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!