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Saturday, June 30, 2007

Myrtle Beach 2007

Saturday morning approximately 3:30 a.m. I ran out to start the stuffed-with-luggage car while Jay locked up. I slammed the door shut and turned the key. Nothing! That is not the sound (or lack thereof) that I wanted to hear at 3 in the morning. Thankfully, Jake (the car) must not like me because he did start for Jay. It must have been the early hour.

Mom, Dad, Dani, Brent and Ally stopped by my cousins house in North Carolina on their way to the beach. Paul and Candy allowed them to drive one of their four wheelers. Here dad tries to show his expertise on the four wheeler.


Jay and I hurried down to South Carolina, with a small pit stop in Pigeon Forge TN for breakfast at the Apple Barn. Little did we know that at 7:30 the restaurant had yet to open, so we both sat in a nearby gazebo and read our bibles and did our devotions while we waited for the restaurant to usher the hungry patrons into the farmhouse. We weren't the only ones there waiting to eat. Once inside, Jay requested the swing, so we started off the day sitting in a white wooden swing eating eggs, bacon, pancakes, apple fritters etc. It was all yummy.

This was the view from our ocean front patio. We were on the third floor of a condo building. Dad did a great job picking the location. We are pretty modest people so when we go to the beach we tend to want the least crowded area. Our condo sat almost exactly between two big hotels but they were about a mile apart on either side of us, meaning there weren't a ton of people on the beach right in front of us.
Believe it or not, between all the digital cameras that were on vacation I ended up with about 500 pictures of our week. I didn't get everything but I was able to download a ton of photos from Dani's and Ally's cameras also. I am going to try to pick and choose some of the better pictures to give you an idea of our week. Enjoy!
Yes, We defied the laws of gravity and with the help of a giant "balloon" we parasailed along the beach. I thought it was going to be scary, but once we were up in the air, it was so quiet and smooth and we just sailed along.














Dad and Jason took on the girls in beach volleyball. It was a blast to play by the ocean.














Yes, that is my mom you see in the waves. This is the first year my mom has joined us in the water. She absolutely hates water, but I will have to say that since she her surgery and problems back in December she has changed quite a bit. We had so much fun with her in the waves. She amazed us with her willingness to join us. She ended up buying a yellow tube to help her stand up in the waves. One of the scarier things happened when she and I were out in the waves. The others had already gotten out of the water, when I saw something swimming right beside us. My heart did a little flip flop and I couldn't figure out what it was, then there was two of them. Without making any sudden moves, I told mom we should head in. She turned around and then she saw them swimming around us and this time there werent just 2, there were more like 22. She grabbed onto my arm and I thought she was going pull me down into the water. I told her not to panic but to just keep walking towards the beach. I mean they were EVERYWHERE around us. We found out later and even swam some more with them , that they were Manta Rays and apparently they get washed up toward the beach during high tide (which it happened to be at that time.)
















I decided Jay and Dad both needed their hair trimmed up so I gave them their first ocean front hair cut. I don't think you can beat that. You think maybe I should have done something with my own hair huh? Then Jay surprised me and took me to a little shop he had found. I bought a bunch of beach and sand print paper along with a neat scrapbook for our vacation memories. What a sweet guy!





















Below are a ton of pictures that we took one evening on the beach. Last time we were here, my parents spent a ton of money on professional pictures. We decided we could do our own pictures and not spend any money.

















































































Two years ago, Dad and Brent drove stock cars on the Myrtle Beach Speedway. This year, Jay and Dani joined them on the 1/2 mile concrete track. I believe they had some fun.














We all boarded the Jungle Princess for a dinner cruise which included BBQ ribs, sweet tea, carrots, bread etc. I loved the beautiful houses along the river. One house had a deck with a 12-15 foot barbecue grill combo counter. It was hard wood and stainless steel. I am pretty sure they had more money wrapped up in that grill that we do in both of our cars combined.
































These pictures don't include the yummy ribs Dad made, the fishing trip that some of us took, the fish that Brent cooked up for us and tons of other things we did. Each of us did a devotion every day which included hilarious games and some tears. You would have had to be there to understand it all.

Quilting with a view.
Have you had an "alone" moment with God lately? While the rest of the crew was at a baseball game, I sat on the patio and enjoyed a few moments with God. I sang songs to Him, thanked Him for my family and just enjoyed the wind in my face and the full moon. My camera couldn't really catch the calm beauty but I tried.

Friday, June 22, 2007

Baggage

Tonight, we loaded Jake (our Grand Prix) down with all of our provisions for the grand journey east which will begin at approximately 3:22 a.m. I have packed plenty of stuff to do including but not limited to scrapbooking, reading, DVDs, and of course quilting. Jay went out and bought another antenna for his Sirius radio so that he can listen to that as well.

Jay had fun at the "candy" store buying Doritos, strawberry Whoppers, white chocolate mini Reeses, Skittles, Starbursts (want one, Lyn?) and a special order of Jack Link's beef jerky for me. I don't believe we will have internet access in our condo but I am not sure. I will definitely try to post while on vacation but you may just have to wait until the end and see all the pics at once.

Saturday, June 16, 2007

Ministry

Well, this weekend Jay is preaching a weekend meeting in Connersville, Indiana. Last night was the first night. My dad, brother and my grandpa came to hear Jay. I didn't know they were coming, so it was a nice suprise.

Let me introduce you to a very special person. He was born in 1920 and has seen many changes in the world since he was a boy. He and his wife had 5 children, one of whom died on the mission field in Papau New Guinea. His youngest son married a woman he had met in college and they had four kids. I am the oldest of those four kids. So this special person is Grandpa Lavy. I used to spend a long time combing and "washing" his hair with my hands. I think he just liked having his head rubbed but it was fun anyway. Grandpa would take us outside and down to the creek to look for fish or ripe mulberries on his mulberry tree. I remember when they used to have sheep on their farm. I was always scared of them for some reason. I guess I didn't know how dumb they really were. Grandpa let me take his picture last night right before the service. I love you Grandpa!

This is Oscar. Jay got the idea from somewhere, but I ended up doing the nose, ears, collar and hair. Hmmm...wonder how I got that job??!

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Puzzled

Here it is. I am getting ready to baste it now. I am going to add a fun quilting pattern to the white blocks later.

Borders

No, I am not talking about the bookstore. I can never follow the quilt pattern exactly. I always like to add something that is my own. In this case, the pattern doesn't call for a border around the quilt, but I really think it would add something, so I am trying out materials for it. I am thinking white around in the inside and black around the outside.

Monday, June 11, 2007

Black and White Puzzle

Well, tonight I get to choose how I want the blocks to lay out in the quilt top. I have them all put together and I am using the floor like a table for a puzzle. I am choosing where to put the blocks so that I don't have the same printed material touching a matching block. It's kinda fun and it is definitely rewarding to see the pattern taking place. I can't wait to get this together.

On this black and white quilt, the pattern has a bonus. You can sew an extra "seam" on the block and it produces another little block that can be used for another quilt. So I did that and with all the, what would have been scrap material, I have blocks for another quilt! They are small but at least they are all put together. Who knows what I will do with them. I might make a small little lap quilt or use them in another quilt later. I haven't decided.

The small "scrap" blocks that I would normally would have thrown away if I hadn't known how about sewing the extra "seam."

Friday, June 08, 2007

Cutting, Cutting, Cutting...You get the idea

Tonight while Jay spent time with Aaron, his brother, and Brent, my brother, I got to stay home and spend some time alone. I finished appliqueing the flowers onto the yellow and blue quilt top. I was about to baste the layers together when I realized I didn't have any backing. Oops!


So I decided to start cutting out blocks for the black and white (and possibly a hint of red) quilt that I am doing next. Here is a pic of all the blocks I cut out. There are about 170 4x4 squares...Ugh! I have decided to start keeping track of how many hours I spend on these quilts. I think it's a lot. The big flag one I just finished was around 200 hours or so. Too bad I wasn't getting paid by the hour, huh?


Wednesday, June 06, 2007

Not Exactly

So I was planning on making a yellow and blue star and decided against it. This is what I came up with. Right now it's about a 50"x50" quilt but I don't think I am going to add a border on it. I kinda like how it is right now.

Tuesday, June 05, 2007

Next....

The next one I am working on will just be a yellow and blue star. Nothing fantastic. But I did go ahead and purchase the material for my quilt after that. Black and white!! I always thought it would be neat to do a black and white quilt so I am going to try that next. I am trying to get some quilt tops done for vacation so I can just quilt on vacation and not need to take my sewing machine along.



Monday, June 04, 2007

Done!

I finished the lap quilt on Saturday! Woohoo!

Sunday, June 03, 2007

Fat Albert's Graduation Party

Well, also known as Ally, Allyson etc. I don't really know why Dad started calling her Fat Albert but he did that a long time ago. I even wrote Fat Albert on her graduation card. In case you can't tell by the pictures, she is 18 and can still wear kids clothes so Fat doesn't really describe her. We had a good showing of people despite the very cloudy sky and a couple spits of rain. There was plenty of volleyball, pony rides for the kids, go-karting for those who could reach the pedals, ping pong and of course, food for all. It was a blast and yes I am sore today. I even have this burn on my lower calf from trying to ride hunt seat on Dan before the crowd arrived. Ouch!

Cousin Courtney and Ally as they primp to impress.


Yes, here I sit in my Napa Racing ball cap just waiting for people to arrive... passing the time by whip stitching the binding onto my last project, a lap quilt.





Brent and Holley put the strings on the many blue and white balloons.


Dad and Dani try to unwind the mass of volleyball net. Volleyball is like a Lavy tradition or something. No party is complete without it.





Dad carefully measures the court. I know....he is a little crazy, but we love him.




Dani rides AJ, Ally's green broke palomino. AJ is only 3 years old and still learning but I think she is a beautiful color. She is for sale if anyone is interested..wink! (WILMA)



Me and Dandy Asset (Dan). I was saddling him up when Jay arrived with the camera. This is Ally's show horse whom she graciously allowed me to ride. Of course I got a burn from the stupid saddle but that was because I didn't have any boots...I still had a blast! I think he was sticking his tongue out at Jay.



Dad faithfully paints the volleyball lines. He also went down to the go-kart track and painted a start/finish line for the go-kart races. I believe he still ended with the quickest time but then again it is his track.