Driving

Getting this kiddo a driver's licence was definitely an experience...

The process started way back in May with Driver's Ed and then the summer of accumulating 50 hours of driving experience... with at least a waiting period of 6 months and then finally she was ready to take the skills test. So weird that Idaho requires you to take the driving part of the test first. You don't just head to the DMV and do the test with a cop, you have to schedule the appointment with an outside driving instructor... which are virtually impossible to get a hold of during the day... but she did and had an appointment the first part of December. It snowed and thawed and rained 2 days before the drive and so we did a little "crash course" on winter ice driving just before the appointment. We waited and waited and then we get a call... the drive instructor realized her own driver's licence had expired and when she went down to the DMV to renew her license... the ENTIRE STATE of IDAHO DMV's computers were down!

So yep we went from the happy girl face to this...(went for a milkshake to ease the stress)

It took like 4-5 days to get the DMV computers back up and working and so a week later with still no word from the driver instructor, she called again and left a message asking if she could reschedule her drive. The person never called back!! She begged me to call someone else for her but I said, "If you really want your license then you will suck it up and call... she started at the top of the sheet and called every single person until someone answered!

Her drive got scheduled just before winter break and when we woke up that Saturday morning it had SNOWED... like 4-5 inches and was continuously snowing... I really debated whether we should cancel. I knew she was going to have to go on the interstate and going the speed limit while the roads were crap was something she didn't have experience in... she wanted to try it and so down to the parking lot we went and we waited and waited for the drive instructor. Thirty minutes after our scheduled appointment he shows up... he says sorry for the delay the road were awful driving in! But she went and guess who had to sit in the back and not talk during the worse day of the year to take a driving test?!?

She got docked when the slush on the freeway started to pull her off the road and he calmly says, "I need you to move over more into the center of the lane." While I'm gripping the back seat! And then the other point she got docked came when she made a right hand turn from the center lane because the snow was covering up the lines and it was on a road she was unfamiliar with... but low and behold she passed!!!

During the middle of all this December craziness... there were Christmas choir concerts, and Christmas piano recitals and last minute projects due... plus all the prep leading up to Christmas. And in the midst of all this I ask my coworkers if they have ever bought a car at the auction... which we decided to attend. My friend says, "Wait my son is planning on selling his 96 Honda Accord."  I'm intrigued and ask her to get me the details... it's a stick shift! So one late night... we go and look at the car and do a little crash course in "how to drive a stick" to see if this is even a possibility or a deal breaker...

I think she was pretty determined she was going to make this work for she did fairly well and we felt confident enough that she'd get it with more practice... plus the price was right...$500 and it just had new tires and brakes a couple weeks before. It needed a deep cleaning... a stereo and some little projects that the Daddy was super excited about!

It came home with us a few days later and we went to get it licensed... can you believe how perfect the plates were that got issued to us... I mean seriously her initials and she's 15!! So Cool.

She wasn't officially an independent driver yet... she still had to pass the written test. We suggested that she reread the driver's manual again since it had been 6 months but she certainly thought she was ready... ya nope didn't pass! She missed the cut off by 2 points... she was so mad..did not want any "honey you'll get it next time comments". We came home and she said, "I am going to go sit in my car and do my homework." Ha! We wait the required 3 days and she must have done some better studying for the 2nd time she got a 100%!

She is officially an independent driver... well a daytime driver at least until she is 16!