A few months ago a friend told me to check out The Pioneer Woman blog...that's when I first met Ree Drummond. She's just a normal gal that turned an ordinary blog into a mega empire. Three years ago this spunky city girl turned home schoolin' ranch wife started a simple blog. She talked about her family and life on the ranch in rural Oklahoma. She was super funny, real and sweet. She gave wonderful recipe tutorials, shared witty stories about her family and friends, and took the most gorgeous pics of her ranch. Now her site gets approximately 15 million hits a month! Can you imagine??! Well when I heard she was coming to the Mall of America for her cookbook tour I knew I just had to meet her in person.
(Look at my face...I'm like umm.. am I really going to stand in line this long??)
Little did I know that every one else and their kids had to meet her too! It was just insane the number of people that showed up. I went expecting to stand in line maybe an hour or two. I'm actually a little embarrassed to admit this, but we stood in line for 5 1/2 hours:o!!!!! Can you believe that?? At first you are thinking...oh this line will get movin'... I can do this. Then after a couple hours of waiting, there is no way you can just walk away...you've become invested in actually making it to the finish line:) It's like a marathon you have to finish:)
The perks of waiting so long... I actually got to meet her super sweet husband Ladd...aka Marlboro Man. He was really nice and had the most pale blue eyes ever. Loved his twangy accent. He really lived up to the picture in my head of a ranchin' man.
These gals made it bearable. Sally is on the left and Paula is on the right. They were big Pioneer Woman fans. Sally had read her blog from the very beginning. How cool would that be! They were fascinated that I had a blog too and asked me all sorts of questions...so that was fun. I showed them pictures of the art I've been working on and they got all excited and started thinking of marketing ideas for me. They were just wonderful!
These sweet faces are my "peeps". Little Chick looks a little pathetic...that's because we told her to look tired...ha! She pulled it off a little too easily:) They were amazing. They faithfully stood with me and didn't complain or whine. I'm just beyond grateful for a family that supports me and doesn't make me feel bad when there is something I want to do that is different or a little crazy. I just love them sooooo much. I know I was asking a lot from them to stand in line and wait that long, but they delivered 100% and in the process made me feel so loved!!
Isn't she cute?? She was really nice of course. I only had about 30 seconds to say something, and of course she had been signing autographs for hours and smiling, so I didn't expect to become soul sisters or anything.
This is one of her son's. Can you imagine how far removed this is from the ranch? The two boys were coloring at the table where their dad was signing autographs. They had sort of been drawing on each other too from the looks of things;) This picture was lying on the table. His mom... the famous "MRS. PIONEER WOMAN". How surreal!
Okay so that leads me finally to the giveaway...can you guess what it is?? Yep... an autographed copy (by Ree and her Marlboro Man) of her wonderful new cookbook, which by the way is gorgeous and chocked full of beautiful pictures, stories and good ole' comfort food!! This one was hard-earned, so to win you need to leave a comment telling me why you want to win and sign up to be a follower . I will pick the 5 most convincing comments and then draw from a hat the final WINNER!! The contest ends Wednesday, Nov. 25th. Good luck ladies!
Have a blessed day.
