The new addition to the family.......

Have I mentioned before that I love it here in the USA? You see, my personal laptop gave up the ghost recently (see last week's blog) and Liesel and I decided to replace it with a system that will last many years. So, last Friday (January 22), I placed an order online for the new iMac computer. In the spirit of saving money, I opted for the cheapest delivery available, which was FedEx 3 - 7 Days shipping. Not counting the Saturday and Sunday, I could expect my computer to be delivered anytime from Wednesday on. As most of you know, patience is not one of my stronger attributes! So imagine my joy, when I checked the tracking numbers of the shipment, and found that it was delivered on my front porch on Tuesday morning! I quickly grabbed my phone and called Liesel, who was not at home at the time, so she hurried back home to bring our newest addition to the family safely inside its new home! (If we were living in South Africa, the computer would have disappeared from the front porch within minutes after the delivery :P )



So this is the first ever blog of mine that was typed up on an Apple! As you can see, it is a beautiful piece of equipment and very capable to handle anything that I give it! It has such a neat interface and some of it's features take a while to get used to, but overall, I am very impressed with our new baby :)

Enough about the aluminum artwork already (for the moment)!

The McCarthy family had a great weekend, which started on Friday when we had some good friends of ours over for dinner. The Astifan's are moving down to Cincinnati soon, so we were trying to spend as much quality time with them and their boys (for Nathan) before they head south. We had some great fellowship and the boys always love playing together. There is normally a few tears shed when the boys have to part ways, and Friday night was no exception!

On Saturday morning - we bundled our boys into the car and headed to the Post Office. This time, they were open and we managed to successfully submit Josh's application for his US Passport. The lady behind the counter, almost apologetically, informed us that his passport would take anywhere between 4 - 6 weeks! We almost burst out laughing, because to renew Nathan's South African passport, we were informed that it would take 6 months to process! Speaking of Nathan's passport, our next stop was the local Police Station, as we had to have an officer verify Nathan's identity for the passport application. This didn't take too long, except that the police had never before verified someone's identity for a foreign passport before! So after a brief explanation, we got what we needed from them and then jumped back into the car and headed home! The temperature outside was 10F/-12C and the windchill made it feel even colder - so we were very happy to return to the warmth of our house! That evening, I gave Nathan a haircut before the boys bathed. Once Joshua had been put to bed, and Nathan was in his pajamas, Liesel chose to play board games for Family Fun Night, which is always a lot of fun. It's a good thing we don't ever play for money, because I have yet to win any game during these FFNs!

On Sunday morning, we went to church and enjoyed some great worship. Later that afternoon, we went for our first drive past Lake Erie this winter. With the temperatures again hovering around 14F/-10C, we were greeted by some impressive ice formations where the water used to be. Not all of the Lake is frozen over yet, but I expect the rest to freeze over soon (considering Winter does not start easing her grip on North East Ohio until late March!)

After taking a few photos (with Liesel & Josh refusing to leave the warmth of the car), Nathan and I climbed back in and all of us headed home to a delicious dinner! We decided to let Josh attempt to feed himself and gave him a bowl of apple sauce and a spoon. See the results in the photo below.... (Note the apple sauce on the window to the right!)

Liesel prepared a pot-roast that was so tender and juicy. Then for dessert, she served a Hot Chocolate Pudding straight from the oven! What a great way to end the weekend!



Nath is showing off his new haircut, and Josh is proudly sitting up by the fireplace, one of the many things he can now climb up!

Bad News/Good News

On Thursday, while chatting to a friend in South Africa on Facebook, my computer decided to issue me with the notorious Blue Screen of Death (BSOD). If you are fortunate enough, you can recover from the BSOD, but fortune was not on my side this time! It appears my hard drive has crashed. So, right now I have a Rescue Disk trying to salvage what it can from the corrupted disk. It has been running continuously for 27 hours and is only 50% complete! The joys of Windows.........

On the brighter side, I can now justifiably replace the sorry HP laptop with the system of my dreams, the Apple iMac :) Liesel and I both agreed that the replacement should be a quality system that will last for many years. So, the iMac has been ordered and expected to arrive this week! Next week's blog will be the first ever from an Apple!

As for this weekend, it was again uneventful. A few plans had been made during the week, but none of them panned out. Firstly, we had set aside Saturday morning to go and apply for Josh's US Passport at our local post office. Minor's have to apply in person with both parents, and so we turned up at the post office, only to find a notice attached to the door that informed us that they were closed for the day! Secondly, with the milder weather we had been having, I was hoping to finally take down the Christmas lights. But I wasn't able to find the sixty odd minutes to do that, as other chores demanded my time. Thirdly, Liesel and I had planned a quiet evening out at a restaurant on Sunday, when the babysitter called and had to cancel :(

However, we still had a great Saturday evening, when we went out to the local Mexican restaurant for Family Fun Night. The boys were so well behaved, and the food, as always, delicious! On Sunday morning, I was playing in the worship team at Church. The worship set was really meaningful, and the team played played masterfully, bringing glory to God!

While at church, the steady rainfall started falling outside. Coupled with the warmer temperatures we have been experiencing of late, all of the snow has finally succumbed, revealing green grass again. However, winter has not yet released its grip on North East Ohio, as this week the temperatures plummet to below freezing again with some fresh snow expected! At least Nathan was excited by this, as it means there is possibly some more sledding for him in the not to distant future!

Just thawing out!

In what seems to be a total contrast to the weather that I reported on last week, we have had a week of sunshine and above freezing temperatures! The warmer temperatures are causing the foot of snow covering the ground to make a hasty retreat, allowing patches of green grass to stake their claim in our yard again.

Friday evening was family fun night, with Nathan having the power to decide what the McCarthy family would be playing. He chose playing on the Wii Fit, and had us all running obstacle courses, racing Segways, throwing snowballs, navigating rivers in a bubble, all within the hour set aside for FFN.

On Saturday, we spent most of the day at home, playing, tidying, cleaning and catching up with our South African family. The boys and I spent some quality time playing in the basement. Later that afternoon, we all jumped into our cars and headed to a gas station to get our cars washed. Keeping your cars clean in winter is highly recommended, since the snow plows often drop corrosive chemicals onto the roads to prevent ice from forming. These chemicals can easily stick to your car, and if not removed, can cause your car to rust! So that was our excitement for the day.....

A thick layer of fog greeted us on Sunday morning, as we headed to Church. My friend, Ian, led the worship, and we thoroughly enjoyed his unique style and talented leading! Afterward, we headed home and Nathan started watching Madagascar 2 in the play room. It was so cute to see Joshua getting groovy, and shaking his little hips in time to the beat from the opening song, "I like to move it, move it!"

Having a TV in the play room is a new thing for the boys. In order to spare Liesel's and my sanity, we moved the TV from our bedroom to the playroom. This strategic move was based on a number of incidents, mostly involving Josh. Before the TV move, Josh would watch his baby dvd's in our living room. Unfortunately, he is also a very inquisitive boy, and has to liberate the contents of all the drawers and cupboards that he can find. Liesel and I were regularly picking up DVD's sans their cases, Wii controllers, remote controls, magazines and even candles after Hurricane Josh has passed through the living room. Then, the lower half of my TV was also plastered with little fingerprints and our indoor plant has regularly had its "groundcover" redistributed.... So Liesel and I have have reclaimed the living room, and made it an adult zone. The bedroom TV and living room DVD player now have their place in the playroom, where the boys can do their thing and not give their parents unnecessary gray hairs!

Sliding into 2010!

The first full week of 2010 has come and gone already. This meant a return to work for me and a return to school for Nathan. Of course, the first week is usually accompanied by snow, and this year was no exception. Our driveways (and yards) proudly showed off the 4 inches of additional snow, which my snow thrower readily chewed up and spat out. But snow brings with it the ability for us to partner with gravity to glide down gradients at giddy speeds!



So on Saturday morning, we headed to the stores to find us a second sled that would increase the adrenaline flowing through Nathan and my veins. Unfortunately, we found out that every decent sled had long been sold out and our excursion to 5 different stores proved futile. But we still had our original sled, so Nathan and I got dressed up in layers, and headed out to our favorite sledding hill! We had a blast taming the slopes, and after an hour of uninterrupted sledding - we headed home for lunch!



That evening, Liesel and I were invited to my company's annual holiday party. Our friends, who also have a 5 year old son, were gracious enough to look after Nathan and Joshua for us. Nathan was so excited to be spending a few hours with his friend Joshua! We dropped our boys off just after 5pm and headed to the restaurant for the function. The restaurant had reserved their lower section for our company and we were ushered downstairs after arriving. The appetizers were delicious! There were slithers of Ahi Tuna, surrounded by pepper on a thin savory wafer, half potatoes hollowed out and filled with cottage cheese, and meatballs covered in an addictive marinade..... and these were just the starters! A short while later, we were seated and our entrees arrived. Liesel and I had the Fillet Mignon that were cooked to perfection. Other entree options included a pasta dish, red snapper, and a couple of other dishes. For dessert, Liesel chose the New York Cheesecake, while I had the Chocolate Torte! Absolutely divine! We had a great evening, enjoying great food and great conversation! We left just after 9:30pm and we picked up our boys just after 10pm. By the time we got home and had the boys in bed, it was almost 11pm!

So, it was no surprise that both Nathan and Josh slept a little later. Liesel was on nursery duty at Church, so she had to be there before 9am. As for the boys, and myself, we headed to the second service.
After church, we had lunch, chatted with family back in South Africa, and Liesel and Josh had a valuable nap. That evening, our friends, Ron and Tammy came over for dinner. Liesel served up another delicious meal. Afterwards, there was much laughter as we battled over a couple of board games, all trying to claim that elusive victory! Good times!

Happy New Year!

First of all, I want to wish everyone a very happy New Year. May God smile upon you and your families, and may 2010 be your best year yet!

Secondly, I need to apologize for the late blog (not the best way to start off the first blog of a new decade!) It just so happened that I was watching, and enjoying the Lord of the Rings on TV last night. Those of you who have seen any of the trilogy before, know that these epic movies do tend to be quite a bit longer than average! So at around midnight, my eyes were heavy, and I headed off to bed, completely forgetting about the blog!

Well the good news is, here is the blog, albeit 12 hours later! (Thanks for the emails about the blog mom and Brian!)

It's been a good week, and also my last week at home, since I started work again today. On Thursday afternoon, Liesel and I arranged a babysitter for the boys and we went to go and watch the latest Hugh Grant movie, Did You Hear About the Morgans. It was enjoyable, and Hugh Grant rarely lets us down. Afterward, we headed home to relieve the babysitter and head into crazy hour, which involves feeding and bathing the boys, reading books, brushing teeth and finally putting them to bed for the las time that decade! Liesel headed to bed after a game of Scrabble with me and I stayed up to watch the New Year in along with millions of people in Times Square. At least I could do it from the warmth and comfort of my living room :)

Friday was a stay at home day, since most stores were closed. We had a lot of fun playing tennis in the basement with the high density foam tennis balls! Later on, Liesel served up a delicious Roast Lamb with yoghurt and mint sauce for New Year's Dinner. For dessert, we had delectable Creme Brulee! It was simply the best meal I had enjoyed this decade!!! She set a very high standard for the rest of our meals this year :) That evening, my choice for Family Fun Night was to play the new games on the Wii Fit Plus. Nothing like working up a sweat on the obstacle course, jumping over logs and dodging huge balls, before bedtime!

On Saturday, Liesel headed to the stores to take advantage of some early bird sales, while I played with the boys. Then later it was my turn to head out. When I came home later, I shoveled the driveway, and Natha joined me outside and attacked me with snowballs and played in the snow in his new snowsuit! This season, since the acquistion of the waterproof suit and mittens, he has loved being outdoors! And since it hasn't really stopped snowing since December 27th, he is in his elelment. His favorite thing to do is to slide down the slide of his play set, when it is covered in about 7 - 10 cm (3 - 4 inches) of snow!

On Sunday, an Arctic chill had settled into the area, but we headed to church anyway in the 10F (-12C) weather. Church was refreshing, and then we came home for lunch and play time, and nap time for some. I had the chnace to put my feet up and read some of the book that Liesel had given me for Christmas! It was a good last day of vacation for me. That evening, we were blessed with a beautiful sunset - a fitting end to a great time off!