Happy Tuesday :)

Hey heyy! Well I made the long drive to Belgium and Wes had his first tournament with STB Le Havre :) The pups and I left early Saturday morning and it ended up being almost a 5 hour drive with a stop for Stella and Bentley to do their thing and get some gas, and going through 3 toll booths! France doesn't mess around with their tolls! I paid almost 25 euros between the 3 of them...then I got into Belgium and didn't have a single toll.. crazy. I met up with Charlotte and Claudia and we went to our favorite restaurant in Aalst called Ichiban for some awesome sushi :) Wes had his first game on Friday night, they won by 5.. On Saturday they played at 5, so I decided that I'd head up to Charleroi to grab some of our things, say hello to the Riddick's and hurry up to Lille (Carvin France) for Wes' game.. He played great, and had over 20 points..not for sure of the exact number because I was kind of chatting the whole game too..Two of Wes' "superfans" drove up from Belgium to watch him..now that's dedication! Haha! The drive home was fun because Wes' coach let him ride home with me :) So the 3 hour drive from there seemed super short.. Yesterday Wes didn't have practice till 4:30 so we had high hopes that we'd finally get moved into the new apartment.. FYI, a couple new problems arose while we were gone and the toilet no longer flushes. Soooo, we thought that was enough to get us moved in fast, but sadly, No. They are now saying that it probably won't be until Thursday so we're trying to be patient. They said that the toilet isn't an emergency so we must wait.. I'd like to see them live without a toilet for a week. Enough said. We'll be patient and get in when we get in. Well I think that's all I have for now.. hoping for good news the next time I write :) Love ya guys! XO

Ps..I'm reading the book Eat Pray Love... has anyone seen the movie yet? Or is it out in the States yet? I'm just wondering if the book is better than the movie..???

Rain Rain Rain...

Ok so the walk here today wasn't as pleasant as the past few days.. first order of business when I arrived was to buy a new "parapluie" or umbrella... I got POURED on! haha! I'm sure I looked awesome in my cute boots/new sweater and sopping wet hair.. Why why why did i choose today to wear the boots?!? Owell, doesn't matter cause I'm drying off and in my cozy corner once again... On a happy note, as I was ordering my cappucino here in McDonalds I just happened to look up and see "bacon & egg muffin" ... this is unusual because I've only seen 2 McDonalds here in Europe that have anything relating to breakfast.. so I ordered one and it was delicious! ;) Wes will be pretty pumped when I tell him!

Yesterday was rainy all day so I decided to have Wes drop me off at "The Docks" since it's about 30 seconds away his practice gym.. Just a recap, The Docks is the big mall that also has the gym where he'll be playing his games.. I was there for 2 1/2 hours and managed to find out that it has a lot more than just shops, it has an entire grocery store too, basically a super walmart.. it was crazy because you walk into this store thinking it's just another random store with random stuff in it, then I came to a door that led me into a big grocery area.. funny that i get excited about that but with us sharing one car, anything that makes things more convenient for us is much appreciated :) After practice Wes met me back at The Docks and we tried out this awesome Italian restaurant there... so far we are 3 for 3 with the restaurants there. I don't like eating out so much but we don't really have a choice right now without a stove or oven.. I'm dying to just cook! I told Wes that once we're in our new apartment he's inviting the entire team over for a good meal :) This is the other thing... I might be one of the only girls here with this team... so far i'm the only one here. They told Wes that they're still looking for a couple american players so i'm praying they'll have a girlfriend or wife come with them. It's going to be a big adjustment going from a team with all wives/gf's and becoming so close with them.. to just me. It'll all work out though, I've met one of Wes' teammates, a rookie named Dom & he said he has a girlfriend who will be coming over for a couple weeks at a time but his best friend from back home is going to move here to live with him. Looks like he'll be my game buddy ;) Haha..

I'm leaving for Belgium tomorrow morning & I need to update my Itunes so I have some good playlists for the 4 hour drive :) I'll write again soon! XOXO

We found one!!!

Hey ya'll, so here I am again, sitting in my little corner in Mickey D's "borrowing" the wifi and having a super strong coffee...what i wouldn't do for a grande, non fat, no whip white mocha from Starbucks right now but I'll make do with what I have ;) haha...

So GREAT news!! We found our new apartment yesterday! 8th one's the charm! :) We are so happy and we LOVE it! It's up in the hills of Le Havre.. just to give you an idea, a big part of the city is set lower, like the port, the city center and all of that...and if you look up from there you see a lot of houses in the hills...which is really beautiful, and that's where our apartment is. Here is the best part...... there is a lift about 150 meters from our apartment that takes you literally through the hill and drops you out at the bottom, which just happens to be right where I am right now.. The huge mall called "Coty" :) So we are approximately 5-10 minutes away from Coty and the city center! Love it! I will never be bored! haha! Our apartment is really nice, and one of the only ones that is a neutral color.. Almost all of the other ones were painted or wallpapered every color of the rainbow. Another awesome advantage is outside.. it's almost like a park surrounds us, which is great for our pups! :) We don't move in until next week though so it looks like we won't have internet for awhile still.. which is ok because Wes has a preseason tournament this weekend somewhere here in northern France so I've decided I'm going to make the 4 hour drive up to Belgium to see all my friends there and maybe pick up some of our things that we kept at one of our friends house. I can't wait, ROADTRIP! Although it's just going to be the dogs and I in our little Citroen, I'm still excited! :) I'm going to stay with my bestie Charlotte and I can't wait to see her new house! Hope she has my bedroom all ready for me, lol! Well I think that's all I have for now.. It feels good to blog and tell our story because I'd love to tell each and every one of you about what's going on and this is just the best way to do it :) Love you all! XOXO

Our new home in Le Havre France

So this is the first communication I've had with anyone in 4 1/2 days since we arrived in France. With no internet or TV, and barely even a phone I've been forcing myself out of the apartment each day whether it be to walk the dogs, explore, or today I walked from our apartment in the city center to this huge mall where i'm having a "Coke light" & mooching free wifi from the McDonald's :) I can't even explain how much I LOVE this city!!! Le Havre France is beautiful! It's so interesting to live in a different country, and everyday is a new experience with new questions, so far today i've got "are you British?" and "how are your teeth so white?" Haha! I love it, they are just as interested in me as I am in them :)

Our first day of arrival we landed at Charles De Gaulle airport in Paris where the general manager of Wes' new team, Bertrand or "B" was waiting for us.. he drove us the long 3 hour drive home, which is normally a lot shorter but turns out it's prime vacation time for the people here in France so the highways were really busy! We were dropped off at our new apartment and found out it was not so "new".. and although we're not particularly picky people, we had to call B back to let him know that our apartment situation wasn't going to work.. I'm not going to go into extreme detail but being put in this position makes me appreciate the small things in life.. such as a washer/dryer, stove/oven , electricity and cleanliness :) Needless to say, we've been working with a realtor for the past 2 days to find a new apartment.. we looked at 5 yesterday and there is another 6 that we'll be checking out today in about an hour.. It's bittersweet because right now we have the best location, right in the city center which has a ton of shops, restaurants and a beautiful park a half a block away that we take Bentley and Stella to everyday.. but I guess there has to be some give and take.

After sleeping in until 3:30 pm on Sunday Wes and I decided to explore, which normally wouldn't be the best day for it because everything is typically closed but we found that a lot of places here actually aren't closed on Sunday.. We went to "The Docks" which is a huge building right on the water that has a full mall, lots of good restaurants (including a SUBWAY!), and also the gym that all of Wes' home games will be in.. That could also be a bad thing that his gym is in a mall! ;)

I would say Monday was my hardest day of all.. Wes started practice at 10am and with all the medical testing and conditioning I knew I was going to be by myself most of the day.. First I tried sleeping...didn't work, I wasn't tired (probably from the excessive amount of sleep I got on Sunday).. jetlag works in mysterious ways. So then I decided I was going to walk the dogs and explore.. In the past I was always a little leary to go out on my own without any direction or protection (my mase, lol) but this city is different, it just feels safe.. everyone that i've come into contact with is so nice, and although they might not speak english, they still smile :) I actually ended up spending a good portion of the day just walking around.. We ended up trying out a delicious Wok restaurant that night and thought we'd go to bed early since Wes was exhausted from his long day, but NOPE, jetlag again! We layed in bed and talked till almost 4am..which probably made getting up for practice not fun for Wes, but what do you do when your internal clock isn't ready for bed? :)

Yesterday consisted of more dog walking, window shopping and looking at apartments.. it went by pretty fast.. I'm so ready to just have our apartment, internet, slingbox and vonage set up so we can communicate with the outside world.. I'm just glad that this city is so amazing that I can actually get out and keep myself busy instead of sitting inside and moping over our apartment situation , haa! Well, I just got the call that Wes is on his way to pick me up to go look at more apartments =) So I better wrap this up quick, but I'm sure I'll be back at Mickey D's to mooch some more internet soon! Love you guys!! XOXO