Soaking up the last of Summer

It's the same story every year: summer flies by much too fast! Just a couple of weeks ago, I spent the day at Payson Lakes, paddling a canoe, soaking up some sunshine and laughing with friends. There were no schedules. No set time to jump out of bed and no time to leave. Everything was fun and relaxed. This is my first summer in nine years that I did not get on a plane and fly anywhere. It has been quite interesting. I wondered if I would be sad to skip my routine few weeks out of the country, but surprisingly, there are quite a few awesome things to do right close to home. And now I have decided that I can put some of that saved cash towards new school outfits! Yes! Shopping!

Speaking of which, official meetings for school start in one week! I can't believe it! I haven't been in my new classroom to set it up yet and I am going to have students, sitting in desks and ready to learn French in just two weeks! None of these kids know me yet. This is exciting yet a bit scary. As long as I remember to bring in my regular first-day Nutella and crackers, I should be okay, right? I am actually really looking forward to going back to a routine and getting my students all set to speak French, to love French and to dream in French! (You can always hope:) )

So this past week, I participated in a French seminar at the U of U. It was quite interesting. We talked about French stereotypes and where they came from. Do the French smoke more than Americans? Yes! I am not a fan of smoke and it was always tough for me, being seated next to smokers when I visited cafes in Paris--the smoke just carried right into my food! Cough. cough. Another interesting thing is French swimsuits. Did you know that many French pools will not allow men in if they are wearing knee-length board shorts? This is hard for us Americans to imagine as most guys here don't go to a regular pool in a Speedo. The reason, as my French teacher pointed out, is that they want to keep their pools clean and they don't know if those guys wore their shorts all over the city before deciding to jump in their pool. Hmmm... I just remember taking students to France in 2007 and trying to shush their reaction when they saw our guide come out to our pool in a red-striped Speedo. Different culture, kids.

Another stereotype is that French women eat cheese, chocolate, pastries and butter, yet they don't get fat! Is this true? The professor told us that she wrote her thesis on this subject. Yes, French women are still statistically less overweight than American women, but the obesity rate is slowly going up. This fact could coincide with greasy fastfood joints constantly opening up all over France--something that many of them would rather boycott. But chicken nuggets are so tasty! The reason that French women might be in overall better shape is because they focus on quality of food whereas Americans, in general, prefer quantity. A few bites of any fresh dessert can only do good, n'est-ce pas? Also, the French walk much more than we Americans do. Many even bring their shopping bags on wheels to the grocery store and take them home in the metro. I don't think I could live without my car for a minute.

The Most Delicious Summer Drink

Today is my first official day of summer! Hooray! I spent my last three weeks working for BYU's French Camp. The French Camp was the perfect summer job. I got to make a little extra spending cash, meet some adorable kiddos and give away a few berets on the final day. With the camp behind me, it is time to really enjoy the summer before it slips away. This morning, I went to a Pilates class followed by an exciting Zumba class at the Rec Center. I really felt those endorphins and decided that today was the day to make the most refreshing and healthy summer drink! You should all try it too!

I know this drink by two names: Summer Citrus Punch and Better Than Airborn Drink. I think my mom got the recipe at a Maceys cooking class, back when Maceys used to do free cooking classes. There is nothing that could taste better or make you feel healthier on a hot day like today! Here is the simple recipe:
*2 grapefruits
*4 oranges
*2 tangerines
*1 lemon
*2 limes
Now simply juice each of these citrus fruits, pour them in a jar and... voilà, you have a great and refreshing punch! I have a juice attachment to my Bosch mixer, but you could try and juice them by hand, it would just take more work.

I plan on enjoying a glass of this delicious drink with my Homemade 12-Grain Bread tonight. I got his recipe from the Bosch store and it is also to die for! You get the crunch of millet, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds and freshly-ground wheat! This is better than candy! Email me if you'd like this recipe. Another thing that I am doing is putting every recipe that I cook this year into an online recipe book. I plan on printing copies for myself and family around Christmastime. Doesn't that sound like a useful gift?

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!

What Would You Do?

Yesterday, I got back from a week-long vacation in sunny Orlando, which included a Disney Cruise to the Bahamas! It was my first ever cruise and let me tell you, it exceeded my expectations! Everybody needs to try out a Disney Cruise at least once in their lives. A beautiful, ocean-view balcony from your private room, all you can eat food at no extra charge, maids making your bed in the morning and turning down your bed at night, quiet bike tours of Disney's private island, entertainment that never ends, fireworks over the ocean...sigh, it all went by too quickly.

So, we had a few interesting experiences while on vacation. I want to know what you would do in these situations. Last Saturday, we had dinner at my favorite, authentic French restaurant in the Epcot Center. I have yet to find a more savory French Onion Soup. While at the restaurant, my mother, aunt, uncle and I enjoyed delicious dining and conversation. My aunt happened to overhear the lady at the table next to us as she discussed why she liked charter schools. My aunt, being a public school teacher, chimed in on the conversation. Before leaving the restaurant, that lady told us that we had to try out the strawberries and vanilla pudding dessert. It was to die for, as she put it. Well, that lady left more than half of the dessert right on her plate! My aunt scanned the room once she was out of sight. I dared her to taste the lady's remaining portion before ordering one for herself. I didn't think she would really do it. To my surprise, my aunt took me up on it! She grabbed a fork and scooped up a tasty bite.

She happened to get it into her mouth before the server came and quickly cleaned up the table. My uncle shook his head, "What a perfectly good looking dessert, gone to waste." I guess he would have tried it to, had there been time. So, if it were you, is there any way you would take a bite of perfectly good leftover food from another customer? Any chance at all?

Back to our Cruise: the first morning, we docked at Nassau in the Bahamas. When we got off of the ship, we saw all sorts of merchandise up for grabs. The thing that really intrigued my mother and I was a huge selection of hoodie sweatshirts. They were $35 each. The lady said she really needed business that day and would offer them for $30. We weren't sure. My mom told her that we would keep looking and maybe come back. She didn't want to let us go, so she offered them for $25. Bartering can be fun--getting good deals--but difficult as well. You want to feel that you weren't ripped off but also that these people made some money. We ended up buying three for $75 total. I tell you, it is sure nice to have a warm sweatshirt to wear now that I am back home. Do you enjoy bartering hard-core for good prices?

Lasagna Soup

I have been on Pinterest for less than a month now. I don't know much about it besides the fact that it grabs my attention each time I login, with so many colorful pictures of food and ideas that I can see all at once! It is fun to scroll through pages and pages of cool holiday decorations and tasty-looking dishes. I click on them and then they get pinned to my bulletin board for future reference. Last night, I actually had some extra time being Fall Break and all, so I chose to pull up my recipe board and make this delicious-looking Lasagna Soup. This picture to the left comes directly from my Pinterest Board. You can compare it to my own pictures below.

It turned out to be tastier than I could have even imagined. It wasn't hard either! I substituted whole wheat lasagna noodles and bought the low-fat Ricotta cheese to add a healthier twist. I put all the ingredients in a big pot--garlic, onions, chopped tomatoes and chicken broth. I let it simmer for nearly an hour.

I boiled the wheat lasagna noodles separately. I then filled them up in a bowl with Ricotta and Parmesan cheese.

Moi, j'adore le fromage; therefore, I put more cheese on top. Now this little bowl is just waiting to be drenched.

Alongside a salad and fruit smoothie, this turned out to be the perfect dinner for a special dinner guest! I really think you should try making it. I am going to make it again and again.

Next recipe for the list: Nutella Hot Chocolate! Doesn't this look perfect for a French Teacher?! Maybe we could even make it in class!

Inventions of the Future

Sometimes I think it is fun to have conversations with friends and colleagues about new products that have come out or will be coming out in the future. It is interesting to think that when I grew up, there were no words in my vocabulary like blog or youtube or google. Now, all of these important words and concepts are part of my every-day life. This causes me to wonder what life will be like 10 years from now...20 years from now. How will the world be different?

Some inventions come and go while others are here to stay. Something that I heard about only recently was the Google Car. This car is able to drive without a driver, so I hear. It has proven itself to safely drive through obstacle courses, using thousands of mini-lasers to help guide its every move. It can get on the freeway. It can drop you off at the front door of work and then go and park itself. Would it be exciting for you to jump into your car each morning and tell it to wake you up once arriving at your destination? For many people, I think it might be a bit scary to give up the controls, but these cars could possibly be safer and more efficient once the bugs are all worked out. Are you willing to give up the steering wheel to a machine? Does this sound fun and practical or terrifying and unnecessary?

Another great idea that a set of two guys came up with is combining lip balm flavors. These are called Kisstixx and you should be able to pick them up at the cashier's aisle of the grocery store. Think how exciting it sounds to put on some raspberry gloss and kiss somebody who is wearing lemonade? Or what about sweet caramel and sour apple? Anyone for fire and ice? What other flavors might go well together? Talk about adding some sparkle to those kisses!

I was teaching my AP French class the other day, when my French foreign exchange student spoke up. He told me that in his modern high school, they used 3-D Printers! Now what could you possibly want with a contraption like that? It takes any real-life object and produces it, to scale, in some other material. Sounds intriguing, but I am still trying to figure out how all this expense would really be practical in the end...maybe I just don't know enough about it yet.





Any other cool inventions you have seen or heard of?