plans of poundcake and how it turned out...

Yesterday, between five loads of laundry, I pulled out Nathan's mother's sour cream pound cake recipe and got to work making his birthday cake. After making a royal mess and enjoying the work, I filled up my castle bunt pan with the wonderful smelling pound cake batter and put it into the oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit and let it bake for an hour. During that hour, I cleaned the kitchen and folded clothes, every once in a while checking on the cake and the next load of laundry. And to add to my growing list, I still had yet to get him a birthday card or birthday cake candles. Not only that, but I had no idea how I was going to sneak getting ice cream to go with his cake, since Nathan was going to be going grocery shopping with me. It wasn't until an hour before he got off work that I found the perfect plan. It happened like this...

Nathan got off work, came home to me, dropped me off at the grocery store while he went to Wal-mart to get the second season of Stargate SG-1, picked me up at the grocery store, then drove home where I unloaded all the groceries without him ever noticing the ice cream. Not to mention that I sneaked the card by walking to town at 3:50 to purchase one in a local gift store.
The first surprise came when we were sitting down to eat his birthday dinner, an egg and sausage quiche. I had ordered him the third season of Stargate SG-1 thinking we would already have ordered or bought the second season, but not knowing that Nathan would be getting it on his birthday. This I had placed, fully wrapped, by his dinner plate just prior to him getting off the computer to join me in his birthday dinner. After he had finished his second helping and gulped down the rest of his milk, he unwrapped season three and was totally surprised and had quite a joyful expression on his face. After the kisses I received, we cleared the table and called my mother to ask her how she was doing. Just prior to Nathan's departure from work, I had called Mom to ask her a question only to receive a hurried explanation that she had been in a car accident. She is ok and all the kids that were in the car with her are fine as well.

Earlier in the day, a package had come in the mail (from my family) for Nathan and me. We opened that package but only Nathan opened his present. A G.A. Henty book that he didn't already own. I had several presents wrapped, but a message telling me "Please on the gifts on the birthdays 18th and 22nd." While I was on the phone with Mom I asked her about this message and she replied, "I had to rewrite that message two times because of Alaina and it still isn't right?" The first "on" of the message was supposed to be "open" as I had already figured out. I liked it better the way it was though, knowing full well that love was spend in writing it and besides, that is the mother I remember. I will never forget seeing her handwriting on a grocery list saying "pink ponk balls" and knowing that she wanted us to get ping-pong balls.

After "happy birthdays!" were shouted over the phone to Nathan, I spoke to Hannah on the phone until the phone's battery started chirping its dying "beep" song. Saying "good-bye," I hung up the phone and plugged it in to the charger and then cleaned up the dinner mess and threw away the gift wrap while discussing with Nathan which we would watch that night, Walking Tall or SG-1. It was decided that we would watch a few episodes of SG-1. I figured that would be the birthday decision. Just prior to going to the bedroom to watch, I pulled out Nathan's hidden castle, inserted a lemon votive candle in the middle, and lit it singing "happy birthday" and walking to Nathan's computer chair. Sitting in his chair, Nathan's face showed complete ecstasy and surprise at the castle cake. I don't think he knew that I would make it in my castle cake pan, but I am sure he was expecting a dessert of some form. Nathan blew the candle out slowly and said "thank you, Dorry. I don't think I can top this!" He was referring to my birthday this Friday. I told him, "well I did have all day to plan this, but I am sure you will do fine!" While he had his back turned I hurried to the freezer and popped out the pint of vanilla ice cream and quickly served the plates of cake, topping it off with the ice cream. That was another surprise for him. I still had two more surprises left.

Upon finishing the dessert, Nathan gave me a big hug and kiss and expressed his love and appreciation for what I did to make the end of his day special. While he put the cake back in its place, I hid in the bathroom to write on his birthday card. I placed it in front of the tv, where he would surely see it while he inserted the dvd into the player. He did discover it and enjoyed it. The last surprise of the day was our newly washed sheets. I had been behind on changing them and finally got around to doing it and washing it. Upon slipping his feet under the covers, he sighed and told me he loved me so much and that he was proud of all that I had done for him in just one day. We cuddled up together in bed and watched two episodes of SG-1 then turned off the light and tv, snuggled up, said our "I love yous," and somewhere between giggles and kisses, we fell asleep.