CMN National Pancake Day at IHOP!! :)

                                                                 This is the donation box!

                                               CMNH events are always a favorite of mine!

                                                             Greeting a little guest!

              One of the waitresses came to me and said this little boy HAD to "meet the princess" . . . me! I was tickled to go over and meet him! He was so sweet!

                                                              Such a happy little baby!

                                       
    This is Rusty and he remembered me from last year! Fun guy with a warm and funny personality!

                              These guys came straight from swim practice to eat pancakes for a cause!

          This wall (and behind me) was covered in CMNH balloons signed by guests that donated to CMNH for National Pancake Day!

                                    This is Jim and he is the manager of IHOP in Bloomfield Hills!

Tuesday, February 28th was National Pancake Day at IHOPS across America! It is always a wonderful day where proceeds go to the Children's Miracle Network Hospitals which is in partnership with the Miss America Organization! For the second year in a row, I traveled to the Telegraph Rd location in Bloomfield Hills and volunteered from 5-7pm to serve pancakes and visit with the guests while educating them about the CMN Hospitals and the importance of raising money for this amazing organization that help children with serious medical issues. I was also able to share the story of my own personal platform Best Bones Forever! and why I am an advocate for CMNH and why I participate in the largest scholarship pageant available to young women - the Miss America Organization.

This year we were asked not to go into the kitchen for photos or touch/serve the guests their plates so instead I took the time to stop at each table and chat with all of the patrons and signed autograph cards and I also enjoyed photo ops with many of them! You might think this is funny, but I have only been to IHOP a few times and only for breakfast so I always thought they ONLY served pancakes! Imagine my surprise when I saw all different kinds of food were served as well! I am a dork! ha ha!

Miss Michigan 2012 Orientation & Dinner!! :)

Abby & me!

Abby is contestant #3 (her lucky number) and me with my favorite number #18 pointing at the chart!We will be roommates at Miss Michigan! I could not be happier as she is a fantastic person! I can't wait to get to know her even better!

The lovely Cassandra!

               All dressed up for the dinner/dance on Saturday evening after the orientation was over!

                                            Our *formal* photo as the Class of 2012!! 

                                                                     A close up!

                                                                  The real us!! :)

Girls just wanna have fun!! :)

Saturday, March 3rd, was a very exciting day as we all met together for Orientation! We handed in our 2 cd's of talent music and our talent introduction right off the bat! Everything else (headshot, resume, platform statement, and 6 candids) were sent in electronically at an earlier date!

We were fitted for the opening number dress, which is a beautiful turquoise color, that will look great on every girl no matter her hair or skin color! A special thank you to Heidi Sheer for making it all possible! You chose a gorgeous dress for us Heidi and we all appreciate it!

Next we listened closely to all of the details we need to know and in the afternoon we chose our contestant numbers! For the second year I got my favorite number 18!! We also heard the messages that Elizabeth Wertenberger and Marissa Cowans shared with us of their year of service and Elizabeth's Miss America experience! They are both very eloquent and infused humor at every turn!  

My Director, Jeannette Greco-Pawlowski drove up early Saturday morning and we had a wonderful day together! We enjoyed a delicious lunch and dinner while chatting about pageant details! We also made a visit to the Viper Apparel room where my dear friend, and owner, Dalia, had the most beautiful gowns! I made the mistake of trying a few on and of course fell in love with one that is over my budget!!! I just can't forget it! If someone else buys it for MM I will probably cry! ha ha!

It was such a pleasure to meet with and talk to all of the Miss Michigan board members as I had not met them all last year. What an amazing and hard working team of people that volunteer their time to make things so wonderful for us! They are so helpful and kind! I am very excited to see what happens at MM and what plans the Lord has for each one of us! Everything happens for a reason and I am looking forward to compete this June and growing in the process!

Miss Lighthouse Coast!! :)

      Friends for life! If I ever get married I just know that Emily will be in my wedding!

This is Emily K. my very best friend in all of pageant land!! :)

The beautiful and talented D'Stanza Murphy represented Miss Lady of the Lakes and

amazed us all with her operatic voice!

         I had the joy of escorting D'Stanza onto the stage floor for the Miss Lighthouse Coast finale!

Jodi Beckman, Miss Ludington, came up and introduced herself to me! We became fast friends and hit it off imediately! What a very fun new friend! 

                                                                         Just me!

The amazing Abby Grimmett! Little did we know that the next day we would find out we are roomies for Miss Michigan! Wow - how did I get so blessed to have such a great person to room with?!

          I have the utmost respect for the beautiful Cassandra Kramer~ She is an excellent example of humility, grace, and integrity! And best of all she is a woman of God!

 The very funny, cute, and talented Sydney Learman! We go way back! And I treasure her friendship!

                                                                               

Congratulations to Tiffany Rodgers the newly crowned Miss Lighthouse Coast! She was the last one to join the MM Class of 2012!

 

Elyse Losen and I were roommates at a Dr. Pepper/Snapple event last Fall! We always have a good time and laugh together!

The first night of Orientation was Friday, March 2nd. The Miss Lighthouse Coast pageant featured 35 very talented, beautiful, well spoken young women vying for the last spot to qualify for the Miss Michigan pageant coming up in June! Tiffany Rodgers will join our class and made a stunning Miss LHC! Tiff sang 'Part of Your World' from Disney's Ariel which is the same song I sang when I started out in the Miss division in 2009!

Fire & Ice 2012!!

Bitterly cold and no snow!

This family is now very interested in the MAO and they are going to try and attend the pageant!! Yay!

This young lady was shy, but still wanted to talk with me! So cute!

Fire and Ice was the third and final event of the day for me on Saturday, February 28th. This event is hosted by the city of Rochester and was originally scheduled for the end of January. The celebration of winter at Fire and Ice displays beautiful ice sculptures for everyone to enjoy, but the weather  this year did not cooperate and a warming trend cancelled all the fun and delayed it until the end of February!
Unfortunately, about half of the scheduled events were cancelled too due to lack of snow!

It was a bitterly cold day and after viewing the ice scuptures I headed over to the warming hut! I was greeted by the members of the Lions Club that hosted the hut and provided us with goodies and hot chocolate! I really enjoyed visitng with many families and spending time with the kids because I love children and they always make me smile! Many of them wanted an autograph photo card from me and I was very happy to sign it for them and take photos with them as well!

I hope that next year's Fire and Ice will go smoothly and that the weather/snow will cooperate so that all the events will be run and enjoyed by all!

CMN Angel Kisses :)

                               Woody's Diner, in Rochester Hills, was the setting for 'Angel Kisses.'

                                                      A CMNH event to help local kids!

           The silent auction had several baskets! I was looking for ideas for the Miss Michigan silent auction to come in June!

This gentleman asked me if I was at the State Capital last May 2011. I was!! I saw a resolution passed to establish Michigan Osteoporosis Day to promote my personal platform Best Bones Forever!! He brought a classroom of students that day and I had a picture taken with them! I am always surprised when people remember me! ha ha!  

Many moms were wearing the 'Angel Kisses' sweatshirt with the names of the children they had lost printed on the back.

This is Kate! She said she knew my mom from years ago and then looked at the woman standing next to me (my mom) and let out a holler! Before I knew it they were hugging and I was totally confused! Kate's mom was in my parents wedding as a bridesmaid, almost 30 years ago, and my mom did her student teaching in Kate's mom's class! She is so sweet and drove all the way from Kalamazoo to volunteer for this wonderful event!

                                                                       Darling little girls!

                                                                                   

While greeting guests I met the woman on the right, who I learned, was the one sending me all the emails about a future event that she has invited me to! So nice to put a face with a name and see who I have been responding to!

                                                                        Just chatting!

                                                                           Sisters!

Beautiful auction baskets!

The first CMN volunteer opportunity for 2012, through Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, was the 4th Annual 'Angel Kisses' which was held on Saturday, February 25th at Woody's Diner at 208 Fifth Ave in Royal Oak. I was assigned as a greeter on the second floor from 2-4pm and I enjoyed every minute of it!! :)
The goal of this fundraiser was to raise $21,000 which included a Silent Auction, a 50/50 raffle, over 100 grab items, and a candle lit moment-of-silence. Another goal of Angel Kisses is that one day they would like to be on a larger scale equal to that of the Susan B. Komen events. I just know they will one day meet that goal and I wish them all the very best in their quest.
The purpose of 'Angel Kisses' was to fund the launch of standard care to assist families who experience pregnancy and newborn loss at Royal Oak Beaumont Hospital. This standard will include training staff for bedside care and the handling of bereavement mementos and to assist the Perinatal Bereavement Coalition in providing an educational conference for hospital caregivers across the state.
This was a very humbling event for me and I appreciate being included. I have never lost a child, but it was very touching to see these couples who had come out to participate and still managed to smile.