It all started when I was folding laundry in Norway. Mind you, I *hate* folding laundry, hate it. I have to watch TV while doing it or I’ll die from boredom. So flipping through channels, I stumbled across Lord of The Rings. Or so I thought.

Boromir was there and I kept waiting for Frodo, Sam and the rest of the gang to show up, but they never did. Instead there were these other characters, these twisted characters. One blond jerk told his sister he’d gladly let 10,000 men rape her if it meant he could have an army.

Also there were women who were naked as the day they were born and some explicit sex scenes. I shook my head, “These crazy Norwegians and their crazy TV shows.” (I’m always amazed at the nudity allowed on regular Scandinavian TV, but conversely they’re bothered by all of the gun violence on ours.)

Fast-forward a few months and during a girls’ night out, my friend was talking about how her husband loves Game of Thrones. She started to describe it and a light bulb went off.

In Norway, I wasn’t watching some crazy Norwegian show, it was this whole Game of Thrones phenomenon on HBO that I’d been hearing so much about. That weekend, I convinced my husband to watch the first episode with me OnDemand.

He rolled his eyes, thinking I was forcing him to watch some teenage medieval drivel. (In all fairness, I used to make him watch Supernatural with me.) Basically, it’s a very layered tale of the fight for the all powerful Iron Throne. There’s whispers of a little magic woven into the harsh realities of life and its Medieval expectations.

Shortly into the first episode, Hubby and I became addicts. That night we watched four Game of Throne episodes, even pulling out the sofa sleeper so we could sleep in front of the 60-inch TV downstairs. (The TV in our bedroom is 28 inches, totally not Game-of-Thrones worthy.)

A couple weeks later, I was talking to my dad and told him about the greatness of Game of Thrones. Then, one night, I got a text at 1:05 a.m.: “Dang you Mel, you got me staying up late watching the game of thrones” I had another convert!

Game of Thrones became part of the Sunday evening routine in our house. I’d make a special dinner and after the kids were down, we’d turn out all the lights and watch the show.

When we went home to Kansas, Hubby and I were excited to watch it with my dad. That day, Hubby spent several hours working on his laptop in a coffee shop as I spent time with my family. I went to pick him up and he told me he had a surprise.

Puzzled, I wondered what he could have done in my hometown that would surprise me. We walked into THREAD, a custom T-shirt shop in Aggieville. I was presented with a yellow tee with a black emblem of a dragon and the words: “Mother of Dragons.”

I squealed with delight and grinned ear to ear. Mother of Dragons is the nickname of my favorite character, Daenerys Targaryen (in fact it was her brother who told her he didn’t care if she was raped by thousands.) And, since I’ve got two little firecrakers as sons, it’s fitting that I too am the Mother of Dragons.

Hubby apparently worked with THREAD employee Josh on the design and I have to say, they did a perfect job. That night, decked out in my new Game of Thrones T-shirt, I watched Game of Thrones with my Hubby and my daddy.

(It was perfect.)