MRS. AMERICA 2007 - TUCSON, AZ

A number of my fellow contestants from the Mrs. America pageant last year made the trek out to Tucson as well. A big shout out and thank you to Liz Amar (Mrs. Idaho 2006 and one of my closest pals from last year) for setting up a “reunion” dinner at Firebirds restaurant. It was SO MUCH FUN to see everyone again...Jennifer Bradley (Mrs. NE) and Liz were both preggo and looked INCREDIBLE. I sure love pageantry, but it absolutely PALES in comparison to being a mom, that is for sure! :) We all had a blast and time just seemed to fly we were having so much fun. Great company and lots of laughter and reminiscing! After dinner, we headed back to the hotel and continued our chat fest and ran into even more friendly faces. The night went WAY too fast and I felt like I didn’t get to spend enough time with everyone. But it was a WONDERFUL night!




Arriving at the Tucson airport...HELLOOOO hot weather!











Stopping by Crown Chic Boutique & The Royal Image to do some SHOPPING of course! L to R: Amy Nugent (owner of Crown Chic), me, and Raeann Duca (owner of Royal Image)







Meeting up w/ my successor Bessie Giannakakis (Mrs. MN 2007) and being joined by Laura Loveberry (Mrs. Michigan 2007)






Some of the “Mrs. America Class of 2006” meet at dinner L to R: Jennifer Bradley (NE), Jody Bernhardt (MI), Victoria Broz (NV), Diane Tucker (AZ, Mrs. America/Mrs. World 2006), Marney Duckworth (CO, assumed Mrs. A title), Liz Amar (ID), me (MN), Jill Putzier (KS), and Julie Rinehart (IL)


A number of my fellow contestants from the Mrs. America pageant last year made the trek out to Tucson as well. A big shout out and thank you to Liz Amar (Mrs. Idaho 2006 and one of my closest pals from last year) for setting up a “reunion” dinner at Firebirds restaurant. It was SO MUCH FUN to see everyone again...Jennifer Bradley (Mrs. NE) and Liz were both preggo and looked INCREDIBLE. I sure love pageantry, but it absolutely PALES in comparison to being a mom, that is for sure! :) We all had a blast and time just seemed to fly we were having so much fun. Great company and lots of laughter and reminiscing! After dinner, we headed back to the hotel and continued our chat fest and ran into even more friendly faces. The night went WAY too fast and I felt like I didn’t get to spend enough time with everyone. But it was a WONDERFUL night!




With the lovely Diane Tucker (Mrs. America/Mrs. World 2006) and Marney Duckworth (Mrs. CO/Mrs. America 2006) at dinner. These are two of the nicest people you will ever meet!






More reminiscing when we meet up with Aimee McWilliams (Mrs. WY 2006) back at the hotel. Aimee recently moved to Alaska so it was fun hearing about that!








Catching up with Bessie and her husband Sam after her rehearsal. I have to say it was a lot more fun this year getting to socialize than it was last year being in that long rehearsal, ha ha!







Catching up with Omarosa...she and I competed together at Mrs. United States in 2002 (she was Mrs. District of Columbia). Despite what you see on TV, she has always been super pleasant to me!






Yes, this really IS a tarantula! It was on our hotel balcony floor. YIKES! And I thought dealing with Minnesota mosquitos was bad...





Wednesday brought a full day of what else...SHOPPING. And of course being pageant gals, we had to stop at Cache!



We did a lot of shopping on Wednesday, hitting the local malls and finding some deals. We had to head back early in order to get ready for the pageant finals and TV taping, but as it turned out, we made it just in time because it started to DOWNPOUR. I was wondering how they were even going to pull off the pageant (the stage is all outside and there is NO sort of ceiling whatsoever). Luckily, the storm passed and they were able to wipe down the stage and start the show, albeit a bit late which of course was totally understandable. Not a great night for good hair with all that humidity though! On the way down, Jill, Julie, and I happened to run into actor Alan Thicke, who was hosting the pageant along with Omarosa. He was very gracious and did a great job hosting the show. Anticipation was in the air as we crossed our fingers that the weather would hold, and luckily it did! I sat with the girls and also Bessie’s husband Sam and Mrs. Georgia’s husband, whose family was kind enough to save me a seat (my former state directors Faith & Carl Schway also direct the Georgia pageant).





Julie Rinehart (Mrs. IL 2006), me, and Jill Putzier (Mrs. KS 2006) pose by a really big cactus on our way to the pageant finals.








With actor and pageant host Alan Thicke just before the start of the show.










Marney Duckworth (Mrs. CO/Mrs. America 2006) gives her farewell speech.









Mrs. Wyoming Kelly McBee is crowned as the new Mrs. America 2007. I felt she was a great choice for the title.





The pageant had many of the same reality elements as last year’s show, however, this year they added some twists (some of which I have to admit I was not a huge fan). It made it really confusing in my opinion. The stage was beautiful and the show opened with the ladies in their opening number (this looked great!), followed by the State Costume parade. Then the Top 10 were announced, and unfortunately Bessie was not named. They then were going to announce the two additional finalists, but as it turned out, there was a five-way tie for those two spots, so they turned it into a “Top 15” instead of a Top 12. The Top 15 recompeted in Swimsuit, and then they were separated into three groups. The group with the lowest scores was eliminated, and the “new” Top 10 then competed in Evening Gown. Confused yet? I am confused just writing this blog! THEN they announced the Top 3 vote getters to vote a contestant back “into” the competition, and my successor Bessie Giannakakis was one of those three ladies. I really thought she would get the nod, especially because it was now well-known that she was pregnant. I thought it would be cool to have a pregnant contestant make it back in, but it turned out that Mrs. California was the top vote-getter. The Top 5 was officially now a “Top 6.” Again, very confusing. Anyway, the Top 5 were called and they answered their final question, and I felt that Mrs. Wyoming was the winner in my book...and as it turned out, she was! She is stunning and from what I have seen is a real sweetheart to boot. And best of all, the rain held off! One really annoying thing was that my right eye was watering TERRIBLY throughout the show...I think I must be allergic to some pollen in the desert air or something. And of course I didn’t have a Kleenex. Ah, the perils of a pageant in the desert! HA! It was great to see Marney (Mrs. CO/Mrs. America 2006) give her farewell speech and to see Diane Tucker looking so fantastic as Mrs. World 2006. We sure had a terrific”Class of 2006”! I hope this year’s batch of contestants had as much fun as we did!





After the pageant, Julie (far R) and I ran into Heather Clark - Mrs. Maine 2006 (far L). Heather is a DOLL!









After the show with Robin Duffney (Mrs. MN 1995) and Minnesota State Directors Carl & Faith Schway








The “Class of 2006” celebrating after the pageant. L to R: Julie Rinehart (IL), Aimee McWilliams (WY), Jennifer Bradley (NE), Diane Tucker (AZ), Marney Duckworth (CO), me (MN), Victoria Broz (NV), and Liz Amar (ID)









Giving Bessie an after-pageant baby gift to celebrate her baby news! I told her the title of MOM is the most important title of all! I found these adorable frog shoes that have crowns on them (they are great for a girl OR a boy). Congrats Bessie & Sam!






Running into two amazing pageant friends, Nicole Brink (Mrs. America/Mrs. World 2001) and Rosalie Michaels (Mrs. AZ 2000). These two are a BLAST!






With Jayne Black (Mrs. Wisconsin America 2007)








Jill Putzier (Mrs. KS 2006) and I chat with Omarosa after the pageant.