March for Babies: Iowa City!

Today was the day!! It was finally the day of the March for Babies in Iowa City for the March of Dimes.  The day started out bright at early at 5 AM to get myself ready to get to lower city park for 6 AM for set up! Set up went so smooth thanks to our great planning committee and our wonderful volunteers who dedicated their Saturday morning to helping babies! Once everything was set up it was 8 AM and time for registration and for the teams and participants to arrive!! Once this started we also had a super special guest.. HERKY!!  It's always great to have HAWKEYE spirit at any event!!

Herky and I supporting the March of Dimes!

My brother Steve and I snapped a quick photo with Herky.

Once the teams and participants started to arrive there were a few announcements about the event and what we were all doing.  I was able to share my story and speak with the crowd about why I chose the March of Dimes as my platform.

Sharing my story before the walk started. 

Then it was time for the walk!!  The walk started at 9 AM and took us from Lower City Park in Iowa City up Dubuque street into downtown Iowa City. It was a great route to walk and it ended up being a wonderful day to march around Iowa City for babies!  The amount of people who came to the event was absolutely amazing and to hear other peoples stories and reasons they support the March of Dimes was humbling.

My family came out to support me in the walk and the March of Dimes.

At the starting line of the walk.

We were able to walk right past the beautiful Pentacrest.

Trivia facts were dispersed around th 

The large group of walkers!!

It was a great day for the walk and I don't think it could of gone smoother!! I am happy to say the first walk I helped to plan is in the books!! This walk wouldn't of been possible with out the planning committee, the volunteers,  the sponsors and Andrea Skow. Thank you so much for not only planning this event, for all you do for the March of Dimes but for also accepting me into this wonderful organization.  I am very proud everyday but especially today to call the March of Dimes my platform!

I DID IT!!

With Jenny Waddilove fellow committee member and Andrea Skow the Hawkeye Division Representative for the March of Dimes.

Thank you for walking!

With Chris Garrett, the Iowa State director for the March of Dimes. 

Thank you to a personal team sponsor, Dr. Lori Wenzel of OBGYN of Iowa City and Coralville for her generous donation. 

Thank you to the National Sponsors of the March of Dimes.

             

Rest, relaxation and some vitamin D!

For those of you that know my family and I know we are avid travelers and whenever there is a "break" we try to get in a vacation!! This year was different because I am no longer in school and my spring break at the dance studio didn't match up with my dad and brother's spring break for school.  Because of this I was lucky to finagle TWO spring breaks.  One a few weeks back to just spend at home and with family and then these past fews days in florida with my family!

This past Wednesday I was able to jump on a plane and meet my family in Tampa, Florida.  In just a few short days we have had a lot of fun AND I have been able to keep up on my Miss Iowa prep!  The first day on the beach I ended up carrying my brother around 200 yards on the beach and after a day of traveling I counted that as part of my work out! While we had plenty of time for fun we also had plenty of down time to work on Miss Iowa paperwork and work out details for my upcoming benefit and doing some shopping where I found a key piece of my Miss Iowa wardrobe!  With only 69 days til Miss Iowa there is no time for a break but this break for warm weather was gladly welcomed!

The highlight, by far in the trip, was on our last full day!! We rented a boat for two hours out on Tampa Bay and just drove around the bay.  While we were boating I spotted something in the distant that was jumping and splashing around and to my excitement it was a small pod of DOLPHINS!! I have seen and been around dolphins before in my life but there is something utterly breathtaking of seeing dolphins out of no where in the ocean!  We just floated on our boat for about 20 minutes just watching the dolphins play!

It was wonderful to get away and take time for myself, this journey is not easy and it does take a toll on you.  Luckily, I know myself very well and know when I need time to chill and recharge! With that being said this break doesn't last forever, tomorrow I will get in a quick talent costume fitting, hopefully a visit to 8one8 and then back to work at the studio!  It is always great to have a break and get some vitamin D especially after winter but it is even better to get back to a schedule.

Hope you all have a wonderful Easter and stay tuned for the next few weeks are a little busy and filled with a ton of exciting things!!

XOXO
Miss Pearl City 2015, Christy Scimeca

It takes a village

It takes a village and boy am I thankful that I have an amazing village! I haven't had much time to blog lately because I have been busy do all sorts of things! Last week, which I can not believe it was already last week, was spring break and I took this time to really lay back and embrace not having a schedule.  I was able to spend the week at home with my family who is my true support system and I have no idea where I would be without them.  I used this week to revive my sanity and reboot my system, getting ready for these last 78 days before the Miss Iowa Finals. I did everything from sleep in, to eat my favorite meals at my favorite restaurants to spend a day shopping with my mom and brother to working on the details of the event I am working on.  (More about that later!)  I am thankful that I was able to spend this week at home and to get things done that get pushed aside in everyday life.  One of the big tasks I had while home was finding the perfect clothing and jewelry for head shots which we have tomorrow!!  This was fun and frustrating at the same time and I am pretty sure my brother never wants to do another pageant shopping trip with me again!

With head shots tomorrow, this is where I am thankful for my village!! For anyone that thinks getting to Miss Iowa is a solo journey is a fool.  I have grown so much in the past few months since winning Miss Pearl City and I still have plenty of time and drive to improve myself before hopefully fitting in the shoes of Miss Iowa.  The Miss Muscatine Scholarship program has AMAZINGLY, WONDERFUL, GIVING and SELFLESS sponsors that will do anything to help us out!  I always enjoy working with our sponsors and I am pretty sure I have seen almost all of them in the past 72 hours!  I have had a workout with Jon at 8One8 and boy did my arms feel that the next day and I even had a nutrition check in with Jennifer Lintz, to make sure I am right on track for these next 78 days AND a lovely and very helpful conference call with Michelle and Jessica at Legacy pageant consulting!  I was also able to fit in a hair cut and color touch up at ANewU Salon in Muscatine, which was relaxing and fun as always.  Then I was able to get some color from a spray tan from the fabulous Nicki Boyd who owns Jet De Soleil in Iowa City.  Nicki is one of my dance mom at the studio but more importantly she is an impeccable spray tanner!  Then tomorrow when we get our head shots taken I will be in the company of the wonderful photographer Michale who owns Mississippi Pearl Photography.  Michale did my last head shots as well as other things for me in the past and it is always a pleasure working with Michale and I can't wait to work with her again tomorrow to get the perfect Miss Iowa head shot!  Then lastly, I will be heading to a very familiar place on my journey to Miss Iowa, which is 8One8 studio.  For the first time I will NOT be working out or walking aways sore because we are grateful to use the studio space as the place for our head shots! This is what I mean about how wonderful our sponsors are.  They help out in as many ways as they possibly can!  Once I am done with head shots I will head down the street to the Adler Theater where we will have our second Affect competition of the season.  I am excited for this competition because there will be a lot of familiar faces in the audience and competing, including the adorable ladies of River City All Stars, whom I was able to guest choreograph for!

Then, I can not forget the phenomenal board of Miss Muscatine.  Our head shots and these sponsors wouldn't be around with the fabulous help of Ashley and Kindra. I can't wait to see them tomorrow as well because it has been too long!

I can't wait to share my new head shots with you all and can't wait to share some more exciting news soon!! Until next time-
XOXO Miss Pearl City, Christy Scimeca

Steve is...

I sat here and tried to think of a witty title to this post. But in the end there is no witty title to tell this story. Steve, is an inspiration, a joy, a blessing, a lover, a pain, a brother, a fighter, a son, a miracle and most importantly, Steve had the chance to grow up and be Steve.  There is no perfect word to describe Steve because since day one he has surpassed all expectations that were set for him.  Some of you know Steve's story because you have lived it through our family but others don't know anything about my family and our story.

When I was five years old I found out I was going to become a big sister.  Little did I know at that time that he would teach me the most valuable lessons in life and he would shape me to become the person I am today.  At 26 weeks Steve was born via emergency c-section because my mom suffered placental abruption.  He was born March 16th 1997 at only 1 pound 13 ounces.  I personally do not remember much from this day because I was only five, but I do remember getting a phone call from my mom and dad telling me his name and not quite understanding why I couldn't see my new brother.  Neither did I know at this time that we wouldn't be able to bring Steve home for 125 days.  When Steve was born he suffered grade 3, grade 4 brain intraventricular bleeds that caused him to develop hydrocephalus.  Hydrocephalus is the build up of cerebral spinal fluid in the brain that puts harmful pressure on the brain.  To get rid of that fluid Steve received an external shunt in his brain for 2 month while we waited for him to grow big enough for a Ventriculoperitoneal (VP) shunt.   A VP shunt was placed in his head at day 70 when he was only 3 pounds 3 ounces.  As a result of Steve's prematurity and the brain bleeds at birth Steve still suffers today from cerebral palsy.  Steve's cerebral palsy is classified as left sided hemiplegia, where is affects only the left side of his body.  For Steve, he can still use the left side of his body to an extent but it takes more effort and concentration.  He wears AFO's on his legs to walk, a full one on his left side and a half one on his right side and he wears a hand brace on the left side at night and during certain activities to keep his wrist muscles in a straight line.  

When he was only 2 1/2 weeks old he had surgery for PDA (opening in heart that didn't close at birth) and still has a large scar on his chest today.  While in the NICU Steve was intubated to help him breath and because of damage that occurred when doing this he now has a paralyzed vocal cord.  He also has vision issues called ROP (retinopathy of prematurity) his bad eyesight as a result most of the ROP resolved now but he still wears glasses 24/7.  Along with all these major and minor surgeries during his 125 day stay in the NICU Steve had issues with sucking/eating where it took him over an 1/2 hour to drink 20 cc's because of this he was tube feed via a NG (nasal gastric) tube.  They had to regulate his sucking, swallowing and breathing because his heart rate and breathing would drop into apneic spells which means he would hold his breath and stop breathing.  This required constant regulation.  Also during his NICU stay he suffered from sudden onset kidney failure from toxic levels of antibiotics.  Luckily, it all resolved and was not an underlying issue.   Lastly, he was on oxygen his entire hospital stay, and even came home on oxygen and continued to use the NG feeding tube to eat.

When, I read that back it truly shows how much of a miracle Steve really is.  For those of you that know him he lives each day with a smile on his face even though he has faced all these hardships.  Therefore, the perfect word to describe Steve is a MIRACLE.

Christy Scimeca, Miss Pearl City 2015

Time flies when your having fun!

WOW! Like usual life has been super busy!  In the grand scheme of things we are now in the double digit days away from Miss Iowa Finals!  I can not believe that finals are only 99 days away!! Every other day I change my mind on if I am ready for not, I try to tell myself and convince myself that I am but I am grateful that I still have 99 days to be the best version of myself.

On a smaller scale this past week has flown by, I was invited by Irving B. Weber Elementary to teach gym class to 3rd-6th graders for the week.  I spent my mornings from 8:45 am - 12:05 pm teaching these elementary school kids how to dance and how to use dance as a form of expression.  I had an absolute ball with these kids.  I had some familiar faces from the dance studio and some hesitant participants (mostly the boys) but by the end of the week every class learned a short dance and walked away knowing some new moves and a smile on their face as I promised.  It was so fun for me to be able to share my love and passion for dance with those who have never experienced dance or unable to go to a dance class for any reason.  There were times when we danced together and time that I just let them dance around and express themselves.  I even saw kids dancing around the hallways when I wasn't teaching them!

Just a small portion of the kids I got to spend my mornings with!

Kids are so welcoming and made me feel right at home! 

Monday, I will head to Des Moines to the state capitol for Advocacy day for the March of Dimes.  I am very excited to speak with legislators and work with March of Dimes staff and volunteers to bring awareness to the March of Dimes and certain issues.  Stay tuned for updates!

XOXO-

Christy Scimeca, Miss Pearl City

From here, there to every where!

Iowa City to Davenport, back to Iowa City, back to Davenport, to Polo, Il to Schaumburg, Il, to Naperville, Il, back to Polo, back to Davenport, to Iowa City off to Cedar Rapids and back to Iowa City.  This was my crazy, event filled weekend!! It all started bright and early Friday morning when I travelled to Davenport to meet Jon for a workout session!  I thought for once he would show me some mercy since I had an appearance later in Davenport that day but… nope! No mercy was given, and I completed a tough timed circuit that consisted of some new exercises that really kicked my butt!  From the workout I drove down the road to the March of Dimes kickoff event for the Davenport walk.  To get ready for this event I spilt my getting ready between in the car and in the restroom of the hotel.  The Davenport kickoff event was a huge hit and it had a wonderful turn out of so many welcoming volunteers!  At this event I was able to speak to everyone who had attended and explain to them why I have chosen the March of Dimes as my platform and why I even had to chose a platform to compete in the Miss America system.  The crowd was so welcoming that I felt like I have known them forever and it was very easy to share my story with them.  After this I was able to pass out the awards for the top walkers, teams and organizations.  After both kickoff events I have been so overwhelmed by the passion and commitment of the volunteers involved with the March of Dimes! 

After the March of Dimes event I was back to Iowa City to pack for my shopping trip with the Muscatine board and a quick rehearsal at Nolte to get ready for our performance at this weekend's Titan's game against the Des Moines Barnstormers.  After all this, it was back on the road again to meet up with Ashley to carpool to our next destination.  We were quickly off and found ourselves at Kindra's house.  When the sun came up we are off again and this time to shop at Woodfield Shopping Mall.  While our shopping had some up's and down's we walked away with some great purchases!

The major down of the day… I broke the
 heel off my shoe. (Plus side, I HAD to buy new shoes)

After we finished shopping for the day, we stopped in Naperville to have dinner with my family.  I was very glad there was time to stop and see them. We then jumped back in the car, with full bellies and shopping bags, and headed back to Kindra's.  From there Ashley and I woke up around 6am so I could make it back to Iowa City for more rehearsals!  Most people's Sunday's consist of catching up on life and relaxing but mine always consist of Affect rehearsals, solo rehearsals and Titan Dolls practice.  I wouldn't change it for anything either.  I love being in the studio with my girls and doing what we all love!  

Lastly, Monday morning I was invited to tour the Jeff Murray laboratory.  Dr. Jeff Murray is the leading researcher in prematurity and it was wonderful to see the research that was happening right here in Iowa.  His research is helping the March of Dimes as well as the March of Dimes is helping him!  Below is a link to his webpage if you want to find out more about what he is doing! 

Dr. Jeff Murray Laboratory

Being a role model to so many young girls at the dance studio is what keeps me going.
I tell them everyday to follow their dreams, and I want to prove to them that you can chase any crazy dream you have.

XOXO-
Christy
Miss Pearl City

What a weekend!

It's Monday evening and I am sitting at work on a break before my last class of the evening  (It is now Tuesday night around 10 PM 11 PM and I am done teaching for the night; teaching classes, working out, making props and grocery shopping, basically life, got in the way of finishing this blog!) and all I can do is sit and reflect on what an amazingly crazy weekend it was.  The weekend started bright and early Friday morning where I headed to the March of Dimes: March for Babies Iowa City Kick off event.  This event was to kick off the walk, which will take place April 11th at 8 AM in Iowa City at Lower City park.  Earlier in the week, I had a board meeting where we secured the walk route, and I am very excited that it will involve walking in the community!  At the kickoff event we had a great turn out and were able to recognize the top walkers and top teams from last years walk.  It was great to see there motivation and learn their stories and why they walk.  It inspired me to reach for the goal of becoming a top ten walker and/or top team next year!! I can do this with your help, please consider joining my team and helping me raise money or donating to my page!

Miss Pearl City March of Dimes Team

After the kickoff event, I hit the gym and got in a great workout that Jon provided me!  I love the workouts he provides me when I can't make it out to see him, they work me out but allow me to do them at home if I need to as well!
From here it was time to volunteer at the University of Iowa Dance Marathon!  While I was a student at the University I participated in Dance Marathon my freshman year and while it was tough it was rewarding and I give a standing ovation to those who can do it year after year.  Dance marathon is a great event that creates so much awareness and raises so much money for childhood cancer.  I am glad that I was able to do my small part this year in not only volunteering at dance marathon but volunteering at the children's hospital when I can!  At dance marathon I split my time between answering questions for the dancers participating in dance marathon and helping the families recycle at the family dinner.  I enjoyed being involved in the family dinner because I was able to see the joy that dance marathon brings to the children affected by cancer.

 








Congrats to everyone who participated and organized Dance Marathon because Dance Marathon 21 raised over $2 MILLION!
From Dance Marathon I rushed off to Nolte Academy to run the first rehearsal for the Titan's Football Game that the Nolte Academy was invited to perform at on February 28th!  I wouldn't want to spend my Friday night any other way because those kids want to be there and they want to dance and they want to have fun!  We had a blast dancing and learning together.  From here I headed home where I met my family who decided to come out and visit! We spent the rest of our night enjoying each others company and catching up on the TV shows we all watch.

Saturday morning started early as I was off to Muscatine for my Miss Iowa dress appointment!! It was wonderful to meet up with the Muscatine board and be accompanied by my mom and brother.  We were welcomed, as usual, from Heather and Stacy the second we walked in the door.  It was time for business, and like anyone I was very excited to spend time trying on one beautiful dress after the other. In a shorter time than I expected we all unanimously decided on a dress!!

I still can't believe I have my dress for MISS IOWA!!

From Muscatine it was time for one more rehearsal in Iowa City before my family and I jumped in the car to attend the Miss Greater Des Moines and Miss Metro pageant.  This was the first time it really sunk in the I am Miss Pearl City because I would be sitting in the audience of a pageant for the first time!  I enjoyed watching the pageant and I DO NOT envy the judges because I didn't want to be the one who decided who was crowned because there was so much talent, grace and poise on that stage! Congratulations to Serica, Kelly, Sophia and Nina on their titles and I can't wait to get to know them better at Miss Iowa week!  

Pageant girls love selflies!

Sunday for me was filled with rehearsals! My first rehearsal started in Cedar Rapids with the Cedar Rapids Dolls where we were practicing for our first game THIS Friday night!  From Cedar Rapids I was back to Iowa City for dress rehearsal with Affect Dance Company.  We also have our first competition this weekend in Davenport! With that being said I have another busy weekend ahead of me filled with dance, but I wouldn't change that!  It's time for me to sign off as I have to put the finishing touches on a costume and finish making some props!  But as promised I leave you with a quote!

My life may be crazy busy but it makes me who I am!  I am a driven person and won't let anything get in my way of achieving my dream of becoming Miss Iowa.  I have the end goal in mind and I won't stop working towards it or lose sight of it.  Here's to more hard work!

Until next time-
XOXO Miss Pearl City, Christy Scimeca