I have a lot of catching up to do!! It has been a long week already. Last week we had a rough week, and this week has been...I guess good, but stressful. I got the Disney travel stuff worked out, including the updated invoice for my brother's booking, and the cancelation of his BIL's booking, so that is all taken care of. Tuesday, I didn't have to work until the evening, and I had ordered some shirts from a store in town and had gotten an email that they were in. So I decided to go pick them up and get a new bike seat since it's been painful to ride the last few weeks....turns out one of the braces under the seat was broken. So I got a new seat, wider and more sturdy and it is HEAVEN. So much more comfortable. And I picked up some shorts for DS and some swim trunks for him, which he will need at School Camp in a few weeks, and of course at Disney. So I had had a very productive afternoon, and I went and picked up DS from school, got home and decided I'd better get my stuff together for my appointment to pick up my new residency card. It's a pain in the tushy because you have to apply for the card in Utrecht, and wait until they approve it, and then pick up the card in Zwolle, neither of which are close to me. I applied back in November and FINALLY got the letter that I was approved for permanent residence 2 weeks ago. So, I had to set up an appointment to go to Zwolle.
I now have to give my availability at work 3 full weeks in advance at work, but fortunately, I've been setting each Wednesday as "not available" so I can get things done around the house and get DS to physical therapy, schedule our parenting training for autism, etc. Wednesday is a half day for DS. Today is Ascension Day, so the kids don't have school today or tomorrow....long weekend. I thought, Oh, I can pick up the card on Friday since the kids don't have school, so I don't have to worry about picking A up from school. But the immigration office is closed tomorrow. Trying to plan around school schedules....yuck. Fortunately, DD had a free day yesterday from school. So we set up an appointment for 3:55....the latest they have, so we would have time to pick up A from school at 12:30, I didn't have to work, and we could all go to Zwolle and just eat somewhere in Zwolle so we didn't have to make E eat by herself at home or eat late once we got home. We set this up 2 weeks ago.
So Tuesday, I look at the letter to see what I need to bring, and start gathering my documents together. One of the things I need is my valid passport. I knew it was still valid...it expires next year, but I got to thinking I should make sure I know exactly when I need to renew it. So I look at the expiration date....January of 2020. Oh no. January. We are traveling to Disney this July and aren't coming back until halfway through August....that means it will expire within 6 months of our travel. I remember
@RedNoseMickey 's experience in which she wasn't allowed to travel because her passport expired a few weeks or months after she would get back and they told her she needed it to be valid for at least 6 months after her travel. I need a new passport. I look on line...passports take 4-6 weeks. We leave in 7 weeks. I need to apply NOW.
So I get on the Consulate website and I'm desperately trying to get everything organized...I can't print off the form here at home, so I sent the link to my husband at work, and he starts asking me all these questions, distracting me while I'm trying to figure out what I need. So I was getting frustrated with him, because he's saying I need this other form so I can do it by mail, and I'm telling him, no, the website says I CAN'T use that form, I HAVE to use this form and do it in person at the consulate in Amsterdam. And he's reading the wrong information and second guessing all the stuff I'm finding on the consulate site. I finally had to tell him to STOP DISTRACTING ME!!
You have to make an appointment at the consulate to apply for a passport renewal. The problem is, there was only ONE appointment slot until June 18th....and that appointment slot was yesterday (Wednesday) morning at 8:15. But I had to be in Zwolle in the afternoon. And A still had school...a half day. How do we get him to school at 8:30 am while we need to be in Amsterdam, an hour and a half drive, at 8:15am? And I need a US passport photo, which has different requirements than the Dutch passport photo. Last time, I had to go to Arnhem to find someone who could do US passport photos. And it was now 4:30 pm, I had to work at 7....I had 2 and a half hours to find someone who can do a US passport photo and we still had to get dinner before I had to work. Fortunately, there's an office supply store just a couple of blocks away that does passport pictures, and she can change the format in the software she uses to do US ones. THANK HEAVEN! So I quickly snatched up the 8:15 appointment for the consulate, ran to get my photo done, I'm looking at the requirements as I'm walking, brought my current passport, marriage cert, birth cert. along to make photo copies because you need that for the passport, run back home, DH ordered pizza. It was so so stressful and not at all what I needed right after dealing with the Disney booking debaucle. We ended up having to call DS in sick to school because we had no way to get him to school as we would be in Amsterdam at the time he needed to go. So we got up at 4:00am, got showered and dressed, left at 5:00, dropped A off at Oma and Opa's, drove to Amsterdam to turn in all my stuff for a new passport (which they said 7-10 work
days, NOT 4-6
weeks), drove home, picked up A, Picked up E from home, and drove to Zwolle to get my resident card, ate dinner as planned, and got home at 9:30 last night. Longest. Day. Ever. I completely crashed when we got home. But it's done. I have to go pick up the passport in a couple of weeks, but you don't need an appointment to pick it up, so we can go when DS has a whole day of school and we can just drop him off, drive straight to Amsterdam, pick up the new passport and be home in time to pick A up from school again.
I tell ya, I think I have had a year or two sucked from my life in the last week. And DH had to go into the office today when he was supposed to be free to make up the time he missed yesterday driving me to Amsterdam and back. At least he has tomorrow off, too, so we still have a long weekend.
Oh, and I am happy to also report that I got a message from my friend who was trying to get her son into my DS's school because they were trying to make her son go to the lowest level of school that is meant for kids with massive cognitive handicaps, etc. I don't know what happened, but she must have listened to me and enrolled him herself, because her son's school refused to enroll him in A's school. I told her that they won't tell you this, but you can enroll him yourself and then you just need to get the committee to approve your application...it doesn't have to come through his current school. Anyway, she sent me a message to say they have a meeting next Wednesday with the principal at A's school, and if all goes well, D can start there on Thursday, and he'll start in 5th grade until the end of this school year to get used to the school, and then next year, he can redo 6th grade. That way they can assess him next year to see where he actually belongs in high school.
Good week. STRESSFUL week....but good.
