Monthly Archives: August 2014

Today I Entered A Pageant

I’ve been thinking about this for a long time. Now that I’m no longer directing, why shouldn’t I compete again? You know, just one more time?

So today, I entered a pageant. 🙂

The American Beauty Pageant takes place next June in Orlando. I’ll compete in the Elite division which is for women aged 50 and over. I’m excited to lead by example and show other women that they don’t have to give up their pageant dreams just because they’ve turned 50. 

The last time I competed was in 2000. I competed for the second time in the All American Pageants, another system with multiple divisions. My sister joined me and competed in her first and only pageant. We had a lot of fun!

Before deciding which pageant to enter, I looked at all of the options I had. And there are many! I finally decided on American Beauty because my friend, Cat, competed this year and had a great time, and it has a beautiful crown. 🙂

American Beauty Crown

The areas of competition are interview, fitness wear or swimsuit, and evening gown. I’m so glad I don’t have to wear a swimsuit. I just don’t think I’d feel comfortable on stage in a swimsuit at this stage in my life. I’m excited to be a competing Glammie! 🙂

So now, I’m sitting tight waiting to hear if I will get the title I applied for: Elite Oklahoma. 

The pageant will take place next June in Orlando and I just can’t wait ot be on the competitive stage once more! 🙂

Book Review: Jasmine Skies

Jasmine SkiesJasmine Skies by Sita Brahmachari
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I really liked this book a lot. I read in the reviews that it was a sequel but I would have never guessed that a book came before it. I didn’t feel like I was missing information or drowning in back story.

Jasmine Skies is about Mira Levinson who flies to India to meet her cousin’s family. She knows that her aunt and her mom had had a falling out many years ago and she wants to discover what happened to cause it.

Mira finds India to be exciting and interesting and she eventually learns the family secrets while finding a new best friend in her cousin and love with Janu.

I highly recommend this book. I loved the descriptions of India and the story itself. I will definitely put Artichoke Heart, the first book, on my to read list! 🙂

View all my reviews

It’s a Dirty Life

I love this photo.

balls in bubbles

I took it yesterday after I loaded the pitching machine softballs into the soapy water to clean them. It looked so happy and it made me smile.

You see, on July 30 our new business, Athletic Mission Performance Center, burned. And there hasn’t been a lot to smile about since then. Geoff had just finished training Nikki and me. We were all talking about our plans for the rest of the day. Nikki went back to the ladies room and that’s when she discovered the fire.

It was scary but I think we handled it well. Nikki called 911 and Geoff and I moved quickly to get the HitTrax unhooked and moved to the farthest office in the building, away from the fire. I figured that we could save them if they didn’t get water damage when the fire department tried to put out the fire.

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After we had the expensive equipment moved we got out of the building. I saw two guys running towards us. I’m not even sure where they came from. They were pointing to the corner of the building. I don’t think they knew we knew it was on fire. I said we were just moving equipment and getting out. They said, “What can we move?”

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10 fire trucks came. It was pouring down rain. Our neighbors to the north told us we could hang out under their overhang. He continued to offer us anything we needed: a chair, water, the bathroom. I wanted to watch from outside, though. When he came out and asked if we wanted to see the fire from the back of the building, we took him up on it. We wove our way through their building and out their back door.

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Holy smokes! I think I could’ve gone my whole life without seeing that.

After the fire was put out we went back into the building. Although the fire damage itself was confined to the bathroom area where the vent fan had caught on fire, the fire was fueled by oil soaked insulation producing the thick black smoke that left tons of soot all over everything.

soot

The restoration company, Blackmon Mooring, was there to help us pick up the pieces. They are amazing. They are kind, compassionate, understanding and smart. They told us that the soot would eat into metal if it wasn’t taken care of immediately.

rusted pitching machine

And things sat there. We waited on the landlord, the insurance adjusters, and inspectors.

Our insurance company finally gave us the go ahead to move our things and we got to it yesterday. We needed to get all of the soot off of our things that we would be moving to the new location and so, balls in bubbles.

When I was paying rugby in Bahrain, they weren’t able to grow a grass pitch for us to play on so they made it out of sand. But, to keep the sand from blowing away, they mixed it up with oil. After every practice and game, we were covered with oil. They told me I would need to shower with dish soap to get it off. Dish soap? But it worked!

That’s why I chose to use Palmolive dish soap to clean our belongings in the Center. Not only does it cut the grease and clean surfaces easily, it’s not toxic or harsh. It was a perfect choice. As I showered last night, I wished I had brought some up to the bathroom because soap just doesn’t work as well. 🙂

We made a lot of progress yesterday. It’s sad to be taking the baseball cages down when we’ve only just put them up. 

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David wins the “Dirtiest of All” award.

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Today, our goal is to get the turf off the floor. It’s going to be another hot and dirty day but I love how our family works together. We help each other out, joke to lighten the mood and we’ve grown closer through this. 

We may be down but we are definitely not out. We will be back soon and better than before. I am so thankful to Blackmon Mooring (especially Kelsey, Trent, and Armando) for their help and guidance, our neighbors who rushed to help us the day of the fire, our clients for hanging in there with us while we get back up and running, and David, Geoff and Nikki for being pretty much the most awesome people in the world. 🙂