I was pleasantly surprised to receive an email from my uncle who lives in Las Vegas NV. He told me years ago when we visited him there that he couldn’t figure out how to use the computer my cousin gave him as a present. I remember giving him a quick run through on how to use free email and he said he will try his best to figure things out so he can send emails to the family. After a few years, he’s now comfortable with his desktop computer and has been sending us updates every now and then.

We are nearing the year-end and it’s time to take care of personal matters like car insurance. We have no plans of switching insurers though since we’re quite happy with the current company we got and by far, they still offer a cheap auto insurance coverage compared to others in the market.

At the same time, this last quarter is usually the time when I do a review of our personal files. To ensure that only the current and important ones are kept and the rest (especially paid bills) are shredded. It’s not something I’m excited to do but I like to organize so this should be easy-peasy for me.

This third quarter of the year is fast becoming the busiest for us by far. Since the first weekend of September, we have been attending birthday parties, meeting up friends for day outs and joining impromptu lunches.

Is it because Christmas is just around the corner and generally people are already in a happy/party mood? Although physically tiring, we are enjoying our busy weekends. We’re just thankful that we don’t need to resort to Fenphedra (diet pills) with all the food we’re stuffing ourselves! Hee.

A year ago, we were so busy with the logistics of moving from Singapore to Australia. It is a whirlwind of events to say the least. The easiest part though is deciding on which mover to hire. We shortlist only two companies and both have good names in the industry. We were saved from unnecessary worries of shipping our personal effects, furniture and appliances.

Relocation.com is a good starting point in getting shipping quotes. You can get a list of movingcompanies by state, an option for self-service moving, storage and auto transport. This company is a one-stop-shop for relocating needs with insurance, rental apartments and home insurance offerings. Check out their website to find out more.

How would you like to wake up with this? A yummy serving of French toast casserole paired with a warm cup of coffee, chocolate or tea. I usually prepare a simpler version of this on the weekends. I use just eggs, cream, sugar and milk as my base and day old bread.

The recipe accompanying above photo from find.myrecipes.com is a lot better yet easy to make. I just need to add fruits, which will definitely add more flavor to my otherwise boring version. I should try this soon!

If ever my husband and I decide to invest in trade, we’d go for a franchise business. This poses less ‘risk’ in setting-up, the marketing aspects are covered and the salability of the products are somewhat assured. There are a lot of franchise opportunities in the market now. It’s only a matter of finding a business that would match your interest and passion.

We lost our internet connection for about four days since Sunday. It was a good time for me to attend to things that I’ve been putting aside. Like clearing our cabinets and drawers of clothes that we’ll no longer use.

I was able to fill a medium-sized box with my daughter’s clothes alone. She’s so big now that at 2 years, she wears a size 3 and 4. On the flipside, putting away that many clothes mean we need to shop for new ones again.

My daughter graduated from baby clothes to toddler clothes when she was a year old. What’s nice is that there are more selections available for kids’ clothes. Just look at this pretty top that I like for my little girl. I like that it’s blue and the prints make it look really dainty. We should start our clothes shopping soon.

We had the busiest weekend by far. On both days, we left home early and came back late. By end of Sunday, we were all so beat and all we could do was doze off as soon as we got home.

I was tempted to take muscle relaxant because my body did ache that much. But I thought a good night sleep would do. I was wrong. I nursed a headache and consistent back pain that I doubled my intake of vitamins to sort of recover from the stress.

I’ve never heard of vitamins overdose and any one going through drug treatment just for taking too much vitamin C. Now, it has been a week and another busy weekend face us. Probably, we need a stock of energy drink as our back-up. Will too much intake of energy drinks lead us to drug rehab?  Ha ha.

It’ is spring now in Australia and what usually goes with this season is major house cleaning. There’s no escaping this because the second room in our apartment badly needs my attention.

Our printer, fax machine and other home-office appliances need some dusting. The books and DVDs that we temporarily stowed in the cabinets should be neatly arranged in our metal shelf. The list goes on. How I wish I can clone myself?

If we were in Manila now, we’d be hearing Christmas carols already. That is a “tradition” of sorts back home. That once the “ber” months start to roll, the stores and restaurants slowly invite the consumers to shop, dine and start celebrating the coming holidays.

For us, we’ve got a lot of budgeting and planning to do. With our growing Christmas gifts’ list, we need to make sure that we will not over-spend and lose the fun in gift-giving.