Have you ever heard the saying that sharing your burdens cuts them in half and sharing your joys doubles them? That is the way it has been between my sister and I.
We were both born in March, two years and one day apart so we shared a birthday celebration our entire lives. Although I went to college and she didn't we both married guys from the same fraternity at the Engineering school in the town where we went to High School, even though she met her husband when she was still in High School and I didn't meet mine until I was nearly out of college.
When our children were growing up we shared the joys and hardships of raising our kids. When our mom became ill it was together that my sister and I shared the burden of her long term care. If not for having my sister to help me think through the decisions that had to be made I would probably have been in a lot worse shape.
Last year as my sister and her husband were dealing with the horrible accident that nearly took the life of their son and the ensuing lengthy rehabilitation, it just happened that my sister's and my birthday fell right in the middle of their ordeal. Mrangelmeg and I took it upon ourselves to drive up to the rehab hospital with our oldest daughter so that she could stay with our nephew while we took my sister and brother-in-law away for a night of celebration and relaxation. They rarely left the hospital to do things for themselves.
We took them to a wonderful dinner at my favorite steak place where, because it was my birthday, we got an amazing desert called Mile High Chocolate Pie. It took all four of us to eat one piece. It was the most wonderful evening and really helped them relieve some of the stress of their long ordeal.
Our husbands' birthdays are in June, four days (and one year) apart.
This year, to repay us for the favor we did them, they have invited us to join them for another dinner at the same steak house tonight, on my brother-in-law's birthday (to celebrate the men's birthdays). I think as much as my brother-in-law wants to celebrate sharing the joy of being together again, he is really looking forward to that Mile-high-pie.
At least no one is going through a major trial this year, but we will share the little sorrows and joys of parenting, as there are always those. And we will talk about the memories we have of growing up, and all the years we have known each other, and the upcoming retreat we are all attending at St. Meinrad (my Holy Hill Gradual School), because my brother-in-law has been on retreat there and wants us to join him. (How funny is that?)
It should be a very enjoyable evening. I am looking forward to the company, well, that and the pie.
Pax
Showing posts with label Celebration. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Celebration. Show all posts
Friday, June 17, 2011
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Tonight's The Night
My oldest Daughter and a friend of hers ( a young woman I met last year when I was volunteering at RCIA at the University) have been bugging me that they want to take me out to celebrate my completing my Masters work. I have put them off until now becuase, well to be honest until last Monday I wasn't really done.
So, tonight I am going to go to a local bar with my daughter and her friends to share a bottle of wine. I feel a bit of trepidation in doing this because of the age difference and the fact that I am still not 100% feeling on top of my game health-wise, but she really wants to do this for me and I can't cancel it would break her heart.
I don't plan on staying very long. I am so sure her young friends want to spend a bunch of time with someone my age. Although her one friend (the one I met last year, has told her that she thinks I am the greatest old person she has ever met -- not exactly how she put it but you get the drift).
I just hope I can stay awake until it is time to go because we aren't even leaving to go out untill after my daughter's class which doesn't end until 9 so it will easily be 9:30 or so before we leave here. I have been going to bed by 10:00 lately. This could be really fun.
I am hoping to have a very nice time for about an hour and then slip away home and leave them to do whatever it is that young people do these days.
Pax
So, tonight I am going to go to a local bar with my daughter and her friends to share a bottle of wine. I feel a bit of trepidation in doing this because of the age difference and the fact that I am still not 100% feeling on top of my game health-wise, but she really wants to do this for me and I can't cancel it would break her heart.
I don't plan on staying very long. I am so sure her young friends want to spend a bunch of time with someone my age. Although her one friend (the one I met last year, has told her that she thinks I am the greatest old person she has ever met -- not exactly how she put it but you get the drift).
I just hope I can stay awake until it is time to go because we aren't even leaving to go out untill after my daughter's class which doesn't end until 9 so it will easily be 9:30 or so before we leave here. I have been going to bed by 10:00 lately. This could be really fun.
I am hoping to have a very nice time for about an hour and then slip away home and leave them to do whatever it is that young people do these days.
Pax
Saturday, June 16, 2007
Celebrate!
Mrangelmeg and I are leaving in just a few hours to drive to the secret celebration of the 75th birthday and 50th ordination anniversary of one of my favorite professors from my gradual school, Fr. Damien, or Damo as we all affectionately call him. I have written about him before, and would do just about anything for this man, and apparently am since I am going to take his seminar on Women in the Old Testament along with my final in the fall (even though I am not taking it for Credit I must be crazy, there are five books that we will be reading just for this one class).
A friend and I decided to put together a little PowerPoint project to display at the dinner tonight that we hope will get a few laughs and show Damo how much we love him. With mrangelmeg's considerable help we have pasted Damo's face into pictures of historical events going all the way back to creation with the theme "How Old is Damo". We wrote a little commentary to go along with it and my friend and I are going to present it to the group after the dinner.
She is the one who is taking the bigger risk, she is taking his class in the fall for credit!
Anyway, I just wanted to take the time to say Happy Birthday Damo, and Happy Anniversary as well. My life has been greatly enriched by knowing you.
Pax
Monday, June 11, 2007
Survivor:Parents Edition
So we had two parties this weekend at our place:
Oldest Daughter turned 21 and we allowed her to invite her friends over for a night of fun on Saturday evening. The only hitch was none of them got off work until after 11:30, so the party didn't actually get going till well after midnight. When the last guest left and mrangelmeg went up to the mailbox to retrieve the sign he brought in the Sunday Morning Paper! They had a wonderful time, though and were very respectful and very grateful for the food we provided. They especially loved my "knock you naked - turtle brownies.)
Middle Daughter graduated from high school last weekend, but since I was out of town at class we decided to have her graduation celebration on Sunday this weekend. We invited friends and relatives to come over for a cookout and had a nice time. Daughter was pretty happy, and the food was great if I do say so myself. Mrangelmeg cooks a mean hamburger.
After two days of parties I am totally exhausted, but the house isn't all that torn up, which is nice. One of the biggest benefits of the entire experience is that mrangelmeg carved out a nice little fire pit area in the front sink hole, and oldest daughter placed Tiki Torches to light the way down to it, past the fish pond. It turned out really nice. We will definitely be using that a lot more often this summer. Even if it does look a bit like the Tribal Council Circle from Survivor. (at least that is what oldest daughter and her friends kept calling it all evening on Saturday.)
Pax
Oldest Daughter turned 21 and we allowed her to invite her friends over for a night of fun on Saturday evening. The only hitch was none of them got off work until after 11:30, so the party didn't actually get going till well after midnight. When the last guest left and mrangelmeg went up to the mailbox to retrieve the sign he brought in the Sunday Morning Paper! They had a wonderful time, though and were very respectful and very grateful for the food we provided. They especially loved my "knock you naked - turtle brownies.)
Middle Daughter graduated from high school last weekend, but since I was out of town at class we decided to have her graduation celebration on Sunday this weekend. We invited friends and relatives to come over for a cookout and had a nice time. Daughter was pretty happy, and the food was great if I do say so myself. Mrangelmeg cooks a mean hamburger.
After two days of parties I am totally exhausted, but the house isn't all that torn up, which is nice. One of the biggest benefits of the entire experience is that mrangelmeg carved out a nice little fire pit area in the front sink hole, and oldest daughter placed Tiki Torches to light the way down to it, past the fish pond. It turned out really nice. We will definitely be using that a lot more often this summer. Even if it does look a bit like the Tribal Council Circle from Survivor. (at least that is what oldest daughter and her friends kept calling it all evening on Saturday.)
Pax
Thursday, May 10, 2007
What do Mexico and China Have to do With my Children?
So two of my daughters will be unavailable on Sunday; one will be leaving quite early that morning for a school mission trip to New Orleans, and the other has to work a double shift. Since all the kids wanted to be together to celebrate Mother's Day they decided that they would make today (Thursday) Mothers day at the angelmeg household.
Since mother's day isn't complete without Mass we started our celebration with a trip to daily Mass. We expected the Mass to be celebrated by our parish's acerbic associate pastor who has known my kids for nearly 13 years and would be totally incredulous that they chose to attend daily mass. They were ready though because they were planning to tell him that they were celebrating Mother's Day. To which they were sure he would retort that today wasn't Mother's Day. To this they were all (including the angelbaby) ready to say with a perfectly timed sneer "In Mexico it is."
They never got to use the line though, because the mass was said by our pastor. He was very happy to see the kids at Mass and never once questioned why they were there. We did get to see our previous pastor who is recently retired. He is looking really good and says that he has finally gotten the knack of retirement and is actually beginning to like it.
After Mass we stopped off and ordered Take Out from our favorite Chinese place on our way home. We haven't had good Chinese in a very long time so this was a real treat. We went all out and ordered all of our favorites and a few new items to try (moo shoo chicken for one).
Then I got to open my Mother's Day gift; a gift set from the movie Office Space, complete with a Initech coffee mug and red stapler and TPS Report covers and a mat for jumping to conclusions (along with a bunch of other things as well.) We love this movie and quote from it all the time around our house. One of my favorite lines is "I wouldn't say I have been missing work." When mrangelmeg needs our son to do things he does a great impression of Lumberg "Yeah, I'm gonna need you to go ahead and come over and do this right now."
Then after dinner we watched the Thursday night lineup on NBC. Our favorite night of television. It just doesn't get much better than this.
And I still have Sunday to do whatever I want. Hmm wonder if I can get the other three kids to leave me alone all day. With all the video game systems in this house it might just work.
I hope all you mothers out there have a wonderful Mother's day with your kids.
Pax
Since mother's day isn't complete without Mass we started our celebration with a trip to daily Mass. We expected the Mass to be celebrated by our parish's acerbic associate pastor who has known my kids for nearly 13 years and would be totally incredulous that they chose to attend daily mass. They were ready though because they were planning to tell him that they were celebrating Mother's Day. To which they were sure he would retort that today wasn't Mother's Day. To this they were all (including the angelbaby) ready to say with a perfectly timed sneer "In Mexico it is."
They never got to use the line though, because the mass was said by our pastor. He was very happy to see the kids at Mass and never once questioned why they were there. We did get to see our previous pastor who is recently retired. He is looking really good and says that he has finally gotten the knack of retirement and is actually beginning to like it.
After Mass we stopped off and ordered Take Out from our favorite Chinese place on our way home. We haven't had good Chinese in a very long time so this was a real treat. We went all out and ordered all of our favorites and a few new items to try (moo shoo chicken for one).
Then I got to open my Mother's Day gift; a gift set from the movie Office Space, complete with a Initech coffee mug and red stapler and TPS Report covers and a mat for jumping to conclusions (along with a bunch of other things as well.) We love this movie and quote from it all the time around our house. One of my favorite lines is "I wouldn't say I have been missing work." When mrangelmeg needs our son to do things he does a great impression of Lumberg "Yeah, I'm gonna need you to go ahead and come over and do this right now."
Then after dinner we watched the Thursday night lineup on NBC. Our favorite night of television. It just doesn't get much better than this.
And I still have Sunday to do whatever I want. Hmm wonder if I can get the other three kids to leave me alone all day. With all the video game systems in this house it might just work.
I hope all you mothers out there have a wonderful Mother's day with your kids.
Pax
Friday, May 04, 2007
You Still Have One Week to Find the Right Apron
National Wear an Apron Day is May 14th. The Day after Mother's Day.
You still have an entire week to find exactly the right Apron to wear that day. I actually found mine the other day in a resale shoppe here in town. It is a cute hand made purple checked apron with hand stitched embellishments all across the top and bottom. in pink and green cross stitching. I think Kitchen Madonna will be very proud of me in this one. Besides that the angelbaby loves all things purple and has been promised this little apron just as soon as I wear it on that Monday.
Our digital camera is on the fritz right now. I hope to get it fixed next week so that I can post a picture of myself in my apron here on my blog for all the world to see (or at least all two of my loyal readers).
I trust you all will get out there and support National Wear an Apron day. If you don't have an apron, do as I did and go find one in a resale shop.
If you really want to look great for 2008's National Wear an Apron Day, might I suggest that you purchase one of Kitchen Madonna's beautiful aprons for your wardrobe. These aren't just practical, they are works of art.
Pax
You still have an entire week to find exactly the right Apron to wear that day. I actually found mine the other day in a resale shoppe here in town. It is a cute hand made purple checked apron with hand stitched embellishments all across the top and bottom. in pink and green cross stitching. I think Kitchen Madonna will be very proud of me in this one. Besides that the angelbaby loves all things purple and has been promised this little apron just as soon as I wear it on that Monday.
Our digital camera is on the fritz right now. I hope to get it fixed next week so that I can post a picture of myself in my apron here on my blog for all the world to see (or at least all two of my loyal readers).
I trust you all will get out there and support National Wear an Apron day. If you don't have an apron, do as I did and go find one in a resale shop.
If you really want to look great for 2008's National Wear an Apron Day, might I suggest that you purchase one of Kitchen Madonna's beautiful aprons for your wardrobe. These aren't just practical, they are works of art.
Pax
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