What's On My Happy List?

 

Prom

Awe…Junior Prom! …The dance of all high school dances. It elicits all types of emotions, does it not? good OR bad. haha. I don't think I went with who I thought I would or wanted to go with {but who does? I'd like to take a poll on that.} A sophomore friend and neighbor, who is now gay, {back then I'm not sure, haha} asked me. Good looking, great guy! But it left me, I remember, with a major dilemma. I had to find my own promenade dance partner who was a JUNIOR, who didn't already have a date!  Not the easiest of tasks. A guy in my ward {my first ever crush}, who wasn't going to the dance {shy kid}, agreed to rent a tux, come and do the special dance with me. He's since been in prison for shooting an officer. "Gee mom," my girls ask me, "what's up with your taste in guys?" 

When I think back to my Jr. Prom experience, it was good memory for me. {Other than the ginormous zit on my face!} I remember coming home from my Prom and CRYING because it was OVER. Needless to say I was a little attached to the whole Prom experience…because I got to help plan it. Fun! Look at us Jr. Class officers from April 1989! Cracks me up! The dresses.. haha {I'm rock'in the green lace} and the poofy bangs and overall 80's hair. Goodness. Styles have changed.

Can’t believe my oldest has actually reached that PROM milestone. I think Kyleigh is one that has been dreaming about this night since she was six years old! So ya know it was a pretty big deal for her. Which ends up being a big deal to me. 

Kyleigh, Kyleigh, Kyleigh, what a girl! She tries to be friendly and nice to everyone, yet she's really reserved and tries her hardest to keep her business to herself and a few close friends. She barely pays attention to social media…facebook, twitter, etc. Which I find admirable for a teenager.  So whoever happens upon this post is probably thinking.. "too bad her mom goes and {discretely as she can} blabs her love life on the blog." Haha. Actually she looks forward to these posts {THIS POST IS FOR HER and a few of her girlfriends...ya know for memory sake} Anyone else that wants to read it, she doesn't mind. One day she will thank me that I took the time to record all this.

One thing I know about Kyleigh, she does not like unnecessary girl or boy drama. Funny thing is…drama always seems to find her when a dance comes around. I brace myself every time. And this dance was no exception. Honestly, I’m not even sure where to start on this one. But I believe Prom drama for us goes back to the end of September. That's when Kyleigh got her first offer from boy #4.  At that time HE didn’t know she was asking him to the upcoming girls choice, Fall Ball. That all officially took place on their Disneyland date a few weeks later in Oct.. At that time she relieved him of any verbal commitment to go to Prom together. Too much pressure I believe! {And apparently it’s not cool to go to two dances with the same person.} Not having a formal agreement to go together {especially that early in the ball game} actually ended up being a good thing... in the long run. If you read between the lines on THIS post here you know things didn’t go quite as expected on their first dance date together.  

So....fast forward a few months and this is the basic, {nice and kind} watered down version of Kyleigh being asked to Prom….The first part of December, Boy#2 asked Kyleigh to help him ask the girl he had been wanting to take to Prom for months. She spent hours with him staking out this girl’s house waiting for her to get home from a date {of all things} so that they could send her out on a scavenger hunt asking her to the dance. As this girl was coming home, the guy she was out with {also in the friend group, but not numbered haha} saw Boy #2’s car and KNEW that he was there to ask this girl to Prom. He apparently didn’t like that. {Do you sense a love triangle going on here?} So this unnumbered boy proceeds to beat Boy #2 to the punch and asks the girl to Prom, in the car, before he drops her off. {Lame.} So of course this girl ends up having to say yes to him because he asked first.   

Prior to this, Kyleigh and Boy #2 had talked and kidded around about being each others back up plan. {Boy #2 is like a brother to her.} He’s such a great kid. Friend of the family kinda guy. Comes over and helps her with her SLCC Math homework, they’ve done a school project together. Good buddies. You get my drift.  

She was under the impression that he would take her to Prom IF she didn’t get asked in a timely manner {which in her mind is BEFORE her name got put on THE LIST. The dreaded LIST is one that the Seminary Secretary, two weeks before the dance, puts together of all the Junior girls who haven’t been asked to Prom. And then she proceeds to track down the guys not going yet, Junior or Senior and gets them to ask these girls.} Would you want to be on the list? I think not. 

 So... when Boy #2’s first choice plans fell through Kyleigh began wondering what Boy #2 would do. As in....I'm not back up plan for him already am I? You got to keep in mind that at this point Prom was Feb. 23^rd... Almost two and a half months away!! {They obviously since moved it up to the earlier date.}

Who in the heck even wanted to be thinking about Prom then? I know we didn't. We were honestly still recuperating from the aftermath and drama of Fall Ball.  

About this time two guys, Boy #3 {who she’s had a little crush on since elementary} and Boy #5 {met in Math class at the beginning of the year} come on the scene. Both asked her out first weekend in December. { It's about flipp'in time I say!} We had been encouraging her to find some other guys to hang out with, ya know... just take a little break for awhile from her usual posee. {Give them time to grow up.} So a week or so into December she was making good progress. She had told Boy #2 her hopes of Boy#3 asking her to Prom.  

Well, soon after.... as in mid December.... Kyleigh is at the bball game and gets wind that Boy #2 is asking her to Prom THAT very night, after the game. Boy #2 actually texted her to come home. She freaks. She’s thinking “this is WAY TOO EARLY for this back up idea of ours!!” No one has even had a chance to ask me YET!! She actually called Boy #2 twice that night from the game and asked him, “WHAT ARE YOU DOING?”   She flat out told him…“DO NOT ASK ME.” {Must I repeat myself?} “DO NOT ASK ME!” Mind you...with any other guy she would not have been able to do that with but with the nature of their relationship {like I said he’s like a brother to her} she can and did.  He said he wasn’t going to ask her.

Well guess what? Kyleigh gets home and catches him out on our lawn, asking her to Prom!!! Are you kidding me? What part of DO NOT ASK ME did you not understand? She ripped the poster from him and came in the house bawling. Not so polite, she admits, especially when she didn’t even finish what she was supposed to do to be officially asked. He told her it took him all of 10 min. to plan {that bugged her..the thoughtlessness behind it...This is freaking PROM you are asking me to!!!} She was supposed to follow some string to some flashlight that was going to light up. {I don’t even know for sure, and I don’t have pictures of ANY of it. I wasn't home at the time.} Also, the girl Boy #2 originally wanted to take was helping him. {that bugged her too}

You have to take in account that at this particular time she is in the throngs of drill competition season. Very stressful time for her.  Dealing with dance drama on top of that! Not good. I’m coming home from the Mo Tab Christmas Concert with Emma and I get an emergency ETA? {estimated time of arrival} text from Dad. Hilarious! Dad handled it very well actually, and didn’t really need my assistance. He's become very equipped at handling these girl issues. He told her to go to her room to calm down, say a prayer, call Boy#2 to come back over so they could talk this through. She did just that. It helped...a little.

Generally Kyleigh is one to get over things pretty quickly and not let things bother and fester. But it just wasn't the case with this situation. She was SO frustrated! I don’t think, other than the night she was asked, that she talked to Boy #2 for weeks! Poor kid. {All he wanted to do is go to Prom with her. Haha.} And like I said its not that Boy #2 isn’t a great guy, HE IS {he wrote the sweetest note to her} it’s just the way THE WHOLE THING WENT DOWN.  And lets face it, her little teenage heart was crushed because there was no hope in going with Boy #3 anymore.   

So, to make a long story short or I guess short-er haha, she agreed to go with Boy #2. She prayed about it and figured it out. Thank you Lord! Not that she didn’t consider saying NO {she was THAT mad} but then she wouldn’t have been able to go to PROM at all. Gasp! Can't really imagine that, can you? Frankly she wouldn't have been allowed to say YES to anyone else. {Dating/dance rule in our household....you go with the first person who asks, unless you know for a fact that the guy is a creep.} 

She answered Boy #2 back on Christmas Eve with two gifts! Just to give him a little bit of a hard time for the grief he'd caused her... he had to pick only one to open. And hopefully it was the right one. haha. Actually they both said YES, but he didn't know that. Kid came to our house on Christmas Eve, after 10:30 at night, bringing back the other unopened gift. Just to prove he hadn't opened BOTH! hilarious! {I believe he knew he was in the dog house and didn't want anymore complications.}  

 

By this time {Christmas} Boy#5 is in the mix, surprisingly more than I think she even thought he would be. He wanted to take her to Prom too. {Better get in line buddy} but he knew he couldn’t.

Okay, so the end of December things are calm {YES!} and then WHAM we get thrust back into the dance drama full force. The Saturday after Christmas Kyleigh is at a Regional Youth Dance with her girlfriends. The doorbell rings about 10:20 p.m. and Dad picks this up from the porch. A darling tennis themed package....

Dad phones her and tells her she might want to come home real soon because someone has asked her to Prom. We’re thinking, “who wouldn’t know by now that she’s already been asked?” It had been two weeks since Boy #2 had asked. {Two weeks is a lifetime in the teenage world.} 

Word was out quietly that she had been, but obviously the news hadn't traveled far. Goes to show how private Kyleigh is and how she and her best friends can keep things under wraps.  When she and her girlfriends arrived.... Oh boy, I wish I had the whole thing filmed! {Before they knew who it was they were hoping and praying it wasn't Boy #3... cuz it would just add more fuel to the fire!!!}

The expressions crack me up!

They ran over to the park’s tennis courts to find out who she could have been playing doubles with. There are three courts over there. One court he had written Kyleigh in the snow. Second court... a heart with Prom written in the middle, and the third court had a huge question mark. A tennis ball was found by the net with his name on it. {Me and Emmsie went over about midnight and took pictures.}

Guess who's name was on the tennis ball? BOY #3! Everyone was dy'ing!!

HE {obviously} DIDN’T KNOW that she had already been asked!!  She for sure thought he knew... that he would have found out from some of their mutual girlfriends. Not the case. His mom, who I know, told me later that they were trying to keep it a surprise, so he didn’t ask around to find out if she’d already been asked. {Why should he? Even at this time, it was still kinda early to be asking.} Just so you know, Boy #3 is the one that wanted to ask her to Homecoming here but Boy #1 beat him and Boy #2 to it. 

After we found out who it was, we all just kind of sat there. Dumbfounded. Like what do we do now? A few could have shed some tears. One girlfriend blurted out “There’s gotta be a Taylor Swift song about this!” hilarious. {gave us a giggle.} Anyhow, we figured she better let Boy#3 know as soon as she could that she had to say 'No'... {sorta awkward}. So the next night we came up with a cute “CAN I HAVE A RAIN CHECK”? theme with umbrella and fake check to answer him back, along with a plate of brownies..

There's much more to the whole Boy #3 thing... but bottom line is he's asked her out a couple of times since asking her to Prom, trying to make due with the rain check offer. One time she was at a drill competition all day and couldn’t go. The night she did go with him she also had a date with Boy#5! Got home with one and went off with the other. I’m telling YOU things get interesting around here. 

It got to the point where it was just "think about the dress"! {the ladies know what I'm talking about} We ended up finding her dress in a rental shop in Layton. {Just a tad bit away from our normal stomping grounds.}  Her worst fear was being in the same dress as someone else, especially for PROM. So you think going to a city 40 minutes away would help? haha. More on that later.  

The night before Prom we took a little road trip with one of Kyleigh’s best friends and her mom, also my good friend. Kyleigh’s friend Kenzi’s dress we had to pick up in Bountiful, and Kyleigh’s even further up North. We had a blast! We stopped by to eat at The Little Taste of Britain in Layton. Very tasty, authentic British food... fattening fish n chips, pastie and chips. etc. We ate steamed pudding with custard. to die for! We even ordered a deep fried twinkie. haha. AND THEN we made a stop at Crispy Crème Donut shop on the way home.

By this time we'd lost our minds...Our fried food intake was off the radar that night. It must have been pre prom jitters.

The day of!

Their day date was at Boondocks. It was a step up from the Nickle Mania that she thought she was going to have to endure. Man we had some laughs about that one. She heard of groups going to cabins to snowmobile, 4 wheel, sled etc., another group went in-door surfing and she thought she would be hanging out in an arcade. haha. Luckily not the case. They did lots of things, the most memorable was playing mini golf in the snow. She had a good time! 

One girl in their group third wheeled it for an hour and a half with Kyleigh and Boy #2 as her date was finishing the ACT. All of Kyleigh's closest girlfriends went together in another group. They went paint balling. All fine and good until her friend texted her after their date saying she was in pain with noticeable welts {that looked like hickeys} on her body from being blasted by the paint guns. Good grief! 

 Getting ready for the dance! 
My friend came and did her hair.

She also let Kyleigh use her Ciate Caviar Pearl nail polish to do her nails. 

Kyleigh wore flats instead of heels! Only because she didn't want to take the chance of slipping down the granite steps at the Capitol. Apparently there were a few girls who fell on their behineys last year. Some girls even wear tennis shoes to prevent that very thing from happening. {So not Kyleigh.} Instead I put shoe grips on the bottom of her flats just to make sure there was no slippage. :)

 This is one of my favorite pics of the night. The hairdresser came several hours before it was time to go, so Emma put a few finishing curls to touch up the hairdo right before Kyleigh left...

Another of my favorite pics of the night...Her reaction when she saw Boy #2 coming up the walk way to pick her up!!!! He looked handsome.

 I can see in her eyes that she is having issues with the boutonniere......Boy#2's mom ended up pinning it on! Thanks Lori!

Waiting for all the couples to show up! One took forever to get there.

Crazy, Crazy weather!

 The guys paid for a LIMO!... trying to make it extra special for the girls. So sweet! They spent a fortune on transportation alone. I felt sorry for them. 

The limo took them to dinner....down the street. literally. haha! We had a giggle about that too! Especially when you heard of groups going to the Roof and fancy restaurants at the Gateway. The Italian restaurant they went to is in the oddest location. In a strip mall, next to the Lakeshore Learning Center!! {Sister Emma got a kick out of that.} But I'm telling you, looks can be deceiving...This place has excellent food! I've only been there once but I had THE BEST Fillet Mignon.

The weather ended up being so awful that the Limo was not going to be able to take the kids up to the Capitol. Other limos made it, but for whatever reason Kyleigh's group had to transfer into a 12 seater Van. We had a giggle about that too. {Can you tell we laughed a lot about this experience?} The girls HAD VAN SWAG and MINI VAN SWAG GOING ON!! {the ladies know what I'm talking about!} I know at dinner Kyleigh was worried about the snow as she had two guy friends in other groups in charge of driving. She said a little silent prayer for them that they would be safe driving. I thought that was very thoughtful of her.

They don't do a special promenade dance like they used to back in the day. {We had to learn a special choreographed dance to "Lost In Your Eyes" by Debbie Gibson.} Instead the girls have a dance with their dads and the guys with their moms. Kyleigh and dad danced to "The Way You Look Tonight." {One of my favorites.}

He helped hold up her dress. What a gentleman! They even practiced at his house prior to leaving.

She got a few Belle comments thrown her way!

Her dance with dad! {awe}

 The Jr. Drill Team girls got together for a pic....Some of these girls spent $500-$600 dollars to buy their dresses!! Have you lost your mind? {Complete craziness if you ask me.} We will just rent ours thanks. Even doing that, these lovely dances add up. I've kept track of all dance expenses since she started going almost a year ago. A little eye opening... and I think we are on the conservative side. :) If you've got daughters entering the dating/dance scene prepare yourselves! haha.

 Ya know how hard we tried to find a unique dress? One that no one else would be wearing?! Well, one of her drill friends had on the same dress!!! That's so our luck. haha. Kyleigh was totally fine with it because it was Sage, who is a complete sweetie!

 
Even though it was good for Kyleigh to branch out, she missed her BEST girlfriends that night! She was able to at least meet up with them to chat a bit and get a picture.

She didn't know the people in her group well. at all. Of course other than her date, and another one of the guys.  So unfortunately, the night ended up being a pretty awkward social setting {girl wise} for her. On a night like this she would have preferred to be with her besties... {But at least she had Boy #2.}  

Other than the dynamics of the group,  the night went well....and this stink'in cute gift that she got from Sav on her birthday remains in-tact. Good news!

So yah whoa..longest post ever!  I can't end this though without the boy rundown. It's tradition.

Boy #1 Still a good friend. Always been "just" friends. {Other than when he tried to push that boundary on their Homecoming date..haha..Oh man caused a rif with Boy #4} There for her to talk to.  He looks after her and is concerned for her well being. Which I think is so sweet. He was dating one of Kyleigh's best friends for several months. They broke up {awe} after he had asked her to Prom but they still ended up going to together. 

Boy #2 Even though their relationship was strained by all of this. It's on the mend. :)He was a great date. Dad thanked him personally for that. Good guy and promptest kid ever. {Impressive.} What is even more impressive is that Kyleigh was actually ready right on the dot for both pick up times. It's BYU or bust for them! 

Boy #3 Oh Mann!! {No pun intended.} He's been on the radar for so long. Hang outs, dates. Just friends for now. She's already asked him to the next dance. He's a "to be continued"... 

Boy #4 I think they are on talking terms now. My goodness, for their past history it has been very strange. She's missed his friendship. He took another one of Kyleigh's best friends to Prom. Poor girl was on the Fall Ball date so she had her reservations, {haha} but post Prom report we heard he redeemed himself, which is such good news.

Boy #5 Is the special friend in her life. He has been the most unexpected, pleasant surprise.  His friendship has made her life very happy and drama free these past few months. Ya know the Disney movie PROM? {which we love btw, and yes we did watch prior to Prom day to get psyched up.} The main couple in the movie... Reminds me of Kyleigh and this boy! No one would have imagined these two together, very unlikely duo, but for whatever reason they click. He's kind, attentive, funny, polite, and has a sense of style. {No gym shorts and t-shirts which she is so accustomed to} He's mature, knows how to treat a girl, has a good heart, and most importantly respectful of her and her beliefs {he is not of our faith}. There is no guessing game between them, he's a conversationalist and can express how he feels. What? So nice for a change.  But no, they are not dating...{haha} which makes things sorta complicated...

 

So there you have it!  Next dance is only four weeks away. {Lord help us all.}