Miss Florida USA Pre-Taping

It's Finally Pre-Taping Weekend! :) After a 5 hour drive, I arrived in Hollywood FLORIDA!

I was so nervous at first but I'm having a blast! Everyone is so nice, and we are all clicking really well. 5am was an early start! Espceially since I'm not used to going to bed early  due to my late night gym visits! I didn't get to sleep till about 2, but that didn't stop me from waking up, ready to take the day on!  By 6:20 I was at the Diplomat Country Club in Hollywood FL, Ready to model some beautiful jewelry from our Miss FL USA Sponsor, Medina! You know you're in a room full of beauty queens when everyone looks beautiful at 6:30am! :)

By 7am, we were shooting! It was exciting having cameras in your face the whole time! haha

After about 3and a half hours of shooting, it was off to Pollo Tropical for lunch at another sponsor's venue! Can you delicious? :) It was soo good, and I gotta a chance to get to know some of the girls! Chicken, beans and rice, and plantains! I think it was cuban? Whatever it was, it was good! :)

After the wrap of the shooting for the day, I went back to my room for a lonnngggg needed nap! Dinner was at 730 so I set my alarm for 3:45. Unfortunately, it was one of those naps where you keep waking up anticipating the alarm... :( So, I got up early and ran some errands. I was in the mood for Cereal, and there was a kmart right across from my hotel. After grabbing the Froot Loops and Milk, i realized I needed something to eat it out of. I found bowls, but you can't just buy one spoon. SOOO it was off to te baby sections haha. I found little mini spoons. They say you're supposed to challenge yourself everyday. Well, two froot loops at a time was definitely a challenge.... and frustrating! haha

I got back to my hotel and started getting ready for dinner at Mama Mia's! 6:30 came around and I had a knock at my door! Melissa (Miss Miami USA) and Lauren (Miss Fort Walton Beach USA) were ready to go! And the road trip began. I quickly learned, I don't know how to follow my GPS lol, but we got there safe and sound! :) When we got to Mama Mia's there were heads turning everywhere! Especially when we walked up. The private dining room was filled with FL USA Royalty! :) Definitely felt like VIPS! Before and after our dinner, there were tons of pictures taken! It's like being a movie star! Oh, by the way, I plan on being famous!

Time to get ready for Seminar day! I'll Blog more tomorrow night after my 5 hr drive home! :) One day my signature will be an autograph! <3

Events events events!!!

Hey everyone!!! Time to play catch up again! I Finally got some time to upload some pics and to sit down and write about all the fun I've been having!!! These past few weeks have flew by! I can't believe that Pre-Taping is next week! :) So excited to meet everyone and to get started.... It's time to see what I'm getting myself into! ;)

Anyways... After the Queen Bling Pageant, the next weekend it was back to my roots for the Newberry Watermelon Festival and Pageants! The first weekend, I was the Guest Emcee, filling in for KCounty's Lewis Stokes! It was so fun, and so enjoyable to be apart of what got me into pageants to begin with! The babies were adorable and they crowned some cute kids! The next weekend was the Festival and the "Big" Queen Pageant... The Newberry Watermelon Queen is like the "Miss" Division for watermelon pageants... Some tough competition and a weekend of fun! Friday night, the girls compete in Sportswear, speech, and evening wear. After hearing all the girls talk, and listening to their knowledge of the watermelon and agricultural industry, I felt bad for the judges! They had a hard competition in front of them, and only interviews Saturday would determine the results. The next morning started with the Newberry Watermelon Festival parade! Again, it was so good to be back in my hometown with a new title! :) Support from the community is amazing! Being a past watermelon queen, I was invited to all the queen and contestant events throughout the day. After the parade, we went straight to the sponsor luncheon to get to know the girls, and mingle with their awesome sponsors. After interviews, it was off to the festival for some fun in the sun... and boy was it sunny! Some of the contestants and queens and I walked around talking to people and taking pictures with kids! I love the how excited the children get to see "Princesses!" Each year, the festival holds an auction to benifit next year's festival. The visiting queens and contestants all help with the auction, showing items, and trying to get bids higher. Well, needless to say, that's where I was to be found around 3pm that Saturday afternoon! After auction was the time that everyone had been anticipating... The crowning of the 2011 Newberry Watermelon Queen. After a tough competition, the judges agreed that the crown was earned by Miss Jenna Garret! She will be competiting for the Florida Watermelon Queen Title in February of 2012! Until then, she will be around the community and Florida promoting Florida Watermelon! :) Congrats Jenna!

Part of my job as a Life Coach at the North Florida Retirement Village entails creating an event and activity calendar for our residents each month. After a few of my residents found out about my title, they started asking questions :) What better way to explain what "We do" than to have a day where my sister queens could join and we could mingle with these amazing people and explain what we stand for. I created an event called "More than Just a Crown!" They loved it! My little sister queen, Miss Gainesville Teen USA, Brittany Lakhani joined me in speaking with the residents. It was like a talk show interview. :) They asked questions like what got us into pageants, and what our goals are. After meeting with our first group, one very nice couple invited us to dinner. We got to be the "Guests of Honor" joining a few of the residents at dinner! It was so sweet, and we got to learn about their pasts and children. There a lot of stories to come from someone who's over 90! It was amazing! When we were done with dinner, we went over to another venue to do the same time. Questions, answers, and this time we got input. I got the biggest compliment that I've ever recieved from one of our 95 year old residents. After we were done speaking, she told us that we inspired her... from confidence to poise, we were an inspiration. Coming from someone who's seen so much and accomplished so many things, that was such an honor! I definitely feel like they now understand that there's a lot more to pageants and titles than just looking pretty and wearing a crown! :)

I'm loving my reign. I'm so excited for the rest of this year, and I'm really enjoying getting out into the community and meeting so many amazing people. Next week starts the real fun! Pre-taping in the sunnnn! Can't wait! Until next time friends! <3