“There's no half-singing in the shower, you're either a rock star or an opera diva.”

I have been reminded again recently how much God has blessed me when it comes to being surrounded with amazing people. The past couple weeks have really raised my confidence thanks to some truly wonderful people. Whether those people are family members who have no doubt that I can succeed, or friends who help me pick out my wardrobe, give me walking tips, assure me that its ok to eat that cupcake I am dying for, or are just friends and family that tell me I can do it. I am so blessed to be surrounded by these people. People that truly want me to be all I can be, and go out of their way to help me in my goals. I can only hope that I encourage my friends the same way they encourage me. So, about a month ago (yeah I know it has been far too long since I have written) I did a bullying presentation at a school not far from where I grew up. I went to Seaford middle school along with my sister Katie and a wonderful pageant friend Allison. I feel the presentation was successful and I really enjoy speaking to the kids who are our future leaders. These young adults need to know the consequences of what they are doing and that is what I am educating them on. I haven't been too involved with "pageantry" lately due to the fact that I have been sick for over 2 weeks. Being confined to bed and home for that length of time is definitely not fun. And another bummer was when I was sick for a trip my husband and I planned for valentines day. It was going to be the first time I ever went skiing but I guess there is always next year. I have many things coming down the pike so I will be very excited to be updating my blog (more faithfully) in the next little while. Until then stay beautiful all my amazing friends!

Time to pull off the rose colored glasses!

I didn't even realize how long it has been since I have posted. So yeah it has been a month. What can I say except busy, busy, busy. So as far as Mrs. Delaware pageant prep is going....I have finally this week started tanning. I know you might say "Girl, you don't need to start this early you still have over 4 months". Well honey, my answer to you is I know there is a problem when using my new camera I have to put the setting to "snow" if I am in the picture. So it will give me plenty time to get my nice golden glow. I have been working out and eating better so I am very happy about that. Very soon I will be amping up everything and taking it to another level. I am getting more excited as time goes by. But for me the most important progression I have taken is in regards to my platform. I couldn't be more excited with the direction that Behind The Mask is going. Behind the Mask is what I decided to call my campaign. As most of you know, I have been working very hard to get my campaign out there and into some schools. Not only have I been able to do this, but I am also going to be given the opportunity to take this into another state. For a while I was worried that I wasn't going to be able to get it off the ground. But after much hard work, people are really seeing the positive aspect of it and the importance of teaching our youth. And to me that is the biggest accomplishment as of lately. This Friday I will be doing a presentation at a middle school that is not far from where I grew up. This is a very large school, so more potential to reach lives. I am in the process of reading a book and I highly recommend it to others. The book is called "Please stop laughing at me" by Jodee Blanco. This is a fantastic book for anyone to read. Whether you were bullied when you were younger or if you have children that are going to school, or if you just want to read a moving book. This book has really opened up my eyes in a new way, to the mentality of people when it comes to dealing with bullying. As a country we need to pull off our rose colored glasses and deal with the situation! We need to stop telling people that "kids will be kids' or "grow a thinker skin". Children are out there committing suicide because they feel worthless and hopeless. It is time we put our shoes on right and stood up against this. Its not a joke so we need to stop treating it like it is. I sympathize with the people who try to get help and are told they are "over dramatizing" the situation when in reality people just refuse to take off their rose colored glasses and stare bullying right in the face! Well, I am taking my stand, I am getting my priorities where they need to be. I am so tired of seeing on the news and reading story after story of terrible bullying. What is wrong with people? Its time to get off our butts and realize what our future generation looks like. Less than a month ago there where 7 student (all of them were 14-16 years old)in the philadelphia area that beat another student and then hung him by his coat on a tall fence. Wake up everyone!!! These are our future leaders. The kids we are raising now are going to be the ones in authority in the future!!! Less than a year ago in Chicago an honor roll student (14 years old) got beat to death with 2X4s and metal pipes right outside of his school. And the worst thing was that there were rows and rows of cars and people standing around and driving by as this occurred, yet not one person stopped. Someone even took video of this happening, yet did someone bother to step in to stop it......no. I hope I am not the only one that sees the problem with this. Ok I am done ranting and raving about this. I try to keep this blog as positive as possible but sometimes people need a wake up call and I feel this country is long overdue when it comes to this topic. We as a country need to realize what is going on in our schools and on our streets, we need to step up and do something. Edmund Burke said "Evil prevails when good men to nothing" and that is exactly what happened in this instance and in many other instances.

Here I am sipping on tea and honey

What a truly blessed time it has been this past week! I do hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and as we look into the New Year please plan safely wherever it is you may be going. So here I am and it is about 5:30am, its been kinda crazy lately but I have been waking up early for some crazy reason (don't ask why because I have no clue and it is slightly irritating). But I figured today I would get up instead of lying in bed hoping to get another few winks in and try to do something productive. So this is it, updating my blog= me being productive. I have a slight sore throat so hence the title. I haven't been up to much lately except Christmas. This year we struggled a little bit due to my husband not having a job up until about 2 weeks ago. I was slightly worried that this Christmas would be tough but we got through it and the boys toy box can attest to that! On the day before Christmas eve I had my holiday Christmas party at work. It was very enjoyable to pretty much just sit around eat and goof off and of course have some real banging eggnog (still gotta get that recipe B). I swear to you, you could hate eggnog but get addicted to this stuff. I think I might have to make this drink a year round experience. Anyway, on Christmas eve I got up bright and early and went to the salon to get pampered. Thank you to Pam at Trilogy Salon and Day Spa, you are truly a miracle worker and my new favorite hairstylist. I dyed my hair plus did a great cut that includes side swept bangs, I feel like a supermodel and every mother deserves to feel that way! Now once I get my body on the supermodel bandwagon I will be good to go. And the experience was amazing, I am never dissapointed when I go to Trilogy. It was a great way to kick of Christmas eve. After the salon my family headed down to my parents house for family pictures. Now if you aren't familiar with my family there are a bunch of us. In total I we had something like 17 people to fit into these pictures. The sad thing is, out of the 17 people, 5 of us were girls. Yeah, we are definitely outnumbered (and my mom definitely doesn't let me forget it, she is waiting for another granddaughter) But I think we got some great pics and my sons looked absolutely adorable. I can't wait to see how our family shot came out. I was really glad to be able to spend Christmas eve at my parents house. I will admit sometimes it is a little overwhelming with 4 little boys running around but we always manage. I am just so happy when all of the family is together, it just makes the holidays so much more special. On Christmas day my sons had a blast opening up all their gifts. Unfortunately mom mother had to work so we ended up leaving my parents and going to my husbands grandparents house where my sons got spoiled yet again with massive amounts of toys (thank you nana and pas). Then Christmas would never be complete without a visit to Miss Shana and Mr Geoffreys house. Now my sons always look forward to seeing the beautiful Miss Shana. We have their Christmas card posted on the counter and my boys always grab it and say "look its Miss Shana!". No disappointment for them, except that for some reason when we pulled up to their house both of my sons asked if we could go swimming. But getting to my lovely friend was the icing on the cake to a great Christmas day. Now I am lucky that I am off work until January 3rd due to needing to use up some vacation days. And I plan on enjoying this time. Today I am very excited about going to meet with a venue for an event that I am planning, this is the first step to some major excitement coming down the pike. Also, doing some serious gown searching for the Mrs Delaware pageant this week. Other than that I will get to spend alot of time with my sons and, cross your fingers, hopefully pottytrain my youngest. Some very exciting news when it comes to my platform. I have been asked to come and present at a middle school. This news has been especially encouraging to me lately. For a little bit I was sorta discouraged due to the fact I was trying to call and get into schools to no avail. When people say "its not what you know, its who you know" it seems like they were referring to my situation. But I really thank God for giving me this opportunity. I was contacted by a guidance counselor last week and have just been on cloud nine about it ever since. I finally feel like all my hard work is starting to pay off. And it way continue to, one day, one school, one presentation and one childs life at a time. I have such high hopes for my anti-bullying campaign and I plan on definitely making an impact in Delaware. And if I have to do it the hard way, building it from nothing into something amazing, then I am not afraid to do it. This is where my passion lies and that is something no one can take from me! There are only great things in store for me come 2011 and I am ready! Have a great New Year everyone! And when planning for next year "reach for the moon and even if you miss you will land amongst the stars"!

Well it sure has been a little bit since I have posted here. I have to say that it has been pretty trying lately but thanks to amazing friends and family I am past this tough time which thank goodness only lasted a little bit of time. I have to really thank alot of friends who kept me sane when I was almost at my breaking point (you know who you are) and my family and mostly my husband for dealing with me feeling like a nut sometimes. So what have I been up to you might ask? Well Christmas preparation is definitely on the top of my list. I have always been a Christmas person. I always enjoy this season and everything it has to offer. Minus the unreasonably cold weather. But the lights, the Christmas songs and of course the shopping is always so much fun. Anyways, Recently I have been able to attend a few pageants. I really enjoy going to pageants and watching just to see how the other girls do and what works and doesn't work. Its also nice to get some tips by watching them. So recent pageants I have attended include the Miss Delaware USA and the Miss teen Delaware USA pageants and well as the Miss Atlantic Coast America and the Miss Atlantic Coast Outstanding Teen. Both of these pageants were very enjoyable. But I did enjoy the Miss Atlantic coast pageants better due to the fact that I feel like I helped out and although tiring it was more fulfilling. Congratulations to Shana Williams and Maurene Bullock for co directing a successful pageant. Shana choreographed an amazing opening number and worked so hard for the girls, I am a proud friend. And I am glad that I could have been a small part of it. Another amazing opportunity that my director gave me was the chance to meet Senator Carper. I am so blessed to have such a great director who gives me such great opportunities and really care about me as a person. I know this post is actually shorter than most posts I do but I don't have too much more to report. Thanks to all my pageant sister that have been so encouraging to me lately. I love you all. I can't wait until this weekend, I will be giving then opportunity to do an Armed Forces Event in DC. I will tell you all about it in my next post. Until then I hope everyone really is enjoying the christmas season and time with family!

The purpose of life is a life of purpose.

What a weekend! I am really glad that I had a short work week because I wouldn't have been able to get out of my bed today if not. I also really enjoyed the fact that this weekend was a nice relaxing weekend after the crazy Thanksgiving time. I hope all of you have an amazing Thanksgiving day. Whether you spent it with friends or family or both I hope you all enjoyed the day and really got a chance to reflect on the things you have to be thankful for. I know I have so much to thank God for. I have a loving husband, 2 beautiful and healthy boys, a roof over my head, clothes in my closet (enough to clothe a few 3rd world countries for a few years), fantastic friends and an amazing family. Yeah there are somethings I wish were a little different, but there are so many people that would kill to be in my shoes. Literally, they would kill me for my shoes because they are fabulous! Anyway I hope all of you will carry that thankful spirit into the Christmas season as it is fast approaching. I do have to be honest with you all though, this year I am having a little bit of a problem getting into the spirit. Now I am not being a scrooge or anything but if you know me then you know by November 1 I am already putting my decorations up and starting my christmas shopping also singing christmas carols and everything. I regrettably say that I just put up my Christmas tree yesterday and still have alot of decorating to do. So hopefully I will perk up a little bit once I finish decorating and start tuning into my favorite Christmas radio stations. Maybe once I start wrapping presents and start to stack them under the tree and imagine my kids faces light up as they open them. Maybe after I hear "White Christmas" a few times or "Baby, Its Cold Outside" (just to mention a few of my favorites) then i will be more in the Christmas spirit. Once I go ice skating and take the boys in a ride around the neighborhoods to see the Christmas lights I will be more excited. Actually I am already feeling little better just talking about it. Christmas here we come! And and last but certainly not least, I know without a doubt that once I hit the King of Prussia mall and have my hands full of bags with Christmas gifts (even though half of those gifts might be for myself) I will be in full Christmas spirit. So now the question is, Shana when are we going to KOP? Anyways, I told all of you in my last blog that I would fill you in on the exceptional opportunity that I got last Monday. First of all a big thank you goes out to Marci McNair, Ellen England and Angie Hionis-Bell for all their hard work and doing just a fantastic time at the event. Thank you Marci for the amazing opportunity!! So anyway the event that all of us ladies did was a Bullying presentation at a local area school, with alot of focus on cyber bullying. For those of you who don't know, the fight to stop bullying (not necessarily in those terms) is my platform. So this was an amazing opportunity for me to do the appropriate research and to also get my thoughts and self together about this. I really enjoyed helping put together the presentation and short skit that we did. I am so passionate about this and I hope that showed in the presentation. It was really tough because some of the girls asked hard questions that didn't have a firm "yes" or "no" answer. But i enjoyed every min of it and will hopefully get more opportunities to do the same. I plan on creating a campaign against bullying so I can go around to different schools and speak to them. I haven't decided what I will call this campaign. "Beauties against Bullying" is one idea but I am not 100% sold on it. We will see. But for now I am going to be calling schools to see if we can get in and speak to these kids. Changing the world one life at a time. So until next post, enjoy the season!!

You are Beautiful, no matter what they say. Words can't bring you down!

Thanksgiving is coming up on us so quickly, and then after Thanksgiving there is Christmas, and after Christmas, New Years! OMG I need to go shopping for holiday outfits! I definitely decided this year the hubby and I are going to actually going to go somewhere to count down the new year. Of course New York City would be ideal but maybe that will have to wait for next year. Anyways I am getting so far ahead of myself, I am not even ready for Thanksgiving yet, I don't even have my Christmas decorations up and here I am talking about New Years! Well, lets skip all the talk about the Holiday and focus on a few things that I was honored to do this past weekend. I have really enjoyed alternating pageant weekends. If you don't know what that mean by that, I mean that it is nice to have a weekend where I do pageant stuff and then a weekend that I am off. Sometimes being a beauty queen can be exhausting, and heaven forbid I don't get enough beauty sleep because that is most definitely something that I wouldn't want to subject anyone to seeing lol! Anyway, this past Saturday the 20th I was able to meet up with some fabulous ladies in the morning and participate in the Middletown Christmas parade. My sister queen Fawn Stoms (Mrs. Peach Blossom 2011) and I rode together which is always a little more fun then riding alone. Also my director Siouxzan moore (Beauties of America 30's), another sister queen Angie Bell (Mrs. Punkin' Chunkin' 2011) and the always fabulous Ellen England (Mrs. Delaware 2010) were all also participants in the parade. I enjoy doing parades although it always seems with my luck they are always windy lol. I have another parade coming up on December 4th which is the Dover home for the Holidays parade. I will get the honor of riding with a new sister to the United States system Fran Edwards (Mrs. First State 2011)!!! Fran and I have competed against each other before, although she placed better than me I don't hold it against her one bit :) <3 ya girl! Moving on, Saturday evening was equally as fun since I got to attend the Mrs. Delaware America pageant. My husband came with me and it was so much fun being immersed in pageantry! I had such a great time with all the ladies and their husbands that attended. I wish I had enough space to list everyone that was there but the pictures will tell you. Now I was there for more than just watching. I was there as a member of Team Hotness rooting for my friend Shana Williams. Now the president of Team Hotness, the always spectacular Allison Funds was there and it was so nice to really enjoy time with her since I haven't gotten to see her often. Love ya girl!! Not only was the pageant a success but it was alot of fun, some of us girls got to get up on stage and belly dance with some of the performers, what a blast!! And you can't forget the best news of it all, Shana Williams is the new Mrs. Delaware America 2011!!!!!!! Congrats again girl I am so proud of you. She looked amazing and did a spectacular job. Now she is going to get ready for nationals which will be in April. I will definitely be attending because it is going to take place in West Virginia which truly isn't that far away and well worth the trip. If anyone can break Delaware's loosing streak it is Shana. I know this is the first year that Delaware will be in the top ten, heck this is the first year that Delaware will be in the top 5! After Shanas win some of her fans went to Agave to celebrate. It was such a great time and atmosphere and just to be with amazing people and spend time with the now famous Mrs. Delaware America was such a treat. I have only known Shana for about a year but that is all I have needed to really learn to cherish her as a friend and embrace her for the amazing and beautiful woman she is. She has taught me so much and has made a huge difference in my life. If anyone deserves to represent the married women of Delaware at the Mrs. America pageant it is her. Anyway, I hope everyone has a fabulous Thanksgiving. Take a moment and really appreciate everything in your life. Even the little things. I will probably do another post involving a new campaign that I am in the process of putting together called "Beauties Against Bullying". Stay tuned I am so excited about this! And this is an opportunity to feel like I am personally making a difference in other peoples lives. Also, I am trying to get into local area schools and if anyone has any contacts in any of the schools please let me know! Thanks guys and again have a great Thanksgiving!

There isn't enough darkness in the world to put out the light of a single candle.

I hope everyone has had a great week! Now I can say that there is always a light at the end of the tunnel. Now you can't always see that little flicker of light but I promise you it is there. Its so hard to sometimes remain positive and happy when life throws tough situations at you. I know I have been less than easy to deal with the past couple weeks. But I keep trying and keep pushing on and I am starting to see the light that I so desperately need. Anyway, so I guess I will let you know what I have been up to lately. Well truthfully I haven't been up to much of anything. Just work, family and friends. I recently got my official headshots as Mrs. Patriotic done. They all turned out so fabulous and I can't thank Jon Lavelle enough. he did such a great job and his wife was equally as spectacular helping me with fun and new poses. I have posted a few on my facebook if you haven't already seen them. I think they turned out really well and they were exactly what I wanted. This past Friday I actually got to hang out with them. They came over to the house and played the Kinect with us. It was alot of fun with tons of laughs. And on Saturday my beautiful pageant sister Shana and her husband Geoffrey came over and hung out with us, we also played the Kinect too and Shana totally kicked butt at the dancing game!! It was so fun to really just spend time with friends in a relaxed atmosphere where we could all joke and just do whatever we felt like doing. On Sunday my mother came up and we got to meet up with Shana again and do some shopping. It was a really exciting day and just nice to forget about the things that are worrying me the most lately. At the same time we got to go see Ellen England in an appearance she was doing for JDRF at the Build A bear. She looked fabulous as always and it was such a fun even for the kids. I am very excited for this coming weekend. Not only do I get to be in the Middletown Christmas parade. But I get to cheer on Shana Williams as she gets crowned Mrs Delaware America (so I am a little biased I can't help it, I know this is her year). So good luck Shana I know you are going to do us all very proud. And I know you will be able to hear me cheering for you!!! Also, I have been helping to prepare a presentation on anti-bullying. Now not all of you know but some of you do know that I have decided that anti bullying is going to be my platform (of course it will eventually sound a little more eloquent). So I got the opportunity to help out some of my pageant sisters in a presentation at a middle school on this coming Monday. Now this gave me the opportunity to really dive into research and understanding. I am super thrilled about this amazing opportunity. I am working hard to do a great job and give everyone as much information as possible. All of us girls are going to do an amazing job!! I will probably be tweaking things until we actually do the presentation. But if we can change one persons perspective or get one child to think for a second before they act, then all the hard work will totally be worth it. And after that it will give me the practice I need to continue going into other schools to raise awareness and it will help me know what to expect in the future. Ok so for now I am going to sign off and wish you all an amazing rest of the week and a fabulous weekend. GO SHANA THE SOON TO BE MRS. DELAWARE AMERICA 2011!!!!