Well, the Lumina has a new car buddy… little Sapphire is home. So far, they are getting along pretty well. Side by side out in the cold, rainy October night. Almost makes me feel bad that they are out there getting cold and rained on and will be covered with snow and all that. Poor things. But at least they can hang out together now.

We went today and picked up the Sable wagon. Jessy’s first car. What a big day. She woke me up, which is quite unusual. Usually she and Maggie, like all good teenagers, can sleep in till the cows come home. Champion sleeper-iners…. but she woke me up and was all dressed and ready to go even though her Dad was due for another 3 hours.

We got there and of course, had a lot of paperwork to sign.

But it wasn’t long before she was in the driver’s seat with her brand new keys and her cute little wagon. Dad got a chance to take the first spin in the new to Jessy car! (It’s a 1997 Mercury Sable wagon…. beautiful blue if you ask me!)

He treated her to the first tank of gas and grabbed a coffee for the rest of the ride. Only fitting, he bought her the wheels… he got to take the first lap on the new race of life that she’s starting.

But then Maggie and I got to ride home with her, back to Ohio! We bought the car over the border in Michigan… not too far. The people at the dealership were just awful nice and it was a joy to work with them. Telegraph Auto Sales in Charleton Michigan.

Maggie found a little truck she liked…. and of course, she had to tell me that it was only 7 months till she could get her driver’s permit. 7 months. What? 7 months? Oh my gosh. I just got my late late bloomer driver into a car… and now my OH-MY-GOSH-I-CAN’T-WAIT-To-DRIVE kid is raring to go. I’m not sure I can handle that yet. But I’m not surprised, she struck me as a little truck driver easily. She’s not into sedans or little cars or what have you. And not the huge trucks either. She likes the little in-between trucks…. like a Ranger or a S-10 or something like that. We’ll see.

Don’t think we can afford another car purchase for a year or two and besides, I can’t think of where she’d be going anyway. She’ll have to cool her jets and start saving if she wants one real soon! I told her when she graduates and starts college or a trade school, then we’ll talk.

Well, we had to stop and get a few things for the new baby… like a fuzzy steering wheel cover, and a dragon emblazoned seat cover and a compass. (She has no clue to north and west and all that really….) And the most important thing you know… one of those injectable cassette things that you can then hook to your ipod. Music is important, you know to a teen driver.

And then we head to the local coney island hot dog joint we like, for a celebration dinner! Yeah! She drove over 50 miles and only scared me once! Actually she did pretty darn well. We stopped at two different friends on the pathway to show off the new baby and get happy clapping and hugs. It was a special day in the life of a growing up young woman. And a little rough on this old mom. Just a little emotional. I was super happy for her, but a little of me was kinda thinking that it was only a little bit ago that her first real mobility was that hot pink sparkle bike with the training wheels that she so timidly rode up and down the sidewalk. I felt a little pang and worry in my heart watching when Daddy took the training wheels off and ran along aside her a time or two until she got it and didn’t need him.

Or that beautiful tall black pony named Little Bit that she rode gracefully all summer long at lessons. And how my heart would leap in my throat when I watched that little 10 year old girl guiding that big pounding horse around the arena at a gallop and watch the big smile on her face when they glided to a stop at the fence to ask how they looked.

So when we got home and she dashed in the house and got her Ipod and her cat and went out to sit in the new car and put on the wheel cover and the seat cover and play with the radio and hang out with her conehead kitty…. I knew right then and there, she was ready once again to head out and move at her own speed and put me in that weird mother place… proud to death of her accomplishment and yet, hoping, just a little bit that we could go back to the training wheels and the sparkly bike.

Just for a little longer.