Athlete Speaker

Aly and Tyler with Luke

Two weeks ago Varsity Catholic partnered with Campus Ministry to bring in Luke Vercollone, a Catholic athlete speaker. Luke is a soccer player who currently plays for the Richmond Kickers in the USL Professional Division.

Luke shared his testimony and talked about growing in virtue and setting goals. Before the talk Tyler and Luke ate dinner with the men's soccer team. 

The following evening Luke got us several tickets to his game against the Charlotte Eagles. It was a lot of fun to take students with us and cheer him on. 

Talking to Luke after the game

 

Baby Shower

Last week our teammates Aly and Cassie threw me a baby shower and it was a blast! They had adorable decorations, fun games, and delicious little treats. Several ladies from campus were able to come and help us celebrate.

A craft where everyone put their thumb print and name on a branch

A Night of Downton

The chef

Every week we have a date night which is usually our one night at home off campus so we take this night to cook a meal together. Lately we've been trying new recipes and Tyler has been the chef making delicious dinners while I sit back and relax.

Last week we were feeling nostalgic for Downton Abbey so we browsed through the Unofficial Downton Abbey Cookbook Tyler's parents gave us for Christmas and found a recipe for Shepherd's Pie.

In the cookbook there are recipes for "upstairs" and "downstairs" with the first using ingredients such as mussels, caviar, and truffle oil and sometimes having more than 20 ingredients as in "Lady Mary's Spicy Mulligatawny Soup." The second part, titled "sustenance for the staff" has more common ingredients and this is where we found Shepherd's Pie.

It was a different way of making Shepherd's Pie than we had seen before. There was ground beef cooked in olive oil on the bottom. Next were sauteed onions, mushrooms and bell peppers. Then there was a sauce of chicken broth and Worcestershire sauce mixed into a butter and flour roux. The dish was was then finished with a pie crust.

We were surprised by the flavor (must have been all that olive oil!)  and we'll definitely add this to our monthly list of go-to meals. And to finish off our date night we couldn't help but start Season 1 again.

Charleston, SC

This past weekend Tyler and I went with our teammates to Charleston, SC. It was kind of a spur of the moment trip. We decided to go on Saturday and left Sunday, spent the night and came back early Monday morning. We had been wanting to go to Charleston and also wanted to do one last hangout together as a team before everyone goes their separate ways in May. Since this was literally the last free weekend we are glad it worked out!

We packed a lot into the short time we were there. We took a carriage ride through Charleston and heard a lot about earthquakes! We saw a lot of beautiful old houses and our tour guide threw in a little history (he was more into the architecture, which was interesting too.) 

The team (Aly, Cassie, and Jonathan in back)

It was a perfect day to be outside and we enjoyed treating ourselves to coffee drinks before the carriage ride, appetizers and beer after, and a delicious seafood dinner at Hyman's Seafood. 

"Rainbow Row" with different colored houses on a street

We walked everywhere and it reminded me of Rome! We went to Mass at St. John the Baptist Cathedral and it was a beautiful church.

We are so thankful for the friendships we've built with our teammates! We've been with Aly for two years and felt like we've known Cassie and Jonathan a lot longer than just three months! This was definitely a trip we'll remember.