Our first weekend in Brussels

Bonjour!



We had a very fun weekend and were able to see a lot of Brussels! We started out Friday night by going to a pizza place I had found on the Belgian version of "Yelp" called CityPlug. The difference between Yelp and CityPlug is that everyone always seems to give great reviews - there are never any bad reviews on CityPlug. We went to a place called Pizzeria Mirante near the city center, which is also the touristy area. Our pizzas were delicious and well priced, and as usual, the beer was cheaper than water. Since we're not used to drinking a beer or glass of wine with every meal, we started bringing in our own water and tried to be discreet about it. One liter of water (which is about what we drink in one meal) costs between  €5,00-€7,00 ($6.00-$8.40.) We think it's crazy that restaurants in Europe won't just give you some tap water, but perhaps we're just weird Americans. Anyhow - the pizza was great and we really enjoyed wandering around the touristy city center of Brussels on Friday night. There were tons of people out and about, both locals and tourists. It's a really fun area! Of course we stopped and got a piece of chocolate - I don't know how they make chocolate over here, but it really is different and amazing. Luckily we can stop after one piece - the problem is I want a piece every day. :-) We came back to our apartment around 10:30 pm (the sun was still shining bright of course!) and watched part of some weird movie called Salsa - it was the only show on TV in English. We were asleep by midnight - still getting over the jet-lag!



Saturday was also a great day! Brent's boss and her husband (Janet & Kevin) took us all over the city! First we went to their beautiful apartment. It's on the 7th floor of a very nice apartment building overlooking Montgomery Circle, which is a large traffic circle with a big fountain in the middle. The elevator opens up right into their apartment. They have everything we are looking for in an apartment (American-size refrigerator, washer/dryer, American-style shower, etc) so hopefully we can find an apartment like theirs - but a bit smaller and cheaper. They have a gorgeous rooftop patio - I was a bit envious...but I know we'll find something perfect for our lifestyle as well. Next they took us to a large market in Stockel, about 20 minutes by Metro from the city center, and about 10 minutes from where we want to live. I LOVED the market and foresee myself doing a lot of our grocery shopping here. The market is open Friday, Saturday, and Tuesday. There were some amazing fresh fruits & veggie vendors and lots of fresh fish, meat, and egg stalls. We are all about markets, so this was a great find! We wandered around the market for about an hour, and then headed back to Janet & Kevin's apartment to hop in the car.



Our next stop was the military base just outside of Brussels for a "rummage sale." We had to pre-register for this event because civilians aren't normally allowed on the military base. The rummage sale was really just a garage-like sale, but it was cool to see part of the base. I would love to get a job at their health clinic, but that might be pretty tough as a civilian. After that, we went to the British Food store, where English products are sold (i.e. British groceries, books, magazines, and a few American items as well.) I think I will be perfectly fine with what is sold at regular Belgian grocery stores, but it was nice to know where the British food store is in case I need a specific brand. Janet and Kevin also showed us where the massive Ikea is, where furniture stores are, and then took us to lunch - woo hoo! After lunch, we drove around some more, looking at different areas of Brussels, and then they dropped us off at our apartment around 4:00. They spent a total of 7 hours with us, which was very kind and very helpful! I'm so glad Brent has such a nice boss - and her husband is hilarious too.



When we got home, we decided to wander over to the Woluwe Shopping Center - a nice mall about a 5-minute walk from our apartment. Shopping here is very different for me - I am used to buying things on sale, using coupons, or hunting for bargains. In Belgium, there are 2 sales a year - one the entire month of January and one the entire month of July. So we saw some things we would eventually like for our home, but we can't buy them until July. It's a very strange concept to me - but luckily it is almost July. We will be buying a LOT in July. :-) Brent also found a very nice, reasonably priced suit at the mall. European-cut suits fit him so much better than the American style suit - so we were both really excited to find that out. Brent likes to shop - and he loves that European clothes fit him better.



After the mall, we hung out at the apartment for a bit and Brent found the show "The Simpsons" in French on TV! I was super excited and watched 3 episodes in French. We then decided to venture out for some Thai food. Brent drove this time because it was about 9:00 pm and there weren't as many people on the roads. Driving here is...interesting. Traffic circles are a bit scary at times - everyone just goes, there don't seem to be many rules. Brent is doing an awesome job though. I don't know how to drive a stick shift, so I don't have to drive, at least for now. So at the Thai restaurant, in an effort to save money, we split a beer. Again, we are not used to drinking a beer or glass of wine with every meal, and bottled water is way over-priced in restaurants, so we are still trying to figure out what to do. I am going to attempt to find any restaurants in this city that serve tap water or let you bring in your own water, and those will be our new favorite places to eat! As you can imagine, eating spicy Thai food with half of a glass of beer to drink is not so fun. Now combine that thought with no air-conditioning in most restaurants. By the end of the meal, I was sweating like crazy! I think the waiter thought we were crazy for not just ordering some water and sitting there sipping a beer, but I have a problem with spending  €7,00 on bottled water. I will always be carrying some water in my purse. :-) The food was actually pretty good though! Perhaps once my French gets a little better, we can start ordering take-out and then enjoy as much water as we want at our apartment. At least Belgians do not tip - maybe we can justify spending the money we normally do on tips for bottled water at every meal. Hmmm.



We were fairly exhausted Saturday night and went to sleep shortly after dinner. We also slept in on Sunday. We have found quite a few English speaking Christian churches in Brussels, but we decided to wait another week before trying some out. It finally rained on Sunday - supposedly it rains 200 days/year here, but it had been gorgeous all last week. We watched what I imagine is the British version of "Top Chef" (again, only English-speaking show on TV) and the rain let up around 2:00 pm. We set out to explore the city some more and get some exercise! We walked a total of 5 miles, from our apartment all the way past the city center, and then took the metro back. The weather was beautiful the whole time we were walking (although quite humid!) We even stumbled upon a large festival in Cinquantenaire Park. We think it was some sort of ecological festival, but it was fun to walk through. We want to live near Cinquantenaire Park - it reminds us a lot of Balboa Park in San Diego, which was 5 blocks from our old house. Cinquantenaire Park is not quite as big as Balboa Park, but it is nice nonetheless. The neighborhoods around the park are very nice and seem like a fun area to live. When we got to the city center, there was a lot going on, as usual - lots of tourists and locals out enjoying the weekend. One thing we have learned is everything is closed on Sundays. Grocery stores, pharmacies, restaurants - everything is closed. In some ways, it's great because you literally have to rest and do nothing, in other ways, it's frustrating because we are used to everything being open in the USA. As you can imagine, Saturday is quite a busy day in Belgium! We did notice though that in the city center where all of the tourists are, there are quite a few open shops and restaurants and even a small grocery store is open.



At the end of our long walk, we discovered a row of restaurants in Saint Catherine Square along a small canal that all have lobster specials. We have no idea why, but all of these restaurants seem to feature lobster. A lot of you probably don't know this, but Brent and I's nickname for each other is "lobster." Neither of us can remember exactly how it started, but I think it's because I was pinching him once on a road trip and I am always imitating animals...even though I am 30, I still act like a kid. :-) We have "lobster" engraved on our wedding bands, lobster beach towels, Brent has a few lobster t-shirts, etc. And now you all know the weirdest part of our lives - that we call each other "lobster" - and every time you see a lobster, you'll probably now think of us. Anyhow - so we also both happen to love lobster, so finding a row of restaurants that all feature lobster was a real treat! You just never know what you're going to find when you're out for a stroll on Sunday! We can't wait to go back and try one of the restaurants.



When we arrived back at our apartment, we decided it was laundry time. One load of laundry costs  €5,00 ($6.00.) We will definitely be investing in a washer and dryer when we move. We also had a grand time trying to figure out what the different settings were on the washer/dryer. Have I mentioned yet that I really have got to pick up the French language again? After laundry, we had a fairly normal night. I cooked dinner for the first time here. Since I have no oven and only pots to work with, my cooking is limited, which is unfortunate because you all know I love to cook! We had pasta with cheese, sausage, and peas. Yes I know, not very exciting, but I don't have a lot to work with here! :-) I think we'll be eating a lot of pasta and rice dishes since I can make those on the stovetop. We start looking at apartments on Wednesday and as soon as we find one, we can have our boxes shipped. I can't wait to have the rest of our stuff here with us! After dinner, we watched various TV shows in English - an old episode of "Doogie Howser, MD" and a show called "Without a Trace." We'll watch anything in English now.



We had a really great weekend overall. Living in Brussels feels like being on vacation so far! There are definitely times I really miss San Diego though...the beautiful weather, our awesome friends, our church family, and playing with our dog Sadie are a few things that come to mind. I am going to a luncheon on Friday hosted by the American Women's Club of Brussels, so I am looking forward to meeting some new friends! The next few weeks will also be fun - next week we head to Rotterdam for 3 nights (Brent has a big training there with all of the European tax people from PriceWaterhouseCoopers) and then the following week, we will be in a city called Breda (also in the Netherlands) for about 10 days. Also, we leave for Africa in just 4 weeks for our mission trip!!! There are a lot of exciting things coming up in our lives and we feel extremely blessed right now!



Ok, I am off to the grocery store for now, which is always an adventure since nothing is in English... :-)

Brent's first day of work and my first day as a housewife

I think I had already mentioned yesterday that I woke up extremely early, so I'll start again there.


After I finished emailing/blogging, I decided to venture out to a store called Cora - which is like a Target or a Walmart - to pick up a few things. Cora is about 1 km (0.65 mile) from our current apartment. According to Google maps, it would take me about 15 minutes to walk there - so I assumed it would take about 10 mins. I wrote down the directions and off I went.


After wandering around for about 40 mins, I finally found a map at a bus stop. :-) I had written down directions with French street names, but some of the streets were in Dutch - and of course I went the wrong way a few times. It's hard to stop and ask for directions because you never know who speaks French and who speaks Dutch - and people get offended if you speak to them in the wrong language. Starting off speaking in English isn't good either. After about an hour, I finally found Cora - and my next adventure began. I only needed about 5 things in total. After about 30 minutes of wandering around, I had found everything but an alarm clock. I found someone who spoke English, and he pointed me to the kitchen stuff. After staring at pots, pans, and dishes for a few minutes, I noticed there were kitchen timers there and he must have thought I wanted one of those. Ahhh, the language barrier. I eventually found an alarm clock, managed to pay, and off I went. I still didn't go the right way home, but whichever way I went, it only took about 10-15 minutes. Thank God - because my backpack was heavy at this point and I was starving!


I spent the rest of the day reading and waiting for Brent to get home. We only have one key to our apartment, so I couldn't really leave. Brent finally got home around 6:30 and told me all about his day. Apparently we are going to Breda, Netherlands for 2 weeks beginning June 21st! Breda is a small town in the southern Netherlands - so that should be interesting. I wish I would've brought more books! I am sure I will find something exciting to do - i.e., try to learn a few Dutch words. ;-) Brent had a wonderful first day at work - about 2,000 people work in his office, so it is significantly larger than San Diego. He also has his very own office, which is pretty cool. They gave him a computer with a European keyboard, so he said that was fun to try and figure out - they are going to give him an American keyboard today he hopes. He also got a cell phone, but we're not quite sure how to make calls yet. He received a loaner car as well, not sure when our car is coming in. He said everyone he met was very nice, there is a huge cafeteria in the bottom floor of his office, and he's already fairly booked up with work until we go to Africa. There are a few more new-hires coming over from the USA later this summer, so I am excited to meet their wives. I should really make him blog some...but then again, I think people just like reading about our crazy adventures, not him sitting in an office. ;-) His new boss (Janet) is so wonderful though - she is always thinking of us and making sure all of our questions are answered. I think Brent is going to enjoy working with her.


So after we exchanged stories about our days, we set out to the grocery store I had found. Navigating a grocery store is fun when you don't speak French or Dutch or know the metric system. I know 1 kg is 2.2 lbs, but trying to convert kilograms to pounds and also trying to convert euros to dollars gets confusing. We eventually bought our bananas for €1,45/kg which is $0.80/lb. It's confusing, but we just want to make sure we're staying within our budget! Next up was milk - in french. We stood there staring at the different types of milk for like 15 minutes, trying to figure out what was skim milk. We eventually ended up with half-skimmed, half-whole milk per google's translation. They also have non-refrigerated milk, which is the most common in Europe. I guess we'll try that next - supposedly it's heated at high temperatures, so it does not have to refrigerated until opened. After milk was the bread section. Bakeries smell amazing over here - I wanted to eat an entire baguette! We noticed people putting their loaves of bread in a machine, and then pulling out sliced bread. We thought this was the neatest thing ever - a bread slicer! We couldn't wait to try it. We got our loaf of wheat bread, headed over to the machine, put in our bread, and pressed the green button. The bread machine started to spit bread out of the bottom, so we pressed the red stop button. Ooops. We then noticed our loaf hanging out, half-sliced - so Brent had to pull out the rest. Needless to say, our sliced bread did not look as great as the locals' bread, but live and learn. It was pretty funny at least! We finally exited the grocery store - and we'll probably laugh at our first grocery trip in Brussels for quite some time. We ate some baguette on the way home - so delicious! We also bought a few kinds of cheese - we're all ready to live off of baguettes, wine, and cheese now. :-)


After our grocery store adventure, it was finally time for dinner! It was already 8:15 pm, but we tend to forget the time because the sun sets so late. We walked down to the shopping center that is nearby and found nothing was open, so we hopped in our mini-Cooper and headed out for some Indian food. We made it safely to the restaurant in about 10 minutes (driving in Belgium is a bit of a challenge - lots of confusing traffic circles) and then spent 25 minutes looking for parking. We'll be taking the metro from now on. Dinner was delicious and reasonably priced - we found the area with all of the Turkish and Indian restaurants, so we'll definitely be eating in that neighborhood again. 


We headed home after dinner, exhausted, and ready to watch Glee online. When I pulled up the Fox website and clicked on "play newest episode", I received the following depressing message "The video you are trying to watch cannot be viewed from your current country." Apparently you can't watch streaming American TV shows in Europe. We were a little bummed, because we can't really afford satellite TV over here. We don't watch very much TV at all, but there are a few shows we love. A few friends have given me suggestions, so we'll figure something out. We did eventually find a way to watch Glee on a very slow website, but we at least got to watch it! Luckily none of our shows will be on again until late September, so we have months to figure it out.


I woke up early again this morning, Brent and I enjoyed breakfast together (mmmm, more baguette) and then Brent left for work. Around 10:00 am, the plumber came to fix our toilet. I had no idea our toilet was broken, but with the little French I speak and his broken English, I just let him do his thing. I'm pretty sure we got a new toilet - after much swearing and singing in French by the plumber. It was pretty funny sitting here listening to him. I have more errands to run today, and then tonight we're going to do more exploring. I can't wait to see how lost I get today! :-) It's very entertaining - and it's not very hot out, so that's great! I also can't wait to explore more this weekend with Brent! More stories to come...

Update on the past 10 months since I stopped blogging...

Ok, so I know I stopped blogging after Brent's heart surgery, and the past 10 months have been crazy! So here is a quick review.

Brent had an amazing recovery from heart surgery #8. :-)

We got married on September 13th, 2009 and had an incredible honeymoon in French Polynesia (Moorea & Bora Bora.) I have traveled quite a bit, but after seeing French Polynesia, I was ready to quit traveling because I didn't know how anywhere else in the world could live up to how beautiful it was there. :-)

The Fall of 2009 was very fun - we were married, I was taking a semester off from grad school, and we were surrounded by wonderful friends in San Diego.

We spent 1o days in Illinois for Thanksgiving (visiting Brent's family) and we were in Atlanta for Christmas (visiting my family.) After Christmas, we went on an awesome 7 day cruise to the southern Caribbean.

Ok, so now we're getting a little closer to the present. :-) We had been praying for a job opportunity and chance to move to Europe for almost a year. Our thoughts were that we are young, we don't have kids, and we love to travel. We live our lives like every day is our last, especially after last summer, so we figured it was now or never to have this amazing adventure! In early February, after months of feeling hopeless and that it was impossible to move to Europe, Brent interviewed for a job in Brussels, Belgium. In March, he was offered and accepted the job! (Brent works in international tax.) And so our next adventure began...

Our last few months in San Diego were incredibly busy - I was back in grad school and we were planning a move overseas! I finished up my semester at the end of April (I have one more semester left, we'll get to that later...), Brent gave his 2 weeks notice, we had an awesome going away party, and of course one last "heart" scare. We spent our last Friday in San Diego at Scripps Green hospital - Brent had to have a cardiac cath done to check out his heart. We waited until right before we moved to make sure everything was ok, at his doctor's recommendation because we were so sure everything would be ok. Long story short, after being scared for a week, his doctor said (and I quote) "I wouldn't do a damn thing about this, just go live your lives and have fun in Europe." :-) Our last weekend in San Diego was not exactly how we planned it, but we have so many wonderful memories of that city. I lived there for almost 6 years and Brent lived there for 5 years. San Diego will always have a special place in our hearts - it truly is America's Finest City and sometimes I think we were crazy to leave! So to all of our San Diego friends - we love you guys, you all have such a special place in our hearts, and please come visit!!!

We left San Diego on May 9th to drive to Atlanta, with our awesome dog Sadie in the backseat. :-) We stopped in Palm Springs, Las Vegas, the Grand Canyon, Moab (Utah), Denver, Wichita, Dallas, Madison (Mississippi), and then finally we arrived in Norcross, Georgia. Our road trip was sooooo fun!!! We love Palm Springs and Vegas, and the Grand Canyon was breathtaking. Moab, Utah was one of the coolest cities I have ever been to. Denver was snowy and beautiful, Wichita was boring and flat. :-) We met up with some wonderful friends in Dallas and then the next day stayed with my brother and sister-in-law and their adorable kids in Mississippi. We finally arrived in Norcross on May 19th. We hung out in Atlanta for about a week. During that time, we also drove to Charlotte, NC for a mission team training (We're going to Africa in about a month, but more on that later...) After a week in Atlanta and another awesome going away party, we flew up to Illinois to spend some time with Brent's family and attend his 10 year high school reunion. His reunion was super fun, it was great to see all of his family and friends, and we even got to go to a Cubs game in Chicago. We then flew back down to Atlanta, spent 2 nights there, and left for our new lives in Brussels, Belgium on June 2nd.

Side note, because everyone asks - our awesome dog Sadie is staying with my kind parents in Atlanta for 2 years. We decided not to bring her with us to Europe because she is 9 years old and it's a long flight overseas. We also will be traveling some for Brent's job and also traveling for fun! We thought it would be best for Sadie to stay with my parents - and she's probably happier there than she was living with us. It was a hard decision because Sadie is like our child, but we know she'll be well taken care of. So far, I have had 3 crying meltdowns because I miss her, but I know she's happy and luckily my sweet husband is here to comfort me when I talk about her. If you're reading my blog though, you should probably be aware I am a huge animal lover...I am sure there will be a lot of animal pictures. :-)

And now you are all up to date! So on to Belgium...

After a long flight, during which neither of us slept much, we arrived in Brussels. We each brought 2 big trunks, one big suitcase, and one small suitcase for a total of 8 bags. Luckily we found a nice taxi-van to take us to our temporary housing. Brent's company is providing us with one free month of housing, which is helpful. Our current apartment is only a mile from Brent's office, but kinda on the outskirts of the city. However, public transportation is great in Brussels! We are only about a 5 minute walk from a metro stop.

The first thing I noticed about our apartment (besides the fact that it's small) is that we have no oven and the fridge is tiny - like a dorm room fridge. Apparently this is common in Europe and something I will have to get used to. I cannot live without an oven though, so I will be asking the agent that is helping us find housing to please find us an apartment with an oven. A big fridge would be awesome too, but I don't have my hopes up.

When we arrived, we unpacked as best we could (closets aren't common in Belgium either apparently), discovered there are 3 English-speaking TV channels (CNN, BBC, and a channel that seems to show re-runs of Frasier all day), took a 3 hour nap, and set off to explore for a few hours.

We first stopped at Maison Antoine for some frites (fries). Belgium is known for their frites stands called friteries or frietkot. I had previously googled "best frites brussels" and found Maison Antoine, so naturally that is the first place we went...especially because we hadn't eaten all day and we are huge foodies. The frites come in huge paper cones and you can ask for about 20 different types of sauces, mayonnaise being the most common. Other interesting sauce choices include curry, onion sauce, chinese, and tartar sauce. We plan on trying them all - and when you all come visit, you're trying them too. :-) The fries were SO good! They are double-fried and cut thick, so they were kinda crunchy. We were very impressed and plan on trying many different frites stands while living here. Maison Antoine is also in an area we are somewhat interested in living, so it was nice to check out the neighborhood.

After that, we headed on over to the Grand Place, which is the central square of Brussels and the big tourist area. I figured since Brent had never been to Brussels, I should show him the highlights in a few hours. :-) We first stopped at Chocopolis. Chocopolis makes fresh Belgian chocolate and gives out free samples! I tried milk chocolate with mango filling, Brent tried white chocolate with raspberry filling. (Apparently we are fruit-filled chocolate people.) The chocolate was amazing - I can't even describe how good it was. I have had good chocolate before, but this was just incredible. It melted in my mouth - and left me wanting to eat the entire store. Brent saw the look in my eye and he felt the same way, so we quickly exited the store and talked about how amazing the chocolate was for the rest of the night.

We next stopped at Mannekin Pis. Mannekin is a small fountain sculpture depicting a naked little boy urinating into the fountain's basin. This is probably Brussels most famous landmark - seriously people. There are many different theories why this little guy is so famous, but I'll let you wikipedia that on your own time. :-) All I remember is when I was a teenager, we thought this fountain was hilarious - and it was mobbed with tourists! So we took a few pictures there, and headed back to the Grand Place to enjoy a Belgian beer. While sitting at a cute little cafe sharing a very good beer, I asked Brent what time it was because it was still very light out. He told me it was 9:30 pm. I then remembered Brent's boss telling us the sun doesn't set until like 11:00 pm!!! We decided Brent needed to get some sleep, so we sped our night up a little bit. We grabbed some take-away sandwiches and then decided to try a waffle. We had to do all the touristy stuff on our first day of course! We had a delicious belgian waffle covered in caramel and cream. Soooooo good! I am afraid my diet of waffles, chocolate, beer, and fries might not be healthy. :-) However, we do have to walk everywhere, so I think I'll be alright.

We took the metro back to our cozy apartment, noted the sun finished setting at 11:00 pm, and called it a night. My first thoughts on Belgium are it's very clean, safe, and a big city. Everyone speaks French it seems, so I better re-learn French asap. Luckily I took 3 years of French in college as it was my original major! I also noticed that it is a bit chilly in June (low 50's at night, 70 during the day) so I will be getting used to that. I remember my friend who moved to DC from San Diego once told me it's all about being dressed properly, so I will always be bringing a jacket and dressing in layers!

So here I am, enjoying my second day in Belgium. I woke up at 6:30 am! I never thought I would voluntarily get up at 6:30 am. I walked Brent to the metro stop at 8:30 am, where he caught a shuttle to work. I actually have a lot of errands to run today - so I'll probably be walking a fair bit, which seems a bit daunting, but I guess I'll get used to it. I need to lose a few lbs anyway. :-) After we get all settled in, I'll have to find a place to volunteer as well because I am used to being so busy!

I am in the process of trying to figure out how to share all of my pictures, so please forgive me for that. I think I am going to try to use flickr slideshows and will post links to albums as well. I am open to suggestions too, so let me know what you think.

We are so excited for our new lives and I finally have plenty of time to blog again. I hope you enjoy reading about our adventures in Europe!

Rachel Weinberg

Long weekend!

Friends/family,


Hello! I'm sorry I haven't posted for a few days, we were trying to have a "normal" 4th of July weekend. I've been encouraging Brent to start updating the blog now as well. :)


Brent is recovering very well - I have been able to take him out on some short errands with me in a wheelchair, which is nice. He has been taking 3 walks/day and has had no complications so far! After his last surgery, around week 2 was when he got sick. We're 12 days post-op and no problems thus far! He's been sleeping about 6 hours/night and hasn't had as many nightmares as in the past. He had his blood levels drawn on Thursday and again today and everything is normal. Overall, I think he's doing great!


I think I am still experiencing what it's like to have an infant - my sleep schedule is still regulated by his, lots of laundry, I clean the house daily to help ward off infection, help him with bathing/dressing, feed him, etc. I will be most excited when Brent can pour his own water again and put on a shirt by himself. :) I spent a lot of time filling up his water bottle and dressing him. Thank God people are bringing us food because by evening time, I have no energy left to cook and then do all dishes. I miss Brent being able to help out with the dishes!


So Thursday, we went and had Brent's labs drawn, took pictures of tons of furniture we need to sell, and went and looked at new couches. We are hoping to buy a new couch with the money we make from selling old furniture. Brent has to sit on a couch for 8 weeks and mine is horribly uncomfortable. Since neither of us are currently receiving income, we have to sell a ton of furniture before buying anything new. I think we both had fun wheeling him around and getting out of the house for a bit. Thursday night, some wonderful friends' of ours brought us over sushi from our favorite sushi place and fro-yo for dessert! It was SO nice of them and we had so much fun hanging out and catching up. Brent and I are such social people - we have really appreciated all of the visits from our friends both in San Diego and at the hospital! The same couple also brought us lunch on Friday - which was amazing. :)


Friday was an exciting day - even though we spent most of the day at home - because our awesome dogsitter/close friend brought Sadie home to us! The best part is she took her to get a bath first and then brought her home. Sadie was nice and clean and so happy to see us. Now we call her the "recovery dog" because Brent is so happy around her. It's also more fun taking the daily Brent walks with our dog. She just makes us smile and keeps us happy. It was nice to hang out with our friend on Friday during the day too - she took such great care of Sadie, we were so appreciative! It was such a relief in the hospital to not have to worry about Sadie - and she even would send us pictures of Sadie every once in while to keep our spirits up. Having a dogsitter that loves your dog as much as you do is amazing.


Friday evening, we ordered pizza and had another visit from a great friend - and she brought us yummy popsicles! We are so appreciative of people bringing us food/treats. I have no desire to cook right now or go to the grocery store - taking care of Brent is more than enough to wear me out. :) We hung out Friday for a little bit and then Brent went to bed, but my friend stayed and we ended up talking for hours. It was very therapeutic and wonderful to have some girl time. I really needed some friend time on Friday and it was so nice to talk with all of our visitors.

So for the 4th of July, we mostly hung out at home and watched movies/tv all day. It was good to rest and relax all day, but we're both already getting pretty bored at home. We're such an active couple; it's so hard to sit at home all the time - but we've gotta get used to it! I'm a little curious how God is going to use Brent's time over the next 8 weeks. After his last surgery, he planned a softball tournament that raised over $10,000 for the Adult Congenital Heart Association! On Saturday night, we actually grilled out and then I put Brent in the wheelchair and wheeled him about half a mile down to our friends' condo to watch the fireworks. Our friends live in an amazing condo with a great view of all of the fireworks over the bay of San Diego. It was so nice to be able to get out and socialize and feel somewhat normal on the 4th! I was so glad they invited us over. It was a good day, but of course we were wishing we could've gone to the beach and spent the day outside. It's been so gorgeous in San Diego lately - the weather definitely wasn't this nice in June when Brent was ok. Hopefully the nice weather will continue into the fall and we can have fun at the beach then.


Sunday and Monday has been more of the same, running a few errands and mostly hanging out at home, sleeping and staring at the TV. We have already sold a lot of furniture, so that's exciting - we're one step closer to our new couch! Sadie is back to her old routine - but I think she loves having us around all the time. She's lucky because Brent will be home with her for quite some time - poor dog will be in shock when he goes back to work in late August. :)


As far as the wedding, it's been a topic of much discussion the past few days. I think it's a depressing topic for both of us - and likely why I haven't posted in a few days - which is not how weddings should be. This is supposed to be a happy, exciting time - and it's been hard to smile! The truth is, we never imagined we'd be changing our wedding date after all of the hard work. I have put a lot of effort into planning our wedding and I am just kind of in shock and depressed I have to re-plan everything. I spent 3 weeks and at least 150 hours hand-making our wedding invitations - I can't believe all of my endless cutting, printing, gluing, tying, arranging - all 170 invitations went out with a date that's not our wedding date - a date that will now be a sad day. There are countless other things we've discussed that have "our" date on them that isn't now our wedding date. It's just so disappointing for both of us. Luckily, Brent will definitely be helping me more this time around since he'll be at home while I am working. :) We need to make the final decision about the date and I think both of us are having a very hard time just making that final decision and moving forward. We're very upset about "losing" so many guests that won't be able to make our wedding with a new date and also feel horrible for our friends that have to change their plane tickets and pay extraordinary change fees. We're really going to put some of our friends in a bad financial situation and we feel so guilty about that. It's an extremely tough decision - but Brent simply won't be recovered enough in 4 weeks to enjoy our wedding and honeymoon. We keep saying "tomorrow we'll start making arrangements" - but we keep putting it off. So maybe tomorrow, we really will start moving forward...


One of the most depressing things about putting the wedding off is that I will have to take the fall semester off from grad school. I've spent the past 2 years working so hard with being a full-time grad school student and working 2 jobs - there have been countless nights when I only got a few hours of sleep because school was so overwhelming and 24 hours just wasn't enough time in one day. I am SO close to being done - I've spent so much money on grad school and now I have to put school on hold and we don't know for how long. I have started looking into transferring with not much luck, but we'll see what happens. Maybe some school, somewhere in the country will give me a break. I don't know if there will be a "slot" for me in the spring to continue at my current school and as time goes on, if you don't finish, you start losing credits. What we're going through is not fun, but I keep trying to remind myself I have the rest of my life to finish school - even if I have to completely start over and have to take out more student loans - and we only get one wedding/honeymoon.


Please continue to pray for Brent's recovery. I truly believe he's doing so well because of all of the prayers. It's crazy to think he had open-heart surgery just 12 days ago. Please don't "forget' about us either. We still need help, support, and prayers. I think we're struggling a bit now with all of the hard decisions we have to make about the wedding and our future. We both tend to get upset at night and it makes it hard to face the next day. We're trying to keep our spirits up, but it has been harder lately - now the adrenaline is all gone and we're back to facing life and the changes we face after his open-heart surgery. Please continue to pray for strength for us both, healing for Brent, and that God will really show us His will for our lives and our future.


We really appreciate the continued support and we're praying simply for happiness and normalcy now.


God bless,
~Rachel

Movies and more movies

Friends/family,

Today was very calm compared to the past week - and it was a great Wednesday compared to last Wednesday! :) I realized I'll be watching a lot of tv and movies over the next 6 weeks. Sitting on the couch is a weird concept for Brent and I. Our relationship has always been built around being outdoors and active and over-committed. Brent's cardiologist told me once that Brent is a typical congenital heart disease patient: an overachiever and a go-getter. I don't think either one of us knows how to sit still! I'm kind of excited to see how God is going to use Brent's time during this recovery - I know God's got something big planned! I have to keep reminding Brent to slow down, sit still, nap, stop trying to help, etc. I think it's very weird for him to just sit around and watch me do everything - and I have to admit, sometimes it's hard doing everything alone. I keep telling him I am starting to understand what new mom's go through - endless amounts of laundry, constant cleaning, bathing, cooking/dishes, waiting on someone all the time, no sleep, etc. :) But we do enjoy being able to spend so much time together and we're getting in a lot of quality time on the couch watching movies! It's a big difference from our normal, stressed out, over-committed lives - perhaps we both needed to slow down a little bit. I wish God could've slowed us down differently though - maybe next time not with a heart surgery. ;)

As a side note, it's horrible not being able to hug Brent after everything that has happened. We have to sit on different sides of the couch so I don't move him too much when I move and thus cause him pain - and then at night I help him into my bed and can't even halfway hug him - I just kiss him on the forehead and hope he sleeps. I need to ask the surgeon when we can hug again! :( It's not fun being so close and not being able to even hug. I never imagined my first few weeks of living with Brent would be 1. unmarried 2. we'd be unable to hug and 3. I'd be sleeping on my couch. :)

Today was nice because we slept in (ok, I slept in - apparently Brent woke up at like 6:00 am) and then we basically did nothing all day. We discussed wedding plans, the changing of wedding plans, and how our futures would be impacted. Tomorrow we have the daunting task of calling Delta and seeing if we can convince them to waive all of our friend's change fees for so many tickets that have already been booked from San Diego and Chicago. I think it's a long shot, but you never know. We are very anxious about putting all of our friends that already booked tickets in a bad situation with change fees and increased fares, so we're going to try the sob-story tomorrow over the phone and see what happens. Anyways - we watched a lot of TV and movies today - and I decided I'll start running again tomorrow (by myself - sniffle) or I'm going to go nuts and get fat sitting here. I think Brent is to the point where I can leave him for an hour and he'll be ok, so thank God for that!

We also had some visitors this afternoon, which was so nice! My boss and his wife came over to help me with a few things around the house and to bring Brent a recliner to sit more comfortably in. Brent is much more comfortable reclining - he can't lie flat nor is it very comfortable for him to sit up straight. We were both very happy to have a recliner for him to use for a few weeks. After that, our "San Diego Mom" came over with food and a wedding gift! San Diego Mom is a very sweet woman that we both served with at the Rock Church 2 years ago. She knew way before Brent did how much I liked him and I still remember emailing her about our first few dates and we were both so excited. :) It was so nice of her to bring over food because I certainly don't feel like cooking or even going to the grocery store - and it's so nice to be taken care of! Normally I love to cook - it's very therapeutic - but I'm still a little tired from the whole ordeal and it's so easy to just throw something in the microwave or oven. I was very grateful for both of the visits we had today - it's great to see familiar faces!

So tonight we just ate dinner and watched a movie...which will probably be how most nights are. :) Brent felt very good today - which is amazing one week post-op. He did have some pain and naturally he's uncomfortable - but he keeps telling me he feels great and is recovering so well. Praise God! I can't believe how different I feel today than I did just one week ago. I'm so happy he's ok and is doing so amazing thus far. Something tells me in another week or two, he'll also be stir-crazy. Poor guy has a lot of time spend sitting at home in front of him. :) As I said though, I'm excited to see how God will use this time.

Please continue to keep Brent in your prayers - tonight I ask for peaceful sleep and rest for Brent. He did have a nightmare earlier - I was sitting here typing away and I heard him mumbling. I went in to ask him what was wrong and found him sitting up on the side of the bed. I don't think I ever quite woke him up completely even though he was sitting up and talking to me. He was really sweaty so I wiped him off and put him back to sleep because his talking was making no sense. Luckily he's still sleeping, but it was a bizarre experience. Please also pray God will guide us over the next few days about what to do regarding our wedding.

Thanks for the continued thoughts/prayers; we truly appreciate you all!
~Rachel