Pig Pickin' Cake

This recipe is a must at a Southern barbecue...but especially at a pig pickin'! Growing up, our church used to have an annual baptism service/pig pickin' at my parents' house on Brices Creek. This cake was always my favorite. This particular recipe comes from the May 2005 issue of Southern Living. I made it today for our home fellowship group cookout.

I forgot to take a picture of my cake before leaving tonight, so this picture is from google images...it obviously has coconut in the topping, but otherwise it looks the same!

Ingredients

1 (18.25-ounce) package yellow cake mix
1/3 cup water
1/3 cup vegetable oil
3 large eggs
1 (11-ounce) can mandarin oranges, drained
1 (15-ounce) can crushed pineapple, undrained
1 (3.4-ounce) package vanilla instant pudding mix
1 (12-ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed
1/2 cup chopped pecans
Garnish: chopped pecans
Preparation

Beat first 4 ingredients in a large bowl at medium speed with an electric mixer until blended. Stir in oranges. Pour batter into 3 greased and floured 8-inch round cakepans. (Layers will be thin.)
Bake at 350° for 25 to 30 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool layers in pans on wire racks 10 minutes; remove layers from pans, and let cool completely on wire racks.
Stir together crushed pineapple and next 3 ingredients. Spread pineapple mixture evenly between layers and on top of cake. Chill cake 3 to 4 hours. Garnish, if desired. Store cake in refrigerator.

Rainy Day Reading

This morning we had plans to go to the water park at the YMCA since it has been SO HOT this week! We woke up to dreary, cloudy weather, so I checked the forecast which stated, "Mostly cloudy with a 40% chance of scattered showers this afternoon." SO, we headed out and got in the pool despite the dreary, ominous looking clouds! My friend, Karen and I were talking about how dark those clouds were and SURELY they were rain clouds, but nothing was happening--yet! All of a sudden we felt sprinkles and by the time we got to our lounge chairs (under the huge umbrellas, thankfully!) it was pouring down. And it kept pouring....and pouring harder. We finally made a dash to the locker room to get changed. It was starting to let up some, so we headed out to pull up our cars. The kids only had 30 min. of swim time, but at least we have a funny story to tell! It rained for over 2 more hours after we got home! This is how we enjoyed our rainy day before nap times:

I opened up the sleeper sofa so they could read books while listening to the rain...and I lit some candles...not sure if this is what THEY would have chosen, but it was relaxing to me!

They were surprisingly excited, so I hope I'm actually cultivating a love of reading in them!

Sean was giving a pouty face because he didn't want his picture taken...he's usually a ham, not sure why the change!

These special times together are one of the many reasons I'm happy to be homeschooling.  Who knows what we will decide next year, but for now I'm happy to have extra bonding time during these little years!

Thankful for my girls

This morning as I was getting dressed I noticed I could no longer hear the girls. I went to look to see what they were getting into. I found Sean halfheartedly making his bed while intermittenly twirling around in circles trying to get dizzy. But as I went into the girls' room, this is what I found:

They were sweetly and quietly playing with stuffed animals and dolls in their newly shared closet. Ahh!!--How long will this last?

What's it going to take?

I already know I'm in the wrong mood to write this blog post, because I'm just frustrated with the slow progress of my weight loss journey.  I do not enjoy complaining about things, but this has got to be the most agonizing process I've ever been through!

Yes, I am only 10 pounds away from my goal (it was 20 pounds away last August even after losing 20 pounds of pregnancy weight in the first 2 months after Brilee was born in June).  Somehow I thought it would take only a year to lose the entire 20, but it has been difficult.

I've currently been running at least 4 times a week and integrating weight training in there 2-3 times a week (since muscle burns more calories than fat).  However, even with all the work I've been putting in, I still feel a huge bulge in my middle!  From the beginning it's felt like all the weight I have to lose is in the middle, and that's the last place weight comes off.  So, I guess it's true the last 10 pounds is the hardest.  It's just so frustrating to work out so hard and feel like I'm accomplishing nothing noticeable.  Sean still often pats my tummy and asks if I'm having another baby--not reassuring at all!

I've got goals set up along the way, and though I feel proud to have reached the 10 to go mark, it seems like I have to do something more drastic to lose the last 10.  I'll be 32 in September, and I know my metabolism is slower as I'm getting older.  Plus, my hypothyroidism does NOT help at all.  I have to remind myself that.

So, from here I have my mind set on the mini-goal of 5 to go mark--who knows how long it will take to reach that goal--then I can have just 5 more to go as the last goal! But, if I can ever reach the end, I have a pretty significant goal reward that I'm working towards, so that keeps me focused till then!

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8.2.11

Lilly Fairy

Ruby, Sean & Corrie

Youngblood Family 2007

These are family pictures we had taken way back in Nov 2007 for the Calvary church directory (Sean was 11 months old.) They had been forgotten on a disk we bought, until I just remembered about them! So glad to find these treasures! Love how precious Sean looks, but sad to see how much he's grown!

Camera pictures

These are all pictures on my camera that have never made it to my blog, even though some have been shared on Facebook. I just wanted to make sure they all get saved here for the future!