A bunch of co-workers had to go out in their work clothes with shovels and cardboard to try to help the truck driver back out. It was so funny. It would look like he was going to get out and then he would stop spinning his tires and he would go back down. Ha!


Seriously not sure what these cars were doing except causing a pain for other people to get in and out. But seriously look at the size of the flakes in this photo... they were huge!


Andy and I left at 11:30am and you can tell here how much more it had snowed from 8:00am to 11:30am. The area around the antenna had not been cleared all the way off earlier but everything else was cleared. That is another few inches at least!


Now last but not least my crazy neighbors again. First they leave their clothes out in the pouring rain (to see proof click here) and now they are out in the snow. But really this photo is to show you how wet this snow is. Look how it is wrapped around the clothes line. That is amazing!

However we all know what is going to happen to this wet snow tonight when the temperature is below freezing... And it is calling for a little more snow overnight. Can only imagine how we are going to get into work tomorrow.

I took a lot more photos throughout the day so please feel free to take a look at them by clicking on the link below.

Merry Christmas everybody! No it didn't snow today but with the thick fog all around I just pretended like it was snow.

We had a lovely dinner over at Andy's parent's house and we finished it all off by playing some Wii with his dad. We then came home and I called my mom to wish her a Merry Christmas.

I hope everybody got exactly what they wanted and a fun time was had by all.

High: 37°
Low: 37°
Forecast: Mostly Cloudy, Late Sleet
Sunrise: 8:26 AM
Sunset: 3:55 PM

Today was our Christmas lunch at work where we get to exchange our Secret Santa gifts. You can rest assured that this was not Christian's only gift but if it was I am sure he would have been just as happy.

I give him a 9 out of 10. I had to mark him off one point because he was picking the thong out of his butt during this photo shoot.


These are all of my Christmas cards from co-workers. As you can see Laura M will do anything she can to get in a photo... But I will forgive her as she was my Secret Santa and she bought me a beautiful Christmas table runner that I had been admiring while we were out at Botany Bay back on November 21st. Apparently she gave Laura C the money for it and she bought it with me there with them on that day! See... anything can get by me as I had no idea something was up. I was going to take a photo of it today but I think it deserves it's own day so I will hold off.


It also snowed off and on all day and because it was showing no signs of stopping they let us go home early today. I was supposed to be there until 5:00pm so I was able to leave an hour early which was nice. The roads were pretty bad so the extra time helped before the major traffic started.

Oh and for those of you that have not noticed but to the right there is a link to my new 'Crafty Christine' blog. I started it as a way to try to keep track of all of my crafty projects that I have going on. It will not be updated every day but I will do my best to update on new projects that I start and complete.

I actually made a Scrapbook Calendar as my Secret Santa gift for my Supervisor. I have posted pictures of it on that blog if you would like to see it.

High: 36°
Low: 31°
Forecast: Snow
Sunrise: 8:25 AM
Sunset: 3:53 PM

I had to take Andy to work this morning as I did not have to be in until Noon.

Now to me this road does not look that bad and other than taking it a little bit slower and a bit more concentration nothing should cause any issues.

To work was not an issue, as you can see the oncoming traffic is moving at a steady pace.

But then why did it take me 52 minutes to make it one way from our place of work back to home which is only a little over six miles away?

UGH!

High: 35°
Low: 30°
Forecast: Light Snow
Sunrise: 8:25 AM
Sunset: 3:53 PM

We hit every kind of weather on our way to Liverpool today for the match. When we left Westhoughton it was snowing. Then we drove through some hail.


At one point it was even pouring down rain... Then it all of a sudden started snowing really heavy again.

However the strangest bit had to be when we got into Liverpool and there was blue sky and sun. It truly was weird as we only live a little over 20 miles away from Liverpool.

However in the top picture you can see that during the match it started raining and then hailing really bad. The poor players had to continue play and I know they had to be freezing... but then I thought about all of the money they get paid to be out there and I stopped feeling sorry for them.

High: 33°
Low: 30°
Forecast: Periods of Snow
Sunrise: 8:24 AM
Sunset: 3:52 PM

It started snowing this morning and they were the largest flakes I have ever seen! Was happy not to have to go anywhere and to admire the snow from inside our warm and cozy house.


I think the snow is beautiful and it does not bother me in the least. Unfortunately England does appear to come to a halt when it snows. They do not seem to have the infrastructure in place in order to handle poor weather and the traffic does get pretty bad.


But I can live with that... I say let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

And on another note I would like to say CONGRATULATIONS to Meg and Matt who today December 19th at 3:57am welcomed their little one into the World. Once she is back up and at 'em at home I am sure she will be blogging away about the experience and their new bundle of joy. Love to you guys! xx

High: 33°
Low: 32°
Forecast: Periods of Snow
Sunrise: 8:23 AM
Sunset: 3:51 PM

All day while I was at work it was sunny, then at around 6:30pm this thick fog rolled in and overtook everything. When I got off work at 8:00pm it was still really thick.

Doesn't it just look eerie?

High: 49°
Low: 30°
Forecast: Partly Sunny
Sunrise: 7:25 AM
Sunset: 4:22 PM

I am so starting to feel like a stalker at work! I snapped this photo of Georgia (left) and Imy (right) as they were looking outside at the downpour that had started around 5 minutes before.

I forgot my camera today (first time in one year and 34 days that has happened) so I had to take this picture with my iPhone.

It has rained a little bit each day for the last few days... I am loving it!

High: 50°
Low: 42°
Forecast: A Couple of Showers
Sunrise: 7:13 AM
Sunset: 4:33 PM

The canteen (cafeteria) at work is always the following:

1) Busy
2) Hot
3) Loud

For the above reasons Andy and I have started eating our lunch in the car. I love it!

It is quiet, we can chat or we can each do our own thing for 30 minutes. He usually plays something on his iTouch and I check my eMail, Facebook and text Meg (have I mentioned how much I love my iPhone?).

Our building is right next to a canal but unfortunately there is this rather steep hill and fence blocking us from having a nice place to walk on our lunch. Since we only get 30 minutes it wouldn't be worth the walk down the street to the next closest opening.

However one day I will make it over there so that I can share a picture.

High: 53°
Low: 51°
Forecast: Late Showers
Sunrise: 7:37 AM
Sunset: 6:13 PM

Here to stay and I would not want it any other way!

I love the rain and I love that it is getting colder outside. Was on a late at work tonight so in from 12:00 - 8:00pm but after that the weekend starts! YAY!!

High: 51°
Low: 48°
Forecast: Periods of Rain
Sunrise: 7:26 AM
Sunset: 6:27 PM