The first day of our trip was uneventful to say the least. First we had to get up really early in the morning to catch our 8:30 a.m. flight. Our good friend, Aaron, drove us to the airport that morning. We got to the airport as planned, no snag there, but since we have a paper ticket (we bought our tickets from a travel agent) we have to go through a special line. This line would have been great if the lady wasn’t so slow and that there were two other people in front of us. You think that’s not many but this lady spent a good 15 minutes with each one! After asking around, I finally got somebody to work on our boarding passes. Less than 5 minutes! And that got us all the way to Jakarta. Bags and all.
Continue reading ‘enRoute to NY’
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Archive for August, 2007
By the end of the day, we’ll have all the gears that we need (we hope) for our upcoming trip. The last item we received yesterday was our CARES airline system. Very nice item and seems simple to use. I need to watch the video still but from looking at it, it looks pretty self explanatory. There are picture instructions on the belt itself. Reviews when we return. If you’ve been reading our previous blog entry, you’ll know that we rented this item from an Ebay seller. Dianne Wood is the person I’ve been in contact with, she’s the seller, and she’s wonderful. Fast (even on vacation) responses and the item came as promised and in great condition. If you travel infrequently with a toddler, I recommend you get in touch with this person. Read the disclaimers and make sure you are ok with the requirements. They’re not tough, just common courtesy, just like if you were to borrow something from anybody or vise versa.
Continue reading ‘Travel Gears’
To do our part, I want to write this post in hopes that we can persuade more people to help protect our environment. If you care about your children and grandchildren, please help your home be a good place for them in the future.
Please:
- Recyle, you’d be so surprised how much you throw away and in some instances, you make a few bucks.
- Buy used. Go antiquing or check out some consignment stores. You’d be surprised how many people throw away nice things.
- Don’t drink bottled water unless you have to, our tap water is quite good. Install a home filtration system. It’s cheap $15/mo and you’re good for the next 6 months.
- Quite buying gas gussling vehicles that you don’t need. Why buy a 15 mile/gal truck when it’s just you siting in it to commute to your office job? You might think it’s cool but how would your kids/grandkids feel if they have to live in a not so healthy world?
- Buy organic/natural. Alright, maybe not everything is pesticide free but if you can add a few here and there, you’d be doing yourself and the world some good.
- Buy energy efficient light bulbs. They last longer and watch your bills shrink. See this site, pretty cool.
- Buy energy efficient appliances. Again, it’ll really save your bill.
- Unplug electronic items when not in use. Even when they’re off but plugged in, your electronic like DVD player or computer, still uses a little bit of energy.
- When building, research your options and try to get the most environmental friendly floor plan and product that you can afford. Check out the Susan Susanka homes, Not So Big Homes. This is our next goal when building our house, at least 50% recycled material.
So, we’re not perfect but we do try and everyday we try to do more and more.
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Our little girl is growing up. I know she’s only 3.5 but she acts like she’s 6 sometimes. Very in control, bossy, acts all knowing, and confident in her choices. Also, she talks non-stop, but maybe that part is only because she’s a girl.
For example, last month the city folks were fixing one of the roads that we usually drive on. So one day I went a different direction since the road was closed and of course Emma had to ask me why and I explained. We did this for a couple of days. On the third day I went the usual route and here is my back seat driver, “Mommy, you can’t go this way, you have to go the other way, they’re fixing the road.” Ok, so that’s not bad really. The bad part is this. You stop at a red light and right when it turned green she would say, “Go, mommy.” If I run a yellow light, guess who’d tell me that I was suppose to stop? Uh-uh.
This summer Emma enrolled in a new preschool/daycare. Her previous one decided to close after 20 years. So far we like the new school — she’s having a good time. But sometimes I’d pick up a pouty child and usually it’s because she’s in the little girl class. The big girl class is for the 4-year-olds. I told her soon but of course which kid gets the word soon. We did talk to her teacher and even though she thinks Emma’s ready, it wouldn’t be fair to the other kids her age. So Emma’s still in the little girl class. But because of this hoopla, Emma can write and spell her name, know more of the ABC (read and write), and also her numbers (she could count to 50 since she was 2, but didn’t recognize a lot of numbers). I told her that big girls can do the above 
White lie, ha!
We don’t want her to grow up too fast but it seems like she wants what we don’t want. Ahhhh….
That’s my beloved grandfather’s name. He passed away at the age of 84 on Saturday the 11th at 11:50 p.m. Indonesian time so that’s about 11:50 a.m. Saturday my time. He was a wonderful grandfather to me, a brilliant entrepreneur and author.
He’s one of my most favorite man in the world. He was the best person to talk to and spend time with. Since I was a little girl he would take me all over the place and every summer vacation I would spend a few weeks to a month with him. He might not be everybody’s favorite person because of his characteristic but he was always special to me and I love him in every way.
Continue reading ‘Joseph Tulus Swandjaja’
I’ve always worked. Well, at least since college. I guess I’ve been very lucky. Even though my early childhood was a bit tough for my parents I always remember our lives as being comfortable, especially for Indonesian standards. That’s why there was no need for me to work. My job was to go to school and earn good (great) grades. So that I did (though I have to admit I had too fun of a high school year and my grades reflected it).
But even though I was comfortable one thing that my parents and grandpa always asked me to do was to save my money. Every week I’d get an allowance and out of the total amount, I had to save 25% of it. So that childhood habit continues on to this day. I always save and even though it wasn’t possible to save much when you’re just starting out or when there’s a major life event, I always try to save.
Continue reading ‘Haved You Saved Any?’
We are going to travel to Indonesia, Singapore, and Germany this fall. For a few months now I have been researching different ways to travel safely and without lugging too many heavy equipment for our toddler. I’ve travel with Emma since she was 3-months-old alone and it was really tough. I had to travel super light and find clever ways to haul everything. If you are traveling parents you know what I’m talking about. Between holding the child, your luggage, and gears, you literally have your hands full.
So, in the last few months I’ve been doing some research. First the airline seat belt. Up to two years of age, your child can sit on your lap, but if you want your child to sit on her own seat, she needs to sit on a car seat that is airline approved until she reaches the weight of 40 lbs or 4 years of age. Initially we were going to just bring one of our old car seats and then leave it in Indonesia since we were too lazy to haul it all over Singapore and Germany after. Then we found the AmSafe CARES airline child restraint system. It weighs less than 1 lbs and suppose to take less than 1 minute to hook your child up to it. After some searching, trying to find the best place to buy, we found a person on Ebay who is renting this system out. Awesome! For $15 + shipping, it’s a great and safe deal. If you’re interested, just type in: CARES Kids Fly Safe in the Ebay search and you’ll find this person with the username of m_and_d_in_fl.
Continue reading ‘Light Safe Travel with Toddler’
