First Day of Gown Shopping

At the Jeff Dunham Show

With the LaRichi designers!!!!

One of my favorite dresses I tried one- but not the one I chose :)

This morning I headed up to Bridal and Formal to meet with LaRichi Couture to talk and look at gowns. I tried on some beautiful dresses of theirs and loved where they were going with the idea of my gown for Miss USA! We shall see how it turns out!

Later that night I was able to go to the Jeff Dunham Show with my sis Kynna at Northern Kentucky University. We had an absolute blast and it was nice to relax and have someone really make me laugh! It was a great girl's night out!

Standout Productions Retreat with Chelsea Cooley!!!

This weekend was a long one for sure! On Thursday I left early in the morning for Lynchburg, VA. I was on my way to the Standout Productions Retreat with Chelsea Cooley, Miss USA 2005, and AT Dunn. I had a very long 8 hour drive and I couldn't wait to finally arrive and meet all the girls. I was told to meet at the airport and someone would be there waiting. When I got there though it was a complete ghost town. I called Rima to see where she was and she had told me that she was being driven with a whole bunch of the other girls to the campsite. I was then given directions to the Master's Inn (my GPS didn't pick up the address) and I was ready to just pass out! When I finally arrived to the site, I got out of my car and was approached by none other than Chelsea Cooley herself. She gave me a great big hug and shortly after AT Dunn was there asking about my trip. They both were very worried about me and if I would be able to find the campground. I immediately threw my bags in my room, made my name tag, and walked to the dinner hall which was filled with about 50 girls from all over the country. I saw Bridget and Rima and ran to them to give them all hugs! I have not seen Bridget since our crowning.!! Right after dinner all the girls went to a roller rink to skate and then play a game of in line hockey. The Misses kicked the Teen's butt! I even scored a goal! I love hockey but I am absolutely terrible with skating (I fell several times, but had a blast doing it!). When the long day was finally over we went back to the lodge to talk about what would be happening the next couple of days and then we were off to bed. I roomed with Miss Arizona (my bunk buddy), Wyoming, and Rhode Island. They were some amazing ladies! Our heater was on the fritz the 1st couple of nights and we all kept waking up because it was literally about 100 degrees in our room (I was right next to the heater of course).

The next day was a lot of fun! The Miss and Teen did a little paintball competition in the morning (once again the Miss slaughtered the Teens). Then we had to separate into our groups. Rima, Bridget, and Catherine were in a group together and I was left on my lonesome. But I got to make friends with a bunch of the girls in my group! :)We 1st went horseback riding (of course I had the crazy one who just wanted to do his own thing). We then got to do some lassoing and bull riding. No not a real bull! Once that was done we switched activities with the other group and went and did some rope courses. We did a rock climbing wall and once you hit the top, you had to stand up and zip line down. We made it into a competition with a Miss vs. a Teen. Who do you think won again?? :) When it was my turn, I went head to head with Miss Wisconsin (all the teens were done). Let's just say your Miss Ohio kicked some butt!!! It was such an awesome feeling zip lining down. It really was a rush! After everyone was done, we went to do what is called "The Leap of Faith". The name of it says a lot about what we had to do! We had to climb up a telephone poll, stand at the top, turn around, and then jump to catch on to the hanging bar. The entire time the poll was shaking, probably because my legs were shaking! I was able to do it and it felt amazing holding onto the bar and then letting go.

Later that evening it was time to get down to business! We had a walking class with Chelsea, a nutrition and exercise class with AT, and then a mock interview. We later ended the night with a bonfire with all the Misses. "What happens at the bonfire, stays at the bonfire." Finally after a very long day, it was time to go to bed. Sunday many girls were getting ready to leave, even Rima :(. But Bridget and I stayed behind till Monday. Sunday was a really relaxing day where we did some interviewing with Standout Productions. Later at night we went to Church with AT and Chelsea. I loved the message that AT left us with! When Church was let out, we went to a Skiing Lodge where we could do tubing, snowboarding, or skiing. Not to many of us did it because it was raining. So we stayed in the lodge watching football playoffs. Bridget, Arizona, Utah, and I had the great idea of ordering pizza! We ran it by Chelsea, who was fine with it (she even had a couple slices herself) and Bridget called in the order. We had so much fun just sitting on the couch with all of us eating pizza and laughing. AT finally came in and was shocked with what we were doing, he even blamed it on Chelsea. We had so much fun that night though!

I woke up that next morning, getting ready to make my 8 hour drive home. I said goodbye to everyone (can't wait to see them again in Vegas!). I gave Bridget a BIG hug and thanked Chelsea and AT for this awesome weekend. I will never forget it!!! This weekend we also had a surprise baby shower for Chelsea. I bought her all Ohio State stuff (a onesie, dress, pacifier, booties, and sippie cup). She loved it!!

Driving Miss Rima :)

Rima and I getting ready to leave for Nashville! Adria loved Rima!!!!

Behind the Scenes! :)

We'll make 2 beautiful brides one day!

This past weekend was so much fun! Rima and I had to travel to Nashville to see Kent and work on our walk. Rima drove to my house on Friday afternoon and I drove both of us down to Nashville in my little PT Cruiser, Delilah. :) We had an absolute blast on the way down there, talking and catching up. We even sang "Barbie Girl" a few times. (Rima is an amazing singer! We're going to enter a Karaoke contest one day) We stopped for dinner at none other than Cracker Barrel, where it was Rima's first time there. While there we signed a couple autographs and Rima played dress up with this beautiful wrap that she later bought for her grandma.

When we finally arrived at our hotel, the Hyatt, we unpacked and quickly got ready for our 1st lesson with Kent (Little did we know that we were 1 hour behind down there). That lesson was pretty rough and our minds were starting to spin with learning and processing all this new information. After the 3 hours of walking training, Rima and I decided to go to Kroger to pick up some healthy food for the weekend. When we finally got back to our room, we both passed out! It was one long and tiring day.

We woke up the next morning to eat a delicious and healthy breakfast and then worked out in the hotel's gym. I of course didn't think to bring my gym shoes, and decided to bike in my clogs. After the workout we had plenty of time until our next walking lesson (which was at 6pm) and we decided it was time to do some shopping! We ended up going to the Opry Mills and it was every shopper's dream! It was a huge and beautiful mall with outlet stores in it. It even had a Rainforest Cafe and an AMC Theatre. Rima and I found tons of bargains that we truly could not pass up! We took a break at Barnes and Noble, where we were looking through workout books while sipping Starbuck's coffee. We then had to leave to get ready to see Kent, but not before stopping in a few shops while heading out. :)

We finally arrived at the studio and met Miss Tennessee, Miss Teen Tennessee, Miss Georgia, Miss Teen Georgia, and our very own Catherine, Miss Teen Michigan. All the ladies were so lovely and sweet. That session was a refresher course on everything we had learned last night, and it seemed everything was starting to click together for me. We left after only a 1 and half hours of training because we had to go to bed super early because we needed to wake up at 5:30 in the morning the following day!

Sunday was the day that we had to put everything we learned form Kent into action on the stage. We had 3 different bridal shows to do and we had to do our own hair and makeup. It was going to be a long day! Kent taught us the different stage patterns and before we would walk the catwalk, he shouted out the name of the one we were suppose to do. I had a lot of fun working the stage and hanging out with the other girls. But soon it was time to go home.

We said our goodbyes and headed out on the road. For dinner Rima and I stopped at Subway (still trying to eat as healthy as possible) and we were soon back home in no time or at least I was. I then had to say goodbye to Rima; I would get to see her in 5 days, so it wouldn't be a long goodbye. When I walked through my garage door, my whole family was watching the Miss Ohio USA pageant. The DVD had finally arrived and I couldn't wait to watch it!

She's My Miss USA

The Group

I love Rihanna and Mandy! (take a look closer at the picture)

Why so serious?

One of the flower girls. So cute!

The lady that keeps me in line...literally!

Bryttany and I

This Saturday and Sunday, I was up at the Dayton Convention Center to model in several bridal shows. All the models met early in the morning at New View Agency at 7am and we all carpooled up there. When we arrived we had to do a quick fitting and then a rehearsal. All the female models then had to go into hair and makeup. Soon the show was about to begin!

It went rather smoothly with a few bumps here and there. In the final scene a couple models and I were suppose to pull off another model's train to switch the gown into a short cocktail dress. We of course didn't practice this beforehand and were onstage tugging on it for almost a whole minute. We learned from that mistake though!

After the first show we got to have a quick lunch and then get ready for the second one. Let's just say the 2nd show went a lot better than the first. The next day we didn't have to meet at NV till 10am and it was so nice to get to sleep in! All the shows went really great that day. The music was even timed out for me to walk out to the Jay Sean song "Down", when Lil Wayne says, "She's my Miss America." It was so funny!

After the show Rihanna, Mandy, Bryttany, and I went around and looked at all the different booths. We found one that was a photo booth and decided that we had to get pictures done! They turned out so cute! We had a blast and even got to take home the bouquets we carried in the shows. I seriously can't wait till the next bridal shows!