Jenny’s Baby Shower

We are celebrating the wonderful blessing of twins to the Bradley family. Jenny and Jeff will be our neighbors in a few weeks when we move to McKinney. There family is going to grow by two this winter with precious little girls! I was trying to get Jenny to rub some of her twin luck on me!

Pappa’s Birthday

Today is Pappa’s birthday! He is supposed to officially go into semi-retirement. This will be his second retirement and one that is extremely well deserved!! Happy Birthday Pappa!

Pageant Boot Camp

Alvin and Rich were sweetest enough to host Alyssa, Tracy and me at their house for the weekend. We immediately went to work with mock interviews. We practiced one-on-one and panel style. The questions and feedback were awesome. It was definitely the prep work that I needed. One of our mock interview judges asked Alyssa and I to take a picture of his Mustang that he has personally been restoring. He has been doing an amazing job.

We spent the rest of the night chatting and trying on clothes from Alberto Makali. He is a sponsor for Mrs. KS, Mrs. OK and Mrs. TX. I am wearing one of his fabulous creations for our Mrs. America Fashion Show.

http://www.albertomakali.com/

Kiwanis

I was invited to be the guest speaker at Kiwanis by Rebecca. I had to teach class in the morning. Then, I ran home to shower and spruce up for the meeting. We had a great turnout, including some of my family who came to support me.

Kiwanis’ mission focuses on volunteerism and scholarship. Two things that are extremely important to me. I spoke about the positive role pageants have had on my life and the importance of volunteering in your community. I wrapped up my time answering questions, taking pictures and signing autograph cards. It was a wonderful way to spend the afternoon.

Princess in the making!

One of my autograph cards is hanging up at the gym. It is a little weird to see my picture every morning, but the members absolutely love it. Corrin, one of the ladies who takes my class, said her little girl, MaKayla, was looking at the picture and commenting on my crown. I told Corrin I would bring the crown in today to let MaKayla try it on. Corrin said MaKayla woke up early this morning and had her brother help her make breakfast for their mom in bed! I think she was a little excited.

MaKayla came bouncing in the classroom as soon as we finished up with class. She could not wait to see the crown. I don’t think she moved a muscle while I placed the crown and sash on her. She is such a beautiful little girl! I can definitely see her competing in pageants down the road. Corrin was a former Miss Beaumont, so it is definitely in MaKayla’s blood.

Inspection Time

We are headed back up to McKinney again last night. John and I both had work and errands all day, so we didn’t hit the road until after 6:30 pm. It was a long drive up last night, but we made it safely.

We met the inspector early this morning. We walked around the house trying to adjust to the fact that this will be our home in a few weeks. We look like to little kids in a candy store.

The inspection went quite well. There are a few little things, but that is to be expected with a resale. We stopped by Lane and Tammy’s house to say hello. I love that we are going to live right around the corner from them. Lane is a great business partner for John.

I left John for a little bit and headed to my office. Matt helped me fill out my first green form. Green represents money!! It was awesome to see how much money I was going to make off of my first sale! I think I might like this real estate job! Lol

We made it back to our house in Orange once again. We were gone a total of 26 hours and 11 of it was driving.

Drake Turrentine

Today is a sad day for Special Olympics and me. I lost a former boss and great friend. Drake Turrentine was the General Counsel for Special Olympics and the Secretary to the Board of Directors. He opened the door to my career at Special Olympics. He was a great mentor and friend to me since the very first day I walked through those doors. He was like a proud father when I came back from competing at Miss America. Drake touched the lives of millions of people through the Special Olympics movement. He made a difference in the world and will be greatly missed!

This is a picture of Drake and me at my send-off for Miss America.

Earl

Every contestant for Mrs. America is required to sell one ad page. My great friend Earl has come to my aid again. Earl’s company, Cardinal Technologies, is my official sponsor.

Not only has Earl helped support me in my pageant adventures financially, he has also been a dear friend in many other ways. He ran 12 miles of the Marine Corps Marathon with me, flew out to Las Vegas to support me at Miss America, attended my wedding and is going to be attending Mrs. America with his girlfriend Mary (who I absolutely adore).

Tracy helped design my ad page for me. I think it turned out fabulous!

Meara’s Birthday Party

I somehow pushed myself through my two classes today and headed straight home for Meara’s birthday party. She loves to have theme parties. This year she decided to have a workout theme. This definitely helped Uncle John and me out since we were both coming straight from work.

After dinner we went to the back yard to let the games begin. We are a competitive family, so it doesn’t take much for everyone to get involved. We started with the long jump. This was the one event I didn’t even try. With all these men in the family over 6’5”, there was no way anyone stood a chance against John and Stephen. Rebecca kicked butt in the egg race and all my hours of Wii Fit helped me win the hula hoop. The 3-legged race was nothing short of hysterical!!! We finished with the bubble gum race. Meara loves her some gum, so it was the perfect way to finish off the evening.

I can’t believe how big Meara and Mack are getting!!! They are both growing up so fast! This photo was taken the night I won Mrs. Texas :-)

Packing

Now that we are officially moving, I need to start the packing process. I picked up some boxes and several rolls of tape. I know these next few weeks are going to fly by. The more I can get done now, the easier these next few weeks will be on us. This is bringing back old memories very quickly!

Orientation and House

Our hotel room was freezing cold this morning. We tried to turn it up and off, but nothing made it stop running. It stayed on 64 degrees! It is not easy to get out of bed in a dark, cold hotel room. I am jealous that John gets to sleep in.

I had to drive by the office and drop off my computer before I went to orientation. I was pleasantly surprised with the effort the CCAR puts into their orientation. We did introductions with some of the vendors there and then an educational officer spoke for thirty minutes. The city of Plano employees him and his partner to spend each day providing education on how citizens can stay safe and prevent crime. He was an entertaining speaker with a hysterical sense of humor. I will definitely find a way to attend some of his seminars! The rest of the time went by pretty quickly. I left with a new certificate and a shiny pin.

John was already sitting in the lobby of the hotel when I got there. Poor thing was so cold in the hotel room that he checked out early. We headed back to the office to pick up my computer and make a counteroffer on our house. Matt had us fill out to front pages to the contract trying to predict whether they would accept our counteroffer or not.

We got back in the car and started heading back to Orange. We had stopped at Buc-ees to get gas and use some of the cleanest restrooms in Texas (this is what they are known for) when I received a call from Matt. The sellers had accepted our counteroffer. We have a house!!!!

CCAR

I made it through an extremely busy week. I would love to lay in bed today and let my body catch up, but instead we are on the road again. We are headed back to McKinney. I have to join the Collin County Association of Realtors before I can become an official realtor. The only time new agents can join is Monday through Thursday at 10:00 or 3:00. Yes, you have to be there exactly at one of those times. How do I know that? Because John and I showed up at 2:00 and they said that I would have to wait until 3:00. We grabbed a quick bite to eat and then I dropped John off at the hotel.

It took about an hour to get our group of three all set up. I felt like I was writing check after check. Then I found out that I have to go through their orientation and a MLS class. They really make sure you want to be a real estate agent before they let you in! LOL I signed up for orientation tomorrow morning :-)

4th of July

John and I made our way back to Orange for the holiday weekend. Rebecca and I planned a wonderful 4th of July dinner for the 3 of us. Barbecued chicken and corn on the cob were a must. I think at some point we forgot how many people we were cooking for!

We had a fabulous time storytelling and enjoying each other’s company.

Interview

It is interview day. I had to cancel my class this morning so we could get up to McKinney in time for my interview. It is a five and half hour drive one-way! John drove us up there so I could try and focus during the drive.

We made it to the hotel. John crawled in bed while I got dressed for my interview. That just didn’t seem fair!! I made my way to the Keller Williams office. It is located in the castle at the Croatian village. I think this is meant to be. Shouldn’t a queen work out of a castle?

Matt met me immediately and we went upstairs for my interview. I loved the questions he was asking. We talked a lot about community involvement and volunteering. We touched on my goals and ambitions. He talked about the training, coaching and support they provide to each agent. I was hooked and ready to start immediately! He gave me a tour of the office and then I started filling out my paperwork to get started. Within an hour and a half, I had a job! As I finished up all my paperwork, Matt asked me if there was anything else I wanted to do. I replied back, “Yes, I need to buy a house!” The look on his face was priceless. If he had any doubt whether I was serious about moving, my response sealed the deal. We scheduled an appointment a few hours later so John could join us also.

I left my new office on cloud nine. I could truly see God’s work in action! I picked up John and we went to a little wine bar around the corner from my office to have a celebration drink. Then we had another drink of liquid courage so we could go make an offer on the house. Matt met us at the house first so we could walk around it one more time. Yep, there was no doubt that we still wanted it. We all headed back to the office and Matt helped me fill out the contract on the house. I wonder how many new agents fill out a house contract within hours of starting.

John and I headed back to the hotel with our heads spinning. We had a ton of questions and uncertainty, but no way to answer any of those questions. We will just have to wait and see what God has in store for us next.