Bossy Pants

The first church calling I received once we arrived in Amarillo was to be the assistant Wolf leader in Cub Scouts. I was stoked because this is the age group Rex is in. Summer hiatus had just ended and we were ready to get the boys back into the swing of things. In talking with the Wolf leader, I learned that we combine with one other ward to have a good sized group. No problem. Then she goes on to describe (in a somewhat exasperated manner) how the dens have only been functioning thanks to her efforts over the last two years. Apparently, there have been some people falling down on the job from time to time. Hmmmm.

Now, I have been in her shoes a time or two. It is not always easy to make every church organization hum like a well oiled machine when you are counting on laymen (or women) who are functioning on what is essentially a volunteer basis. It can get messy. Nonetheless, I put on a smile, and we got started. No sooner had week one passed us by, and we were off and running when the bishopric decided to release the Wolf leader and promote me up the ranks. Yikes. Don't get me wrong, I have no reservations about being the leader of a bunch of 8 year old boys. My chagrin started to mount when I looked around at my colleagues, AKA, the leaders and assistants of the Bear and Webeloes dens. They are all 20 something, returned missionaries, going to school while living at home types. Great.

Week two rolls around, and we gather for den meeting. There is no Primary representative, no cub master, just a bunch of newbie leaders who haven't done cub scouts since they were cub scouts, and ME. Boorish lady that I am, I kind of took over and railroaded the whole evening. It has kind of been that way ever since. Hopefully, those nice young men don't think I am too bossy and controlling. Oh whatever, who are we kidding, I don't really care if they think that as long as the den meetings are running smoothly. We are two months in, and things seem to be settling into a predictable pattern.

This month, our theme was safety. Our wolves had a bike safety requirement to pass off, so my newly minted assistant (an awesome lady named Emery, also new to our ward like me) and I took our little cubs biking around the parking lot and surrounding neighborhood. We had also heard that the Bears were planning to make a trip to a fire station. We thought we should get in on that action, and confirmed that this was indeed the plan with the Bear assistant. The Sunday before this little outing, I ran into the Bear leader at church and inquired if the arrangements had all been made. It should not have come as a shock when he declared that he had heard we were planning to go, and their den was going to tag along. Guess who ended up calling to make the arrangements? Yeah, it was no biggie.

The following week, we made our trip with all of the dens (Webeloes came too) to a local fire station. What is it about big trucks that gets little boys so fired up (no pun intended)? We had a great time, and the best part was just showing up and letting the firemen do all the work.

Rex has already earned his Bobcat, and we are well into the Wolf requirements. Cub scouts is such a fun program! Now I just have to be sure to enjoy being in the moment with Rex and his crew while leaving my bossy pants at home.

Hillside Fire station

The cubs are hungry

Inside the big truck



The whole gang



Rex and Nathan