dating -- mormon style

When I woke up this morning, I definitely felt refreshed.

Yesterday was kind of a long day. There was a lot of driving to AR (not AK as I previously stated), and with so many children, I almost lost my mind. Luckily, when we got home, everyone kinda dropped in their respective areas and watched TV for the rest of the night. That's a good thing for them, because I was practically hyperventilating. I was SO stressed out.

I woke up to the sound of fighting, which is lovely, but I pulled through it. It ended up being pretty relaxing. That is, until about 9 o'clock.

Adrienne, one of my friends from church, has wanted to go on a group date for FOREVER (not exaggerating here) with a couple of chumps from Rolla (both are named Trent). On Thursday, she awoke me from a lovely nap to suggest a date for today. I have this kinda weird feeling about dating ... like, I hate the planning, but I love the actual dating. So I felt a little apprehensive, but Adrienne really took care of all of it. All I had to do was find someone to go with.

I have this curse that seems to come with dating. I have never really gone on an ACTUAL group date, because I have a hard time finding people that have time to go. Every time, I plan this huge group effort, but it always ends up just being me and the other guy I invited. With my fingers crossed, I called Trent early this morning (I procrastinate freely).

"Trent?" I asked warily into the speaker part of my mom's iPhone. He had just woken up and sounded preeetty groggy. "How do you feel about going on a date ... today?" Silence, and then a muffled, "Oh, no." Trent actually had a b-day party to go to today. So, I tried to make it sound like it didn't really matter, but inside I was panicking. I don't do well thinking of people that I can date under pressure. That is a little fact I found out about myself a LONG time ago. So, I called up Adrienne. And got her voicemail.

Needless to say, I was freaking out ... and it wasn't even ten. I hadn't showered! I had to clean my Nandy's house. It was a little overwhelming, especially because baby Q needed to get dressed and has kind of latched on to me as her surrogate mother.

I don't think I will be having those 23 children I've dreamed of.

When she called me back, I suggested the impossible ... "Maybe ... just maybe, we can postpone the date?" After all, with another weeks notice, it would be way easier to get everyone together (once again with my procrastinating). When she insisted that wouldn't work, I got another call from Trent. I hate talking on the phone, so this was a pretty awful way to start off a hectic day.

"Hey, I decided not to go to the party. There will be another one ..."

Thank goodness.

I cleaned my Nandy's house in record time and then sped home to get ready. The plan was a little hazy ... but I knew it involved the river, so I didn't try too hard to look super fancy.

We met at Wal-mart and found the Trent's playing with the watermelons, which doesn't surprise me one bit. After observing some Guatemalan mini-bananas, we started to collect some picnic food: spicy Doritos, bar-b-cue chicken, cosmic brownies. It was quite an enticing meal that would definitely prevent any really intimacy. :) Hallelujah.

After some trouble locating Adrienne's car in the parking lot, with some grumbling from our chauffeur, Trent W., we were on our way to the ever fabulous, ever crowded Waynesville park. The picnic was ... interesting. With some homemade chopsticks in tow, we left our little ghetto picnic ground and went to one of the scariest and most thrilling places in my life.

The things I have heard about the Bluff in Waynesville have been mixed. One idiot fell off the top when he leaned a little too far over and broke every rib in his body. Others have said it's breath taking.

I found both to be true. The climb was treacherous, but the view was beautiful. You could see forever, and then some. I felt so close to EVERYTHING, but also, so far away. It was very content there up at the top, especially when I could calm down my heaving deep breaths. But all good things must come to an end in my life, but it sometimes rocks when it leads straight to something awesome.

We climbed/slid down to the river. Since the Roubidoux is right next to a cold spring, the water was FREEZING, but it felt SO good. There were trees that were great for jumping off of, even though I wouldn't go super high up. There were great parts for swimming, but there were great parts for wading. It was really fun! I can't really say anything more of it. Except I got a wicked sunburn from the water evaporating off of my face. :( Boooooo!

After Trent crocodile dunked me a bazillion times, and each of us contracted a bit of tetanus, our little group was pooped. At least, I was. We watched the cutest kids at the water park and then got into our nice clothes.

The day ended with ice cream and the rip-off fair.

As we pulled up to my house, 8 kids were racing up to greet me, and a random dead dog was in my neighbor's yard.

Day successful? I think so.