Total Basset Case: The Day that Dreams Came True

My love for Pioneer Woman is no secret. I've been reading and loving her blog for about 3 years now. Her blog is one that continuously makes me laugh, inspires me and often fills our bellies (with her many delicious recipes).
Ree recently came out with the love story of her and her man, Marlboro Man, 'Black Heels to Tractor Wheels'. With the release came the need for a book signing tour and one of the greatest day of my life. PW did a tour last year when her (amazing) cookbook came out but she didn't make it to our neck of the woods. This year she did and it was fabulous!! I may or may not have been counting down the days and hours...

Friday night finally came and Bethany and I ventured down to Rookwood to Joseph Beth Bookstore to see PW in all her glory. We started the evening out with a special glass of cowboy inspired wine and PW's tomato, basil and mozzarella pizza. Both were very delicious and got us in the PW mood!

Next was the q and a session. PW came out and answered questions from the audience. She was friendly, funny and very entertaining. I had a chance to ask a question of my own and asked her if she had any advice for raising a basset hound. She replied that I would need to be able to withstand a certain level of stench (the classic 'hound' smell)! Ha! Very true!

After the questions we settled in to wait for our chance to meet and speak with Ree. Needless to say, we were there for a quite a bit but in the end it was totally worth it! I was incredibly impressed and honored with the manner in which Ree handled her fans. She took the time to speak with every single person for as long as they wanted to speak, take pictures and just say hello to her.

Although I was afraid I would clam up and not be able to express my ~~love~~, ~~obsession~~, er, admiration for her, I didn't. I did have a minor freak and geek out moment. It went a little like this:
Sarah: (Overly high pitched voice and some giggling) 'Oh, hi, I'm, um, really, really excited to meet you. Eeee!'
Ree: 'Oh, well thank you, it's very nice to meet you too!' Your outfit is really cute!
Sarah: (Freaking out) 'Well I'm the one that asked the question about the advice for raising basset hounds.'
Ree: 'Oh, right. Those bassets, they are a handful!'

The conversation continues about basset hounds, we took the following pictures, and I restrained myself from gushing all of my love for her. I made one of my pom pom necklaces for Ree, along with a little note and gave them to her at the end. I sure hope she liked it!