On Sunday, about 3/4 of the way through Sacrament meeting I decided to bear my testimony.  I always grew up sitting on the first row of church, and we do now also …. which at times I feel like reconsidering due to Scout’s unconstrained and larger than usual “play” area.  But to be honest, sitting in the front is the only place I really listen intently and don’t get distracted by what is in front of me.  So the front it is….and always will be.

As I headed up to the pulpit, all was fine.  I started speaking, and Scout comes up after me.  (By the way — I am not into the whole little rowdy kid following the parent up thing.)  Well, there he was and he stands to the side — very wisely just out of my reach — and is grinning ear to ear as he looked out at the entire congregation.  People were giggling, and I asked Micah if he was going to get the “stinky little kid”.  Because I was trying to speak, I don’t really know what happened, but I then saw Scout down where he was supposed to be….so I thought the little mishap had ended.

As I continued to talk, I about jumped out of my skin as the organ roared out the loudest note for about 7 seconds straight.  I turned back, and there Scout was….grinning from ear to ear.  Of course I started to laugh because it really was funny (the part about it being my kid was the only not funny part).  The whole ward was laughing at this point, and I just looked down to see what my darling husband was going to do.  And what I saw was the proudest father on the planet, who did everything short of put his arms in the air and shout “good for you my boy” in the air, as he beamed with delight.  Thank goodness I saw my mom scrambling to get the little punk in my peripheral vision.  In the meantime, good old Rod Hopkins had grabbed him and at least stopped the loud note.  By this time, I was only slightly mortified (more at my husband than my kid), but had to keep going.  I commented that once again, our family had made our mark and moved on.

When I got down, I asked Micah why he wasn’t stopping Scout in the first place.  He basically told me that he was totally entertained, and he was waiting to see what he was going to do.  Then he went on to tell me that Scout definitely exceeded his expectations.  HUH, I don’t get it?  How about we keep that on the ball field from now on.

(As a side note — I had at least 25 people tell me that our little episode was the best they have ever seen (great….I hope we are now part of the “craziest church moments” conversation.  And I have to admit, I have never witnessed anything so white trash.  I am glad my family could oblige.)