Breath, just breath...

8/19/11
In fact, take some big deep breathes!  We are in the midst of teaching the oldest DD to drive.  She acquired her permit last week and is taking driver's ed this semester in school.  It will only be another 5 weeks or so before the teacher takes them out on the road.  We have a lot of work to do!!!

So far she has driven only in the neighborhood.  We started last Saturday up in a new development where there were minimal cars.  Then we added some time around an empty school building to show her she didn't know as much as she thought she did.  Then she got to drive home from that same school building at night with the whole family in the car.  It is only a couple of blocks from our home and we made her stop before she got to the driveway.

Later this week, she was allowed to drive from a church in the neighborhood to home.  The first time, she was not allowed to park, the second time she was.  She did great.  You should know that our driveway is a single car width and we have a fire hydrant and a telephone pole to one side of it.  Makes it a tough turn from the right but turning from the left as she did the first time is not too hard.  Then on the same evening, her father let her drive home from the school and park in the driveway but this was the right hand turn.  I was not in the car but I hear it took 3 tries.

8/20/11
So this morning I got up early with DD and hit the streets.  We left the house just after 6AM with her driving.  First we drove to the church.  It was a little scary.  We had much discussion about how slow one must drive to make a turn.  We missed one intersection because she was going too fast.  We made it to the church  though with no incidents.  After parking there, we discussed our next destination, her school. 

So off we went through the heart of downtown.  We traveled a smaller road (Holmes Ave.) through town and out to the research park.  We did meet some walkers out in the park who thought it would be okay to walk in the left turn lane.  Uhmmm.... NO!  I'm trying to teach a 15 year old how to drive here!  You walking in the middle of the road is not good!  She did hit one curb after a turn but that was minor.  After reaching the school, I changed places with her and drove back toward home.   By this time traffic was beginning to pick up a little .  We reached the five points area where traffic let up a bit and I let her drive the rest of the way home.  I actually had her turn at A. Jackson Way and go up to I-565.  She drove from AJW to Maysville (sequential interchanges) and did an okay job.  Traffic was pretty light and the speed limit is reduced currently due to a repaving project.  It was her first time to drive more than 40mph.

After driving for 30+ years, it can be hard to remember what it felt like to drive in the beginning. This week has brought back lots of memories!


I'm fairly certain that she will be able to handle 'behind the wheel' when that portion of her class starts.  I will be spending a lot of time in prayer!!!  We would covet all prayers for both her safety and our sanity!!!