Lins & Wes...life in Europe

2010-09-27T05:59:00.000-07:00

Omaha beach roadtrip!

2010-09-27T04:45:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! Well it's been over a week since my last post but a lot has happened! Wes had his first preseason game at home, it was actually at their practice gym which is a lot smaller than the arena they'll play at during the regular season but it was still fun. I met some of the "superfans" of STB.. It's crazy, if you're sitting anywhere close to them, the minute your man does anything, good or bad, they're looking at you with either the happy, thumbs up, good job face or the uhh oh, that's not good, thumbs down face.. I've come to realize this so I just tend to look down if something didn't go right, lol! They did end up winning though, Wes had 15 points and 13 rebounds.. he's always shooting for over 10 rebounds a game so he was happy with that.

Wes' game was on Friday so he actually had Saturday & Sunday off! We woke up Saturday morning, got McDonald's breakfast (Wes' fave!) and headed up the Normandy Coast.. It's only a 1 1/2 hour drive to Arromanches.. that's where Omaha beach is and where D-Day took place on June 6, 1944.. It was an eerie feeling but at the same time, so beautiful! We went into the Musee du debarquement where they had tons of WWII memorabilia. They had lots of small models of how the plan of attack took place and what boats/ships were where.. It was all so interesting! After that we grabbed an expensive bite to eat (a hot dog and hamburger were 13 euros!) Way to suck those tourists dry! Haha! Then we decided to do some exploring on our own.. we walked all the way up the side of the cliff and got some breathtaking mental pictures, the actual pictures just didn't do it justice. We walked along all the beaches and collected shells, which we have done at every single beach we've been to together :) I also found an old shotgun shell which Wes said probably wasn't from the war but I'm still telling myself it is.. who finds shotgun shells washed up on the site of one of the most historic wars of all time?? Just sayin' :) After our time at the beach we wanted to go to the American cemetary, but thankfully asked a lady in one of the tourist shops how late it was open till and to our disappointment she said 5:30. It was 5:10 and the cemetary was a 25 minute drive from Arromanches.. Looking at the bright side of things, we still have something to look forward to when we have family come out. That's the first place we'll be taking them to :) We decided to head back towards Le Havre but stop in Deauville for dinner. We had never seen Deauville but every single person we've talked to here said we have to go there. Now I understand why! The town is unlike anything I've ever seen, the center is so quaint and every store is built to look almost like wooden houses.. it was so clean and everybody seemed so nice.. The people there looked pretty fancy, either it's an everyday thing or they put on their sunday's best for a night out on the town. Deauville is also home to the American Film Festival, which sadly I missed out on.. It was September 3-12th. It's not as big as the Cannes Film Festival but I guess a lot of American actors/actresses come there. We had dinner at the big casino there. I almost felt like I was back in Council Bluffs at the Horseshoe! It was super nice and was packed, lots of little old women trying their luck at the coin slots.. the only thing missing was the oxygen tank and cigarette hanging out of their mouths, ha! We ate a good meal & I had a great drink, apparently called a "monaco" which is Heineken beer, lemonade and grenadine.. yum! By the time we finished dinner we were ready to just get home.. Wes was super excited to watch the Huskers via slingbox so at approximately 1:08am we tuned in. I fell asleep after the first half but not Wes.. even if the game was ugly he still stayed up for the whole thing. We slept in pretty late on Sunday and didn't do a whole lot.. thankfully it didn't really affect us on Saturday but we're both a little sick right now, a bunch of Wes' teammates were sick last week and it looks like we now have it. So we're loading up on Vitamin C, Zicam and mucinex to help us breathe.. sore throats and coughing are no fun! I'm thinking about heading to the gym to see what I can do with limited breathing.. anything to get a piece of this sunshine outside :) Hope everyone is well and getting ready for fall! I always hate to see summertime go but I'm not gonna lie, busting out my boots, hats and scarves gets me excited!! xoxo

Happy Friday!

2010-09-17T09:15:00.000-07:00

Hey ya'll! Ok so it's been a little while since I wrote. My blogging had to take a backseat while I'm trying to whip myself back into shape.. I started back in the gym on Monday so I've been putting in overtime there :)

Well we are still settling into Le Havre and finding the fun spots to go.. Saturday night after Le Havre won the tournament they were in, we drove home and the whole team went out to La Luna, which is supposed to be the best spot to go out.. It was fun and the music was pretty good.. one minute you'd hear R&B and then next minute you're hearing french rap, love it! Ha! We got back to our apartment around 4:30am only to get locked out of our apartment (long story) but we ended up sleeping on the concrete floor in front of the door to the parking garage waiting for someone to come home and open the door.. Thank god for drunk women who come home at 5:45 am because otherwise we might have been waiting awhile. We got into bed at 6am Sunday morning so that was a crazy first experience going out here :)

Wes had a tournament on Wednesday about 45 minutes away from here where he played Aalst, his old team. It was crazy to only see a few familiar faces but otherwise it was a whole new team. Le Havre won but it was a close game the entire time. Wes plays again tomorrow at the same place so we're hoping for another win.. I really can't wait for the regular season to start, It's going to be so fun to see new teams and new players.. Not that I don't love the Belgian league but after four years there it gets a little monotonous.

Ok sorry to cut this post short, especially since I've been slackin' all week but I need to catch up with the fam now :) Hoping to have internet by next week, WHOO HOO!!!

OHD...

2010-09-08T09:02:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! Well today is an "OHD" which I made up but means Official Homesick Day.. It's crazy, sometimes they're few and far between, some you can see coming and some just hit you like a brick wall. It all started with waking up from a bad dream this morning.. those can always put a damper on your morning but in this case the sad vibes followed me into the day. Poor Wes had to try extra hard to cheer me up.. love him for that :) It's crazy because we have almost everything we want now, but when you don't have internet or means of communicating with the people you love without walking to a McDonald's everyday it starts to wear on you. Not that I don't love walking here and ordering my cappucino or Coke light, but I miss the long phone conversations with my mom, dad and brother and my webcam sessions with my sister, Pierce and Paige. I miss having those never ending chains of back and forth emails with all of Wes' sisters :( Ok enough, you guys get it, i'm a little homesick.

We tried to get our internet set up yesterday, along with our new French bank account, and let me tell you, nothing is really easy. After sitting at the bank for what felt like eternity, we walked to the internet shop where they told us that because we live up in the hills of Le Havre that our connection would probably be very slow.. Wes had to leave to practice so I met up with the secretary of the team, Sarah.. (who is amazing by the way!) She worked overtime and took me to another internet place and we tried again.. turns out we need to know the name of the previous person who lived in our apartment because they can't activate anything without knowing that....why? No idea. So now we are on a wild goose chase to find out more details.. hopefully we'll get it figured out, and once we do, supposedly it will only take 10 days to get someone to come hook it up. Sounds like a long time but we've learned never to expect anything fast.

On a happy note, Wes has another tournament (preseason is full of 'em) this weekend but it's only 40 minutes away in Rouen France, which means I can go to both games! :) That makes me so excited, I feel like i'm in basketball withdrawl.. I've seen one game since Wes played in summer ball. So this weekend will be good! I also found out yesterday that soon they will be playing Aalst, which is the first Belgian team that Wes played for his rookie year. That should be fun to see a familiar face or two..

Well, I should probably get to the grocery store to grab a few things for dinner.. I brought my new recipe box to France full of all the yummy recipes my family and friends gave me.. Being able to cook has been awesome! :) I told Wes it's going to be awhile before I want to go out to a restaurant again. Unless it's for a date night! I love those!! :)

Hope everyone is doing good! Talk to ya'll soon! XO

First weekend in our new place!

2010-09-05T04:58:00.001-07:00

Ok so I have a lot to write about today :) First off I'll start with the good stuff.. we finally got into our new apartment on Friday, the water and electricity got turned on and then our furniture and appliances got delivered, which were all brand new & awesome! I love that the team let us pick everything out.. It's amazing what just asking can do :) So we are now officially in a sweet apartment up in the hills and now having a functioning toilet! Ha!

We already had our first house guests, Rebecca and Kathleen who drove all the way from Holland! Rebecca is an old friend from Lexington and I just met her friend Kathleen.. they arrived at about midnight on Friday night.. Wes left early Saturday morning to make the long 7 1/2 hour roadtrip to a tournament so it was just us girls.. While they went sightseeing for a few hours around Le Havre I decided to go to Ikea since we had no plates/silverware or even bedsheets... We all met back up and walked to the center where we found an amazing Fondue restaurant, I'd never had fondue before and I was super impressed! It was SO good! After that we walked to an Irish pub close by and had a blast talking & drinking with the locals.. after a few more drinks we got a cab back home around 2am.. fun night! So today the girls took off back to Holland so it's just me until Wes gets back tonight.. Here's the downer, today I got in a heated argument with a woman that lives an apartment building away from us.. as I was walking the dogs back to our building she was watching me from her balcony.. She started telling me, in french of course to get my dogs off the grass.. Normally I would try to avoid her and play the "I don't speak french" card but the little pistol in me opened my mouth and told her to find something better to do.. that apparently upset her because she darted back inside and was down standing in front of me within 30 seconds.. I proceeded to let my "pistol" side (as Wes calls it) take over.. I decided to let the dogs off the leashes right in front of her, where they made a beeline to the grass.. Now she's super mad and yelling louder and louder, speaking faster and faster... I told her she couldn't tell me what to do, laughed in her face and walked away.. I went back up to my apartment and looked out the window to see her venting to another woman, who i'm guessing is the apartment manager, judging by all the keys she had on her keyring.. ?? So i might be in trouble, but REALLY is it so bad to let my dogs on the grass.. I pick up after them and they aren't hurting anything so it's annoying to me when some people have nothing better to do with their time than patrol what everyone else is doing.. Ohhhhk, I'm done venting now..lol! So that's the not so good stuff I had to write about... Wes is going to be impressed when he gets home to find out i'm already fueding with the neighbors.. haha.

Now I'm going to head back home and finish putting our place together with all my fun stuff from Ikea :) Can't wait! Maybe it will take my mind off of being homesick for a little while.. It's hard not to get homesick when you're all of the sudden by yourself AND you have to read everyone's posts on how fun the first HUSKER game was!!!! So jealous! Although my parents are awesome and recorded the game on our dvr so once we have internet we can watch it via slingbox! Even if we know the outcome it will still be fun to watch :) Hope everyone had a great weekend! Cross your fingers for us that we get internet soon..I'm sure the McDonalds employees are sick of seeing my mug around here! ;)

Happy Tuesday :)

2010-08-31T02:58:00.000-07:00

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...

2010-08-27T02:44:00.001-07:00

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!!!

2010-08-26T01:55:00.000-07:00

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

2010-08-25T03:49:00.000-07:00

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

Happy Holidays!

2008-12-18T07:15:00.000-08:00

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!! :)

2008-11-14T13:54:00.000-08:00

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!

2008-10-22T12:30:00.000-07:00

Fall is here!!

2008-10-20T12:56:00.000-07:00

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 :(

2008-10-10T08:16:00.000-07:00

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!!!

2008-09-26T14:49:00.001-07:00

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...

2008-09-17T14:55:00.001-07:00

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!

2008-09-14T08:10:00.000-07:00

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...

2008-09-11T13:41:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-09-08T13:00:00.000-07:00

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!!!

2008-03-31T13:54:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-02-13T12:44:00.000-08:00

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!

2008-01-09T14:02:00.000-08:00

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!

2008-01-06T13:57:00.000-08:00

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!!

Thanksgiving!

2007-11-25T15:34:00.000-08:00

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....

2007-11-09T15:02:00.000-08:00

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...

2007-10-29T03:21:00.000-07:00

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...

2007-10-26T03:06:00.000-07:00

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...

2007-10-04T15:35:00.000-07:00

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! :)