Swinging

Yesterday it happened. Princess has been trying since the beginning of the season. Inevitably, she would give up and ask us to push. We knew it would come, we just didn't know when. She is over the top with glee that she can finally swing all by herself.

Missing Things

The Lizard King sold his Jeep tonight. We still haven't had the conversation with Princess about LK going to Afghanistan and now I'm even more concerned.

Princess cried so hard about selling the Jeep. She wanted LK to tell the man that he could only have it for five days and then he had to bring it back. She is always emotional about things going away. She cried when we traded in my minivan. She doesn't want to give away her old clothes that don't fit.

At least her Daddy is coming back. We're not giving him away or selling him or trading him in. Maybe it won't be so bad. Still, I am so not looking forward to this conversation. I can't decide when to talk to her.

We're having a July 4th party as last get together with our close friends before LK leaves. I think we should tell her before then, but how soon? Is there ever a good time to tell her something like this?

Happy Father's Day, Lizard King!

It's been a casual day. Lots of hanging out. Slow cooking ribs on the grill. Nothing fancy, simply spending time together. This is something we haven't had much opportunity to do over the last several years.



The Lizard King is an amazing father. He is the epitome of "don't judge a book by it's cover". At a BBQ yesterday two friends told me that they decided that my husband is...hmmm....I can't remember the exact words (as you know I forget stuff)...but they pretty much said that he is pretty awesome. You've got this tattooed tough guy exterior, who is an Attachment Parenting, organic eating, sustainable living, amazing husband and all around great guy. It took me a lohohohong time to find him, but he was so completely worth the wait.



I asked Princess, "Why is your Daddy a good daddy?" Her response, "He plays with me a lot." Which is so true.



He spends a good deal of his limited home time playing with Princess. He lets Princess "do" his hair with all sorts of clips and accessories in it. He plays Princess Wii. He gets down on the floor and plays all the creative imagination games. He plays board games. He lets her "help" him in everything he does.



We are trying to find ways that he can still play with her from Afghanistan and so far, we're coming up with some pretty good ideas.

The Shady Family Goes to the Beach

We built sand castles

played in the water

gazed in awe at Haystack Rock

walked, played and collected rocks

and had an all around fun time.

Decisions

I have been a little out of touch lately. I haven’t been blogging and I haven’t been reading. We have had a huge decision to make and have spent the last week doing so. You all may remember the evil ex-wife. We have been looking forward to the time that the alimony ends. At this point we’ve still got another year. Once the alimony is paid, we still have to dig ourselves out of the hole the giant alimony payment has left us.

We also have a huge IRS payment to whittle down because, although we have to hold up our end of the divorce agreement, she did not hold up her end. She was to sign two tax returns so that they could be re-filed and save the Lizard King (LK) a butt-load of money in taxes. She agreed to it in the divorce, but then refused to follow through. Eventually, we cut of the alimony unless she signed the papers. She finally signed them. Unfortunately, we learned that there is a statute of limitations for refiling tax returns and we were beyond it. So yes, we have this giant payment as well.

You might also remember that LK got laid off at the end of May. With the economy being what it is, finding a job was not proving to be an easy task.

You may also remember the wishing tree. It seems that I should have been a lot more specific when sending my wishes out to the universe. I wished for a six figure job that LK would love. I asked for abundance. I asked for financial freedom.

LK texted me last week and asked if I wanted to go out to dinner that evening. I don’t know how, but I knew something was up. At dinner he asked me if I remembered the company who contacted him months ago. They had locations in Canada and Afghanistan. At the time I looked at him and told him that he would work in Afghanistan over my dead body. That was the end of that.

What he didn’t tell me (until last week) was that the company had offered him a job in Afghanistan making A LOT of money. It was in an unsafe zone. He turned it down. They told him that there would be other things coming up and that they would get back to him. He figured they were just blowing smoke and forgot about it.

They contacted him last week and offered him a supervisor position. And they doubled the salary. We were floored. It is a one year contract. Work three months, take 2 weeks off to come home.

I can’t even begin to tell you how difficult it was to make this decision. We went back and forth hundreds of times a day. Even after making the decision we want to change our minds, but we know that LK going to Afghanistan is the best decision for our family. The year will be difficult, but our lives will be changed. We can pay off the evil ex-wife, we can pay off the taxes, we can pay off the credit cards, we can buy a house, we can put money away for retirement, LK can stop working two jobs and breaking his back doing construction. We can breathe.

My heart aches when I think about him being gone so long. We haven’t told Princess yet and I am so dreading that conversation. She is so close with LK. This is going to break her heart.

My friends are rallying around me. They are here for me, supporting me, as is my sister. I am grateful to everyone who is here to support me and Princess. They are how we will get through the next year. LK leaves on July 11th. That is just too soon. And I am just so sad.

How ever did you know?!

Princess has accepted the fact that we won't be having a baby. She is actually in a place that she likes being an only child. She has not, however, accepted not having a pet. A real pet. Fish don't count. I started thinking about it and talked with the Lizard King. Yes, you all guessed it. But really, it was pretty easy. ;) We decided we would get a dog. Princess was elated.

This isn't such a simple thing because we are all allergic to dogs. Well, I suppose it would have been easier if we went to a breeder, but we wanted to adopt a dog. I've spent the last several months checking PetFinder on a daily basis. Often, I found nothing that would work for us.

Last Friday I found that the Pet Adoption Network in Albany, Oregon had gotten 5 potential dogs and they were having an adoption day at a park in Albany. We went and LK did the allergy test. He is a brave man. He didn't react to two of them, one of which Princess was instantly drawn to.

Meet Sophia Rose.

Sophia Rose is a smart little pup. They say she is around 1 year. She has already learned to sit and lay down...well, in one particular spot. We are working on house training as well as other commands.

This Wishing Tree really seems to work. Several of my wishes have come true, I am shocked to say. I just wish I had been a little more specific in my wishes. Again, you'll have to stay tuned to find out the details. You may have to wait a little longer for this one.

Have a beautiful weekend!

Wishing Tree

I read about this over at 5 Orange Potatoes at the beginning of Spring. Princess and I both loved the idea, but we needed to wait until we got done and settled from the move. Then we kind of forgot about it. I came across the ribbon the other day. Here is how we did it.

We cut our ribbon, wrote our wishes on the ribbon and sewed little bells to the ends (just like over at 5 Orange Potatoes). Then, we tied our wishes to the monkey tree.

One of Princess' wishes came true already. Stay tuned to find out which one.

Yoga Wear (and a lame ballet recital costume for WW)

and an awesome warrior pose.


She looks cute, but compared to the costume that Violet sported over at Heathen Family Revival for her recital this one isn't quite up to par.

Monday Gardening Club

Last week I learned some things about gardening. I planted the onions the way they came. I just loosened the roots a bit and plopped them in the garden. Apparently, you are supposed to separate them into individual onion plants so they actually have room to turn into an onion. Oops!

I also learned that my lettuce was ready.





I also learned that it is yummy!

My Ballerina

Princess loves ballet. She looks forward to her class each week and is super excited about her upcoming recital on Sunday.

You can frequently find her showing off her ballet moves. This appears to be ballet attire for a really hot day.