A Wild Week

What a week this has been! God is ever faithful and has blessed us so much! We are very excited about all God is doing! This was the fourth week of classes and we're starting to get into a routine. We love the weekends because they are usually relaxing and time to regroup and get ready for the week ahead. Tyler is enjoying football (yesterday he asked me how we managed without football, in the "dry season", and I didn't have an answer for him) and I thought this would be a good time to blog about our wild week.

Tyler is really enjoying reaching out to the athletes. He talks of being a "ministry of presence" while going to practices and games. Even if he doesn't talk to the players, he is there and every week he touches base with the coaches and asks if he can help with anything. He is splitting up his time between football, soccer, cross country, and tennis and so far the coaches have been very open to having him around.

Before now I have only seen Tyler on a soccer field so I am enjoying watching him at football practices and games. It's quite a different atmosphere.
He has had breakfast and lunch with a few athletes and is planning on starting a cross country bible study in a few weeks.

Loras campus has started to show signs of fall. We are used to the fall in Florida, which isn't really fall at all. Whenever we'd see red leaves at Ave Maria we'd get excited, but also sad because it wasn't a real fall leaf. Here, the leaves are changing everywhere and it is beautiful.

One of the traditions at Loras is to have Wednesday night Mass at 9pm at the grotto outside.
Two weeks ago Tyler wore his black pea coat because it was chilly and after Mass during the announcements Father Joensen said we would keep having Mass outside as long as the weather cooperated, but that Tyler Rosser might not like it since he is a southerner and is cold. Since then, people have been coming up to him and telling him to brace for the winter. The next week, Tyler was making an announcement about a party at our place and he started off pointing to the leaves behind the grotto that were showing fall colors. He said he was from Alabama and was really enjoying the foliage. At the end of the announcements, the assistant pastor Father Boone pointed to the building across the way and said, "Look at the bricks...I'm from Iowa." Everyone laughed...maybe you had to be there, but it was funny. People in Iowa aren't really used to southerners but they are now!

On Fridays the missionaries and some students go to the Planned Parenthood abortion clinic downtown to pray. This was our first time and we prayed a Rosary and a Divine Mercy Chaplet. It is a great way to come together and stand up for life, as well as being a witness community. There were a few adults praying when we got there and they were very excited to learn about FOCUS and see so many students willing to pray in front of the clinic.

We ended the week with a bang. We hosted the Rosser's Rooftop Rendezvous. We love entertaining and having people over and this topped our list of the biggest party (even if it was our first) we have thrown. It was a great night.

Everyone started in our apartment with hot chocolate and then went up to the terrace.

We had fun with the food (the Rosser's like their food) and made party mix, caramel apples, and cheese dip.
Tyler's teammate Kourtney (on the right) with some students.

Tyler and his team director Jason (in the middle) with friend Tim.

We had our wedding dance playlist playing on my iPod and people were dancing (brought back great memories!) Overall it was a success and hopefully we can do it again in the spring.