We bought a zoo...I mean, a house

Jeremy and I just bought a house in Pittsburgh.  Some of you might find that weird, but please keep in mind that is where my family lives and where I consider home.  It is close to the city and has been quite an adventure for the past 3 months.  We are grateful to my sister Kerri for being our POA, Uncle Dwight for helping with title and mortgage specifics, Erin for taking pics, my Mother for helping accessorize and my Dad for taking care of the all of the touch-ups and Real-Estate company!  It has been a family project and we are grateful! Now we just need renters...wish us luck!

Here are some pics:

                                                                      The outside

LIVING ROOM

DINING ROOM

KITCHEN AND DECK OFF THE KITCHEN

UPSTAIRS BEDROOMS

BASEMENT

Montpellier (Southern France)

Jeremy had a work trip to Montpellier in Southern France so I went with him and we spent the next day there in the city.  We took the train which is the best way to travel in Europe.  It is so convenient and you get to see the countryside as you go whizzing by!  When we got out of the train station we saw these trams, which have been designed by a famous designer.  

People walked all over the streets with their luggage, the trams moved so slowly that no one had to get out of the way!

 We stayed at a Courtyard Marriott, which was new.  I am pretty sure there were only three other guests in the whole hotel.  It felt like America, everything smelled new and the rooms were big and clean!
Here was our balcony that overlooked the new City Hall.

 In case you have not traveled abroad, just know that you have to insert your key card into a tiny slot by the hotel door in order for your lights and electricity to turn on!

That evening we attended a handball game for Jeremy's work.  They gave us a nice tour and food and drinks. 

 We also ordered a hot dog at the game, which was one of the worst eating experiences thus far in France.  The worker put his bare hands in a bowl to fetch out a foot long hotdog, then literally shoved it in the middle of a baguette (because they don't have normal hot dog buns here) and then took our money.  I don't think anyone in American would approve, we certainly didn't.  Then he added the spiciest mustard.  Oh, and the hot dog was white.....

We met some famous athlete from the team and shared a table with his parents at the after party.  His name was William Accambray and he is also part of the French National Team and competed in the Olympics.  Here is his pic:

I am sure some French girls would be dying to know that we got to talk with him.  Everyone was wanting to get pictures with him and we felt dumb not even knowing who he was...  Also, on another note his father (Jacques Accambray) was also an athlete ( I think football) and went to school at Kent State with Jack Lambert and teased Jack for having a French name.  We were there because the team is all taking Usana products.  I tease Jeremy that every Usana dinner I attend with him is 3 hours long, about 1 hour longer than I would like, but when you add an activity with the dinner it is at least 6 hours...which is how long Friday night ended up being...6 hours!  

We were excited to go to Montpellier to get away from cold Paris, but it ended up being the same temperature in both place....cold!  We did love walking around the city and got to see many lovely things.  The Old Town was my favorite!  The people of Montpellier moved slower and were nicer than their friends in the north!

The popular cuisine of Pizza and a Wok????????

I tried to get Jeremy to make this pose, but he refused.

The Opera Comedie, the main square in the center of Montpellier, they call it the "Egg."

Jeremy is becoming a pro at self shots!

Jeremy used to be known for his Girbaud jeans in high school, and apparently they are still making multi-colored jeans!  We should have purchased a pair for old times sake.  (This was taken for his sisters!)

More Old Town

Their Arc de Triomphe

An old Roman aquaduct through the city

Cute little garden off of a tiny street

Menu Planning Week Four and Five

Some more ideas if you are in a rut....

1) Potato Soup (your favorite recipe) with a simple caprese salad

2) Salmon with Lentils from the Barefoot Contessa with homemade Crazy Bread.  This was a first time recipe for me and delicious and easy, if you want the recipe I'll send it to ya!

3) Roasted Sweet Potato Salad with Citrus Curry Dressing from a salad recipe book I have, pretty good!

4) Coca Cola Peach BBQ Pork Chops from Waffles N Beans with mashed potatoes and a green salad. This was my favorite recipe in a while and so easy to make!

5) Chicken Artichoke Casserole with Salad and a Baguette.  I got this from a choir cookbook and it was a great weeknight meal!

6) Cafe Rio Pork Salad with Cilantro Rice and homemade Salsa.  There are a million recipes for this on pinterest and I would highly recommend it.  We had the missionaries over and they were both from Utah so I figured they would like a taste of home.  It pretty much did the trick, though you can't find a few ingredients here in France, like green chiles in a can.

7) Chicken Cheese Steaks - I made this up by just sauteing peppers, onions and mushrooms in a little butter and then put thinly sliced deli chicken in the pan until it was golden and then put it all on a baguette.  It hit the spot since I was craving mall cheese steaks!

8) Meatloaf (your favorite, I use my mom's individual cheddar meatloaf recipe) with French Onion Rice Casserole and steamed veggies

9) Creamy Chicken Rotini with Honey Glazed Carrots.  Both of these are my mother's recipes and the Rotini makes enough for either a whole family or two meals with leftovers.  It is easy and I love it!

10) Thanksgiving craving - Turkey breast, seared and then finished in the oven, Sweet Potatoes and Green beans

This is what mushrooms look like when you buy them in France, no just dusting off the dirt, they are literally straight from the ground!

If you want any of these recipes I can email them or post them, but I love different ideas for dinner so hope this inspires you!

French School

So I haven't blogged in a couple weeks because I started French school at Alliance Francaise.  It is quite the experience!  For some reason I assumed when I arrived that it would be a similar experience to high school French class where the teacher puts a verb or phrase on the board and then tells you what it means and then you practice saying and writing it.  I was shocked the first day when I walked in and our teacher (Madame Renard) only spoke French.  I don't know why I assumed every other student would also speak English.  Our class is VERY diverse.  Here is the round-up:  Lorena - from Argentina, Carrie - Texan (sort of American), Alexandra (I want to kill her, she is a combo of Brittney Spears and Paris Hilton dumb! Truly what the French call "an ugly American" because of her behavior), Rajee - Indian, Irina from the Ukraine, Diana - Bulgarian, Daniella - Portugese, Omar from Yemen, Maria from Japan, but she speaks Spanish?, Juan David from Columbia, Danielle from Brazil, Katerina from Vladivostok, and Moi!  It is craziness when we try to talk during the breaks!  Class is 3 days a week for 3 hours a day.  I have only had 2 weeks but I think I am getting better.  I also understand better, but really just out of survival to understand what we have to do for homework!  I have two more weeks and then I'll take a little break!  Wish me luck!

French Quirks

So today Jeremy took off work to spend a little quality time with me...yay!  However, we were defeated.  We tried to go to our favorite strip mall land with my favorite stores like Ikea, Alinea and Maisons du Monde but after spending some good earned cash we wandered around the train station for a half an hour!  We couldn't find the right train to take us to "Plaisir" translated "Pleasure."  Finally they made an announcement that there was construction on that line and it was no longer going to our destination for 2-3 weeks.  We tried to then rent a car but the guy just laughed at us saying there were no cars to rent anywhere in Paris because it was a holiday weekend.  I still don't know what holiday, but I'll let you know! So just as we were getting used to being here, we were defeated today. (Note Jeremy's sad face!)

We ended up eating at Paradis de Fruit, which was delicious and then went to the big grocery store called Auchan to get a treat for the movies.  While we were there we noticed a few things that made us laugh.........1st there was this appetizing whipped topping:

(Your worst nightmare on your wedding night!)


2nd there were two things we noticed at the grocery store that would not happen in America....

an entire aisle dedicated to grocery carts...very popular here with ALL ages, not just old people and...

Gotta love Ice Cream by the raw burger meat!...Hope the juice stays in the burger packages!