This week was an unusually busy one for the McCarthy's in Cleveland! It all started on Monday when Liesel and Nathan had their first MOPS meeting and then a visit to the pediatrician! The doctor diagnosed a mild cough and prescribed some anti-biotics for Nathan. On Tuesday, after a lot of last minute rushing to and from places, I managed to get our trunks from South Africa cleared and loaded into the back of my Honda CR-V! Read the whole episode in my previous blog! On Wednesday, I went to an optometrist who fitted me for some new contact lenses! I should be getting those soon! Thursday, was Liesel's and Nathan's Apple Picking day with the playgroup from MOPS! You must go see the video clip (1 of 3 new ones) on http://mccarthys-videos.blogspot.com . I also received a brand new replacement HP laptop, because my old one had a faulty DVD drive, and they took too long to replace the part. To summarize, I complained, and they apologized and sent me a faster laptop to replace my one with a faulty drive! Not too shabby, Nige!
We woke to a cool and wet Saturday morning, very similar to last weekend! One big difference though, and that was Nathan! It is amazing what prayers, anti-biotics, and some long lost toys from South Africa, can do to perk a child up. He was totally the opposite to what he was last week! His laughter and squeals of glee warmed up our apartment again. Liesel took this opportunity to leave him in my capable hands to go and do some personal clothes shopping on her own, a feat that cannot be accomplished with Nathan ;-) Later on that day, Liesel called her folks in Botswana and was so happy to hear that they had finally received the DVD we made for them with video clips of Nathan! Then that evening I finally sat down and completed my SA Tax returns. I know it is WAY overdue, but I did get an extension, and I couldn't complete it until I could get my hands on a copy from my 2005 tax returns - which was in the trunks! So after putting that to bed, I followed at 1am ;-)
On Sunday we headed off to church where we are still enjoying our Sunday School class, followed by Church. Nathan was still filled with the joys of life, and even responded "Nay-thin" when someone at church asked him his name! I wish you could all share these moments of his with us as he grows up!
The wather is really starting to cool down now as we head into fall. The maximum temps are hovering between 15-18C (so Johannesburg is now hotter than us!) I was even mocked by my colleague (Brian) for wearing a jacket on what I thought was a really cold day last week! He replied that they are still sleeping with their windows open ... seriously! So looks like I am in for a fun time for the next 5 months!
Sorry that there are no photos for this week, but I have added 3 videos at http://mccarthys-videos.blogspot.com
Be sure to watch them and please leave comments! We love hearing from you guys, even if it just one sentence!
Sunday, September 24, 2006
Nathan and Liesel at the Apple farm
Go have a look at Nathan loving his Apple Farm outing with the MOPS group. Thanks Liesel for taking the video!!!
http://mccarthys-videos.blogspot.com
http://mccarthys-videos.blogspot.com
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
Christmas in September!!!
It is like Christmas for us in the McCarthy household! Our trunks arrived, all intact, after 6 days of shipping!
We decided that we would not ship our trunks immediately after leaving SA, as we wanted to be sure we had a place and were more settled before squeezing the extra 204kg's into our apartment. So last week we arranged for our trunks dropped off at CosmoTrans in SA and after a few e-mails back and forth - and payment with my SA credit card, they were on their way!
They arrived yesterday and I could finally go pick them up today!!! When I got to the shipping company, they asked if i had a money order, which I did not I did have cash and a credit card, but these were unacceptable - so I had to jump back into my CR-V and go looking for a bank. Found a bank and got the money order - then made my way back to them. They now hand me documents that I need to take to US Customs to get the clearance... sigh.... so off to US Customs I go - just down the road luckily. It was now 4:20 and they close at 4:30. The shipping company said that they would most likely tell me to come back tomorrow to clear the stuff... AAARRGGHH. However, I said many a prayer and God obviously heard them, because at the US Customs - the officer, took the papers and my green card and then came back about 5 minutes later and stamped everything He handed it back to me and told me to take these forms back to the shipping company and collect the trunks. So back in my car and off to the shippers again!!! I got there at 4:50 and they were closing at 5:00!! They were so surprised to see me, and said that's the fastest they have ever seen goods cleared at Customs! But my prayers worked and I got all my trunks in the back of the CR-V and headed home!!!!
It was fantastic opening them up and finding our old SA items. Nathan (who has been sick the last couple of days), forgot all about his cold and his eyes lit up and his smile brightened the room, when he saw his old toys!!!!
What was even more special is that my friends and family have put a few special things in the trunks for us. I found some belated birthday presents which included a Springbok Rugby blanket, towel, cap and Jersey!!!! Something I wanted so that I might meet other South Africans in Cleveland!! It was fantastic. Other special items included Horlicks, Five Roses tea, Milo, Wellingtons Sweet Chili Sauce and hundreds of chocolates!!!
If anyone needs to ship stuff from SA, I highly recommend CosmoTrans, who charge $4 per kilo for consignments of 100kg's! They were also very easy to deal with via e-mail.
Now its up to Liesel to find space in the apartment for all these new things - good luck to her
We decided that we would not ship our trunks immediately after leaving SA, as we wanted to be sure we had a place and were more settled before squeezing the extra 204kg's into our apartment. So last week we arranged for our trunks dropped off at CosmoTrans in SA and after a few e-mails back and forth - and payment with my SA credit card, they were on their way!
They arrived yesterday and I could finally go pick them up today!!! When I got to the shipping company, they asked if i had a money order, which I did not I did have cash and a credit card, but these were unacceptable - so I had to jump back into my CR-V and go looking for a bank. Found a bank and got the money order - then made my way back to them. They now hand me documents that I need to take to US Customs to get the clearance... sigh.... so off to US Customs I go - just down the road luckily. It was now 4:20 and they close at 4:30. The shipping company said that they would most likely tell me to come back tomorrow to clear the stuff... AAARRGGHH. However, I said many a prayer and God obviously heard them, because at the US Customs - the officer, took the papers and my green card and then came back about 5 minutes later and stamped everything He handed it back to me and told me to take these forms back to the shipping company and collect the trunks. So back in my car and off to the shippers again!!! I got there at 4:50 and they were closing at 5:00!! They were so surprised to see me, and said that's the fastest they have ever seen goods cleared at Customs! But my prayers worked and I got all my trunks in the back of the CR-V and headed home!!!!
It was fantastic opening them up and finding our old SA items. Nathan (who has been sick the last couple of days), forgot all about his cold and his eyes lit up and his smile brightened the room, when he saw his old toys!!!!
What was even more special is that my friends and family have put a few special things in the trunks for us. I found some belated birthday presents which included a Springbok Rugby blanket, towel, cap and Jersey!!!! Something I wanted so that I might meet other South Africans in Cleveland!! It was fantastic. Other special items included Horlicks, Five Roses tea, Milo, Wellingtons Sweet Chili Sauce and hundreds of chocolates!!!
If anyone needs to ship stuff from SA, I highly recommend CosmoTrans, who charge $4 per kilo for consignments of 100kg's! They were also very easy to deal with via e-mail.
Now its up to Liesel to find space in the apartment for all these new things - good luck to her
Sunday, September 17, 2006
Weekend at home with Nathan
Since last week, Nathan hasn't improved and has actually gotten worse :-( On Saturday, Liesel and I noticed that Nathan wasn't his normal happy self. He was a lot more lethargic than normal. Also, since the weather was overcast and drizzly, we decided to keep Nathan indoors. I took Nathan to the Westlake Library, where he could play with puzzles, trains and build towers with cardboard building blocks. We spent about 30 - 40 minutes there before heading home. At home, he started developing a fever and was becoming very irritable. We dosed him with some medicine to try and help and put him down for a nap. By supper time, he was still running a temperature, and so we gave him a luke warm bath and that seemed to help a bit. We put him to bed shortly afterwards. On Sunday he woke up without a temperature, ate most of his breakfast, and seemed to be on the mend. So we went to church in two separate cars so that Liesel could bring him back home right after the adult Bible Study class. Back at home, he seemed to deteriorate again and by mid afternoon was running a fever again. Again we gave him a lukewarm bath and medicine which seemed to help. Right now he is asleep but I can still here him coughing every now and then! Tomorrow Liesel is taking him to the pediatrician. Please pray for him that he recovers from whatever he has.
On the brighter side, the weather today was wonderful. During Liesel's and Nathan's afternoon nap, I got to wash my car. The weather forecasters say that today is the "last gasp" of summer. A cold front hits this week and our maximum temps will be falling to around 15C. On the left is a photo of the sun setting behind the apartments.
More good news is that our 7 trunks, weighing in at 204kg, have traveled halfway across the world and should be waiting at the airport for me tomorrow. I am quite excited, not at getting our old stuff again, but more so to see what my friends and family have put in the trunks for us! Liesel is looking forward to the Nescafe Classic coffee, to enjoy with her new kettle! Hopefully everything in those trunks is deemed to be legal so there won't be any issues with the customs officials!!! I can't wait to open my Birthday presents from family and friends!!!!
Sorry about the shorter, boring blog, but with a sick child, you don't get to do much!
Now to let you in on a secret..... below is a photo of why I actually emigrated to the USA ;-) Hopefully I will have a more interesting blog with better news next weekend!
On the brighter side, the weather today was wonderful. During Liesel's and Nathan's afternoon nap, I got to wash my car. The weather forecasters say that today is the "last gasp" of summer. A cold front hits this week and our maximum temps will be falling to around 15C. On the left is a photo of the sun setting behind the apartments.More good news is that our 7 trunks, weighing in at 204kg, have traveled halfway across the world and should be waiting at the airport for me tomorrow. I am quite excited, not at getting our old stuff again, but more so to see what my friends and family have put in the trunks for us! Liesel is looking forward to the Nescafe Classic coffee, to enjoy with her new kettle! Hopefully everything in those trunks is deemed to be legal so there won't be any issues with the customs officials!!! I can't wait to open my Birthday presents from family and friends!!!!
Sorry about the shorter, boring blog, but with a sick child, you don't get to do much!
Now to let you in on a secret..... below is a photo of why I actually emigrated to the USA ;-) Hopefully I will have a more interesting blog with better news next weekend!
Sunday, September 10, 2006
Got sled - now where's the snow?!?!
This weekend started out with us visiting a number of shops. The Fall weather is right around the corner and you can actually feel a little nip in the air now. Even driving to work now, the sun is only rising on may way in - which is after 7am. At this rate, what time will it be rising in the middle of winter? 10am?? Anyway, since the last time Nathan needed long pants was last winter for us, we have found that he has grown since (a good thing that means he is normal) and is lacking some long trousers. We also went to Costco where I almost gave in to my desires and purchased a flat panel LCD TV which was on sale. But I managed to fight off the urge.... this time. That afternoon while Liesel and Nathan were sleeping, I went across to the K-Mart next door to us. They are closing down and a Sears will be opening there in November, so everything has been marked down to ridiculous prices. I found a long sleeve fleecy sweater for $4.70 and another one for $7. But my best buy of all was a toboggan/sled. This is a piece of plastic that is specially molded to fit one or 2 people and carry them down a snow covered hill! I paid $6 for that! Can't wait to send my mom and Nathan down a hill in that in December. I will definitely be taking video of that so watch this space!
On Sunday, we had a hectic day lined up for us. Our Church has 2 services in the morning. There are also a number of adult "Sunday school" classes to choose from if you so wish. Some of the topics include, facts about the Catholic Church and how to convert them to Christianity, Christian apologetics, Living life to the full with the Holy Spirit, etc etc. Liesel and I chose Dynamics in a Christian Marriage. The class was very interesting (in a good way) and we discussed different personality types and how to deal with them. We also took a test to see what our personality type is. So I am looking forward to next week's class to find out! This was at 9:30 (during the 1st service) so afterwards we attended the 2nd service! All this time Nathan was on his best behavior in the nursery impressing all the ladies there with his counting skills! After the church service, we went through to the another room where they were having a lunch for any new comers to the church. At this lunch, the pastor stood up and told everyone what their church believes, how it was started and just some other interesting information. Liesel and I were very impressed and will be very happy there knowing that they are so similar to the Baptist church of South Africa! We finally got home after 4 hours of church at 1:15pm. We were also invited to a bible study group that meet every Sunday evening around the corner from us, but we turned them down because Liesel had strained her back picking up Nathan and needed to rest.
This week I went to play Volleyball on Wednesday evening at our Recreation Center, only to be told when I got there, that only 3 people signed up and that we would all be refunded. It was quite disappointing as I was looking forward to that. On the bright side tho, is that I have been asked to play beach volleyball again on Monday evening. The guy that has been asking me to play beach with him has also signed me up to play in an indoor league with him on Thursday nights, starting at the end of September!!!!
Finally, please pray for Nathan as he seems to have a little cough. During the day he is fine and filled with the joys of life, but in the evenings and in the morning when he wakes up, he has a nasty little cough. If you are a parent, you know how difficult it is to hear your child coughing and you cannot do much too help.
On Sunday, we had a hectic day lined up for us. Our Church has 2 services in the morning. There are also a number of adult "Sunday school" classes to choose from if you so wish. Some of the topics include, facts about the Catholic Church and how to convert them to Christianity, Christian apologetics, Living life to the full with the Holy Spirit, etc etc. Liesel and I chose Dynamics in a Christian Marriage. The class was very interesting (in a good way) and we discussed different personality types and how to deal with them. We also took a test to see what our personality type is. So I am looking forward to next week's class to find out! This was at 9:30 (during the 1st service) so afterwards we attended the 2nd service! All this time Nathan was on his best behavior in the nursery impressing all the ladies there with his counting skills! After the church service, we went through to the another room where they were having a lunch for any new comers to the church. At this lunch, the pastor stood up and told everyone what their church believes, how it was started and just some other interesting information. Liesel and I were very impressed and will be very happy there knowing that they are so similar to the Baptist church of South Africa! We finally got home after 4 hours of church at 1:15pm. We were also invited to a bible study group that meet every Sunday evening around the corner from us, but we turned them down because Liesel had strained her back picking up Nathan and needed to rest. This week I went to play Volleyball on Wednesday evening at our Recreation Center, only to be told when I got there, that only 3 people signed up and that we would all be refunded. It was quite disappointing as I was looking forward to that. On the bright side tho, is that I have been asked to play beach volleyball again on Monday evening. The guy that has been asking me to play beach with him has also signed me up to play in an indoor league with him on Thursday nights, starting at the end of September!!!!
Finally, please pray for Nathan as he seems to have a little cough. During the day he is fine and filled with the joys of life, but in the evenings and in the morning when he wakes up, he has a nasty little cough. If you are a parent, you know how difficult it is to hear your child coughing and you cannot do much too help.
Friday, September 08, 2006
Labor Day weekend in Detroit
I have set up a 2nd Blog site that will contain all my video clips from now on. This should reduce the clutter on this blog with less scrolling required. I have put up a video clip from our time in Detroit. It is Nathan playing with Liesel's cousins (who are a actually a lot closer to Nathan's age than Liesel's age!)
Have a look at my ALL NEW VIDEO BLOG
I have set up a 2nd Blog site that will contain all my video clips from now on. This should reduce the clutter on this blog with less scrolling required. I have put up a video clip from our time in Detroit. It is Nathan playing with Liesel's cousins (who are a actually a lot closer to Nathan's age than Liesel's age!)
Have a look at my ALL NEW VIDEO BLOG
Monday, September 04, 2006
We're ba-ack!!!
We got from Detroit this evening, after spending the last 3 days with Andreas and Jaqui, Liesel's uncle and aunt. We left on Saturday morning at 8am for the 3 hour trip. Since we know we will taking a few more long trips with Nathan this year, we decided to buy a Car DVD system for Nathan. It worked brilliantly! It comes with 2 screens. One screen I attached to the back of Liesel's headrest (in front of Nathan) with the velcro straps that are provided. The other screen contains the actual DVD player, and is connected to the other one with a cable. Liesel kept it close to her, so she could start the DVD when she wanted to and switch it off. When we were 2 hours into our journey, Liesel started the DVD, and Nathan was transfixed! This purchase so far has already had great returns!
We arrived there at just after 11am, and we found Andreas hard at work painting their house. Since the houses have a lot of wood, it needs a decent barrier to protect it from the elements. I volunteered to help, and got painting almost straight away. I am glad I was painting, because that gave Andreas and I a great opportunity to chat. While we were painting outside, Liesel was helping Jaqui inside with the children and preparing meals, tidying up etc.
That night I was so proud of Nathan. He is growing up so quickly :-( He was going to sleep with Jaqui and Andreas' 2 kids (2.5 and 5 year old) in their room. He would sleep in the toddler bed and the other kids would sleep in the bunk beds. Jaqui got her kids ready for bed and was sitting on the carpet reading them a bible story. Nathan came and joined them and sat quietly on my lap while Jaqui read and then prayed. I then tucked him into bed, and there were no protests whatsoever. We put the lights out and soon they were all fast asleep!
On Sunday, we went to church in the morning. For lunch I offered to take us all to the Rainforest Cafe. This is a themed restaurant, with a number of aquariums with amazing fish, and a whole lot of "robotic" wild animals. They have elephants that trumpet, move their heads and flap their ears. There are gorillas that beat their chest and a leopard in the tree that looks down at you and growls.
It has a great atmosphere, and the kids are always intrigued, sometimes frightened by the wild animals. The food was good too! The rest of the day was relaxful, no painting taking place on the Sabbath ;-)
On Monday, Andreas and I got back to painting. The ladies took the children to a park and later prepared a fantastic lunch! We had barbecued chicken breasts and Brats (Sausage that was pretty close to Boerewors). After Nathan's nap, and my shower, we had the car packed and headed back home. Nathan seemed to have bonded with his "cousins" in Detroit as he has been asking many times, "Where's Claudi (Claudia)? Karl? Jaqui? Bassi (his name for Andreas)?"
It would be great if we lived closer so that we could make visits like that more often! Now I am off to bed to get a good night's sleep as house painting can wear you out!
We arrived there at just after 11am, and we found Andreas hard at work painting their house. Since the houses have a lot of wood, it needs a decent barrier to protect it from the elements. I volunteered to help, and got painting almost straight away. I am glad I was painting, because that gave Andreas and I a great opportunity to chat. While we were painting outside, Liesel was helping Jaqui inside with the children and preparing meals, tidying up etc. That night I was so proud of Nathan. He is growing up so quickly :-( He was going to sleep with Jaqui and Andreas' 2 kids (2.5 and 5 year old) in their room. He would sleep in the toddler bed and the other kids would sleep in the bunk beds. Jaqui got her kids ready for bed and was sitting on the carpet reading them a bible story. Nathan came and joined them and sat quietly on my lap while Jaqui read and then prayed. I then tucked him into bed, and there were no protests whatsoever. We put the lights out and soon they were all fast asleep!
On Sunday, we went to church in the morning. For lunch I offered to take us all to the Rainforest Cafe. This is a themed restaurant, with a number of aquariums with amazing fish, and a whole lot of "robotic" wild animals. They have elephants that trumpet, move their heads and flap their ears. There are gorillas that beat their chest and a leopard in the tree that looks down at you and growls.
It has a great atmosphere, and the kids are always intrigued, sometimes frightened by the wild animals. The food was good too! The rest of the day was relaxful, no painting taking place on the Sabbath ;-)On Monday, Andreas and I got back to painting. The ladies took the children to a park and later prepared a fantastic lunch! We had barbecued chicken breasts and Brats (Sausage that was pretty close to Boerewors). After Nathan's nap, and my shower, we had the car packed and headed back home. Nathan seemed to have bonded with his "cousins" in Detroit as he has been asking many times, "Where's Claudi (Claudia)? Karl? Jaqui? Bassi (his name for Andreas)?"
It would be great if we lived closer so that we could make visits like that more often! Now I am off to bed to get a good night's sleep as house painting can wear you out!
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