a few tough days...

These last few days have been really rough ones. Nothing really with work, or school, but with Liam. He has been so temperamental and moody lately I am beginning to become concerned. Everyone keeps telling me that he is just turning 2, and that's fine, but he is just different to me. He has started crying again when I drop him off at daycare, and sometimes even with my parents. When we come home, all he does is seem to cry, and everything we do is wrong. He just wants to lay on top of me on the couch and go to sleep. Tonight, he fell asleep at 7pm which is really early for him. He just grabbed his pillow and blanket and crawled up onto the couch and went to sleep. He is throwing temper tantrums so often now, that a good mood throws us off track for the day. He just screams and we have no idea what it is about. I know this is probably all normal, but it is just so difficult and we don't know what we can do to sooth him. He is also struggling with paci separation. We are really trying to clamp down on getting rid of the paci, but his attachment seems to be getting worse. And there are many times that he wants nothing to do with Deron and gets so mad when Deron gets even a little close to him. He has made it so I am the only one that can do things for him at times and it is definitely draining. I guess this is just life with a toddler right? Any advice is definitely welcome!!!!

changes

We have had to make many decisions over the last year, and the one that was the hardest to make was for me to not pursue the career that I went to college for 9 years to do, which is teaching. With the economy in the state it is, teaching really is not an option for me. It breaks my heart, because I feel that teaching is where my heart really does lie. It is something that I have wanted to do since I was in elementary school. So, for now we have decided to go a different route. I was given an opportunity to go into a training program with Lowe's to become a Human Resources Manager right after Liam was born, unfortunately, I did not pass the tests to get into the program, and you have to wait a whole year to re-take the tests. So about a month ago, I re-took my tests, and I passed. Yesterday I had the interview with our Area Human Resources Manager, and it was the most stressful interview that I have ever had. I was a nervous wreck all day long. After all, it has been about 6 years since I have even had an interview, and that was still at Lowe's. I think the main reason I was nervous was because I had to sell myself, and I am not a very confident person. In the end, the interview seems to have gone pretty well. I don't find out until Friday if I get to go into this training program, but the good thing is, is that even if I don't get it right now, I can still get into the program later on in 2010. I really think that this is a great avenue for our family. Not only does it provide us with some extra income, but it also somewhat fulfills my desire to teach. While my students will not be 12 our younger, it is still teaching and mentoring. We have been praying consistently about this decision and things seem to be falling into place. We are not really sure where things are going to go from here, but we know God is in control and he will take us where we need to go.

She's Finally Here!

Lisa and Matt had their DAUGHTER on Dec. 3! We are so excited. Of course, we all thought they were having a boy, but we were wrong :) Her name is Emma Ann Eveland, and she is so beautiful. She weighed 9.4 lbs, and was 21.25" long. Just a smidge bigger than Liam. Everyone is doing well and they are hoping to be home today. We wish so badly that we could see her and hold her, but she is all the way in Georgia, so we'll have to wait until March when they come out here for a visit! We have put her on our screen saver and everytime Liam see's her, he calls her either just baby or mama. He can't quite say Emma, but because it is close to Mama, he just calls her that! I am only going to post one picture because I am sure Lisa will be plenty to put up! :)

Olive Garden Night! Plus, a few recipes!!

At work we found a cook book titled "America's Most Wanted Recipes." This is a fantastic cook book. It has recipes from Applebees, Benihana, The Cheesecake Factory, Chili's Olive Garden, Macaroni Grill, Outback, etc. Deron and I have been trying to figure out the recipe for the soup from Olive Garden, Zuppa Toscana, for a long time. Finally, this book has the recipe. So we decided that tonight we would make the soup and the bread sticks. It turned out pretty good. While obviously the real thing is still the best, this is definitely a close second. Here are the recipes!


















Olive Garden - Zuppa Toscana (serves 4)

1 lb. Italian sausage
8 oz. smoked bacon, chopped
4 C. water
2- 14.5 oz cans chicken broth
2 lg russet potatoes, scrubbed and cubed
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 medium onion, chopped
2 C. chopped kale or swiss chard
1 C. heavy cream
Salt and Pepper

1. in a skillet over med. heat, brown the sausage, breaking into small pieces; drain and set aside (make sure to remove the casing)
2. in a separate skillet, fry the bacon until brown, drain and set aside. ( i used the same skillet)
3. combine the water, broth, potatoes, garlic and onions in a pot; simmer over med. heat until the potatoes are tender 10-15 min.
4. Add the sausage and the bacon, simmer for 10 min.
5. Add cream and kale. Season with salt and pepper to taste and simmer until soup is heated through. Do not allow to boil.


The soup turned out really good. We cut our potatoes bigger than what the restaurant does, but the flavors are still there. If you want it thicker, add a little cornstarch at the end.







Olive Garden - Bread Sticks

1 loaf frozen bread dough
Cooking Spray
Garlic Powder
Dried Oregano

1. Allow the dough to thaw at room temperature in a large greased mixing bowl.
2. When the dough is soft enough to knead, break off pieces and shape into cigar-sized sticks.
3. Places these 3 inches apart on sprayed cookie sheets. Let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 hour 15 min
4. Preheat over to 375
5. Holding the can of cooking spray about 8 inches from the sticks, lightly spray the top of each stick, dust with garlic powder and sprinkle with oregano.
6. bake for 20-25 min until golden brown
7. let cool on the cookie sheets for a few min. before serving.


The bread sticks were not the right shape, and we could not get them to be sticks. They were not greasy like olive gardens, but they were still good.

Skillet Bow Tie Lasagna

This is a great recipe that I found a while back. It is super yummy and very easy!

1 lb. ground beef
1 small onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes, undrained
1 1/2 C. water
1 can (6 oz.) tomato paste
1 Tbsp. dried parsley flakes
2 tsp. dried oregano
1 tsp. salt
2 1/2 C. uncooked bow tie pasta
3/4 C. small curd cottage cheese
1/4 C. grated parmesan cheese

In a large skillet, cook beef, onion and garlic until meat is no longer pink; drain. Add the tomatoes, water, tomato paste, parsley, oregano and salt; mix well. Stir in pasta, bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 20-25 minutes or until pasta is tender, stirring once. Combine the cheeses; drop by rounded tablespoon fulls onto pasta mixture. Cover and cook for 5 minutes.

Serves 4

The cottage cheese replaces the ricotta that is usually in lasagna. We didn't miss the ricotta at all, and in fact, I didn't even notice I was eating cottage cheese.

Too Much To Do!

I have let blogger be my last priority lately, so I apologize to those of you who read my blog. We've just had so much going on around here, and my schedule at work has been so random lately! So, let the updates begin!

Liam had his first slumber party the other day. His cousin Aidan came over with his tent and spent the night. The boys had so much fun. Liam now has a thing for tents, so a certain little boy may be getting a little one for Christmas :) The boys ran all over the place getting into everything. They even watched finding Nemo on my laptop in their tent while munching on popcorn! It was a little difficult to get them to sleep. We could here them talking the night away over the intercom. Deron finally had to go and lay down with them until the went to sleep. This is how one of their conversations went:

Liam: oww
Aidan: what's oww?
Liam: oww
Aidan: what's oww?
Liam: oww
Aidan: what's oww?
Liam: huh?

Here are some pictures from their fun

















Liam is continuing to get more and more teeth in. Right now he is getting in 3 of his 4 Canine teeth. So as you can imagine, we are having lots of fun with those :)

He still amazes us every day. He is learning so much and talking so much more. He copies a lot of what we say and do now. He also loves to do everything himself. He helps me unload the dishwasher, he loves to help me dust ( I think mainly because he wears a sock on his arm)



















Finally he has started to give me some smiles at the camera. They may be a tad bit cheesy, but they are much better than the blank stares that we were getting before!













Ok, well that is not as many updates as I thought there would have been. I guess I just felt that I left a lot out! Hope everyone is doing well. We are definitely looking forward to Thanksgiving and Christmas! We cannot wait to see Liam's reactions to these holidays. They will be so different than last year!

PuMpKiN pAtCh

We were able to take a trip to the pumpkin patch on Thursday and we're blessed that Deron was able to go with us. With his crazy work schedule, you never really know whe he is going to work. We weren't there for too long because it was right in the middle of Liam's nap time and he was exhausted. We were there long enough to get some pumpkins and take some pictures, but it was fun nonetheless.