Line Dancing.... on a whole new level.

Remember line dancing? I learned it in Jr. High. We learned several different line dances. One to "Fishing in the Dark" and another to "Elvira" where we all danced in a big circle.

The singles dances are known for line dances. Very similar to Jr. High... but older. Much much older.
Last night was no exception and I will not deny that I found even myself doing the two step shuffle hand over head lasso move! ~ What can I say? I make it look good.

But the most UNUSUAL thing happened at the dance last night. I don't know what song it was or how it came to pass... but the singles in the room united for a moment to create a room twirling experience that will not soon be forgotten. They linked arms- in twos, threes and nines and trapsied around the room in a counter-clockwise formation. Like a flock of birds circling before they land. It was the most epic form of line dancing I have EVER witnessed.

AND THEN~ I saw... A lone duck. Dancing in the middle of the room with such skill, such form, and such confidence. I gawked, I stared, I may have even pointed ( I swear I didn't mean too) and then I laughed. I laughed until my sides hurt. I wasn't laughing just at this poor guy.... but rather the situation. Is this truly what we have all been reduced too? Surely there must be something more to singles life than this!

I only wish I could have gotten pictures of this. But alas, a dimly lit room with nothing but an occasional strand of Christmas lights doesn't make for the most prime photo opportunity.

The Curse

I have a dating curse... a black cloud of inopportune moments that is continually over my head.  I fear for those who date me. Let me just share a couple of stories so you can get a feel for what I mean. I went to the movies the other night. All was going fabulously well. I was wearing the classic Mormon tank top with layered shirts underneath to maintain modesty. We got a couple of giant sodas and a large popcorn and made the way to our seats. As we sit and watch the previews, I take a sip of my soda. A bit drips on my shirt. I casually laugh it off and carry on. No big deal. More casual banter ensues. I take yet another sip of soda, to my dismay, the soda proceeds to pour down in between my mediocre cleavage leaving my layers of clothing COMPLETELY drenched!  As in, even my bra was soaking with Dr. Pepper. I started laughing so hard I thought I was going to pee my pants. Not that anyone would notice. I could just blame it on the soda. I didn't know what to do. I couldn't possibly sit through a two hour movie immersed in soda. My poor date, he was a gentleman and offered to take me home (30 minute drive) or maybe stop at a store and buy a new t-shirt... but we were already at the movies. The tickets had already been purchased. They aren't cheap you know. and the movie... was about to start. No. These options would not suffice. So my date gingerly offered his jacket and off I went to the restroom. There I changed into nothing but the jacket- took the top layer tank top to the hand dryer and stood there drying it off- giggling the whole time. Once that was sufficiently dry I went back into my stall, threw on the tank top, put on my dates jacket and zipped it up. I wadded my wet clothes into a paper towel and shoved it into my purse. The worst part about the entire evening... the movie was lame.

Next date- same guy. I managed to break out a light bulb while playing pool. All I know is that I hit a couple of balls into the holes and lifted my sticky thing and accidentally bumped the light that was hovering over the table. Next thing I know there is a light bulb EXPLODING on the table and I am once again laughing so hard that my cheeks hurt.

The reason I tell you this now... is because the curse has not lifted. Last weekend I took my random guy #36 with me down to Utah. He got to meet my parents. (scary) I dropped 3/4 of my kids to an ex and we got to go live it up in Mormonville. 

I had big plans for our weekend escapade. We were to hop the frontrunner in Ogden and head to downtown SLC... and we did just that.

Here we are just moments after parking the car in downtown Ogden.

Trent is random guy #36. You may recognize him from Jaclynn's wild birthday party!

Mister Eli came with us. His Dad lives in VA so he gets to hang out with me most of the time. He LOVES riding the train and that picture is just priceless!

Once arriving in SLC- our first stop was to hit up the Church History Museum. Most of the galleries were under renovation (sadness) so we spent the majority of our time in the kid section. Lucky for us-- we have kid hearts-- and the Sister Missionaries were kind enough not to kick us out. 

 

I asked Trent how he knew where he was steering that ship. He said he had connections. I am assuming he was referring to Nephi and that handy GPS that he has known as the Liahona. I told Trent that we may need that to get around town later... sadly Nephi wouldn't hand it over. Something about it only working for the righteous. Hmmph. 

 

 Trent didn't care though.

Should I even mention how many little kids we had to push away to get this picture?

After that we enjoyed a leisure stroll by the reflection pond and had a quaint lunch at the Lion House. 

 I would like to say that our day ended happily right there... but as I am sure you recall. I am cursed. 

We hopped the train back home and as it was pulling to a stop I start rummaging through my purse to find my keys. I can't find them. Oh crap!! 

So we go to the car... hoping that perhaps they are there. AND they are. In the ignition! I grab the door handle and TADA... it's open. Thank heavens!! And then Trent says to me... "Is the car running?"  Um... yeah. I left my car RUNNING for 5 hours! I don't know whether to feel grateful that it wasn't stolen or offended that it wasn't good enough. So, we jump in and off we go... cept that I left Eli's boots on the roof of the car. Seriously?? I'm ridiculous!!

Oh Valentine's.

Who invented this holiday again? Pretty sure it wasn't a man. NO NO... Men wouldn't have dreamed of such a thing. Men across the world loathe this holiday. Why just today on the radio I heard the announcer rattle of some statistic to which men consciously avoid being in a relationship until after Valentine's Day is over.Smart thinking guys. How's about you just grow a pair and stop being such sissies!

 I, myself, live in a world with very few expectations. (A result of having my expectations crushed over and over again) My lack of expectations greatly enhances the joy of recieving and plus, I generally go shopping and buy myself whatever I want and can justify it away! Which always makes me happy! 

This year~ I actually had an entire weekend of Valentinesness. Which I will be explaining later.... but I wanted to put a quick post in for discussion. Today I was asked what my love language is. I have one... I am certain. I'm sure I learned it once or twice, but I always forget.

 So... I went here http://edified.org/myspace/lovelanguage and took a quick test. Apparently my love languages are touch and words of affirmation. They tied. I can see how it's true. There is nothing better than a nice warm hug and someone telling me how incredible I know I am. I like it. What's yours?

A Dancing Birthday!

This past week I turned the dreaded 25. The quarter century mark, half way to fifty... how ever you put it, 25! That's what I turned. I turned the corner and now have to be a grown up. In light of this dreadful day, we decided what better way to join the "elderly" then to join them with style. Most people go out and party, have one last big hurrah while they're still young enough too. So why not? Our most perfect idea for the most perfect birthday was to... you ready for this... have a DANCE PARTY! And that my friends is exactly what we did.



We got together, and lived it up. The night started off with some impromptu singing. Now I am musically retarded. But everyone else can pick up the gee-tar and jam. So there was jamming going on. Rad right? That in itself could of been an awesome birthday but no oh no... there was more to come. After I was serenaded or maybe while I was still being serenaded, my dear friend Jen.... pulled out the most delectable cheesecake you have ever seen. It wasn't a jello cheesecake... it wasn't even store bought. This was a real... amazingly delish, home made, Betty Crocker style cheesecake. My mouth about it the floor when I saw it. Nothing and I mean NOTHING was about to keep me from eating the whole thing. No need to remind me that with old age comes the slowing down of my metabolism...I don't care. Cheesecake... I NEED CHEESECAKE!






So after stuffing our faces with the best birthday cake EVER, we decided to get real wild. Heck you have to let go sometimes. We got matching tatts! Okay they may have been rub on ones that come in children's valentines (that's all we could find), but still, who wouldn't want a pink or purple skull and cross bones tatt? We rock! That's all there is too it. So lets recap... Jamming... Stuffing our faces.... Tatts... what am I missing here? Oh yeah.... DANCING!










Now I'm sure we could of found a fancy dance club to go to... but remember how I said I am musically retarded... even more so with dancing.. I can't do it! I look like a ubber dork when I try to dance. Plus it was a Thursday night, who's going to find and use their babysitter on a Thursday when Friday is a day away right? Luckily this to is easily remedied, Microsoft solved that problem. We turned on the Kinect and battled it out. The competition was fierce, the men put up a good fight... but ultimately, the ladys laid it out. We showed them how it was done. End of story. Not to much more to say, if we had to choose one winner... Jen took the cake (not my cheesecake though)!


So turning older is tragic... add some cheesecake and become a lord of dance.. then it is manageable!

My wild and crazy so called LIFE!

Hello! I'm Jaclyn. I'm a 25 (ugh really..) year old, newly single mom of 3! Yes 3!! I started early ok. They say by the time you turn 25, you should have your life figured out... well I had it all figured out (or so I thought) years ago... but now not so much! So begins the sad sad (not so sad) story of my life....

I've always been the girl that would do things people told me I couldn't do! Sometimes for good... sometimes for umm not so good! I was the leader of the pack.. the head honcho... the captain. I thought I knew everything. Thought I was pretty much the full package (tell me what teenager doesn't!), and that if you loved someone enough that everything would work out... WRONG! Dead wrong. So at the ripe old age of 17 I got engaged. Engaged... yes engaged... my parents about died. Seriously I'm surprised, looking back, that they didn't lock me in my room and throw away the keys! I would of... it would of probably worked out better for me.

I met and fell madly (crazy) in love with a dude from a different world. A world not so much centered around the gospel but a world that revolved around partying.. partying ...and more partying. Which is fun when your young and stupid. Not so much when your 18, married, pregnant and in high school... working full time. So yes.. I chose the hard, very hard, very long road. Which didn't matter cause I was determined to make it work.

Well here we are 7 years later... and since I am writing this we all can see that my efforts didn't pay off. I have been put in my place. I have dealt with all kinds of heartbreak and pain. I've learned some hard lessons.. I've come to terms with my dreams being diminished... my heart being broken... and my life as I knew it being shattered. But from all the the pain, and devastation.. I've been able to find myself again. I've been able to be the person I want to be. Be the person my children need me to be. I've been able to finally be HAPPY!! woot woot!

So here I go... jumping into a dating game that I've never been apart of. That I honestly don't get... and that maybe will take a little getting used too! But with some awesomely amazing friends... and a open mind (yeah right)... and a little push.. I'm sure I'll figure it out! Okay.. lets be honest just for a min... single dances... probably never figure that one out! But I'm up for the challenge... bring it on you wild Mormons!

My Story...

This... is me, Jen. I am a 32 yr. old twice divorced (yes, twice) single mom of 4 kidlets. My life is NOTHING what I imagined it would be by this point but I do not have pity parties about the past. Let's break this down shall we.

I married at the young age of 19. I was attending Ricks College. The Mormon College now known as BYU-Idaho. I had a missionary out that I had just very recently sent a Dear John too when I met my future husband. We were married in the Idaho Falls temple. Sounds like a pretty picture perfect typical Mormon romace right? Well... it didn't stay that way. After 7 yrs. of marriage I found myself  3 months pregnant with our third child and alone. I won't go into the gory details but I will tell you that Divorce is not fun! I have never cried so much in my entire life. I would go through the motions of the day. Put a smile on my face for my kids and once they were in bed I would just cry myself into an exhausted sleep. Fortunately for me, I had Heavenly Father's help and eventually I learned to turn some of the burden and heartache over to him.

Once the divorce was final it was time to step out into the single realm. I didn't know what to expect. I had been living my fantasy of being a stay-at-home mom and wifey pooh. and HOW, I ask, was I going to date with a newborn baby! So I turned to the internet which seemed like a very safe option. HOLY MOLEY~ First off... let me explain that I was not healthy yet after the dissolution of my first marriage. I have very strict rules about this now that I will explain later. So, I met and went on a few dates with people I met online. These dates were, ahem, interesting. Eventually, okay... so rather quickly really. I married a guy from online. We had talked to each other for several months and spent ONE whole week together and got married. I can hear your GASPING. I know. I am still in shock myself that I ever did this. I am not an impulsive person. It took me 3 months to pick out my couch! Needless to say... THAT didn't work out. Although I did try for 3 years and added another member to our family. Kidlet numero 4.

My wise choices have brought me here. I have now been divorced for a year in January. During this time I have gotten myself back emotionally, I have forgiven others for hurting me, and I have forgiven myself for being an idiot. It's time to move on. I gave myself a deadline. I wouldn't date until I had been divorced for a year. I sluffed a bit towards the end... but for the most part, I kept that promise to myself entact. I have, however, gone to an awful lot of singles activities. I have met some wonderful people and some really creepy creepertons! I have had stalkers and crazies. I have plethoras of stories to tell. Which is why I am here. This is the Mormon dating world. So hang onto your knickers kids and be advised that there may be beverages shooting out of your nose if you do not proceed with caution!!