New recipe/new news

It's been FOREVER since I've done a new recipe post. Things have been so busy this last month or so. I'll get to that later though. This weeks recipe is Heavenly Hamburger. This is a family recipe that comes from my Great Grandma Hillner. It's kinda similar to lasagna but WAY better. I am not usually one to eat leftovers the next night but this recipe tastes even better the 2nd night! Okay, here is the recipe:

Heavenly Hamburger

(Marion Hillner)

2 Tbs. butter

2 (8oz) cans tomato sauce

1 pound hamburger

1 (8oz) pkg. egg noodles

1 clove minced garlic

3 green onions, chopped

1 tsp salt

3 oz cream cheese

1 tsp. pepper

1 cup sour cream

1 tsp. sugar

½ c grated cheddar cheese

Melt butter in skillet; add meat, broken into small pieces and brown. Add garlic along with sugar, salt, pepper and tomato sauce. Cover and cook slowly 15-20 minutes. Cook noodles according to instructions and drain. Set oven to 350˚ F. Chop onions, mix with cream cheese and sour cream. Layer casserole as follows: 1/3 noodles in bottom of large casserole dish, spread with 1/3 onion mixture, then 1/3 meat sauce. Repeat. Bake 20 minutes or until bubbly. You can freeze for later. Serves 6 generously. Tastes even better the second day!

I have used maccaroni noodles with this recipe instead of egg noodles (because they aren't my favorite noodle) and I actually like it better.

So, updates... Well we went to the doctor on the 6th to find out if our little bundle of joy is a boy or girl and came out with no news on that front. On the other hand we got a really good look at all the baby's anatomy and everything looks great! The doctor said that "they didn't get a good look at the spine" so we are scheduled for another ultrasound on the 3rd of February so they can look at the spine and "other anatomy". Pretty much they are scheduling another ultrasound so that we can find out what we are having is the conclusion Jacob and I came up with. After thinking about the ultrasound on the way home we realised that we both saw the baby's spine and it looked like a spine. Keep your fingers crossed that we will actually find out this next time.

Jacob felt the baby kick for the first time a couple days ago! This little one is so much more laid back then Emma was when I was pregnant with her. If you put your hand on my belly with Emma she would try and kick you off. With this one as soon as your hand leaves it kicks. This was very discouraging to Jacob because I would tell him the baby was kicking like crazy and he would put his hand on my belly and it would stop. Well, the baby gave him a good kick the other day and that made him happy.

I am 22 weeks along now and am already as big as I was at 34 weeks with Emma. I've been subbing in the Kennewick School District for the last week and one of my students yesterday said "Mrs. T, you stomach looks like you are going to have a baby." I told her that I was so glad that she could tell that there was a baby in there. It was so funny. Then of course the whole class had to come up and rub my belly and ask if they could be an aunt or uncle to the baby. Gotta love 1st graders! Subbing is going okay. Some classes are a lot better than others. Yesterday was horrible and I almost left the room crying but I'm proud to say that I stuck it out and made it through the day. I did feel myself start to cramp up in my abdominal area though and decided that that probably wasn't a good thing. I was super stressed yesterday so I'm going to try really hard the rest of the week to not let things bother me.

Emma has been at my parents house since we got there on the 18th of December. We left my parents on the 2nd and she stayed. It's been nice having a break for a while but at the same time I miss my little girl. She is having tons of fun with her Mor Mor, Papa and Uncle Kaleb though and their dog Sandy. She comes home Friday and we are so excited to have her back!

Jacob and I have been enjoying some one on one time this last week. We went out Friday night to P.F.Changs for our little date. It was Jacob's first time and it had been about 12 years since I'd gone last. The food was so good and the service was FANTASTIC! It was so nice to sit and enjoy a nice meal together and talk. We've been really bad at doing that since Emma was born and it was nice to reconnect with eachother. He's such a wonderful man and I am so happy to be married to him.

Work for Jacob is still slow and non-existant. Luckily someone in our ward has a little work for Jacob to do to earn a little money. We are thankful for every opportunity to have work and make money at this point. Subbing really sucks sometimes but I'm glad that I chose to get my degree in Education. After I graduated I was certain I didn't want to teach and even now I don't think I'd want to do it all the time. I am grateful though that my degree is one that is always in a high demand and that I can do it full time or part time and make okay money doing it. All the ridicule I got going through school about wasteing time and money if I was just going to stay at home has paied off.