The Wedding of Nick and Julie LaVoy

August 7, 2009 - a wonderful day for the LaVoy Family. Nick married Julie, his princess and we had a wonderful day in Lansing for the wedding. I know there are a lot of pictures here, but I placed only a few of the 298 that I took. I hope you enjoy them as much as we did.
The girls - Audra, Corie, Julie, Jennifer, Siobhan and Angela - are waiting for the wedding rehearsal to begin.

The guys - Richard, Blake, Matt, Greg, Kevin, Nick and Phil - are hanging out in back before the rehearsal.

Javier, Winter Rose and Maria were ready for the fun to begin.

Because the ceremony was to begin at 6:30 pm, all the pictures were taken beforehand. Aren't they a beautiful looking group of guys and gals??? :-)

We are so very happy to have Julie be a part of our family.

Gram looked wonderful in her flowery flowing dress. A special picture of them all.

Dad and son waiting for the festivities to begin. Ah, so handsome.

Special moments with my son.

The formal shot of all the attendants in St. Gerard's Catholic Church.

Julie was beautiful in her flowing beaded gown.

Nick is waiting for his princess to arrive at the altar.

Here comes the Bride!!!

The vows are spoken.

Mr. and Mrs. Nicholas R. LaVoy!!!

The reception was held at the Grand Ledge Opera House. There was a balcony around the top and the wedding party danced their way onto the main floor where the guests were awaiting their entrance. Quite fun.

Jennifer is Julie's sister and did a wonderful toast to the bride and groom.

Greg had a tough act to follow but did a marvelous job on his toast as well.

The cake was not only beautiful but it was very yummy. The flowers at the top were the bridal bouquet that Julie threw to the single girls.

The first dance of the evening by the newlyweds.

"The Dancing Queen" Julie enjoyed her wedding and danced the night away.

Gram and Nick had a special time dancing. She enjoyed here dances with all her grandsons, sons-in-law as well as Rena from Texas.

The night was over and we gathered at their apartment on Saturday afternoon to open gifts. Thank you to all of you who attended, who sent wishes and who prayed for the happy couple. It was a wonderful ceremony, a true prince and princess happily ever after story. God Bless them both.

We're Back!!!

So, we went to Michigan, enjoyed a most beautiful wedding; went to Chicago to meet the pup - Bill McGill; brewed beer with Kevin; worked on Mom's "project" plus and are now home. Greg is here with his friend, Erin and her Mom for a wedding at the Park. Nick called and he and Julie are back from Cancun safely. Whew - we had a whirlwind of a time and it went fast - BUT we have wonderful memories of all of it. Look for new posts as soon as I get a minute to load up my computer with pictures. Talk to you soon. :-)

Measure, rip, fix, measure - done

Recently my niece Shell said that I was an amazing quilter and asked me questions to help her along. My other niece, Sarah, emailed me from Japan and asked me about a book to help her with her skills. Well, I am humbled that they think my sewing and quilting skills are good enough to help them along.

So, I wanted to share what I had to do today as I was working on my $5 quilt project. I need to put the floating border on each block and found that two of them are not the right size. So, me and Mr. Ripper became buddies as I had to take them apart. I thought you might want to see the process I had to go through.
This is one of two blocks, the same pattern but different colors - that are not 8 1/2 by 8 1/2 inch square.

Here is my first block, taken apart.

A little blurry but you can see the threads sticking out of the sides showing that I really did take it apart. :-)

All the pieces are laying there, ready to be pressed and then put back together. Another thing I made sure of is that my seam allowance - scant quarter inch - was what it was supposed to be. Since it was too small, I had to move my needle to make sure that the seams were correct. I am so happy that I have that option on my machine.

As I sewed each section, I remeasured each time so that it was 8 1/2 inches wide by the depth that it needed to be - in this case 6 1/2 inches.

This is the second block and if you look closely at this and the next picture, you will see that it is off by almost a quarter of an inch in places. Doesn't seem like much, but let me tell you - it will throw the rest of the measurements off and you will have to rip later. Better to adjust when smaller than try and fix later.

I didn't have to take all of the second block apart, once I measured I found that parts of it were ok.

Here is the second block back together. Measuring it again - did I mention that before?? - shows that it is just about on the mark - enough that I can fudge the seam on the next part to be sewed.

Finished blocks. Now I will be able to go to the next step of putting on the floating border.

So, my suggestion is: measure and if not what it is supposed to be - become like a frog and rip-it; rip-it; rip-it. You will be glad that you did it then instead of later.

Update on Sons

We had a chance to talk to all three sons this weekend. It is always a blessing to chat with them.

Kevin and Kerry are doing well in Chicago. Kevin had a plumbing question for his dad and they hopefully figured it out via telephone. Their garden is growing well, having harvested numerous items for their dinners. Bill McGill loves radishes so I am assuming he shared with them.

Greg is in the last few days of studying for the bar. He has been staying the course and will take it at the Breslin Center in Lansing on Tuesday and Wednesday. He found a typewriter - do they make those any more??? - to do the written exam (5 hrs long is too long to write) on Tuesday and then the multiple choice is on Wednesday. Keep him in your prayers as he takes those final steps in his career of study.

Nick called from the airport to say he had landed safely on Michigan soil. He had been in Georgia for Corporal training for the Marines. He said it was "an enhanced version of boot camp all over again on limited sleep". Well worth it but a grueling two weeks in the muggy heat of the south. He will rest up and then get back into the wedding plans that will happen in 12 days. Julie and I chatted a few times about the wedding agenda. She will be a wonderful addition to our family, joining Kerry in the wonderful daughter-in-law category.

So next week we will be traveling to MI to attend the wedding, maybe take a side trip to Chicago to finally meet Bill McGill and give Patterson a pat and then help Mom with her "project" that she wants Phil to do. Will be an exciting month of fun, laughter and plenty of hugs.

Heat Wave

The weather is HOT!!! We will have 100 degree weather today, Tuesday and Wednesday with the 90's the rest of the week. Thankfully the evenings are cool - well it doesn't really get cool until 3am the next morning - but enough that we open the house, put on the fans and the house cools down into the low 70's. I have a feeling that the window air conditioner will be our friend the next few days. It is already time to close up the house to keep the warm air out.

So, what to do on a hot day. While at the Quilt Show last weekend, I made a table runner and then appliqued fruit on it. I plan to quilt it this week and then take it back with me to MI to give to my EGA group. They have a tea and auction and I have made them quilted items since I moved here. So, since it is hot, it sounds like a plan to sew in between doing laundry - a necessity as the basket is over flowing again.
So, where ever you are, keep cool and have a great day.

Cruise-in, Fly-in Breakfast

Yesterday was the annual Kiwanis Cruise-In, Fly-In Breakfast. The Sandy Quilt Show Committee always sells tickets there for the raffle quilt to benefit the Historical Society. So this year we took Isaac along with us to enjoy the morning of eating, looking at airplanes and vintage cars. Since I had to sell tickets, I gave Phil the camera and here are our photos.
We decided to ride the wagon to the site which was quite a distance and the heat was already upon us. However, we sat there for approximately 12 minutes waiting for four planes to land.

This is one of the planes we waited for. Really cool, but noisy, bi-plane.

Isaac was enthralled with the planes. Unfortunately, this is the only picture of him with any of the vehicles/planes.

We decided since it really heated up, that we would take the tractor ride back to the car. The pancakes were great, the sales of tickets were wonderful (didn't get a call so I guess I didn't win) and the morning was a great time with Isaac.

Exercise

Exercise! At his last check-up, the doctor told Phil that exercise will help with what he is concerned with. So, last week he purchased a punching bag and put it up in the garage. Hopefully the neighbors won't call the police on all the noise. So, here is Phil with his bag and doing a few practice punches for the camera. Look at that form!!!
He has to make sure the gloves fit right and wants me to alter them with shortening the thumb.

His favorite t-shirt. So far, no blood. :-}