Nope- I'm not dead, just REALLY busy. But, a very good REALLY busy. First off, everyone go take a look at the Miss Kansas Homepage- my book is avaliable on the website now! A portion of the proceeds will go to help build a scholarship fund for 2007 Miss Kansas Contestants, and the make great Christmas Gifts as well. Also, every copy you order will be signed : ) So get your copy while we still have some left!

The past couple weeks have been very full, but very profitable. I spent some time at quite a few great schools and I want to send them all a 'shout out' : ) Belle Plaine, Skyline, Southwest, Liberty, Haskins, Lenora, Philipsburg, Fredonia, Altoona, Neodesha and Alma. Thank you all for being such great audiences. You make my job so much fun! I also want to send some thank you's out to all of the organizations that let me be involved in such a variety of events the last few weeks: Preferred Health for the Trade Show, Pratt for the Holiday Parade, Miss Dodge City Board for the Miss Dodge Cuty Pageant ( by the way your new Miss Dodge City is Laura Voran, and your new Miss Boot Hill is Samantha Steckloff- Congrats! , Raytheon for the Holiday Fundraiser, the Prairie Rose for the Cow Town Concert, McConnell for the Holiday Party, and Genesis Health Club & Preferred Health for the Andy Roddick Tennis Match ( YES!! I did meet Andy Roddick! We got a picture : )

I hope that all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving : ) Mine was very nice and very restful, and in our family Monopoly Tournament, I actually lasted almost an hour! My studies have been going very well, and also our "From Cover to Cover" study. This week we studied the accuracy of Scripture through the years. We studied a little bit about how the first copies of Scripture were made and the process that the Scribes went through to ensure accuracy down to the letter. This hand copying continued for centuries until the first real printer was created and copies could be made. What I found most interesting however, was when we started to talk about the Dead Sea Scrolls. In 1947, the Dead Sea Scrolls were found and for the first time we could take the copies of Scripture that we had today, handed down through hundreds of years of hand copying, and see if they matched one of the original copies. Finally we could see if human error had played a part in the message of the gospel. However, when compared, there were less 20 differences in the text- none of which compromised or changed the meaning of any of the messages. Good food for thought : )

Have a great week, and I'll catch you this weekend!

-Michelle

Hello everybody- Hope your week has gone well, mine has been busy : ) Monday, I had some great meetings with some potential sponsors all morning, and left that afternoon for Western Kansas. I spoke in St. Francis on tuesday at the Elementary/ Jr. High and HS. Wednesday, I spoke in Bird City and Atwood - and both were wonderful assemblies : ) Thursday I spoke in Haven - in the same theatre where I used to have band contest! It was pretty cool. Friday I helped out on a KPTS Kid's Club Membership drive, and got to be an emcee live all morning! After that, I went for a TV commercial Screening- and guess what, I'm going to be on a Spangles commercial! It should air soon, so keep a watch out : ) Saturday, I was in the Wichita Veterans Parade, and was featured in a concert that night. Sunday, I sang with the Prairie Rose in the "Save Cowtown Concert" at the Johnny Western Theatre.

My week was full, but I learned some interesting things in our cover to cover study. We talked about how the Bible we have today got into our hands. If you really study the historical path of how we have the Bible today, you have yet another proof that the Bible must be real. Luke 21:33 says "Heaven and Earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away." God has peserved His word through His sovereignty so that we could read it today. Take advantage of the gift that you have if you have a Bible. Read it. There will be a test : )

-Michelle

SEVENTY FOUR DAYS!!!! That's all that's left until Miss America! Hard to believe that time has gone so fast. My days have been full but I feel like I'm making progress both for the Miss Kansas Organization and as a contestant for Miss America. My speaking tour has been going so well, and although free time is a rare commodity these days, I enjoy the fast pace. I keep track of every appearance I go to and how many people I speak/sing in front of and yesterday, I added up all the numbers. Since June, I have been in front of approximately 43,153 people! My thanks goes out to Marilyn, Doug, Lisa, Lisa, Mom and the many others who have put in so much work to help me get bookings - we are making a difference! These past two weeks I have spoken at Oil Hill Elementary, Towanda Elementary (my old school! Benton Elementary, Haysville MS, Minneha Magnet, First Mennonite Bretheren Fall Friendship Festival, Cantan-Galva schools, Inman Schools, Marquette schools, Moundridge schools, Whitewater MS, Douglass HS and MS, the Miss Northeast Kansas, Miss Kansas River Valley, and Miss Teen Kansas River Valley Pageant ( Your new winners are Danielle Coffman, Carol Toland and Leslie Carillo - following above mentioned order - Congrats ladies!! Herington MS, the KASFA Conference in Wichita, Chase Schools, Lacrosse Schools,Hyatt Airforce Ball and Celebration Baptist's Family Fest Day. I've also attended a few more events where I didn't speak or sing at - Sierra Scott interviewed me for her new talk show "It's ALL Good" and that show should air on PBS sometime in the next 3-4 weeks,I attended the John Grange Hamburger Feed, the Kidfest at Century II and Clicks for Kids with the Kansas Children's Service League. As you can tell, it's been a full two weeks, but I'm learning so much, and I really think that every time I appear somewhere, I'm more prepared for Miss America.
I did have a request from my audience this past week to put my platform speech outline on my blog so they could print it out, so here it is: ( Alvin - just ignore this part, it's an acronym: )

F - Forgive
A - Appreciate
M - Make Memories
I - Initiative
L - Love
Y - You

You'll have to come to a presentation to get the full explanation of every point, but this should give you the general idea. : )

These past two weeks there have been quite a few things I've learned while studying. In devotions I went back to Isaiah and found this passage - 49: 15-16 " Can a woman forget her nursing child, and not have compassion on the son of her womb? Surely they may forget, yet I will not forget you. See, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands; your walls are continually before Me." God never forgets about us! Throughout our lives, people will disappoint us- even those close to us - but God never will. We are continually before Him. In our cover to cover study, we talked about the authenticity of the Bible and I have an interesting fact for you all:There are approximately 2,500 prophecies in the Bible. About 2,000 of them have already been fufilled to the letter. The probabilty of all of that happening by chance is less than 1 in 10^2000 ( that' s 1 with 2000 zero's behind it Here's a better picture to help you understand. Take the state of Texas and cover it three layers deep with Silver Dollars. Have someone mark one of those Silver Dollars with an X and place it somewhere in the state. Then in one and only one try, dip your hand in and pull out that one silver dollar - those are the same odds that all Biblical prophecies happened by chance! I know there are a lot of questions today about the Bible, but I think I'll stick to believing it . . . I like my odds. : )


Have a great week!

-Michelle

PS - Books will be available soon - so just keep checking!