Life slowly getting back on track

This past week has been a chaotic one. If you remember from last week, Liesel's cousin arrived to spend a few days with us before jetting out of here on Saturday morning! So while I was going to work each day, Liesel, the boys, and Nicky would be heading out to some activity around Cleveland. These activities included apple picking, walks on the beach and exploring Amish country, two hours south of where we live! But Nicky thoroughly enjoyed herself, and loved taking photos, especially with her recently acquired 75-300mm zoom lens, that she ordered over the internet and received it the next day! Here are a couple of photos that she took ->




On Saturday morning, Liesel and Nathan took Nicky back to the airport and said their good-byes. On their way home, they stopped at Toys R Us, so that Nathan could spend his money that he got for his birthday and bought himself the Lego City Garbage Truck! The rest of morning, he was busy putting the truck together! He did a great job and did 99% of the entire truck without any assistance from me! I, on the other hand, had a crappy job (literally). Earlier, I had noticed that water was leaking out from the base of our guest toilet! After a little research on the internet, my diagnosis was that the wax seal at the base of the toilet was broken and had to be replaced. So I unbolted the toilet from the floor and lifted it off its base. Of course, Liesel saw this as a wonderful opportunity to give the area around the hole, a thorough cleaning, and promptly handed me a cleaning agent, and a cloth.... Good thing that I had my chemical resistant gloves on! This was not fun! Once the floor was sparking again, Nathan and I made a quick stop at Home Depot to get the replacement wax seal, and to buy a replacement bulb for Liesel's one turn signal that had given up its will to live. Once home, I quickly replaced the bulb in her car, and then fitted the new seal to the toilet and then struggled to place the throne back in its proper place over the hole! Who knew that this was so laborious!?!?! Next time, I'll have to get a friend over to help me...

I also removed the old, smelly and moldy caulk (silicone) from behind the kitchen sink, and laid down a new, much neater (and mildew resistant) silicone in its place! So after a hard day's work, I just wanted to lay back and relax in front of the TV, but we had one last thing left to do, bath the two boys. This turned out to be much more painful (literally for Nathan) than what we are used to. You see, Nathan was very constipated and was crying from the pain. So as parents, Liesel was going to deal with Nathan and I would bath Josh. I usually put Josh in the bath and wash him while I kneel on the floor next to the tub, but tonight I really needed to bath as well. So I quickly take off Josh's clothes and his diaper, and leave him on the floor while I go check on Liesel and Nathan. Not twenty seconds later, I find that Josh decided to wee on the carpet, and two of his favorite books! But wait, there's more! I take Josh to the bathroom and put him down there, while I run to his room to do some damage control, and when I get back in the bathroom, little Joshua had now pulled himself up to the toilet and was fishing some unflushed toilet paper out with his hands....... Eventually I get him and me into the bath and I wash him, and when its time to get out, Liesel who would normally take him from me, is still dealing with Nathan, so I had to get out with Josh, dry him and then proceed to get his pajamas on - all before I was even able to dry myself, let alone put some clothing on! FINALLY we were able to get both boys bathed and in bed! I was exhausted and headed to bed 2 hours earlier than normal for me! What a day!

I had to get up early on Sunday, as my team was playing for the services today. At church, I found out that our church was going to be doing a live video stream of its services via the internet today, and every week from now on! This was exciting for me, so I contacted my mom in South Africa and gave her instructions on how she would be able to see the live stream too! At the end of the service, I called her again, to find out how it was, and she said that it was lovely, and the sound was very clear, AND.... "why is your shirt untucked????". I could not believe, that my mother sitting in her home many thousands of miles away, could still tell me to tuck my shirt in! Anyway, everyone in the worship team had a good laugh at that! For more info about seeing our services streamed live, go to the end of the blog!

That afternoon, was a lot quieter than the day before, and Liesel got a nap in, and I got to lie down and watch some football. A little later, the weather was beautiful outside, with blue skies and warm temps - so we went for a brisk walk/jog around the block! Then it was dinner time and afterward Nathan helped me put together some drawers and some storage cubes for his room (which turned out a lot smaller than the picture on the box....) Finally, we had an incident-free bath time and soon the boys were in dreamland and Liesel and I were in our favorite seats watching the Amazing Race!

For those of you wanting to tune in to our church services live: go to http://www.providencechurch.us and click on the Live Video Stream icon in the bottom left of the home page. Bear in mind, that our service times are 9:00am and 10:30am ET (4:00pm and 5:30pm South African time) - Sundays only. Next Sunday, I will be playing again, as will the Providence Orchestra, and Choir - performing a Chris Tomlin song! Really looking forward to that!

Nathan's fifth birthday!

I have finally found an opportunity to catch my breath and relax on my favorite couch! From Friday evening, it seems like somebody hit fast forward and only now has life resumed normal speed...

Saturday was Nathan's fifth birthday! Liesel and I were up before him which gave us the opportunity to get his presents out of their hiding place and into the open (and out of Josh's reach). When Nathan finally surfaced, we took him downstairs to find his gifts, which he did not hesitate to start the unwrapping process! He was thoroughly spoiled and had a grin that went from ear to ear the whole morning. His grandparents both spoiled him with Lego, which perfectly complemented the Lego Helicopter Transporter truck that Liesel and I gave him. He got other cars, books, a sweater, building blocks sets (non-Lego) and a radio controlled indoor helicopter! And this was all before 9am! At 10am we all climbed into the car and headed to a local Walmart to get some last minute party goodies. It was also a Lego day there, so Nathan could go and build a Lego pumpkin to take home with him. We got home at lunch time and fed the family, before Liesel and I did the final preparations for Nathan's party which started at 2pm! I decorated the basement for him, as this is where most of the games would be - considering the outside temperature was hovering around 40F (5C!) Liesel baked Nathan a beautiful train cake which was ready for the party!

Two o' clock signals the arrival of the first of Nathan's friends coming for the party. I escorted them to the basement and kicked off a game of soccer while we waited for everyone else to arrive. After burning about 200 calories with the soccer game, all the guests had arrived and the games started. I had about 7 - 8 games lined up and the kids seemed to love them all - each other receiving a prize at some point throughout the festivities. This too, was a calorie burning exercise, and after the games I reckon I had lost of couple of pounds! It was then time to light the candles on the cake, and sing to Nath, followed by the devouring of the train cake! Finally it was time to open the presents and Nath was again spoiled by his friends! Shortly afterwards, the parents arrived to fetch their children and the house became eerily quiet (relatively speaking of course).

As it turned out, it was Nathan's choice for family fun night that night and he chose to go have dinner at Max and Erma's (much to Liesel's delight!) When we came back it was time to put Josh to bed, and then Nathan and I built his Lego Helicopter Transporter truck together (This is one of the many benefits of being a father of a boy who loves Lego).

On Sunday morning, Nathan and I built some more Lego (a police car and a tow truck) before it was time for Church. After church we came home and had lunch, and then the tidying up and cleaning session got underway. The furniture that was rearranged for Saturday's party was put back in their original positions, carpets were vacuumed, and floors were washed. It always nice to have a clean house!

That evening, Liesel and Nathan headed out off to the airport, because her cousin from East London (South Africa) was coming to stay with us for the week. She arrived just before Josh went to bed! We really love having family stay with us, and look forward to a fun filled week with Nicki! Hopefully it won't be as hectic as the last 48 hours!

Fall fun and then not-so-fun

Fall has definitely secured its place here in North East Ohio! Temperatures have dropped, and the leaves are a kaleidoscope of beautiful colors. On Saturday, Nathan's school had their annual Fall Fun Festival. We arrived just after 10am, and headed inside. The teachers each manned a different activity and had the kids lining up to participate! Nath had a great time and collected many prizes.

Afterwards, I took Joshua home to have lunch while Liesel and Nathan went shopping. In the afternoon, Nathan was playing with his train set, and Josh found this quiteamusing. So, of course, Nathan starts to exaggerate everything, and this just cracked Josh up! Hearing him laughing that hard at his brother was so special!



That evening was Liesel's turn to decide the family fun night activity. She decided on a pleasant stroll/ride around the neighborhood. She pushed Josh in his stroller, while Nathan and I followed on our bikes. The evening was perfect, not too cold, with the sun shining and no breeze to speak of. An evening this nice needed to have something extra special to end it, so we headed to Mitchell's ice cream for our favorite dessert! FUN DAY!

On Sunday, Liesel had to leave early and go to church as she was on duty in the nursery for both services. I had the boys, and when Josh didn't settle down for his first nap until 10am, it meant we weren't going to be making the 10:30 service. That afternoon, I pulled out my mower and ventured out in the 50 degree (10C) weather to cut my grass. Mowing in itself is not enjoyable, so think how much fun I had, mowing in the cold weather. To make matters worse, the ground is so saturated from the recent rains, that it felt like I was mowing a swamp! NOT SO FUN!
At 4pm, Nathan headed out to a classmates birthday party, and we picked him up again at 6pm. Then it was bath time for the boys followed soon by bed time. Finally some time to put our feet up and relax.......



(Most of this blog was done on my iPhone, while watching the Amazing Race. I love my phone!)

A-maize-ing (but flipping cold) day

Wow- Mother nature certainly sticks to her timetable and dished up a huge serving of Autumn weather this past week! Lower temperatures and increased clouds played the starring role for most of the week! But that didn't stop the McCarthy's!!

The weekend didn't take long to start, as we had friends over for dinner on Friday night. Our friends have 2 boys around Nathan's age and they all get along so well together! In fact, it was quite a sight to see, all three boys burst into tears, after it was announced that they are going home. They had so much fun playing Wii and with the Lego, that the thought of parting ways was too devastating for them! But I have to admit, everyone, including the dads, had a lot of fun, especially playing on the Wii! So the tears were justified!

Saturday was definitely the day of rest for us! Liesel even had the rare opportunity to sleep in until 8am! After Liesel got up and ready she headed out to Lenscrafters to have her eyes tested, and came home 2 hours later. That afternoon - Liesel and I managed to sneak in a nap, and then once everyone was awake, shepherded the boys into the car to go pick up the new glasses, and get some essential shopping done. Once we got back I fired up my grill and we had one of the tastiest, juiciest chicken breasts ever!

We put Josh to bed after bathing him, and then went downstairs for our weekly family fun night! It was my choice and I chose board games. I was so impressed with the way Nathan played Last word. We modified the rules slightly, but the premise was still the same - name as many things you can think of related to the topic on the card. Nathan was throwing in answers (all correct) left, right and center! He gave me and Liesel and good run for our money!

Then came Sunday..... Due to the day's hectic schedule, we decided to give church a skip so we could take a leisurely drive to a well known pumpkin farm about an hour south of us! This farm has so many different activities for young and old. Unfortunately - its all outside, and today just happened to be the coldest day of the season with temps in the lower 50s (F or 10C). Josh and Nathan both loved playing in the "corn pit", basically a sandpit, but filled with corn kernels instead of sand! But then we decided to take Josh out after he discovered that he can put these kernels into his mouth.....

Nathan had loads of fun in the kid's maze, spud slinger (slingshot for potatoes), 4-wheel pedal cars, the obstacle course and slides, and the wagon rides. We all also jumped aboard their trailer - for a hay ride through the fields and woods! Finally to end the excursion, we went and picked out some pumpkins for our Fall decorations! Nathan did a great job pulling the wagon with the 26 pound pumpkin on it! Once we had the pumpkins packed in the car - we buckled up and drove an hour home....

Later that afternoon, our babysitter came and Liesel and I headed out on a double date with some good friends. We went to a restaurant and had a wonderful time, relaxing, chatting and enjoying our food. Something we don't get to do very often :)