WE MET PW. Fo Rizzle.

Today, me (UDW) and two of my sisters...


Farm Chick...


and Pretty Princess, loaded up in the car and headed South.


Destination: Brace Books in Ponca City, OK.
Mission: To meet Ree Drummond and obtain her autograph in our nice and shiny new copies of her awesome cookbook.

We decided to get there early for two reasons. First, we did not want to be at the end of the line and wait for hours in a line to get a chance to meet her (although, we probably would have) and second, there is a coffee bar in the bookstore.

The Brace Bookstore was brilliant. They handed out these nifty numbers and everyone shopped and milled around until their number got close and then got in a short line to meet Ree. It was much better than waiting and getting irritated at line cutters and place savers.

I might add that it was also a brilliant marketing move for the bookstore. The women passed the time browsing books, picking out Christmas presents and drinking coffee, in short, spending money that would have stayed in their pockets if they had been forced to stay in a line! Bravo, Brace, Bravo!

While we hung out, I jotted a note to Ree, just thanking her for making my morning coffee a much more entertaining experience because I get to read her blog!

Then, I stuck it with a little package of LOVE cookies and a cookbook that has our family recipe for the cookies in it! Pretty Princess said I was bordering on being a crazy fan by bringing her a present. If bringing people love cookies is crazy, break out the straight jacket, I'm certifiable. I say, "Spread the LOVE people!"


Farm Chick was anxiously waiting!!! Finally, Ree entered the building! She is just as charming in person as I imagined!


We got a kick out of watching people. The guy there in the ball cap didn't seem like a typical PW fan but upon further observation, I noticed that indeed, he was toting around a couple of copies of the cookbook.

I had to giggle when he (and his wife) got their turn to talk to Ree. He told her, "I'm missin' an important ballgame right now."


Which reminds me, to pass the time (and admittedly, to amuse ourselves), we decided to write down the crazy things we overheard, including...

(Things said to Ree...)
"I made your Cheesy Chicken Spaghetti last night. We cook just like you do!"

"I found a typo."

"If I'd have realized you were going to be here, I'd have brought the 3 cookbooks I have at home!"

(Things said by women standing in line...)
"My nervous peeing will probably kick in when I get up there."

"I just went in the basement and started drinking."

(Don't ask about that last one. I don't know.)

Anyway, back to the book signing, someone brought out the big guns...two babies (which is Ree's weakness) dressed in her honor. Notice the P and W on their shirts. Way too cute!

Their socks alone were too sweet.

Really, whoever came up with those little socks that look like shoes...just precious.


When it was our turn to get in line, we passed the time playing with the toys on the wall. There is nothing like a good Viking hat. Everyone should have one.

Farm Chick was surprised by a little tug on her hair.

Princess thought it was stinkin' funny to be able to pull her older sister's hair from a distance. If only we had, had this toy when we were kids!

It doesn't take much for us to entertain ourselves. Sad. I know. At this time you may want to say a little prayer for our significant others who have to deal with our cheap humor all the time.

Finally, we got to the front of the line!


Ree was awesome and signed our multiple copies of her book. She chit chatted with us about our families and sent her best to our missing sister, Rockstar, who is about to deliver our little niecey pants any day now and couldn't make the trip!

Ree also brought along her oldest punk! I was so impressed with her grace and poise! She seemed comfortable visiting with crazy women, who love her Mom, and graciously signed the page with her photo in our cookbooks!

She also put up with us making her take a picture with us! So sweet!

So, thanks to Ree for writing an awesome cookbook and giving us an excuse for a girls day out!


We did indeed "Enjoy!" and I'm sure we will continue to do so every time we cook one of her recipes!

GET IT OUT....

The same afternoon that we enjoyed the family togetherness from my previous post, I took this photo...



It reminded me of another moth encounter...
Two summers ago, we were vacationing with our residency friends, in Tennessee, at a vacation home. Doc and I went out to the car to get some stuff, late one night. On the way back inside, Doc suddenly stopped in his tracks and started yelling and shaking his head furiously. He shouted to me, GET IT OUT!!!!

Now, it is a little known fact that I struggle with a severe case of Inappropriate Laughter Syndrome. It just jumps on me and is uncontrollable at the most inopportune times. Turning around and seeing Doc jumping up and down, banging his hand on the side of his head and then shaking it furiously like he was a man possessed, triggered a laughing attack like none I'd ever had. As you can imagine, the laughing did not help. It made Doc even more aggravated which in turn made me laugh even harder.

Finally, he said, "HELP ME...A MOTH FLEW INTO MY EAR!!!" Fortunately, among our friends that were there, 3 of the 4 were also doctors. I ran in and got our friend Kristin out of bed...



Me: "Kristin,(haaaahaaah) are you awake? (haaahaaa)"
K: "Yeah."
Me: "(Haa Haaa) Doc, he (hhaaa haaaaaaa) has a moth (hhaaaa) in his (heeheeeee) ear. He needs help to get it out! (HHHHHAAAAAAHAHhAAA)"

Doc had made his way to where we were, by this time. Kristin hopped out of bed and found some tweezers. She reached into his ear with the tweezers to try to extract the moth but unfortunately when the tweezers touched the moth, it sent it into a flurry of wing flapping against Doc's ear drum. Doc yelled, "IT DOESN'T LIKE THAAATT!!!!" which made me laugh even harder. By this time, Kristin was trying to control the laughter, as well.

Kristin told us that the tweezer method wasn't going to work. "If I were in the ER and saw this, I'd use a syringe to flush it out," she said. Tony, Kristin's hubby, came out of the bedroom and we started rummaging through the closet. He found a first aid kit on the top shelf. By some miracle, there happened to be a syringe in the kit.

We made our way into the kitchen where Kristin filled the syringe with water and squirted it into Doc's ear a couple of times until the moth moved out enough to get a good hold on it with the tweezers. She slowly removed the moth, who was wet and maybe a little bit waxy, but still flapping like mad.



Doc was so relieved and could finally join us in our amusement at the situation. Seriously, how often do you see a moth fly straight into someone's ear! How weird is that?!

Enjoying Fall Family Moments

Last month we raked and played in the "North Yard" (which is a phrase that must be uttered with a fancy southern accent) on a beautiful fall afternoon. Everyone who was anyone was there. Bub in all his "safety first" gear, Buzz Lightyear, the very fashionable Lou Lou, and little Ladybug!

Doc gave the kids underdog pushes, free of charge, on the tire swing.


SG was brave and swung higher than ever before! Can't you just see the delight on his face?!

Ladybug got miffed that Daddy wasn't paying attention to her. So she came to me to complain because it is a well known fact that Mommies can fix anything and make Daddies do the right thing.

I called out to Daddy and he came running in to save his princess from despair!

She already knows that she has Daddy wrapped around her little finger.

She was Daddy's girl until he decided it might be fun to let Ladybug "jump" into the leaves.



He did not quite get the response he was expecting. "What? You don't like the leaves, Ladybug?" Apparently he had forgotten rule number one in Ladybug's world "NO ICKY." Leaves equal ICKY on her clothes!

Mommy got to save the day. I brushed all the leaves off and gave her a squeeze and smooch. I am definitely enjoying this phase. I know from experience that the chubby little baby running to me will, all too, soon stretch up and become a long legged young lady. I'm relishing this phase with my last baby!

A Really Annoying Problem

Ladybug is a girlie girl. She loves purses, hats, sunglasses and dresses. She does not love being dirty.


That aversion led to a very annoying situation at the pumpkin patch.


There was a lot of hay. Now the hay was meant for good, to cushion little bodies from falls in the playground areas...


But it sure was annoying to Ladybug when it got stuck on her clothes!


I bet I heard the word "Icky" 75 times during the hour we played on the playground.

"Mama, icky. Icky, Mama." And it was very important that she did not throw the pesky hay back on the ground with the other hay because it might find its way back onto her pants. So I would take each piece of dirty, icky hay she handed me...


and wait until she wasn't looking before tossing it back in the pile! Poor little Ladybug. If she only knew the betrayal....

Pumpkin Patch Fun

Because I haven't had time to blog lately, I thought I'd better catch up a little! So travel with me back to October....
We met the home school group from our area at a Cox Farms in Wichita!


There was a menagerie of animals, much to the delight of Bub and Lou Lou...




and much to the dismay of Ladybug who thought the Llama looked vicious and clung to me every time she caught a glimpse of it!

Birdie and her kids were there too! She helped Lou get used to the idea of feeding the goat out of her hand. She really loves Lou. She must to get her hands slobbered on by a farm animal.


I think the next thing out of Birdie's mouth was, "WHERE'S A WIPE AND THE HAND SANITIZER?"

After petting and being slobbered on by the animals, the kids headed over to pick out their pumpkins.







Then, because boys are weird, they took the opportunity to pretend like they were gorillas at the pumpkin patch.

After being slobbered on, picking out pumpkins, and turning into wild animals, we took a hayride around to the corn maze!



Now, the corn maze was big. The man in charge said it would take about an hour to go through and being the realistic mother I am, I decided to let Lou go with her girlfriends. I didn't really think that an hour of being lost amongst plants would be real fun. I was picturing trying to keep up with an adventurous five year old while carrying a tired 3 year old and 18 month old on each hip. Call me crazy. It just wasn't that appealing.

So the four of us headed to the playground! Well, five, if you count R2D2 who (of course) needed to come to the pumpkin patch with us.

Bub met a new challenge. He loves challenges. The boy needs adventure like I need coffee.

I will say that he was a bit intimidated at first. He asked me to come catch him. It's nice to be needed, even if it is only for the first slide.

After that, he went up and down that thing for the next hour non- stop except for the occassional King of the Mountain display of power on the hay bales!


Someone else was King of the Mountain, too. Never you mind that her mountain was a wee bit shorter!


We managed to squeeze every little bit of fun out of the morning and Lou's pretty face appeared out of the corn maze just as it started misting. Fortunately, we got loaded up before it really let loose and started pouring! What a great day!

Lou's Trip to the Dentist

Lou has a lot of big teeth and a little mouth in which they are all supposed to live. Unfortunately, she had to have two baby teeth removed because the big teeth came in behind them instead of under them. Thankfully her dad was able to take her. I do not do well with teeth. Seriously. I can clean up poo or vomit all day long. I can deal with blood, scrapes and hangnails but if you show me a wiggly tooth, I'm nauseated. I know it's weird. I think I remember the feeling so vividly from when I was a kid and had loose teeth that the memory comes rushing back. I hated having loose teeth. Liked the tooth fairy money but not the feeling of having a body part loose and hanging by a thread. (Insert willies here.)

Anyway, here's the after shot...


and the close up!



She was a champ and back to her usual perky self by the afternoon!

An AWESOME weekend: Sunday

Sunday was a bit of a difficult day. We didn't realized that we had left Doc's keys with Grammy (my mom) at the farm. So we spent part of Sunday morning looking for them. That's always a frustrating thing to have happen. We were headed to Norman, Oklahoma for the U2 concert which was a long time dream come true! We decided to get the keys when we returned. So we loaded up Grammy and Papa's (Doc's parents) vehicle with some stuff to drop off at home on our way south into Oklahoma. Unfortunately, we realized after we got all the way home (an hour away) that I had left my keys and my truck for Grammy and Papa to drive with the kids' car seats in it. So, we had no set of keys and thus...NO HOUSE KEY! It is a pretty sad state of affairs when you have to break into your own home.

We managed to break and enter and get the things we needed. Then we were off to Oklahoma. The trip went well until we got into Oklahoma City. That is where we ran into the traffic jam from beyond. It was one of those traffic jams that takes about an hour to get 10 miles and then when you reach the area causing all the problems, you realize it is just a little road work and should not be such a problem except that people are stupid and drive like they have no brain. After that, we were headed south and ran into more road work (read traffic jams) through the town of Moore, OK.

Now normally this wouldn't have been such a big deal but like I said...the night was all about making Doc's dream come true and there seemed to be road blocks popping up everywhere.

We made it to our hotel, checked in really quick, threw our luggage in our room and headed off to the Oklahoma University campus. Fortunately, we had some real time advice on where to park via facebook (thanks Jennifer)! We didn't have time to eat, so we had to settle for a pizza at the stadium. After literally fighting our way through the crowds, we found our seats in Section 28!


We settled in to listen to the opening act...The Black Eyed Peas. My apology to Fergie for the bad picture. She really is pretty!

After the Peas got the crowd warmed up, we all waited for the stage change and the main attraction!

The stage set up was awesome. It was a 360 degree stage set in the middle of the football field! As Bono said, they were going for "intimacy on on grand scale" with the design!

People were very excited and waited breathlessly for U2 to appear!



Finally...the screen lit up and then the stadium went dark as the show began!


They put on a great show, probably one of the best live concert experiences you can possible have! They are just as awesome, if not better, live!

This is the face of one HAPPY man! How could he not be with Bono singing right in front of him!


One of the things I like most about U2 is that they seem to be one of the few bands that really take their fame as a responsibility. They understand that with the blessings come opportunity to inform people and inspire change. They preach it in their music and they live it with their lives.

They try to bring awareness to injustices around the world. This screen showed a photo of Aung San Suu Kyi who was elected Burma's leader in 1990. She was placed on house arrest and kept from taking power. She has been detained most of the time since 1990.

We had the most awesome time ever. It was one of the few experiences where the actual experience is even better than the anticipation and expectation!