Miss America 2011!!!!!!

Well I have to start off this post with some background information for the first 4 photos. When I was 15 years old I competed at large for the very first Miss Michigan's Oustanding Teen Pageant in 2006!! At the pageant orientation Miss America 2006 Jennifer Berry was there to speak at a brunch teen to all of the teen contestants about her journey to Miss America! She spoke about how when she was younger she was picked on all the time and was always taller than all of her classmates including the boys. As I listened to her story, I realized she was really telling mine. I never knew that it had bothered me as much as it did because I buried it so deep that I didn't even realize it myself. After the brunch we teens lined up to go in a room to greet her and get an autograph and picture with her. I was the very last contestant to go into the room to meet her and while I attempted to gain my composer that was to no avail. I'm pretty sure the first words that came out of my mouth was "I was tall too." Thankfully she knew what I meant. Jennifer is one person who truly changed my life for the better! If it weren't for her I would not be the person I am today!! I must say that seeing her 5 years later was a big deal for me and it meant that world to see her again!

                               Back in 2006 when Jennifer Berry was Miss America and I was 15 yeas old!!

 She is truly one of my favorite Miss America's and she is what this whole MAO program embodies! She has so much class, grace, and elegance and her beauty is more than just skin deep! Thank you Jennifer for changing my life!

 Seeing Jennifer Berry again after 5 years was a highlight of my trip to Vegas! I brought her the pictures we had taken together from 2006 and expressed my gratitude to her for changing my life! I must say when I started crying I was not expecting that at all!! I almost made her cry too and thankfully they were happy tears! She told me that she will treasure those pictures and that I made her day!! Which in turn, made mine times a thousand!!! : )

 She was so gracious and extremely complimentary towards me! Everything she said meant the world to me and it was wonderful seeing my role model again after so many years!!

Miss America 1968!

 I love Nicole Johnson Miss America 1999!!! I met her at the trade show when she was walking by and we started talking and bonded instantly!! She is a wonderful person and it was an honor to meet her!

 Drew Foster is Michigan's CMNH child!! As a state, we raised the money for him and his family to attend the Miss America pageant. Everything was paid for and it was great to have him be a part of the 90th Anniversary celebration! He was truly a celebrity throughout the whole week!! He even got a photo with all 48 former Miss America's!! That picture must be amazing!!! We all love you Drew and you are an outstanding individual! It was such an honor to finally meet you in person this week!!

                               The wonderful parents of Kirsten Haglund, Miss America 2008!!

 Our talented and beautiful Miss Michigan Katie LaRoche!! She represented our state with such class and passion!!! She looked stunning on stage in every aspect of competition and was eloquent whenever she spoke! Congratulations to our Miss Michigan for her awards for both the Quality of Life and Miss Congeniality! You deserve it!!!

                                           Franny and me at the Miss America Gala dinner!!!

 Miss America 1995 Heather Whitestone!! (She's my mom's favorite Miss America and her crowning moment is truly priceless!!)

Katie Harmon (Miss America 2002) remembered me from roughly 6 years ago when I met her at a conference! I was impressed with her memory from the thousands of people she has met throughout the years!! She is such an amazing woman and I loved seeing her again!! She was so sweet!!

 Jennifer introduced me to her husband and he was so sweet!! I can't believe how much support they both have shown me!!

Katie and me!!!

                                      
                 Erika Harold Miss America 2003!! Super sweet and had such nice things to say!!

Dougy!!!!

 The last redhead to be crowned Miss America back in 1996!! I had to thank her for representing the redheads!! ; )

                                 Our very own Michigan girl! Nancy Fleming Miss America 1961!!

                                                      My favorite sisters, the Learmans!!

               Some of the group that came to support our wonderful Miss Michigan Katie!!

 Noddea!! She is the director of the Miss Spirit of the State pageant and her pageant was my very first Miss America local pageant I ever competed in!! I guess the rest is history right?!

The passionate and amazing Michigan director Shelley Taylor!!!

Oh my goodness there are truly NO words to fully describe my experience at Miss America, especially  being the 90th Anniversary!!! What a great year to attend and see all the formers at the same time especially for my first time ever going!! There were 48 former Miss America's to celebrate the 90th Anniversary and let me tell you, they kept those ladies busy!!!!

I had so many life changing moments during the week of Miss America that I wouldn't trade for anything!! I met all of the Miss America's that had a chance to be there and SO many of them were extremely complimentary, supportive, and encouraging to me!! It was always funny when most of them asked me right off the bat "Do you compete? You must. You are gorgeous!!" which was so sweet of them to say!!! I have to admit though my favorite moment with a former Miss America was with Jennifer Berry!! The last chance I had to see her in person was at the second autograph signing where Doug (a wonderful field director for Michigan) gave me a beautiful picture of Jennifer in her evening gown to sign. She wrote on it "To Elizabeth, you are beautiful on the inside and out, a true Miss America! : )" Reading that brought tears to my eyes and I'm going to frame and cherish this photo forever!!! As I have explained above she has truly inspired me and has always encouraged me to never give up!! It took her 5 years to win Miss OK and then became Miss America (and I can remember her crowning like it was yesterday, before I even knew her personally I was hoping she was going to win and then she did!)

I was at the pageant January 12th through the 15th! So while I did not see the very first preliminary night I did see the other two as well as part of their rehearsals to get a background taste of what it's like to be at Miss America!! I learned alot just watching how the pageant is conducted and the order that they go in for competition! Now I must say these girls were absolutely GORGEOUS and extremely talented and intelligent!! Seeing it live is SO much better than watching it on TV! I know I recorded it so I could see the difference! LOL!!

I even saw some celebrities while I was there!! This one is embarassing to say, but while Franny and I were on the elevator going back to our hotel room the pageant's host Chris who is the host of the Bachelor was in the elevator! I don't watch The Bachelor so I didn't recognize him and Franny didn't either, but you could tell he was a celebrity just by his confidence and the way he conducted himself. Once he left we looked at each other and asked who was that?!! I know it's sad!!! Once we were back to the room we looked at the Miss America book and found out who he was! If we had known that we probably would have tried to get a photo with him!! I also saw Terry Fator who won America's Got Talent a few years ago as well as Holly Madison!!

Let's just say that the stage was PHENOMINAL!!! Oh my goodness it was stunning!! They really did go all out for the 90th anniversary show! I was very impressed with it!! I am glad that ABC finally got back together with the Miss America pageant! The last year that MAO was on TLC we had 4.5 Million viewers...well this year on ABC we had 7.11 Million viewers! Now that says alot, don't you think!? : ) It's also great to show America that a young woman can be successful, as most of you know our newly crowned Miss America is only 17 years old! How impressive!! When she speaks you forget her age and that truly expresses something about our new Miss America! It will be amazing to see her develop and grow throughout the year as she represents our country with intelligence and grace!! Oh and I must say that I am extremely happy that Miss America went back to the traditional top 15 to top 10 to top 5!! I have always loved that last moment of 2 girls facing each other waiting for their name to be called Miss America! I find it more suspenseful (that's just my opinion) as well as it's nice for the two of them to bond in that moment and know that they are that much closer to a dream come true! So thank you Miss America for keeping things relevant, yet traditional, in all the right ways!!! I was extremely impressed this year and if it is God's will maybe someday I will have the honor to compete for my beautiful state of Michigan at Miss America!!!