Brad and Band at Kolace Corner, Bellvue, and Milford

Well another fun and eventful weekend filled with a variety of different things. Friday night I got a group of family and friends to go to Kolace Corner in Prague to watch Brad and his band play. It was a blast to get to spend some time with my family and friends and run into some people I haven't seen in a while. After I finished eating Brad announced that they were going to take a break and then some special guests would be up to play with them. It was really funny because he said he had to go get something and ran to the car. Well...a few weeks back my mom made him "Brad Husak Trio" and "Brad Husak Combo" signs...yea you're probably catching on here. He ran out to the car to get the combo sign and put it up when Shandra and I played. I messed up several times because I was using the Kuchar and I'm not used to the spacing on the square keys yet. I sang the Blue Skirt Waltz and played some songs with the band. I got to enjoy the music a bit longer. I kept telling Brad to put the black Kuchar down so he wouldn't get attached. He seems to have played that one more than his own in the evening. Later in the evening I decided to try to sing a few more songs since someone had the words. I TOTALLY messed up because the words are a bit different than the ones I knew. I sang Musicians Come and Play, Wide Meadow, and the Prune Song. Lots of fun and I know there are many more to come!

Saturday morning I had to get up early to head to Bellvue, NE for their parade. I was excited to get to go through the parade with Carrie Brown (2008 NE Czech-Slovak Queen and 2009 Miss Czech-Slovak US 2nd Runner Up.) Sandy S (from the NE pageant committee) was kind enough to borrow a friends convertible for us to ride through in so we met up with her and headed to the parade. There was a group from the Omaha Czech Cultural Club who walked through with a banner and Carrie and I rode in the convertible. It was fun and a BEAUTIFUL day for a parade but there was A LOT of sitting and waiting and moving a foot forward and sitting and waiting....yea you get the idea. I think we waited about an hour and a half before we were actually up to the beginning of the parade route. There were lots of people there and for once I heard "I love your tiara" or "I like your crown" or "You're pretty" INSTEAD of "Nice car" or "Burn out." They actually noticed us back there and not just the car! :) After the parade was over we decided to go have lunch at Ruby Tuesday. Mom and I joined Sandy, Carrie, and Monica. It was fun to sit down and talk to them about events around the state and the national pageant. When I finally looked at the clock I got a bit nervous as I had to be in Milford by 4pm and it was already 1:45.

We ran back home on our way through Lincoln to make some signs for my special guests for the 2nd parade and headed to Milford. I was excited to get to ride through the Milford Fun Days parade as SCC has been such a big supporter of me in my journeys as queen for the past few years. Dad was on a golfing trip so he couldn't drive me through so Donna Havener agreed to drive us through. Once again Donna saves the day! :) I always tell people I can tell you what not to do in WebAdvisor when registering for classes because I've done everything you shouldn't do. Donna has bailed me out of quite a few little situations when I've messed something up in my account! LOL! We met her at the High School along with Blair and Blaze Miller from Friend. They got to ride through the parade with me together this time. This was Blaze's first parade so he was pretty excited...his sister however didn't want me to get too attached. :) We had fun riding through the parade and parted ways. I was pretty tired after all of that. Mom and I got some food from the Milford Fire Dept and headed back to Lincoln. It was good to see some of my old/current instructors and go through this parade again as the Nebraska Czech-Slovak Queen this time.

Well another fun filled weekend and more to come this week! Oh and I have to tell this story. I've been trying to figure out how I was going to pay for my accordion. My dad said he would have to check his farm account (from the farm land he inherited from grandpa Eddie Vocasek.) I told him that I know grandpa would have wanted me to spend the money on the accordion. :) As much as I joke about it I know he's smiling down on me every time I pick an accordion up. I miss him but he'll be with me always!

Na Shledanou,
Stefanie Vocasek
2009-10 Nebraska Czech-Slovak Queen