Photos...finally right?

So I'm sure you're sick and tired of all my wordy posts. I sure am! But I have not picked up my camera in weeks (if not months). But thank GOD for my iphone! That thing exposes surprisingly well.

Anyways...here is a recap filled with pics of random instances in our last 4 months here in the NE.

Our apartment used to be within walking distance of a Dairy Queen. One day when Brian had the car at work (we were sharing 1), Michael and I decided to take advantage:
Here's our house covered in the huge snowfall this year:
A little out of order, but last Tuesday, Michael and I ventured into Amish country to see the outlet malls in Lancaster. To be honest, it was my excuse to go to Cracker Barrel, and Michael and I shared this strawberry shortcake dessert:

As you can see, that dessert is much closer to Michael than me. He got a brain freeze though and I got the rest!!

Had to get a tractor for our life in the country. Here's Michael's first ride on a tractor at Home Depot:

Little did I know that Brian would take another 3 weeks to decide on which tractor he would actually buy (it was a John Deere).

Michael and I have done a lot of shopping in the last 3 months. I was in search of a cheap mattress set so I ended up at this REALLY cheapo furniture store to see what they had.

To get a feel for the place, let's start out with their kid's recliners circa 1970:

Michael was super impressed with their baseball chair. And honestly, who wouldn't be?

Here's a picture of Michael sitting at the desk under a bunk bed. He made me pretend he was the cashier and I was supposed to pay for things with my $1. This is him banging on the table demanding money:
Check out that sweet baseball ottoman in the background. It goes with the also sweet baseball chair.

We ended up at Kohl's back in February some time. Michael got one of their pseudo shopping carts and announced to me that they had shopping carts for kids here! He took it over to some necklaces, inspected them, and put them back on the rack. After this, I was not allowed to touch the shopping cart.

Here's Michael looking at some guest bedroom bedding I was considering but did not buy. Chk out his Zoolander-ish hand in the pocket pose:For entertainment, I let Michael play with my iphone. This is the picture Michael took in the bedding department:

Bet that's not something you see everyday.

So 2 Thursdays ago, The Besancons found themselves doing this to save a buck (or rather $150)...
That's right. Ghetto stylin' it by transporting our mattresses home via the roof of our car. This avoids PA sales tax and a delivery fee. And the guy gave us over 50% off on the mattress set because we were taking it that day!! The only thing missing was us with our hands out the window holding it down.

Another sales day...Michael at Pottery Barn. Here he is posing at a possible night stand:

We didn't buy it because the top was attached crooked on the top. It hung about an inch more on the right than on the left.

Michael going crazy on the right. This is my inspiration for my bathroom. I've got these warm-ish light gray walls and I bought these light blue/turqouise towels for my bathroom:Michael LOVES these decorative wheelbarrows at Pottery Barn. He thinks they are for him:

Makes me want to buy the kids sized wheelbarrow from Land of Nod for him. I was told NO. By guess who...

Last Thursday, I took Michael to something called "Chinese Boogie." It was semi-hokey, but something to do. This is the dragon they had the kids do:

Don't look hard, Michael's not in that picture. He wanted nothing to do with that dragon and was at the END of parade line of kids.

So my kid is a photographer waiting to happen. I hope he loves this hobby as much as me. Here are some pictures he has taken with my iphone. I LOVE the angles he gets:

View out of his car window. I know it's dark and of a warehouse...but I like the sky:

Of Mom in the car:

I love this picture:

A more serious pose:

Mom paying bills:

And for those of you who are bored...my latest design inspirations.

For my guest room...I intend to do a color scheme kind of like this. I have the walls a light blue/grey under the chair rail. Going to definitely do the black frames...but instead of the light light pink for the kick...I'm going to have a dark-ish cherry red:
I'm going to incorporate some bling with the red and some mirrored furniture or opt out of the black frames and go with mirrored frames like this room at Ethan Allen:

This room is also my inspiration for my grey bathroom. Notice a lot of blue/mirrored stuff? I guess I'm in a glam phase for the little bits of the house where I get to be girlie.

To offset it, are some very traditional couches we will probably get:

Yes, that's Michael taking a nap and Brian chking his blackberry.

We're thinking a dark honey colored leather...these couches have a slightly puffy arm with nail studs. I'm not a huge fan of nail studs to be honest...TOO traditional for me because I am more of a "Transitional" decorator. BUT...the couches are comfortable and I like them. So I may put these traditional pieces in the living and opt for some modern fabrics or modern end tables to give the room some interesting points.

Here are some fabric swatches keeping with the traditional couches and the colors in my rug. See, the arm isn't TERRIBLY puffy like most traditional pieces are...but the nail studs make it so.

I'm not THRILLED with the boring color choices there...I'm looking for something a bit more graphic...just need some PUNCH in there!

I like the shape/color of the wood of this dining room table. It kind of matches our cabinets and the black legs matches our granite:
But I am drawn to the upholstery in this chair here with the green and cream and it's shape. Wonder how to use it???
VOILA! More pics than words I hope! And maybe I'll have some new pics to post after this weekend???

Love to all,
P

Crap About Blogging

WOW! 2010 can be the year known as when we really dropped the ball on blogging.

To answer a question I've been getting: The house is officially listed as 2200 sq ft at the tax assessor's office. I think it really is 1900 sq ft with an additional 400-500 sq ft in the basement.

I just need to jot some things down so you may want to skip this post if you want any useful information. Skip to the end about Michael's latest funny antics.

March 26 - closed on our house

March 27 - moved in with lots lots lots of help from Joen/Tony; The Gaglianos; Bill/AK. Spent the 1st night in the house up wondering if I could breath because I was allergic.

March 28 - Bill/AK leave in the early afternoon and we spend our first day/night on our own here.

Lots of unpacking happens after this. I resolve my allergy problem by 1) cleaning the air ducts/ steam cleaning the carpet to get the cat dander out (which I am allergic to). This in turn, got my allergies under control enough that my nose stopped running/stopping up enough for me to get my nasal spray to penetrate in my nose and work. Gross, but effective. Now 2-3 days after figuring this out, I am almost normal. Also helps that the trees are almost done blooming in our neighborhood and we ran the air conditioner for 2-3 days which helped to filter out some more allergens. Yes, I am allergic the country. Thank God for the French system of medicine where my Ob/Gyn wrote me a prescription for a year's worth of my allergy medication. In America, I would have had to go to my allergist also once a year to get lectured about getting shots and then get my prescription for the year. Don't argue with me about which method is actually probably safer.

I digress. Not going to complain about how I finally got a doctor's appt for Michael for a well kid check. That is a blog for another day.

Also another tangent. Grocery shopping at the American grocery stores is getting boring. I figured out why. It's because all the shelves are always stocked full of everything. They might be out of 1 thing...but it's highly unlikely. It's probably just behind something else. In Paris, you NEVER knew what they would have in stock and what they wouldn't. So going to the grocery store was actually quite a surprise. At the time, I found it an annoyance. Now, I find it boring that everything is always in stock here.

Trader Joe's though...they sometimes run out of things. I tell you, if I didn't have Trader Joe's, I'd be in a real bind. If you want stuff that's the most similar to French stuff, you can go there. It's my happy place. I love getting their "Fearless Flyer" and finding out about the "new" stuff they have that's developed straight from France. And their frozen Indian food ain't half bad either.


OK...MICHAEL STUFF

• I was showing Brian how the different pedals change the sound of the piano. Michael decides to take over and says, "See Daddy, when you push this pedal, it makes it sound like Coldplay." IF ONLY!
• We passed by a cemetary and Brian says, "Here's a cemetary. It's where dead things go." And MIchael responds, "That's where stinkbugs go!" We used to get a lot of stink bugs at the apt and Brian would capture them into our bug jar until they died. Hence, Michael's frame of reality.
• Michael likes to point his finger a lot. When he's talkin' to you, YOU know it.
• An oldie, but goodie: Michael tells me he is scared of worms because they don't talk.
• Michael and I played our first piano "duet" today. He played middle C while I played the accompanying adult part. It was actually very cute and sounded right. Am loving having my piano here. Thank you so much to my parents who thought it was useful to give me lessons and buy me a piano.
• Michael gets on the piano 2-3 times a day. I'll be doing something in the kitchen and I'll hear him banging away. I love this.

OK...got our storage shipment on Wednesday. Am ashamed at our accumulation of stuff. I had 4 flour sifters. 2 old fashioned ones and 2 more "modern" ones that used a pumping handle.

For every box we go through, I would say that we are donating about 80-90% of it.

Next Tangent: It is shameful how I wasted money before on "stuff." I am so glad we lived somewhere that had space as a premium. So now, we don't need all the "stuff" anymore. We buy one thing, make sure we love it and it's good quality, and use it until it's broken. Then we replace it. No more accumulating crap. No more buying multiples of things. No more thinking I "need" all this stuff I don't. No more Consumerism. NO MORE!!!!!

My New Home

Hi Everyone!

Michael here...ready to introduce you to the 1st 2 floors of our new home! We'll start the tour off with me sitting in our family room on our new rug. My Dad really likes that rug:

He says it really ties the room together. Mom and dad laugh a lot at that joke and I'm not sure why.

Anyways, when you first walk into the house, you see a little open foyer to the right where the stair case is. Straight in front of you is the family room.
That door on the right leads down to the basement...or man cave as my dad keeps calling it.

To the left of the doorway is our dining room. It is not as big as it looks in this picture:

Welcome to our kitchen. My mom keeps squealing about all the storage space and something about a built-in trash drawer REALLY gets her excited:

If I run from the kitchen into the family room, I would run into this mantle of our wood burning fireplace:

If I look out that window on the left side of the family room, I see this:

My mom says she likes the custom wood blinds. I just don't GET that woman sometimes.

I took this A-W-E-S-O-M-E picture when my mom gave me the camera:

Don't let her tell you that she helped me. I held that huge camera with the huge lens and the huge external flash all by myself.

So now, we enter - The Man Cave: That's my Dad to the left there. This is where we are going to watch loud movies and play lots of man games. Mom's not allowed down here because the walls are green. Dad couldn't stop staring at the recessed lighting and Mr. Bass, our realtor, kept telling us that each one was $125 if we put them in ourselves. I kept asking about when we were going to watch a movie down here.

Here's the other side of the basement. See the stairs to the left there? I almost fell down them once and there was no handrail to hold onto. Mom DID NOT LIKE THAT. Let's look out the window of the basement too while the grownups talk:

That's it for now. She forgot to take pictures of the 2nd floor. Maybe she'll do it after we move in? I think she was more worried about how the toilets were going to flush. We seem to need excellent suction in them from time to time.

Pop Tarts

Michael had his 1st pop tart today because they were free at the free breakfast our apt provides. He told me it was good.

It has begun. The consuming of processed goods. I am glad it did not start until age 3.

I know it won't be his last pop tart. But I know we will never have pop tarts at our house E-V-E-R.

It tasted like plastic. My son likes plastic. UGH.

P

Quick Weekend Recap

We had a nice weekend despite the rainy, gross weather.

Friday:
I HAD to get out. No ifs ands or buts about it. So we just got in the car and left. No plan. Ended up at Iron Hill Brewery in downtown Newark and LOVED it!! It was loud, busy, and very cool (kind of like Iron Cactus in Austin) and the food was great. It reminded me of the restaurants we used to eat back in the day in Austin and I just really needed that! Michael inhaled his dinner of fish and chips, broccoli, french fries and ice cream. Yes, all of it. He loved staring through the window at the fermenter units...good grief...an engineer on our hands. Brian and I split a seafood bisque. Then I had a lump crabcake sandwich with lots of vegetables on the sandwich and as a salad. Brian had a seafood pot pie. DELICIOUS. Perfect restaurant with good food, loud atmosphere to mask Michael's craziness, and booths. That's it. That's all we ever ask for.

Saturday:
Brian gave me the day off! SO I shopped at the mall. Ran into Gymboree, got to talkin' to the sales lady and she tells me that she has oodles of kaboodles of sales stuff in the back. There's no room for them at the front of the store so it's just back there...at prices from $1.99-$9.99. She was so sweet and ran back there and grabbed me all sorts of things for Michael that I could go through. I got some pretty sweet deals (shorts for $1.99, pants for $2.99). And I"m going back this week for more! I read some books/magazines at Barnes and Noble because I like to do that. And then it was time to come home to my happy family! I made Chicken Cacciatore and we had Family Movie Night. We watched UP and we still love that movie.

Sunday:
Still raining. Went to our church, which we really like. Michael ate too many goldfishes, starts choking, then threw up the rest. EWWwww...so we hustle him out into the front foyer away from the service and clean him up a bit. Luckily, it wasn't a lot...but it was still yucky. The rest of the mass was just fine! Michael got his first blessing from the priest and he was pretty happy about that! Then we went over to The Gaglianos for lunch. We checked out their bathroom remodeling plans, then played Wii. It was really nice.

That's it. Just wanted to write it down.

Our New Nephew: Quinn!

This weekend, we drove 16 hours to meet our gorgeous new nephew, Quinn! He is lovely and makes very cute faces. We never really heard him cry much so he is certifiably perfect. Uncle B was pretty happy about meeting his new nephew:

We did not have much time to get many pictures this weekend what with the eating, pooping, sleeping that we did...oh wait, that was Quinn. BUT! We did score my favorite picture of Quinn in his Man U onesie:

I think Quinn was enjoying his nap in this picture:

Wish I could have gotten there a couple weeks ago when he was comatose and asleep! Could have come up with some pretty cool newborn shots I think! Quinn is starting to be more alert and wakes up a bit easier (as normal at a month old!) so it was a bit hard to get him just right!

We had an awesome time!! ON Friday night, we arrived there at 1:15 am because we sat in rush hour traffic around NYC. ROOKIE MISTAKE. Then on Saturday, we had some pretty rad donuts for breakfast, played at the park in the afternoon while John was at soccer practice, and had a yummy dinner at home from Not Your Everyday Joe's. We watched 500 days of summer and Brian fell asleep at 9pm. Yes, the parents of the newborn outlasted Brian. NICE.

Sunday morning, we went to John and Kelli's very warm and welcoming church. Had a quick lunch/brunch at a local bakery and hung out at home/park. Michael got to spend some quality time with his uncle and met Bella for the first time. He was smitten!

It was a great weekend to spend time with our family, something we really missed being so far away. This is one of the biggest reasons we moved back Stateside. We just were tired of missing everything. And we loved our weekend! It satisfied our "travel itch" that comes about once ever 2 months or so and it made us happy to be around the newest addition to our world!

Love,
P

Lack of Blogging

It's a silly situation really. We are slow about blogging because:

1. Our laptop is hooked up to our TV because the screen is broken on the laptop. Yes, we are still using THAT laptop.

2. So because said laptop is hooked up to the TV, I don't use it much at all anymore.

3. Too busy playing golf with MIchael, or soccer, or running around town, or hungry hippos or chutes and ladders, or puzzles, or workbooks, or getting examed by "Dr. Besancon."

4. During my naptime break, I'm too busy watching HGTV instead of on the internet like before.

5. And because of #1, I can't multi task and watch HGTV while blogging.

6. I can chk my mail/etc on the iphone...so I don't NEED to get on the laptop as much.

But one day, we'll get back to it. The 2nd Saturday in February, we went to Home Depot and they had a Kids Workshop! Michael and Brian built a little garage for his cars and it was adorable. It was completely free and usually the 1st Saturday of every month from 9am-12pm. We had some cute pictures and will post soon. We'll see.

Love,
P

"Snomageddon" and such

Let's do a little catching up before discussing the "Snomageddon" which hit the East coast this weekend. (It was so cool).

On Saturday, January 23, we took off to visit Winterthur, the original home of the Du Pont family. They were having a free admission day so despite the windy 30 degree weather, we were going out there BY GOLLY. Especially because it was free. Especially because we wanted to do something "normal" instead of house hunting or buying cars or all the stupid grown up things we've been up to.

They had a very neat little children's play area...very imaginative. A bit spooky, but Brian got a cool picture of Michael playing around it:
And they had this funny mushroom garden that Michael loved walking around on:
They had this HUGE nest which looked big enough for a pteradactyl and lots of other awesome things. I would love to do a photoshoot out there one day when the sun isn't directly overhead and the trees aren't casting shade everywhere.

We had a great time and then drove 30 minutes out of the way to get some Chipotle for Brian in West Chester, PA. It was WORTH EVERY MINUTE.

On January 31st, we got our 1st snow here. Michael was not about to wait until morning to play in the snow. So at 9:00pm, he grabbed his shovel and went to work:

Only 3 or 4 inches that night!

This Friday night - Saturday afternoon, we got a full out winter storm. "Snomageddon" as Obama was calling it. I don't know about that in DE, but I hear it was a bear in D.C.!

Friday night, we went out about 7pm and started shovelling our driveway. SUPER fun with the snow all around. Good thing we have experience playing in snow in a good snow storm (See Feb. 2009 - Switzerland posts)! AND good thing we have our Aigle ski wear. We LOVE that stuff. Our Aigle ski wear keeps us so warm, we are usually sweating outside in 24 degree weather.

Then Saturday, we were housebound until 4pm. When it stopped snowing all over, we stepped outside for another playday!

Brian and Michael are SO SO CUTE in this picture:

Michael has the most adorable smile. And to those who think my son just SMILES for the camera without hesitation, THINK again. You should have seen him squirming and yelling. But then I told him to watch Mommy eat up the snow, and I got this face up there.

Michael playing in a huge pile of snow:

Birds gettin' out of town:

And I LOVE these berries:

Gonna do some room in my house (not sure which) with these berries, dark brown, light blue (maybe very light turqouise) and this gorgeous deepish red. Kind of like my blog design, but more like the colors at this bridal shower:

http://www.jessicaclaire.net/index.cfm/postID/450/My-Bridal-Shower

As you can see, got a lot of decorating ideas in my head right now. We put a very low ball offer on a house today and am wondering if they'll send us back to our apartment rental. :)

Love,

P

SEA SHIPMENT DAY!

We got our sea shipment from France today and it is great! SO FAR, nothing broken. But I haven't yet found my Le Creuset pot so I am getting a tad worried....

I was staring at the 'breakfast room' in my apartment and thinking, "I wonder if our dining room table from France is going to fit in here. It was pretty big."

Today, they delivered the table and set it up in my breakfast room and the table is TINY. Talk about frame of reference! I forget how much bigger everything in America is! And we were worried our stuff wouldn't fit in our apartment here. DUH...of course our 700 sq ft of stuff from France is going to fit in our 1300 sq ft apartment from America. DOUBLE DUH.

What was hilarious is the movers showed up in a 53 foot 18 wheeler truck. Brian and I looked at each other and said, "I hope that's not full." So they swing open the door and to our comical relief, the truck wasn't even half full. I think we took up about 20 ft of that 53 ft truck. I hope that never changes, but I'm sure it will.

I told you I have "Ahh..I miss France moments." Here's one of them, thumbing through the Restoration Hardware catalog:
It IS just a bathroom vanity. And it is a bit rustic for me...BUT...see the hardware in the middle of the cabinet doors? That is exactly like the way the French window doors are out to our balcony in Paris. Ahhh...I miss my Paris life. Here's a closeup of the handle:
Naturally, I have to have this. Going to put it in the powder room of my proposed new home. Going to ignore that the single sink vanity is well over $1000. Going to REALLY ignore that!

Also going to peruse ebay for sales on an Antique map of Paris that has Avenue des Gobelins on it.

Enough fluff for the day! John and Kelli were headed to the hospital at 5:45am this morning. Kelli now has her epidural and is headed to labor and delivery. Absolutely cannot wait to see Quinn, our new nephew. What a blessing a new baby is in our family!!

Love,
P

Four Course Meal

In France, when you have someone over for dinner. It's a four course meal.

You start with your appetizers. Something simple like olives or beans mixed with a good olive oil/fresh herbs with baguette, or a simple dip with crackers. No need to break the bank or spend more than 5 minutes on it.

Then, you have your main course. It usually has a protein (meat/fish), starch and an optional vegetables.

Optional - 5th course would be a salad between the main meal and cheese plate. But if we're talking about 4 course meal, this would be skipped.

After the main meal, it's cheese time. Of course...mostly raw milk cheeses from Androuet. OF COURSE. :)

Then, dessert. Sometimes I make a cake, but more often, the boulangerie puts my guests' minds at ease by keeping me out of baking. It's not my forte. I like to think it's because I don't own a kitchen timer, but I think I am just bad at it.

I like this. I like the 3 hour meal. I like the bounty of food. I like that dinner is not over in 30 minutes.

That's it. Just missing this. And a good olive oil. Anyone know of a good olive oil here in the states?!?! I have a bottle of Maille olive oil coming from France. But in the mean time (and for after)...I would like to have a good olive oil.

Also...

Any opinions on buying a new construction house vs. a resale house? Just need a general discussion.

We are weighing options!! It is horrible to be so grown up.

Love,
P

Eats

OH! ONE MORE THING! My friend, Kim, has a great recipe blog. She gets inspired by recipes from TV and life...and well, she goes in the kitchen and makes up these great dishes:

http://kropkafamilyeats.blogspot.com/

Been really impressed with it so far! Most of her stuff is super easy to make and it's really good. Uses normal ingredients and tastes delicious. I've made her Green Chile Enchiladas, Green Chile cheesy rice, and Butternut squash pasta sauce. ALL delicious! Can't wait to read more. HINT KIM!!! I'm making your Asian salad next which I think is as Asian as your French chicken dumplings are French. But I think it sounds delicious so I'm making it! :)

I Miss Paris. A>LOT

Very ridiculous post. Skip if you have much better things to do. I am sure you do.

So I knew I would miss Paris...but I never knew how much. TO think I might not ever go back there to live. In my head, I still say, "Next time we're back in Paris, I need to get ______."

Like we're going back soon.

And now, I see French stuff everywhere. An article in Martha Stewart Living deconstructing Cassoulet. Yes, it deserves a capital C. And oh how I miss my French ingredients. My cooking is not the same.

SO I am in constant search of my "french life." The other day, I bought cucumbers from Costco because they were from England and the most like the gigantic cucumbers I used to eat in France.

I buy my yogurt from Trader Joe's because it's the most like the French yogurt. Yoplait just tastes like something manufactured instead of food.

I think along the way, I am going to post random posts about things I miss that I didn't expect. I had a moment the other day and now I can't remember what it was. It was something small.

Like...I miss walking up Avenue des Gobelins towards Rue Mouffetard on a Sunday to go to church, buy things for market, and walking back home. And now I can post about it because we don't live there anymore.

I love the Chinese rotisserie chicken guy who seasoned his chicken with Chinese 5 spice so it was as good as getting Chinese barbeque.

I miss getting all bundled up with a sweater, scarf, coat, gloves, hat, etc for the cold because we'd be walking. Now, I just wear a coat, run to my car, and then run to the store.

I miss walking.

I miss walking around with crumbs down my clothes all the time because I was always eating a pastry or a baguette.

I miss my vacation in the Southwest of France. I think that was my favorite one. People ask me all the time about my favorite vacation...and I usually list about 3. But I think I have a winner now.

I apparently don't want to go to bed if I am blogging about this at 12:14am.

I REALLY miss the Senko bakery on the street that runs to the right of the American church. They make an AMAZING ratatouille that I need to start working on to recreate it.

I think that's the thing I miss the most. The food. More than anything else. The vacations and the food. I am constantly wondering where I'll find the ingredients I need and what they will taste like.

Ok, that's enough. I need to go to bed.
P

New Year, New Post, New Blog Title, New Place

GOSH! What HASN'T changed since my last blog post?!?!

Well, let's finish up our last moments in Paris.



First up, Brian's work party for the kiddos at Christmas. They turned Michael into a tiger:

Then, we'll fast fwd to moving day, Thursday, December 17th. We woke up to this:

Snow and slush! JOY! Actually, it was really great to see Paris blanketed in white one last time.
The movers came and Michael and I ran downstairs to play with the snow on our street:

Then we went to starbucks to get coffee and breakfast for us! We ate on the floor of our kitchen and got crumbs all over the place from our pastries from Boulangere du Monge.

On our last day in Paris, Saturday I believe it was, we started by going to see the big Christmas tree at Notre Dame. I thought Michael would be interested, but he was too cold and buried himself in his Dad's jacket the whole way.

Dang this camera...could have used some fill flash. But we at least have a family picture in front of Notre Dame! Our 1st one on our last day in Paris

Then, we walked the 30 minutes home just in time to catch this Parisian attempting to parallel park using what plastic bumpers are designed to do:

Then, we visited with our building family friends, Les Salles and visited with Chrystelle, Thomas, Benjamin and Francois (after lunch) one last time. They really advanced my French and also were great company! :)

THEN, one last look at our empty apartment and a family picture there. Still brings tears to my eyes to realize it's finally over. And I mean tears of sadness, not of joy:

And I just love this one of Michael and Brian. What a funny relationship they have together:

Afterwards, lunch at our favorite restaurant, Au Petit Marguery...this time with Michael. He enjoyed a nice lunch of fish, sauteed vegetables, fois gras/pates, mushrooms, cornichons...gosh, so proud of my little gourmand. Our favorite waiter was there and we were sad to say good bye.
And then we rounded the night out with dinner at PICARD! :) Don't ask me why, but I just had to have blanquette de poulet for my last meal. FROZEN FOOD at that! But it was SO good and we had a nice meal for lunch already.

So now...new chapter, new place. No longer the Besancon Life in Paris. What should I name my blog now?

Suggestions? Ideas? Post them in Comments!

Love,
P

All Things French

People have been asking me what I am buying now that I am leaving. For example, what "French" things make the cut?

It's strange. Everyone's France is different. What reminds me of France, may not be what reminds someone else of their France!

So I say what things I have bought...and I usually get a blank stare. Like a , "Oh, huh, that's interesting."

NOT.

So I'm going to post the things I have purchased and why I have purchased them and why they are France to me. So if you're bored, continue!

1) Tuna - there is a tuna brand here. Canned tuna. That doesn't taste at all fishy. Comes in these huge chunks. Does not have a metallic taste. It's so good, I don't even add mayonnaise to it. I just eat it with salad and a light vinaigrette. Add on some chevre toasted in the oven on small baguette slices and it's my heaven.

2) Sardines - it's packed with tomatoes, onions, peppers. It's awful to most people. But my dad used to eat sardines and he shared them with me and rice/baguette. It's a memory with my dad, and it's a memory for me here too.

3) Emile Henry cooking ceramics - purchased a small baking terrine and a tarte dish. I love the colors here. The tarte dish is bright green and I love to make quiches so it will be perfect. The terrine dish is this gorgeous deep purple which will remind me of my friend Mary who introduced me to the color and the brand.

4) Le Creuset stuff - the best. Everything I have made in these pots comes out good. It's really incredible. So now I have a mini collection: 5.5 quart round dutch oven, 4.5 oval dutch oven, grill pan, 4 mini cocottes, large terrine/fois gras maker, square baking dish.

5) Instant Coffee - they make instant expresso powder here. It's really good. MUCH better than instant coffee in the states.

6) Mariage Frere tea - my favorite. Always has been. Always will be. Drink it with a fresh baked croissant and THAT is my Paris.

7) Lentilles du Puy - my favorite lentilles. First time I have had it is here in Paris. So I bought some to bring back.

8) Honeys - not runny honey. But solid/spreadable honey. Great with butter and a baguette. My first time I had it was here!

9) Cassoulet in a can. Trying to get that through customs. Cassoulet is my favorite and I still have not had the guns to try to make it at home. I don't often meet a recipe that intimidates me, but cassoulet is it. And pho.

10) Clothes - I have boycotted French clothes for a long time. And I happily did it for 2 years. But once you live somewhere a while, you learn to like their style and adapt it with your own. So now, after living here for some time, I've finally started buying their clothes. And I Love it! My favorite brand is Comptoirs des Cotoniers and I've been trying to pick up little pieces here and there.

11) Books in French. Boring, but necessary to keep up the language.

12) Very processed madeleines. I hate to admit, but I love the ones carrefour and bonne maman make. So I brought some to bring back. I love them with tea.

13) Pompotes - Squeezable apple sauce. Michael LOVES them and they are SO easy for travel.

SO there you have it. Just a quick snippet. I'm a little scared to go back. We are used to life here...I'll have to re-learn everything when I go home. But at least, I'll be able to speak the language without thinking so hard.

Love,
P

Photoshoot Gone Wrong

Wanna see a funny impromptu photo session?

Boys vs. Girl comparison is worth stating too.

In October, we had a playdate at the Champ des Mars with Karstyn/Katie/Elayna. We tried to get some pictures of Michael together with Karstyn and the Eiffel Tower. This is what we got:

Michael telling Karstyn something. Karstyn looking cute and doing what she's supposed to:

Michael is now running to the camera. Karstyn still cute and doing what she's supposed to:

Michael now is grabbing his crotch. Karstyn still being cute:
Eventually, anarchy did reign: Love,
P

P.S. Next blog posts may be FROM TEXAS!!! WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOP!

Staying At Home

Staying at Home instead of working is a blessing. But when you're dealing with the umpteenth tantrum for the day and a shirt full of food stains on it...it's easy to forget why I do it. Especially when he wakes up and the first words out of his mouth are, "Where's my Daddy? I LOVE MY DADDY SO MUCH."

Guess I'm chopped liver right?

On Thursday of last week, I had a babysitter come from 9am-3pm so I could get some things done. I came home with food and spent lunch at home instead of out. While eating, Michael turns to me, takes my hand, and says:

"Mommy, you are home a lot with me."

"Yes, Michael, I am!"

"Mommy, I like you home a lot with me."

It was just nice to have some appreciation. To know that the sacrifices I made were worth it. To know that it made a difference to my son. It only took 3 years to get here. :)

Lately, he's been so lovey-dovey with us. Today, he walked into the kitchen and said, "Mommy, I need a hug." So of course, he gets one and he squeezes me as hard as he can and says, "Mommy, I love you SO much. I love you I love you I love you."

My goodness...if this is what happens when I let him watch TV and play on the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse website a lot because I am packing/etc...I sure am enjoying the rewards of being a "good" Mommy!

Just had to blog about it. As you can imagine, we are busy busy busy. Seeing our friends, eating out a lot, and just packing/sorting/cleaning.

Gotta post our latest pictures of Michael at Brian's company's Christmas Kids' Party. Let's just say he got his face painted as a tiger.

Love,
P

Baguette Update

The baguettes turned out pretty good. They browned really nicely, the inside was thoroughly cooked and of good consistency, and the outside was really crusty. The flavor needs some work though. Perhaps I didn't put in enough salt. I'll have to ask my neighbor François Sallé; he's a master.

Baguettes

It's Tuesday. I took a day off of work to take care of Michael while Phuong went in for her procedure.

Michael and I are making our own baguettes today. We're using the recipe from http://www.faire-son-pain.com/baguette-rustique

So far, so good. We have a ball of dough conforming to the description of "doesn't stick too much to the hands". Now two hours of rise time and we'll see what comes of it.

Here are some photos. Michael manned the flour additions - spooning flour onto my hands when the dough was really sticky. Then after it got less sticky, I let him knead the bread a bit! He liked kneading and then poking holes into the ball with his fingers.

Putting those little hands to work:

Smelling the bread....mmmm....yeasty goodness!
Look, Dad, dough ball!

Laser Wars

This morning I taught Michael how to have laser wars when we went pee in the morning. He laughed and laughed when I crossed the streams; I had to stabilize him by holding the top of his head but he kept everything in the bowl. Great potential this one has.