La Belle Vie

It looks like we made it: another Monday can officially be checked off the list. Mondays can be tiring and after a long weekend, I often find it hard to pull myself out of bed and get moving for the day. Well, to spice up our Mondays (and Wednesdays for that matter), Casey and I have decided to speak with each other only in French on those days each week. It can be a little bit tricky when you come home after a long day of work and you can't come up with the the exact word to explain how stressed or disappointed you really are with the events of the day, but it can also be a fun activity. It actually makes me want to speak more than normal and share more of the little details in each story because, let's face it--life is more exciting when you are speaking French!

One thing we have been doing over the last week is visiting the Parade of Homes. It is pretty awe-inspiring to see all the work that goes into these 500,000+ dollar homes. A couple of them had an indoor basketball court. One had a drinking fountain to the side of the fancy home gym. Several had cool waterfalls in the backyard. The Home Theaters at these places were to die for! One house in Saratoga Springs was built right next to the shore of Utah Lake. They decorated it all in seashells and made it feel like I was on the coast of California. All I could wonder was what do these people do for work? How do they afford these mansions? And if I can't have one, how could I ever sign up to be their friend? Last Wednesday, Casey and I walked around speaking le français as if we were a French couple. I am sure we made everyone jealous (or annoyed, but I prefer to think jealous.) Lots of salespeople in the garages as we exited the houses approached us, trying to sell their solar paneling and other home gadgets. We must have looked like some well-off couple from Europe--minus the fancy clothes.

We are right in the middle of French Camp right now and those little chillins are making tons of progress. It's exciting to see them actually have the confidence to open their mouths and say more than bonjour. I teach the morning language classes to the advanced students. It is fun to have a class of kids who all want to be there and all want to speak French all the time! My friend Emily is the cooking teacher. She works so hard getting all the recipes together for mini quiche and French pastries. Today, the students made almond and chocolate-filled croissants. These are to die for, I tell you! Besides the fact that some kids have had issues reading a French recipe and put a cup of sugar in the mixing bowl instead of a tablespoon, most of them have turned out some amazing treats. This really is the perfect summer job!

Today, I taught them a French Canadian dance called La Bastringue. This means "The Gathering." It is a mixer dance and even though nobody said they wanted to dance, they actually all got really into it (including some boys who originally said they would be sitting out) and Voilà--a little group of dancing French teenagers! Who would have guessed?

$15 Waffle Mix, Oh My!

Hello again, everybody! I know--it's been over 6 months since I have written in my blog and I have honestly been going through withdrawals. I must say, life did get busy there for a while: I got engaged in December (yay!), then started planning my wedding right away (more work than I realized it would be, but fun to see it all come together), got hired at a new high school (can't wait!), packed up and moved houses and schools (threw away tons of junk like 5-year old Snickers bars, gross!)--you know, regular things we all get to go through sometime or another. My blog was neglected for a bit. The good news is it looks like life has finally settled down, I hope, and I am excited to be back! So, in those last few months, I have gone from Miss to Mrs., found some new focuses and hopefully have learned a few things that I can share with you all. I would love to hear your comments and/or receive the links to your blogs, if you don't mind sharing. :)


I got married on the bright and sunny day of March 28th and took off on an exciting honeymoon to Las Vegas and San Diego. As part of the package deal, we were granted three free nights in a deluxe resort hotel in Henderson, Nevada called the Ravella Inn. I had been invited to receive an award at a Teacher Conference down there, so the timing couldn't have been more perfect. One exciting thing about coming home from a honeymoon is opening the gifts. We invited our family over for pancakes and present-viewing and we got to share all the fun with them. It is neat to see all the creative and interesting ideas people have for gifts from first-aid kits to holiday cookie jars. People are also so very generous. We have been using gift cards each time we head out to Target or Home Depot and it has been so helpful. I am in the process of writing thank you cards right now, actually, and the saddest thing was to see a few gifts with no card attached. The card must have been either ripped off in the process of getting them to our house or somebody decided to remain anonymous. One awesome gift was a 3-foot Eiffel Tower with a bow tied on one side. How thoughtful for a French teacher! I posted the picture here. If that gift came from you, please let me know. It is one of our favorite decorations.


We also got some gifts from Williams and Sonoma, a fancy kitchen store. One such gift was a can of gourmet Blackberry-Lemon Waffle mix. A few Saturdays ago, I made us a batch of homemade sweet and tangy waffles using this mix with fresh blueberries. Yummy! I had never been to this store before, but we were in that area of Orem one afternoon so I decided to stop on by and see how much it would cost to get some more of that. The man directed me to the shelf of baking mixes: $15 Dollars!!! Can you believe it? I thought the price tag must have meant $15 for a case. No, it is $15 for one small can. I did the math and that equals about a dollar fifty per waffle! Who spends that kind of money on waffles?? No matter how tasty they were, I couldn't bring myself to buy another box of mix. This morning, I made up the last of them. It looks like those gourmet waffles will probably have to stay a nice memory.


Tomorrow begins the French Camp, my summer job for the month of June. Can't wait to meet all the kiddos!