Love and Death And Winning at Tickle Tiger

 When we were growing up we would play this game called Tickle Tiger with my father.  We would all crawl around our rather large living room.  Dad would roar and chase us and if he caught us he would tickle us until we were giggling little slugs rolled into tiny balls on the floor.

For my sisters and brothers and me, it was the best game in the world.  Dad was a really big guy, over six feet tall and had played football in high school and college.  He had an amazing laugh that could make us laugh even before he got close enough to us to tickle us.   Dad would play until he had rendered us all senseless.

Sometimes mom would join the game.  When that happened dad would chase mom behind the couch, and it would become very quiet.  Eventually we would climb up onto the couch to look and we would find them; mom wrapped in dad's arms and they would be kissing.

Once when my younger brother Matt was three and we found them behind the couch he said " Dad you don't 'posed to kiss her you 'posed to tickle her, silly."  But I was six and much wiser and I knew that our game of Tickle Tiger was over, and mom had won.

My parents had an amazingly loving relationship.  They produced nine children, and were never embarrassed to show affection in front of us.  They often sat at the table in the morning over one last cup of coffee before dad had to leave for work holding hands and chatting about nothing in particular.

When I was 12, my dad got sick and a very tense year later died of a brain tumor.  My mother suddenly had to become totally chaste, not by her own choosing, but because of a circumstance beyond her control.    I had always hoped that she would find love again, but she always maintained that there was only one love for her in this world.    For the next 38 years she lived waiting for the day when she and my dad would be united once again.

When my mom died early last fall  (just days after her and dad's wedding anniversary) she was reunited with my dad.  They are buried together in a military cemetery, which means they share the same burial plot and headstone with dad's information on the front and mom's on the back.  When she was buried I could imagine dad's arms outstretched waiting to wrap them around mom in a loving and eternal embrace.  They are together forever.

I miss mom every day, but when I think about how they are buried, in that loving embrace, I realize that she is exactly where she has wanted to be for a really, really long time.   I know she is happy there.  The game is over,  mom has won again.

Happy Mother's Day mom.

Pax

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