I'm Officially a Mother-in-Law

What a day it was. This is long, a pictorial recap of our wonderful day. I think we all actually slept well the night before. I was concerned about Rebekah being too tired since she didn't sleep well Friday night. I woke up in the night to find her packing her suitcase and some of her clothes that were still left, to the light of the TV so she wouldn't wake her sister. Perhaps that ended up being a good thing, she was well rested and all smiles for her big day.

I forgot to bring my camera to the rehearsal, though the photographer was there and I should be able to get some pictures from her. We also have 5 disposable cameras full so if I find some good pictures on them I may just do an additional wedding post.

After the rehearsal, we came back here for a pizza party, our house was quite full with 30 people in it, but we sure had fun. I heard one of Rebekah's friends tell someone that she didn't think anything could wipe the smile off her face, and that was true for the entire day. I think that morning she woke up knowing that rehearsal day was the beginning of her whirlwind weekend.

We woke up around 7am on Sunday, Rebekah started doing the girls' hair, I packed up many boxes and bags to bring to the reception hall. After a couple of trips, and a lot of running around, it was time for me to come home and get ready. When I came out with my dress on, Ruthie's eyes lit up and she exclaimed "Ruthie dress!" Yes, it was finally time. Here she is admiring herself in the mirror.

She was all smiles and didn't hide out in her room in spite of the bridesmaids and photographer all around the house.

Once ready, it was picture time. Here are the girls having some fun while taking pictures. The photographer was trying to get a picture of them jumping and catch it with them all in the air. She succeeded after a few tries. My camera didn't respond quickly enough, I got a cute "in progress" picture.

Time to settle down for some serious pictures. I was trying to stay out of the way, so some of mine weren't as close as I'd like, I'm looking forward to seeing the photographers pictures. She was doing a marvelous job.

Here is Mike with Rebekah. He looked so good in his tux!

I hate pictures of me, I almost didn't include one. Here we are with our beautiful daughter, so ready to be married and starting her new life.

Here's one of Rebekah and Rachel. Rachel was maid of honor and a lot of help to her sister. They've shared a room almost their whole lives, there were tearful hugs near the end of the reception. Though Rachel is looking forward to having her own room, and, of course, Rebekah is thrilled to be finally marrying her love, I know they will have fond memories of the late night conversations and giggles long into the night in the little room they shared for so long.

I love this next picture, I might have to enlarge and frame this one.

After a few hours of running around, the plans we spent so many hours on were coming to fruition. Here is the hall, decorated and ready for the reception. The head table has a white tablecloth, the rest are red tone on tone type fabrics. These will be washed and made into a quilt for Rebekah for her birthday next January. With how much fabric I needed for tablecloths, I should have enough left for a wedding memory quilt for me, too!

After a final check of the hall, we headed out to the beach. They were determined to have a beach wedding, in spite of the odds of a horribly hot and humid day in mid-August. When the 15th first showed up on the 10 day forecast, there was a 60% chance of rain and 87 muggy degrees. That changed as the days went on and what we got was about 84 degrees, low humidity and a nice breeze (almost too strong) right off of the lake. We arrived about 45 minutes before the wedding time, to be here to greet the guests as they were shuttled over from a nearby church parking lot. Ruthie was checking it all out. The arch in the background was made by Jonathan and framed the lake nicely for the ceremony.

Here is a picture of the girls in their places. Rebekah did all of their hair, including her own!

And another of the guys. Why are they facing the lake??

Because the preacher had just told us all to rise and prepare for the nautical entrance of the bride. There they are just having come around the bend.

Here they are, a little closer, I'm sure the photographer got better pictures. The pontoon boat went past us and docked just past where the violinist was playing.

Here they are, Rebekah, Mike, and Rachel, who is holding her dress so it didn't drag along the cement boat launch ramp.

I didn't realize until later that I'd not taken any pictures during the ceremony. I was taking it all in and didn't want to miss a thing. Here are some from after the ceremony.

Brian, with the bridesmaids.

Rebekah, and the groomsmen. Someone yelled out "are you going to wear shades?" The guys all had them in their pockets, one of the groomsmen's wives lent Rebekah a pair.

Rebekah and her new husband...and her new inlaws.

There was quite a bit of picture taking and we were the last group to leave the beach. We had asked Rachel's boyfriend's parents if they would go on ahead and open up, fix the punch and put out appetizers so that the guests weren't stuck waiting around while the shuttles returned guests to their cars.

We arrived to this scene, our guests clearly cared for and visiting among themselves. Brian and Rebekah saved their entrance until we had arrived.

A view of the head table. Brian is talking to his friend, who drove 8 hours on Saturday, making it just in time for the rehearsal. After the wedding, he and his wife left to drive home again as he had a meeting he couldn't miss on Monday morning. That's a GOOD friend!

We moved the arch from the beach to the hall, it found it's place behind the bride and groom.

Here they are cutting their cake. It was a giant cupcake (I hope the photographer took one, I think I forgot though am hoping there is one on the disposable camera), with red icing for the "cupcake paper" and white icing on top. It had a linking heart topper and Rebekah loved it.

Here they are feeding it to each other. I'm so glad they didn't smash it, I hate when people do that!

Rebekah made her bouquet and an adorable little version of it to toss. Rachel caught the bouquet.

Next came the garter toss, look at that group of young men! Somehow our oldest son managed to get the garter. I thought I had a picture of Rachel and Joshua together with their prizes, maybe it's on the disposable as well. There's another I'll be looking for among the photographer prints.

At 8:00, this showed up outside the hall. It would be taking them to Milwaukee, where they had a morning flight out. Now that's going in style!

Here is the happy couple, on their way out. She hated to change out of her dress, but didn't want to smash it in a suitcase. The veil folds small, so it made the trip. There were many happy tears and shortly after the other guests began to leave as well.

There was still a lot to do once it was all over. Marshall's mom and another friend took over the kitchen during the reception and wouldn't let me work, and there was much help when it was over as well. Some fun music went in the CD player, and Rachel worked on getting Ruthie to dance. She did pretty good at mimicking Rachel's moves.

Lucas danced with her a bit, too, but I was too slow to get a picture. This one is almost as good.

There was still much to do when we arrived home, the cars had to be unloaded, the leftover food put away, and flatware and serving bowls to be washed. I took my time, and enjoyed a mental recap of the day.

Today was a pretty lazy day. I planned for doing as little work as possible for the week. I started reading a book, I plan to do some sewing, but mostly I'll enjoy the lack of scheduling for a while.

After a day full of posed pictures, Ruthie planned this one. I was taking her picture and she pulled Lucas over, showed him where to stand and pulled his arm around her.

These balloons were left at the hall from a party the night before, so Mike brought them home for Ruthie after he did the last of the cleaning there. She loves these, we put long ribbons on them so she can reach them even if she lets them float up into the cathedral ceiling. She's quite thrilled with her "bwoons."

Tomorrow is errand day, but I'm hoping to make quick work of them so I can do something enjoyable for the afternoon.

Quilting/sewing will be big on my list once I get rested and recouped. I haven't had much time for it lately, other than finishing their wedding quilt, so I'm looking forward to getting back to some set aside projects....and a couple of new ones!

Sue

The Home Stretch

What a few weeks it's been! This will be a mish mash of things that hopefully will make some sense.

Two weeks ago was Rebekah's bridal shower. It was lovely and she had such a good time. My wallflower is embracing her day and enjoying all the festivities surrounding it. I pulled out my veil to see if she'd wear it and she quite willing did.

We played a few games, had appetizers and cake, and of course, opened gifts. On the left in the picture below is Rachel, who kept track of the gifts for Thank You notes, and on the right is a good friend of both of theirs (and she's Rachel's boyfriend's sister), she made a bouquet from all the ribbons and bows. Ruthie joined us and was very quiet, though didn't hide her face at all. She sat my feet most of the time and started getting comfortable about the time it all was winding down.

I was able to finish her quilt for the shower, finishing the binding about 1/2 hour before it began. I can't believe it, though, I didn't even get a picture! I'll have to take one or have her take one for me.

With that big event out of the way, I was knee deep in the rest of the preparations. In the last two weeks I spent a few days making cakes (pictures of which are in my previous post) and have a total of 12 dozen individual sized cakes. There should be plenty of cake left as we'll have 144 cakes and only 65 guests! My family will be glad to have the extra treats floating around, between squeezing all the wedding paraphernalia into the budget and my lack of time, they've been missing some of the homemade treats that are often around.

I also made bows....lots of bows. They are hanging on my design board, pinned to my quilt hanging on the wall and even pinned to my dining room curtains. These will decorate the walls and corners of the windows of the hall.

I also made ribbon bows. The picture doesn't do these justice. Hopefully the day of the wedding I'll be able to get a better one. For now, the bows reside on my sewing room valance. There were a lot of little jobs to be done, too. Rachel's dress needed a seam repaired, Rebekah's veil needed to be secured more firmly to the barrette, and I decorated some flip flops for Ruthie to wear. She LOVES these and every so often will take them and wear them a bit. After the wedding she'll be free to wear them whenever she wants, for now, I want them kept clean and neat.

Her toenails will be painted red to match the girls' dresses and her hair will be curled and put up with a pretty silver clip.

While all of this wedding craziness was going on, we had other big things happening as well. The company my husband works his second job for got outbid for the custodial contract and he was laid off for the first time ever in his life. We need that job, it carries our insurance and provides the extra income we need to make ends meet. It was not clear if the old staff would be hired on by the new company or not, and for four weeks we've been hanging, wondering, and I've been searching out jobs for him to apply for. Online applications take about an hour and he's not really computer literate so the bulk of that fell to me. The last couple I found I let him sit and fill out, he has a new appreciation for the time it takes!

As of mid week we heard that a new company was hired (one was, but reneged when they realized they had way underbid) but they were mostly bringing in their own people. I've been feeling a bit resentful that all this has to happen during what should be a really fun and special time. Thankfully, just today he got a call that he is being rehired, starting Monday, as the lead person, which means a little more money than the other crew members, though it's still a pay cut. At this point, we're thrilled to have it and it's a BIG load off of our minds.

Of course, we cannot have one good thing happen without something bad happening the same day (quite literally, unfortunately) and within an hour of that phone call my son got home from work and his truck broke down in the driveway. I feel so badly for him, but at least there will be vehicles available next week with the honeymooners gone and that gives him time to take care of business with his.

Tomorrow night is a pizza party at our house after the rehearsal and then as soon as everyone leaves I'll be starting to gather up all that needs to be taken to the hall on Sunday.

Also since the last update, Lucas had a birthday. He and Ruthie have been champs about keeping busy with all that has been going on. Lucas chose s'mores and rootbeer floats as his dessert this year. Bless his heart, he doesn't realize how much easier that made things for me!

We spent an enjoyable evening outside, the firepit going, with Lucas and Ruthie running around and playing. Every so often, Lucas would lay down in the grass, and Ruthie would lay down beside him. I could hear them laughing from across the yard, they have such a good time out there. Ruthie loves to be outside and runs out whenever anyone else goes out. If the screen door closes too quickly, she'll go out the back slider and run around to the front.

Ruthie has also really enjoyed her Daddy being home evenings for the last month. She's got him wrapped around her little finger. She brings him books to read and they sit/lay on this little couch while they read, play, or just chatter.

I think that's everything! I have a busy couple of days, but after that I'm on "vacation" for a few days, hoping there is enough food left that I don't have to cook, and not too much post wedding clean up to deal with. In any case, I can take my time and with my husband back to work as of Monday evening, a big burden has been lifted.

Hopefully I'll be back Monday with a big wedding update and lots of pictures!

Sue

Testing, Testing...

We've had a busy few days. While thinking about wedding favors (not wanting to spend too much, nor wanting to buy something for each place setting that would be of little use and tossed before long anyway) I had kicked around the idea of mini banana breads at each place setting. They would be wrapped in tulle (over the cellophane) tied with a ribbon, which would also hold the place card.

I found bananas half price early last week because they were quickly ripening. I had planned to just make some banana bread for here at the house, but once I saw the HUGE bowl full of batter those bananas made, I decided to see just how far it would go. If she decided that she didn't want to use them, they freeze well and would make a nice little snack or quick breakfast for some time to come.

My big bowl o' batter made 32 mini loaves of banana bread, almost exactly half of what I'd need if everyone comes who we've invited. I wrapped them well and put them in the freezer to be brought out the day before for wrapping. In the next week or so I'll buy the rest of the needed bananas and make the rest of these little loaves.

The last couple of days have been test days. Rebekah decided to do the trial run of how she wants to wear her hair on her wedding day. It came out beautifully, though she did decide she'd like it to sit a bit higher on her head. She's glad she took the time to try it out!

She beaded her veil, my part of the job being attaching it to the barrette. We were thrilled with how it came out.

Here is a closer view of her hair and the veil. The beads are in a zig zag design all the way around, the gathering made a beautiful little sparkly bunch right under her curls.

Since we are making all of the cake, and are using recipes unfamiliar to us, we decided we needed to do a trial run of those as well. Friday I made this chocolate cake with chocolate ganache. The sides will be a little less rough when we make them for the wedding, I started out not having the baking spray so improvised. The roughness sure didn't mar the taste, these are a little square of chocolate heaven.

Once I did those on Friday, I started really wanting to work on the others. I had most of the ingredients but was short a few things to make all of the different cakes. While running other wedding related errands, we picked up the additional groceries and I started baking.

These are chocolate cupcakes with white icing. I tried a new icing recipe that was supposed to be a stable whipped cream icing, but it didn't work. It never did get stiff enough, then turned to butter. Thank goodness we decided to try it out early! As I was making it, I realized that it was quite close to the icing recipe I use for pumpkin bars, so I made that one instead.

It went without a hitch and I piped it onto the cupcakes.

Next up was strawberry shortcake. The cake is angel food cake and we made homemade strawberry sauce. I used the same icing, took some out of the bowl and added a bit of lemon extract. These only have a bit of icing, we wanted something that would appeal to those who don't like their cake bathed in icing.

Finally, the tiramisu. This is a sponge cake recipe. I cut them in half and "painted" both cut edges with coffee. I added some coffee flavor (instant coffee with just enough water for it to dissolve into a thick liquid) to the remaining icing and piped it between the cake layers and added a little dollop on top. Then I sprinkled a mixture of cocoa, sugar, and cinnamon on top.

Our table was full of these little cakes, and my family has quite enjoyed testing them all out. I know that I've been walking 5 days a week and really trying to watch what I eat in hopes of my dress looking as good as possible....hopefully all this taste testing won't thwart my efforts! I sent a plate with a couple of each with Rebekah when she went to see Brian, so they could taste test them together.

I also put a plate full of the tiramisu in the freezer, hoping they would freeze and thaw well so I could take them to a friend's house on Wednesday. That gave me the idea to try freezing one of each so we can test them all. Anything that freezes (and thaws) well can be made earlier in the wedding week, those that did better waiting will have to be baked on Thursday and Friday.

In the midst of it all, Ruthie is coming out of her shell more and more. We're hoping this bodes well for the wedding and she will really enjoy herself. There will be a few other small kids, which will also help, I'm sure. We hope that she loses sight of the fact that people will probably be watching her and just has fun. I tried to get this picture without her knowing, but she knows when the camera is around. I had to tell her to look at the TV to get it.

The work of the day is done now. I'm going to spend the rest of my day working on the wedding quilt. I hope to get it done by the bridal shower in two weeks so I can give it to her there.

Tomorrow we head to Joann Fabrics to look for fabric for tablecloths. We're going to use quilting cotton so I can save them for later use. What Rebekah doesn't know is that I plan to make her a quilt from them for her next birthday (there should be plenty of fabric so I may be able to make one for me, too!)

For now I'd better go, that quilt won't quilt itself!

Stay tuned!

Sue

Mostly Wedding Chatter

We are in a very strange mode right now. The weeks themselves seem to go quite slowly, but each Sunday as we tick off another week before the wedding, I wonder where the time has gone.

All the "big" things have been cared for. The reception venue is chosen, reserved and paid for, the beach has been reserved for the ceremony itself. The invitations came this week and were in the mail the next day, and the shower invitations haven been sent as well.

The menu is planned (with much of the food being made by us, only the main dishes are being catered), decorations are planned and we've begun to purchase what we need, and except for some final tweaking as the RSVPs come back, the seating arrangements have been figured out.

A BIG stress was the dresses. Rebekah has had hers for several months, and went in for a fitting on the morning of the day she got engaged (that being the actual engagement day was unbeknownst to her) and we're just waiting on the call saying it's ready.

We are making her veil, she has finished the beading and all that is left is for me to attach it to a barrette that will be clipped underneath her updo.

That left, me, Ruthie, and the bridesmaids needing dresses. With the time available, we knew we'd have to find something off the rack or that had really quick delivery. My three girls and I headed out dress shopping a couple of Saturdays ago, with a date set for the following Saturday for the bridesmaids to shop. While shopping for dresses for Ruthie and me, we stumbled across the bridesmaids dresses. Rachel tried it on and liked it and knew one of the other girls was her size so we asked that they hold those dresses and they called around to find out that they had the other girl's size in another store but would not hold it for them.

The next day, the bride and her bridesmaids took off right after church to pick up all of the dresses. They got to the store with the single dress and it not only fit, but they had two dresses in the other girls' sizes as well. They all donned their dresses and looked them over...only to find that each dress had minor flaws....snags in the fabric, seams coming apart, etc. With two the correct size already on hold at the other store, the sales girl checks her computer and finds another of the size they need....at the store with the other two dresses!

So they head to that store, deciding on the way those are meant to be the dresses since two stores each had 3 dresses in the exact sizes they needed. They arrived at the other store to find the clerks there knew nothing of dresses on hold, they had been placed back in the racks, but were easily found, tried on and looked over. Since the dresses were on clearance, and they had a special coupon offer that day, the $159 dresses cost $52.50!
I was very concerned about finding a dress that I liked, that looked good on me, and fell within my price range. I was not wanting a frumpy dress, and really afraid I'd be settling for something because I needed something quickly.

The first store we entered had a formal wear section and we began scouring the sale racks. We came up with 3 dresses that seemed to fit the bill, were in my price range, and had my size. Of the three, one I didn't like at all, but the other two would each fit the bill. We hid them behind some other dresses and headed out into the mall. The shopping trip became much more fun when I knew I had a dress I liked waiting and I was just out there to see if I could top it. Nothing came close, and I can hardly wait to wear this dress.
We also had in mind to keep an eye out for a flower girl dress for Ruthie. While we're not really expecting that she will actually walk the aisle, she was still in need of a pretty dress. We found a children's formal wear shop and Miss Ruthie was thrilled with her turn in the dressing room trying on pretty dresses. Rather than buy her fancy white shoes which she doesn't really have much other need for, we decided on white flip flops (it IS a beach wedding after all) that I will decorate with ribbon and or tulle. We'll paint her toenails red to match the girls' dresses. She has been quite excited to show off her new dress.
Things are really falling into place and we're a bit awed by the fact that we ended up with the first dress tried on for all of us. My sewing room is an array of dress bags and spaces are filling up with all of the things we're collecting for use in just a few weeks.

That last week will be quite busy, making tulle bows (60 at last count!), baking and decorating about 80 individual sized little cakes, making the cutting cake, readying appetizers, and getting everything organized in hopes of the big day running smoothly. I have a notebook with quite a few pages of notes and reminders, and at the end is a page for each day of that last week where we can start listing what happens on which day.

Through it all, Ruthie seems to be coming out of her shy shell more and more. She still has her moments, but more and more people are getting to see the real her. She still loves the camera and we're hoping that works in our favor on the wedding day!
I'm well on my way quilting the wedding quilt, but am about to run out of the navy blue thread I'm using. I ordered some today from a place that usual gets orders to me in a couple of days. I'm hoping to have the quilt done for the shower two weeks from Sunday, so time is of the essence!

I'm hiding in my air conditioned house to escape the heat and humidity, working on the quilt and baking mini banana breads that may serve as the place card holders (wrapped in tulle, with a name card attached with a red ribbon.) From the looks of it, this big batch of batter should make about half of the needed goodies. Also on the agenda in the next few days is trying out a couple of the other cake recipes for the dessert cakes. More on those to come!

Happy Quilting, and keep cool!

Sue

Challenge Change, More Wedding, and Birthday Fun

Most of my quilting has been put aside for the wedding quilt. I knew when I set the challenge that it would pretty difficult to actually get all of that done and started to think of it more as a priority list or working list...meaning those quilts that I want "in my face" so they get finished.

The wedding plans are ramping up, which is good because it is coming up fast. Sunday, August 15th....6 1/2 weeks away. We're making lists like crazy and figuring out what we want to make and what we can/need to buy. It's so much fun, but rather all consuming! It's probably just as well they picked the date they did as I think if we had a few more weeks, we'd just be this busy/crazy for a few more weeks.

Rebekah's wedding quilt is in the hoop and underway...though with all of the other wedding planning it's been hard for me to really sit and focus on it. I hope to change that very soon. The plan is to have it done in time for the wedding, and I don't have that much time!

My birthday was yesterday and it was a lovely day. A bit cooler than it's been and not so humid, so I felt better than I have in a while. It was a quiet day overall, which was so nice. We went out for dinner to this nice little Italian place. We've lived here for 24 1/2 years and it's been here the whole time. We thought it was this little hole in the wall diner....boy were we wrong! We had a gift certificate to go there (Rachel's boyfriend gave us a bunch of different ones for Christmas that he got for really cheap off restaurants.com, thinking if we even used a couple he got more than his money's worth) and we are so glad we tried it. I had lobster ravioli and it was truly one of the best tasting things I'd ever eaten.

I had some birthday money to spend so we went shopping after dinner. I had been using an old keyboard because my cordless died (we've not had good luck at all with cordless keyboards) and I really wanted to replace it.

Much better! I'm still getting used to the slightly curved design, but it's quiet and wonderful to type on so I'm sure it will be old hat soon.

I also got a new pair of shoes for the wedding. Silver will go with any dress I choose and these are nice enough for the wedding but not so fancy they can't be used for other things.
Another thing I'd planned on getting for the wedding, but wanted also for myself to use here at home, is a nice water/drink dispenser. We were at a party last summer that had a water dispenser with fruit and herbs floating in the ice water. It was delicious and I would love to do that here occasionally. It will also be great for when we have friends over, just us and one other family can be quite a crowd so this 4 gallon container will allow me to make as much lemonade or punch as I think I need! The kids all pitched in and got this for me.
And Ruthie. She's in discovery mode...finding what things she fits in, how things work and what she is and isn't capable of doing. She's getting to be quite the chatterbox, though some of it is still hard to understand.
All that learning makes a girl tired! Her feet are 6 inches off the floor, how one sleeps in that position I'll never know!

So off I go, with errands to run and quilting to do, the day will be a busy one.

Happy Quilting!

Sue

A Busy Summer