Thank you all so much for visiting and entering the contest! Reading your comments was so much fun and reminded me of even more reasons that I enjoy her blogging. Having grown up in the country, helping my parents with cattle, eating country food and roaming the pastures on summer days, I feel like Ree helps remind me of my roots each day that I read her posts. I’ve spent my adult life in cities so it’s refreshing to look at her picture and see her children doing country-kid things that I used to do.
Back to the matter at hand, though. We have a winner!
The cookbook is going home to Sabra Childers! Congratulations, Sabra! Email me with your information and I’ll get the book shipped out to you. I know you will enjoy it!
As you many of you know, I’m a huge fan of Pioneer woman, her blogs and her endless talent. She’s clever, witty, entertaining and….real. So very real. She’s someone that people all over the world can relate to and feel a connection with. She’s an incredible cook, a photographer, a homeschooling mom and a seriously hard worker. Her name is Ree and she is an inspiration to women–and men–everywhere. She knows how to entertain us through her writing, draw us in with her delicious recipes, and keeps us laughing with her Ethel Merman impressions. And for me, she’s my inspiration to not throw my hands up and give up as a housewife and mother when the laundry keeps coming, dishes keep getting dirty and the kids just want to be kids.
If you’re not familiar with her, let me assign you some PW homework. You won’t regret completing this assignment. Trust me.
- First and foremost, scroll to the bottom of this page. Read each and every chapter of Black Heels to Tractor Wheels, the story of how Ree met her husband, Marlboro Man.
- Now that you’ve read that and are head over heels in love with Ree’s sense of humor and passion for story telling, go fall in love with this recipe.
- And this one. My family loves these.
- Check out a few of these.
- I love her for her Photoshop tips and actions and for her gorgeous photography.
You get the idea. I could link all day, but I want you to take some free time and lose yourself in her sites for awhile. It’s the good stuff.
Now. On to my story….
She’s currently on her book signing tour for the amazing cookbook she just released. When I found out she was coming to a bookstore (somewhat) near me, I was thrilled! I felt a little twinge of I-might-be-a PW-groupie-ness as I got giddy at the prospect of meeting her, if even for just a moment. As the date neared, though, it wasn’t looking good. The book signing was at 7pm on a school night….over 2 hours away from home. The day arrived and I accepted that my plans that day just couldn’t include meeting Ree. Who would pick up Alex? Who would wash Elliott’s curls and tuck the kids in? What if the roads got too nasty with the snow in the forecast?
I was doing housework and settling into the daily mom routine, when all of a sudden my in-laws arrive acting a bit…sneaky. Lo and behold, Shayne had arranged for the kids to be taken care of. He cleared his work day. He did all of this so that he could take me down to Dallas and spend many hours waiting with me to get my cookbook signed. That’s love, man.
Within minutes, I was showered and ready to roll. We hopped in the car and drove as quickly as we safely and legally could in hopes that by the time we arrived at the bookstore, there would be a wristband left for me. And there was. So we settled in and waited. 
And waited.
After killing 3 hours roaming around the store and nearby retailers, our group was called to get in line….where we waited almost four hours for our turn to have our book signed. We met a lovely group of ladies and thoroughly enjoyed getting to know them. As the line slowly moved, we realized that we should have brought drinks and snacks. We laughed our way through our thirst and dropping blood sugar with our new friends and finally we arrived at the front of the line!
After hours of waiting, one would think I had come up with something witty to say. One would think. By that time, though, I was fresh out of personality. I’m not at my best at 10:30 at night, for sure. All I could muster was something like, “Hi, Ree. How are you? Thanks for doing this” or something equally bland. Fortunately, she’s as radiant, gracious and charming as you would expect and once she recognized “The Green Wife” we had a conversation about how I’d won a Le Creuset from her fairly recently.
And I couldn’t pass up the opportunity for this pic.
Then she looked at me and said with a touch of sadness to her voice and a touch of Ree-style humor, “I used to have red hair, too.”
We discussed red hair.
And she signed my book.
If you haven’t gotten a copy of the book, I highly recommend it. It’s chock full of real-people, everyday-ingredient recipes.
Oh, yum.
It has pictures of life around her ranch.
Pictures of her ‘punks’.
And pictures of dogs in hats, of course.
Oh, wait! What’s this?
How did I end up with an extra copy?!
And it seems as though….
it’s signed! And it says…
That must mean one of my lucky readers is getting their own signed copy!
To enter, leave one comment on this post letting me know what you love about PW. Do you love her photography best? Her recipes? Her cowboy pics? Or maybe her burps? If you’ve never heard of her, just tell me that you’re going digging through her archives.
This contest will end Saturday, Dec 5 at 5pm and the winner will be announced soon after. One comment only, please.
–Abbie