Two Important Dates

I wanted to make note of a couple of important dates:

October 28th.

Jeffrey hit the 18 month mark on his mission. How did that happen? His mission is 3/4 over. He will be home in 6 months.

Time has gone by very quickly. Yet it also feels like he has been gone forever.

I'm so proud of him for choosing to dedicate two years to serving the Lord. I love this picture. I think it shows how happy he is to have made that choice.

October 29th.

Scott turned 18. And I don't have a picture. What a bad mom I am.

I'm finding it hard to believe that MY BABY IS 18! I'm getting old.

Scott's a great kid. I actually enjoy having him around. I'm grateful for his strong desire to do what's right and for his love of the gospel. In a little over a year, he'll be serving a mission. Following in his older brothers' footsteps.

It's exciting to recognize these important dates in Jeffrey and Scott's lives. I'm proud to be their mom.

The Driving Test

Scott is a licensed driver! Woo hoo!

But it wasn't easy.

The whole ordeal started a couple of weeks ago when Scott and I went to the DPS near us and discovered he would have to wait six weeks to take his driving test. We weren't happy about that, but weren't sure what we could do about it.

I had heard that the DPS an hour from us had shorter wait times, but the only way to find out would be to drive there. The DPS is too busy to answer their phones any more (as the message on their phone so nicely states). I wasn't thrilled with the idea of the drive, but one morning I got up and did it. I made the drive.

The only good thing? There's a very nice Buc-ee's along the way. I love Buc-ee's! (And if you don't know what Buc-ee's is, that's your loss)!

After waiting a few minutes, it was my turn. I asked the nice woman behind the counter how long the wait for the driving test was. She told me they were making appointments for a week from that day. I asked her if there was any way we could change Scott's appointment to their location. She asked if he was with me, I said no, but I had his permit. She took it, looked him up online, and asked when the following Friday we would like to come in. I left their office with an appointment for Scott the next Friday! Hallelujah!

The day finally arrived. We made the long drive to the DPS. After waiting a little bit, Scott and the DPS tester went out to the car. About 15 minutes later they walked back in.

Scott was not happy.

Apparently he had hit the curb while parallel parking (which is the first thing on the test). This was enough for the tester to flunk him. He didn't even let him do any driving. Because he hit the curb while parallel parking. (I'm still not sure what they were doing out there for 15 minutes).

We were very annoyed, to put it mildly. We rescheduled for the following Monday - 10 long days away.

It was not a fun hour drive home.

I blame myself for his parallel parking problems. With Robert working in Salt Lake City, it fell to me to teach Scott to parallel park. I'm a pretty good driver, but I'm not a good parallel parker. I understand how to do it, but the execution isn't always good. Also, the night before his test, we had driven to the DPS closer to us to practice in their parallel parking area. He was doing great there. The problem is that their parallel parking spot is about 2 feet deeper than the parallel parking spot where Scott took his test. So he got used to going further into the spot.

But even if he had hit the curb, that seems to be a stupid reason to not let him continue the test.

Fortunately Robert came home the weekend before the retest. So on Saturday we made the hour long drive to the DPS so Scott could practice parallel parking there. And receive coaching from Robert - who is a very good parallel parker. By the time we left, Scott had parallel parking down.

Monday morning we made the long drive back to the DPS. Unfortunately he had to retest with the same guy.

Fortunately we had a much better outcome this time. He passed!

As we waited at the desk for the tester to complete the paperwork, he told Scott that he needed to work on relaxing while he was driving. Really?!? This man had already failed Scott once, and he expected him to be relaxed while driving with him? I really had to bite my tongue to keep from saying something!

Needless to say, it was a much pleasanter ride home!

And now my baby is a licensed driver. Here he is in front of his sweet ride:

(Okay, it's not a sweet ride. But it's ride. And that's all that Scott cares about.)

It's nice to have him driving. But now he's really independent. And that's a little bit sad.

Steve Jobs

I was sad to hear of the passing of Steve Jobs yesterday. What an incredible innovator he was. My life has been impacted by his genius.

I have an iMac and a MacBook Pro, and I'm constantly amazed at how easy they are to use.

I've had an iPod Shuffle and I currently have an iPod Touch. The majority of my music is stored on my iPod. With a simple touch I can choose between a wide variety of music.

I've only had my iPhone for a month, but I already love it and can't imagine having any other phone.

iTunes was a lifesaver in Italy. It was the only way I could download Criminal Minds every week (and you know how I love Criminal Minds).

I'm sad that he won't be around to create more Apple products.

But I'm sadder for his family. He leaves behind a wife and children who will miss him very much.

Steve Jobs was only 56. Only 5 years older than me. Way too young.

R.I.P., Steve Jobs. You will be missed.