Congratulations Lauren Nelson, Miss America 2007

Well, I was 5 for 10 in my predictions for Top Ten for Miss America last night. Not bad!! Could be better. But they were good guesses.

It did come down to Texas and Oklahoma and for the second year in a row, Miss Oklahoma took the title.

Here are some awesome pictures of Lauren. She is an absolute beauty AND there is not one bad crowning picture of her. That is unreal. Normally there is one.



First reaction to learning that Lauren has won the title of Miss America 2007



First walk as Miss America 2007



Press Conference following crowning


Interesting fact: Oklahoma is now tied with Ohio and California for the most Miss America's to be crwoned from one state.

My Miss America Top Ten

Here are my guesses after watching bits and pieces of competition, Pageant School that is airing repeatedly on CMT and MTV and photos from Voy boards. And for the male readers on my blog I made sure to find the swimsuit pictures of each.

In random order....



Miss Georgia is absolutely stunning. As this is not the best picture of her, she has a personality that just absolutely shines.



Miss Connecticut has an interesting story to tell. Spent most of her life without electricity. She may be the one that is the story of the competition.



This is not the best picture of Miss Kentucky but she is an all around beauty. Kentucky is usually good at sending quality contestants.



I could not get one of Miss Michigan by herself but she is the third from the left. I normally do not cheer for Michigan but something about her stands out to me.



Miss Mississippi to me is an absolute stand out. She is gorgeous and seems to have a personality that shines through.



Miss Oklahoma is a preliminary swimsuit winner and is beautiful. She is another stand out to me and has been from the beginning. And since the last Miss America is from Okalhoma......



Miss Pennsylvania is also another preliminary swimsuit winner. She is one that is not high on my pageant radar but there are always surprises and she may be it.



Miss Tennessee is one that has been hyped on the Voy boards since Day One but something about her is standing out to me. She is very blonde, very beautiful, very marketable.....



This is not a great picture of Miss Texas but she is another one that has been talked about consistently. She is the first African American Miss Texas, sings like Whitney Houston and walks like Naomi Campbell. She should do well, especially after Pageant School.



I have loved Miss Virginia from the get go. She is a darling girl with a very awesome personality that shines through. She could do very well.

The one girl I am really hoping to see in the Top Ten and Top Five would be Miss Wyoming. Just because I am dying to see her talent. She dances suspended from ribbons from the ceiling and that would be cool to watch. Makes for quality TV.

What are your thoughts?

What Flavor Frappuccino Are You?

I may start blogging once a week for quiz results. Comment if you think I should or should not....

Caffe Vanilla Frappuccino

Smooth and sweet, you fit in to almost any crowd. No one would suspect you of being a coffee tweaker!

What Flavor Frappuccino Are You?

Last Night of Talent

Congratulations to Miss California on her talent win last night at Miss America. Also congratulations to Miss Pennsylvania on her swimsuit win last night. Or I better go all PC and say Lifestyle and Fitness.

Here is the link for the last night of talent. This will make for an interesting twist. I will be posting my Top Ten picks soon. I need to re-evaluate my decisions.

Saturday Night Preliminary Talent

Miss America Weekend

This is pageant weekend for the Miss America pageant. A very exciting time for me. I have loved the Miss America system for a very long time for what they have given to me during the years that I competed.

Although I never won a Miss Ohio local and never made it to the Miss Ohio stage I will never forget the people that I have met that have shaped my life, the interview skills that I had gained and the friendships that I was blessed to have as a part of my time competing.

Here are some links for the talent competition.

Miss America Talent Night - Friday Night

Miss America Talent Night - Thursday Night

I will post photos soon....

Do I Really Need to Lose Weight???

According to this I am ideal.....

Your Weight is Ideal

Your BMI is 23.3 - a healthy BMI falls between 18.5 and 25 Congratulations, you are the perfect weight for your height. Even though you may not be entirely happy with your weight, you are healthy. So gain or lose a few pounds if you want, but don't go too crazy! Don't agree? Blame the government standards we based this test on!

Do You Need to Lose Weight?

So then I ask myself why I am busting my butt this week to lose a few pounds. I really have no clue at this point. Yes, I would love to shed the holiday weight. Even more I would love to be the size I was when I won Mrs. Ohio. But today is it even worth it?

I think I need to re-evaluate....

Facebook Is My Friend...

I have a new obsession. It was introduced by Sassygurly. And it has been a blast to get to know.

It is Facebook.

I have been able to connect with friends that I have not seen in a very long time and those that I see everyday. The coolest was my chance to reconnect with a friend from high school. He was pretty nice towards me although we didn't run in the same circle of friends. And when he saw who I was he was surprised. I guess his impression was that everyone that we had graduated with had gotten fat and bald. And I definitely did not fit into that mold.

If you get the chance check out www.facebook.com and sign up for your own profile. It can be so much fun to reconnect with those that you have lost touch with.

What Happens In Wisconsin Stays In Wisconsin

Or is that Vegas?!?!? Same difference....

Last week I endured a grueling training. They have taken the past class time from two weeks and crunched it down to 4.5 days. We were the test class with this new system and I think it went well. We could have had more included and removed some stuff but since this was a test class I am not too worried.

Here are some of the highlights of the class. Since there is just WAY too much to blog for the five days I was gone.

- Arrived with an easy flight and time to kill. Unpacked and took a nap. Heaven!!

- Met with the other members of the class. There were 12 CPS's and 2 CPM's.

- Class began way too early. Or I am not used to waking up at the crack of dawn.

- Took our professional photos. They all turned out bad. We all had our moment with it.

- Got my per diem money. YEAH!!!

- Learned the quoting system. Not too hard. Pretty easy actually.

- Watched the Buckeyes get spanked by the Gators in the National Championship Game. Put a damper on the rest of the week but had lunch, snacks and drinks bouoght for me since people felt bad.

- Met the Underwriters for personal lines and life insurance. They are wonderfully nice.

- Dealt with computer marital issues with my laptop named Sven. We have issues.

- Got some fabulous referral tips from Krochman in Illinois. Bought him an ice cream for his kindness.

- Went for some wonderful Japanese Steakhouse food with three CPM's. Also enjoyed sushi with them. They were very good to me and helped give me tips on CPS duties.

- Dazed a bit during the marketing session and made a fool out of myself when presented with an additional $200 for co-op money. I stupidly thought that they were taking away my $500 and only giving me $200. So my comment was "That is all I am getting?!?!?!" Then it was explained to me that this was $200 additional for a total of $700. What an idiot I am!!!

- Wrapped up the last day of class with a meeting from our VP of Sales. Nice guy. But we were a bit anxious to go.

- Thanked God that I was on the flight to Minneapolis vs. the flight to Chicago as their flight got cancelled for freezing rain. Instead of calling back to SHO, they rented two cars and went on. Not a brilliant move.

- Ran across the Minneapolis airport to get on the plane and wait ONE HOUR for the take off. There was a distruaght woman on the plane that kept freaking out and did not speak one word of English. Then there was a mechanical problem. Thank Sassygurly for my iPod b/c that helped my sanity during that time.

- Met my boys at the airport. My little one greeted me with a dozen roses behind his back. I was shocked!! But very pleasantly surprised.

All in all it was a very good trip. Now on to the hard part. Actually doing the job.

It Is All About The iPod

Sassygurly got us the biggest surprise of this year so far.

See, for Christmas we got her a pink iPod Nano. She was over ecstatic when she received it. Big screams worth of excitement. She had warned us before Christmas that she usually waits until after Christmas to get the presents she wants for who she lives with. We told her it was unnecessary. She was fine with what she had done. But she is stubborn and will do what she wants anyway.

So she leaves to go babysitting. And comes back with a surprise for E and I. And I mean a BIG surprise.

For me, it was an Electric Blue iPod Nano!!!

For E, it was a 30gb iPod!!!

They are beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. And unbelieveable.

So far the greatest gift of 2007.

Dots... How I love thee.....

OK, I have a new favorite place to shop.

I have avoided Dots for a while due to the fact that I did not like the clothes for the longest time. Then SassyGurly introduced me to the pajamas there. So I decided to go back and see what they had. And I was astounded.

There were lots of good sales and great items. All that look good now.

The best part. I purchased THREE business suits on sale there. AMAZING!! Where was all of this before?

My New Years Resolution....

I have actually made a New Years Resolution. I have not done this for several years but decided this year to do one.

I have resolved not to eat anything after 8:00 PM. As a way to control my weight.

I have been eating after 8:00 PM for quite some time and have never felt good about it. I hate going to bed with food in my stomach. So this should help me.

So far I have been not eating anything after 7:00 PM. And it has not been bad.

Preparation Week

This week has been crazy. Plain and simple.

I have been preparing to go to training class in Wisconsin pretty much this whole week. It has been a combination of packing, printing out itineraries, checking on e-mails, studying and figuring out my computer system.

We have had so many problems with my computer. I think what happened was that they sent out my stuff too fast and did not get a lot of the stuff done on it that they needed to. And that is really kind of funny. But not when you are trying to do expense reports and weekly reports. Not like I have anything to report for this week but I need to know how to do it. Especially since I have items to expense.

I am also worried about leaving for one reason. Sassygurly has been having a rough time with her endometriosis. A part of the disease is that she can get to bouts of vomiting that dehydrate her. And that happened last week. We ended up spending Saturday night in the ER to get her rehydrated. They sent us home after they pumped her full of fluid. It did not help and she spent the rest of the next day vomiting again. She ended up going back to the ER on Monday night and was admitted. It helped somewhat but she is still not 100%. And that worries me.

I am also worried about the dress of the training. It is somewhat clear but not really. I know that I need to be business casual but what is their idea of business casual. I have my idea but not really theirs. I can only hope that I do it right.

The biggest bummer is that I will not be in CowTown for THE biggest game of the year!! The National Championships!!! With the Buckeyes. I talked to Manager E ( yes, my managers name is E also!! )about it and he has assured me that there is a sports bar across the street that I can watch the game on. But I know that there will be lots of parties going on in CowTown and I cannot go. My cell phone is going to get a workout that night.

Back to preparation.......