Oops I did it again....

Okay so when my husband's friends start mentioning that I need to post again, I guess it's time. Hey Dave!!!

The most current news is "I got to meet THE PIONEER WOMAN ~ Ree Drummond. She had a book signing in Orlando last night. My friend Shelley from Valrico was going to meet me there but at the last minute she couldn't go :-( so Julianne agreed to accompany me. I'm so glad I went. Not only is her cook book fantastic ~ she is also just as fantastic. She is pretty, and funny and does a mean Ethel Merman imitation. There had to be several hundred people there to see her. Fortunately we got there about 2 hrs before the scheduled book signing so we got to be upstairs and had a pretty good view of her. We weren't in the first 50 or so that got to be seated but still it was good. Made a lot of new friends in the two hours we waited.

Anyway... she brought her 2 daughters which was cool. It must be surreal for them to see all these crazy women (and a few men) all waiting hours just to meet their mom. This was the last stop on her book signing tour and the whole family was actually in town this week doing the Disney/Universal/Sea World thing.

In any case, if you don't follow her blog ~ you really should. Her pictures of life on the ranch are amazing and her recipes are to die for. If nothing else you have to read the story of how she met and fell in love with her husband, "The Marlboro Man." Great love story that I think might be being made into a movie.  Rumor has it that Reece Witherspoon is interested in playing her. Wonder who'll they'll get to play her husband.

I brought my wallets for all her family.  Most of them were cowboy wallets (which I forgot to take pictures of!) but I made her a wallet with all types of shoes cause the woman definitely has a shoe fetish.  She was really sweet about it and thanked me.  She even said they would be able to use them while they were on vacation.   Quite a few people brought her gifts so I wasn't the only geek!  She smiled graciously the whole time and talked with each person individually and allowed picture taking as well as taking a few of her own.

All in all it was a great night and I'm glad I was able to go and meet her.   Bonus at the end of the evening though was I found out I was less than 5 miles from my little brother's apt so Julianne and I went over to his place and hung out for a little bit ~ and an even bigger bonus was getting to see Patty (Matt's mom and my step mom (although I really don't care for that term)).     Silly me forgot to take pics there ~ but everyone looks great.  Matt made butternut squash soup which was very yummy.  His sweet and adorable girlfriend Karina was also there.  She's so tiny and petite ~ not much taller than Julianne.  I did keep Julz out a bit too late by the time we got home so I let her sleep in a bit this morning and go into school late.  I figure between the fact that there is only 1 more week of school mixed with her being pretty much a straight A student ~ no harm ~ no foul.
And one last pic Julianne making herself at home on the floor of Barnes & Noble ~ reading "The Last Song" and yes, she's seen the movie ~ but that's okay... at least she's reading!