The Indestructable Camera

Margherita and Eleonora  (the girls I teach English to) have been gone now for quite a few weeks, back to their house in Italy for the summer vacation. I miss them. I miss having fun with some little girls a couple of times a week and I miss having a "job".

A month ago, however, I was singing a different tune. As is the case with any school aged kid (I experienced it from 5-17), that month before summer vacation is torture! This is even more true for students in France who are stuck in their hot and sticky classrooms until the beginning of July. I think it's  safe to say that nothing of any worth is accomplished in those last few weeks before freedom sets in. This rule applies both to school work and to English lessons alike.

That last month of English lessons were spent taking lots of trips to the Jardin Botanique

Painting lots of fingernails and toenails

And passing over my indestructible camera so they could take silly pictures of themselves and their things

This is Eleonora

And one of her many prized possessions.

And this is Margherita

 And this is her prized possession.

July! Already?

What July means to me:

1. We have lived in France for almost 1 year.
2. We only have 5 months left in France to do everything we want to do!
3. We only have 5 months until we get to see (or at least be in the same country as) all (with the exception of those staying in France) of you!
4. We need to start looking for jobs (eek!). 

And now, on to the update:

Last Saturday we...

 ...made a nectarine pie...

...loaded up our minute grill...

...and had a picnic on the lake...

...with Leah and Kyle (and Sarah, but she came after the picture-taking).

It was great fun!

Then on Sunday we:

 Whipped up some of my dad's super-secret-special-chicken-wing-sauce,

Slapped it on some wings,

And had a ourselves a feast (don't worry, that's only half the fries) complete with the most amazing french fries ever. They were blanched in a saltwater brine before frying meaning the salty goodness went throughout these impossibly crispy fries. 

Oh, and we played frisbee on the lake then used the frisbee to forage for cherries.

On Wednesday Leah and I went over to visit Janice and the girls.

We sat on the couch and made Kimber smile an evil smile.

I let Kimber take a picture all by herself (I love having an indestructible camera!).

Leah made faces at Katelyn (or Katelyn made faces at Leah, I'm not sure which).

Kimber "ate" dinnner (Janice, maybe you should buy a dog?).

And Katelyn made some sweet faces at me.

On Thursday we drove to Luxembourg...

...where they spell some product names differently?

And where I can buy cream cheese for these yummy sourdough babies.

On Friday we had a baby/momma/friend get together in the blessed air conditioning at GTL (it was 94ºF)

Vicki and Lorraine are on the left, Janice and Katelyn are in the middle and Rajasree and Shraddha are on the right. All three babies were born within 2 weeks of each other.

We had a great time eating chocolate chip cookies and some amazing samosas (thanks to Rajasree's mom)

And we played "pass the baby" with Shraddha and

And Katelyn (that's Satya, Shraddha's dad and Rajasree's husband)

While Lorriane blissfully slept through it all, until she got hungry, that is. 

And later that day the bean plant came down. It needed more sun :-(

On Saturday (another 94º day)

We enjoyed lots of gazpacho (more cold veggie soup, I know, I'm obsessed) and cold beer.

And our first and last French 4th of July started off with a hometown favorite

The tomato, sprout and gouda (it should be  meunster, I know) bagel melt.

And later that day we went to Janice and Jeramy's house for a dueling grills BBQ

And while the boys grilled in the heat and the smoke...

...and boy there was smoke!...

...we stayed inside with the babies in their newly installed air conditioning!

 Then we ate an American feast

And played some intense board games.

It was, as always, a great night with great friends. Thanks so much for hosting us Dickersons!

And finally, yesterday

We ate cheeseburger flavored chips that, seriously tasted like cheeseburgers!

And we experimented with a new spaghetti and meatball recipe which was so good I believe it will now be our go-to recipe.

Post of Shame (and a Birthday!)

I know it's been almost two weeks since my last post, for which I am so disappointed. I was doing so well with timely posting there for a bit then Michale's summer job started and it seems we've been chickens running around with our heads cut off. *sigh*

Oh well, so what we're gonna do is a bit of current events first (since it's more important) and then a bit of catch up from the past few weeks (it'll be short, it's been too crazy to take many pictures).

Here we go!
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Happy 24th Birthday Michael!

Here's the Birthday Boy himself (who may or may not be slightly depressed about turning 24, I can't say I blame him either) just about to blow out his candles on his Birthday 7 years ago.

He received a couple of cards from 4 fabulous parents back home who will also be sponsoring a trip out to dinner in the next few weeks.  Initially the plan was to go out tonight but after the craziness of the past two weeks and the craziness of town (a Saturday night and the Centre Pompidou just opened up) we decided that a quite night at home will be more relaxing. So steaks, some good red wine, and his fav vanilla cupcakes with chocolate buttercream icing will be on the menu.

My gift to him was to lug home the largest bottle of alcohol I have every purchased. This, my friends, is a 2 Liter bottle of Pastis (which will hopefully last the summer); and it is one of the best things ever to come out of France (too bad we will have an awful time finding it when we move back). It is a anise liquor and at first it is a yellowish brown color, but after you add cold water to a shot, it becomes a lovely, milky yellow with a fairly strong but oh-so-smooth anise flavor. We are in love.

And since Michael has a twin, I will have to share this totally flattering picture of the lovely Laura blowing out her candles 7 years ago (aren't you happy I have access to all these old pictures of  you?). We miss you Laura, we wish we were celebrating with you. Oh, and have a great time in NYC!

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And now for the weekend update portion of this post.

As you can see, Michael wrote lots of note for his finals (this is only one class).

 And he finished his finals (you can pick out that look of sheer elation if you look closely enough)

Then we stayed with the adorable little miss Kimber while her Mommy went to the hospital to have little-sister Katelyn. (didn't get pics, camera battery was dead :-( )

Then we made ribs and baked beans.

Then we finally had some nice weather

Then I stayed with Kimber while Daddy went to bring home Mommy and little Katelyn. I also got to see the first adorable interactions on home turf.

And our bean's been growing like crazy! You can see where the vine has now made it more than half way across the top of the door.

Our herbs have been growing well and enjoying their new window box home, although it's hard to see their growth after watching the bean plant grow five inches per day.

And for the final catch-up, here are the pre-roasted vegetables for our pizza last night.

Why Hello There!

 Warning: This post contains content not suitable for those under the age of 12.

Now that I've shoved Michael off of his computer, I finally have time for a real, pictures included post and since there are so many, how about if I just let them do the talking.

I love my husband very much, but I were forced to pick out one flaw it would be his sentimental attachment to holiday decorations. For months I have been asking -- no begging -- Michael to let me get rid of our dried out and shedding Christmas tree. Finally, sanity prevailed and I promised him we would find something to fill the space. As you can see, he still wasn't very happy about it, but we got a lovely tree to fill up the corner (which I still need to take a picture of) and I must say that both of us are very happy not to stab ourselves with dried pine needles daily.

A few weeks into March, I planted some herb plants which I hope will sustain us through our remaining 9 months here in Metz. This picture of the basil pot was taken only days after planting and thanks to some sunny days the plants are almost an inch high.

And here is my other experiment, a white bean placed snugly between damp cotton balls and a jelly jar. The idea came from a science book belonging to Margeurita and Eleanora, in fact, we are growing lentil plants at their house but I am fairly certain they will be dead by the time the girls return from their spring break in Italy. As with the previous picture, this was taken weeks ago and two of the three plants are now growing and one is close to a foot tall!

My knitting has kept me sane since finding the thrift store. I am happy to report that gifts were sent home to Rosie and Heather for our little nieces or nephews to come and the two bibs above were made for Janice and Jeremy's next little pgirl. Since I do have the time and youtube instructional videos at my disposal I have been forcing myself to make sure everything I make is a challenge and forces me to learn something new. These bibs demonstrate my new found love of cable knit.

As you can see, the bib on the left is just the same as the two above and while I do love cable knit, I am now sick of cable knit bibs for the time being after making 8 in a matter of two weeks! The bib on the left however, was my first attempt at a design in knitting and also my first i-cord.

And finally, my first sweater (or shrug rather) in the process. It was an incredibly easy pattern and since it is made from the neck down, it can be made to whatever length is desired; mine was finished when I ran out of yarn. I still need to block it and figure out some sort of fastening mechanism (perhaps more i-cord?) but I will post updated pictures of that when it is finally totally done.

Janice hosted a wonderful baby shower for two other GTL wives who are (along with Janice) all expecting the arrival of their babies within the next month and a half! The shower was lovely. We enjoyed wonderful food, fun games, and good laughs and were hopefully able to help a few girls prepare for their first babies so far from family. Oh, and Kimber was a hoot, as always.

Our cravings for typical American take-out food never cease so along with pizza night we have been experimenting with quite a few Chinese take-out themed dinners. I know I've posted about General Tso's Chicken but we hit a new high this past week when we took a dive into the world of dumplings. Now that we know our little hand blender food processor attachment works as a meat grinder, I have a feeling we will be making many many more of these. The first half we fried up after eating some spicy, crispy green beans and the rest was used the next day for a lovely won ton soup lunch.

And yet again, Leah and Kyle came over for dinner and we managed to not take any pictures of the actual event. The dinner was initially going to be a very simple pizza and beer night (we though we should share some of the pepperoni sent by mom and Ben) but upon noticing the beautiful rhubarb at Grand Frais we couldn't resist delving into spring with a strawberry rhubarb pie. The night was great with lots of good conversation as always and some good, American style food.

Now for the part that should be censored from little eyes. As it turns out the Easter Bunny came and Stayed on Sunday. Of course he first hid eggs for us, which Michael found without much help (that Easter Bunny is a good hider) and left us with some delicious chocolates including the strange asexual cow pictured above...

...and for dinner he lent himself to a wonderful preparation of braised rabbit with mustard sauce. I know it sounds terrible and both sets of parents exclaimed "You're eating the Easter Bunny!?!" but we had been meaning to make rabbit here in France and Easter Sunday just worked out perfectly. For those of you that are not completely grossed out, the rabbit turned out beautifully. It was tender and very mild flavored. Which leads us to

Today which was the first nice spring day we've had in awhile. We took advantage of the sun and went for a nice walk down the road to a beautiful old cemetery (well, the picture above is of the new section) with stones from the mid-1800's. We walked around for a bit and finally decided that

Spring has finally sprung in northeastern France.