Another mild weekend - still no sign of Winter!

The weekend started out like any other, with Liesel's delicious pancakes for breakfast. After morning jolt of calories, Liesel and I put on our interior decorator hats and headed up to Josh's room to brighten it up with some wall art! We had purchased some adhesive stickers that would brighten up Josh's room with some of his favorite things in life... animals! Have a look at his newly decorated room.

 
Earlier this week, I received a phone call from my local Nissan dealer. They mentioned that I had won some kind of lottery and that I should go and see them before February 29. I was somewhat skeptical, but nevertheless, I headed down to the showroom later that morning, with Nathan in tow. When we arrived, the salesman explained that Nissan was willing to take care of my last six remaining payments, waive a bunch of other costs, and basically put me in a brand new, upgraded model for about the same amount as what I am currently paying! Little did I know that in an hour's time, I would be leaving my 3 year old car there and driving home in a brand new model with some really cool features! Nathan's favorite feature is the built-in rear back-up camera that shows you what is directly behind the car on a screen on the center console! I love the bluetooth handsfree phone system, that takes your voice commands such as "Call Liesel McCarthy". There is also the upgraded radio that can read all the songs on your iPod and play your favorite playlists! So now I have a brand new car in my favorite color parked in my garage!

On Sunday, we went to Church as usual (in the new car). Once we returned home, Liesel and I sat down at the computer and planned for and then purchased our air tickets to South Africa for our vacation. Now the vacation is set in stone, and the long wait begins as we look forward to spending time with our South African family and friends!

Passport, Practice, a little puking, padding and some Penguins!

So as most of you know last weekend,  a nasty stomach bug made it around my family, not allowing anyone to escape. This was why there was no blog for the faithful few on Monday morning. The good news is that we have all made a full recovery, and I returned to work on Thursday.

On Saturday morning, we stopped at the library for our regular book and DVD exchange, which the boys love! Liesel took Nathan to find his new books, while Josh and I solved puzzles, played with puppets and read some books together. Right afterward, we went across the road to the Post Office, as we had an appointment to apply for Nathan's US Passport. Hopefully, within a few weeks, he will also have a nice, shiny blue passport to travel on!
I left Liesel and the boys and headed to a Saturday band practice. On the evening of March 10, my band, the Remnant, will be playing worship songs at Bay Presbyterian Church in Bay Village. Those of you living in the area are invited to come and join us! As March 10, is just around the corner, our practices are becoming more important as we polish up our songs for the big night!

On Sunday morning, Liesel woke up to find that Josh had thrown up sometime during the night, all over his bedding, blankets and pajamas :( She immediately kicked into high gear, starting the cleaning process. I was able to take both boys to Church, while Liesel stayed at home and finished up the cleaning (even cleaning a carpet!) After a great church service, I took the boys to our local sporting superstore, so that my Football-mad son, Nath, could try on some football helmets. We had a good guys morning out wandering through the sports store, trying on different football pads and helmets!

To end off the weekend, we had borrowed "Mr Popper's Penguins" from the library, and Nathan, Josh and I settled down to watch it! We all thoroughly enjoyed it, especially Josh with his deep love for animals! Great end to a good weekend!

All work and no play....

After putting in a 65 hour work week, the weekend wasn't much different! I started off the week in a very chilly Grand Rapids, Michigan, which was buried beneath at least 6 inches of snow! After a successful all day workshop with a customer, I got home around 9:30pm on Monday night. Tuesday was crazy, which was followed by 2 full days of meetings in our headquarters that was attended by a number of Googlers. Prior to their arrival, my company's owner revealed a brand new games room for us to make use of in our breaks! This room includes table-tennis, a pool table, shuffle board, a bowling lane, arcade games, a professional golf simulator, basketball hoops game, a motorbike game, air hockey and more!

Not too shabby! The rest of the work week was still hectic, and did not present me with any opportunities to visit our new games room :(
When the weekend finally arrived, there was not too much time to just lie back and relax! Liesel and I went out to dinner on Friday night, but after a quick meal, I dragged her around to about 4 different stores in search of a new TV for us. Unfortunately, there was nothing that I saw that met my needs. On Saturday, Nathan and I did a bit of shopping, and then again took up the search for that elusive TV. That TV did not present itself, but we did stop and enjoy a delicious frozen yogurt together! That evening, Nathan decided that we needed to go eat out at Applebee's for his Family Fun Night.

Sunday was another stunning and unusually warm February day with temperatures flirting with the lower 40's (6C). We went to church and were treated to another professional production of Kidstuf. This is held once a month for the children, and it contains a number of skits centering around the month's virtue, which currently is honor. The productions are always well rehearsed, well presented, and include a full set, a variety of props, sing worship songs, and some special time set aside for the "family huddle" when parents sit with their children to discuss the skits and answer some preset questions about the virtue, We are really enjoying our new church, and the importance they place on the children's ministries!
Finally, the day ended with the most watched television event in the USA, the Superbowl! Naturally Nathan and I were glued to the TV, and Liesel brought our dinner to us in the living room! Later on, Liesel made some homemade doughnuts and also delivered them to the living room for us to enjoy! What a great way to end the weekend!!

No news is good news

Sorry, but there will be no blog today, due to my crazy work schedule. I am currently in Grand Rapids, MI for an all day customer meeting on Monday. Unfortunately my overwhelming workload takes precedence over a personal blog!
Don't worry,  you didn't miss much this weekend!
Hopefully I'll have a more comprehensive blog for you next week!

Successful weekend!

The past 72 hours that made up the weekend consisted of new explorations, new experiences and some successes, especially for Josh. It all started on Friday, when Liesel took the boys to the brand new Cleveland Aquarium, which was opening on Saturday. As a family pass holder, we were invited to a special preview day, one day before the public are allowed access to the venue! This worked out perfectly for Liesel and the boys, since Nathan's school had been given the Friday off! So while I worked, the explored this new underwater realm! They spent most of the morning there, examining hermit crabs, gazing at seahorses and starfish, carefully observing sharks, and wandering through glass tunnels, with sting rays lazily cruising overhead and alongside you simultaneously! That was a really fun, and SUCCESSFUL outing for Liesel and the boys!

We had another snowstorm deliver another 3 inches of white powder over the greater Cleveland area on Friday night. Since Nathan and I had so much fun sledding last weekend, we had to hit the slopes again. This time we took Josh with us, so he could share in the fun. When we arrived we were the only ones at the sledding hill which was ideal. I pulled Josh up to the top in the sled, and then had Nathan sit behind him for the first sled run of the day. He seemed to enjoy the acceleration down the slope, but then the sled made a sharp turn which ejected both boys into the soft, icy snow! With a face covered in snow, Josh indicated that he would prefer spending the remainder of the day in the playground, rather than zooming down slopes! So reluctantly I escorted him to the playground while Nathan continued enjoying the sledding. Fortunately, Nathan's neighborhood friend was also there and the two of them teamed up and had a blast!

On Sunday, the temperature warmed up a bit to around 40F/5C, and the snow started to slowly fade away again. Before the snow disappeared completely, Josh really wanted to make a snowman! So the three boys put our winter gear on and headed outside to accomplish Josh's mission. We quickly piled up snow as tall as Josh, and got to work on shaping the snowman. We found stones for eyes, got a carrot for the nose, and a twig for a smile! We added a couple of sticks for arms, and we were done! All that was left was posing for a few photos, snow angels and a snowball fight! Josh loved his first SUCCESSFUL snowman and snowball fight! 

 

Over the last few weeks, Liesel has been very patiently potty-training Josh. After a bumpy start, he soon started getting the hang of it, especially with number ones! Number two's were much more of a challenge for him, but this weekend something clicked for him! He has started informing us of his desires to go and with a little bit of help in the bathroom, he has been getting the job done! I actually think that he is enjoying himself a little too much now. In the day's that he wore a diaper, he usually had one of two "number twos" a day. Now with this new found freedom, he has sat down, AND delivered SUCCESSFULLY no less than 10 times in about 2 hours! I have since instructed Liesel to cut all fiber from his diet!!!