Mark's first date

Mark tells us things in such an offhand way, it seems like if I weren't in the right place at the right time, I wouldn't know anything about him.

He mentioned in passing earlier in the week that he might go to the Sweetheart Dance at school.  That was news to me.  I quizzed him about who he wanted to go with and he had a friend in mind but another friend was going to find out in advance if she already had a date before he asked.

These are the types of things that make me grateful to not be a teenager.

So that idea fizzled and Mark was still wanting to go to the dance because a group of friends were going together.  I kept asking Mark about it because I am a planner and I feel anxiety when other people aren't.

Adam told me that if I stopped talking to Mark about it probably nothing would happen.  That seemed like a good idea because that kid is my baby.

Does he look old enough to go on a date to you?  Me either.

So on Friday afternoon, Mark nonchalantly mentioned he had a date.  Who?  How?  What are the details?

His date was a sister of a friend of Mark's friend, Michelle.  Which I guess is what happens when you find a date the day before the big dance.  Mark got tickets and he told me a lot of other guys were getting tickets that day too.  We talked about plans and transportation (because Mark can't drive anyone besides his immediate family) and what one wears to the Sweetheart Dance.

He had to send several texts to his friends to get answers.  Me peppering him with questions was my only role in the event.

He borrowed a suit coat from Braeden and got a short discourse on etiquette from Adam and me and then he was on his own.

They do day dates around here so Mark left in the early afternoon.  Adam and I went to the BYU Women's basketball game then shoe shopping and dinner with Emma then grocery shopping.  Somewhere along the way, we realized we hadn't talked to Mark about when he was coming home.  We've always been pretty laid back about curfews but we needed to at least have an expectation laid out.

I told Adam that sometimes I remind myself of Frankie Heck from The Middle.  Not quite on top of the parenting.

Adam texted Mark and asked him his plans.

Mark answered:

So he's a man of few words, but he has a decent vocabulary.

Later he texted these pictures:

the take-out from a Chinese restaurant they got for dinner

So some people have those smiling pictures of kids lined up in fancy clothes that they post on Facebook and I have that.

Sunday morning when I was asking Mark all about it, he told me one of his friend's parents were at the dance and took pictures.  So you have pictures?  He texted me one:

On Sunday afternoon when we had our kids over, Mark basically had 7 older siblings cross examining him about his date.  They didn't get any extra information out of him but it did end in a rousing discussion where people shared their worst dates and I insisted Adam almost went on a date with Tonya Harding when he was in high school and Braeden told me I was delusional.

(He asked a blonde figure skater on a date but she moved to Portland before the date could happen.  Now tell me that wasn't Tonya Harding!)

(Maybe I'm delusional.)