I passed my G1 Driver’s test on Thursday! I’ve already been out driving with Mummy!
He said
One of the biggest things Emelia was looking forward ahead of her birthday this year was getting her G1. Her birthday came and went and we had a 16 with such a busy itinerary with her job, Cheer competitions and the end of her first semester of Grade 10, that this week was the first we could really hunker down and think about it. She had been diligently studying for the last few weeks, and had finally settled on writing the test this week. After Danielle sorted out all the ID that was necessary and found out thankfully that we didn’t need to renew her passport just to write the test, they decided on Thursday as the big day. While she did have some nerves going into the test, she scored 95% and got her pass. We have another driver in the house. Congratulations Emelia!
On the job front Emelia has really settled in there and is really enjoying it! She’s making new friends and is starting build up her savings account. She gets about 2-3 shifts a week and started to learn the value of working on stat holidays like Family Day where she can make time and a half. It’s been great to see her have her own money to spend and to start to recognize what it feels to spend money you worked hard to make. She’s always been fairly cost conscious, but we’ve seen her really start to think about how bad she “needs” something when she sees the money she made leave her bank account. I remember that that felt like I had my first gig at McDonald’s in high school—it was a pretty invaluable lesson and she’s doing better at it than I did.
We crossed over into March this past week which meant a new milestone for me to work at crossing on the bike. While the first few days of the month continued to bring me what moved my bike rides inside last week (read: a mixture of snow and ice) by Saturday this week the weather had turned back around and afforded me the luxury of getting back out on the bike. Yesterday and today I was able to get out in what was weather that convinced me more rides outside than inside are on the horizon. It got the 3rd month of the year under my belt which means I am a quarter of the way to my 12 for 12 months goal.
The other bike news this week is that – much to Danielle’s malaise – I made a significant upgrade to my bike this week. A set of carbon rim gravel wheels came up on Facebook Marketplace that had never been used. They were being sold by a Commonwealth Games triathlete that never had the chance to use them. She was selling them for an amazing price and the manufacturer (her wheel sponsor) was even going to extend me a one year warranty on them! They are the smaller 650b wheel size which will allow me to ride a wider tire, to go tubeless, and run a significantly lighter wheel set. We went to pick them up in Guelph on Saturday and my hope is to get them on in time to test out and then use in the Paris To Ancaster race at the end of April! The wider tire, lower volume and faster rolling speed will really come in handy for all the challenges of that epic race! The goal is to beat last year’s results! And, at the worst, have the same blast I did last year!
She said
This week was an “OMG we are old“ moments in our parenting life. Emelia before she turned 16 was determined that she was going to write her G1 test on her actual birthday. Well between term ending assessments/test, two Cheer comps, work and training she didn’t have the time she wanted to dedicate to studying for the test. By nature Emelia is an over-thinker and perfectionist, so if she wasn’t perfectly ready she wanted to wait a bit before rushing and not doing well on her test. So after Ontario’s were done she shifted gears and was on full prep for her drivers test mode. Another big motivator was the fact that she really wanted her G1 before the twins who’s birthday is 6 weeks after hers.
On Thursday Emelia and I made our way over after I was done work for the day to write the big test. After the nerves before she decided on the date she was not at all nervous going in to write the test. She was in and out in record time and nailed the test with a 95%!! She came out smiling from ear to ear pretty proud of herself. On our way home she was already asking if we could find time that night to go out and practice. She and I have been out every day since and she is really catching on very fast. We even ventured out outside our neighbourhood yesterday and she drove around the University and we got her on a more major road to try out more real driving conditions. She is a calm and careful driver and I could not be more proud. As we practice more and more we can prep her for the next stage which is driver’s ed.
As we rolled into the weekend another big storm hit our area and a good chunk of the province. John and I were waiting for Emelia to wrap up a girls night out with friends before braving the roads to pick Emelia and the twins up to bring them home. The girls were out celebrating their friend Brooke’s 16th birthday. They had an absolute blast and the three of them talked our ear off about how much fun they had. The next big birthday celebration for Emelia comes tomorrow when her lifelong besties turn 16 tomorrow. They are so excited to celebrate together! I love that they have celebrated every single year since they started school together. I love their friendship, even through the ups and downs they are always there for each other.
Today John and I were able go together to see Emelia and her training at cheer. John has not been able to see all the changes in person and it was great to see them all come together. They are all working so hard and it is looking amazing. Hopefully they can keep this momentum going and nail it in April at Nationals.