Think of Durban in January during a heatwave!!

That is what is was like here this weekend. The heat index today was 36C and even right now as I write this blog at 10pm, its 28C outside! Praise God for central air-conditioning!!! I have said to Liesel that sometimes when I leave for work in the mornings, leaving the air-conditioned apartment and going into the warm, humid summer air, reminds me of being at the coast! I suppose I should enjoy it while it lasts!!!! The days are already getting shorter as the sunsets start creeping earlier and earlier!

It was a pretty "run of the mill" weekend again. On Saturday we went shopping for some work trousers for myself. I have found the perfect make, one that is wrinkle-resistant (no ironing!!!) and has Stain-Defender. They were on sale so it was a good time to buy. For those of you who don't know the USA too well, you can basically find anything on sale at any time, just keep an eye on the adverts. Its unlike SA where there are a few sales events throughout the year. Here, if one shop is not having a sale, then another is.... you gotta love it, becuase the consumer is the one who wins!
We also went to a grand opening sale of a electronics store (similar to Stax) in our area. There I was tempted to buy a flat panel TV but then common sense prevailed ;) however I did pick out my Birthday present. We decided to get it today because of the grand opening sale, and we saved $150 off the regular price. It is a JVC Digital video camera, that uses a 20GB internal hard drive instead of a video tape! That means I can record up to 4.5 hours of DVD quality movies, or if I reduce the resolution I can record up to 27 hours! Then I download it to my laptop and I can make my own DVD's to share with my family! Slightly more useful than a 32 inch LCD TV ;)

The rest of the day we spent at the playground and then into the pool to cool off! We also got a chance to chat to Liesel's parents using Skype, as well as my sister! It is good to hear South African accents, and really makes our weekend!

On Sunday - headed off to Church. Afterwards we stopped at the grocery store to buy a few necessities, like chocolate milk! We also got a Sunday newspaper, becuase we were told that if we want to save money, the sunday papers are loaded with stacks of coupons that you can use when doing your next grocery shopping. You should have seen Liesel's eyes light up as she opened the paper and found the coupons. It was like an early Christmas for her. Using coupons here in the USA is very common practice unlike SA where it is not really practised. But we could easily save around $15 to $20 on a grocery shop if we used the coupons! So buying Sunday papers will become a McCarthy family tradition! That afternoon we got to speak to my sister again and Liesel called her folks again. My mom also gave us a call, so it really was a family contact weekend! Of course, we also headed to the pool again to cool off in the 36C weather! And that's our weekend, and our 4 month anniversary of being US residents!

Finally, I wanted to let you know that I have been asked to substitute for someone in a 4 man beach volleyball league tomorrow evening! There is a guy I go to gym with and he knows I love volleyball, and he asked if i was available to play for his team for a couple of weeks!! Of course I said "Heck, YES!!" Really looking forward to that, even though the temperature at 6pm tomorrow is expected to be at 34C and that is NOT taking the heat index into account........

News just in!!!!!!

Apologies for not having the blog updated by Monday morning (SA time) but there was a very good reason to delaying it!

Another answer to prayer!!! We have just found out that my mother has got herself a 10 year Visa for the USA!!!! That is a huge relief for her and for us obviously! So now we can begin making final arrangements for her Christmas holiday with us in Cleveland!!! We are planning to make another "White Christmas's are best" convert ;-)


This weekend was a very average weekend for the McCarthy's in Cleveland. Firstly, we found Nathan had either crawled or fallen out of bed so when Liesel went into his room, he was fast asleep on the floor using a blanket as a pillow... poor little guy! It was raining on Saturday - so we drove to a mall that we had never been to before. Didn't buy anything, but just browsed. Nathan loved looking at the pet store where they had puppies on display in the window. He was pointing, laughing and saying "woof-woof" to them. This kept him busy for about 15 minutes before we had to take him away - to which of course he protested! That afternoon I decided to cut his hair. I used hair clippers on him for the first time and he was surprisingly OK with that. To reward him we gave him "Choccies" which he just loves (pa se kind). It's good to know that you can always bribe your son with something ;-) That evening we watched North Country (Charlize Theron) on DVD. In the USA, you can order DVD's online and they are mailed to you. I am busy trying this out as a free trial and I must say I enjoy the convenience. You can keep the DVD's as long as you like, and then once you post it back in their prepaid envelopes, they send you the next DVD from the list you made on the internet. I still have Firewall (Harrison Ford) to watch, which I will save for next weekend. It's a fantastic concept, but one of those businesses that would never work in SA.........

On Sunday - the weather was good and we headed off to church. It was a good sermon and they started the message by playing a scene from Star Wars on their screens. I know a lot of South Africans who would appreciate a church that would does that ;-)
After lunch, I decided to give my self and strenuous workout so I decided to wash both our SUV's. It took me an hour and I was rushing to make it back in time to chat to my sister thanks to Skype. I could also show her Nathan's haircut and chat to Caleb using my webcam! It is wonderful having these technologies, which help make family seem a bit closer than 10000 miles away. That afternoon we went for a swim to bring our pretty average weekend to a close!

1st night in a bed, Bedside tables, Blazing weather and Beaches

From last week's post, you would have seen the bed we bought for Nathan. On Friday night, Nathan was "reading" some of his books on the bed, so I thought it would be a good time to see how well he adapts to the new bed! I tucked him in to his new bed and kissed him goodnight, and he waved bye bye as I left the room, so it looked good. About 45 min later I went to check on my boy, and as I opened the door, I obviously started him. My poor child had just about fallen asleep on the FLOOR! He was lying on some of his blankets and as I opened the door, he stood up with his blanket and big sad eyes as if to say "Please put me in my normal bed". I immediately put him back into his campcot, and he had a good night's sleep! I must say I felt rather bad!

On Saturday morning, we headed back to Babies R Us to complete Nath's bedroom set. We bought him a bedside table, a lamp that matches his bed linen, with cars, trains and airplanes on it. We also got him his own table set with 2 chairs, where we can sit and draw or play with toys as he grows up! All these furniture items come in compact kits and need assembling. I should get a job as a carpenter as I have put together all kinds of furniture now. As long as it comes with pre-drilled holes, easy to follow instructions and all necessary nuts and bolts and I should be fine! Oh, did I mention that Nathan was very keen to help with his new furniture ;-)

That afternoon it was hot and we headed down to Huntington Beach. Nath seems to love playing in the sand and trying to find new ways to transport sand home using his hair!


I am pleased to announce that Nathan did sleep on his bed for the first time on Saturday night - without incident!

On Sunday we had a nice chat to my mom in the morning - she was at my sister's house and thanks to their DSL and Skype, we had a good long chat. We went to Providence Church (same one as last week) and enjoyed the service. It calls itself an Evangelical Free church, but we are unsure what that means. Is it like sugar-free? All we know is that it is a bible based church and their doctrine is sound. Feel free to add a comment to help me understand what Evangelical Free means! Sunday afternoon saw us heading back to the lake, but we didn't spend too long there because it was so busy, and became hazardous to enter the water, as hundreds of teens were throwing footballs, baseballs, volleyballs, beachballs etc. What I find amusing (confusing?) is that the lifeguards allow the missile launching activities, but when someone enters the water with an inflatable object like a tube, they are whistled at and asked to leave the water ?!?!? Now you tell me, what's do you think is more dangerous?!?!

We left the beach and headed to our complex pool which was far more civil and enjoyable!!

The temperature outside today : 94F or 34C! Tomorrow (Monday) is expected to be hotter - around 37-38C! Praise the Lord for air conditioning!

Son of the Beach ;-)

As you can see we have had another weekend of fantastic weather. We seemed to have done so much this weekend, that I am looking forward to going to work tomorrow so that I can rest ;-)

On Saturday morning, we headed to the Cleveland Children's Museum. This is not a museum as such, more like an educational experience for kids of all ages. Nathan loved the Nursery Rhyme room where kids can act out Nursery rhymes with props. For example, there is London Bridge (is falling down) with a stack of foam bricks. They encourage children to build up a bridge with these foam bricks and then make it fall down. Other favorites there included, Mary, Mary's garden, One two buckle my shoe, and Humpty Dumpty!

There was also a farmyard room which had all the farm animals (stuffed toys), plastic apples stuck to a picture of a tree with velcro, that they can pick, and a grain silo. Other exhibits in the museum included an almost lifesize bus, and a water table where children are encouraged to play with and change the flow of water. Needless to say, Nathan had FUN!

That afternoon the weather was beautiful so we headed down to the beach. The water was lovely and warm, and Nathan absolutely loved playing at the edge of the water. At first we put him above the water line, but he edged closer and closer to the water until his bum was in the water. The little waves that Lake Erie has were breaking around his waist and every now and then it would splash up into his face! But he didn't mind!! He was too busy putting the beach sand into his hair! While he was playing on the water's edge, Lee and I took turns to go have a decent swim in Lake Erie!

On Sunday, We decided to try another church in our area. This church actually hosts a MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) group, and we wanted to see if there were other young families that Liesel could meet up with one day. It was a good service with some excellent praise and worship. When that ended. we took a drive to Babies R Us and bought Nathan his first bed!! He is quickly growing too big for his camp cot, so we wanted to get him his own bed. It came unassembled, so I spent most of the afternoon (with a little help from Nath) putting it all together. It's gonna be interesting the first couple of nights when we start putting him in that bed!!! There are no high sides that will keep him from climbing out - so it will be an learning experience for both of us! At tea time, we headed back to the lake for 45 minutes. And thus ended our weekend!!!!! Now to get some rest ;-)

Nathan taking after his dada!!!

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4th of July SPECIAL!!!

Yeeeehaaaaaaaaa! Today was our first celebration of American Independence as official US Residents! And I have also officially broken my record for the period that I have been in the USA, which previously was 3 months! Liesel, however, still has a way to go to break her record!

It was a warm overcast and humid day in Cleveland. We thought that it would be a good day to explore the City of Cleveland. We drove downtown and to the lake front area of Cleveland. This area houses the Cleveland Brown's Football stadium, The Great Lake Science Center, The Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame, the USS Cod Submarine museum, and the Burke Lakeside airport. Here are some pics from today!

Fitness, Freebies and Fireworks

Ag, ja, man, the time has come to face the facts. The McCarthy family in the USA are unfit and we have decided to do something about it! This week Liesel, myself and even Nathan have joined a gym. Well, Nathan and Liesel have signed up at My Gym . It's a place that has different programs for different age groups, much like Mom's and Tot's in South Africa. So Nathan now will be going to gym once a week! Liesel has found a gym that she liked and which is pretty reasonable. She has her first workout tomorrow! And finally, I had to give in to peer pressure ;-) and I joined the fitness center at our work. I thought that if its at work then I would work out more regularly, since I don't have to get up and go to another place after work! And they provide you with towels, soap, shampoo and conditioner, so I only have to take my workout clothes with me and they provide the rest! I went for my fitness evaluation where they had me walking on a treadmill, seeing how many crunches I can do in a minute, how many bench presses I can do of 80lbs, leg extensions and then finally a flexibility test. I think I passed and they will give me the results on Wednesday. So hopefully in a couple of month's time, my photographs will have fewer double chins in them........ Time will tell.............

On Saturday, we travelled about an hour south to an Outlet mall. This mall has a variety of factory outlets from brand name labels such as Reebok, Adidas, Levi's, Jockey and Gap. Liesel and myself now obviously need some workout clothes for our new hobby! As we turned into the mall complex, Liesel pointed out a real ife Amish person to me. There are Armish communties in the area and one family had set up a stall selling hand crafted baskets and home baked goods in the parking lot of a MacDonald's. We didn't stop there, but it was interesting to see! One day we will venture deeper into Armish country to see how they live.

At the mall, our first stop was the Reebok factory outlet. Now the prices are already cheaper than in other shops, but they had a sale with another 40% off their prices. But we also had a coupon that entitled us to an extra 20% off, so that means 60% off! And now for the freebie part - when we moved into our apartment in Cleveland, a website offered people $100 if their name was mentioned on the lease as the referrer. Well I did just that, and sometime last week, a debit card arrived in the post with a $100 balance! Our Reebok total came to $93 (after the 60% discount) so it did not cost us a cent. The remainder of the debit card paid for my lunch meal as well! So not a bad deal then!!!

As you may know - that the 4th of July is just around the corner! This holiday is second only to Christmas here, and Americans know how to celebrate. Last night, the shopping complex adjacent to usput on their fireworks display to celebrate liberty! I only caught the last 5 minutes of it, but even then, WOW! The Americans always have to be bigger and better, and they didn't disappoint! There will be other fireworks displays on Tuesday, which hopefully we will be able to see from our place. Since Nathan goes to bed around 7:30pm and it only gets dark here after 9pm, we didn't think that we could keep the little guy awake for an extra 3 hours! I head off to work tomorrow, but then am off on Tuesday for the public holiday! So check back on Wednesday and I may have another update for you.