Chocolate Cake

So, I used my aforementioned new-to-me KitchenAid mixer today to make Philip a chocolate cake. He landed himself a new job as an Assistant Portfolio Manager at Protective Life Corporation, so I decided that he deserved a very chocolatey cake! I got the recipe from my favorite recipe site. It was an easy recipe, and the cake was very rich and oh-so-delicious!

Here's the recipe:

INGREDIENTS
1 (18.25 ounce) package dark chocolate cake mix
1 (3.9 ounce) package instant chocolate pudding mix
1 (16 ounce) container sour cream
3 eggs
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup coffee flavored liqueur
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 10 inch bundt pan.
In a large bowl, combine cake mix, pudding mix, sour cream, eggs, oil and coffee liqueur. Beat until ingredients are well blended. Fold in chocolate chips. Batter will be thick. Spoon into prepared pan. Bake in preheated oven for 1 hour, or until cake springs back when lightly tapped. Cool 10 minutes in pan, then turn out and cool completely on wire rack.

Tannehill Trade Days

Although we lived in Hueytown for three summers, we never made it out to Tannehill Trade Days until last weekend. My mom has been wanting to go as well, so my parents and my Aunt Stephanie came in for the weekend to try it out. The weather was perfect, and we had a good time with some of our friends who also decided to see what they had at this basically gigantic flea-market-in-a-state-park.

The find of the day came when we spotted a beautiful, buttercream yellow KitchenAid stand mixer in the midst of a table full of junk. Complete with a pouring shield, flat beater, dough hook, and wire whip, it was a steal at only $60. I had to promise Philip many cakes in order for him to agree that we needed it desperately, but it now proudly sits on my counter. You can't beat the feeling a good deal will give you! Cake, anyone?

Happy Birthday!

Philip turned 29 on May 8. The last year of his twenties! We had a few friends over to celebrate, and we played a rousing game of Cranium. Unfortunately, the guys won. I place all of the blame for our loss on a single card. Let me see you act like a carburetor! :)

Happy birthday, Sweetie!

Summer Is Here!

We spent last weekend in Orange Beach, AL, at Hunter Street's annual marriage retreat, with two other couples from our Sunday School class. It was wonderful to get away for a relaxing weekend! The guys played racquetball, and even managed to create a competition out of playing in the Gulf waters. The girls had fun relaxing on the beach. Four years after moving away from the coast, I think that I appreciate being at the beach more.

Also, yesterday was my last day working at Bryant High School. Hallelujah! I was grateful to have the opportunity to work with the NSA in this fellowship program, but I can truly say now that teaching high school is not my calling. To all of you who teach ages 18 and under, God bless you! I don't know how you do it. I have a few weeks off, and then will be back to teaching college Cal, where I am much more comfortable.

Adoption update: We truly appreciate the support and prayers that our friends and family have offered us. We are still working on gathering documents for our home study and dossier, and visiting doctors/psychologists. We will hopefully have our last visit with our social worker soon. This visit (our fourth) will be the first to take place in our home. We will keep you updated on our progress!