Silas practices his fire making skills.

We found the toothpaste!!!

The toothpaste (our last tube) went missing one day and we were weeks away from our monthly shopping trip. We survived on straight baking soda and water. Blegh. Then we went to unseat the toilet for the laundry project and found it!!!

Laundry

Why is there duck tape on my doorknob.

Tangles thanks to a small child "doing" my hair.

Flowers for Mom from Sam

Yay! Our tags finally came. Only 3 months late.

Why were our tags so late you might wonder?

I have lived at the same address for almost 5 years. The first time I noticed I had DMV problems was when I let Jen Saunders borrow my car (for a few months) and she got pulled over for invalid registration. Oooo. Thats embarassing. I had never got a renewal notice and since the car wasn't in my drive way I never realized it was late. So I went down paid a 20$ ticket at the courthouse and renewed my registration plus late fees. I also updated my address on the DMV system.

The Hofers graciously gave us a van and we registered it within the 10 days and received our tags at the DMV.

Renewal time came around for both the suburban and van. This time I had my bank set it up to automatically pay on the correct date. I never received a renewal notice, but both were paid because the bank had it set to do so. And I received my tags.

Still I'm irritated that I'm not getting a renewal notice and when my bank sends off the payment off a little because the amount due changes slightly from year to year. So I go down to DMV fill out a change of address form for all our cars to make sure its right.

The next year I still don't get a renewal notice. I call the DMV and they have the correct address and blame it on the postal system. So I call the post office. They take down a "complaint".

This November, as usual, the bank paid my registration on Matt's bug. It is due in December. I again didn't receive a renewal notice. I also didn't receive the tags. At the end of Dec I call the DMV. My check has cleared, so they say they will send out the tags again. Jan 15, no tags, I call again. The DMV says wait till Feb 1st. Feb, I call again. The DMV says they will send them out but want to make sure my address is correct. Ok we are getting somewhere. They have the right street, house number, town, and state but the wrong zip code. The DMV makes the correction and sends the tags. They never arrive. Feb 15 I call again. This time when they ask me for verification of my information, I cannot correctly identify anything using my address. My address is now listed as being in Antioch Ca. They say since they can't verify me over the phone, I have to go down to DMV and fill out a change of address. Blah.

I print the form and send it with Jamey Saunders to DMV as he was already going. Two weeks later I call DMV again. I still don't have my tags, its March, and I paid in November. This time they say they "corrected the address on the first vehicle listed on my change of address form, but I need to fill one sheet out FOR EACH VEHICLE." They say I need to go to the DMV again with all three papers.

Then comes the "key in the manure which was never in the manure" fiasco, and we can't get a key unless we provide valid registration. I am ready to kill someone.

The key thing worked out, we finally went to DMV in person with 7 children waited 2 hours and corrected all our addresses on whatever number of papers they wanted. And those are our tags in the picture.

Do you think my renewal notices will come this time?