Life Through Photo…Collage

Happy Memorial Day, everyone! So, I was a total slacker and did not blog at all last week.  Sorry.  It's not that I've been incredibly busy, it's just that I've been focused on other things - namely getting ready to head back to the States next week for some epic celebrations.  Hub will be headed to L.A. for work and I'll be going home to Ohio for Brighton's baptism and my Grandma's X0th birthday (don't you dare ask how old she is!  I'll just say, it's a BIG one).  Then Michael will take the red-eye to Ohio just in time for Tori and Patrick's "real" wedding!  You may remember last year, before we moved to France, T&P officially tied the knot in a small  marriage soirée, but the plan was always to have the big celebration with family and friends this spring/summer.  I'm so excited to see everyone! To prepare for the trip, I've been doing a bit of clothes shopping for all these events (the days of fitting into regular pants are long gone), gift shopping, and preparing the apartment for our house/dog sitter.  I've also been having way too much fun making photo collages.  So here's what else we've been up to lately...through photo collage. We've been eating lots of good, homemade food.  Many iterations of quinoa or lentil salad, a sundried tomato pesto tagliatelle that I whipped up one night, a delicious BBQ chicken pizza made with the last of our homemade BBQ Sauce, and lunchtime cravings of "real" sandwiches (not baguettes!) and raw veggies.

In case you're wondering, my basic formula for a quinoa or lentil salad is to mix it with tons of fresh, raw vegetables (usually a combo of onion, red pepper, cucumber, tomatoes, or radishes), add some fun stuff like feta, avocado, toasted almonds, dried cranberries, sunflower seeds, or sundried tomatoes, and toss in a homemade dressing (lemon, garlic, s, p, and olive oil) and chopped fresh herbs like parsley and mint.  Then I refrigerate it for about an hour and sometimes we'll add in some chopped up grilled meat like chicken, pork, or steak.  We usually eat different versions of these salads a few times a week, upon The Hub's request.  He's crazy for them. We've also been enjoying the return of summer of Montpellier!  The sun is out, the fountains have been turned on, and outdoor dining is again the norm.  The heat is back in full force and we've been having fun strolling through random neighborhood markets, scoring yummy street treats, watching the 2012 FISE, and listening to impromptu bands.

Before all this amazing weather, we had a lot of rain.  And I became weirdly obsessed with all the snails that come out in our courtyard.  Go ahead and judge me, but I think they're cute.  And I feel bad for them because people tend to accidentally step on them and smash them.  I like to pick them up and put them onto higher ground to help them avoid certain death.  One day I even found the teeniest, tiniest snail hanging out in a bunch of parsley I was washing.  I named him Herb and put him high up in the courtyard, so hopefully he's living a full life, safe from the threat of passerby.

All the rain brought out more than just the snails, we've also had lots of lovely flowers blooming around here.  They've been nice to smell and look at.

And for a little Fig update, well, he's been a silly boy lately.  He's such a sleepyhead and it seems like I have to drag him out of bed everyday at the crack of 10am.  He's also been obsessed with playing with the new treats we're giving him.  Like, not eating them, but playing with them.  One day he carried around his treat for about 5 hours, setting it next to wherever he was laying and licking it occasionally.  Then he finally ate it and fell asleep.  He's a funny one, that Fig.

Other than that, we've just been hanging out and enjoying some down time before the frantic pace of real summer sets in.  Michael's been crazy busy at work, but managed to find some time to install new speakers in The Pony thanks to a generous donation from a friend!  We've been relaxing on the weekends by having Sunday breakfasts on the terrace, and I've been shopping, reading, and drinking smoothies of course.

Ok, geez, I think that's enough Photo Collages for one day.  I officially hit the pregnancy halfway mark - 20 weeks! - on Saturday, so I'll give you guys a little KUA update before I head out at the end of the week.

À bientôt!

One Response to “Life Through Photo…Collage”

1. Devon says:

   June 20, 2012 at 6:23 pm

   Oh I can’t wait to visit and share in all of this!

   Reply