Housewife Reject

I was really hoping for more conversation on my last blog, but it's time for a new post. I thought you'd enjoy hearing about Wesley's birthday this past week (22! someone call AARP) and my domestic failures.

It all started with the fact that my husband is one of the least materialistic people you'll ever meet. This is a great quality; however, it also means that he's practically impossible to buy for. The only things he really wants are more books--which I will gladly buy him when we get another bookshelf:

[Books stacked on the floor in our apartment, in between two full bookshelves. Sigh. Did I mention he's only in his first semester of seminary?]

So what did he want for his birthday (besides more books)? A pair of goggles. That's right, my friends, Wesley wanted a pair of $3.99 goggles from Amazon.com. The shipping cost more than the actual product. What's a girl to do? I bought him the goggles (which I couldn't even surprise him with, because I wanted to make sure I got the right kind) and got him a few sweaters from American Eagle (and you KNOW those were high on his "want" list -- but they were too cute handsome and only $12!). But I still felt like I should do something more....

A cake! What a great idea. I would make Wesley a birthday cake--his favorite kind. One problem: I don't know his favorite kind of cake (give me a break; we're newlyweds!). Since I was pretty much over trying to surprise him, I took him to Kroger and told him to pick out his favorite type of cake. He stared at them for a long time (he'd probably rather me stick a candle in some fruit--my husband is so strange) and finally handed me a box:

Lemon cake mix? Interesting. And a great way to keep the wife from gaining 10 lbs--select a cake mix she won't be tempted to eat every five minutes. Or ever.

Ok--this story is dragging. I'll move it along. On the side of the box it gave directions on how to make a lemon pound cake, which I thought could possibly have more appeal. All you needed to do was add lemon pudding to the mix, which was easy enough. Upon getting ready to put the cake in the oven, however, I discovered that I didn't have an essential ingredient: a bundt pan. I had an angel food cake pan. They're both round... and tubular. My mother-in-law said it would work! But this is what I discovered:

No, friends, they really just aren't the same thing. The cake looked fine when I took it out of the oven (*a few minutes early, mind you, but our oven is notorious for buring things--oh, how I love apartment living), but it didn't take long before it completely sunk in:

And then I discovered that because I was scared of burning it, I actually undercooked it (which was probably more the reason it fell in than the pan type--it was just too dense). So instead of pretty lemon pound cake, we ended up with this:

Yum, yum! Ugly, sunken in, lemon pudding cake.

I tried to dress it up as best I could:

...which I'm pretty sure made it look even more pathetic looking.

So over all, the happy birthday lemon cake didn't turn out to be such a happy surprise after all. It was pretty funny, though. Wes is still nibbling on it ("Dear, it's like cake and pudding at the same time! It's great!" --he's kind) to make me feel better. Oh, the woes of being domestically challenged.

Next time I think I'll go to a bakery. Happy birthday anyway, husband!