The first thing on my schedule that bright and early morning was to visit the school. This was my first time doing a school visit, so I was a little nervous. But since Audrey has been studying like crazy for MRA, I knew she would be there to back me up with a plethora of knowledge if I ran into a question I didn’t know the answer to. When I got there, I realized that it was all pretty laid back and I felt a lot more comfortable. Throughout all of the classes that day I talked about animal rights vs. animal welfare, what it takes to be MTRM, the pageant, and even horses in general. After a long hard day of school, it was time for cheerleading practice. Yes, you read right, I was going to cheer… Kate came up with the idea for Audrey since she was nervous about the dance for MRA. So we headed off to the junior high to get cheering. And I tell you what, I have never seen so much pep in my life! But all of the girls were adorable and very good at what they were doing. We learned a dance number and then even did some lifts, which was a little scary since I was bigger than every girl there! Nonetheless, they put me up in the air with no problems at all.
The next afternoon, first thing Audrey said to as we walked up to the building where the trappers set up was, “Don’t walk by the scent table unless you have your nose plugged or you’ll regret it.” I knew exactly what she was talking about as soon as we got inside. If you have ever been into a taxidermy shop, you know that smell all of them have. It was kind of similar to that, except sour. But after being in there all day, I didn’t even notice it.
I had no idea what I was getting myself in to when I answered yes to the question “Are you doing the trap setting contest?!” at the annual MT Fur Trappers Rendezvous. As I stood infront of 5 pretty mean looking traps, I couldn’t figure out what was up and what was down! Thankfully, one of the professionals came over and showed me exactly what I needed to do. He even showed me the difference between the safe way and the quick way… I was definitely going for the safe route since I wanted to keep my fingers. The idea of the game was to set all of the traps as quickly as possible, without any of them going off.
First, we all watched the kids groups, and then it was time for the ladies. When it was finally my turn I was a little nervous, but I managed to do it in less than one minute! The time didn’t quite win it but I did end up 3rd, so I was happy! (Don’t let anyone know that there were only 3 competitors though!!) After the ladies went, it was time for the men’s group. I thought we had hard traps to set until I watched them! Some of them couldn’t even set all of them!
After that it was time to do the skillet toss, which is an all ladies event. All you had to do was throw a cast iron skillet as far as you could. The only rule of this game was that your spouse wasn’t allowed to stand at the other end of the field! Audrey was up first, but she didn’t quite set a high bar… The skillet ended up finding a tree instead of flying down the grass. I was up next, and I didn’t do too much better. I think I threw it about 40 feet. The girl who won threw it almost 80 feet! So needless to say, I didn’t do as well as I had hoped, but I’ll be back next year!
I couldn’t wait for dinner time because my stomach had been growling for quite a while. It was a tasty roast and mashed potatoes with some seriously delicious dessert. And after eating a huge plate, I felt like it was time for a nap. However, I was more than happy to get up to model some GEORGEOUS coats and vests from Paparazzi Furs There aren’t too many other things that I would rather be doing than modeling furs! Also modeling was Audrey, Kate, and Jessi. As the show went on, we each took turns walking down the “runway”, doing turns and posing. It was great practice for Jessi, who is going to compete for the MTRM title this year.
Until next time, I wish you all the best!
God Bless,
Jennifer Marshall
MTRM 2008
