Signs of Spring and A Book Signing

Things have been so busy this week the time has flown by!  Let me start with the most exciting part--my sister-in-law, Sondra, and I got to meet Ree Drummond (AKA "The Pioneer Woman")!!  For those of you who do not know about her, she is a blogger, (check out her blog.  Now.) author, and newly minted Food Network star.  I have all of her books and she just released her newest cookbook, The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Food from My Frontier a couple weeks ago.  She went on a book tour and announced it on her blog last month.  One of her stops was Columbus, which was the closest to us, so we drove 2.5 hours down there and back in the same evening.  It was so worth it--she was one of the nicest people I've ever met, along with her husband (AKA "Marlboro Man").  They took time to talk to every single person in line and take photos:

I'm standing awkwardly, to say the least.  She offered to let me sit in her lap, but that would have likely been even more awkward than this photo, if that's possible.  If you've never read her blog or checked out her books, you must.  Her cookbooks are amazing--delicious recipes and tons of step-by-step photos for every single one.  In addition to her two cookbooks, she also wrote a children's book called Charlie the Ranch Dog, based on her actual Basset Hound named Charlie.  He is one of the stars of her blog (famous for his love of bacon, napping, and getting into ridiculous situations) and the book is wonderful.  She and her husband signed my copy for Charlotte.  I hope she keeps writing books and touring, because we would love to meet her again!

The rest of the weeks excitement has more of what's become normal for this month--warm weather and spending time outside.  It's mostly what we've been doing and I'm certainly not complaining.  Besides the warmth and sunshine, there are signs of spring all around:

Happy Friday!

~Stacy