so, it happened...

We have another official licensed driver in the house!

Ryan's required 6 months of holding a permit was up and we headed over to the DMV to get his license. I would like to say it was an easy-peasy, in-and-out deal, but it wasn't.

There wasn't a long wait, which is always a plus, but once we got up to the assigned counter, the worker informed us that Ryan's scores from the high school's drivers ed program weren't in the system.

Wait, what?

There really wasn't anything to do at that point until I could speak with someone from drivers ed, so we went back to the car where I played a short game of phone tag, courtesy of the high school, and finally ended up speaking with the driving instructor.

That phone call wasn't without its hang-ups either.

First, we got disconnected, then the computer system kept kicking him out after entering the proper information. Finally, there was no trace of Ryan having even taken the roads test or the additional online test that was required.

At this point, Ryan was becoming frustrated, as you can imagine.

But, after providing more info, the instructor finally found Ryan's scores and entered them in. So we headed back into the DMV, waited in line for less than a minute, got a number, then made it up to the counter in another minute.

I did have a spark of panic when the lady was silent as she stared at her computer screen after she plugged in Ryan's info. My first thought was, "Oh, no! The info's still not there!" Ryan looked at me with a worried look and all I could do was stare back at him.

And then, the lady broke out into a smile and said, "Great! Your info is all there!"

Cue a chorus of angels.

After all of that, it was smooth sailing. He took his picture (which he deemed creepy-looking, lol), passed the vision test, signed on the appropriate line, and BOOM! He got his license.

Phew! Another milestone over and done with. I won't lie, though: this kid is really good at making me feel old. But, at the same time, I'm proud of him for accomplishing yet another goal. We have a good friend of my dad fixing up an older car that he'll sell us for Ryan, but in the meantime, our SUV will be used to polish up his driving skills.

Watch out, world! Ryan is behind the wheel!