Somebody Is Getting Older

He's officially an old man. It's the longest six weeks of every year when I am older than my husband. Today, he finally joins me in the uppity-up ranks of the Old Geezer Club. What an honor for him, and a relief for me!

For those of you keeping track at home, I'm working today. I am several states away from Hubby on this, his very special day of the year. He could have come with me for this weekend of work. We would have considered it a free vacation, and he would have been giddy as a school girl in all the buffets here in Reno.

But, alas, someone had to go away on a Scouting Training Camp. They only hold this event twice a year, and Hubby needed to attend this particular one to continue in his Scouting position. Canceling the trip and running away with his wife to Nevada simply wasn't an option. Dang it.

We celebrated his birthday together by opening some presents Thursday night before I left for work. Hubby is a fan of all things fishing and had done some research to find the perfect fishing reel. He opened it as well as three gardening books. He doesn't get excited about many things, but the man I married is so excited to plant next year's garden. He somehow thinks that this year's failure was just a fluke, and that he can beat the odds (read: temperatures don't matter and we can grow a million jalapenos, thank you very much). So I found some highly-recommended books on gardening in extreme heat. I think they will only help us. Believe me...we can't do worse than last year! He said, "Oooo, goodie. Some winter reading." I don't know if that was sarcasm or not, but hopefully our garden next summer will tell!

Of all the places he was offered to eat, he simply wanted to bake a pizza at home. I suggested we add in root beer floats, since that is one of his favorite treats. An hour later, we were eating a Papa Murphy's and enjoying cold ice cream in cold root beer. Then we watched an episode of Wipeout and went to bed. Not a very exciting birthday celebration, but it's what he wanted. And I am always happy to oblige when ice cream is involved.

Luckily, he won't spend the rest of his birthday completely alone. His parents will be in town tonight and are taking him bowling and to dinner. I wish I could be there to help him celebrate, but I am stuck here wandering the city of Reno all alone and eating free food. Sniff sniff.

Happy Birthday, Hubby. I'm so glad you picked me.

Delightful Words: Snickers Cupcakes

Oh dang. These were so good. Good enough to eat one for breakfast this morning.

But I didn't. 

I waited until 11:30 AM, thank you very much.

We were invited last-minute to a neighbor's home for Sunday Dinner. She made a delicious cream soup with rustic bread. We warfed it down like we had never eaten soup before! Because she is good and kind, our neighbor let me bring dessert...by far my favorite thing to make! When I got the invitation via text, I asked Hubby if he had any leftover Snickers from his Scout trip this past weekend. I don't know how it is possible with five boys in one truck, but there was an entire bag of Snickers left! I claimed them as my own and went to the kitchen to get to work.

Since I didn't have the resources to make cupcakes from a cake mix (all I had was Red Velvet...go figure), and I certainly didn't have the time to make anything from scratch, I decided to live a little and make cupcakes out of a brownie mix instead. I simply followed the directions for cake-like brownies, and they turned out perfectly. Fudgey yet cakey...a perfect combintion!

Then I made some homemade caramel and smothered the chopped Snickers. I drilled out a hole inside each baked cupcake after it was cool, and I filled the empty space with the caramel-Snickers mixture. Then I topped everything with caramel buttercream cream cheese frosting. Oh dang. A drizzle of more homemade caramel and some chopped Snickers finished these beauties. 

They taste as good as they look. Everyone liked them. And I got rid of most of them at dinner, so they aren't staring me in the face each time I walk into the kitchen. That could be a bad thing. I have tons of willpower if it isn't in sight!

Don't worry...they aren't 5K Killers. I am way too motivated for my training to let some chocolate stand in my way. One a day won't hurt me, right?

And yes...I know they say the same thing about crack.

No One Is Timing Us, Right?

It's been hard to focus on our pantry with me working so much these past few weeks. Hubby has been feeling a little under the weather, the poor guy. Despite the schedule difficulties, we managed to paint the first coat of white paint on the shelves last week. Since I had a sick kid on my hands, I painted the second coat alone on Monday while Hubby was at work. I am not a caulker, by any means, so I had to wait for Hubby to feel well enough to caulk all of the shelving. He did one wall on Tuesday and finished the other wall just last night. Now I can finish by cutting the shelf liners to fit and starting to put things back together!

A few weeks ago, I hit IKEA with my sister and Evan to buy my shelf liners. I don't trust much at this store, but these shelf liners are incredible! I also found some wire baskets at TJ Maxx that I finally had time to spray paint. Of course, they went my favorite color from Rustoleum...Lagoon. All of the bits and pieces were ready to go in the pantry, but getting the pantry itself ready took longer than expected. As always!

Taping alone took three hours. With both of us painting, the first coat of white shelves took over three hours. I did the second coat alone in about two (confirmation: Micah hates painting). Caulking took three hours per night for a total of six hours. Everything takes longer when your house is a mess because the pantry is all over the place! I've been a little anxious to get this thing done so this feels like a home again!

Today's plan: touch-up the walls where we got a little carried away with white paint. Then I will measure twice, cut once the shelf liners. Once they're in place, I can start putting things back in the pantry. I hope to have a finished product today! Hubby is leaving for a camping trip with the Scouts this evening, so I can work on it tomorrow, too, if I need.

This has been so fun, but it has dragged out a lot longer than I expected! It will be great to have it done, and I can already imagine how awesome it is going to look with the tan walls, white shelves, perfect shelf liners, green storage containers, and blue wire baskets! A fun, cheerful, clean, NEW pantry! Yippeeeee!

On a side note, I bought forty-eight jars of spaghetti sauce yesterday since we now have the room to store more for a year supply of food. They were on sale for $1.25 a jar, and I simply couldn't resist. Hubby was very encouraging, and I rarely get his support when buying things in bulk! However, I learned a valuable lesson about bulk purchases: don't be the creepy Spaghetti Jar Lady at the grocery store. Next time, I'll buy ten at a time when I'm in the market for a large amount of marinara! You wouldn't believe the awful looks I got as I was filling up my cart. And the conversation was not just a little awkward at the checkout. "Yeah, we'll be through this in a week," said I, jokingly, to my cashier. But he believed me, and then I felt even more creepy. Another lesson learned: when you are the Creepy Spaghetti Jar Lady, don't try to crack jokes with people. You've already been labeled by them as creepy, and failed attempts at humor will only confirm their suspicions.