Miss Teen of South Dakota!!

To say that this is a delayed blog is QUITE the understatement… I am going to tell you all about my wonderful trip to Pierre, South Dakota to staff at the Miss Teen of South Dakota pageant! (This may or may not have been at the end of the summer). I sincerely apologize for it being so incredibly late!
The very first thing that struck me as I was flying into Pierre was that this whole state was basically made up of farmland! There were literally fields EVERYWHERE! I’m from Idaho, you would think that this wouldn’t really affect me too much, but I was starting to wonder if South Dakota had any human beings living in it at all! Just as I had almost given up all hope of civilization, a small town began to come into view. The pilot then announced that we would be starting our initial descent into Pierre. It was a beautiful little town but I just could not believe that the capital of a state could be so tiny! It was great! I have always been a fan of small towns so this one hit the jackpot in my book.
Well, we of course landed and exited the plane at the airport. I met up with Steffanie Scholze and her sister; pageant weekend has begun! The beginning stages of setting up for a pageant are always exciting to me for some reason. I just love the anticipation of waiting for all of the candidates to arrive so I can see who I get to spend the entire weekend with. This time I wasn’t the only titleholder staffing at the pageant. I was allowed the privilege of working with Miss Teen of Missouri, Sara Miller! I could tell it was going to be epic!
Before I knew it, the girls had all arrived and we went through all of the briefings and the awareness test. Now it was time for some fun! The get-acquainted social is always a high point of the weekend because we all get to just hang out and be silly. The shirt-signing and the fun games that we played were all a blast! Plus there was punch and cookies to go along with it. :)
The rest of the weekend went along just like Miss Teen of Idaho did. You all know the drill by now, judges interviews, poise and personality projection, and practicing for the dance number. It all went splendidly! I had a few more girls to work with this weekend than I had the previous weekend so choreographing the dance was quite the task, but Sara and I worked it out and the girls performed so well! I could not have been more excited.
All in all, it was a perfect weekend. The girls were so amazing just like I had anticipated. We all had a blast getting to know each other while partaking in all of the activities crammed into a busy couple of days. The weekend could not have come away with a better Miss Teen of South Dakota! Congratulations to Katherine Van Gerpen!! I know she will do great representing all of the incredible young ladies of South Dakota.

BOATING!!

HELLO!! I know you definitely enjoyed reading my play by play interpretation of the Miss Teen of Idaho pageant. :) I have another one of those coming up soon about the Miss Teen of South Dakota pageant! But, before I get to all of that excitement, I just HAVE to tell you about the fun day that followed the Idaho pageant!
Some very close pageant friends stayed over at my house Sunday night (after the program) before they ventured back to their home states. Kim Tuttle, Rita Tuttle, and Sunny Hilton came back with us to the great Weiser, Idaho to see how we Idahoans have fun. :)
We all went boating! It was the best time up at Manns Creek Reservoir! There were, of course, the crazy wipeouts with the tubes and some fun dancing on the boat. Sunny, Kim and I went on the tube a couple times together and, needless to say, it got pretty intense. Getting away from all of the stress of the pageant and of the work was nice. We all got to relax and enjoy some fun in the sun. This is definitely how Miss Teen of America handles free time! :)

Miss Teen of Idaho- Day Three!!

Well here we are, pageant finals. It started out with brunch and then a quick rehearsal to go over the day and to run through the dance one last time. Everyone was slightly nervous for the day so we played a little game to get their heart rates down to a bearable tempo. :)
The time finally came for the pageant to begin! The dance number went so incredibly well and as did the rest of the pageant. I could not have been more excited to hear who the top six were! It was my job to put medallions on the girls whose names were called and a few times I was listening so intently that I almost forgot to do my job. Every girl deserved to be up on the stage at that time, but the judges had to narrow it down to only six of them. I almost cried when each girl was named because I was so happy for them!
After the interview questions and the Poise competition for the merit finalists was over, it was time to narrow the girls down into the top three honor court members. This part was obviously even more stressful, and I wasn’t even the one on stage! Before I knew it three girls had stepped forward and the other three exited the stage.
It turned out to be slightly more stressful when my turn came to give my “farewell” speech. This was a little different than usual because I wasn’t actually giving up my title and saying farewell. Although I wasn’t going to be Miss Teen of Idaho along with Miss Teen of America, I still had my other title. I decided to make my speech go in a more inspirational direction and told a little story along the way. I of course got a little teary eyed in the end; never have I gotten a standing ovation before. It was probably the most touching thing that has ever happened to me. I will post my speech on this blog very soon so you can all read it if you wish!
Well, enough about me! I know you all want to know who the new Miss Teen of Idaho is! I know you can probably already see it in the list of titleholders on the blog but I want to announce it here as well. :) The winner was….. Jenna Howard!! I was so excited to be able to pass my title down to her and I know that she will do amazing things. Congratulations to her!! :)
I just want to say thank you to all of the candidates, parents, staff, and judges. I was so lucky to be able to spend my weekend with all of you. My heart goes out to all of you and I hope to cross paths again sometime in the future. Thank you so much!

Miss Teen of Idaho, Day Two!

Morning came a little too early on Saturday, but I was excited for the activities nevertheless. First on the agenda was breakfast with the all of the girls. I love these times of the day because I get to actually talk to them and get to know as many girls as I can. They all have amazing stories and it’s nice to hear about all of their activities and accomplishments.
Next came dance rehearsals. I am definitely NOT a dancer, but I was lucky enough to have a large group of girls who were blessed in that department. This made teaching the Dancin’ In The Aisles dance way easy! They picked it up so quickly! Before I knew it, the entire dance was choreographed and it was time for mini sessions. Now, I am going to spare you the details of mini sessions and just get to the other exciting parts of the day!
Interviews were the next part of the competition. I sat outside of the interview room for the entire session just talking to the girls and getting to know them more and more. Kylee and I did our bests to keep them from getting too nervous and to keep their minds off of the intimidation of the interviews. I put up a picture of what I am trying to explain.
Poise and Personality Projection is by far my most FAVORITE part of the competition. Seeing all of the pretty dresses is the best! It’s like seeing another side to the young women that they haven’t shown yet. I actually got to watch this part of the competition and they all did wonderful! I was so impressed.
After all of the competition part was over, it was time for some fun. We had eight groups split up to perform skits for us and their parents later that night. These were hilarious to watch! I remember one group dressed up as super heroes, which meant they had on hysterical outfits and some had huge hair. I laughed so hard! Every skit was funny to watch, which doesn’t always happen at pageants so I was pretty excited.
This was basically it for Saturday. Later at night a few girls and I decided to have a little party down in the lobby of the dorm we were staying in. we had pizza, soda and laughed at just about everything. I really, truly hope I get to see these girls again because I haven’t laughed that hard nor had that much fun in a very long time. I miss them all already!

Miss Teen of Idaho Pageant, Day 1!

So, what have I been up to lately? Let me tell you, my life has been particularly crazy, yet very exciting lately. On Friday, August fifth, was the first day of the Miss Teen of Idaho Scholarship and Recognition Program.
It started out with Sunny and I stuffing all of our stuff into my little Kia Sephia and driving forty five minutes from my town, Weiser, to the College of Idaho in Caldwell where the program was to take place. We were greeted by Kim and Rita Tuttle at the college along with the tremendous heat outside… This weekend was going to be interesting!
By check-in time I was stoked to meet all of the candidates. They all seemed very nice from that encounter and I already knew that the judges would have their work cut out for them. After check-in came the parent candidate briefing which is just the usual rules and procedures of the weekend. I would just like to say that, I went a little crazy and bought slightly, ridiculously tall shoes that I would attempt to walk in during the weekend. Well…. Those shoes did NOT work out and I may or may not have stumbled in on the way to the briefing. Do not even get me started on the walking downhill toward the stage. It almost was an embarrassing story, believe me. Anyway, after the briefing the Kylee Richmond and I took the candidates to take their general awareness test. I took that test while I was waiting for the young women to take theirs. It was so difficult! I completely feel for all of you that have taken that test!
Next came the fun part! We all went to the get-acquainted party to sign shirts, play games, and have just a great time. It turned into an AWESOME dance party! We got down to the cotton-eyed joe, the cupid shuffle, and lots of other spectacular dance songs. It was fantastic! I would have to say the it was probably the best get-acquainted party that I had ever been to.
This pretty much was it for the first day of the pageant weekend. We all went to bed with excitement for the next day.

Testing Some Athletic Abilities

Well hello again! I hope everything is well and that summer has been excellent for everyone! I would just like to give fair warning that I have a couple blogs that will be coming out pretty quickly within the next few days. So much has happened! I don’t even know where to begin!
It all started on Wednesday night (August 3rd) when I went to meet one of the pageant directors, Sunny Hylton in Boise. Since she flew in pretty late from Atlanta, we just stayed in a hotel and of course had delicious room service. The next day we had some fun shopping around in Boise and I tried my best to show her all of the important sites in the area. :)
Later that night, I was allowed the glorious privilege of throwing the first pitch at the Boise Hawks game! I honestly had no idea what to expect, but it turned out to be a quick, fun experience! I stood out on the mound while the announcer read a little biography about me. This little bit of waiting made me slightly nervous for the dramatic event of actually throwing the ball. Mind you, I did play softball in high school, but that was over a year ago and I haven’t had many opportunities to throw a ball since then; so I figured this would be interesting.
Before I knew it the pitch had been thrown, some cheers erupted from the crowd and I was on my way off of the field again. It was so much fun! As we watched the game, I spotted the team mascot walking around the stands; I just HAD to chase him down to get a picture to post on this blog for all of you to see. Well, that was my quick event at the Boise Hawks Game! Stay tuned for some more Miss Teen excitement!

Gotta Love Those Parades!

Happy Summer!! Although we are currently in the middle of it, I figured it’s never too late to celebrate the tremendous weather! I have been in Idaho with my family for most of the summer and let me tell you, there has been some interesting weather. Luckily it’s been warm lately so at the moment I have nothing to complain about! It’s much different than those winters in Alfred, New York; you can take my word for it.
Well, what have I been up to this summer… To be perfectly honest, my life has consisted of work, work, and more work. I believe that I have told you all this already but I am a lifeguard at the community pool here in good ol’ Weiser. I have had the opportunity to throw in a couple family camping trips and some boating expeditions. That is about it for this summer, it’s definitely been nice being back in my home town for a couple months.
Now, on to some good stuff. :) Weiser, Idaho hosts the National Old Time Fiddler’s Contest and Festival during the third week in June. I had the opportunity to volunteer up at the contest site taking tickets for one of the nights. This was fun, except for the fact that it was absolutely FREEZING inside! People were literally bringing in blankets to watch the fiddlers.. I am not sure what that says for the air conditioning but it’s definitely nothing good. :) Other than that minor inconvenience, I had a great time! I always get to meet the neatest people during fiddle week because, not only are people exceedingly nice and chipper, they are also very curious about my little town and what I am involved in personally. Not once did I come across someone who wasn’t a pleasure to talk to.
On the last day of the festival, Saturday, the annual Fiddle Festival Parade takes place. This parade has just about everything in it, fiddle contestants, military personnel, the high school marching band, local royalty, dance teams, and even thumb twiddlers! It’s a great opportunity for the entire community to see what everyone else is up to around town. I was thrilled to be able to ride in the parade as Miss Teen of America along with some other princesses. It was SENSATIONAL! I could see recognition sweep across peoples’ faces as they realized that it was just me and realized what I had become. It was extremely liberating! :)