Our year in 2013

2013 was one for the books! :)

January - January marked 5 years since Tyler and I first started dating. Fun fact: if you didn't already notice at our wedding - the 6th is destined to be our day! We started dating on January 6th, got engaged on September 6th, and got married on July 6th. All of this was unintentional and I didn't notice it until well after we set the date for our wedding!

In the beginning....19 years old!

February - I was in full swing with wedding planning, working two jobs, house searching (will explain in September section) and trying to fit keeping in contact with Tyler at an 8 hour time difference. I don't know how I did it! Tyler and I made the decision for me to stay home during his season so I could plan for the wedding and work. It was very hard being engaged and living across the world from each other!

March - I was able to visit Tyler in Latvia for 2 weeks and spend my 25th birthday with him. It was bittersweet as I was so happy to be there with him but wanted so badly to just stay there! We had a fun two weeks and he promised me we would never be apart for this long again!

April - I went to Jamaica with my best friend, Nat, and we had the time of our lives! It was great to get a girls trip in before I got married and it was a relaxing break from everything. I highly recommend Jamaica if anyone is looking into going somewhere in the Caribbean! The water is absolutely beautiful and the people are so nice!

Soaking up the sun in Jamaica!

May - Tyler came home for the summer and I had my first bridal shower! It was so much fun to have my first taste of wedding related events and I couldn't believe how fast time was going and how close the wedding was getting!

Me and some bridesmaids/MOH at my shower

June - June was a busy (and sometimes overwhelming!)month with finalizing wedding details. But it was also a lot of celebrating and having fun with another bridal shower, I had my bachelorette party and Tyler had his bachelor party on his 25th birthday.

My basketball theme for the afternoon at my bachelorette party!
MISSING YOU GIRLS SO MUCH!!!! 

July - July 6th was truly the most amazing day! To us, it was perfect! We had so much fun celebrating our marriage with our family and friends and I would love to go back and celebrate with you all again! Most fun night of my life!... We spent our honeymoon in Puerto Vallarta and we absolutely loved it. We ended up picking PV somewhat randomly. I had been looking into places for 2 months and couldn't decide where would be a good place to go. Finally one night in March when I was in Latvia, we sat at the computer and said "We need to just decide!" We went on a booking website, looked through some packages, and decided on Puerto Vallarta. It was the best "spontaneous" decision and I have to say PV might be one of my favorite places I've ever visited and would definitely go back!

Enjoying Puerto Vallarta!

August - It was back to the real world. After receiving different offers from different teams, Tyler decided to take an offer in Forlí, Italy. We both loved Riga, but we were both excited for a new chapter in Tyler's career and to go to ITALY! I am so proud of Tyler and Italy has been a great career move for him.

September - Tyler left right after Labor Day and I stayed behind to close on our house. I started house searching in January in hopes of finding a house for Tyler to come home to in the spring. I never knew the intricate process in buying a house and it was ten times more difficult with Tyler's job because no one had ever dealt with a person who's job was a professional basketball player in Europe. I won't bore you with all the details, as most of you already know the 17,583 hoops we had to jump through to get our house. We moved into our house in June with a move-in agreement with the sellers and we finally closed on it at the end of September and it is officially ours! It is the best feeling to be done with all of that as it was much unneeded stress piled on top of me during wedding planning! I told Tyler we are living in this house for a minimum of ten years for all the stress and nonsense we went through to get it! :)

October - My original plan was to leave the first week of October after closing on the house. I ended up getting delayed though as I was waiting on documents I needed from the Italian consulate in Chicago to bring here with me for use for a visa. I ended up spending the three extra weeks back home and now looking back, I am extremely thankful for that time. I was able to spend quality time with my family and friends before leaving. Then finally, after Tyler and I were away from each other for almost two months again, I left on Halloween for Italy.

November - Tyler was in full swing with his season and I was happy to finally start going to his games again and be a "basketball wife". I am the only American basketball wife. As a matter of fact I am the only wife on the team! We are the old married couple. For real! Everyone is younger than us and there are only a few guys who have girlfriends. I wish there was another American wife here with me to spend time with while the guys are at practice or away games but hopefully next year!

December - The highlight of our time together here so far was our trip to Venice earlier in the month. We are looking forward to doing more traveling and seeing more of Italy after that trip! Our first Christmas together was fun and relaxing and we look forward to many more!

2013 was, by far, the best year for the both of us thus far in our lives. We have many wonderful memories from 2013 and it will always be a special year to us. We can only hope for 2014 to bring us more wonderful experiences and memories! We hope you all have a safe and exciting time celebrating New Year's and we wish you a joyous, healthy, BLESSED 2014!!!

Buon Natale!

Merry Christmas! We hope that everyone is enjoying the holidays and spending time with family and friends. Although this is probably the hardest time of the season for us to be away from our families, we are already looking forward to our "Christmas in July" with them, right Laurie?! Tyler's mom has mentioned before that since we are never together on Christmas, we should have a Christmas with my family and Tyler's family in the summer. But with us getting married this July and Erica (Tyler's sister) getting married last July, we have yet to get around to it. So I am excited for this coming summer to have our Christmas!

HUGE tree in the center in Bologna!

Our tree :)

I've spent 3 of the last 4 Christmases in Europe and it is just not the same as back home! Of course Christmas is a big celebration here, but there is nothing like an American Christmas! Even though Christmas here is generally the same, there are a few differences in the traditions. Finding stockings here was like finding needles in a haystack. Apparently in Italy stockings aren't part of the Christmas tradition?? I don't know but we looked in at least half a dozen stores and couldn't find any stockings. Finally, we found some at a store that would be equivalent to a dollar general store in the States. They literally had 2 stockings and they are most hideous things I have ever seen. Obviously being one euro each, they are cheaply made and I'm convinced someone made them while blindfolded. 

They are ten times worse than what they photograph. They are just awful. The gold one is supposed to have a Santa holding a sign that says "Buon Natale" but that fell off the minute I took it out of the bag. You get what you pay for but hey, we have some stockings! 


Even though we miss being in the States and we aren't with our family and friends right now, we are making most of the time we have here. We are very happy to be with each other and have our first Christmas together as a married couple. We are trying to start our own traditions that we will have for years to come as well as doing the typical things like watching Christmas movies and making Christmas cookies. 

Tyler getting ready to decorate :)

Having fun!

Our (messy) end result! Yes, we are aware that our cookies look like a bunch of 3rd graders decorated them!! :)

We hope all of our family and friends have a very MERRY CHRISTMAS!! We're at the halfway point of the season and being home!!! :)

Venice

How lucky am I that I get to say I just hopped on a train and spent a day in Venice? I continue to thank God every day for everything He has blessed us with and try to soak up every single moment of it!

As I said in my last post, Tyler and I have been talking about doing some traveling. After his games on Sunday nights, he gets his schedule for the upcoming week. We always know that he is going to have Monday off, but occasionally he gets Tuesday morning off as well - which is what we need to happen in order to really be able to travel somewhere and not have to rush (even if it is only 24 hours). We found out he didn't have practice until 3pm on Tuesday so we decided we were finally going to take advantage of his time off. We first talked about going to Florence and Pisa. We quickly decided though that it would be too much to fit into one day. Venice has been at the top of my list of places to visit. Everyone here keeps telling us how beautiful it is and how we really need to go see it. So I said "Let's go to Venice!" and that's what we did!

We got up early Monday morning so we could catch the 8am train. Bless Tyler's heart, he was exhausted. He had an away game on Sunday, played all 40 minutes of the game and didn't get back until about 2am and still got up at 7am so that we could go. What a nice husband! We took a train up to Bologna and then switched to a high speed train that took us into Venice. That was my first time ever traveling by train. It was a cool experience and it only took about 2 and a half hours to get there.

The train station in Venice is located right on the Grand Canal. You walk out and you are just right there in the middle of everything. We started taking pictures right away like typical tourists. We both were in awe. I can't even explain how beautiful it was. Mind you, this was the coldest day yet since I've been in Italy, cloudy and dreary, and it was still unbelievable! I can't even imagine how breathtaking it is in the spring/summer! Everything is connected by a maze of bridges and boats everywhere in the canal. Tyler and I decided probably within the first hour that we were there that we would definitely be coming back in the spring to visit. 

After taking our first initial pictures, we decided that we needed to get a hotel room because of course we were dragging around an overpacked bag I had for one night ;) After dropping off my stuff and freshening up, we walked around and saw all the shops and we went to lunch at a cool little pizzeria. We had some great pizza and some in-house brewed beer, which was actually really good! 

Really thrilled that I am taking his picture :)

I really wanted to ride on a gondola because of course that is what you think of when you think of Venice!  We found a couple of guys who were giving gondola rides and I asked how much it would be. He told me for a 30-40 minute ride it would be 80 euros. ($110) I said "80 euros!??!?!!??!"  Yeah right! I did not want to ride it that bad on a cold, bitter day for that much money. He then tried to tell me that since it was still daylight, he would bump it down to 60 euros. I said I would talk to my husband about it and we started walking away and he literally ran after us and told us "ok ok 50 euros!"  Obviously we had the word "AMERICAN" plastered to our foreheads and he was trying to make suckers out of us being tourists. We told the guy we'd think about it and kept walking. Tyler told me if this was something that I really wanted to do, we could do it. I told him that I would take him up on his offer this spring. It was just way too cold and it will be much more enjoyable on a nicer day. (An Italian teammate of Tyler's told him today that if we would have been Italian it would have only been 15-20 euros. I'm not falling for that high price next time we are there!) 

Can't wait for spring for a nice gondola ride!

We enjoyed a nice, authentic Italian dinner and walked around some more at night. We really only saw a sliver of Venice and were only there for such a short time, but it was so nice for us to take this trip together. We were able to enjoy being with each other, be in a beautiful city, and Tyler was able step away from his job for a little bit. It was a perfect little getaway! Now we are familiar and know what to expect in Venice and I can't wait to visit again! 

Enjoying Venice at night!

A beautiful morning as we were leaving

An exciting 24 hours

I'm sure most of you have either heard or seen our posts on the big win Tyler's team had on Sunday night, but I need to share more on it! It was such an exciting game and this is the type of game that athletes live for and fans can only hope to witness. 

They were playing the number one team in their league so going into it, everyone knew this was going to be a tough game. Tyler's team started off very strong. They lead pretty much the whole first half and were up by 8 at half. They continued to play strong and were up by 10 at the end of the third. I was feeling very hopeful but I also knew that Tyler and his teammates had to be feeling a little fatigued. They have a couple of teammates that are hurt right now and they only had 6 or 7 guys who were consistently playing in the game. The crowd was going insane though - chanting songs and cheering, so I knew that this was going to give them some adrenaline to feed off of. The other team was determined to fight back though. They came back and tied the game with about five minutes left and then pulled ahead and were up by six with only 2 or 3 minutes left. I started to mentally prepare myself on how I was going to attempt to make Tyler feel better if they lost this game. I realized nothing I was going to say would be able to comfort him if they lost because he would tell me that they should have won this game - which he would have been right about. I started praying and hoping that they would somehow pull it together... And they did just that! 

Get out of here!

Doing what he does best!!

They were down 3 with 1:26 left in the game and they got the ball to Tyler who scored a lay-up to bring them within one. The other team answered though, and we were back down by three again. It was now about 50 seconds left and we brought the ball back down the court. The other American on Tyler's team (His name is Jazz) shot and hit a big three! It was now a tied game with 36 seconds left. A timeout was called and this is when I started to get extremely excited! I knew they could do it but they HAD to get a stop on defense now. After the timeout, the other team brought the ball up and after a few passes, Jazz stole the ball! (Enter freaking out by Kayla here) 26 seconds left now. Tyler's team brings the ball down and they are using all 24 seconds of the shot clock. With a couple seconds left on the shot clock, Tyler's teammate shoots a three and misses. (Enter a big UGHHH - overtime) But wait, there is still 2 seconds left and Tyler rebounds the ball! He shoots at the final buzzer and gets fouled. At this point, it takes me a couple seconds to comprehend what's going on. I see the ref signaling a foul and I realize Tyler is getting a chance to shoot free throws to win the game. The crowd was going crazy and I am one big goon now jumping up and down and yelling at the top of my lungs "OH MY GOSH!!! AHHHHH, TYLER!!!" I then begin to laugh because I am so happy for Tyler and I am thinking how awesome this is that he is getting this big moment. Tyler gets to the free throw line and everyone is saying "SHHHHH!" and it is silent. I can see Tyler's confidence and he shoots and makes it! Enter crowd going wild and Kayla jumping up and down like a kangaroo, throwing up my arms like I am about to do the YMCA. (I hope no one was watching me make a fool of myself!) He shoots his second free throw and makes that as well! The atmosphere in the arena was amazing and I know this is a game Tyler will not forget.  I am so proud of him and so lucky I got to experience that moment with him. 

The Free Throw!

HE MAKES IT!!!

Excited Team!

After the big win!

Tyler had yesterday off which was much needed. We have been discussing that we really need to start taking advantage of being here in Italy and travel! We are in a great location to visit some popular cities: Venice, Florence, Pisa, Milan. They are anywhere from 1-3 hour train or car rides away! We decided yesterday though to go to Vicenza (Vih-chen-za). Tyler met someone when he first got here who has been working for the US Dept. of Defense in Italy for many years. He works in Forlì a few days a week but his family is in Vicenza and there is also a US Army base there. He has told Tyler that if he ever wants to come to Vicenza, he would take us to the base to get American groceries and products. We decided that with Thanksgiving coming up, it would be ideal to get everything we needed there. It's a two and a half hour drive with numerous toll booths along the way, but it was so worth it and I am so glad we went! 

Being at the base was, in a way, like being in America. People were speaking in English, signs were in English, and American stuff everywhere! I am only a few weeks removed from the States so I am not missing things we have there like Tyler is. He has been gone for almost three months now so he is definitely missing American products. We walked into the exchange and we see a fast food court that had Subway, Popeyes, Taco Bell, Burger King, and Charley's Subs among others. Tyler looked like he had no idea what to think! He was like a kid in a candy store and I could immediately see the wheels turning in his mind trying to decide what he was going to eat. I told him I would get a footlong from Subway so he could have half of it and he got two tacos and a burrito from Taco Bell. I've never seen him eat so much so fast! Everything was gone in less than ten minutes and I know he enjoyed every single bite. 

Although our intensions were to get things for Thanksgiving, we went way above and beyond that! We went into the exchange store and stocked up on some American made toiletries. And even though we are able to find all the basic things we need in European grocery stores, it's still not the same as American grocery stores! Tyler was so happy to see everything and anything we have in the States. And I was happy too! I wanted to stock up because I knew this was a rare opportunity. We started grabbing so many random things at the commissary just because we could. At one point, Tyler put jello in the shopping cart and said "Why am I getting jello? I don't even eat jello in the States. I am just getting it because they have it!" 

After a couple hours on the base, we had our fix of fast food and a ton of American groceries. Tyler was so happy the whole time we were there and that made me happy for him. It was a taste of home for him that he doesn't get to experience while he is in Europe. Being away from home for 9 months out of the year starts to take a toll and I am glad he got to experience the closest thing we could get to America. I think if we can make the trip to Vicenza every couple of months, it will be nice for the both of us to have a reminder of home! 

Driving into Vicenza - Beautiful mountains!

Our haul!

I hope that everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving! Enjoy every minute you get to spend with your families - we wish that we were able to spend it with ours!

A silly story to share

Friday morning, Tyler and I had to go to the police station to turn in some paperwork associated with me getting my visa. People that work for his team have been putting everything together for us since we obviously can't speak the language or know all of the rules that go along with this process. They have been very helpful and on top of things and they met up with us at the police station to help things run quickly and smoothly.

We found out prior to meeting at the police station that I needed to bring pictures with me (just like the picture in your passport). I just got passport pictures taken in September to update my passport with my new last name, so I wish I would have known that I was going to need to do this because I have extras at home that I could have brought with me. Plus, I now knew that this was going to be quite the experience going into an Italian photo store to get my picture taken. 

We walked into this tiny shop in the center where this cute, petite middle aged woman stood. The first thing that ran through my mind was "I guarantee she is not going to speak English". Honestly, Tyler and I typically have found that people can speak English at stores or restaurants and have no problems communicating, but this obviously is not the case 100% of the time and the older the person is, the more unlikely they are to speak English. I also am very shy and bashful when it comes to speaking to someone in English. I typically cower behind Tyler and make him do all the talking. This is something that Tyler is trying to break me of and I know that I should be more confident, but I just freeze up and get extremely nervous when I need to speak to someone! This was one of those times where I stayed one step behind Tyler and hid behind his arm like a little child and made him do the talking.

"Do you speak English?" Tyler asks.  The lady laughs like Tyler has told her the funniest joke she has ever heard and says "No". Tyler says "Ok. Passport. Photo. Quattro" and points at me. The lady understands that I need 4 passport pictures and says "Ah! Si! Si! Ok!" And motions for me to follow her. She is speaking to me in Italian but I see that she is showing me where I can put my jacket and that there is a mirror for me to check myself over before taking the picture. I decide that I just want to keep my jacket on and look in the mirror for one second and take a seat on the bench because I just want to get this over with as quickly as possible. The lady looks at me sitting on the bench and points again at the mirror like I obviously need to recheck how I look. Oh boy.  She clearly must think I don't look nice. I get up and go to the mirror to check my appearance. I fluff my hair and press my lips together to even out my lip gloss. Hopefully she approves now and I take my seat again. 

She gets the camera out and is speaking to me like I understand her and is giggling like I am her old friend that she is catching up with. I sit there and my eyes dart at Tyler and he is laughing and smiling at me because he knows how uncomfortable this is making me. She looks and me and motions for me to turn my body at an angle and have my face forward. She is also motioning for me to get a strand of hair out of my eyes so I fix it quickly and sit still so she can snap the picture. She is looking at me as if she is still not satisfied and walks over and fixes my hair as she thinks it needs to be. Bless her heart, she obviously just wanted me to look nice! Finally, she must think I look ok and stands back and takes my picture. She looks at the screen and says "Ok ok" and starts speaking to me again like I will respond right back. She holds up the camera again and I begin to laugh because I have no idea what she is saying. She then obviously begins to scold me for smiling because you can't smile in passport photos so she shows me that I need to be serious which makes me giggle even more! I try to hold it together so I can just get this over with and she snaps another picture. She looks at it and says "Ah, Bene!" (Good) I begin to thank God that this is now over but in a true womanly fashion, she says "uno altra" and takes another picture for good measure. 

She then brings the camera to me so I can review the pictures she has taken of me and pick out which one I want copies of. "Uno, Due, Tre". She shows me each of the three pictures. They all honestly look the same and I really don't care which one I use because no one is really ever going to see this picture. "Uno" I say, indicating that I want the first picture. "Uno????"  She is questioning my choice and by the tone of her voice, I pick up that she thinks this is a bad picture of me. She shows me uno again and goes to the second picture and says "Due!!!" (Pronounced doo-ay) She is stating that she thinks due is a better picture of me but I don't think so, so I say "No, uno" and hold up one finger. " Uno?? Ok......." She says this in clear disappointment that I picked uno over due. I probably should have just agreed with picture number two since she thought picture number one wasn't attractive. 

Finally after my mini photo shoot and her disapproving my every move, we had the pictures that I needed and thanked the little lady. We walked out of the store laughing just because of the situations we sometimes encounter with the language barrier. And it was also funny how critical and serious she was in taking these pictures. These little, funny situations happen all the time to Ty and I and I'm sure I will be sharing more silly stories in the future! 

Adjusting to new things

Being in a new country, you will encounter things and experiences that will be new and different to you. I thought I would share a few things that are a bit different than America. 

Flying in Europe - Unless you are on a big international flight back to the States or outside the EU, you will not board your flight at the gate. In hindsight, I am glad that the first time I visited Tyler, he gave me a heads up on this otherwise I would have been completely confused as to what was going on. When boarding for a flight from one EU country to another, everyone stands in line and goes through and gets their ticket scanned. Instead of walking down the jet bridge and entering the plane, you wait in an area for a bus to come. Everyone crams onto the bus and it drives you out onto the middle of the tarmac to wherever your plane is. You get off the bus and everyone walks up a mobile set of stairs to the plane. (Somehow, I always fly on extremely cold days and am at the end of the line. Happens every time.) When the plane lands at your destination, they park again in the middle of the tarmac and you walk off, load onto a bus and they take you the airport doors. 

Grocery carts and grocery bags - You are going to have to pay for these. When grocery shopping, all the of the shopping carts are chained together. If you want to use one, you have to put 1 euro into a slot on the handle bar and it releases it from the other carts. You get your euro back at the end of your shopping trip as long as you bring it back to the other carts, chain it back up and your euro pops out. It's actually a pretty good system - there aren't random shopping carts all over parking lots because people have to return them in an orderly fashion to get their money back! A lot of people bring their own bags to the grocery store but if not, you will need to purchase them. Grocery bags typically cost around 5 or 10 cents each.You pick up however many bags you need for your groceries at the register and pay for them just like anything else. You also have to bag your own groceries as well.

Milk is not refrigerated - Yes, you read this right and I can imagine what you are thinking. This was probably the hardest for me to get used to. My first visit to see Tyler, I was looking for something and I saw extra cartons of milk in his cupboard. I was like "Tyler!? Why is there milk in your cupboard?!" He had to explain to me that you don't buy milk cold and it only gets refrigerated when you bring it home and put in in the refrigerator yourself. I could not wrap my mind around this! Milk is just sold on the shelf like soda or juice - how can milk be sold at room temperature and not spoil!? I don't know how it works but the process of making milk must be different here! It took me until my next trip to Europe when I was with him for three months to get more comfortable with this. I drink milk all time in the States. I can go through about 3 gallons a week by myself (should I be proud of this or is it weird that I drink that much milk!?) but here, I am taking baby steps and only use milk for my cereal.

Ovens and dryers - Two major appliances not commonly found in European apartments. Not having an oven really gets me. There is only so much you can do on a stove top! You realize how limited you are in making meals when you only have a stove! This year, Tyler and I decided it would be a good investment to buy a countertop oven. It was a good chunk of change but it's definitely worth it. We use it every day and I can make entire meals and bake! This is exciting, guys! Fortunately, this year Tyler got an apartment with a dryer. This is also very exciting! In previous years, we have just had this big tri-folded rack to hang all of our laundry on to air dry. You truly don't appreciate the value of a dryer until your freshly washed and dried towel you grab after showering is hard, stiff and feels like sandpaper on your body. Also, air dried socks are the worst too. Nothing like putting on a pair of crunchy socks and breaking them in for the day! I am thankful my towels and socks are going to be soft and fluffy this year! 

Items that are rare and expensive - You really don't realize how much stuff we have in America! We have entire aisles for soda, chips, cereal, etc. Here, there are only sections of these items in aisles. While we are able to find what we need and have plenty of options, there are some things here that are rarely found and if they are found, it will be a small quantity and cost a pretty penny. Here are some examples of things that are cheap and easy to find in America but if you are able to find them here, this is approximately what you will spend:

6 oz bottle of maple syrup - $12
6 oz jar of peanut butter - $6
3 oz bottle of vanilla extract - $14
8 oz bottle of BBQ sauce - $7
6 oz package of strawberries - $12 
6 oz bottle of salad dressing - $5

Those items are just a few random things that we commonly use in America but are not common here! We obviously get by without having these, but we will splurge sometimes on peanut butter or salad dressing just because there is really nothing we can do about the price!

These are a handful of things that we experience here. Just a little different way of life but when I share with my friends and family, they are always so intrigued. Hope you all found this interesting as well :) 

My first few days

Am I really in Italy??? I think it is still hard for me to comprehend that! I left on Halloween and got here Friday afternoon around 1pm local time. At this time, I had already been up for 24 hours as I can't sleep on planes whatsoever. I knew that if I came to Tyler's apartment and tried to nap, that nap would be about six hours long and I wouldn't be able to sleep at night. I fought to stay up and made it to about 9pm before going to bed. Jet lag, the seven hour time difference, and that 32 hour period of no sleep has really been kicking my butt! I am having a terrible time adjusting to a new schedule and I am a big, lethargic mess! I am hoping that by the end of the week I will feel more caught up!

Besides feeling tired, I am having an amazing time so far and absolutely loving Italy! It is so beautiful here. Driving from the airport to Tyler's apartment, we must have passed dozens of little vineyards. It is so quaint and peaceful that it was pretty much lulling me to sleep on the car ride home! The apartment Ty has for the year is very nice. We even have a spare bedroom if any of you want to come visit :)

Friday night I was obviously useless and Tyler let me be a big bum. On Saturday night, we went to dinner with some people from Tyler's team. Let me tell you - this was an event! We drove up into the hills to this little restaurant. I am sure if it were daytime, the view would have been breathtaking. They said on a really clear day in the summer, you can see the sea. As we were seated, we were handed menus and I tried so hard to understand what I was reading. Can't even lie - I don't think I understood one word! The Italians we with were so helpful at letting us know what everything was. They told us that we would order an appetizer, then pasta, then meat and potatoes, then dessert, then coffee. UMM WHAT?! How in the world am I supposed to eat all of that?! And how do people stay in shape eating like this?! They decided to order some appetizers for the whole table and I just went with a pasta for my meal. They brought out 2 big bread baskets and they told us that in northern and southern Italy, they don't typically eat bread with all of their meals but here in Forli, they eat bread with everything. Hello Kayla - you are in heaven!! Bread is like candy to me so I am perfectly fine with this tradition! Soon after the bread was brought out, appetizer after appetizer was brought out. I couldn't even keep up! I think in the end we had 7 different appetizers. This is only the beginning people.

Next was pasta. I got a pasta with a red, meat sauce and Tyler got a pasta with mushrooms. The meat in my pasta was so tender and Tyler's mushrooms were so fresh (of course I tried his!). The noodles were also fresh and I am sure they were made right in the restaurant. The pasta was amazing. My first experience with true Italian pasta did not disappoint. Next they brought out steak and potatoes. I wish I would have taken a picture of how big these steaks were. They had to have weighed at least 4 pounds and bigger than my face. I was already full after the appetizers and pasta but I had to try this steak. Best. Steak. Ever. My gosh! It was so tender and you could just tell how fresh it was. And the potatoes?? Ok I will try that too. Just as good! They were seasoned with butter and garlic and they were fantastic. I have died and gone to food heaven aka Italy.

I also got to experience my first Italian wine. I think by the end of Tyler's season, I am going to be so picky with my wines! I couldn't even tell you what wine I had but I know that it was wonderful! It isn't that ten dollar bottle that I pick up with my girlfriends from the grocery store for wine night! Don't worry girls, I will share my new knowledge on wine when I get back :)

Tyler and I at our first Italian dinner together

My first glass of Italian wine!

I couldn't even think about dessert after taste testing all of these amazing foods but they insisted that I must try something. Italians do not take no for an answer! So Tyler told me he would split something with me (which means I try it and he eats the rest haha). We got what was almost like a custard that had a lemony taste with nuts and berries. Again, very fresh and although I am not a huge lemon fan, I really liked it.

After three hours and being put into a food coma, I had my first Italian meal. Since then, everything I have tasted has blown me away. How is everything sooooo good here?! I think that I could make this whole blog solely on the food that I eat here!

Besides eating and sleeping, I have gotten to experience a few other things. Tyler had a game on Sunday and it was so nice to finally see him play again! Forli has some very passionate basketball fans and they support their team win or lose. There was so much energy in the arena and I am happy that Tyler is on a team where the fans are excited about basketball. The fans are so proud of their team and they love watching the players work hard. They cheer for everyone but boy, if they don't like something they will let you know that too! There were a few iffy calls that the refs made and the crowd was enraged. Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, was screaming at the refs. I couldn't understand what they were saying, but I can just about imagine. Here I am, this little American girl sitting in my seat wide eyed, while everyone else is on their feet screaming. Even though the atmosphere got a little intense, I would rather the fans be so supportive of their team than just sit there and not care at all.

Trying to get an action shot of Tyler (#8)… This is about the only one that wasn't so blurry!

After Tyler's game, we went to dinner (again I could share how AMAZING the food was, but I am sure you get the picture by now) and walked around the center. The center is not the biggest but it is beautiful. It has lots of little shops, bakeries, restaurants etc. Tyler insisted that we get some gelato so that I could try it (I think he secretly just wanted it himself). Once again, I can't explain to you how sweet and delicious it was. Sitting in the center in Forli, Italy with my husband, eating Italian gelato on a gorgeous 60-something degree night in November, I realized once again how blessed we are. Tyler and I both realize that this is an experience that we will forever cherish. We are both so happy to finally be together and and we are enjoying every minute of it. We have already made wonderful memories in just the past few days that I know we have a lot in store for us to come!

Gelato :)

                           

The Center at night

                             

It's about time!

Finally, after delays of getting things lined up in order to take care of my Italian visa, I have everything I need and I will be in Italy at the end of the week! I am so thrilled as these past couple of weeks have been increasingly difficult for me to be apart from Tyler. To help my heartache, I was able to spend a few weeks back home in Iowa with my family and friends. I am so thankful that I was able to see them before I left. I am so blessed with wonderful people in my life and I will miss everyone a lot! Now it is time for me to start packing and that alone is going to be an adventure by itself!

I will miss my family so much!

This is the first time in Tyler's career that I will be with him for the majority of the season. The longest I have been with him in Europe at one period of time is three months. So this is a big change! For the next eight months, I am attempting to pack everything I will need into two suitcases. Yes, two. (I will give all the girls reading this a moment to be flabbergasted and know that it is impossible to fit a girls life in two suitcases). I must confess though, I am the worst at overpacking and I promised Tyler I would try my best to fit all of my toiletries, make up, hair products/tools, shoes, clothes, accessories, purses, coats, scarves, boots, (what else am I forgetting?) and all the random stuff girls think they need, into two bags. This is going to be quite the task.

I don't consider myself high maintenance - lounging around in big comfy sweatpants and sweatshirts is one of my favorite things to do - but I am definitely girly and know what I like. Honestly, I am not worried about bringing enough clothes. I am worried about running out of things like my favorite shampoo and conditioner that I've been using for the past 5 years or running out of every single product I use in my daily makeup routine. Every time I have been to Europe, I have brought enough of my favorite things to last me, but I know that is not an option this time around. (Even though I have stocked up to last me at least a little while!) I've been using the same things for so long, what if I can't find something similar in Italy! Like, what type of deodorant am I going to use?! Or, am I going to be able to find a hairspray that I like?! I know this sounds slightly dramatic, but hey, you have to see where I'm coming from - it takes a lot being a girl and I don't know what is available in Italy!

I know that everything will be just fine and I will find products I like, but these are the things that cross my mind :) I am more than happy to give up not being able to find my favorite eyeliner over not being able to be in Italy with Tyler. I am so excited to walk off that plane and give Tyler a huge hug! You think I would be used to being a part from him by now but let me tell you, it is darn hard! Especially now that we're married, I can barely stand this! My iPhone is basically glued to my hand as the first thing I do in the morning when I wake up is text Tyler and we text, call, and video chat all day long until he goes to bed. So I am about ready to throw my phone in the trash when I get to Italy and have Tyler as my husband and not my phone :-p (but in all honesty: thank God for technology and that we are able to contact each other at any second even being across the world from one another!)

I'm so glad that our time to be together is finally here.  I can't wait to experience life in Italy with Tyler and I am so looking forward to sharing it with you all!

Buongiorno!

Hello everyone :) As I am now the wife of an overseas basketball player, I thought that I would start a blog for our family and friends to keep up with our experiences in Europe. You can follow me as I experience new things, travel, and cheer for my favorite basketball player!

Tyler is now in his fourth season as a professional basketball player. He was in Latvia for three seasons and I was able to visit him a handful of times. Riga is a beautiful city where I will cherish many memories and experiences Tyler and I shared. From me experiencing European coffee (I am a coffee addict and American coffee doesn't hold a candle to European coffee!) to Tyler and I exploring the streets of a beautiful, old European city, to watching the love of my life start his career that he is so passionate about and dedicated to, Latvia will always make me smile!

At the end of August 2013, Tyler received an offer from a team in Italy. I can't lie, I was pretty excited - who wouldn't want to spend a year in Italy?! After a couple days of thinking about it, he decided to take the offer. I was thrilled! I started researching anything and everything I could find out about the country. I even bought an Italian language set from Barnes and Noble to help me learn some Italian.  I know a few words and phrases now but somehow I don't think that will be enough, so I am still working on it! I am so proud of Tyler and I am so excited for this new chapter in his career. 

Someone asked me a couple of weeks ago what is the longest Tyler and I have been apart. Although the longest we have been apart has only been about six months at one period of time, it got me thinking - in the past three years, the longest period of time Tyler and I have been together is only about five months. Although the past three years have been wonderful and blessed, it is very hard going back and forth from being together for two months to being apart for four months, back together for three months, etc. Last year was probably the most difficult as we were newly engaged and we only saw each other for two weeks in a six month period. So I am very excited that this is now the time for Tyler and I to start our married life and actually be together. We don't have to worry about saying goodbye every few months and we can finally have a normal relationship and actually live in the same city (let alone the same continent!).  

Tyler left at the beginning of September for Italy. The reason I stayed behind was because as of yesterday, we are officially HOMEOWNERS! It was a long process (almost painful at times!), but so worth it for us to have a place of our own. I am now done with dealing with the process of closing on our house and hope to leave within the next couple of weeks to join Tyler!

Forlì, Italy is the new home of the Cains! Follow our journey in the weeks and months ahead :)

Tyler in a preseason game for his new team, Fulgor Libertas!