Applying for a Passport

 Without being able to give you instructions or even a picture, I feel like I cheated you out of my last blog post so you guys can enjoy two today.

I am in the process of applying for a new passport because my family is going to Club Med in the Dominican Republic next summer. I had a passport but not only did it expire and not have my married name on it, I was under 16 when I got it so I couldn't just renew it. When I originally got my passport, it was before the price increase and before we started needing passports to go to Canada so it was a really simple, cheaper process.

I am excited for the trip but this passport business had me stressed out! For one thing, I never unpacked my old passport (needed for my new application) from when I got married and moved here so it took David and I a lot of ransacking the house to find. (We still don't have everything unpacked, especially the things that go in rooms that aren't finished yet. It's really rather annoying and I can't wait to have it all unpacked and organized.)

Then, not only do I have to apply for a passport (which I'm probably making a bigger deal than it is), I need to get Teeny (my unborn baby) a passport too. So I'll have to repeat the whole process after they're born. We will probably  need to get it expedited too (which is more money of course) because of the short amount of time (really a couple months but passports can take a LONG time to get to you) between when Teeny is due and when the trip is.

Of course I need to do all this stuff as quick as I can because I believe me and Teeny are the only family members going that don't still have a valid passport from the last family trip (it's David's family that takes pretty much everybody on a trip. It's every other year and even kid's passports last five years so unless anyone else new was born or married into the family, everyone already has theirs). This is stressing me out a lot more than it should be but at least I finished the paperwork for mine and I am getting my picture taken this weekend. Next week, I'll be able to go to the office and actually apply. Then I don't have to worry about it until Teeny's.

The one silver lining in all of this is that I am able to apply right now with the government shut down. Otherwise, this would be an even bigger mess.