Passports & Sprinkler Heads

There’s a whole long story that goes along w/ this picture, but I’ll just tell the shortened/condensed version. Autumn & I both need passports in case we want to go on a cruise or do any international traveling someday. So, I filled out all the ppwk online, ordered a certified birth certificate for Autumn, and got a certified copy of my divorce decree. I tried calling the local post office to see if I needed to make an appointment, but their phone lines were always busy, no matter what time of day I called.

Autumn’s daycare was closed today for teacher training, so I got to leave work at 2:00 so Nick could go to work (he was w/ her today at home while I was at work). I rushed home, picked Autumn up at 2:30 and we hurried over to the post office b/c they quit accepting passport applications at 3:00. We walked in at 2:40 only to be told that their photo machine is broken!!! I was SO MAD, b/c this was the only day we could do it since Autumn is starting school and I was off of work. If they would answer their stikin’ phone they could have told me that and I could have planned on going somewhere else. They suggested I go have the pics done at Walgreens or CVS, but that wouldn’t work for 2 reasons. One is that the passport place usually won’t accept pictures that aren’t taken at the post office b/c they pictures have to meet EXACT criteria and the picture people at drug stores or WalMart aren’t careful to make sure the pictures meet those specifications. The 2nd reason is that we wouldn’t have had time to go get our pictures and make it back to the post office in time.

I left the post office w/ steam coming out of my ears. I hurried and called the post office in the next town over. By this time it was 2:45, but they said if we HURRIED they would try and squeeze us in. I was SO THANKFUL that there wasn’t bad traffic and we were able to speed and get there by 2:58. We ran into the post office only to see that the line was really long. My heart sank, but we got in line anyways. The post office worker that was doing passports came to check on how long the line was at 3:10 and said that she would stay until everyone that was in line was finished. There was one lady behind us, and she was the last one. Autumn & I finally got our passport pictures and application processed at 3:40! I was SO THANKFUL we made it and got those sent off.

We came home, had some dinner, and then I went and dropped Autumn off at cheer practice. I noticed that one of our sprinkler heads was broken, so I decided to fix it tonight. This is one of those times when it would be reeeeeeally nice to have a handy husband around. But since I have no husband, I learned how to do it and fixed it myself!!! Woot woot!!! (This is obviously a "before" pic!)

I went and got Autumn and this was the beautiful sunset. I just love Texas sunrises and sunsets. Today ended up being very productive.