I Suckity Suck Suck! AKA I'm sorry Kate

So I start off with an apology to Kate, my wonderful Foodie Pen Pal. I am sorry I haven't posted my review of your wonderful care package. I am going to rectify that in pieces. I promise.

I am horribly sick with a nasty cold that has drained my every inch of energy and all I think about is my bed. On top of that I think of my poor Bug who has the same cold and my honey bun who has it even worse than me. Of the three in my house I have the most manageable illness and it sucks. One thing I took for granted in my pre-Bug years was the joy and ability to get sick. I would of course feel horrible but I could languish in NYQUIL twilight tucked in under covers on my comfy bed and rot my drugged brain on reality TV and epic movies. Titanic, The Patriot, and Gladiator are my favorite flu movies ever. You always know the ending, the soundtracks are pretty relaxing and you can wake up in any part of the movie know exactly what is going on.

Unfortunately, as a mom you will never have a day like this again. There are tiny hands that pull at your covers and demand to be red their favorite Frog book where funny voices are a necessity. There is a sicker spouse or toddler hacking up lungs all night and struggling to breathe that keeps you awake counting each rise and fall of their chests. It's hard and sad realizing that I will never truly be sick again, at least not in the way I was before. Now, sickness is just another drag on my day that makes my responsibilities that much harder to deal with. Such is life I guess. Sickness makes me grateful for frozen meals for sure and easy sandwiches because anything with effort means we aren't eating.

So I've been MIA for a really long time too. When I last left I had an itty bitty baby and now the Bug is a big dude of almost two. A lot has changed and I'm not sure of the direction of this blog but I'll figure it out eventually.

One thing I got involved with in the recent past was Foodie Pen Pals. My cousin, Les at Running Away from Cancer sent me an email about a fun informal program she joined Called Foodie Pen Pals. It was the brainchild of a dietician and blogger, Lindsay over at The Lean Green Bean. I will be honest and admit I had not read Lindsay's blog before but I really enjoyed looking through it and signed up at once. The premise is you are set up with another foodie and are pen pals for a month. You have $15 to spend on goodies for your pal (not including shipping) and you mail off the package by the 20th of the month. On the last day of the month, all the foodies with blogs post about their packages however a blog is not a requirement of the program. I suck in that I am too sick to go over my lovely package in detail today but I will in the very near future. I can't wait to share what I got and how I've been using my treats. For now, I have some chocolate donut TastyKakes calling my name at my desk.

Boobie Drunk

You make the cutest boobie drunk faces. I love to snuggle you to sleep. Right now you're becoming more and more independent so you don't want to cuddles. At least you still need me to sleep. I love you Bug.

So I lied

I'm not a failure. I didn't REALLY think I was anyways but you can never be too sure.

Friday I had my long, 3 hour glucose test. It wasn't so bad. Except for the 2 blown veins it was fine. I showed up a little early and the lab was gracious enough to start me test ahead of schedule. There was another pregnant lady, Tanya, who was doing her 3 hour so we became fast friends. She's very pleasant and I really enjoyed our time together. We had so much in common and it's amazing how stressful situations can cause artificial bonding. I'm not sure of the protocol when you've spent 3 hours enjoying the company, hourly blood draws and lack of food but I left my number with her on the back of a lab slip just in case she and her little man "Diesel Jett" want to meet Bug and I for a play date some day.

While I was sitting on the horribly uncomfortable waiting room chairs I realized I hadn't update the food portion of my blog in awhile. These are some delicious, summery cookies that I mad not too long ago but forgot to mention. It's my own recipe creation based off of Marc at [No Recipes] Strawberries and Cream Melting Moments . Those cookies are fantastic and everyone needs to make them.

These Lavender Lemon Dreams are my spin. I had a craving for the strawberry version but I couldn't find the strawberries so it was a back with what I have on hand kind of night. Those are always pretty fun. These are perfect for a tea. I took all of these to work and people loved them. There were a few who were a little thrown by the floral or tea like qualities of the cookies but at the end of the day, ever single one was devoured.

Cookies:

-2 sticks unsalted butter at room temperature

-2/3 C powdered sugar

-1/3 C cornstarch

-1 1/2 C of all-purpose flour

-2 tbl lavender flowers

-1 tsp lemon zest

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

In a blender, pulverize the lavender flowers with 1 cup of the flour. Sift into a bowl to remove leftover large bits of the flower. Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar together for a few minutes until it is white and fluffy.

Add the cornstarch and the 1 C. lavender flour into the mixing bowl and mix until combined. Add the remaining ½ C flour into the dough and mix until just combined.

You can either use a cookie press to create small snack size cookers or spoon small teaspoon sized balls of dough into the palm of your hand and roll into a sphere then place it on parchment lined baking sheet.

Bake for about 13-14 minutes, but do not let them turn brown. Remove from the oven and allow them to cool for a minute on the pan before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. Repeat with the remaining dough. Once cool, place a small bit of frosting on a cookie and sandwich the crème between the two. These are delicious cold so you can place them in the refrigerator for a nice cold snack.

Filling:

-5 tbl butter (Unsalted)

-½ c powdered sugar

-1 teaspoon vanilla extract

-1 tbl lemon juice (1/2 a small Lemon from my tree)

-1 tsp lemon zest

Combine all the filling ingredients in a kitchen-aid mixer and beat until fluffy.

I'm a failure!

Well, not me per say but I failed the 1 hour glucose test. That was a bummer. It's not even like I really failed. The national cutoff for the glucose test is supposedly 140 but being a really good Dr, mine would rather have more false positives than misdiagnose gestational diabetes so he makes everyone who scores over a 130 take the 3 hour test. I scored a 132....It could have been the cheese I threw on my eggs that morning or the stupid Almond Joy Cake I made for my sister's birthday and ate really late...at this point I don't even care. It doesn't change the fact that tomorrow I am looking to down some really nasty stuff and then possibly get sick in public and wait for 3 hours while I get poked by stupid little needles.

I really hope I don't get sick.

They don't even have a little room to relax in if I get nauseous or dizzy or anything. I have to wait, in the waiting room with all these sick people and hang out for 3 hours. Ugh! Well, wish me luck. Better get some rest for the big day.

Sickeningly Sweet

Today has been awesome. I feel like Bug is my little lucky charm. We had our 24 week appointment today and along with that was the dreaded 1 hour glucose tolerance test. I’ll be honest and say I’ve feared this most for a completely silly reason…I’d have to drink a nasty flat Orange Fanta flavored beverage. I hate orange soda. To me it’s so unnatural and burns and is disgusting. I feared vomiting from the sugar if, and only if, I was even able to get it done in the first place. As luck aka God’s blessing shining down upon this poor tired pregnant woman would have it, I was spared! When I was handed this cold clear glass of fluid I was pleasantly surprised to find the most “delicious” flat, sickeningly sweet lemon lime glucola. I practically lived off of Sprite or the like for my entire first trimester so I knew I could hang in there and get it down. I doubt I will crave Sprite anymore this pregnancy but man was I relieved.

The appointment was awesome as usually. Bug is growing normally and is perfect in every way. My little sugar fiend was having a blast during the brief exam. The Doctor mentioned that the scratches we were hearing during his Doppler exam were from all of his movements. If he is anything like his father, I’m going to have big trouble on my hands when this kid is given sugar.

After the appointment we ran to get some teriyaki grill so I wouldn’t crash when the glucola’s effects wore out. It was delicious and I’m so thankful it worked. I had already started feeling really sluggish and blah until I got the best text in a long time. I had won the Beaba Babycook from Mandy’s OMG…I’m a Mom blog. I’d been following Mandy from my Weddingbee days back in 2007-2008 so I was really excited when I found her new blog(s) when I was planning to plan conceiving.

The only thing I’ve know for certain about this motherhood thing is that I wanted to cook for my baby. I want to share my love of food with him and teach him what I know. In our home the kitchen is the happy place, the safe place, the center of our home. I want Bug to love it the way his father and I do. Of all the important purchases for an expectant mother to think about, the Beaba Babycook was the only thing I knew for sure I wanted and had actually researched. When I saw Mandy’s give-a-way it felt like destiny, like Bug was meant to have this and I was meant to make some really awesome food for him. I’m really excited to play around with this and make some totally awesome foods for him. First up is vanilla scented pears from Smitten Kitchen. This baby food thing is so going to rock. Thanks Mandy!