Saturday.

Poor Stu has been having a rough few days on the work front. As if there haven’t already been some shady things going on that we were never told about before we got here, they told the guys on Thursday (our Friday) that they did an internal audit and realized they were being illegal about the way we got our housing here. The contract we agreed to was for them to provide housing free in addition to our pay. If you live here, you know why that is so important.

Apparently they are not allowed to do this and have decided instead to just “pay” us the 24,000 bucks for the year that we would apparently pay for our flat and then take it back out. The problem is that to work out of the country, the IRS has a cap on what we can make per year that is tax-free. That cap is only 89,000 dollars. All of a sudden we’re “making” 24,000 bucks more last year than we planned on and we’ll have to pay tax on that that is over and above. There are some other rules and regulations regarding housing allowances and whatnot so I will have to look into it again. But it’s so frustrating that once again we get a shitty deal because the company can’t get their act together.

In additional to this, they told them on Thursday that they had to work Saturday (today). So Stu only got one weekend day this week. Thank goodness we did our border run last weekend or it would have been a no weekend week for him. Poor guy just needs some relax time!

I started school today. I know it’s Saturday but they allowed access to the classes early (school actually starts on Tuesday) and with taking more and harder classes this time around, I figured I might as well get a head-start if Kaden lets me.

Yesterday I took advantage of Stu being home and cleaned out Kaden’s dresser. I put away the clothes that no longer fit and I got out all the new ones that will fit soon. And I discovered a potential problem. At this point in my son’s life, I have purchased exactly three outfits for him. Three. All of the rest of his clothes have either been hand-me-downs from his uncle Hayden, or have been gifted by family members. The problem I have discovered is I am about to get to a point where I have to by my kid his own clothes!!! He wears 18-month-old clothes right now and past 24-months, I have NO clothes for him!!! Check out the stack on his bed right now! These clothes are all clothes that fit right now. A TON! But after 24-months, Mommy and Daddy have to do it! Lol. I just couldn’t believe the amount of clothes I was going through yesterday, especially to discover that my stockpile ends at precisely 24-months! I guess buying clothes after that point aren’t really for “babies” and it’s not as fun anymore! Haha, anyway, I told Stu that we’re going to see our spending go up in 6 months when our kid grows out of all his clothes!


Kaden also got new shoes yesterday (and I got new notebooks for school!). Sandals. Since SOMEHOW between the border stop exiting the UAE and the border stop entering Oman, Kaden lost a shoe. No idea how this happened. It was nowhere to be found in the car in Oman, but he had it on when he got out for like 5 minutes to run around at the exit of UAE. I assume when Stu went to put him back in the car it fell off outside. So lame, we really liked those shoes! But now he has some cool new ones to break in.

And check out his new hat (and cool t-shirt... bet you can guess which aunt and uncle combo THIS came from! hehe):