A Must Read

Last night I had plans to come home after Vacation Bible School and go directly to bed. I have been busy with Kids on Campus, school, and VBS this week and I am quite frankly pooped!

I headed to bed at 9:30PM and wasn't quite ready to sleep just yet so I decided to pick up a Karen Kingsbury book called Like Dandelion Dust. It is being made into a movie and I wanted to read it before it came out and school starts.

The plan was to read only until Law and Order was over....
but I wasn't ready to quit when that happened, so then it was
...I'll just read until the news comes on....
but I still wasn't ready
.....Once the weather comes on I'll put it down....
nope
....Ok, when the news is over I'll have to go to bed....
ummmmm didn't happen
....I really need to go to sleep but I'll read just this next chapter while Jay Leno's doing his monologue....
Oh dang it, now I'm hooked I'll go until the end of the tonight show....

Anyway, you get the picture I started the book at 9:30 and finished the 368 page book at 1:30AM!
I couldn't put it down. I really did keep looking for a place to stop and wait until today but it just didn't happen. I highly HIGHLY recommend the book Like Dandelion Dust to everyone! It is a fast read that hooks you from the 2nd or 3rd chapter! Karen Kingsbury is one of my 3 favorite authors and she's done it once again!



Here's a link to the blogger site for the new movie:
http://likedandeliondust.blogspot.com/

Also you can find more Karen Kingsbury books which I love, Love, LOVE at:
http://www.karenkingsbury.com/

Now....I'm off to take a nap! :)

Good News!

Good news! I was blessed to find out my MRI/MRA is back and it shows no signs of any tumors, strokes, aneurysms. There is some fluid behind my mastoid air cells of my brain. That's right behind my ears. Dr. Ray thinks that this is just a normal part of me being me. I guess I can use this for an excuse of some of my more air head moments! :)

I was very relieved and thankful to hear that everything is normal.
My carbon monoxide test came back normal as well.

So now the only question is why won't these headaches go away???????

My new self-diagnosis is that my back is still severely out of whack and I need some more adjustments and perhaps a massage or two to get everything back into line. Perhaps this could be causing the headaches. The headaches are a lot less sever from last Wednesday. That was my last adjustment. Hopefully I'm on the road to having no headaches!

Weekend Update

It's been awhile since I've posted and we've had lots of fun going on at the Stecher house. On Thursday of last week Travis and I got invited to a former students birthday party. Demarco was in my first grade class and Travis' second grade class. He and his brother Reggie have found their way into many teachers hearts at Nielson. Jenny and Ben Bredemeir have "adopted" the boys, celebrating birthday's, Christmas, taking them to school events etc. Jenny and Ben were the ones throwing the birthday party. We went to Happy Joe's for pizza, cake, ice cream and games and presents! The boy's loved it. Demarco turned 9 and it was his first birthday party ever!

After the party Jenny, Ben, Travis and I went to the taste of Galesburg. There were several local businesses that had food samplings as well as a Caribbean band entertaining. It was fun. We got there a little late and several of the food vendors were out of food, but I did manage to get a Landmark turtle crepe and Travis had deep fried brownie bites. The perfect ending to a great evening!

Friday Travis and I went to Peoria and went on our first trip to the teacher store, YUCK! It is only 4 weeks until the start of school for us and I thought we better start at least looking. After spending a sufficient amount of time at the School House, we went to Grand Prairie mall and went back to school shopping. Travis got 2 nice pairs of dress pants and I got a pair of pants and some jewelry from New York and CO. That is becoming one of my most favorite stores!

We aren't quite done shopping, but like the school house, at least we've got a start on it.

We were also able to start our Christmas shopping! We bought our first gift of the season for my brother....now if only I could remember where it's at.......

Then on Saturday Travis ran the Bix 7 with some fellow football coaches. He finished in 1 hour 30 minutes. I thought this was fantastic considering he didn't train AT ALL, and decided to run on Friday night! I had to be in the Quad Cities for an MRI of my head, I can't get rid of these headaches, so I hung out with Ben and Kay (Travis' parents) until the appointment. After wards Kay and I went to see Mama Mia, and Travis and Ben saw Batman. Travis definitely would NOT have enjoyed Mama Mia so it was nice to have someone to go with. The movie was cute....corney...but lighthearted and fun.

We finished the day by eating at Red Lobster and coming home to watch ER!

On Sunday Travis and I both helped with VBS kickoff at Monmouth Country Club pool. It was a good time, lots of kids and adults so visiting with people wasn't a problem. I chased around a kid all night who needs to learn to mind and listen....oh well, I can't change them all right? By the end of the night he was starting to grow on me! :)

Unfortunately the evening was cut short because of an upcoming storm. I will continue with VBS throughout the week helping with music. Travis is on his way to De Moines to help his sister who had a tumble down the stairs and could use an extra set of hands with the kids. Hopefully his trip is a speedy safe one and he can be lots of use to Heather and the kids.

Well, that's all for now....our back yard is a jungle that needs tamed....I'm off to mow....

Lazy Days of Summer?

This has been a lazy week for me. Summer is quickly winding down. 5 weeks until the first day of school. I have a list of projects that need to get done but no gumption to do them. I have spent the week watching season 8 and 9 of ER with Travis, reading 2 novels by Karen Kingsbury, napping, shopping, and just enjoying not doing anything. My life, however, is about to pick up the pace.

This week I have testing for summer school. This will take all day. Travis finishes at noon and I have to go until 4:30. The testing is tedious and slow. Hopefully the children will have all grown in their reading abilities this summer and fly through the tests. Tuesday will be the busiest day. Summer school until noon, a baby shower during the lunch break, summer school all afternoon, a vacation bible school meeting at 4:30 and then Bergner's by 6. Whew, I'd better wear my running shoes that day! :)

The Burlington bridge is open again which means my dad and I can start going to our Wednesday night class again, however, after a month of doing nothing but laying around, I'm afraid I'm quite out of shape and a bit anxious about working out in the dog days of summer heat. I'm excited to be able to spend the weekly time with my dad again getting back into shape! :)

The rest of this week is much of the same busy busy busy. Next week I'll not have summer school but Kids on Campus. Kids on Campus is a college for kids program being offered by Carl Sandburg College. This will be my 3rd year teaching a course. The program runs 9-noon for 2 weeks. The first week of Kids on Campus will also be Vacation Bible School. I'm the "music director" this year and thankfully Lindsey Long and Pastor Gabe have offered to help me out.

Travis has made a hypothesis that I may have bitten off more than I can chew.......
I don't know I think I'm just gearing back up for school to start, we'll see. I hope to still squeeze out some pool time, some reading time, and some time to hang out with family and friends but with Summer School, Martial Arts, Vacation Bible School, Kids on Campus, Bergner's, In services for school......I think my lazy days of summer may be over starting tomorrow at 8 AM......

New Furniture

When we got home from the Ozarks Travis had a seat in his favorite chair. It's a green rocker recliner. That is his spot in the living room. Buddy has a matching chair on their other side of the living room. I get the couch in between the two guys! :)

When Travis sat down and started to rock we heard this big Crunch, thump, Boom! His beloved chair broke! It was a sad, sad, night. The chair is tilted to the left now and no longer rocks. :(

But there is good news amongst this sadness! We went yesterday afternoon to Galesburg and the Quad Cities in order to shop for new chairs! After going to 6 different stores, price comparing, comfort comparing, and deciding what we wanted we are now the proud owners of 2 new identical leather rocker recliners! Oh la la!

One snag....the recliners we purchased are not in stock! They were supposed to get a new shipment on July 3rd but they haven't arrived yet! I am going to call every day until they come in! We are very excited and are now talking about a new couch too! YEAH! I love new furniture!

The old furniture will not be just thrown to the curb....we are going to move it to the basement in the hopes of one day being able to somehow finish the basement off and have a 2nd living room down there.

Travis plans to try to fix the chair that broke on a cold, windy snow day this winter! :)

Here's our new chair!

Ozark Vacation

Well we are back and I'm finally ready to write about our trip. We went on Friday the 4th of July to Lake of the Ozarks with my family. My mom and dad, my brother Justin, a family friend Jane, and Travis and I all stayed in one condo. While some of my parents friends stayed in another condo. We were only there for 4 days but WOW we definitely piled a lot into 4 days!

On Friday when we got there we somehow managed to snag a table and chairs by the pool. It was packed since it was the 4th of July. We spent the afternoon/evening by the pool. When it was time for dinner we left all of our stuff by the pool in order to save a spot for fireworks later and had a traditional 4th of July dinner, hamburgers, baked beans, suddenly salad, potato chips. My brother Justin usually works nights and had 2hours of sleep in about 36 hours cause he had to work before we left. He fell asleep after dinner and we couldn't rouse him for fireworks. After a nap, my dad joined us down by the pool. Jane is a HUGE 4th of July fan to say the least! She required us to listen to patriotic music, which I think our neighbors hated, but I kinda liked, and she was decked out in patriotic garb. We were able to see fireworks from 2-3 different areas of the lake just by sitting by the pool! It was cool enough for fireworks that we needed sweatshirts. Odd for the 4th of July!

On Saturday Travis and I woke up and went to "the strip" which has a bunch of tourist traps! Lots of Tee-shirt shops, candy stores, bumper cars/ski ball, and junk stores. We went in hopes of finding pez....we found none :(

The rest of the day was spent by the pool. Dad woke up early and got all 11 of us a huge table by 7AM so we could all have somewhere to sit/lounge. At 12 the complex hired a "one man band" to come and play oldies around the pool. It was fun for my folks, and I too, liked the music but Travis and Justin's only reply was a roll of the eyes, and an attempt to put an Ipod on...however, "Awesome Bob" was so loud the guys couldn't hear their own Ipods. Around 5 my family left for Peckers Bar and Grill. There is a huge woody woodpecker out in front of the restaurant and they have dueling pianos. We were told to be there by 6 for a table...we got there at 5:30 and then found out that the dueling pianos didn't start until 7:30 :( We had dinner and waited, and waited, and waited...finally the guys got tired of waiting and took a vehicle home. Mom, Jane and I stayed and listened for a while. It was a lot of fun! When we got back to the condo Justin and Travis had acquired fishing licenses and were fishing off the dock. Travis caught a Perch using minnows, and had 2 other bites. Justin wasn't as lucky...no bites, no catches!

Sunday and Monday were much of the same. We rented a huge pontoon boat and spent the whole day on the lake. We would cruise around looking at houses that were multi million dollar homes and drooling. Then when it would get too hot, we would pull over, and all jump in. There were rafts and life jackets to float on. After a significant time in the water dad would load us all in the boat again and we would cruise to another cove. It was a lot of fun. There wasn't a current pulling you around like there is on the river, and you could see about 3 feet under the water, again, not something you could find on the river. On Sunday we went to this place called Frankie and Louie's, it's a gas station/bar/restaurant right on the water. It's named after the Budweiser frogs Frankie and Louie. We stayed there for some time. Justin and Jane won a "washer" game. Travis and I bought some fruit ice smoothies, and my mom and dad sat and watched it all unfold. Mom did buy a cover up for her swimsuit. It was a pretty neat place. We went out around 10AM and didn't come home until 5PM! LONG DAY! I made the fatal mistake of only putting sun screen on my shoulders 1 time that day OUCH! Other than that both Travis and I did a great job adding sun screen and didn't get burnt at all. After dinner we were able to take an evening cruise. We were not allowed to take the boat out at night due to a running light being burnt out, but we stayed out until last light of day. The after dinner cruise was beautiful, but I of course forgot my camera! I made sure we would be doing the same thing the next day so I could bring it then.

Monday proved to be much of the same thing. Boating all day, dinner at the condo, and then a last cruise on the boat until dark. On Monday I spent a lot of time in the shade of the canopy due to plenty of sun the day before. It was quite hot so we did spend a lot of time in many coves cooling off. Tuesday Morning Dad, Travis and I headed home because Dad and Travis had to get back to work. We left everyone else enjoying the sun and the pool! They will return on Saturday afternoon.

We had a great time and are thankful for everyone who could go and helped make the trip possible! I love hanging out with my family, and I love traveling, so combing the two made me over the moon excited and happy. It was nice to have some quality time with everyone as we are all hard workers who often don't take enough time to relax! I hope to take another trip soon with everyone!

Squeaky Clean

I have been told many times to check the pockets of clothing going into the washer. I have ruined many clothes by putting pens into the dryer....mostly Travis' and yet I still do not check pockets.
Today I was doing laundry to get ready for our trip tomorrow to the Ozarks and I threw in my jean shorts from yesterday.

Meanwhile, I needed to add some songs to my ipod for the trip. So I attempted to do so, but couldn't find my ipod. I knew I brought it back from my mom's yesterday...where could it be... OH NO! I think it's in my jean shorts pockets, so I flew down stairs to look... After going threw an entire load of laundry to find the jean shorts I was thrilled when it wasn't in there. I must have left it in the car, at mom's or in a pile somewhere.

Travis found the ipod a few hours later...... at the BOTTOM of the washing machine, squeaky clean, but no longer workable!

I knew I was in trouble and it would be a long time before we would purchase another Ipod for Misty....I was told I was being demoted from Laundry Duty :) :) :) Drats :) :):)
Then after feeling really crummy for about 10-15 minutes my wonderful, loving and brilliant husband informed me we would be stopping at target on our way to the Quad Cities this evening for a new Ipod for me!!!! :) :) :) How thoughtful!

So now I'm up at 12:38AM downloading songs that were already on my old ipod onto my new ipod....it is going to be an early morning come 5:15! However, at least I have an Ipod to lull me to sleep on the car ride to the Ozarks!
I hope everyone has a Safe and Happy 4th of July!

The Burns'

I got to spend a relaxing day with one of my dearest friends Krista Burns today. We enjoyed hanging out and watching/listening to Landon's antics! He's such a little character! I love him to pieces! Once Landon was taking a nap, little Delaney woke up and I got to feed her. She is too precious! I enjoyed hanging out with Krista and the kids and catching up. I'm looking forward to getting together next week. Isn't summer GREAT!!??!?!?!
P.S....Thanks for lunch Krista!

Buddy

Ok...one more post about Saturday!

Kay just sent me this picture of Buddy. This is before he ate all the potatoes. He's such a cute little dog....Travis says he's an OLD dog.

Old, young, little, big, we love Buddy just the way he is! :)

Still enjoying

We are just getting back from a cookout at my mom's house. We met there with the whole family to discuss last minute details for our upcoming Ozark vacation. I am getting quite excited we have never been on a full fledged family trip with Travis. The last time we went all together was "pre-Travis" when we went to Hawaii. I hope he has a good time and wants to go on another "Vancil" family vacation.

All day long I've been enjoying the memories and pictures from yesterday. It truly was just too fun. I know Travis especially enjoyed the day. He feels very close to his family and I know it is hard sometimes for him to be 40 minutes away. It was good to see him so happy and content with everyone in the yard.

Besides the Buddy incident I think my favorite picture from yesterday was when Tyler was so mad! I don't remember what made him so made and start to cry but anyone who deals with children or has their own can relate to this photo:

He is such a little character and SOOOO funny! I think he's going to be the comedian of the family. Maybe that's why I think this photo is so funny. He is usually full of funny faces and gestures and to see him like this makes me try to figure out what's going on in his head....

a) I want you to get this camera out of my FAAAACCCEE!

b) Mommy help me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

c) Why does everyone get to eat but me?????

Anyone have a better guess?