Just Another Day in Paradise

We had high hopes for Saturday. It was going to be Ian's first outing. We were going to select and order Ava's big-girl furniture. We were going to have lunch out as a family and celebrate. We accomplished one of those things: Ian did get out of the house.

After two disappointing trips to local furniture stores (one specifically for children), we left empty handed. We found nothing that looked good enough to buy, and certainly nothing that seemed appropriate for Ava. My problem is that I am looking for something very specific, and that basically translates into me settling for something I dislike after searching for years and never quite finding what I'm looking for. Just look at our TV in our family room... it's still sitting on two night stands as I am on a quest to find the perfect media cabinet. So we decided to just head home because it was too early to eat lunch. We figured we would regroup and try again next Saturday. So on our way home, we're stopped at a red light and cop lights begin flashing behind us. Crap. My tags. They're still Utah tags... and they're expired... since last July. Sigh.

Stefan's driving and pulls over. The cop comes to the window and explains that our tags are expired (we know) and that we should have gotten the car registered in Georgia within 30 days of moving here (we know this, too). So he disappears to his car for what seems like forever and returns nearly 20 minutes later with TWO citations: one for driving a vehicle with expired tags and another for failure to register the car in Georgia within 30 days of moving here. I'm just glad Stefan was driving because at least he has his new Georgia driver's license. I still have my Utah license and would have gotten busted for that, too, should I have been behind the wheel. Stefan tried to explain that I went on bed rest very soon after moving here and it has been difficult to get this stuff done and blah, blah, blah. He didn't buy it. We looked at each other and knew that we were simply busted. We didn't get things taken care of and ran out of luck. It's our fault and we knew this. But I'm not kidding when I say "emissions and register cars" was on my to-do list for this upcoming week. Oh, the irony.

During our marathon routine traffic stop, our two little angels became very restless and hungry. So we decided to stop for a quick bite at McDonald's. It wasn't quite the celebratory lunch we were hoping for, but Ava got fed (and a Hello Kitty watch) and Ian also got fed. During lunch, Stefan and I just laughed. We drove 30 minutes one way to not buy furniture but instead reel in Lord-knows-how-much in traffic citations. Here in Georgia, you don't know how much you owe when you get the ticket. Instead, you have to call after 10 business days to find out just how steep the fine is. I guess they like to see you sweat for a couple of weeks. What started out to be a fun family morning turned into a dismal sequence of events that left us wanting to hit the rewind button and start the day over... all before 11 a.m!

To add insult to injury, on the way home, Stefan gets stuck behind a truck carrying a trailer full of trees. We're driving at a snail's pace and cars are passing us like we're standing still (it felt like we were). Finally after several miles, there was a break in the passing traffic and Stefan pulled into the passing lane to get past this tree truck. Well, just as he pulls over, I look to my right and see our exit. I looked at Stefan and said, "Really, honey?" So we got off at the next exit, turned around, and headed home. I have never been so excited to pull into our driveway.