Don't you hate it when you do stupid things

On our way out to Wendover last weekend we got pulled over. As Chris was pulling to the side of the freeway we both looked at each other both asking the same question, "Why are you getting pulled over?" The officer came up to the window and asked for license, registration and insurance. Chris pulled his license out while I searched the glove box for the correct papers. I found 3 expired insurance cards (and even gave one to the cop) before I found the current one that I had put in a few weeks ago. Then I searched and searched for the current registration. It was no where to be found. We had the old, expired one in there but not a new one. I kept saying things like "Where is it." "I swear it's in here somewhere." We are responsible people, we register our cars. Well, it turns out we aren't and we didn't. It expired in November of last year and we totally spaced it. The (not so) funny thing is that over the winter a small crack on our windshield spread across the whole windshield and I remember saying to Chris about December or January that at least we just registered the car and we had until November to replace the windshield. Think again. The officer gave Chris a ticket for the expired registration and told us that he would let the broken windshield slide. He also informed us that the state gives you 3 months after your registration expires then they cam impound your car. Ours had been expired for 4 months. Luckily for us he didn't impound our car. I think the backseat full of kids played into that decision (we had our nephew with us as well as our boys) as well as the fact that I'm sure it was pretty apparent we weren't lying and that we really had just totally forgotten to register the car. Now Chris has a ticket that says he has to appear in court in Wendover and if he doesn't he will have a warrant issued for his arrest. Never mind that fact that we have no idea how much we will have to pay.

I guess there is a good part to this story. I got the windshield replaced yesterday and set out this morning on the lovely task of getting the car registered. I dropped Eli off at preschool at 9am and was hoping that I would be done and able to pick him up at noon. Isaac and I went to Car Doctors and got the safety and emissions done. They were really fast. I didn't even have to think of anything to occupy Isaac. He kept busy enough for the half hour we were there. I headed over to the DMV and what do you know, I didn't even have a chance to sit down before my number was called. WHAT!! I was shocked. I was in and out of there in 5 minutes flat. It was rather amazing. I did find out that the mailing address of our registration was still listed as our PO Box in Oklahoma. It had our current address on the registration so I'm not sure why the mailing address was wrong. I would think that would have been changed when I registered it last year. So, you see, it really isn't our fault we didn't register our car it's the DMV worker who failed to change our address which led to us not getting our reminder in the mail. Now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure the girl that helped me last year went to high school with me and was our senior prom queen. Maybe I'll send her a bill for cost of the ticket.