Hanging out in Moses Lake

While we were in Moses Lake we had some down time in which we decided to hang out in our hotel room watching Miss Congeniality! We had a good laugh and picked up some pageant tips on what not to do!

We ate breakfast at Sporty's a popular hang out. The hospitality and food was delightful. We also celebrated Mrs. Camano Counties Birthday!

Michael's Bistro is another favorite place to eat while we are in Moses Lake. They have a Red Velvet Cake that has my name on it.. I'll wait till after the pageant to eat that!

Mrs. Washington Memorial Day Parade

The Grand Twilight Parade is a big event in Moses Lake. This year most of the contestants who attended walked the 4 mile route. It was so much fun. We handed out candy, free bowling coupons, bracelets and stuffed animals. The kids loved it! By walking the route we got to mingle with the crowd and burn off some extra calories!!

Mrs. Washington 70's Dance Performance

Every year Moses Lake Spring Festival hosts an amazing lip sync contest. This is the second year the Mrs. Washington Contestants performed a dance routine while the judges tallied the scores. Our dance routine this year was to 70's music. Pam Curnel our director choregraphed the entire dance. It was a lot of fun and challenging... especially due to the fact the music was mixed up right in the middle of the routine!! We had to improvise for what seemed like hours but it was only a minute. Then our music was restored and we finished in a blaze of glory!

Moses Lake Food Bank

Thursday May 27th a few of the Mrs. Washington contestants along with Pam Curnel our state director and her daughter Melissa, went to the Moses Lake food bank to volunteer. We bagged potatoes and onions and sorted boxes and boxes of food and household items. It was a lot of work! The volunteers who work here on a regular basis really work hard and care about meeting the needs of people.

Fashion Relief for Haiti

To end my busy weekend Jessica Riggs Mrs. Snohomish County and I went to a fashion show fund raising event. It was called Fashion Relief. We received the VIP treatment. It was so much fun. The designer and models were amazing. The event organizer shared her story about her own family touched by the New Orleans flooding. She has many different causes that she works to support and is a very giving person.

Dance Recital Starring Mrs. Pierce County

After the soldering class, Mrs. Seattle and I headed down to Tacoma to help hand out programs at the YMCA dance recital. We were invited by Carla Richards Mrs. Pierce County. Carla is an amazing dancer and is part of an adult dance group through the YMCA dance program. It was great to get to watch her and the other dancers perform. All I could think about was how can incorporate dance lessons into my busy schedule!!

Mrs. Olympia Irene Schade & Mrs. Washington Beth Larson were also there handing out programs at this performance.

Soldering Class for MENC & Moses Lake Food Bank

May 22nd I taught a soldering Class at the Redmond Ben Franklin Store. The proceeds for the class fee's are being donated by my company to the MENC and Moses Lake Food Bank. We had a sold out class! My usual helpers could not come so I sent an SOS out to my pageant sisters. Tamara DePorter, Mrs.Seattle answered the call! She was amazing!! She helped me set up, helped the students and actually had time to solder something herself. Since it was standing room only, that's how she soldered, standing up!

The class was so much fun as they always are at this store. Kim and Ria two fabulous managers at the store actually came to take the class too. Most of the students were beginners and made necklaces but we had 4 advanced students including Kim and Ria who made soldered Tiaras. They turned out fabulous. I wish I would have thought to have made sashes for them to wear with them.

The rest of the students did an amazing job as well. They all were very handy with their soldering irons. I truly enjoy being able to teach and share my passion for creating art. I usually have time to talk and get to know all of them personally but since I had no soldering helpers I just quickly ran from table to table helping them with whatever they needed. We still got to chat and laugh as we always do.

Last Soccer Game for Poison!

Coaching my sons soccer team "Poison" was time well spent! I got to know the boys and had a lot of fun. It was a tough season. We started so late and we only had one player for a sub. The boys all got a lot of play time! They learned new things and improved on their skills. Humility was one of the lessons learned as winning was not our specialty!
I am very proud of all the boys and thankful to Coach Tim and the parents as well.

Capital City Marathon, 1/2 Marathon & 5 Mile

Today I volunteered for the Capital City Marathon, 1/2 Marathon and 5 mile race. I had the pleasure of running the marathon twice and now it was my turn to help out. I have to say I was completely jealous of all the runners. I have been dealing with a knee injury and it is slowly getting better but I am not sure if I will be able to compete in long distance events anymore. It is an amazing accomplishment for these runners. It was great to get to be right there at the finish line cheering them on and handing out their commemerative coaster. Yes, a coaster they thought they would try something new this year instead of medals....it didn't go over very well! Next year I think the medals will be back. It was kind of awkward to hand someone a coaster after running so far!! It isn't about the prize though it's the satisfaction of knowing you made it!

I had many friends who ran in the race. I am pretty sure some of these friends called me crazy when I trained and ran it! I am so glad to see they are choosing to exercise and challenge themselves. Irene Schade Mrs. Olympia ran the 1/2 marathon with her daughter. We posed for a photo together, she said I was looking prettier than her right then but I told her I would rather be sweaty and ran the race!!

Kids 4 Kids Haiti Fun Run

This picture collage customized with Smilebox

My church New Bridge Community is awesome! They really strive to be a part of the community around us and participate in events that are important to the people. They hosted their first kids fun run today to raise money for orphaned kids in Haiti. The kids ran a marked out course in different age groups. It was a hot day but they all made it through. The younger kids had to have an adult accompany them, I got to run with my niece Tehya. She is a fast little gal! We had to do 6 laps and 3 laps into it she was ready to quit! I used all my positive talk to keep her going but it might of been the promise of ice cream at the finish line that really got her through!

Tomorrow is the Capital City Marathon, a big event in our area. We have runners doing the 5K, 1/2 marathon and full marathon. The service was dedicated to the runners tomorrow. I will be helping to hand out medals at the finish line. Due to a knee injury I do not get to participate in the run but hopefully next year! I Ran the Capital City Marathon 2 years in a row. It is an awesome experience.

Mrs. Washington Dance Practice

Thank you to the Bellevue Four Square Church for providing a place for the Mrs. Washington 2010 contestants to practice. We had 10 contestants show up and practiced our 70's number and our opening number. It was a small room but we did pretty well with arms and legs flying everywhere! I have to admit I do love to dance so I really enjoy getting to practice and perform the routines.

Simply Swank at Craft Warehouse Meridian, Idaho

While in Idaho I stopped by the Craft Warehouse a store that caries my Simply Swank product line. Craft Warehouse is an amazing group of stores in Idaho, Oregon and Washington. They are stocked full of fabulous things!! The bead department is huge in this store and the manager is so friendly. She has been in charge of this area for many years and really knows her stuff! Simply Swank products are a special feature this month at the store and the display samples were beautiful. I plan on going back sometime in the fall to do classes.

Real Soccer mom's don't just bring the snacks... they coach the team!

Make a picture slideshow

Being the mother of sons I get to support them with their sports teams. Not only do I love to cheer them on, and I might add Loudly, I like to get more involved. I know traditionally mom's will be the team coordinator or bring the snacks and I have done my share of those jobs as well but I like to do more than that when I can. I have been a volunteer football coach and this year a soccer coach. I played soccer for 6 years when I was younger and also a recreation team as an adult. I have made sure it is okay with my boys and the other male coaches before I have taken on the role of coach. I enjoy being able to help guide them and most of all encourage them in their efforts. I am not a softie I can be tougher than the guy coaches! I love that I get to be right in the action of it all on the sidelines. It also brings me closer to my boys and their friends.

Today my son Jordan scored a goal! It was very exciting. He held his position and was in the right spot at the right time. Our team has only enough players for one sub so they get pretty tired running the whole field. They are doing great and having fun.