Thanksgiving!

Well we had a great Thanksgiving here in Charleroi...all of the American's went over to Wes' teammate Andre Riddick's house where we had turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, baked mac n cheese, stuffing and tons more...we brought potatoes, pumpkin pies, and our signature fruit pizza to the feast. Our desserts were a hit! It was a really fun night, ofcoarse we missed everyone back home but having a big American Thanksgiving over here definatley made it easier on us! :)
Wes got home from Turkey on Wednesday where he played another ULEB cup game...he had an awesome game, where he scored 16 points...he shot 4/4 3's, had a dunk, and 2 freethrows..all in all a pretty good game! Then just yesterday he had another great game against Gent..with 25 minutes of playing time and 11 points!
While Wes was in Turkey I got a chance to go to Amsterdam with one of my American friends from Aalst. Elise and I had a blast! We only stayed Monday through Tuesday night but it was still a vacation! It was nice to be in a place where pretty much everyone speaks english..a lot different from Charleroi...
We just got back from a fun day in Gent to see John and Suzanne Turek.. we went to an all you can eat rib joint...which has the best ribs in Europe I think! We were supposed to go to a movie but I guess with how long it took the guys to eat all 52 racks of ribs we missed the movie we wanted to see! LOL!
Well I guess that's all that's going on here for now..I have TONS of french homework to do before tomorrow..yeah, i know..nothing like waiting till the last minute! We are super excited to come back for Christmas..and we are in the process of having the travel agent book a different flight that gives us a longer layover so we don't have a repeat of lastyear... it shouldn't be a problem..we are counting down the days!!
I'll try to get a schedule posted of all of Wes' games soon! He has another ULEB game on Tuesday against Spain so I'll let you all know how that goes.... hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!!! Love you guys!

Spirou vs Okapi....

Hey All!! Well I finally have a little bit more to write about...Tomorrow is the big anticipated Spirou vs Okapi game!!! We've already got emails from Aalst fans saying they are excited for Wes to return to Aalst..even if Okapi gets beat! We are excited to see all our favorite Okapi fans, Wes' old teammates, and I'm especially excited to see all my old girlfriends! We already have dinner plans before the game so it should be lots of fun! Wes has already started traveling for the ULEB Cup games, for those of you who aren't familiar with the ULEB Cup, it's basically a big tournament stretched out till the end of January where different teams from different countries play eachother, these games are watched by people all over the world, and by lots of different NBA coaches..so they are very important games...His first ULEB game was in Serbia, they played a good game but lost by 2. He has another ULEB game coming up on Tuesday night here in Charleroi against Romania..then on the following Monday he'll be traveling to Istanbul Turkey to play there Tuesday night...so there are a lot of ULEB games to come!

Wes also got a very nice surprise when he returned from Serbia...do not ask me why but I thought it would be a good idea to go buy him a Playstation 3 and have it waiting for him when he got home....he has been talking about it for a long time and I really wanted to wait till Christmas but I knew I couldn't because he wanted it SOOO BAD! He was so surprised he said it took his breath away! haaa! That means I did good! ;) So he's been busy playing that...I'm sure I'll regret my decision soon..haaa :)

I decided last week that I wanted to be Wes' true "superfan" so I bought his entire uniform in my size...I have the jersey and shorts, with his name and number on them, ofcoarse..then I put on his head and armbands, and then his socks and shoes and we had a photoshoot...I'll definately post a pic or two from that...it was so much fun, we laughed so hard!!

Well I guess that's all I have for now...I will let everyone know the results from Wes' upcoming games, just incase you can't get them from the website... I'll also post a schedule of all of his games...Hope everyone is great, and getting ready for Thanksgiving! I know i'm going to be sad on Black Friday (mom, Kelly, and Erica!)

Love you all!! Lins

Charlotte...

Hey everyone...well it's been brought to my attention that some people (aka Kevin) :) check our blog everyday so I'm gonna try to keep up as much as I can....I'm very excited because my best friend here in Belgium has booked her ticket to come to the US in July! Charlotte will be staying with us for two full weeks! We're already trying to plan what all we're going to do while she's there! She's excited to go to the Zoo, see how the US celebrates their independence, and go tubing on a lake :) It should be lots of fun!!!
As for basketball...Charleroi lost by 7 to Mons on Saturday, I didn't realize how good Mons actually is, some people say it's their coach..I talked to his wife and they are americans from Chicago, don't know much more about him but he must be a good coach because they played well..Charleroi at one time was down by 20 but managed to come back quite a bit, they played good, but when the other team is making every shot, it's hard. Wes is working on getting more playing time, Charleroi just has so much talent on the team that it's hard to give everyone the time they want on the court.
Well I guess that's it for now...hope everyone has a safe and fun Halloween! I know Pierce is going to be a lobster but we'd love to see pics of the other little one's halloween costumes too!
Love you guys!

Fall is here...

Well as some of you will find out, Charleroi is not a very pretty city, but with fall here now the leaves and trees make everything seem a little "prettier"...It's getting colder now, which Wes and I don't really like but then we remind ourselves how the winters here are much more mild than Nebraska! I don't think we'll be having any blizzards anytime soon...
Wes is still practicing twice daily and most weeks playing 2 games, we've been lucky that he has 2 weeks this month where he only has one game a week so he actually has somewhat of a day off, and by somewhat I mean, he probably still has to go shoot but then he's done early. I like those days! :) I'm still trying to find a descent website that you don't have to pay to look at for Wes' team, one website is called www.basketleague.be everything is in french but you can read some stats and stuff..I think we were spoiled lastyear with Okapi's website, that was a good one!
As for me, nothing really new, still trying to get to the gym everyday and keep a tidy apartment, haa ;) I picked up some pumpkins at the grocery store the other day (they don't just have them around during halloween like in the states) We're going to carve them probably this Sunday..Some of the stores here carry a few halloween decorations so we tried to bring halloween to europe by putting up some decorations in our apartment and renting scary movies...I think we're going to be the only people on the block with lit up pumpkins in our windows! :) Well I think that's it for now, I'll try to write sooner next time. Hope everyone is well.

Our first month in Charleroi...

So this is our first time using a blog but I figured it was easier for everyone to keep up on our lives across the pond :) I try to email but sometimes I fall behind so here goes...Life in Charleroi is slowly feeling more and more like home for us...besides the language barrier we are getting along pretty good...speaking of the language barrier I am officially starting french class on Monday, I'm excited, I'll be taking the class until we leave here to go back home in the spring/summer...3 other wives of Wes' teammates are taking it also so that's nice to have others i know in class..I'm getting along with all the wives really well, they're all nice, and we all help eachother out...Wes gets along with his new teammates really well too...and we all live pretty close to eachother so that's nice. I recently just found a new gym to work out at and give me something to do while Wes is at practice, it's really close to our apartment and not real busy so I like it. Besides practicing for Wes and working out for me we've been going to the movies in Brussels, or going back to Aalst to see old friends from lastyear...Wes was gone 3 weekends in a row for tournaments in France so I ended up going back to Aalst a lot and hanging out with my old girlfriends...the first time he was gone I was lucky enough to get sent off to Italy with a friend..I had such a good time and now I can't wait to go back with Wes...it's such a beautiful country and I completely fell in love with the Italian language! I'm secretly hoping that Wes gets to play there someday! :) Well, I guess that's about it for our first blog...I'll try to write on here regularly...lindsay
Ps..Wes had his 2nd regular season game tonight, and as of now Charleroi is undefeated! :)