I might stay with Cisco

I already got used to the idea of not working anymore for a while after moving to Belgium.
I actually started to like it - I was making plans of what new adventure I could dive in.
I was going to take photography lessons and set up a little studio at home.
Most importantly though - I would be able to spend the entire summer home with the kids.

Not so...

My manager approached me and offered me the opportunity to stay in his team and report to him from Belgium.

Hmm.. sounds tempting, for sure the money-part of it.

I have some doubts though..

How is that gonna work with PTO since they want me to take up all my PTO and even borrow 2 weeks of PTO just to bridge June and July. Does that leave me with no PTO for the rest of the year (since in Belgium you don't accrue PTO on a daily basis).

Also - what am I going to do with the kids in August??

And the salary of course. It will get adjusted to the "cheaper" Belgium .. what cheaper ???

We are still working on the details so we'll see what happens...

More about the cat

Haha - this is really getting crazy..

The test we did yesterday - turned out we didn't need to get it done!
$185.00 out the door for nothing.

So I called the vet and they called the lab and luckily they could stop the test being done and they can refund me the entire amount! YAY!!!

This cat better not run away as soon as we set a foot in Belgium!

Serotone test

Taking the cat with us to Belgium is becoming more and more of a headache...

I just took her to the vet to get her serotone test done (check whether the rabies vacine worked), turns out that she needed this test done after 10 days of the vacine, not 2 months later. Oops...

The technician spend some time on the phone with the doctor and all is well, we can still do the test.

Next dilemma: it can take up to 4 weeks for the test results to be back -> Oops number 2.
We are leaving BEFORE that time. The technician then tries to persuade me to postpone our trip until we get back the results.... uh ... no way !!
After the technician realizes that we are not taking the cat if we don't get the results on time, she calls the lab and they think they will get back the result in 2-3 weeks.

OK, so all seems to work out (I just hope I'm still here when we get back the results cause Wim really doesn't want to deal with the vet office).
Only thing left is to pay the bill: $185.00 OUCH !!!

Hectic times

UPDATE on the cat: No way we can ship the cat as cargo, it costs $485.00.
Sad to say - we are not going to spend that much money on a cat.
So the next option is to have her travel with Wim and the kids (I wonder who will get more stressed - oh, and I am not thinking of the kids)...

We have read a 'recent' bad review of air7seas so now we are again researching other moving companies out there. It stressful, we have only a few more weeks left (I only have about 2.5 weeks left). Good thing is that we at least got our boxes numbered that were in storage. Can you believe we already have 91 boxes!
We are also considering to ship the items middle of June and not together with the car in the middle of July.

I talked to my manager here at work - he again wanted to verify that I did not want to work for TAC in Brussels. Nope - really not. So there is really nothing he can do now, I guess I have to send in my resignation. I was surprised I can do this by email. Thought it had to be a little more official. My first resignation... weird.

I had tears in my eyes this morning when driving to work. It seems to happen a lot at that time. The sun is out, I have a beautiful look over the mountains, I am really going to miss this place.
I keep intending to take my video camera to work and tape my "routines" from the last 9 years. I always forget though...

Traveling with a cat

Why oh why are we taking the cat to Belgium? She's giving us so much trouble!

First we lost all the paperwork that we already had done when we packed things for selling the house. Few weeks later we find it back though.

Then the new owners don't want to look after her for the short time that we live in the apartment. A cat is easy - just give her some food and water - she's happy. No, instead she is now locked up in the apartment all day - meowing at night cause she wants to get out.

Now I want to book her a plane ticket so she can travel with me (as checked in luggage) but since I travel through London, apparently she can not travel with me?

Wim is not traveling through England - but since he already has 2 kids to look after, the last thing he wants to do is look after a cat as well.

I am now thinking about sending her as cargo to Belgium - maybe a week before I leave.

Selling our stuff

It seems like we are getting rid of our last items.

After Tony and Clarinda visited us and decided to buy almost all our furniture - we still got stuck with: sofa's, entertainment center, kitchen appliances, kitchen ware, foot spa, humidifier, fan, etc.....

Well, yesterday, a Cisco colleague and his cousin dropped by and wanted to buy almost everything that is left (even what Tony and Clarinda already bought). They apparently just moved to the U.S. so they still need a lot.

They are still undecisive over a few items but it seems like we finally got rid of the entertainment center... We should know by tonight what they all take..

Takes off the stress a little

A day in paradise (Santa Cruz)

Only four more weeks and I will leave Sunny California. ... and we sit in the apartment all day long.
So instead of bumming out at home yesterday we decided to take a little daytrip to Santa Cruz.

The weather was beautiful, nice and warm, a little bit of a breeze - perfect.

Elias and Mendel had a blast playing in the sand, and eventually even in the water. This is a first for Mendel who normally is very afraid of the waves. She was screaming and laughing of pleasure when she ran in and out of the waves. The last wave surprised her though - topped her over and she ended up underneath a wave and was soaking wet - sand all stuck in her cute swimsuit and all over her hair.

That was the end of 'that' adventure :-)

We ended the trip with a walk downtown, ate an ice-cream and headed home....

It was a perfect day - I hope we have these kind of days in Belgium as well!

My return ticket to Belgium

Wow - just booked my ticket back to Brussels.

Now it's certain - no way back - we are going!
(ok, selling our house and buying a new house was a bigger thing then buying an airplane ticket).

But still, I know my return date - June 8, 2007 - this day will go in history (at least mine).

Oh ... it's a return ticket - so worse case I can fly back on June 14 (it was cheaper to book a return ticket than a one-way ticket). What a waste...

Our Tremelo House

Since I'm posting houses Niv is gonna check out - let's post our own house as well.


Can't wait to move in and paint, decorate, buy, buy, buy, ..... (better save a little)

Mean time - Wim is gonna have a blast doing the front and back yard. We are already talking about what kind of plants etc....

Isn't it beautiful? I love it!!!

Nivea goes House Hunting

Not so great news today...

My best friend went to Belgium yesterday to check out a house in the same street where we bought ours, kind of hoping and expecting they would buy it and we would be neigbors.

Unfortunately it seems that the house is overpriced. But is it??

Hubby and I spent the night looking at houses on the internet with her husband and didn't find much interesting, except one (see picture). So I emailed her and asked whether she wants to check this one out. It's not in Tremelo, but Keerbergen, which is still pretty close.

Arghh.. the stress of moving to Belgium ....

Oh, hubby Wim just got a good offer from his manager to stay an extra 1.5 month a Symantec. So it looks like he will drop off the kids on June 13th, but then a week later is back on a plane to CA for another month. He can stay with April (who can keep an eye on him ;-)