Shayla to the Rescue

She's done it again; she's saved us! Thank God for Shayla. We really don't deserve her!

A few weeks ago, Shayla brought home a paper from school about the Heritage Festival Royalty Pageant and she asked if she could enter. I said, “Sure, if you want to.” (And I thought to myself, “She can get another use out of her Jr. Bridesmaid’s dress from Tiffany’s wedding. Yahoo!")

Just as the bile has been rising in my stomach every time I hear or realize September 19th is such a short time away, Shayla has given us a wonderful distraction. I’d been dreading September 19th; now we actually have something to look forward to this year on September 19th - Shay Shay will be in her first parade. Thank God for Shay Shay! She’s amazing to us. It's like she's once again come to our rescue!

It was incredibly nice to have so many family and friends there with us, cheering for Shayla. We are blessed!

And thanks to my beautiful friend, Jill, I actually have pictures to share! Can you believe me - the Kodak Mom - left her camera card at home - yikes! Jill had me covered, whew!

Shay was quite nervous at practice on Tuesday evening, and I didn’t think she’d do very well; however, all that seemed to just melt away last night as she competed. Last night it looked like she was really enjoying it all. When I finished reading to her before bed on Tuesday she said, "I didn't know entering this was going to be so much about modeling. I thought I'd be interviewing with the judges; I like talking with people. I don't like modeling." By Wednesday night, she was feeling much better.

The MC read: Shayla is in the 5th grade and her favorite color is sky blue. When she grows up she wants to be an actress with a side job as a writer. Her favorite food is sushi and she has two cats – Buttercup & Buckeye.

Shayla’s “speech” Hi! I’m Shayla Thomas and I’m really looking forward to the Heritage Festival this weekend; it’s one of my favorite events of the year. I also enjoy being busy. After school I’m a dancer, a horseback rider and an ice skater. I’ve never been in a pageant before and so far I’ve learned a lot. Thank you!

So thanks to God blessing Shayla, September 19th 2009 will be much better than September 19, 2006 – the day our precious Christi was called Home. September 19, 2009 will be the first time Shayla’s ever been in a parade. They told her she’ll be “riding in style” in a car. She’s looking forward to the weekend and she realizes she has a lot of thank you notes to write for all of the “goodies” she received last night. When they told the girls last night they needed to go to at least three festivals to represent and prmote our Heritage Festival, she thought that sounded like fun.