Budget!

We are doing a lot of budget planning lately. Budget on renovation of our new house. Budget on money to spent to get a car (new or used one). Budget on air-ticket to visit my hometown before I start working again. Budget on furnitures. Budget on electric gadget. All these involve money!

Okay, I forgot another very important budget. Budget on money that we need to pay for my girls' nanny fees and their school fees. I actually have a lot of plan in mind. I want them to learn ballet, swimming, karate, piano and arts. All these classes involve a huge amount of tuition fees. Anyway, when I talk about this with hubby, he splash a big pile of cold water on me! He got his point also, we must make sure the girls are interested in all the classes that I intend to send them. No point waste money on something they are not interested in, right? Correct! In that case, I would prefer to invest my money to buy gold bullion which is a better way to invest my money!

Cookies

I love cookies, especially butter cookies. So when my friend gave me 3 boxes of cookies from France, I was so happy. Here's the cookies:

100% originally from France! So far we only tasted one packet, the third one. Very nice. Very tasty, I luv it! For the other 2 boxes, I am thinking to keep it and bring back to Malaysia and share with my family. It's really not that easy to get these kind of cookies in Malaysia. Good food must share with love one, right? :-)

Spring is finally here!

I see green leaves growing out! Definitely a great feeling for me as I hate cold weather!

Will start bringing the girls out to the playground more often :-)

New house = more expenses

We bought our first condo unit during our 3 weeks stay in KL. This is going to be our home when we finally go back to KL for good coming September. So, we need a lot of money to do renovation now. At first, we thought that since we are getting euro monthly, and the exchange rate was pretty good (during that time lah!), we decided to save up most of our money here so that when we go back to Malaysia by September, after the exchange, we can have enough money for the renovation.

Oh boy, the decision was so wrong! If you are aware with the exchange rate, you should have notice that the exchange rate for Euro to RM is dropping... dropping dramatically! From almost 1 euro to RM5.10 to RM4.30! Such a big different! Errr... I should have invest my money in GOLD! My mother always told me that gold is proved to be a successful method of preserving value. Should have do more study on buy gold bullion earlier!!

Spring?

It should be spring now. But the weather is still pretty cold. 5-6'C in the morning, and we are lucky if the temperature will rise till more than 10'C in the afternoon. Anyway, I can see that it's getting warmer, just slowly.

Plan to have a day trip to tulip farm, hope that we can make it as this is going to be our last spring in Holland. Wish to take pictures with lots of Tulip!

*Oh Summer!

We have a very nice weather for the past few days. 25'C at noon! Oh, I miss sunshine so much! When I saw those rustic furniture from www.scenicfurniture.com, how I wish I could have this set of 3’ Stained Exterior Finish Outdoor Bench so that I can enjoy myself under the big bright sun, at the same time have a great outdoor activities with my girls. I LOVE summer!

My Love-Hate feeling with weekend!

I like weekend because:

• I have extra pairs of hand helping me with the girls and cooking.
• The possibility for me to go out is higher.
• I can have more quality time with the girls.
• I do not need to rush in the morning - IF we are not going anywhere.

But I hate it when YOU are at home but YOU are making yourself so BUSY in the KITCHEN!!

I prefer you to spend more time with the girls, NOT in the kitchen busy with your NEW recipe with MY new oven!!!!! Please! Spend your time with Anne when I was in the room with baby! In a typical weekdays, she is already playing alone, by herself! I hope someone can play with her in the weekend! SO! Don't play with the OVEN! Play with YOUR GIRL!

*Insurance when living abroad

When we were in Malaysia, we basically no need to worry about our medical expenses as everything was covered by my company. When hubby decided to take the offer to futher his studies in Netherlands, situation changed. I will be taking unpaid leaves for 4 years and we are no longer covered by my company from the day I started my unpaid leaves. We need to get an insurance policy specialized for families living abroad with worldwide coverage.

Getting an international coverage policies is very important when you are living abroad especially when you are in Netherlands where the medical fees is super expensive! Sad to say that, I don't think we can afford the medical fees here without an insurance.

Now that my mother in law will be visiting us this June and stay with us for 3 months, Hubby is trying to search for a suitable international travel policy for her, I think I should try to get my free quote for international coverage from MultiNational Underwriters. We can't take the risk to let her travel without any international coverage policies. 

Spring!

After been staying at home most of the time for the past 3 months, I glad that Spring is finally here. If you know me, you should know that I hate cold weather! I am so happy that I can switched off my heather now and open my window enjoying the fresh air out side!

It's time to plan for more outing before our family vacation to Vienna!!! Yes, we are going to Vienna! Our first family trip this year! Can't wait for it!