The agony and the ecstasy!

Is there ever such a thing as a good pain? Liesel argues that there is.... muscle siffness! However, pain is pain, and right now, all the major muscle groups in my body have united and taken a firm stance against me. It all started on Saturday morning when Liesel and I went to our first exercise class together in about 4 weeks. As expected, my limits were challenged, but I managed to endure the 50 minutes of muscular torture. Today, however, my stomach, shoulders, chest and hamstrings are continually reminding me how out of shape I am! It's amazing how we take these muscles for granted in our daily activities, until they are filled with lactic acid! So, if it is a good pain, I will stop whining, and soldier on... (until I get up from this chair).

Before inflicting that pain on myself, we had a great evening with friends who came over the night before. Liesel made a delicious meal (again) and then while the kids played and watched Monster's Inc, the adult's played some card games together. We all had so much fun that they only left around 11pm, keeping Nathan (and Liesel) up way past their bedtime, although neither of them complained :P

Last weekend's theme circled around Liesel and myself as we attended the 1.5 day marriage seminar. This weekend, it was definitely a father - son weekend, with Nathan and I spending some beautiful quality time together! After lunch on Saturday, I took Nath to the local library, for his regular date at the Brick Builder's Club, where he gets to spend an hour with Lego bricks to come up with anything his imagination dreams up! He had a great time there, and soon we headed back home to do some final preparations on his "Speed Bus".

This bus is his (our) first entry in our church's annual pinewood derby championships. He was so excited to be entering the competition with some of his good friends. So did the last minute touch ups and lubricated the wheels and axles with the graphite powder - and soon we were off to the championships! The bus weighed in at 4.9 oz (there is a 5oz maximum weight), and then placed with the other cars in his category. In the initial time trials, we were very happy with the performance, and his vehicle clocked a scale speed of 104mph (166km/h)! The competition was in a round robin format - so his car would race against all other cars in his age group. Out of the total of seven heats, the speed bus took first place every time!!! The judges then added up the scores from the various heats and found the final four to race for the trophy. I believe I was far more anxious than Nathan as the cars raced down the track for the final time. Nathan's red bus took first place by about a car's length and we were overjoyed (again, me more than Nathan...) So for our first ever entry into this type of competition, it was such an exhilarating feeling walking out with a first place trophy! Nathan was ecstatic, as not only did he get a first, but his friends received a third place in the open category and his class mate received a prize for one of the best looking cars.

Oh - how sweet the taste of victory!!

On Sunday morning, Nathan and I went to IHOP to celebrate his previous night's victory together over a pancake breakfast. We had a great time together, and once we had finsihed up - we headed to church, to meet up with Mom and Josh.

As the saying goes - all good thing's must come to an end, and after all the excitement from the last two days, Nathan was complaining of nausea today, a sure sign of a strep throat infection :( Josh has also been battling to shake a persistent cough and runny nose, so it seems the boys will be paying a visit to the pediatrician tomorrow :(

Weird weather.....

This week saw another fascinating change in the local weather patterns. On Tuesday through Thursday, our temperature were in the mid 50s (+/- 13C)! For the middle of February in North East Ohio, this is unheard of. To put it into perspective:
On Monday we had about 12 - 18 inches of snow on the ground, more on the sides of the driveway! By Friday, all the snow in our front and back yards, had vanished! As I type this blog on Sunday night, it had snowed most of the afternoon, and the temperature is hovering at the freezing mark. That's Cleveland for you!

Nothing terribly exciting happened this weekend as Liesel and I attended a marriage seminar hosted by our church on Friday evening and all day Saturday. On Sunday morning, Liesel and Nath went for a breakfast date, to IHOP (International House of Pancakes). They had a great time together and Nathan especially loved the food. When they returned, I took Nathan shopping for some aquarium supplies and some special graphite powder for his Pinewood Derby car. By the time we got home it was lunch time, and then nap time for Liesel and Josh - and Nathan and I watched Disney's Wall-E.

That evening, Liesel went to the church for a MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) Ladies Spa night! She thoroughly enjoyed herself. She had a facial, rejuvenated her hands by dipping them in paraffin wax, did her nails and relaxed in a candle-lit room filled with soothing symphonies! It was wonderful to see the church spoil the hard-working moms like that!!!

The Big Thaw

Yet again, our notorious North Eastern Ohio weather has something up its sleeves! On Thursday morning, we saw the mercury hit the -3 degree (-20C) mark as Liesel was driving to the gym. As she commented on Facebook, "... My water bottle froze while walking from my car into the gym...." But our weather is known for some amazing feats and this weekend's antics adds another to the list. From -3F to 48F (-20C to +9C) in less than 48 hours is simply profound. So this weekend we were experiencing a heatwave in Cleveland. These "warmer" temperatures are expected to hang around for a few days, which is very welcome. Of course, a Clevelander's definition of warm is very different to a South African's!

This Friday was our family fun night, and Liesel, Nath and I had some good laughs playing Phase 10 together.

On Saturday morning, the McCarthy family headed to the gym again. Liesel and I burned off some calories on the treadmills and bikes, while the boys had a great time playing in the child care area. Later that afternoon, Nathan and I headed to his friend's grandfather's house. It was time to choose a design for his pinewood derby car and cut shape out from the block of wood provided in the car. The goal is to have the fastest car at our church's annual Grand Prix, and his friend's grandfather has plenty of experience producing winning cars. We met up with the friend, and chose the design - a speedy bus! I cut out the shape using the jigsaw and then Nath helped out with the sanding. We also had to add some lead weight to it to bring it up to the allowable maximum of 5 ounces.

We had great fun turning a block of wood into an aerodynamic bus! We left around 4pm as I had to get Nathan home to bath and have dinner, as some friends were coming over for a games evening. Liesel, Tammy, Ron and myself had a great evening playing different card games, eating delicious food and wiping the tears away caused by our laughter!

On Sunday morning, Liesel was first to leave to take up her position in the church's nursery. The boys followed shortly afterwards. When we got home a bit later, Liesel's brother Craig called us and had a nice chat with Nathan! A little bit later, Luka, the bigger twin, woke up, so Craig brought this tiny precious child to the camera for us all to see! She was so beautiful and yet looked so fragile. Craig also gave us the good news that Luka's brother (who is still in high care at the hospital) is finally putting on some weight, much to our relief!

That afternoon, Liesel and Nath had a date and went to watch the movie, Gnomeo and Juliet together. When they returned, Nath and I painted his bus a bright red color, and are slowly getting it ready for the big race on February 26!

Here is the sunset that we we blessed with tonight - a beautiful ending to a great weekend!

I'll take that weekend...on the rocks!

This weekend was a real scorcher..... relatively speaking, of course! Both days saw temperatures climb above freezing for a few hours! We also got another couple of inches of snow to add to the growing base layer on Saturday afternoon to restore the balance again. Here is a photo of Nathan's "kiddie" table. Only a corner of the table is exposed and the two attached benches are buried well below the surface!

It was also a weekend of celebrations! On Sunday, it was the NFL Superbowl and Nathan's and my team, the Green Bay Packers were victorious. But that paled into insignificance when compared to our other reason to celebrate. Liesel's brother's wife, Marne, gave birth to the twins she was carrying for just short of 36 weeks. The little girl, Luka, weighed in at 2.2kg, while her brother, Zac only weighed 1.7kg. The good news is that Zac is breathing by himself, and Luka is already breastfeeding! We praise the Lord for the safe arrival of our niece and nephew! Our God is a God of miracles!

Saturday morning saw Liesel and Nathan going to the gym. I stayed at home with Josh, and just over an hour later, I heard the familiar sound of plastic grating against concrete. When I looked out the window, I saw Liesel and Nathan chipping away at the one inch thick layer of ice that had bonded to our driveway earlier this week. I decided to offer my assistance, but the snow shovel wasn't cutting it (literally). My trusty, four-pronged garden fork seemed to fare much better with the stubborn ice. Ninety minutes later and all the ice was removed from the driveway surface!

That afternoon - Nathan and I hit the slopes of our local sledding hill, and spent ninety minutes living out Newton's Law of Gravity. We had some great fun sliding on the icy layer. Nathan did graze his cheek after one wipeout had his face meeting the snow/ice rather rapidly :( But he soldiered on and we had some great rides!

Let's not forget about Family Fun Night, which we had on Friday evening. It was Nathan's choice and he chose to play Monopoly. He obviously chose that game for a reason because when the game ended, he was rolling in the cash - making him the winner!