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.

a break...

While working at the chocolate store just last week, I noticed a huge slow down and change in the days. Hardly anyone was coming into the store and buying products or gift merchandise. I suspected that I probably wouldn't be needed for awhile until tourism picks up again in October. My suspicions proved correct and so I offered to be considered an "on call" employee of Chocolate Obsession. This brought relief to Sharon, since I could tell that having to let me go for the rest of the season would not have been an easy thing to tell me. I am glad that I spoke up and suggested it first. This way she knows that I am ok with her decisions and nothing she says will hurt me or cause our friendship to end. After giving her a hug on Thursday afternoon and leaving, I knew I would miss being busy all day everyday during the weeks, but I also knew that this means that I have more time for making salsa. It is my prayer that I will be able to make enough money through selling salsa in order to live a little more comfortably financially. I have already dropped off my first batch at the chocolate store where I hope they will sell. Now I just have to wait. Until they sell, I will not be canning any more. These two recent happenings are sad for me, but are for the best. However, I am enjoying planning out different ways to please my husband! Today is his birthday. I have lots to plan and lots that I have already accomplished. So far five loads of laundry are complete, the kitchen is clean, the bedroom is clean, and my plans are already set in motion and working, only they won't be done for a good bit yet. I will get back to you on how the day goes, seeing as Nathan may read this (then again he may not). God's timing is perfect. If I hadn't taken off for the season at the Chocolate Obsession store, then I wouldn't have been able to accomplish all that I have done today!

wish I were working

SO I get to stay home today from work, but I really needed to make the money. We are trading our new tv for a better and bigger one tomorrow, but we may not be able to afford it then. I hope we can sell some salsa soon. I am making several batches today since I am home, and will have Nathan take them to my work place tomorrow to display them for sale. Maybe they will sell well. I think they will, I just need to get them all made. I am not looking forward to cutting the onions! I have seven onions to cut by hand! At least I don't have to cut all the jalapenos by hand as well. That part is easy since i have a food processor attachment on my Kitchen Aid mixer. I just don't do onions that way because it becomes liquid onion, and makes the smell take over the kitchen. One day soon I will get myself a vegetable hand chopper to make things easier.

ok, so I do need to get to chopping onions. Any suggestions as how I can do it faster by hand????

earwax candles... do they really work?

Recently, I have been battling an earache off and on for about three weeks. I figured that maybe it is due to earwax buildup and that I needed to use earwax candles that many people speak so highly about. Nathan had never used one before and thought we could give it a try, but he first decided to read a little bit about it by typing "earwax candle" into a google search. Have you ever tried typing it in and looking up all that there is to know about those things? THEY ARE A HOAX!!!!! Anyone that swears by those candles or says that they really work, then they are falling for those things and are blind to what really is going on behind those things. If you take an earwax candle and burn it while it is in your ear and then unravel it, there is a whole bunch of orange "earwax" sitting in the cone. Well, if you take another candle and burn it into a glass jar, the same orange "earwax" globs/balls will still be the result!!!

When the earwax cones/candles are made they are coated in a clear wax. When the candle burns, the wax itself melts and forms into orange balls on the inside, thus creating the "earwax" on the inside. The earwax candle companies claim that the candle will remove earwax and toxins all in the same burning. Don't believe this!! Even though some people will say that they hear much better after their earwax burning sessions, it is probably just from the pressure created by the burning of the candle, not from removal of earwax though. If you need to have earwax removed, then see a doctor or get ear droppers that are for dissolving or loosening earwax. Our family favorite is garlic droppers. The old fashioned way of loosening the compacted earwax. I had Nathan put droppers in both of my ears, and I have had over a period of weeks relief from earwax buildup. Earwax is good for you so you don't need to have all of the earwax out anyway. The purpose of the earwax is to protect the inner ear.

I would not reccomend earwax candles to anybody and highly suggest you either see a doctor and/ or get ear dropper at your local pharmacy for much cheaper than an earwax candle and save your money!!

Here is an informative site you can read about earwax and the different methods of removing it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earwax

Finally ...

I get to relax! But even in my relaxation I have to crochet a gift I promised myself I would get done by today. I am so glad the weekend is here and that hopefully I will get to sleep in tomorrow and not worry about keeping to a tight schedule. This week has been crazy!! I am a bit sleep deprived! I go to bed exhausted from a full day to have Nathan sleep walk twice or three times in one night and every night this week! I know he can't help it, though, and he doesn't know he is doing it. I want to help him, but I am too exhausted to figure out how. Last night, I just let him sleep walk and didn't even try to wake him up, and he went back to bed on his own time. But I found objects where they don't belong and some objects I didn't even know we owned all astray in our room. Not to mention that my razor that is usually on the sill of the shower was on the floor with the cap off and missing. Weird! Nathan has no cuts as far as I know, but I know this, the cats wouldn't have done that! I can't ignore him when he sleepwalks. I don't remember him sleepwalking, but I remember looking at my clock after he got back into bed and finding that it was 3:20am. I wonder what else can be done to prevent his sleepwalking. I sometimes wish I had all the answers to that question.