My monthly exam

at med. lab. this morning

We woke up early today at around 6h purposely for my monthly blood analyses examination. It's raining here since yesterday and so I asked MK to drop us at the Laboratoire d'Analyse nearby and back home before he went to work. No one is around on the waiting queue so I was the first then. Here, pregnant women will undergo monthly examinations of blood and urine from the second month up to the eight months of her pregnancy and lastly a month after giving birth. So it's my second pregnancy and I am sort of fed up with this injection thing every month. Among the blood tests include toxoplasma (Toxoplasmosis is an infection you can get from a microscopic parasite called Toxoplasma gondii. You can also get the parasite in other ways, such as eating unwashed contaminated produce, drinking contaminated water, or handling contaminated soil, cat litter, or meat and then touching your mouth, nose, or eyes. Although the infection is generally a mild, symptomless illness for people with healthy immune systems, it's risky to get during pregnancy because the parasite can sometimes infect the placenta and your baby.) I agree with this because we have a cat in the house.

^

Before, I kept wondering why there's always blood exam each month while I compared it in Cebu, if I remembered it right, it is only taken once during the first month of pregnancy or two. But knowing the methods, monitoring and regular exams here make me feel more safer and for the coming baby.

Bon, c'est tout pour le moment!

It's a girl again...

We are expecting our second child this April 2009 and as part of the process here I have to undergo 3 ultrasounds to be taken each per trimester throughout pregnancy. I had my 2nd pregnancy ultrasound done last Monday before we headed to our Christmas vacation in Grenoble. It was a little funny because months before, MK and I agreed not to know the gender until birth. Actually, I kept saying to him it's a girl again and MK preferred it as a surprise because I know deep inside of him he really wants a boy, but as the days approached to my scheduled ultrasound I told him there's no point of surprising it. I told him I'm too lazy of calling la petite or le petit or the little one inside whenever we describe her. Well, in truth I'm not into surprises, I mean I don't like it, maybe I'm a little kinda weird ;) Btw, Blanche is now called la grande.

And so, when the doctor said everything is doing fine inside and he asked us if we want to know the gender, I hurriedly said yes. He said, C'est une fille or it's a girl. Hmm, we will wait for couple of years to make a boy, we'll have to study first how to do it ;)

Merry Christmas everyone

Blanche is little busy checking her gift

Christmas Day at the park somewhere in Grenoble

I've been away for a week at home and so as with my blogging thing. Actually, we've planned to leave home on Tuesday to spend the Christmas day at MK's mom, so I thought I still have a night to write something, but things finished early afternoon on Monday so we decided to leave home at 18h and I missed the time to write and greet everyone a happy holidays. Anyway it's better late than never..

Merry Xmas to all! Wish you had a great time with your family. Cheers!!!

Winter in La Grande Motte

I watch late news every night particularly the weather forecast for the week and I thought it would be a beautiful saturday today to go out early in the morning near the beach to inhale the fresh air or take a look or listen to the waves and perhaps catch the sunrise. So after breakfast, while MK continues his programming works in his pc, me I prefer to go out for half an hour with Blanche and so I put additional cloths to her and then we go out. It takes only 50 meters from our apartment then we will have the beach in our very own eyes. So quiet on winter times. As I recall last summer population here rised up to 10 times than usual for lots of people coming from the north or even some Brits and other europeans will spend their vacation here. La Grande Motte was built 40 years ago designed for touristic spot. So it is always a problem to find a parking place for the car on summer and the beach is full of crowd. Disco bars and the likes are in the same crowd. Just one good thing to consider living here is that we don't use to have snow here or maybe once in a blue moon. This time, some parts of the country are in trouble with the snow and avalanche like in Nice. Since it's winter, now...

stores and restaurants are all closed except in the town center


neighbourhood


all shells are washed out from Mediterranean Sea


this used to be a volleyball ground on summer

Tartiflette

MK has extended his work for three days in Great Britain and when he called me this morning he said he's already in Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris and as usual he always asked me if there's anything for lunch ready when he arrives. I thought I have kilos of potatoes stock in the drawer and so I certainly said yes. I've got two hours to prepare the food before MK arrives so I have the luxury of time to think of what food to prepare by means of potatoes. Then finally I considered of making a Tartiflette and I thought I would share it here because it's so simple and not so much ingredients required--with only potatoes, ground pork, chopped onions and fromage tranché or sliced cheese. That's it! Since there are varieties of cheeses here some of them are already sold in pack for a particular menu.

The process is so simple: Boil the sliced potatoes by your choice of shape and drain them after, and in a pan, fry the onions and the ground pork along with the drained potatoes for couple of minutes then put them together in an oven baking pan. Finally add the cheese and bake them for 20 to 30 minutes under 200°C. It's ready!

For the oven...


After


So, bon appétit!

Having fun with my friends

It was rainy day yesterday and I was hesitant if I would come and join the little gatherings at Gwen's house (my Pinay friend). I know how much effort she put on this appointment. She'd even sent invitation cards to all Pinays and their husbands to join this day. Well, MK is not around to help me carrying Blanche in case she cries, but I thought if I will not come there, I will surely miss the crowd and won't see the new faces in case there are new comers from the group and most importantly I could not hand over my little Christmas present to my dear family in Cebu for Gwen and her husband is leaving this week for a 3 month vacation in Cebu. If it's me saying, lucky for Gwen she's going to escape the winter season here. Actually no, she and her husband will do this vacation each year, because in winter time there's not so much customers or clients in their business.

Then I went there with Blanche. We had a nice gathering, it was fun. And it's a good thing because each time I meet the group I will get a tip about the baby and other important things related to the country. In short, chika here and there. One tip about the baby, on winter the baby's face usually turn red when she/he exposes outside because of the cold air/winds and making their faces' skin dry. With this, they said to put a cream on baby's face to get rid of it.

^
mga kababayan

Blanche at ease in the crowd.

and then I carried her or else she continue crying

Home alone series

It's another week for me and Blanche that I used to call home alone because MK has left yesterday morning for his monthly work intervention to Great Britain for 7 straight days including the weekend. Likewise his mom left back to her home in Grenoble. Though, before she left home she gave me something to experiment as she says: oh some powder packs and ingredients to make a cake, mostly she does some tart with thin-sliced apples or pears, and she wants me to do the same. She even bought me a new multi-purpose blender and a cake molder for it. Hah, she read my mind that I'm beginning to show interest of baking so she gave this stuff to me.

I've always loved to cook something new before not cake, I mean dishes but it turned out that after serving them on the table MK will not like it, he doesn't even taste it. As I used to do in cebu, I put some spicy things and cook them. MK likes the contrary. He prefers not to put any onions, garlic etc. in any dishes that I do and he wants half-cook foods, so in the end it's only me who love and like my cooking thing, only me who eat it until such time that I gave up cooking and my experimenting process died as well.

But, whenever I miss the foods in cebu, like Humba, Inun-unan, etc I cook them just for me and I'll cook pasta for MK himself. I told him a thousand times that I love to cook and he in return he always give me the recipes from the restaurant he goes to eat everyday for lunch. And I thought, ah never mind this thing and I said and asked to him: why don't you learn cooking yourself as much as you've learned the mechanical thing on your cars? Then he said ah I never forced you to cook something complicated for me, one baguette and hotdogs or sliced ham for dinner is fine for me. I agree too, after all he's not so complicated and demanding about foods.

I felt something now... J'ai faim!

Panettone al cioccolato for a different taste of dessert

MK's mom will spare more than 3 hours drive from her home just to visit us once a month or so, or it's either we visit her in Grenoble, that is only if MK is off from work for a week but most of the time his mom does the visits. And everytime she comes home she always brings something new particularly about desserts. We had a very nice lunch today and as usual when her mom prepares the meal it would be in Polish tradition. I will mention it here to make this letter just a little bit longer. It's boiled chopped potatoes added with a little salt and added some butter after draining them plus oven-cooked chicken. That's it. So simple and quick. I'd even do this often times for our dinner with MK plus fruits for our desserts, my favorite bananas and MK's grapes or apples or coned ice cream it will do fine for us. Since her mom is here today, here comes our dessert...

^

My first taste of Pasticceria Fraccaro products...

their website is http://www.fraccarodolciaria.it/

Go, grow, glow baby...

As I clean the cabinet where I put Blanche's cloths I've noticed that couple of them seemed to be small for her anymore and to make it sure I've tried to fit her one more time but then they are really tight already. Baby grows fast as I see and in the next weeks perhaps we'll buy another set of cloths for her. In the meantime, I can put the old cloths hidden in the stockroom while waiting for the next baby to come, so soon though, well just couple of months to go.

These past few days I've happened to take few pictures of Blanche with her different moods.

sleepy Blanche with MK each time on promenade...



she is content to have a magazine to tear into pieces by pieces later...


she cries after each meal, actually she's asking for more water...




or she is happy without toys on her table provided she's with me in the kitchen.