Anne Was Here!: DMV

This doesn't have much to do with my sister, really, other than she was in town when this happened.  That and to say that she is incredibly wonderful and saved the day by watching my kids a couple of mornings after her arrival so that I could go to the DMV to get my license renewed.  Oh happy, joyous day!  Due to 9-11 and identity theft, Homeland Security is requiring that from 2010-2015 anyone renewing their license is required to pay a visit to the lovely Department of Motor Vehicles where said persons are required to provide the following:

• a ridiculously long renewal application
• original Social Security Card
• original (or state certified copy) of birth certificate
• two legit forms of proof of residency (Actually only required if you've moved since you last renewed but do they tell you that beforehand? Nooooooo...they tell you after you get all your stuff together and bring it in.)
• fear and dread that the process will not go smoothly - think about failing your vision test or something like that for days before...check!

As was suggested by the renewal notice that I received, I went online and set up an appointment so that my wait wouldn't be as long.  I called the DMV after making the appointment and was advised that I should still expect to hang out at the office for a solid 45-90 minutes.  Super cool...I was pumped to think of spending a good chunk of my morning there!

I was totally surprised to walk in that morning and find ZERO people waiting in line for license renewal.  I walked right up and gave the nice guy (and he really was nice!) the loads of paperwork that I brought with me.  He then took my picture, gave me a receipt with a number and told me to go sit in the waiting area and...get this...I'd be the next person called up.  What?!  He wasn't lying, either.  While I did have to wait about 10 minutes, my number was indeed the next one called and up to the next counter I went.

The lady who helped me finish everything up was even nicer than the first guy.  She was actually downright happy and friendly.  She told me that this whole crazy process is a one time thing and that made me like her even more.  She asked me a few questions, tested my vision (I got 100% right without my glasses on...kind of surprised because my left eye is rather lousy), and took my $25 payment.  Then she printed out my temporary license and sent me on my way.

As I left, I saw that the line for renewal was now 6 or 7 people long...glad I had my appointment set for the time I did!

When all was said and done, I spent less than 20 minutes at the DMV that morning and that includes the time it took me to park, go in and do my business and pull out of the parking lot at the end.  Awesome!  But not awesome enough to have a desire to go there ever again.

Summer Heat + Broken House Fan = No Fun

Most nights, when hubby and I head to bed, we go upstairs to find our normally warm main floor and bedroom fairly cool thanks to the evening cool down allowing our AC to do its job.  Last night we were surprised to notice that at 1:00 a.m. (night owls!) it was still unusually warm when we went up.  I checked the thermostat and it was showing that it was still 78 degrees up there in spite of the lower nighttime temperature setting.  After a bit of turning things on and off, we discovered that the house fan wasn't working....and without the house fan running, the AC unit won't run.  Thankfully it was a bit cooler outside than in so we threw open a bunch of windows and with the help of the fans we keep running in the house during the summer, we were able to cool things down by a few degrees by this morning.

This morning I called our plumber/AC/heat guy and he said that the fan definitely needs to be replaced and that it's possible that in the process of that going out, our AC unit may have gotten damaged and may need replacing as well.  It's pricey to replace the fan ($) but nowhere near as expensive as replacing the whole AC system in addition ($$$$).  Oh - and we have a Lennox system...one of the more expensive ones out there.  Yippee!!  We are crossing our fingers and praying that it's only the house fan that needs help.

Unfortunately our man can't come until tomorrow morning.  That means the upstairs/main floor is going to get good and toasty today.  The kids and I are currently hiding downstairs in the basement where they're watching Phineas & Ferb and I've been doing things like researching warranty on our furnace/AC (we're out of luck), reading the news, blogging, and organizing my office a bit.  I'm going to avoid the upstairs like the plague as afternoon comes.  I guess we'll be grilling our dinner tonight - 'cause there's no way I'm turning on anything that will create more heat upstairs!

June & July Catch-Up

Did you miss me?

I'm behind on posting as usual and falling behind on my monthly quota.  In sitting down to write just now, I was really tempted to do several posts about what we've done since I last wrote.  I would have caught up on my numbers really fast.  However, I'm no cheat.  So I'm going to do one post with a paragraph or description about all our noteworthy happenings since June 26th to get it all out there.  I much prefer to cheat that way instead.

June 25th: So I'm starting one day before...  Kids and I went down to my brother Matt's house in Highland for his 40th birthday party.  We had fun seeing their new place, visiting with family and some of their friends that I hadn't seen in ages, eating tasty food, and exploring the pond and golf course that's just beyond their backyard.  Took his middle child home with us for a sleepover.

June 26th: Took the kids and their cousin to see Brave...totally loved it.  Took the kids to the zoo at the end of the day.  Hardly anyone was there and we got our own little show of the polar bear swimming and diving right by the underwater viewing area.

June 29th: Kids both finished a session of swimming lessons.

July 4th: Spent the evening with hubby's brother and his family.  Tasty grilled steak and all sorts of sides for dinner and cupcakes and ice cream for dessert.  I made red, white and blue cupcakes - they were very cute.  I took a picture of the batter in the cups before baking then failed to get any shots of the finished products (blue frosting with white pearls on top) before they were gobbled up.  After dinner we played games and hung out until fireworks time.  We all drove over to my in-law's place to light them off there as fireworks are currently illegal up where we live and down at my bro-in-law's place due to the high fire danger this year.  It was a great evening that we all thoroughly enjoyed.

July 6th: One of my BFF's that I grew up with in California (Kim) moved here from Virginia.  I got to see her briefly the next day, we had them over for dinner that Sunday and then we got together a few times that following week.  Our friendship is the best kind there is - no matter how long we've been out of touch or whether we haven't talked in days or years, we can always pick up like no time has passed.  So thrilled to have her living a quick 7 minute/3 mile drive away!  The cherry on top is that our kids have all hit it off and absolutely love playing together.

July 13th: Busy day...  First the kiddies had swimming lessons followed by lunch at Kim's place with playtime for the kids and a little move-in work for us.  Later that afternoon we went to the zoo with my middle brother, Dave, his wife and most of their kids (5 our of 6) and my little brother's wife and their two kids.  It was a nice way to spend a little more time together before Dave and his family move to CT at the end of the month.  Afterwards I forced myself to take my kids to Tepanyaki for dinner.  It was fun, delicious and totally awesome and I managed okay in the end.  My daughter, on the other hand, did not manage okay and had a meltdown at the end of the meal as she whined over and over (and over), "I never get to do ANYTHING!"  It was my favorite part of the day.

July 14th: Kids finished another session of swimming lessons. The only thing Hudson had needed to master to pass his level was his freestyle with rotary breathing and he finally did it! Claire had a number of things to get done to move up and she really seemed to pick up a lot this time around. She can now jump off the diving board and swim to the side unassisted. Like her older brother, she's especially good at backstroke and easily switches from her tummy to her back then cruises along. Both kids advanced to their respective next levels.

July 17th: My sister and her three kids came in town for a good, long visit.

And that's where this re-cap post stops.  I want to do at least one separate post about the fun we had!