Queen of Rambles

Perhaps I have too many pillows. It seems impossible, but after a horrible nightmare involving a tornado, I think I may have to see about eliminating a couple from my nest. You see, I was huddled in the back of the car, being smothered by hot, hairy dogs when the alarm went off. I had a horrible night’s sleep and was up for a few hours in middle of the night, so I was dead asleep and totally confused and couldn’t figure out why the dogs were still hot and on top of me. Turned out it was my abundance of pillows. I have two for my head, which seems totally practical. Then I have one on either side of me so that when I roll over to whichever side, my belly will land on the pillow and be supported. This new belly pillow arrangement is driving Mike nuts since it cuts into the cuddle area, but it helps my back and hips. Four pillows isn’t too much for one woman, is it?

I had a doctor’s appointment today and was secretly thrilled yet very confused when the scale showed that I’d lost 10 pounds since my last visit. The nurse was very flustered and took me down to the scale I normally weigh on. It showed a gain of one pound in the last month. Much more accurate, though not nearly as thrilling. I was pleased with the one pound gain. I was expecting more since my tummy really exploded this week, but my arms, legs and face are all shrinking. I’ve gained a total of 6 1/2 pounds thus far. I’m technically allowed 8 1/2 more pounds over the next three months.

I am not at all happy with the billing people at my doctor’s office. I got a letter from my insurance company that stated I should ask the doctor to send all the labs out to a certain lab. It is really easy for the doctor to do. They just have to call an 800 number and the sample will be picked up that day. They will receive the results of the test the next day. SIMPLE! But no. This office doesn’t deal with that lab. Grrrrr. The insurance does cover part of the lab costs even if it goes to an outside lab, but it would cover 100% of the lab costs if it went to the specified lab. I suppose they could actually have a reason for not using this lab. Maybe they do subpar work or are not as efficient as they claim to be, but I’m still very irritated. The woman I spoke to was very rude and I wanted to claw her face off. It’s not wise to talk to a hungry, pregnant woman in a rude manner.

Why hungry? Because in addition to doing my regular check-up, I did my 28 week glucose test at the same time. You’d have thought that by scheduling the two appointments together I was either a genius who was up for the next Nobel prize in medicine or a complete lunatic. Really, I don’t see how it is that hard to understand. I can’t possibly imagine that I’m the first person who has asked if they could have their doctor’s five minute belly measuring check during the hour long wait for the glucose to process through the body. For the unfamiliar, you go in, get a bottle of nasty orange drink, drink it, sit an hour and then have your blood drawn. It is only logical that you could go in and have your five minute doctor’s appointment during the hour you are there. The doctor thought it was a great idea. The receptionist thought it was a great idea and wondered why more people didn’t ask to be scheduled in such a way. The nurse and the lab tech were confused and didn’t understand.

Last time (since I’m fat and there is a history of diabetes in the family I had to take one early in my pregnancy) I really dreaded the glucose test because I was afraid the orange drink would taste nasty and I would throw it all up, but it turned out to just taste like an overly sweet orange soda. The bubbles helped a lot. This time they had a completely different brand of orange drink and it was not carbonated. It took all my will-power to hold it down. I’ve been contemplating puking for the past several hours, but I think I finally have the taste out of my mouth.

I think I have peanut butter on my fingers. I decided I was craving peanut butter pie and made a half a batch. I had six tart shells, but that still wasn’t enough. What to do with the left overs? I love peanut butter pie, but haven’t made it since college when I made 500 of the darned little tarts. I went to a conservative Christian college that didn’t allow dancing. Instead of dances we had “banquets” and one year our class decided to save money by doing most of the catering ourselves. I was put in charge of dessert. Good thing peanut butter pie is easy to make and very well liked. Also a good thing this was before kids started dropping dead if they came in contact with a single peanut molecule. What’s up with that? I guess the same thing that is up with increased cases of all sorts of autoimmune disorders. Are we just too healthy for our own good and our bodies have to make up illnesses to keep our antibodies happy? Are we poisoning ourselves? Are we evolving? I have read that pregnant women shouldn’t eat a lot of peanut butter in case that somehow leads to the peanut allergy, but I don’t think my kid will have that problem. This will be the first peanut butter I’ve eaten since the peanut butter cookies at Christmas time.

Maybe I should put the peanut butter pie recipe in the extended entry in case anyone cares.

This will make about 8-10 little peanut butter tarts

1 cup whipping cream
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup peanut butter
4 ounces cream cheese
1 tsp vanilla
8-10 graham cracker crust tarts (don’t be tempted to just use a whole pie. It is way too rich for that)

Whip the whipping cream. Mix in the rest of the ingredients (excluding the crust)and whip it up. When it’s well mixed, scoop it into the tart crusts. Cover each with saran wrap and put in the fridge for at least four hours.

To serve (this is how we did it at the restaurant I worked at. It was just less messy), turn the pie out upside down onto a plate, cover with whipped cream from a can, drizzle with hot fudge, sprinkle on some chopped peanuts and viola! Good stuff.

The pies store well in the fridge for several days.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 19th, 2005 at 9:30 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.