End of the Day, End of the Week, End of the Month.....

It has been a VERY long month....

For me, it has been a crazy month. The month has been a little slow as everyone is spending towards the holidays and I do not handle slow very well.

I am trying to find the bottom of my office and I have not found it yet. I feel like I am buried in paper and cannot come out of it. Luckily for me the boys are heading out to play tomorrow morning. As sad as it sounds I may take the time to find the bottom of my office. And fast.

I am hoping that December comes with a little more busyness and business. I want to end the year strong but may have most of it go to the next year. Just to build a good base to enter in. Always nice to have a cushion to fall on.

Have a great weekend!!!!

Ohio International Pageants Has A New Director!!!!

I am excited to know that there is a new director for the Mrs. Ohio, Miss Ohio and Miss Teen Ohio International pageants. When my director, Susan Botek, went into pageant directing retirement last year I was worried that it would just fall. I had actually found out over a week ago that Vicki LeVeck was the new Executive Director! I have known Vicki since I had competed with her at Miss Cuyahoga County Fair in 1993 in a Miss Ohio America preliminary.

Vicki has always treated me very well throughout my years of competing and has always been extremely supportive of me. I know that she will do an incredible job as the new director! We will miss Susan very much but I know that she is excited to be able to sit in the audience as a former titleholder and just enjoy the show.

Below is the first article that I have seen in regards to the change in directorship. Many thanks to Abby Bollenbacher for providing the link!!



Zanesville new home for state pageant
Executive director excited about moving headquarters
By HOLLY RICHARDS
Staff Writer

ZANESVILLE - With the definite prospect of an economic boost, Vicki LeVeck is excited to bring the state pageant headquarters to the Y City.

LeVeck, who serves as the executive director of the Muskingum County Convention Facilities Authority and Miss Southeastern Ohio Scholarship Program, will also wear the hat of executive director and owner of the Ohio International Pageant System.

Earlier this month, she officially acquired the Miss Ohio, Mrs. Ohio and Teen Ohio International franchises, which could lead to a major boost in tourism and business.

"This will create an incredible spike in the local economy," LeVeck said. "In addition to the three divisions of the state competition, the competitors' friends, families and fans will be staying in our hotels, buying gas at our gas stations, shopping at our retailers and attending events like this that we've been looking to bring to Zanesville."
She said she will bring these three competitions to Zanesville as early as March, and will be marketing throughout the state.

"This will heighten awareness of Zanesville and who we are," she added. "I hope this will be another opportunity to put Zanesville on the map, welcome people to the community and continue to grow."

While experimenting with these responsibilities, LeVeck said she still plans to head up the annual Miss SEO competition.

"It almost directs itself," she said. "The community has been so supportive and hungry to see it return, and I've got an incredible committee that helps run it. And this year, we will offer the new Miss SEO an opportunity to go on to Miss Ohio International, and we will waive the entry fees."

LeVeck said Zanesville seemed to be the perfect fit for the headquarters, which has been located in Toledo since 1991.

"They were looking for new franchise owners, and I wondered if Zanesville could support the program; they were impressed with what they saw," she said. "Being the director of the Muskingum County Convention Facilities Authority and pageant system goes hand-in-hand, especially when trying to define entertainment in Zanesville. These are family events and business events, and they bring literally hundreds of people into Zanesville. I hope we will continue to see great things."

For more information about the International programs, visit www.MrsInternational.com, www.Miss-International.us or www.MissTeenInternational.us.


hrichards@nncogannett.com
740-450-6772

The Great Pop Tart Debate

Ok. This one should definitely be an interesting blog.

My husband and I have been in a debate over Pop Tarts for the longest time. It has now become the family debate!!

The argument is this. I say that the proper serving of a Pop Tart is one toaster pastry. My husband says that the proper serving of a Pop Tart is one wrapped package which consists of two toaster pastries.

The box clearly says the serving is one Pop Tart. Not two, just one.

His argument is that if it were meant to be one Pop Tart they would have wrapped them separately, not together.

And for this argument alone I am the new Food Bad Guy!! Flexigirl should be able to understand this one as she is the Food Bad Guy around her family too. We have yet another thing in common.

Please feel free to weigh in with your commentary. I look forward to seeing which side each person is on.

Happy Birthday Lorilea!!

I cannot believe that my niece is 6 years old today!!! It just seems like yesterday we were rushing up from Columbus to go to Marymount Hospital to await the arrival of a little girl to be named Lorilea.

Hope that you have a very Happy Birthday Lorilea!!! We are looking forward to the birthday party and the celebration!!

Black Friday Madness

Yes, I confess. I was one of the crazy people up at 3:30 AM to go out and to find the best deals for the Christmas holiday.

We plotted and planned a bit of an excursion for this bright and early morning. We knew first and foremost that we were hitting Wal-Mart first and going on to Jo-Ann Etc. after that. Then from there it was totally up in the air.

We got exactly what we wanted at all of the stores that we hit. E was the only one who was having a hard time. He was looking for DVD-R's at the really good prices and they were completely out by the time we got there. Sorry E!!

And the craziest thing. We are not even completely done yet!!! We still need to go see Santa at the mall and try to hit one more store. I am exhausted but really having a lot of fun. And you can sleep when you are dead so I am not stressing too bad over being tired!!

And the sad part is this. I am already starting to look forward to Black Friday for next year. So sad....

Happy Turkey Day!!!

Thanksgiving is here once again and I do have a lot to be thankful for.

This year my brother has my niece for the holiday. Since his divorce he is on an every other year deal and this is our year. The kids are running all over the house having a great time. They keep calling the turkey "Turkey Lurkey". Too cute.

For me it gives me the chance to reflect on what I am thankul for. I have a lot to be thankful for this year. I am in a rewarding career (that only drives me somewhat nuts every once in a while), I have a beautiful family and I have great friends who are extremely supportive of me. I am blessed.

This year I have planned out two very strong scrapbooking pages to show my thankfulness and the thankfulness of others. I will try to scan it on to show at a later time, otherwise find me so I can show them to you. Flexigirl will definitely appreciate this!!

I am also planning on the route we are going to take for Black Friday. I have my eye on a particular item and I am dying to get there at the right time. Here is hoping that it is still there. We will be having the kids pick what they want for their Santa Wish List and make a special visit to see good ole Santa Claus at the mall. Where else would he be?

Wishing everyone a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday!!!

OSU Wins Over Michigan!!

Thank you God, the Buckeyes WON yesterday against Michigan!!!

This has been a very interesting season. Believe it or not a lot of how a business week goes does depend on how well the Buckeyes play in football. If, or shall I say when, they win, people are very willing to talk business. If not, they are not as receptive. Funny how football can do that to a college town.

Final score: OSU 14 Michigan 3

I wanted to share a cute photo that was sent to me by one of my friends and supplier of CE courses for me. Rob Fill sent this to me and I thought it was a hoot. It is proof that God is a Buckeyes fan:

Quiz Time... Who Am I????

I was taking a little bit of time to unwind and ran across these people quizzes. Here are my results:

I am a fan of Degrassi. Have been since I have been in junior high school. Well, the Next Generation is out and I watch the shows as emphatically as I did in junior high. Here are my results from here:



I also watch The Hills when I get a chance. Mainly that means I DVR it and watch it the next day. Don't want to overlaod my husband on too many girl shows. Here are my resluts from here:



This is the one that confused me. I am a fan of Pageant Place. I really do think that it realistically shows titleholders. You have the ones who try to be super perfect, the ones who are realistic and very down to earth and the ones who are jsut downright sweet. I love it!! Here was my result from that quiz:



If I find any more quizzes based off of my shows I will definitely post.

It Has Been So Very Long...

Since I have last blogged. I am disappointed in myself.

We have had a very long and busy month. Lots of good things and a few bad things. But overall pretty good.

Here are some of the good as I want to stay in the positive:

B made Student of the Month at school. I found out when I went to pick him up from school the one day. His teacher asked him to tell me his news. As soon as she said that I had figured he made Student of the Month. He told me that he had to go to the principals office on Monday. I put on the stern face and asked what he did wrong ;) He got defensive and said it was to eat pizza with the principal. I asked why was that (as if I did not know) and he said it was because he was Student of the Month!! I was so excited for him. That is a great honor to have. I waited to get to the car to hug him and kiss him as to not embarrass him in front of his class. I took him to school the following Monday to have his pizza with the principal. I was prepared to take pictures but he did not want me to because it would embarrass him. So I am going to ask the school for the photos that they took.

We had Halloween. On the Saturday before Halloween we took him and the Carr girls to the Columbus Zoo for Boo at the Zoo. They had a great time going around the zoo and getting candy from the vendors. The candy was kind of disappointing as majority of it was Tootsie Rolls but they had a good time and that is all that matters. Halloween was okay as it started out with its normal bratty fit that he is infamous for every year. We had to get the traditional time out picture. Then it was around the neighborhood we went. We had a great time and collected a lot of candy. I think we wore poor Teach Holloway out but I think she had a good time too.

E and I judged America's Beautiful Role Model. I competed in this pageant over 10 years ago and it was wonderful to go back and judge for them. They had a great pageant and some wonderful contestants. Check out their website at . It is a beautiful website. They have not updated their National winners yet but it will be soon.

The following weekend E and I went back to Dallas to judge a pageant called Diamonds and Pearls . He judged the modeling portion and I judged the photo portion. The photo portion is not always my favorite to judge but it was not bad at this one. Best part was that they allowed us to pick the photo we liked and judge it accordingly instead of judging all of them. It is so nice to do that. The hard part for E was that the game was on during the pageant and OSU was losing to Illinois. Did not make for a fun evening. No worries. No scores were affected by the outcome of the game. I promise.

Coming up is more judging for me and the big OSU vs. Michigan game this weekend. I am anxious for the game but ready to get it over with. The games can be stressful when you know how it can affect a whole city and sales for the week. Usually when we are winning people are more ready to talk and meet with me. But when they are losing it is harder. Mind you we are getting into the slow season in my business. And that is rough for me. I cannot stand to be slow!!! But hopefully things will pick up.

Till later and hopefully that does not mean a month later......