Armadillos

Four years ago when I first visited Tyler in Montgomery he said there were armadillos in the neighborhood. I had read children's books from my favorite author, Jan Brett, who always wrote about these interesting creatures and I was fascinated with them, having never seen one myself.

Looking for armadillos four years ago...I admit I was not really expecting to find one but it was a fun adventure.

So one night I asked Tyler to take me out to find an armadillo. He amused me (later to tell me that he thought I was strange for wanting to go find one at night) but we didn't find any. In the next few years on our many road trips, he'd point one or two out to me. However, I wanted to see one that was alive, not one that was dead on the side of the road. 

Last week I saw a picture on facebook of...you guessed it! An armadillo. It was here in Ave Maria and I was thinking to myself why haven't I seen one yet? A few days ago Tyler and I were walking back from Mass to the cafeteria and we saw a group of people looking at something in the bushes and taking pictures. I didn't think it was an alligator so I ran to the spot and here's what I saw:

My very first armadillo. I don't think they are cute but I think they are just fascinating. I didn't know anything about them so I looked them up and thanks to Wikipedia here's what I learned:

• The word armadillo means "little armored one" in Spanish.

• The Aztecs called them āyōtōchtli which means "turtle rabbit."

• The armadillo prefers to build burrows in moist soil near the creeks and streams around which it lives and feeds. 

• Armadillos have short legs, but can move quite quickly, and have the ability to remain under water for as long as six minutes. Because of the density of its armor, an armadillo will sink in water unless it swallows air, inflating its stomach to twice normal size and raising its buoyancy above that of water, allowing it to swim across narrow streams and ditches 
• Armadillos have very poor eyesight, and use their keen sense of smell to hunt. 

Now we all know more about armadillos!

Weekend Highlights

Mass in the Oratory at Ave Maria

My favorite place at Ave Maria (okay, one of them, for there are many!) is the Oratory. It is very special to have Mass here every day along with daily prayer time. This past weekend Tyler and I helped lead an Engaged and Married Staff Conference. There were four couples that each gave talks and in between the talks the couples had time to discuss the information and apply it to their lives.

Tim and Abigail gave a talk on communication

Our talk was on Teamwork and Scheduling. Tyler had a fun idea to start the talk off with a physical activity. We showed a quick video of two people doing a handshake (think "secret" handshake style with lots of moves) and then we asked each couple to come up with their own handshake. The activity was to build teamwork and to show how other people, especially students on campus, look to us and we are models of family life. 

Couples creating their own handshakes

We captured another sunset outside of the cafeteria the other evening. We are really enjoying our time in Florida and can't believe it's already the middle of June!

Tuesday's Thoughts

We are into our third week of training here in Florida and thankfully we've had some sunny days since the tropical storm passed us by. It was hard there for a few days when it was a constant rain and dreariness. Finally just a few nights ago we saw our first Florida sunset. I'm excited to see more of these this summer!

Tyler started his first week of his LAST semester of grad school! For those of you who don't know, he's getting his Masters Degree through an online program for Sports Management. He started this in the Spring of 2011 and will finish this upcoming August. I'm really proud of him for balancing grad school, being a Team Director, a Dean of the Married Men's College, and several other things this summer! He's doing a great job with time management.

Walking to class in the morning, what a good student! Haha

Yesterday we had a visit from someone we met in Rome! Archbishop Fisichella came to Ave Maria to speak to the FOCUS missionaries and preside at Mass. He is a friend of Curtis Martin (the founder of FOCUS) and was on his way to a Bishop's meeting somewhere in the States. He is the President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization and we heard him speak in Rome last Fall when we were there for the FOCUS trip during the Synod for the New Evangelization.

Archbishop Fisichella speaking in the Oratory on Monday evening

Rain and Volleyball

We're in the midst of a tropical storm and it's been raining for three days straight. Before tonight it was just a slow, steady rain but it started to get windy with lightning and thunder tonight. We're ready for sunshine but are trying to keep a positive attitude! At least it's a warm rain unlike Iowa's cold rain...

Tonight was Men's and Women's Recreation night. Here's the irony: the men went inside to watch a movie (because they couldn't play soccer on the field because of the rain) but the women were outside playing sand volleyball. As you know, Tyler is more of an athlete than I am, but I enjoyed switching roles for the evening!

Our team tied for the championship! We couldn't finish the tournament because of the lightning. It helped that we had two NCAA Division One volleyball girls on our team. We joined two colleges together, and so we were the married and engaged women. People kept chanting "Bling! Bling!" for our cheer...it was entertaining.

We had 10 women so it was fun to rotate in and out

Waiting in the rain and cheering the other teams on

The "Bling!" team!

One last random note. We went into town today to get tennis shoes for me. I threw my old ones away a few weeks ago because they gave me a blister and were getting old. We found these at Target for $30. At first they were a little too crazy for me but I ended up being persuaded after Tyler insisted they were the fashion these days.

FOCUS Training cont.

Things are up and running for FOCUS training at Ave Maria! All the first years and returning staff arrived last night. I was a little worried it would be so overwhelming to have everyone here, over 300 people, but I really feel like we're one big family and last night it was like I was meeting my brothers and sisters! Maybe that's a taste of what Heaven will be like...

We are loving being at Ave Maria. We forget that not everyone loves it as much as we do! Today someone suggested we move inside because it was hot and humid and to tell the truth, I was enjoying the warm weather! So far I love feeling hot, but we'll see how long that lasts!

 I also love the rain. Here is the view from our door room. I love how in the afternoons you can see the storms rolling in, and then the rain comes! Even if you're outside it's not too bad, because you dry off easily after the rain stops because it's so hot.

Here is an enormously large grasshopper enjoying the rain

Yesterday we had a fun day. We started off at The Bean, the coffee house in town. When we lived here we frequented this place often and the breakfast burritos were one of our favorite items. 

Then we took our teammate from last year, Stacey, into Naples. We wanted to show her some of our favorite places, as well as spend some time together for the last time! She is entering the convent in August with the Nashville Dominicans and I plan to write many letters, but it may be a long time until we see her again!

We went to the Pier and then drove around 5th Avenue before going back to Ave Maria

Then Tyler and I spent the rest of the day working. I helped the HR department with the paperwork for the first year missionaries and Tyler carried luggage into the dorms and greeted people. After dinner we all went to the Oratory for praise and worship with adoration and then everyone headed over to the Queen Mary Pub for drinks. They will make a lot of money this summer because that is the only place to buy a drink here...and missionaries enjoy doing that!

Today is the Feast of Corpus Christi celebrating the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist: Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity. We celebrated with a procession around the piazza after Mass.  It's so inspiring to be around other people who are striving to grow in their faith! We're excited for the first week of classes to begin and see what the Lord has in store for us all!