Adventures from the "Bench" Chapter Two

Last Sunday the Arbon family had the pleasure of sitting behind us in Church. They have five children with their youngest being six. There was far too much distraction behind us for Susanna to stay sitting on our bench. She made the rounds with each Arbon flirting, playing peek-a-boo, sharing her toys and so forth. When she got to the Dad he was not interested in playing along. He was actually listening to the meeting. At this point my efforts to intervene became even more futile. She was determined to get Brother Arbon to play with her. She reached down and took of her shoe and handed it to him. He thanked her nicely and returned it. She handed it right back and ducked below the bench to see what he would do. He handed me her shoe. At this point Susanna grabbed the other shoe, handed it to him and with the sweetest smile she could muster(there may have been batting of eyelashes involved) placed her stocking foot up on the top of the bench. How she managed this I could not say, she has those short chubby bay legs. Never the less there was her little stocking foot and poor brother Arbon holding her shoe. He quietly said "I will let your mommy put it on" and handed it back to her. At this she stomped her foot back down on the bench and threw her shoe right at Brother Arbon. I was mortified! Luckily Brother Arbon thought her tantrum was humerus and laughed off the physical assault, along with the rest of the Arbon family and everyone else who finds it entertaining to watch our family at Church. In the end Susanna's shoes remained in my possession and Daddy got to go for another walk...

Adventures from the "Bench"

If you are wondring, yes I am refering to the Church bench. Susanna has made a name for herself in our little Gardner Ward. If you need entertainment come sit behind me!!! One of my dear visiting teaching sisters is a recent convert and nurse who works the Saturday night shift. It is a challenge for her to come to church and even more of a challenge for her to stay alert after working all night. The trooper that she is, she made it on Sunday and settled into the bench behind us. Just her luck it was High Council Sunday. Susanna was determined to do her part to keep poor Julia awake. It began with a constant game of stand up, sit down, turn around ( with me performing the sit down, turn around part). That attempt having failed she turned her attention to physical asault with a book. A big book, well aimed at the face. Surprise, that got Julia's attention. The only possible response to this type of behavior was stuffing Susanna's face with candy. Swedish fish usually do the trick, but before I could blink Susanna stood up, turned around and spit the fish out in the lap of a very stunned Julia. Wihtout missing a beat Burke leaned over the bench and removed the slobbery mess. Susanna started to giggle and the chain reaction was unstoppable. Since the majority of the congregation was focused on us rather than the speaker even the Bishop had to stiffle a grin. All I could do was mutter sorry while handing Julia a diaper wipe to clean the slobbery remains from her skirt. In the end the giggles died down, Burke wisked Susanna away for a walk, Julia managed to stay awake for the closing hymn, and I miraculously surived another adventurous Sunday at church.