It's Official. . .

We're Ohio residents!!

Last week, we spent a very productive 2 hours at the BMV (or DMV dependent on where you grew up) and became official Ohio residents.  This is the first time in 3 years that Steve and I both hold driver's licenses from the same state.  

We knew in advance that we would have to take a written test in order to get our new licenses.  We spent the night before studying the handbook and quizzing each other.  The next, I met Steve at the BMV during his lunch break.  We got there just a little after 11, but sadly, they weren't doing written tests until 12:30.  We were going to call it a bust and try again the next day, but we decided to see about switching our car titles to OH and getting new plates (especially since one of our car plates was about to expire!).

We had to go to the main branch downtown to take the test, but it worked out that the registrar (where you get your license), the testing center, and the title office were all in the same building!  We first went to the registrar to get our cars "inspected".  According to the manual that we so diligently studied, someone was going to inspect the car's steering column, lights, brakes, etc.  However, all the person did was right down the serial numbers, car make, and current license plate numbers.  Once that was completed, we headed to the Title office where they switched over the titles to Ohio.  

With new titles in hand, we had to head back to the registrar to get the plates.  The lady was really friendly and asking all about us, why we had moved to Ohio, how long we've been married (people find it hard to believe when we answer almost three years!), etc.  Once we got the plates, it was just a little after noon.  Steve's lunch hour was pretty much over, but he decided that whether he came back the same day or just took an extended lunch would be the same amount of time away from work.  So we waited until the doors to the testing center were opened (quite a line was forming, luckily, we were 4th in line!).  The tests were done on a computer.  You only had to get 30 out of 40 questions right.  Once you got 30 right (regardless of what question you were on), you got a congratulations screen.  

After completing the tests, we headed back to the registrar (where we were very well known by this point).  Another lady helped us out and asked us all the same questions the first lady had (she too couldn't believe 3 years of marriage).  We filled out the paper work, got our pictures taken (which are actually 2 of the best pictures of us!) and got our new licenses!!  As the lady handed them over, she made a big announcement to the room congratulating us on being official residents.  It was comical after being there for 2 hours.  

In other news, blogspot (where my blog is posted) has undergone some updates and shows me different stats about the blog.  According to the stats, I've had almost 10,000 views since starting the blog in 2010.  1,000 of those views were from this month alone (I'll thank Europe for that).  It also breaks down where the views come from -- largely the US, with 5 hits in Germany, 4 in Russia, 1 in Poland (dad???), and 1 in Turkey.  It's crazy to think that people besides just family reads this.  If you are a faithful reader I'd love to get to know you via comments!!