No more "Driving Miss Daisy"

Miss T passed her UK driving exam the other day, and now has a full driving license. Who knew this day would arrive so soon? She even succeeded on her first attempt. Amazing, as the UK has a 42% pass rate for first time test-takers. Of course, she won't be doing too much driving in the coming year, as she's off to university this weekend, and freshers aren't allowed to have cars. Good thing too, as I think the insurance costs might just break us!

Just 19 years ago, Mr. D and I were plotting out financial scenarios involving the additional cost of sending a potential fourth child to college. A nice bar graph kind of thing, with bars for 2002-2006, 2004-2008, 2006-2010, and then 2008-2012. Kid 1, Kid 2, Kid 3 ... and now maybe Kid 4. We ran the numbers all kinds of ways, factoring in different amounts of money saved per year, and costs of college, and so on.

None of it made any sense. And in spite of that we went ahead and had that fourth kid anyway. Why not, after all? Life is short and children are wonderful.

And what a joy Miss T's been. She's beautiful and clever and grown up now, almost, and today's the day we drop her off for her first day of school at University of Edinburgh.

Who knew this day would arrive so soon?

I'm feeling more than a little bit welled-up.