Didn't Get the Memo

We are new to our ward. We are getting more familiar with faces and some names. It is the biggest ward in Soda (read: fills up the chapel with no overflow set up). A couple of Sunday's ago, which means we had only been to church a handful of times at this point, we went to find a seat before church started. There were only a few pews up towards the front, so we started walking towards the front.

Off topic*** I hate sitting in the front and try to avoid it at all costs. Being late makes me crabby because usually that means you sit in the front pews. Why does it make me crabby, well mainly because my children are not very reverent. I feel for the people behind us that have to watch the chaos and distraction in front of them. Last Sunday, Delaney would yell out every so often, "Done? Done yet?" She also loves to beat the person saying the prayer saying Amen. When the prayer starts with "In the name of Jesus Christ," she has already YELLED Amen at the "In the name" part. It was cute the first time but after the 15th time, not so much! Avery forgets she is wearing a dress and for the life of her can't keep her legs down and exposing which colored underwear she happens to be wearing that morning. I hate walking all the way up the isle with a disruptive Delaney. I call it the walk of shame! ****

Back to the reason for this post.

So, we walked up to the only three pews left on that side of the chapel. The lady who was walking behind us took one pew with her family. There was two pews left. One pew had a race car and a children's book sitting at the end of the pew. I turned to the lady who just sat down and asked if she thought the pew was saved. Our ward meets right after another ward, so we both just thought that some little kid was missing some of his/her toys. We sat in that pew and another family took the remaining pew. We had been seated for all of 2 minutes when this lady walked up with a small boy and just stood at the end of the pew and stared at us. She didn't say anything to Brian, who was on the end. Just stood there like we had just ran over her dog. Horrible, mean stare. I turned to the lady behind me and said, "I guess it was being saved." We got up and had to walk to the other side of the chapel and found a pew in the front, looking like lost puppies looking for a home. Meanwhile, this lady never said anything. Not, oh sorry we saved this, sorry you have to move. nothing. It just really bothered me. I kept shooting her a look after we sat down to see if she would give me some kind of response. Nope, nada!

I guess my question is: I know when we were growing up we always sat on the front row because my dad was in the bishopric and my mom played the organ for as long as I can remember. Does your ward have "assigned" seating? Do you sit in the same pew every Sunday and everyone knows that is where you and your family sit? Do you get annoyed when someone sits in *your* seat?