Worst part of moving...

I've decided that military members should have their own license plates. Seriously. There should be a federally funded vehicle registration program. I mean if they make me put a sticker on the front of my car, why can't they also just issue me a plate and we'll call it good.

Let me explain my frustration with vehicle registration: 2005 Mustang Saleen...aka "the yellow car" or "the other woman" or "daddy's car!!!"

When we purchased the Saleen, our home of record was Texas. However, Texas requires a plate on the rear and front of the car. Army Guy immediately poo-poo'd drilling holes into the front of the Saleen for a license plate. As we were recent (like 2 months prior) life long residents of Oklahoma and his parents still lived there, we voted for Oklahoma tags on it. I created a personalized tag. All was good and right with the world. Then we found out that Oklahoma offers a military rate plate for people who are either stationed in Oklahoma or legal residents of Oklahoma residing out of state and we got a heavy discount on our renewal fee. Whoo!

So for 5 years, we had it registered in Oklahoma without any problems. Then Oklahoma decided that it didn't like us anymore. I'm sure it's a revenue thing, but I took it personally. :) They changed the law to say that you either have to be stationed in Oklahoma OR and out of state resident that pays state income tax. Well, when Army Guy commissioned he listed my parents in Texas as our home of record as our address because well it was--so we don't pay OK state income tax. However, Oklahoma Tax Commission didn't feel it was necessary to tell me this information until AFTER they'd cashed my tag renewal check. Imagine my surprise when I opened what was supposed to be the renewal sticker and found a letter saying 'oh, by the way, we changed the law and you owe us $75 more...." After a ranting phone call to OTC, I decided to register the Saleen in TN, our current location. We already have the  truck (banana boat) and the van (mom mobile) registered here because we purchased them here. TN does an awesome program that allows soldiers who reside in TN but don't pay state tax to TN, to pay a minimum amount to register their vehicles here--just bring in your LES with your renewal and all is good. Whoo! So now I own three vehicles that are all registered in the state we live in. Whoo!

Insert Army.

We are now headed to the west coast....to a state that has emission laws....with a car that most likely will NOT pass an emission test because Army Guy tweaked with it. Good times. After thinking that we could renew it a little early and buy ourselves a year to think about what we were going to do about it, I called TN DMV today to confirm that thinking. Yah, I was wrong. And evidently I'm a complete idiot for even thinking that I could renew it a few months early, according to the old woman's tone at the DMV....after she used a double negative...but whatever. Soooo, now in addition to all of our normal PCS stress I have to figure out what to do with the Saleen's tag.

My options are as follows:
A) do a renewal by mail for TN and *pray* they don't notice our BAH zip change....
B) change registration back to the great state of OK while we drive through there on our way west right before Memorial Day (aka the end of the month...WORST TIME EVER at DMV)...assuming they don't need proof of residency and resign myself to paying $85 per year to keep Saleen from having stickers/plates up front
C) register it in our legal state of residency-TX...hope it passes inspection (usually it does though since it's so pretty...) and put 2 stickers on windshield and tag in front and live with really crabby Army Guy...this isn't really a viable option...
D) Hope and pray it passes CA smog test (which I've JUST been informed it won't...again....by Army Guy...) and register it there...another not real viable option.

So here's my thing...if Army just passed a law/bill/thingy that says as a spouse I can now pick one state as my "home of record" instead of having to change EVERYTHING (drivers license, plates, etc) every time I move because the Army moved my husband, why can't Army streamline vehicle registration?

And I'm sure there's tons of reasons why not...state revenue, Army & State relations, etc....but right now, I don't care. I just want a federal GOV tag for my freakin yellow car so I don't have to work in the DMV in Oklahoma, where they just can't seem to grasp how military works, after 9 hours in the car with 3 kids, 2 dogs and 1 husband, only 1/3rd of the way into our voyage.