Mrs. Iowa Pageant

The pageant is coming up REAL fast! I am furiously trying to get my interview skills more polished & to "whip" myself into shape! I think God has sent me a great person to work with, though. It was a little weird because this pageant coach just contacted me out of the blue. Her name is Holly Ernst and she was the commentator for the Beauties of America Pageant the year that I won, and she was Mrs. MN in 2006, the year that I got first runner-up for Mrs. Iowa. I've known her for close to 5 years now, but never real well. Even so, she has been one of my biggest fans and cheerleaders since I started competing in 1999. Anyway, as I said she contacted me by email to see if I was doing the Mrs. Iowa Pageant this year and offered her services to help me prepare! I was a little skeptical, because I know that most pageant coaches charge anywhere from $65 - $100/ hour and we definitely can not afford that right now. So I asked God if He sent her to me and to give me a sign that He had. Well, I talked it over with Louis, about the cost of working with her and the benefits it might afford me in the competition, and he figured I should at least give her a call and see what she charged. So I called her the next day and we worked out an understanding that would benefit both of us. I knew right then that God had sent her to me!
Holly has a mock interview session set up on May 20th in Minneapolis, so I will be taking a day & a half off from work to participate in that. I know it will help me tremendously, especially since Holly video tapes it. I think it will be great to see, as well as hear, myself in "interview mode"! I have come up with my own way of preparing for interview this year by being on some of the radio stations here in Central Iowa. I've been on a country station, a classic rock station ( a little nervous for that one!), a christian station and a news talk station. So they have all been very different, which I think will benefit me a lot! I will be making a repeat appearance on the rock station, country station and the news talk station in the 2 weeks before the pageant. I've always toyed with the idea of being a DJ, but wasn't to crazy about the hours. Maybe it will be something I can do after the kids are older. Anyway, Louis says I sound GREAT on the radio! (translation: great = hot!). I do have a lot of fun doing it, though!
The pageant competition is June 6th & 7th in St. Paul, MN. Interviews are late morning, early afternoon on the 6th and stage competition is the evening of the 7th. Since the MN directors took over both IA and WI, there will be 3 crownings that evening. This year MN has the least amount of contestants around 5-6 ladies, which is VERY usual for them! WI has about 7-8 ladies and IA has about 9-10 ladies! So the competition for Mrs. Iowa should be a good one. I do better when there is competition. Something about it being more of a challenge helps me to do better and stay focused. Please keep me in your prayers that weekend, especially late morning, early afternoon on the 6th (Interviews. Not my strong suit!) If you are interested in going to the competition on the 7th you can contact the Fitzgerald Theatre or Ticketmaster for tickets. They are between $25 & $35. Wish me luck!!