Tag Archives: mrs. international

Knowing me, knowing you

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For the five years I directed the Mrs. Oklahoma International Pageant, I drove five Mrs. Oklahomas to the Mrs. International Pageant in Chicago.

Given how much “stuff” you need to compete for a week and the fact that Chicago is a pretty easy drive, it seemed to make a lot of sense. I always joked with the girls that the twelve (give or take) hour road trip with me was the prize they were looking forward to the most.

What I found was that this uninterrupted time with each other helped us to form a bond that would carry us through the year of her reign and beyond.

So I’m not sure why it is that I’m always so blown away when I receive a gift from one of these amazing gals that is just so right on the money.

We had a dinner last week to introduce the girls to Kristin, who is the new director for the pageant.

I wasn’t expecting any presents other than another opportunity to spend time with “my girls”, but Autumn, Mrs. Oklahoma International 2011, came bearing gifts.

First, there was a canvas wine bag with the saying, “So much wine, so little time!”

If you’ve been following me around twitter, facebook or in real life, you’ll know that I’m trying all kinds of new wines to try and get my fill since there is no alcohol allowed in Saudi.

Inside the wine bag, is a bottle of Middle Sister Rebel Red wine.

I am totally that sister down to the platform shoes! :-)

Then came the hand painted Queen wine glass.

Of course we all know that I am the Queen. ;-)

And last, but certainly not least, came the beautiful Willow Tree sculpture called “Grandmother”.

This just made me cry. Joyfully, of course.

The girls know me and Autumn is no exception. I love it and I love them.

Thank you, Autumn, for your beautiful, heart felt gifts.

xoxo Lauri :)

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And the sign says…

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Last year, we bought my Jeep before we headed to the Mrs. International Pageant in Chicago. Because we don’t believe in credit cards, it’s been difficult to rent a big vehicle each year with a debit card. David didn’t want to see a melt down at the airport again so he bought me the Commander.

The first thing I noticed was the BIG back window. “Marketing space,” it said to me. So I contacted my twitter friend Jason, to get a sign put on the back window.

When we got to Chicago, my car made it onto the Pageant Cast’s facebook page before a photo of Mrs. Oklahoma did.

Well, as of July 31st, I am no longer the director of the Mrs. Oklahoma International Pageant. So it was time to remove the sign.

It was pretty easy to use a razor blade to remove the sign.

Then some nail polish remover to remove the sticky stuff and some Windex and…

Voila!

Turn the page.

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Pageants

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So did you know, that if you go to google and type in the word “pageants” that my Mrs. Oklahoma International Pageant website is the third listing? I’m pretty proud of that. There are a lot of pageants out there! :-)

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Brava!

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You know I love to read. I like to read all kinds of books and regularly go through the new books at the library pulling them off the shelf, look at the cover, look inside, maybe read the back or flap to decide if I want to take them home with me.

I end up reading all different kinds of books this way but if a book isn’t good, I don’t waste my time. Two of my mottoes in life are “So many books, so little time” and “Life is too short to read bad books”.

I particularly like books that draw me in right away and also books that have fabulous characters that I’d like to know in real life. Those books are the hardest to finish, though, because I never want them to end. I miss the characters when the story is over.

A book that falls into this category is Saving CeeCee Honeycutt by Beth Hoffman. The story drew me in right away but I grew to love all of the amazing, colorful characters inside.

I wrote about this book on The Mrs. Oklahoma Pageant blog because in it, Aunt Tootie tells Cee Cee how to find her fire. The way she did this perfectly described how I would help a contestant in the pageant figure out what platform she should promote.

I contacted Beth and asked her if I could excerpt her story on the pageant blog and she graciously said yes. I was so excited! Later, she asked me if I could share my story on her blog on a page called Brava! She said it was a place where she highlights women that she admires.

Wowza. I was honored, humbled, excited!

I had written an article about the pageant from my perspective and submitted it to a local magazine here in Tulsa. They told me that it wasn’t really what they were looking for so it was just sitting in my computer without a home. I told Beth I actually had already written something and I sent it to her.

The week we were in Chicago at the Mrs. International Pageant, Beth shared my story on her blog. I cried. I finally got to tell people how I feel as the director of the amazing women who enter our pageant and Beth actually thought someone would be interested.

Beth and I have established a friendship that I treasure. If you get a chance to read her book, you should. It’s awesome and truly one of my all time favorites. Thank you, Beth!

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Out of the blue in left field

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Last fall I attended a meeting of the Bartlesville Marketing and Communications Association where I am a member. The speaker that day was talking about communicating change within your company. It was a really interesting presentation and she showed us a tool she used called a communication message wheel.
At the end of the meeting, they asked if anyone had any announcements. The Symphony had an announcement and the Community Center had an announcement. I thought, “why not?” and announced that we did not have a Mrs. Bartlesville for the 2010 pageant and that we were accepting applications. Everyone laughed. I was hurt.
My friend, Lee, was at the meeting. He doesn’t usually come but he was there that day. The next day, out of the blue, he called.
“Have you used that change wheel for your pageant yet?” he asked.
“Why?” I said.
“Well isn’t it obvious?”
And there it was, out of left field, an idea whose time had come.
Lee went on to say that he knows what my pageant is about because we have lunch here and there and we talk about it. But he wondered how many other people were hearing my message?
As the director of the Mrs. Oklahoma International pageant, I’ve always felt it was my role to stay in the background and promote the platforms of my State and local titleholders. But Lee was right. Who is telling the story of the pageant?
Today, I was asked to speak at the Bartlesville Kiwanis Club meeting. I got to tell the background and information about the state and National pageant. Interspersed with the details I got to share a lot of the amazing things that my titleholders are doing. It was awesome. My biggest fear was that I would cry. I really am so proud of the women who compete in our pageant that I get choked up sometimes when I watch all of the incredible things they are accomplishing around the state.
I was blessed to introduce Mrs. Bartlesville 2011 who then shared a little about her platform and why she decided to enter our pageant. It was wonderful to see how receptive the group was to her message.
I hope to be able to share the pageant story with various groups around the state. I think they will be surprised by what we like to call the journey that changes lives.
As it changes my titleholders lives, so does it change mine.
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So let me tell you about Saturday

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Nutshell time (because you know I can go on). Saturday, March 6, began early, early. We asked the girls to be at the Stillwater Community Center at 8:00 a.m. and once we were all moved in, we began rehearsal.

We’re pretty good at the one day pageant. It’s what we’ve done every year since we started. With 12 contestants, it can be accomplished in a day if everyone works hard. We started out with opening number and then went through all the other phases of competition until the husbands arrived to rehearse their portion at noon.

Rachel, Mrs. Oklahoma 2009, is a phenomenal dancer and she is now our choreographer. She created an opening number to U Got the Look by Prince. Upbeat, fun, HARD from the looks of it. Oh no. I told the girls we walk, maybe move hands/arms, sway, but no dancing. This looks like dancing to me. But they got it! After a while, it all just came together and they looked fabulous up there.

We had technical difficulties. None of the music CDs I had burned would play. Sean, the technical guy at the SCC, should receive a medal or something. Infinitely patient, smart, helpful, he is a joy to work with and we got it all up and running with time to spare.

My day is spent running around taking care of so many things. I had left the rehearsal in the very capable hands of my former Mrs. Oklahomas, Shelly (field general), Rachel (choreographer), and Brookie (encourager in chief) and was free to move about, make that run about, the building.

There comes a point in the day where I see it all come together. That happened when we finally got the fitness wear music to work for rehearsal. I stood back in the control booth and I just “saw” it all gel. I cried. I’m such a sap and I do a lot of crying throughout the pageant. I work on it all year and that point is just monumental and sets me up for the rest of the event.

The ladies had their one-on-one interviews with the judges beginning at 3. I had just enough time to change into something more presentable to greet our amazing judging panel. I was so honored to have Laine and Kevin Berry, Yvonne Stevens, Monique Terrell and Jon Conneely judge for us this year. They were well prepared, friendly and focused. Brookie served as our judge’s chair this year and I loved her in that role. She is so friendly, fun and helpful that I knew she was the one who should fill that spot. Oh, and I trust her with my life. :-)

The day just speeds up after the interviews are over. Time for another costume change to get ready for the pageant to start. I was able to meet and talk to several people whom I hadn’t met before or seen in a while before the pageant started which was great.

The pageant was flawless. Gets me all choked up to think about it, again. The ladies were beautiful and did a great job. Shelly runs a tight ship and we moved through the program at a nice pace. Sherri, managed the stage for us and did a great job. It was sad to say goodbye to our three younger 2009 titleholders. But they will always be the queens of my heart.

Then it was time to say farewell to Rachel. She still doesn’t know how much she means to me, I’m sure. She was an amazing Mrs. Oklahoma and is an amazing friend. It’s always hard for me to say goodbye to the reigning Mrs. Oklahoma. I want her to know how much she means to me but I don’t want the new Mrs. Oklahoma to think there isn’t room in my heart for her because there is.

Our new Mrs. Oklahoma, Stephanie was crowned. She will be a wonderful Mrs. Oklahoma and I’m excited to spend the year with her. I look forward to our 12 hour car ride to Nationals, the experience of the national pageant, and then the remaining portion of the year we have left when we get back to Oklahoma. Growing her platform, growing the pageant, spreading the International word.

I don’t have my own girls and these girls, ladies, of the Oklahoma International Pageant are my girls. I love them all, could not do it without them. My life is so much better for being able to be a part of their lives. What we share is priceless and amazing. I am truly blessed.

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There are really no words

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I am beyond blessed. This past weekend’s Mrs. Oklahoma International Pageant was, in a word, AMAZING! But even that great word can’t come close to expressing just what I feel about the experience.

We arrived on Friday and our first mission was to set up the stage at the Stillwater Community Center. Mrs. Oklahoma ’07 and Mrs. Oklahoma ’09 were there to help me. Sometimes a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do and pretty soon, we were moving these large and heavy platforms onto the stage. I joked around that one of the new requirements for Mrs. Oklahoma is that she should be able to lift 70 pounds like UPS. We are the purple! And we are a platform based pageant after all so we should probably add a platform lifting competition. ;-)

Orientation began at 6. This was the first time that all of the ladies had been together in one place. Because of our Go Red for Women affiliation, there are opportunities during the year for us to get together now before the pageant and that has been fun and rewarding.

I am such a sap. To see these beautiful committed women all in one room, knowing their hearts and their passions, well, it choked me up. We truly do have the most amazing women enter our pageant.

Amy Dunn, a survivor of heart disease, was first on the agenda. She is a young mother who has heart disease. I think we were all really impacted by her message given her young age. This could be any of us. I loved her completely Go Red attitude that included her hair and outfit! She told use she had never spoken in public before but you would have never been able to guess that. She had a powerful message for us.

We were then blessed with inspirational and encouraging messages from Mrs. Oklahoma 2000, Sandy Haesloop, Mrs. Oklahoma 2007, Brooke Good, and Mrs. Oklahoma 2009, Rachel Roberts. I sat there in awe, choked up again, at their composure, message and beauty. I have met many of the national Mrs. Internationals and these three women share the same wonderful qualities – approachable, friendly, well spoken, beautiful. Inside and out beautiful, cliche’ though it may be. It’s so very true.

My favorite part of the evening was when I asked each local titleholder to stand up, introduce themselves and tell us the coolest thing they had done with their platform. Wow. I have goosebumps as I type this. Again, I was choked up. Proud, proud, proud of each and every one of them.

I then had to add to the list, the coolest thing that I do with my “platform” which is “Encouraging Titleholders in the Mrs. Oklahoma International Pageant“. Watching them travel the road from when they enter until when they compete is so awesome for me. I love watching their growth, sharing their excitement. This, my friends, is a priceless position that I fill and there really are no words to describe how serving as the director of the Mrs. Oklahoma International pageant completes and fulfills me.

Check back. When I get a second, I’ll tell you about the pageant itself. :-)

PS – about the crying? You should probably see my previous post “We’ve got to carry each other” for an explanation about that. I cry. A lot. :-)

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