Doing our best to do our duty

Over the Christmas holidays, I realized with a panic that my big boy was almost ten. No, the fear did not strike my heart because he is growing up way too fast (which it does, and he is), but every mother of boys knows that with each birthday comes the mad dash to complete and earn that year's cub scout rank. And the fear struck hard because I knew he wasn't even close.

So we've spent many a day with our Bear Scout book open on the counter - working our way through knots, safety, religion, and even a little cooking. Our diligence paid off, and soon he had completed every requirement in the entire book - except for one, which involved speaking with a police officer about crime prevention.

Knowing his den would not likely get this field trip in before his birthday, I scheduled a mini-tour of the police station myself.

The great day came last week, and we brought along Chase and our little neighbor friend, David. The boys were giddy with excitement at seeing the jail and were absolutely positive they'd be able to use the weapons (oh, the unharnessed dreams of little boys).

The tour itself was really quite cool. Being a small group, (they told me the cub scout tours are usually like 20-30 boys at a time) we were able to do so much more than a normal group. We met the chief of police. We pretended to get fingerprinted. We got locked in a jail cell. We took pictures in the line-up room. We met all the officers.

We did not get to use the weapons, however.

But we finished our tour, thanked the kind officers, and headed home to proudly sign off the last item in McKay's book.

Funny thing, that.

When I got home and started looking, I realized that you don't have to do everything in the book. It's like, "Pick two in this section. Pick three in this one."

Duh.

We did EVERY. SINGLE. THING in that blasted Bear Book.

[What makes this more shameful is that I am currently serving as the Wolf Den Leader. You'd think I'd have known.]

Wasn't a total waste of time, I suppose. Got to meet and hang out with the handsome boys in blue that patrol our neighborhood.

And now I'm wondering, do you think they'd let me borrow a uniform for the Husband? I'm afraid I really could get into this whole man-in-a-uniform-thing.