Kruger Memorial Vintage Snowmobile Dragraces

It is no secret to anyone that knows me that the Krugers have a very special place in my heart. It is always hard to think back to that horrible day, but I find myself doing it more and more often as I get older. It is still as clear in my mind today as it was 7 years ago. When someone is asked the question "Who is the most influential woman in your life?" most would answer with their mom or grandmother. Since that day in seventh grade, I have always answered "Hilary Kruger". Not that I don't love my mom and grandmas, I do love them. But Hilary has always stuck in my mind. She is the kind of woman I want to be someday. She is strong and confident and funny. She is down to earth and loving. She went through something that none of us can imagine and she came out on top. I hope that someday I am able to be half the woman that she is. 

Saturday after the parade, I headed out to the lake to see the Kruger Memorial Races. I got to catch up with Hilary and Zak for a few minutes while we watched a couple races. It is crazy to think that Zak is already a junior. I remember Hilary and Zak coming to pick up Alec from my house in seventh grade. Zak was just a little 10 year old then. He is now towering over me. It makes me so sad. I am so thankful God has put these two in my life. They are a true inspiration.

xoxo,

Katie

Sleigh and Cutter

What a weekend!!! I still haven't caught up on my sleep yet. I had to bring Joey back down to Waseca today because no matter how many times I told him he should bring dress clothes to school, he wouldn't listen. Boys will be boys I guess…but, I did get a nice nap in :) So that was a plus! 

Thursday afternoon Sadie and I attended the opening of the new Waseca Safety Center. What a beautiful building! The amount of work that the people of our community put into that project in such a short period of time is amazing. You would never know by looking at it that it was build in just a few short months. Ellie gave us a wonderful tour around the entire building! 

New parking for the firetrucks!

Trevor arrested us :(

Thursday night Sadie and I were interviewed by Frank and Chris from WCCO about what it took to be Mr. Waseca! If you watched the segment, I think it is safe to say they would both make wonderful titleholders! They were a hoot! Thank you so much WCCO for promoting our event! If you didn't catch us on tv, find it here ! 

Noah and the ladies :)

Ryan loves the crown!

Chris Brooks and the Silver City Boys!

Chris Brooks. That is all I have to say. Holyyyyyy smokes! Friday was a BLAST with my lovely team. I temporarily lost my voice from singing so much!! We literally danced the night away. Also, shout out to Lau's Meat Market for the amazing stuffed pork chops. So delicious. And to the VFW bartenders for making the best Shirley Temples ever. YUM! I also got to dance with my first one on one student, Eustice :) What a goofball. He was too embarrassed to dance with me at first because "YOU ARE MY TEACHER!" but eventually he came over and grabbed me by the arm. 

Too sleepy at the dance...

Saturday came REAL early. We were up and at 'em for the parade registration! It was only the start of an eventful day. The weather was beautiful and it was snowing just a little (it was perfect winter engagement weather). I had two of the best horses in the parade, Jeff and Rocky. Team Waseca was joined by royalty from all over southern Minnesota! It is always great to see the other girls! Special shout out to Katie Bull. :) It is so great to see all of the people that are involved with the festival! Ken does a wonderful job putting on this festival. If it wasn't for him, I am sure it would have died out many years ago. We are so blessed to have such a caring man in our community. 

xoxo,

Katie

  

Polar Plunge take 1

Saturday I was crazy enough to take the plunge! It was a balmy 12 degrees outside and myself along with 4 other of my Miss MN sisters decided to jump into White Bear Lake for the Special Olympics! We were all newbies and had no idea what to expect! After waiting a hour and a half, it was FINALLY our turn! We all stripped down to our orange and blue to represent Miss St. Paul's (Rachel Latuff) school, North View Junior High. 

Miss Midwest (Chelsea Swiggum), Miss Morris Area (Cassey HIckman), Miss St. Paul (Rachel Latuff), Miss Waseca County Sleigh and Cutter (Katie Schroeder), and Miss Mankato (Kaitie Borneke)

Of course, as we all shuffled quickly outside, all the parents wanted to take pictures of us. IT WAS FREEZING!!! But we made our way to the jumping zone! The man yelled 3-2-1 and we all jumped….or pushed each other. 

We all made it back to the warming tent. I don't think I have ever moved so fast in my life to get into warmth! Once we got back, Chelsea realized she lost her crown in the lake…whoops. But luckily, the fish didn't want it! :) 

Even though it was so cold, it was so fun! And we jumped for such a wonderful cause! 

You can click here to watch us take the plunge! 

Saturday I kick off the Waseca Sleigh and Cutter festival by plunging AGAIN in Waseca :) Also, lovely blog readers, are you from Waseca? If you are, do you know a guy who would be great at competing for the Mr. Waseca title? Contact me for more info! :) 

xoxo,

Katie

New year, new beginnings!

Hello and happy new year to you all! I hope you all had a fun and relaxing winter break! I know I did! I am now back in full swing at Bethel fulfilling my first field experience in a 3rd grade classroom in St. Anthony. I was so nervous about 3rd grade, because I have only worked with younger elementary students, so that was what I was hoping for. I know that God always has a plan for me though, and boy, is His plan great! I have a wonderful classroom of students and the best cooperative teacher! Today was only my second day and she let me plan a lesson that she would teach later in the day. I was so nervous about doing well that I'm pretty sure I redid it about five times before I considered it done! Ms. Cooper has already instilled so much confidence in my ability and I am so grateful for this experience. 

Earlier in December I had the opportunity to travel down to Fort Benning, GA to see my best friend graduate from Basic Training and AIT. It was well worth the week of make up work the week before finals! I am so extremely proud of the man he has grown to be and he is continually blessing me each and every day. Most of you know that I am the BIGGEST sap in the world, but for all of you to know, I didn't cry! So hard to believe, I know. I'm pretty sure I wasn't totally convinced it was real life though! Brittney told me a few times "This is real life, Kate." 

                                                                                                                 

Brit and I also had a wonderful experience on our last day in Georgia! After breakfast on our last day, we headed back up to our room to pack and leave for graduation only to find that our door was broken! The poor manager couldn't even get it open. The grounds worker had to come and break in for us. Luckily, we were toughing it out in the "cold" weather. It was 45 degrees. We were loving it. 

This past weekend Team Waseca went gown shopping! I was successful in finding a ramp gown and Alyssa found a beautiful evening gown for MMOT! I'll admit I am a little sad that dress shopping is over for me…I love shopping and pretty gowns. 

After shopping, we attended the Miss Minneapolis/St. Paul pageant! I would like to congratulate Rachel and Julia on being crowned Miss St. Paul and Miss Minneapolis! You are both stunning and I cannot wait to get to know you! 

Lately, I have been reading so many inspiration posts on Facebook from the Miss MN class of 2014. The stories behind their platforms and the things that have made them who they are today are so inspiring. I am so honored to be among such an outstanding group of young women. 

I love you all!

xoxo,

Katie 

Nearing the end of the semester

As the end of the semester draws near, I find myself extremely busy with Student Activities, homework, and being a queen. But somehow I manage to do everything without losing my mind! And thank goodness for that! 

Sadie, Alyssa, and I went to see the new Miss Coon Rapids and Miss Coon Rapids Outstanding Teens be crowned! Congratulations Kayla and Brianna! It was so nice to finally meet some of the other Miss MN contestants as well! 

 I would say we're a pretty good looking group!

 Thanksgiving day I had the amazing opportunity to serve those in our community who have no where to go for a meal! (Shout out to Molly Kopischke for giving me this opportunity!) I met some great people and had a wonderful time creating smiles for being in my own community! 

Last Friday the Canadian Pacific Holiday Train came to Waseca! Alyssa, Lauren, and I handed out paper bags to people in Waseca to fill with non perishable food items and bring to the train earlier in the week! Even though it was a cold night (windchill of -13!) so many wonderful citizens of Waseca showed up to support the food shelf and see the train! I also got to see smiles from those who came when I gave them some hot cocoa to sip on while listening to the performance from the band on the train! :) What a fun experience!

Freezing our tooshes off for a good cause!

SO COLD!

Saturday was the Holiday Extravaganza in Waseca! We raised over $1300 for Children's Miracle Network and our pageant fund!!!! Sadie, Alyssa, and I went around town to sell poinsettias to local businesses earlier which brought in a huge profit for us! There were also 30 vendors at our extravaganza that helped support our fund. Miss MN 2013 and Miss MNOT 2013 came to perform for us during the day too! (Even though Corrina couldn't do her karate routine, her singing was still beautiful!) We had our pictures with Santa and performed our talents for everyone. My personal accomplishment for the day was getting Rylee to get her picture with Santa. I EVEN GOT HER TO HUG HIM! I was so excited! 

Tomorrow I take off for Fort Benning, GA to see my best friend and boyfriend graduate from his basic training and AIT! I could not be more excited to see him and experience some warmer weather! (It's supposed to be in the 60s!) But, with missing a whole week of school, comes lots of homework. Especially the week before finals :( 

I love you all! 

xoxo,

Katie

PICTURE DAY

Hello lovely people!

Last weekend was a BLAST! All of the sister queens were reunited along with our lovely committee! (The Queen Mum was even there!) We started with an early morning at Cassie's Classic Cuts! Cassie is one of the very few people I trust with my hair, so I was pretty excited! They primped and pampered us for our photoshoot!

 I found a new favorite nugget! Baby Charlotte is the sweetest thing! 

Here is the group with all of our lovely stylists! Thank you so much to Cassie and her crew!

After we were done being beautified we did short mock interviews before our shoot. I am becoming more comfortable with being questioned by a panel of judges. I would have to say though, that the most intimidating judge was Carter. His restless body kept me laughing throughout the entire thing :) 

After a quick lunch and interviews, we headed out to Tara Bjerke Photography to take some pictures! She did an amazing job dealing with all of us! 

Of course, Sadie had to photo bomb every single picture! (: Still love her though!

I am so excited to see Tara's picture of this! True Sleigh and Cutter girls (:

A huge thanks to Cassie's Classic Cuts and Tara Bjerke for making our day so successful! 

xoxo,

Katie

Halloween, Miss Mankato, Indoor, OH MY!

Another crazy couple of weeks have gone by! Time really does fly when you are having fun! I successfully survived bingo for the second time! The directors let us dress up for Halloween (that was my favorite part!) 

The directors even dressed up!

A few weeks back, Sadie and I got to help out at FarmAmerica's Haunted Corn Maze! We thought we recognized the sheriff on duty out there, but weren't 100%! But sure enough, our main guy, Ken, happens to be a sheriff! (WHO KNEW?!) It was so good to see him for one of the first times after the pageant!

 Alyssa and I got to celebrate Halloween with the Waseca community at the FarmAmerica Halloween Festival. There were different stations for kids to go around to and play games, explore the buildings, and get candy! We saw some of the cutest nuggets! it was so fun! Two of the cutest happened to be our favorite little girls!

Minnie and the witch!

Last weekend, Alyssa, Lauren, and I travelled to Mankato to see the new Miss Mankato be crowned! What a fun experience to see Kaitie take the title! It was also so great to see so many royalty there! I even got to see Drew (: She has given me such big shoes to fill and I am so honored to know her! EVERYONE GO WATCH HER AT MISS GRAND CITIES/MISS GRAND FORKS ON NOVEMBER 30TH AND CHEER HER ON! SHE IS THE BEST. 

silly queens! 

Team Waseca (: well….part of it! 

Last night, I went to see my baby sister queen march her butt off at Indoor! And what an amazing job did she do! The Waseca Marching Jays are an amazing group of kids! I am so grateful I was able to be a part of such a wonderful organization for 4 years of my life. I am also so glad that Sadie can experience it! Truly, there is nothing quite like the family of the Marching Jays. 

Is she not the cutest or what?

Next weekend is our Team Waseca photo shoot! To say that I'm excited would be an understatement. The four of us have not been together since the Classic! Our princesses even get to join us! (: Stay tuned!

xoxo,

Katie