Getting my Military (spouse) ID Card

This morning I had an appointment to go get my military ID card.  The one that will allow me to go on post, shop at the PX or the commissary, play at the on post bowling alley, be treated at the medical facilities, etc.  I had to drive an hour away to the closest military base to turn in some paperwork, smile at the camera, and pick up my ID card.  Easy enough, right?  My parents were kind enough to watch the baby for me, so it was just me and Emily.  She was getting an ID card too!

I arrived early because I had given myself lots of extra time “just in case”, so I stopped by Starbucks for a bathroom break, an iced tea for me and a fruit pouch for Emily before heading to my appointment.  Once I was called in, it took less than 10 minutes to get our cards.  I said thanks, and headed out.  As I was on my way to the next stop (the hospital to sign up for the health plan), I looked at my ID card.

Pretty cool! I have a military (spouse) ID card!  Oh wait, what’s that?  Uh-Oh! My birthday was wrong.  By a few months.  The numbers of the month/day didn’t even match mine at all.  Very odd.

So I went back.  I assumed the Army would want something like this to be correct 

Turns out, it was wrong in the system.  It must have been entered wrong by the person that took the information from Hubby.  Since it’s wrong in the system, it prints wrong on the paperwork, and on the card.

No problem, here is my license that shows my birthday so we can change it, right?  Right?  What do you mean, no?  Turns out they need my birth certificate to change it.  Of course they do.

But, Hubby has my birth certificate with him (in another state) because he needed it for paperwork.   I can’t visit him for a couple weeks or so….and he’s in a period where I can’t talk to him on the phone to ask him about getting it from him.  I do not live in the state I was born in, so I can’t just run and pick up a new one.  I’ll have to mail order it.  Even with paying the expediting fees, it won’t be processed for a couple weeks.  I NEED to get my ID corrected so that I can sign up for the proper health plan.  Plus, even though this one will get me on post, I could potentially run into trouble if I need medical care and my birthdays don’t match.

UGH.

So, I email Hubby asking him if I could come get it from him, or if he could just drop it in the mail.  If I don’t hear from him by Monday, I’ll just order one and hope for the best.

Then, I get a call from him tonight!!! He had not checked his email but was able to call for a few minutes.  I fill him in, and we try to figure out what to do.  He could go buy some envelopes once he gets a pass to go to the PX and then mail it to me in a couple days.  I could come pick it up, but I wouldn’t get to see him because he doesn’t have a pass yet.  I didn’t like that option because Emily would NOT be happy with me dragging her on a long car trip to where Daddy is, but not get to see him!  So, we went with him mailing it.

As we continued our conversation, suddenly it hits him!  He does NOT have my birth certificate!  He ended up taking my passport instead.  So that means it’s here.  Somewhere.  I looked where I usually keep it and it wasn’t there. Then it dawned on us! It’s in the folder with the foster care paperwork because we needed it for that.  I checked, and sure enough it was there!

YAY!!! So, now all I have to do is make another appointment for next week, take them my birth certificate and get the ID card fixed.  Crisis averted!  Honestly, I know that stuff like this will happen.  It does in any corporation, so it’s definitely going to happen in the Army too.  No since getting all worked up about it.  We’ll just call it my initiation 

If you are a Facebook friend, you know my anxiety about having my picture taken because I woke up with a huge cold sore on the front of my nose!  Today of all days!  Turns out, the picture is about an inch square and in black & white.  I could hardly make out my eyes, let alone my nose, so it didn’t show up at all! Whew!

I get these cold sores from time to time when I’m under a lot of stress.  Even good stress evidently.  My mom gets them on her lip, but I always get them on/in my nose.  Not fun either way!  It’s been a long time since I had one, and hopefully it will be a looooooong time before I have another.  Lysine, by the way, is the miracle drug for these things!! I take Super Lysine at the first hint of a cold sore.  6000mg a day! It really helps knock it out much faster.  In case it ever happens to you, I highly recommend taking Lysine.