Miss Lady Bird's Wildflowers

Today I had the privilege to read the most wonderful book to my daughter Chloe. It was called, Miss Lady Bird's Wildflowers: How a First Lady Changed America.

The story tells of Lady Bird's childhood, how she got her name from her nanny, the loss of her mother, the sweet friend she found in her Aunt Effie who came to live with her & Papa after mother's death. Dearest Aunt Effie is responsible for "sowing the seed" of love for wildflowers in Lady Bird. It follows her to college, courtship, marriage, becoming First Lady & how she helped to beautify our highways by eliminating billboards and seeding wildflowers.

The real bonus in the book is the chart of wildflowers on the last page, and then to have your child find them on the pages, as they are woven thoughout the splendid illustrations. More fun to be had in the illustrations is all the wildlife hidden in woods. I think that was Chloe's favorite part.

I have to admit I got teary-eyed reading this book to her. (Thank God my tender hearted Chloe was thoughtful enough to get up right away and get her mommy a tissue, I love that girl!) The wonderful description of my beloved Texas hill country was so vivid & made me so "homesick" to be there, especially right now, after all....it's BLUEBONNET TIME and I know the trails are smelling sweet.

Pioneer Woman meets Katie Dean!

I had the pleasure meeting a nice lady I've been following for the past couple of years on her blog, Ree Dummond aka: The Pionner Woman.
For those of you who do not know of her, she was a fancy city slicker from California who fell in love with a real cowboy from eastern Oklahoma. He asked her to marry him & he swept her away to his beautiful working cattle ranch.

She missed her family, friends & city, but loved her cowboy who she lovingly refers to as "Marlboro Man", and decided the best way to keep in touch and up-to-date with them was through a blog. She posted pictures of her adventures on the ranch, learning to cook and well telling some funny jokes & stories along the way. What started out as a blog for family & friends exploded into a readership of...well...I know it's in the hundred thousands. On her FB fan page she has over 222,000 people following her! Wow!! She also homeschools 4 kids & takes some amazing pictures.


So here's how my awesome Friday night went last week:

Here we are all waiting like a herd of cattle lookin' for the shoot.

Teena, myself, Allison & her precious little Levi aka; Future Marlboro Man. Allsion made that onesie special for the occasion. It has a cute little cowboy & his playful pup. She couldn't fit the whole "Marlboro Man" on it so went with "Future MM". I think this was a good choice since most people would think she's already giving the boy cigarettes like the kid over in Indonesia. She's not. So hold off on the calls to CPS, she's a great mom with a funny sense of humor who wanted The Pioneer Woman to laugh (and she did).

While there waiting in the muddle I decided to post my wait to the mobile Facebook and found a friend who was waiting over in the children's section there in the back corner of photo #1. Here's me & Shawna:

Finally the moment we'd all been waiting for! She comes out first for a little Q&A. At first I wasn't too keen on this thinking, "What on earth do you people NOT know about her? She blogs pretty much everything & she's written a cookbook & her love story." Still, we had a Q&A and not to my surprise, it was a short one.

She brought her oldest daughter along for the road trip & well looks like she's gonna need to help Mama haul the cool gifts people brought as well.

Now it's our turn!! Here are the up close & personal pictures!

Teena

Ree checkin' out the precious baby Levi's shirt; Future MM

Allsion & Levi

Now it's Shawna, Ryan & Ashley's turn to say howdy!

As you can see here, Ree took a shine to Ryan. He was the only kid who asked her a question during the Q&A and she was most impressed.

And I think he got the coolest autograph too!

Now it's my turn to have my cookbook signed. Yay!!

A close up please!

And the final picture.....what we were all there for....the book signing..

I met several ladies the next night at a fundraiser for our friends the Dickinson's and they had NO CLUE who The Pioneer Woman was...I almost fell right outta my chair! So being the "helpful & friendly" gal I am, I moseyed right on over to each table & shared with them all what I knew & loved about Ree Drummond, The Pioneer Woman of eastern Oklahoma.

Now why don't you moseye on over yourself and have a looksey?

http://thepioneerwoman.com/