Whenever Jason is gone.

So Jason is gone to Romania for the month. It is well known by Army spouses that whenever your soldier is away, it's all going to go wrong! It's always the worst with the cars though. Accidents, breakdowns, etc. Something has to go wrong with your car, it's a rule or something.

Today, I had "one of those days". I was pretty proud of myself though, I laughed as it happened.

I woke up late (I blame Liam) and Ilana missed the bus. My original plan for the day was to take my car up to Graf (half hour away) to get its registration renewed. Then head another half hour further that direction to Weiden to meet up with a bunch of ladies for a "goodbye" lunch date for one of our friends from the ward. Now I had to get three kids ready in half an hour and drive Ilana to Vilseck post (half hour drive in the opposite direction from Graf). Then the baby wanted to eat before we left (the nerve of some kids). Were we late? Of course.

I got Liam happy, Jack to school and on the road to Vilseck when a bird hit the front of my car.

What the heck?!

Actually, several birds set down in the middle of my road seconds before I, massive SUV, was upon them. One had his back to me, and realized that touching down in the middle of a road is not a good idea, a little too late. So technically, I hit him. But it was totally his fault! This only slightly traumatized me because, face it, that's one dumb bird and needed to be taken out of the gene pool. (You're Welcome.)

I almost get to Post and stop at an intersection. A lady directly across this huge intersection is motioning to me. I am seriously hoping the bird is not dangling from the front of my car. I wave her on that she can go before me. She keeps waving at me and I roll down my window. She yells at me across the expanse, "Your license plate just fell off your car!"

What the heck?!

I give her a big thumbs up and yell thanks! Put on my hazard lights and check out the front of the car. Sure enough, the plastic license holdy thing is smashed and there is no license in sight. I look under the car... nope, not there either. Run around the back and whew! There is my bent, and beat up, front license plate.

Funny enough this is not the first time my front license plate has fallen off in Europe. Come to think of it, Jason was gone then too! I was taking my best friend Catherine to the Prague airport. At the Czech boarder the guards motioned for me to come out of the car and around the front. My license plate was dangling from the (apparently useless) plastic holdy thing. The guards suggested I take out one of my shoe laces to tie it back in place. Dude! I'm a girl! Shoes are more important than license plates! Besides, what a good idea to have the driver wearing less than safe foot attire as they drive. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that the American system for securing a license to a car is superior to the European system.

Catherine managed to find tooth floss or scotch tape or some other random item in her suitcase to tie it up with. (The guards were kinda put out I wouldn't give up my shoe lace.) Winning her an excess of points for resourcefulness. Nice going Cat!

Anyways. I grab my license and take Ilana to school half an hour late. I then head over to the Car Care Center on Post. All the while sure that my plans for the day are shot! I look all around and find a new plastic license plate holder thingy ($7.98, figures). I nicely ask the guy at the counter if he can help me. He comes out to put the new holder on my car. (As an Army wife, you get real practiced at playing the damsel in distress while separated from your spouse. This is not flirting, its survival! Ohhh, that would make a great slogan for a deployment t-shirt.)

As he put the plate back on my car I see feathers stuck in the grill. I am feeling less and less bad about that bird.

I get in my car and wonder what will go wrong next. It is shaping up to be one of those days. I look in the mirror and see a gray hair!

What the heck?!

This is around the time I begin to laugh. I can't do any errands on post cuz nothing opens 'til 10am or 11am (slackers) and it's only 9:30am. So I decide to drive up to Graf (half hour away) and hope against all hope that the inspection (car registration) people aren't swamped already. Amazingly enough I make it through the whole renewal process and am out of there by 11am. I drive half an hour to Weiden and make my lunch date on time! Afterward, I drive half an hour to Vilseck and get all my errands done. Then I drive half an hour home to Auerbach, get Jack, run by the shop and get home minutes before Ilana gets off the bus. (In case you are wondering, Liam is a super good baby!)

At the bus stop I am laughingly relating my day to a neighbor and suddenly exclaim, "Ahh! A bug just flew down my shirt!" A few minutes later I squeak, "Ahh! It just flew out!" :) To this she replies, "You better go home before anything else happens." We head up to our house and as I open my front door I realize that we forgot to put our dog in her crate this morning. She has found several "interesting" objects to occupy herself with while we were gone which are now strewn throughout the house:)

All in all not really a bad day (honestly, that bird needed taking out) and everything kinda perfectly worked out. It was just weird, like how I only drove in half hour increments all day.

Jason, we miss you and all but seriously babe, hurry home.