Category Archives: pageant

Keeping Athletes Safe in Sports

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I was excited to learn last week that Chris Nowinski was coming to Oklahoma to speak about the concussion crisis. Chris is the founder of the Concussion Legacy Foundation and, while I’ve interacted with him on twitter, I hadn’t ever met him in real life. I was also interested to learn what he had to share.

Nowinski-press conference - OKATC First there was a press conference. Our current pending concussion legislation in Oklahoma was discussed. Chris said it was a good bill. That it took the best of already exciting bills and added some other, innovative ideas. It is expected to be signed by Governor Fallin this week.

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Then it was time for his presentation Solving the Concussion Crisis: Keeping Athletes Safe in Sports. Chris talked about how concussions are an invisible injury that one can play through. They don’t cause pain, like a broken limb, and the symptoms are difficult to diagnose. Nearly one in four concussions are caused by head to ground impact.

Many times, the athletes don’t want to report their symptoms because they don’t want to appear weak or let their team down. In a survey, when concussions were called a “ding” more athletes reported having experienced one.

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About the problem, Nowinski said not a whole lot can be done about the problem if we keep hitting people in the head so much.

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From his presentation, it was easy to see that education and more understand are key to at least moving in the right direction in the concussion crisis. It was an honor to meet Chris Nowinski.

Safe Kids Day

It was SO much fun to participate in Safe Kids Day with Safe Kids Tulsa.

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I was in Tent 5.

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Because of my focus on keeping kids safe from concussion in youth sports, I got to man the Youth Sports Safety game.

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Before we started tossing bean bags, though, I talked to all the kids about proper safety equipment, hydration, and warming up before playing.

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The kids were fun, smart, and interactive. They all were excited to tell me about the sports that they play. Of course they all loved the bean bag tossing.

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I love it when I’m part of making a learning experience fun! 😀

My Story, My Why

On Sunday, the Oklahoma City Listen To Your Mother Show finally came to fruition. After submitting my story, auditioning, being accepted, rehearsing with my fellow cast members, the day had finally arrived. The show took place at the Will Rogers Theater.

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The amazing 2016 cast met once again for the show.

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We watched as the theater filled up.

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Finally, it was time to take the stage.

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I listened to the stories of my fellow cast members. Stories that did things to my heart that made me love this group of people like no other.

And then it was my turn. My story was called A Question of Guilt. It was my story about how I felt after reading the book Concussion and how it relates to the fact that my son had at least five concussions while playing football from ages 8 until 20. The story that has given me the mission to tell every single person I can that it’s not “just” a concussion and that helmets do not prevent concussions. Every. Single. Person. Everywhere. Anywhere.

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After the show was over, I went down to meet a friend of mine from twitter. We’ve been tweeting for years (I can’t even remember how long!) and I was so excited to finally meet her in real life.

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And then the most amazing thing happened! People that I didn’t know started coming up to me and thanking me for sharing my story. One young mother, with tears in her eyes, told me that she had been worried about letting her little boy play football and that my story was confirmation for her. This, my friends, was the cherry on top of an already awesome experience!

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I love that I got a chance to be a part of the 2016 Oklahoma City cast. I love that I got to share my story. And maybe, just maybe, my story will save another mom the guilt that I felt when I realized that a helmet did not protect my son’s precious brain. That is my goal. One mom at a time. Until I’ve told everyone.

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Many thanks to the producers Mari Farthing, Carolyn Bechtold, and Jennifer Smith for choosing me as a member of the cast. Thanks to my castmates for being completely incredible people (whom I love) and having the courage to share your stories. Thanks to Lyndzee Story for helping me with my hair and makeup. Thanks to Sheradee Hurst for the fabulous photos. And, finally, thanks to my incredible husband for always being by my side to love and support me.

If you have a story to tell, I can’t encourage you enough to seek out your local Listen To Your Mother Show and apply! It will change your life. 🙂

We Were Enchanted

I can’t believe we’ve been married for thirty seven years. Yes, 37 years! It seems like so long and, well, wow.

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I wanted to do something really different. I love mountains and David suggested we go to a guest ranch in either Montana or Wyoming. After a short search and trying to figure out how in the heck you get to one of those states (the usual airlines we fly don’t fly there), I said, why not a guest ranch in New Mexico?

Because I love New Mexico like no other state. It has the most different kind of beauty. David said that would be fine with him and I started searching for a guest ranch to visit. I discovered Concho Hills Guest Ranch, made the reservations and grew excited for our trip.

When we arrived, we were given the Bar B room, or Barbie! I was pretty excited about this. Marilyn and Tim (the owners) knew that I am the reigning Mrs. Southwest International and they thought I would like that. I did!

The first day we got familiar with the horses and went on a ride.

I rode John Wayne.

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David rode Captain Jack.

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He looks so awesome on a horse. 🙂

We climbed the rocks to see if we could find arrowheads or pottery.

We ate lots of great food and enjoyed magical scenery.

We enjoyed the company of our hosts, Marilyn and Tim Norris.

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All in all, it was a great trip and a fun way to spend our anniversary!

21 Day Cold Shower Challenge

Say what? Yes! I participated in a 21 Day Cold Shower Challenge with Ben Greenfield. I stood in a shower of the coldest water I could have for 5 minutes every day for 21 days. Not only did it benefit the Brain Trauma Foundation, I actually liked it!

I’ve been listening to Ben Greenfield’s podcast for quite a while now. His topics are so interesting and I’d heard at least two on the subject of cold thermogenesis before he announced the challenge.

Some of the benefits of cold exposure are:

Lowering body fat
Increasing hormone levels
Improving sexual performance and fertility
Lowering blood sugar
Cutting food cravings
Improving adrenal function
Fixing thyroid issues
Enhancing immune function
Improving deep sleep quality
Increasing pain tolerance
Reducing inflammation

I had already been doing two minutes a day since hearing the first podcast so I figured it would be easy enough to take it to five minutes. Plus, it had the additional benefit of raising funds for the Brain Trauma Foundation.

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The participants were all joined in a private Facebook group to share our daily experiences. We were encouraged to take a photo to post. After a couple of weeks, I thought mine were boring so I got some shower caps to liven it up.

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It was a fun experience and something I continue to do. We raised $3,644 for the Brain Trauma Foundation. So it was a great experience all around.

If you are interested in health and sports fitness and endurance, I can’t recommend Ben’s podcast enough. It’s always loaded with interesting and fascinating information!

Awesome engagement!

Snapchat is such a great platform to me. Although it’s my smallest network, it’s definitely my most engaged network. Yesterday, I had a lengthy discussion with a woman in The Netherlands about concussion and CTE. This morning, I had a new follower who coaches football for first and second graders in Texas. I talked to him about CTE and Flag Until 14. I even had one person who follows me be so interested that I was working against CTE that he googled me and found out I was a powerlifter as he is! So, anyway, I love snapchat. smile emoticon

The Akdar Shrine Circus

This past weekend, I was fortunate enough to be able to hang out in the Safety Station with Fire Marshall, Tom Hufford, and the Tulsa Fire Department.

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There was SO much safety information to share and I was so happy to be able to share concussion safety information.

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Over the four days, I spoke to so many people and it was gratifying to hear them thank me for sharing the information because they had no idea that concussions were so bad. My goal and my mission is to share with as many people as possible that a concussion isn’t “just a concussion”. The Safety Station was a great place for me to share this message.

The clowns were a blast, too!

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Many thanks to Tom and the Tulsa Fire Department for letting me hang out with them at the circus!

Beauty Secrets from a Clown

I’ve spent the past couple of days hanging out in the Safety Station with the Tulsa Fire Department at the Akdar Shrine Circus promoting my platform of concussion safety for kids.

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It’s a circus so, of course, there are clowns. I love clowns. So happy and fun!

The first clown I met and actually spoke to was Noze. We had a deep discussion about lipstick. Because, you see, he has the most fabulous, sparkly, red lips!

I asked him, “So where do you get your lipstick?”

He looked at me as if he was sizing me up. Trying to decide, should I tell her? Finally, he responded, “I make it myself.”

“Really? How do you do that?” I asked him, with excitement. I really need to have some of that lipstick and couldn’t wait to learn how to make it.

“Well,” Noze said, “I use red lipstick, then I put glitter glue on top of that, and then add red glitter.”

Hmm…. I was thinking. Glitter glue. Glue????

“So how do you get it off? How long does it take?” I asked him.

“I just use baby oil. It takes me an hour to put my face on but it takes me one minute to get it off.”

Whoa! That’s incredible! I was completely intrigued and clearly better informed for having had this conversation with Noze. Now, I’m off to buy some glitter glue. 😀

Trunk Show!

I was super excited to drive to Lawton, Oklahoma and visit my dress sponsor Crowning Around. They were holding a trunk show with the latest designs from Tony Bowls (my favorite!), Sherri Hill, and Ashley Lauren among others.

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I was looking forward to nailing down the final details for my custom Tony Bowls competition gown for the Mrs. International pageant next July. I was also hoping to get the remaining pieces of my wardrobe figured out.

First, I have to tell you how awesome the customer service is at Crowning Around. Lawton is three hours away from my home in Tulsa and a five hour flight from my home in California but I’ve never received such amazing customer service at any other shop and it was worth the drive to know that they would be doing their very best to help me with everything that I needed. I wasn’t disappointed!

It was so great to visit with Cynthia who helped me find the items I was looking for. She’s so kind and helpful and I feel like I’ve made a lifelong friend. I was also excited to see Victoria Wiggins, the new Mrs. Kansas USA. I met Victoria when she was a teen and competed in one of our Oklahoma International regional pageants. I’m super excited for her new title and I love how she bent over backwards to help me over the phone the first time I called the shop last month.

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All in all, it was a fabulous day. I’m excited for the sponsorship, I’m excited for the awesome wardrobe, I’m excited to have new friends! Thank you, Crowning Around!