Monday's!

Monday's! Monday's! Monday's! 

Today was definitely a Monday! I walked into the Stoner's apartment this morning and pick up this little guy to maybe feed him some breakfast to realize he had a pretty bad blow out (definition of blow out: pooped so badly it seems to be exploding out of diaper) and needed to be changed! So I am changing his diaper and of course I manage to get poop on my shirt and as I realize I got poop on my shirt, Ethan springs a leak and starts peeing everywhere! Scaring me half to death! And I let out a yell and jump back for him to start crying. It was a pretty dramatic screen this morning! Rachael says it was his way of welcoming me as his nanny. Let's hope that is the case. haha. 

All in all we survived this Monday. 

Syrup

Well I wasn't going to blog today because I didn't think my life was that exciting. Even though I did go into town today to run some errands with Rachel and we did make a stop at the bakery. Which is always a very yummy decision.

But anyway I wasn't going to blog until someone requested that I blog about how I made syrup today. Oh yes, how exciting? Considering when I came to France I couldn't really cook anything and now I am making syrup from scratch. I am just becoming little miss Betty crocker. . . So here is the recipe to the syrup I made.

ingredients:

1 cup sugar

1/8 t salt

2 T flour

1/2 t cinnamon

2/3 cup water

2 T butter

directions:

1. Mix sugar, salt, flour, cinnamon, water in pan

2. Boil till thick then add butter

Okay, Andrea. . . you can try this at home ;)

Happy Birthday!

It was our first birthday celebration in France! It's Rachel's birthday, she turned 19 today! It was so much fun everybody got her flowers and we all pitch in and brought her a french Bible. She loved it. The célibataires threw Rachel a party, Carlan and Sarah cooked a yummy pasta dish requested from Rachel and Marlene baked a fantastic apple crumble pie! I think this is a birthday she will remember the rest of her life. 

Happy Birthday Rachel! 

It's Monday!

. . . Monday's aren't as bad as Thursday. Thursday are the worse cause we get this little break in the middle of the week and you get your hopes all up then you go right back at it on Thursday. So in a sense we have two Monday's. Which makes it double the misery. But today wasn't so bad. Josiah and I made a little fireman craft that I got off of pinterest, It came out so cute and I think Josiah had fun making it too. 

Then at lunch I ventured out into town all by myself and brought a few things. It was a very proud moment for me :) It's a sign of survival in France. haha. jk. but really. . .

Pumpkin Spice Creamer

Even though I am living in France and I was told it was a civilized country. . . jk. It is. . but they do lack on the simple things like fall decorations. I am not much of a fall person but oh how I miss the noise and talk of Friday night football, apple cider, and most of all, everything pumpkin!

So to try to feel more at home I made myself some Pumpkin Spice Creamer. 

Here is the recipe:

ingredients:

1 cup milk 

1 cup of heavy whipping cream

4 Tbsp of organic pumpkin puree

1 tsp of pumpkin pie spice

4 Tbsp Maple Syrup

1 tsp of vanilla extract

1 tsp cinnamon

directions:

Whisk milk, cream, pumpkin, syrup, and pumpkin spice together in a medium saucepan. Heat over medium heat until steamy. Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla. Use a strainer to transfer the cream mixture into a container. Let it cool and then store in the refrigerator.

I found the recipe on pinterest. Pinterest is another thing I love and thank God I can actually use this website in France unlike some of the other websites I used so often in the states. (Lessons learned just because it's called world wide web doesn't mean you can get it any where in the world.Sad truth.) I am trying to get Rachel, the Holland girl here to get a pinterest account but she hasn't bought into it yet. Which is a great shame. 

Anyway so I was so excited to try this recipe out till I realized I haven't seen anything pumpkin at the stores. Slightly freaking out a tell my concern to Rachael who calmly tells me that if we just find a pumpkin we can make our own pumpkin puree. So we ventured out to the market Thurday morning which has became our normal weekly routine and we brought the closest thing we could find to a pumpkin. Which I think was a squash but it's kinda hard for me to know since once again I am reminded I don't know that much french.. Anyway we buy the "pumpkin squash" and baked it till it was nice and soft then smashed it down into puree. Naturally they don't have pumpkin spice here either but we just looked that up on the internet and I was set to make the pumpkin spice creamer. 

For us not having real pumpkin I think it came out pretty good. Now I am getting even more excited for my family to send me some dunkin donuts so I am go all out with my american coffee ways :)

Hello Again

Do you remember me? Yah, I was that girl who pretended to have a life so I could blog. . hehe. Let's admit it all us bloggers do it. It kinda gives us a little hope. 

Well I am back! After taking a little break to get my life together and move to France. I am finally here in France and ready to blog again. And oh how I have missed it! 

So now your all probably thinking how she must live an exciting life living in France. And so I thought too. But as you begin to read my blog a little more you will realize I am just a small town American girl trying to survive in the French Alps. . . as a nanny. 

You might be also wondering why in the world is this girl wasting her time blogging when she should be out exploring the french culture. Well I have a lot of excuses for that one. And it starts with my lack of communication. I have always known I had a problem but it has really became a problem here. Just to give you an example like tonight. . .I am suppose to be at youth group but me being young and forgetful, I forgot. Until Rachel tweeted me via twitter but by the time I finished up at the Stoner's (my wonderful nanny family) and showered I had missed youth group. And as I get on facebook to check up on all my friends back home I am once again reminded that I don't know french because if I did I would have realized what time youth group had started today. 

But before you start feeling sorry for me. I will let you know I love my job here and the experience I get to live in the French alps with the Stoner's and I wouldn't trade it in for anything. (Even though I am sometimes emotional and can't seem to keep the simple things in life together, I like to think it's just a little culture stress and that in a few months. I will have it all figured out.) So please follow me on my journey as I try to survive the french culture as an american nanny. 

If I had a tumbler this is what it would look like. . .

 

A weird arrangement of everything I love.