Happy Holidays!

Hey y'all! Ok so i've been slacking more than ever on this blog...we've been very busy with 2 games a week and traveling... Spirou has been doing very well, only losing one game to Antwerp in the Belgian league and winning all of their ULEB Cup games! We both just got home lastnight from Bamberg Germany where they played on Tuesday night. Luckily Germany is close enough that I actually could drive there, Matt Walsh's girlfriend, Lauren and I made the 5 1/2 hour drive there. We were also lucky enough to get to hang out with Wes and the rest of the team at their hotel, so that was a lot of fun =) Wes is very excited for this "much needed" break! His back was hurting him pretty bad, which made him have to sit out of one game, which just happened to be the Antwerp game they lost..If he had to sit out of any game, that would be the one..haha! His back is feeling much better, I think his entire body could use a few days rest though...

I actually did decide to go to Ireland at the end of November. Tiffany and I had the best time, I absolutely LOVED Dublin!!!! It's now one of my favorite vacation spots. Ireland is very beautiful! I can't wait to go back in March or April! 

The dogs are both doing very well..Stella is now mastering the art of "fetching" and she's now able to go for walks...before she didn't really understand it and tried to resist. Bentley is definately smaller than her now so it's fun to watch them play and have her dominate him... lol! They are going to be staying at a very nice Doggy Daycare in Aalst while we're home for Christmas...actually they'll be staying there for half the time and then the other half they'll be staying with Charlotte. I guess the daycare walks the dogs up to 5 times a day so looks like they might be exhausted by the time they go to Charlottes! 

Well we leave for the airport early Sunday morning and should be in Omaha around 8pm that night....by now we've kind of learned not to expect to be home on time when you're traveling during the holidays, but hopefully we make it home as close to that time as possible! =) Can't wait to see everyone!!!! We are soooo excited! Love you all! Those who we won't be able to see we hope you have a very Merry Christmas and a great New Year!!!! Love, Lins and Wes

Almost Turkey Day!! :)

Hey everyone! So "someone" let me know that I was slacking on the blog so I better get to work! :) Haha! Everything here in Belgium is good..Wes is still playing fantastic, the dogs are good and healthy and I have found myself a european hairstylist!! :) Spirou is undefeated still, beating Gent, Mons, Pepinster, and the BBC Kangaroos in the Belgium Cup... They play Aalst, (Wes' team his rookie year) this coming Tuesday...somehow Aalst beat Spirou the first 4 times they played eachother last year, let's hope they don't have the same luck this year... This is their bye week so they don't have a game tomorrow, which will make for a different Saturday...I think we're actually going to go to Antwerp and do some Christmas shopping at the new mall we found there..it almost makes us feel like we're in a mall in the States :) This week Spirou also got Matt Walsh back, he played for them last year, and played a big part in winning the championship..he was picked up by the Miami Heat at the end of September but released the beginning of October, so now he is back in Europe.. I'm really glad Matt is back because that means his girlfriend Lauren will be coming to stay for a couple months at a time and we all got to be really good friends last year...so it should be fun!! 

We're planning our big American Thanksgiving get together..last year we all went to the Riddick's to eat and play games, so it sounds like it's going to be the same this year...I've offered to make pumpkin cheesecake, pumpkin pie, mashed potatoes and greenbean casserole so i'm going to be cookin up a storm!!! Tonya Riddick has a friend that can shop at the American grocery store on the military base in Mons (about 20 minutes from here) so she finds out what everyone needs and goes shopping...that way it's as "american" as it can be :) So we're both really excited for that! 

Tiffany Matela and I have also rebooked our Ireland trip for the 25th of November...we didn't realize (since the schedule was made afterwards) that we will be gone for a big Eurocup game...so there is a chance we may not go, but it looks like it could go either way, so i'll let ya know.. i'll be going with my mom and dad when they come out in March or April, so I guess I'll still be able to see Ireland reguardless...

Bentley and Stella are both doing great..we've decided that we think Stella already weighs more than Bentley, which is crazy considering she's only a little over 4 months old! Bentley is very small for a min pin, it looks like his sister might be the more intimidating one out of the two! 

We also want to wish Teresa (Wes' mom) a speedy recovery, she had surgery a few weeks ago and has had a few problems so we're thinking of her and praying for her everyday..

We hope everyone is doing great and getting ready for Turkey day!! :) Pretty soon Christmas will be here before we all know it!  and we'll be HOME!!! WHOOOOO!! Although our time there will be short, we really want to make the best out of it...can't wait to see you all!!!!

Love, Lins and Wes  xoxo

I'm also posting a recent pic of our family :) My mom said it should be our christmas card picture...haha!! 

Wes' dunk!

Fall is here!!

Hey ya'll! So I have some catching up to do, it's been a little over a week and 3 games since my last post...In basketball news, Spirou played Liege, which was not only his old teammate Eric Poole's team but his old coach Tom Johnson, they won 61-68 Wes had  14 points, 6 rebounds and 1 assist.. I'm sure it feels good to play good against your old coach... last Wednesday Spirou played at Leuven, where they won 55-64, Wes having 16 points and 10 rebounds!! This past Saturday they played Oosende for the second time this year, winning 82-68, Wes had 16 points, 3 rebounds and 2 assists.. so Wes is starting off the season great! He's started every game also, so that is nice. :) 

In other news, Stella is doing fantastic! She's now walking on her leg and even rough housing with Bentley...we take her to the vet this week for a check up to make sure everything is ok... 

So i'm sure you've all heard us talk about how wonderful Slingbox is over here, getting to watch american tv shows makes it so much more like home but now it's even better because we've ordered the Sling "Catcher" which I guess is just like being at home, and not having to mess with the computer to channel surf, there's a remote control and you can do everything from the couch, Wes is soooo excited! haha! My mom is sending it out today, so hopefully we'll have it by the end of the week! 

I've always said since I came over here that I would never get my haircut here, nothing against European hairstylist but I don't think I'd be lying if I said their style is completely different from what I'm used to.....well Charlotte has talked me into going to see her hairstylist in Aalst, I'm going on Wednesday, and although i'm kind of nervous, i'm pretty excited too..I think it's time for a change, you all know me!! I can't stand my hair being the same for too long :) 

So I guess that's it for now, I'll let you all know how the haircut and this week's game against Gent goes....Let's hope it all goes good!! Love you guys!

Ps..heard Nebraska was in for some cooler weather, about time, we've been jealous! haaaa!

Stella out of commission :(

Hey everyone, well we've been very busy here lately...lots of news for you all. First off, Spirou won the Supercup game against Oostende in Knokke 74-87, Oostende doesn't seem to have it this year like they did before...then they played an Amsterdam team in a friendly game which they also won 65-57...and just this past Tuesday they played Willebroek in a cup game and won 65-105!! So there have been a lot of games going on...Spirou has their first regular season game tomorrow at home against Liege, which will be a fun game to watch because his former Okapi teammate, Eric Poole now plays for Liege. 

Tuesday I was scheduled to leave for Dublin for 3 days with Tiffany, well at about 9pm on Monday night as Wes and I were sitting down for dinner, we heard Stella screaming in the other room, when we got in there we didn't know what happened, all we know is her and Bentley were in there together...she screamed in pain for a good 10 minutes before we could even begin to figure out what was hurting..turns out it was her leg, she couldn't walk, let alone move! :( We ended up taking her to an emergency vet here in Charleroi where he told us that her leg was broke! He gave her a shot for pain and we took her home..The next day we drove her to our normal vet outside of Brussels, he also said it was broke and needed surgery to put a pin in it right away. She had the surgery and now we're hoping she heals up fast..Bentley hopes so too, he misses his little partner in crime ;) I had to cancel my Dublin trip and reschedule it for November 25th, which seems like a long time away but I can wait till then if it means having plane tickets that only cost 2 cents! Haa! Can't believe how cheap you can fly if you pick the right day! So i'm glad I still get to see Ireland!!

Wes and I also took a trip to Paris last weekend, he didn't have a game on Saturday so we decided to take off for a little time to ourselves.. We stayed in a Hilton hotel where we could see the Eiffel tower out our window, or even just laying in bed!! We had an awesome dinner then went up into the Eiffel Tower, even though this was our 5th time seeing it, it still amazes me! It was definately one of the most fun and relaxing trips we've ever taken.. 

Well i think that's all the news i have for now...hope everyone is enjoying the beginning of fall and of course those HUSKER games!!! (except maybe not the last one) haha! I know i'm enjoying getting full use out of my Ugg boots, and breaking out the sweatshirts!! Gotta love fall! ;) Talk to you all soon!

mmm Mexican Night!!!

Hey everyone! So I had some trouble with the blog for a few days but now it's back to normal...Not too much has happened in the past week...Wes had a game against a Croatian team on Tuesday and they won by 30! He had 15 points 2 rebounds and 1 assist...so he had a pretty descent game. They play in Knokke tomorrow, which is about 45 minutes from Oostende (the coast). It's still preseason so i've never even heard of half of these teams... 

Tonight we had a mexican get together with the team and their families..everyone brought something, we made enchiladas and cheese dip, but there were tacos, chili, 7 layer dip, and yummy spanish rice! So american, we loved it!! :) We always have those get togethers, and it's fun cause right now it's the beginning of the year and we still don't know some of the new guys that well, so this gives us a chance to hang out and get to know one another..even some of the Belgian and Croatian guys came so it was a lot of fun! 

The dogs are doing great, Stella is almost done with all her medicine so that's good..and she's really doing a good job with the whole potty training thing...I give her a few more months and she'll have it down! ;)

Other than that, not much else going on here...we've been exploring the city a little bit more and finding new things to do...we also went to Antwerp the day before yesterday and found a mall!! Just like an American mall!!! It was crazy,  we also found a Sbarro Pizza in the mall so we for sure had to get some of that! haha! Ok, well i hope everyone is doing good..i'll let you all know how tomorrow nights game goes..you can also check the Spirou website for Wes' stats...

Love you all!!! xoxo

Brussels...

Hey ya'll! I'm a little disturbed today but i'll get to that in a bit...as for good news, Wes' back is feeling much better, he actually had an xray done today and the doc said everything looks good and normal..so that's a relief! He had a good practice thismorning too, so let's hope it continues to get better and heal!
We ended up taking both Bentley and Stella to the vet today for kennel cough, Stella's been on her meds for a week already and it seems like it's gotten worse, and now with Bentley coughing we were convinced that he caught it also...we got more medicane so both doggies should be ok ;)
On to tonight...Charlotte met Wes and in Brussels at a really good restaurant called "Amadeo" it's a rib place (go figure!) Ribs are our favorite! We had a good dinner and it was really nice to have Charlotte come up and join us.. as we walked to our car, we joined Wes who had went outside to the little square in the middle of downtown to play fetch with Bentley, when a nice dog came up to him just to sniff him out, and all of the sudden the owner (who is homeless, and drunk..might i add) proceeds to scream and yell and KICK his dog as he yalped in pain!!! I was so angry I got my mase out and wanted to mase his face! Wes stopped me though...I just don't understand people. Wes was outside earlier than Charlotte and I and said that he had been kicking and beating his dog the whole time he was out there...This is very upsetting to me..i know there is nothing I can do to stop ignorant people who treat their animals like dirt but it's just so hard to see a poor innocent animal get treated like that by their owner. I wanted so badly to snatch the little guy up and take him to the nearest shelter...I have a feeling that scenario could've ended badly though.. Charlotte said that a lot of the homeless people have dogs and she's seen that happen before..that is just too sad for words. So tonight ended up not being a very good night. If it were up to me, i'd own 500 animals if it meant not ever seeing that again, it's too bad there are people in the world like that. So sad!

Going to Ireland!

Hey!! So i'm gonna start this one out with basketball news right off the bat....Spirou won their first preseason tournament..they beat Paris lastnight for the overall win! Wes didn't play lastnight though because on Friday night he hit the floor pretty hard and hurt his back, it's nothing serious, just had some pain in the muscles in his lower back...his coach thought it was better to just sit this one out and let it heal. It's already feeling a lot better today :)

In other news, I'm super excited, Tiffany Matela and I have booked a trip to Ireland in early October..the plane tickets themselves cost 2 euros! We couldn't pass that up! We're going for 3 days/2 nights...should be soo much fun!!! This way I can kind of check things out and find the fun things to do before I go back with my parents in March...which I am so excited for!! 

As for the new little one, Stella, she's getting healthier and stronger everyday...she's a little ball of energy now! Her and Bentley have been playing together a lot more ... I knew she would grow on him ;) 

Although it's been raining a lot lately here, today is actually beautiful outside! A little chilly but atleast the sun is shining! We'll take that over rain anyday!! Well that's all i have for now..hope everyone had a good weekend..wish we could've been cheering on the Huskers, can't wait for a game to be on regular tv!!! Go Big Red!

Man Bites Dog...

Hi everyone...so today was an interesting day. Awhile ago my friend Annelore had asked Wes and I if we wanted to be on a popular belgian tv show called "Man Bites Dog"..she said that all it would be is a camera crew coming to our apartment in Charleroi and asking us 100 questions that would be aired all throughout the season of this show..we thought it sounded like fun so we agreed to it....they came today to tape us, it took about 3 hours and we answered a little over a hundred questions...they asked us all sorts of things, from our favorite belgian and american food to what song we want played at our funerals...kind of weird, we weren't expecting some of those questions..haha. The show aires every Tuesday and Thursday all over Belgium so it will be fun to see it :).... They said there's a possibility that we can have a dvd of all of our questions so if we get it we'll be sure to show everyone...

As for little Stella, we took her to the vet yesterday, she's on 4 different medications, 2 for kennel cough, one for her eyes, and one for another issue she's having..let's just say it wasn't pretty and we've had our candles and room sprays workin up a storm! :) Now after just a day of the meds she's doing much better, almost 100%...so it can only go up from here... she's very energetic and is still trying to get on Bentley's good side... 

As for basketball updates, Wes won his first pre season game against a team in France...I wasn't there but he said that he played pretty well the first half... he had 8 points. He has a tournament in Namur this weekend where I think he plays an Amsterdam team and a Paris team. I'll let you know how that all goes...

Well I think that's it for now... Hope everyone is having a great day!! :)

Back in Belgium!

Hey everyone, so by now i've finally reunited with Wes back here in Belgium...3 weeks was way too long to be away from eachother but really makes you appreciate one another more. :) We have a great apartment which we're making more homey everyday.. we've retrieved all our belongings from Charlotte's house, where we kept everything all summer, and things are coming together nicely! We've added a new member to our family in the last couple of days.. an 8 week old min pin named Stella...she is so adorable and we love her so much already! Bentley still needs to warm up to her a little bit but it'll happen soon enough...she's got a lot of energy and is a little pistol, she chases Bentley and tries to play rough, although she's a runt and probably only weighs a pound... It'll be really fun when she grows up a little and her and Bentley can play all day long! Wes got back from Croatia last Thursday.. the camp was 11 days, he said it was pretty hard and he gave it his all... he has a game against a french team tomorrow, not sure what the name is, but it's just basically a practice game.. He has a lot of tournament and pre season games coming up so i'll have to keep everyone posted on those...Not sure if I've said this before but you can read the Spirou website in english if you google babelfish and type in the website (www.spiroubasket.com) and set it to translate it from french to english..it's actually really neat how it does it...makes it a lot easier! As for me learning more french this year, I'm not going to be taking classes again, they were too hard when the teacher didn't speak a word of english...but I'm borrowing a french cd and brought along my french dictionary..i also get alot of tutorials off the internet...so we'll see, if i have 2 more years in this town, i better be learning some more french! haa!  Ok, better go but i'll be posting again soon :) Love, lins xoxo

Player of the month!!!

Hey ya'll! I cannot believe it's been almost a month and a half since my last blog! That's my bad! Sorry! Well I have an excuse for 2 of those weeks, we had company here in Belgium, which was awesome! Wes' dad and grandparents came out and we pretty much took them everywhere possible around Belgium as well as Paris! I think they really enjoyed Paris..it was a little cold but we survived! We got so many neat pictures and Grandma Pat even showed me how to make slideshows on DVD's so we spent a lot of time doing that! In basketball news we have a lot! Wes has been playing a lot more and very well since his old coach was fired from Spirou.. He has been voted Player of the Month for March for Spirou, averaging 13 points..and he has started the last 6 games! It is so crazy how much of a difference having a new coach makes, it's a 100% change and it's so nice to see that this new coach recognizes all the talent Wes has. Hopefully Spirou can play all the way through to the Championship...we'll have to wait and see! I think if they make it to the championship then there's a chance we might not make it back home till the first week of June, if they are out of the playoffs before that then we will be home earlier. Last week Wes was also in Be Basket magazine, which he says is kind of like Belgium's Sports Illustrated... a reporter and photographer came to our house and interviewed Wes and took pictures of the both of us, it was pretty funny...he had us do all sorts of poses and action shots..we'll make sure to show everyone when we get home. Wes also is in the process of signing a brand new 2 year contract with none other than CHARLEROI! If you would've asked Wes 2 months ago if he would ever play in Charleroi again he would've answered NO before you were done asking the question..but now Wes really likes his new coach and feels like he could help him go far..so as soon as everything is worked out with the contract, Wes will be signing...so if anyone would like to come visit "beautiful" Charleroi..just let us know! ;) Well that's all i have for now...hope everyone is doing good!! Miss you all and can't wait to get home to see everyone!!!

Saint-Valentin heureuse!

Hey all! I really need to start getting better at this, it's been over a month since i last wrote! Lots has happened...In basketball news, Wes has just started to get more minutes on the court, he had an awesome game last Saturday against Pepinstar, he played 19 minutes, had 15 points 7 rebounds! We were both pretty happy! Lastnight Spirou played Mons in a Cup game, not the ULEB cup (because they are out of ULEB now) but a different cup...they lost by 1! The one good thing that came out of that loss was that today Spirou's head coach Eddy Casteels was fired! Our prayers have been answered!!! He has not been a good coach all year long and finally more than just the players agreed with that...so Wes is waiting to see what's to come now with all this craziness...
We had company come and stay with us for about 4 days, so that was fun. It was my friend Lisa (who used to live with Erica in Lincoln) and her friend Eric... we tried to show them as much of Belgium as we could in a short amount of time....They also got to see a game so that was nice...
We are super excited for Kevin and grandma and grandpa Wilkinson to arrive on Saturday morning! We have a lot of plans in store for them, and have already went and got our train tickets to go to Paris on Wednesday! We'll also be taking them to Aalst (where we lived last year), Brussels, Antwerp (Diamond capitol of the world), Gent, Oostend (the coast), hopefully Koln Germany and possibly Holland...it sounds like a lot but over the course of two weeks things should be pretty spread out. Since Kevin will only be here for the first week we wanted to try to hit all the good places then maybe slow it down a little the second week... :)
So that is what is going on with us right now...I'll try to write more, but I always say that! Hope everyone is doing good and has a wonderful Valentine's Day! Les Wes sont mon valentin!!!
Love you all! lins

Frostbit!

Hey all! Well we're having a little issue at our apartment at the moment...we have no heat! Since yesterday our house has been freezing!!! We're trying to keep warm wearing sweatshirts, sweatpants and coats but it's still pretty cold..Bentley has been sportin his sweater for a couple days now...
In basketball news, Spirou beat Galatasaray (Turkey) 64-62 in a ULEB cup game lastnight! It was one of the best games i've ever seen...very exciting! When I got to the game I thought something was weird that there were tons of police with big dogs that had muzzles on, but i thought maybe Charleroi was trying out some new security..then I got inside and witnessed fans fighting and mase being sprayed, there were riot police everywhere, the bigtime riot police too, with the helmets and shields...at first I was freaked out but I guess Turkey is known to have some pretty rowdy fans....I should've known the first game I forget my camera something crazy would happen! Haaa!
Well Wes leaves on Monday for Girona Spain for another ULEB cup game....Spain is really good so we'll see what happens...I was also supposed to be goin to spain but my trip to the coast has been pushed back a little bit until March..turns out the wife I wanted to go with wants to hit up the Canary Islands now, and booking tickets this late would cost a fortune, so I think instead i'm going to go back to Aalst and hang out with all my girlfriends there..we used to always have a night every few weeks where we'd all meet up at this little bar called Cogniac and have belgian hot chocolate and chat for a while so I think we're going to do that, it should be fun!
Alright, well that's all i have for now....hopefully next time I write we'll have heat again!!! :)

Happy New Year!

Hey everyone! Well the holidays have come and gone....sadly! Sorry I haven't wrote for a while, things were crazy before Christmas, with basketball, hosting christmas parties and trying to get everything ready to go home...Christmas in Nebraska was absolutely wonderful! Thank you all again who made that possible! The whole 5 days (not including our 2 travel days) went by way too fast, but we enjoyed every second of it! Our New Years back in Belgium was very low key..we were still pretty jetlagged so we decided to stay in and do our own count down with some ice cream and champagne!
As for basketball...it's going ok. Charleroi beat Antwerp right before we came home for Christmas so that was a nice way to start a vacation...they played Oostende lastnight and ended up losing by 3...which was upsetting because they were ahead the entire first half, but the second half of the game it was like a whole different team was playing...don't really know what happened. They have a cup game on Tuesday here in Charleroi against Turkey..then they travel to Liege this weekend...Liege should be interesting considering it's where his coach from last year, Tom Johnson is now coaching. Hopefully they will win! Their next cup game they'll be traveling to Girona Spain...Spain is somewhere I've been dying to go and one of the other wives wants to go there when the guys go for the cup game, only she wants to go to the hot coast and lay on the beach....I brought this up to Wes and he thought it sounded like a good idea so we're in the process of looking up flights :) Hopefully everything works out, I'll let you know!
Other than that things are getting back to normal here...I really should take down our christmas tree but I keep putting it off, I love having it up! I know i'll have to give in sooner or later though...We're really excited for Kevin and Grandma and Grandpa Wilkinson to come out in mid February so I guess that's our next big thing to look forward to...Well that's it for now..Hope everyone had safe and happy holidays! Love you all!!