The Primary Program

Here's Jay's Primary program part from this year. I'm not sure what he was doing with his hands, and he said it in a completely different voice when he was up front during the program, but this is the video I got.

Today was our ward's Primary program. It was the first time in the last 3 years that I did not write it, and while that was very nice, it was also actually kind of weird not to be in the presidency. My head knew from past experience that being a Primary teacher during the program was an effective form of at-church-torture, but experiencing program as a "lowly teacher" again reminded me in full force what exactly that entails. Mostly it was lots of sitting and singing the same songs over and over till I felt crazy and figuring out how to keep energetic/mischievous kids reverent for hours on end. We made it though, but it like I said, it was different...and a tad on the draining side for my pregnant self.

One thing that really caught me off guard was my brain analyzing the goods and bads of the practices and thinking up suggestions for what to do better. I was not in charge! And I didn't want to be! At all! Of course I didn't say anything unless I was asked for my input because it was so not my place. But it was still an oddly antsy feeling to sit there and battle my analytic brainpower and only focus on singing the songs and keeping my class of 5 year-olds reverent, especially when I kind of felt the same way as they did--like "make it end!!"

Once again, Jay memorized his part in a few seconds at home and said it loud and clear into the microphone. He loves that podium and the microphone. In the program today, he got in front of the microphone and cleared his throat into it deliberately before launching into his two sentences: "Successful families work together. One thing my family does together is work in the yard." His enunciation and voice modulation were in the classic Jay-microphone style (when he gives talks in primary, he speaks in the same way--slowly, with an enthusiastic tone, and clear voice). He never said his part like that at home, so the video is not quite accurate, but it's better than nothing. After Jay delivered his lines, the congregation enjoyed its light ripple of laughter. As I joined in, I was also feeling somewhat relieved that Jay did not feel the need to embellish his lines any more than the throat-clearing!

While one of the older girls was saying her longer part up front, I overheard Jay whisper to his friend in an envious voice: "her part is really long!" I was chuckling to myself after that comment. Wow, Jay did not inherit his microphone gene from me, that's for SURE.

After church, Jay informed us "I cleared my throat so everyone could understand me."