All About Angie

Thanksgiving Joys!

I stole this idea from Leslie (who does this on random days–she’s a very thankful person).

This Thanksgiving, I am thankful for:

A warm, cuddly baby who smells good and likes to pat my cheeks with his little pudgy hands

Not just one, but two creative daughters who like to make up their own stories and songs (and are always happy to sing them for me)

My husband who loves me even though I love chocolate and hate football

Turkey leftovers! (Really!)

Warm house, clothes to wear, computer to blog with (hee hee)

A country where I have all the freedom I can imagine and then some

Men and women who are even now fighting to keep those freedoms and some are even losing their lives for my sake (This would include the military, police officers, fire fighters, etc. even the president)

And, of course, the Lord Who makes all these things possible. I am overwhelmed by His generosity towards me. Wow!

There are many more things that I have been thinking about that I am thankful for, but too many to list. Sometimes I can’t believe how many blessings I have. But it’s always good to make a list!

Hope your Thanksgiving holiday was a happy one and that you are thankful for your blessings!

PS-In case you’re wondering, the turkey I cooked the other day turned out well. Juicy and all. We carved him up and ate him. His leftovers are going to be made into soup within a matter of hours. Goodbye, Edgar! You were a tasty treat! Even now!

Thanksgiving Is For The Birds (Not Really)

OK, Let me set the stage for you.

It’s Thanksgiving morning at 6AM. I’ve been up since 5, because I have the ::honor:: of cooking a turkey. I have never before cooked a turkey for Thanksgiving. A turkey breast, maybe for some lesser holiday, but never THE turkey (in truth, this is one of the two turkeys we will be eating today). This little guy is a 15 pound turkey (whose name is Edgar) who does not like to be aroused at 5AM from his nice little nest in the fridge. He is a grumpy bird and I dare not make him any angrier than he already is. I’ve put him in a nice cold bath, just to make sure he is good and thawed. He did not like that part, either. I’ve already made the stuffing with which I shall stuff Edgar in his more tender areas. He is really going to be madder than a wet hen. Every website I have checked is all about preventing foodborne illnesses, so I’m trying to be careful without throwing us into a panic. Incidentally, just getting the bird’s neck out of his shorts was enough to make me want tacos for Thanksgiving. That’s probably another story.

Now I’m sitting here staring at the Reynolds Oven Bag directions which plainly state for a 15 pound completely thawed bird, it will only take 3 hours. Lunch is at a noonish hour, so my question is WHY AM I AWAKE RIGHT NOW??????!!!!! And it’s too late, because I’ve already MADE the stuffing (which smells delightful, by the way, but I would never eat the stuff), so what is a virgin turkey girl to do? Can you cook a turkey at 6AM and hope it doesn’t dry out by noon? What happens if I wait and put everything back in the fridge until 8AM? Will it be too late? How will the stuffing hold up? Should I call my mother (who has successfully prepared Thanksgiving turkeys for years) at this unseemly hour, since this is her first year in a long time to NOT cook a turkey? Is she even awake? (Ed. note - In case you’re wondering, she is in Oklahoma and I am in Texas. This is not a Witteman Thanksgiving-year.)

I have to wonder….Does Pizza Hut deliver on Thanksgiving Day?

UPDATE: My mom was awake at 7:30AM when I called her and I got the bird into the oven, bag and all. YEAH!! Thanks, Mom! We’ll see how it turns out. Stay tuned.

More About Fredericksburg

So I never really told you all about our vacation to Fredericksburg. That’s Fredericksburg, TEXAS, not wherever else you might think. Located in the “Hill Country” of central Texas, it’s a quaint little town that was settled by German immigrants some-odd number of years back. When we went on the family trip to Comfort, Texas last Christmas (Comfort is also in the Hill Country region), we had Christmas dinner in Fredericksburg. That was after hiking up Enchanted Rock Christmas morning. Invigorating! Anyway, that was last Christmas. We didn’t do that in 2004.

One thing we did do was to celebrate Lydia’s 3rd birthday. She turned 3 on November 10 and we commemorated the occasion by taking her to The Auslander. Yes, it IS a biergarten. We sat on the patio and enjoyed the 75 degree (Farenheit) weather. It was a Wednesday and the place was virtually empty. It was great. Kiddie menus at biergartens are not too extensive. They had all the major standbys (i.e., chicken in some form, hamburger in some form, and grilled cheese in some form), but also something I assume an American would think German kids would like called “sausage on a stick”. The girls both wanted that. I wasn’t sure if they knew what it was. But they were probably sick of the normal kiddie fare (see previous parentheses). After it was delivered to the table, it took Susanna about 20 minutes and much prompting to eat it. I asked her what was the matter. She said she didn’t like it, but she really liked saying it and that’s why she ordered it. “Ssshhhh-au-ssshhh-age!!”, she excitedly bellowed. Since it was Lydia’s birthday, she was allowed to have dessert. To her father’s dismay, she chose something called “Mississippi Mud”. Lots of rich, creamy chocolate and gooey stuff. Yummy! Poor sugar-hating Mark had to share with the Birthday Queen. Heh!

Fredericksburg is quite the touristy town. You can’t swing a dead cat without hitting a few antique stores (My sincerest apologies to cat lovers) and/or German bakeries/biergartens. They even make an appeal to those with small children via a nice playground in the center of town (2 blocks from the house we rented!). Speaking of the “house we rented”, here is a picture of it. It was perfect for us, as far as houses go. 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms. The girls had to sleep on the floor, but they were more than happy to do so. They made a “nest”, as we call it, with lots of blankets and pillows and had a ball.

It’s time for me to go to bed now myself. Next time, maybe I’ll tell you about Lydia’s gifts. Also known as My Foray Into All Things Girlie…

Another From the Pile of Random Thoughts

While folding my laundry, I noticed something peculiar. Everything (and I mean “everything sans unmentionables”) in my stack of folded, clean laundry is a shade of blue. Not the same blue hue on everything, but a nice blue color wheel effect throughout!

Is this disturbing to anyone else?

The next time I go clothes shopping, I must remember to look to the reds or greens……

Did Ya Miss Me?

For the last week, I’ve been on vacation. The entire family (all 9 Dishmans) went to the Texas Hill Country for some much-needed rest & relaxation. Of course, I can’t post any pictures of the trip myself, because I neglected to take any. However, I’m hoping that David will post some of his when he has a chance. His pictures are always fantastic.

We rented a 4 bedroom house in Fredericksburg. The boys went mountain biking 2 of the 3 days we were there. They had a great time getting all dirty and stinky. On the third day, they played the traditional family 2-on-2 football game. This game is marked by rampant acts of mayhem, shenanigans, and rife with the usual squabbling that follows such competition. All friendly, of course! In fact, no one took any trips to the ER during the entire trip! That’s unusual!!

My wonderful sister-in-law, Elizabeth (David’s wife) and I hung out, so to speak. She is preparing for a dance project in Atlanta in January and has been pretty tired, so our vacation was a welcome rest for her. As for me, I enjoyed just being around my family. Vacations are not necessarily vacations for me in the true sense of the word, just by the very nature of my “job” (i.e., I can’t just take time off from being a mother). But I did find relief from being the ONLY nurse, comforter, cook, playmate, etc. as Mark was not at his monetarily-compensated job and the uncles, aunt, and Grandpop were there to provide excellent and capable support. (In fact, I didn’t cook at all! Yippee!) So anyway, we (the gals and Luke) hung out and had a wonderful relaxing time watching a movie and gabbing while the boys did their thing.

On Saturday, we made our way back to the Metroplex and since the Sooners were playing (AGAIN?!), we watched at Grandpop’s house and got home rather late. I was rather sad to see our vacation end so soon. It seemed to go by even quicker than I thought it would! So now I’m suffering from Post-Vacation Stress Syndrome. Laundry explosions are the order of the day. Ah, well. Completely worth it!!

More later! Stay tuned!

It’s A Girl!!!

A big, gigantic “CONGRATULATIONS!!!” goes out to the newest mama under the Links category (to the right). Jordana of Curmudgeonry delivered a baby girl, named Beatrix Elizabeth, on Monday evening at 7:07pm (On Reformation Day/All Saints Day, of course!!). The sweet bundle weighed 7 pounds, 10 ounces and was 19.5 inches long. All this comes from the Aardvark, who also ran the pool. Which brings me to my next piece of good news….I tied for first place in the pool (and I don’t mean swimming)! Yippee!! After completely screwing up Lenise’s pool, I feel very much relieved to be reinstated from The Land of the Bad Guessers. And a big thank you to Jordana, without whom I could not have succeeded!

Slow Creative Title Process At Work

Last night about 6pm, Mark made the decision that rain was on its way to the Dallas metroplex and if we were going trick-r-treatin’, we should skeedaddle before it got too late. So the girls hurriedly put on their costumes (pictures to come soon, I promise), I gave them each a pillowcase (to contain the desired loot–Mark’s idea), and three of us went for a short trip around the neighborhood.

Aside: While Mark and I aren’t really into the whole “spooky, evil side” of Halloween, we like to use it as a way to interact with our neighbors. And as a bonus, we get lots of candy. I mean, the children get lots of candy. (Please pardon me while I lick the melted Snickers from my fingers.) Anyway…

As I looked around the neighborhood, I couldn’t help but notice that we were the ONLY people in sight! Yikes! I had one of those “Did I miss the REAL Halloween?” and “Should we really be doing this?” type of reaction, but we were already out the door and the girls were already plotting whose house we would plunder first. My rule is to only go to houses whose porchlight is on. And Mark’s rule, when he is home alone with the Boy-child, is for me not to go to more than 6 houses total (for feeding purposes only, I’m sure). Besides, if Mark had his way, he would THROW AWAY all the candy we, …heh, heh… er…, the girls get in their sugar-filled pillowcases.

SO, we went to our 6 legal houses with welcoming porchlights and even with only those 6 houses, they made quite the haul. I think people today are much more generous with the candy than they were twenty-five-plus years ago, when I was the one ringing doorbells on Halloween. And didn’t it seem much much colder back then? I can remember wearing my coat over my homemade Wonderwoman costume, which made the aluminum foil-coved cardboard “magic” bracelets rub against my wrists. And it hurt! But I digress.

When we got back home with the loot, we ate dinner (it was about 7ish). Susanna really wanted to have candy for dinner, but Mark talked her out of it by explaining that candy didn’t have any nutrition in it. “What’s nutrition?”, asked Susanna. Mark replied, “Nutrition is in food that is good for you. It helps your body to grow and develop…(blah, blah, blah)”. Period of silence followed. Then Susanna said (and quite thoughtfully, I might add), “Candy is OLD-trition and good food is NEW-trition.” Yep, she will go far in life.