Tuesday, February 15, 2011

I ♥ P Dub



Last Christmas, my dear friend Emily gave me a cookbook called The Pioneer Woman Cooks. It’s no secret that I love collecting cookbooks, and she knew I would fall in love instantly with this book and Ree Drummond. When I realized there was a blog where Ree talks about her life in Oklahoma and what’s she cooking, I started visiting her site every day. I tried a few of her recipes, and they were awesome. Then, I got pregnant, and my cooking went on a major hiatus. Robert had to pick himself up for dinner that had no smell to it, and my diet consisted of eating Cheerios and toast.

While I was pregnant, I read Ree’s memoir about meeting her husband. And if you follow her blog, you learned she turned those blog posts into a book that came out a couple of weeks ago. She posted a book tour and as I looked through the dates, I saw she was going to be at Borders in Dallas on Valentine’s Day. I decided right then and there I had to take Morgan and get my cookbook signed as well as her The Pioneer Woman: Black Heels to Tractor Wheels--A Love Story book. Emily mentioned she never bought Pioneer Woman’s cookbook, (WHAT?!) that she only got the recipes off her website, so I decided she needed a cookbook signed too.

I called Borders to see what the protocol was as every book signing is different. I’ve been to two book signings prior to this one: Lemony Snicket and Paula Deen. Lemony Snicket is one strange bird, but I didn’t go for myself, I went for my niece and god-daughter. Nevertheless, you could only have one book signed and he wouldn’t pose for pictures. Paula Deen is exactly like she is on TV, but there were so many people at her book signing, you said hello while she signed your book and moved on. We didn’t get any pictures with her either. The people at Borders told me there was no limit to how many books Ree would sign per person, and she loved to talk to people and take pictures.

So we packed up Morgan and off we went. We found a spot in the café, talked to people around us, and waited.







Ree arrived at 6 PM and took a few questions, and then introduced her family. I have to say her kids are absolutely adorable, especially her “baby” and Marlboro Man is very handsome—he was in his usual attire, wranglers, a starched light blue-grey shirt and his cowboy hat.






My pictures didn't catch her second son, but he was standing there, the kids were walking around during the book signing, and they signed a few books if people asked them. I walked right past her oldest daughter at one point, and people were also asking MM to sign their books and take pictures. Poor thing looked like a fish out of water, and I took a picture of him with my phone, but my phone ate the picture.

We were in the second group of 100 so we quickly found our spot in line and the waiting begun. I entertained myself by looking at the titles in the psychology section of the store and started reading some book about dreams. When the staff told me Ree loves to talk to her fans, they weren’t kidding—not that this is a bad thing, in fact, it’s a rarity and I think it’s great that she takes such an interest in her fans and loves talking to us. We barely moved, but I didn’t care. I was having a good time talking to people, and spending time with Robert and Morgan.

Then Morgan decided to take a little snooze because she knew something was up and barely took a nap earlier in the afternoon.



When she woke up it was around 8 and I asked Robert to run out to the car to get her bottle. Here’s where I win Mother of The Year Award. I left her insulated bag that I bought for this outing with her bottle at home. I couldn’t believe I did such a thing since I’m always checking and rechecking her diaper bag to make sure I have everything. I had grown tired of throwing Morgan’s bottle in a Ziploc bag of ice and it sweating in her diaper bag, yet I didn’t attach the insulated bag to her diaper bag like I should of. Morgan started to fuss a little, because it was warm, and she was getting hungry, so I dug through her bag, and I did happen to have a 2 ounce bottle of Pedialyte and a dropper from her gas drops. I decided to give her that as fast as I could with a dropper to ward off any hunger pains she was starting to have. We were getting terribly close to the front, and I wasn’t about to throw in the towel just yet. I’m sure many people were staring at me wondering what I was doing to my poor child, and one of the girls behind me assured me she’d had done a lot worse than forget a bottle.

Finally it was time to meet Pioneer Woman!



She was such a delight, and it was a great experience to meet her. It was totally worth the 2 ½ hour wait in line and we were only about 110 people back! She asked me if Morgan was my only child, and when I told her yes, she said to watch out it was contagious. She signed all our books, and then she asked me if I wanted a picture and I just forked Morgan over to her like I was related to her or had known her for a lifetime.




We high tailed it home, and Morgan didn’t fuss once in the car. She took her bottle, and passed out for the night without putting up much of a fight. I will also add that she slept for 11 ½ hours straight (usually it’s 10) but it was a big day for her.

It was a wonderful first Valentine’s Day for Morgan and one I’ll never forget.



A special thanks to Stormy Piece who made Morgan's
'Love' shirt. She got so many compliments!

2 comments:

  1. I love everything about this!! I'm so glad you went.

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  2. How cool that you got to meet Pioneer Woman! I had no idea that she finished the love story--I need that book! And I love that picture of the three of you. What a fabulous way to spend Valentine's Day!

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