The Clock

April 2008-Early one mid April morning with the children in the car, we headed to the gym (Jungle Gym, as Jack likes to call it.), as we do most weekday mornings. Well this was a Thursday morning around 8:15am. While on my way, I noticed a cop car parked in the neighborhood that we have to drive through to get to the gym. (Cops park in this neighborhood regularly to control speed, as well as making sure people actually stop at the 3 way stop sign. [Jennyanne we know you got a ticket there...]) Well, I saw the cop and phew, I was going the speedlimit. I also made a full stop at the 3 way too. Well as I pulled into the gym, the cop was right behind me, flashing lights and all. I , of course, quickly pulled diagonally into a parking spot and anxiously awaited the cop to approach me.

As all cops do, he immediately said: "License and registration, m'am." The snippy and utterly confused person that I was, I asked him why he pulled me over. He then again said: "License and registration m'am." I told him that I wanted to know why he was pulling me over before I gave him my registration and license information. He asked me to get out of the car to show me that my registration had expired. I told him that we renewed it back in November, like we have for the past 3 years. I said that there must have been a mistake or someone must have taken our sticker off our car, but there is no reason why we don't have current registration on our car. Secondly, that would mean our license/registration expired over 6 MONTHS AGO and why in the heck hasn't cop noticed this before! Heck, how did Darrin and I not see this as well in our own car.

Well needless to say, I got a ticket and so spent the morning getting my car registered. Jack and Megan heard a few obscenities in the process, including: "Your dad is so stupid!" (**In our house, all car and house "problems/maintenance" issues are dad's responsibility.) So I was a little peeved that one-I had to spend the morning getting the car inspected and then registered with two little impatient children; Secondly, I had to explain to the DMV as to why we hadn't registered our car sooner. HHHHHmmm, let me think, Oh yeah, my husband forgot! Yes, he actually forgot; Thirdly, while waiting for our car to be inspected, I took the children over to Kneaders to get a cookie and milk. While at Kneaders, Jack threw his milk container (full of milk), which happened to nail a businessman having a meeting with other colleagues. (Fortunately, he said he had 7 children and so understood.) I was mortified; Lastly, I got the ticket and so had to go to the South Jordan County Building and pay for it, and yes with two little children.

So, as we ate dinner that night, the first thing Jack said to Darrin: "Daddy, mommy thinks you're stupid." Uh, Darrin, I don't think you are stupid, I was just mad and needed to blame somebody! I am so very sorry. Well, Darrin felt so bad for my awful day, that he surprised me after dinner (right after learning of my "comment" from his son) with this clock. ** Mind you, I have wanted this clock for almost 2 years now. I keep asking for it every major holiday. I finally got it. I admit that I was hoping to receive it under better circumstances, but hey, Darrin felt guilty enough to find it, buy it, and surprise me with it. I love it. It's a double sided clock too-PERFECT! I love you honey. Sorry for calling you stupid. Just please don't forget to register our cars. The Durango's up for renewal in August-consider this a reminder.