2010

Behind the Scenes of Putting it All Together: I LOVE COWS

April 19, 2010 by Queen of Spain 6 Comments

crossposted at BlogHer.com

Fear? I eat fear for breakfast.

Nature? Beautiful and wild and beloved.

Cows? Awesome creatures that moo and wander and eat grass.

Did Erin hit her head?

No. It’s just all those scary thoughts I had about visiting the Pioneer Woman’s ranch in Oklahoma were entirely unfounded and insane. All right, maybe it’s a lot easier to handle acres upon acres of beautiful open land when you are lounging in the Lodge. Maybe “roughing it” isn’t so bad with fabulous friends to laugh and talk with. And maybe, just maybe, when a cowboy invites you to go light a hill on fire and chase a bull, you jump and squee with glee and all the fear you had leaves your head and you snag your CEO’s baseball cap and run like a child into the vast plains.

The ranch, in short, was to die for. Ree and her Marlboro Man husband were delightful hosts who live in a magical place where wild mustangs roam and cattle abound.

That’s right, while filming Putting it All Together for BlogHer, I wasn’t afraid of my surroundings. I got to chase a bull and light a hill on fire. And I didn’t have an ounce of fear or worry, despite my premonition I’d be curled up in the fetal position, in fact I wanted MORE.

My job is never dull.

Speaking of work, take a look at our finished product. I helped out with the first episode while I wasn’t running around Oklahoma with Ranch Hands. Keep in mind Putting it All Together is about you. Right now the conversation for the next episode is happening over at Susan Wagner’s Friday Play Date, so feel free to chime in.

I get to head back to Ree’s ranch with your ideas in a few weeks. The Marlboro Man has promised another ranch activity, and admittedly I’m over-excited about it. Oh who am I kidding, I CAN’T WAIT! I LOVE COWS!!!

Contributing Editor Erin Kotecki Vest also blogs at Queen of Spain Blog, where she’s trying to convince her husband to sell their Los Angeles home and move to a cattle ranch

Filed Under: BlogHer

Imagination

April 18, 2010 by Queen of Spain 3 Comments

I woke up this morning to find a birthday party in my kitchen for a stuffed turtle and a stuffed mushroom.

It came complete with a chocolate chip pancake and bacon breakfast made by my husband.

As the day went on there was a wedding.

Forts.

Obstacle courses.

I love that my children imagine, play, and love.

Filed Under: Feeling YaYa

I Watch My Kids on the Web Too

April 15, 2010 by Queen of Spain 17 Comments

Even parenting decisions become political when the First Family is involved. There’s a story out today on the Obama girl’s internet use...a topic, given my profession, we discuss often in this house.

Mrs. Obama tells CNN en Espanol (ehs-puhn-YOHL’) that she and President Barack Obama limit the use of computers for their daughters, Sasha and Malia, and ask the girls a lot of questions when they’re on line.

“We ask a lot of questions about what our kids are doing while they are on the computer,” she explained.

Mrs. Obama said she and the president talk with their daughters about the dangers of Facebook, and “that sort of gossip mill.”

The first lady says that more schools are helpful in educating parents as well as children on the pros, cons and dangers of the Internet.

Mrs. Obama tells that when she was growing up, the Internet didn’t exist. She called her friends on the phone.

Sounds like some of my girlfriends. Sounds like my own mother. Sounds a lot like many of the conversations I have with the parents of my son and daughter’s friends.

But instead of having a typical conversation about parenting and family and politics, I found myself discussing the issue on Twitter with conservatives calling into question the First Lady’s “fear” of the internet. Words like “unhealthy” and “silly” were used.

I shook my head at the lack of sense this was making. Are conservatives seriously calling into question parenting skills that embrace personal responsibility and age appropriate use of the web? Are you kidding me?

Then I realized, with the help of my husband, it doesn’t matter what this First Family does. It could fall directly in line with how a conservative family would raise their family… it would still be wrong.

A new study out shows those most vocal against the President and this administration seep their anger in class and race.

A new CBS News/New York Times poll found the Tea Party movement is 89 percent white and just one percent black.

It also looked at the views of Tea Party supporters on race issues. Asked if too much has been made of the problems facing African-Americans, 52 percent said yes.

That compares to 28 percent of Americans overall who say too much has been made of the problems facing blacks, and 23 percent of non-Tea Party whites who say as much.

Now ask yourself again, why would conservatives have an issue with parents monitoring and regulating their children’s internet use? Easy…because it’s something the Obama’s do, which to them must automatically be bad.

Sad. Simple-minded. And dead wrong.

Filed Under: Holding Court

Every Thing’s Gunna Be Alright

April 13, 2010 by Queen of Spain 8 Comments

Photo by Ken Yeung

Filed Under: #suckit

The Unexpected

April 12, 2010 by Queen of Spain 13 Comments

I’m not a fan of the unexpected. It stalks me. Always looming overhead.

I like control. I like knowledge. I like familiar situations.

Despite my fears though, the unexpected is sometimes wonderful. Instead of fear, I find friends. But most of all, the unexpected can ground me. It weeds through the chaos to cut to what matters quickly and efficiently.

Time to take my new found love of cows and head back to the hospital. More soon.

Filed Under: #suckit

I’m on a Ranch

April 10, 2010 by Queen of Spain 3 Comments

Filed Under: BlogHer

I’m More Intimidated by Cows Than the White House

April 7, 2010 by Queen of Spain 11 Comments

crossposted at BlogHer.com

I have to admit, when I get driving directions that include “The road is CR 12345, but I think a cow knocked over the sign. Ha!” I not-so-silently freak out a little.

When I see tweets from Ree Drummond that say “My cowlick is violent.” I immediately think one of her calves got loose and attacked her and then I calm down a little and realize she’s probably talking about hair.

It’s not that I don’t love fresh air, and cattle, and beautiful open spaces…it’s that I’m an urban girl and nature scares the bejesus out of me. (For those that can remember my live-tweeting and blogging of a camping trip in West by-god Virginia last year, you will understand. Every sound made me jump and every bug made me scream.)

Which means Friday as I travel to the middle-ish of the country to The Pioneer Woman’s PIONEER life, I’m a bit more intimidated than when I set foot in 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. No really.

Dirt roads scare me more than men in power ties.

BlogHer is filming it’s first episode of “Putting it All Together” – and as the Producer of Special Projects I will be there doing whatever it is I do in these situations. But more importantly, I’ll be wondering if a tornado is coming, running from charging cows (what? cows there must be mean because all the happy cows live in California, duh) and worried what bugs might land on me. EEEW NATURE! GET IT OFF!

Yes, I realize that Ree lives in an actual home and there is running water and everything…but this doesn’t help my irrational mind process that I’m going to a CATTLE RANCH IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE.

It reminds me of the first time my husband took me to see his family in West Virginia. I asked him if it was possible to “fall off” the family mountain. He’s still laughing. No really, over a decade later and he’s still laughing. But in my defense I had never been to West Virginia and he kept talking about this mountain which I assumed was like any other mountain…you know, with cliffs and what not. So let’s just say my “country” living knowledge is very, very limited and therefor I get quickly intimidated in situations such as…oh, say…hopping a plane and traveling to where the wind comes sweeping down the plains.

And BlogHer is used to me in this sort of situation too… in fact, I just sent in my expense report from SXSW where I attempted to make the most of my stay at the Four Seasons. Erin = White House and room service. Erin = Cattle ranch? Do you see the math problems here? Maybe it’s more like Erin = spoiled brat who could probably use a few good nights on the farm…but…I digress.

My kids, however? They think I am the LUCKIEST WOMAN ALIVE and had a very large debate the other night over which they would like to do more: Go to work with Mommy at a cattle ranch or Disneyworld.

And guess what? The cattle ranch won by a long shot.

So as I pack up yet another suitcase and attempt to NOT throw in things like my emergency earthquake kit (it has rations!) and my red cowboy boots (there are cows, and cowboys, seems like I should be required to wear them, no? or will I be trying too hard to blend?) I’m going to try and let go of my fears and embrace my children’s perspective on my trip to the country: “Mom has the best. job. ever.”

Maybe, before it’s all said and done, my husband’s premonition will be right and I’ll be begging him to sell our house in Los Angeles and buy a farm in the middle of nowhere. In which case I will change my blog name to Queen of Country and trade in my minivan for a truck.

If all else fails, I’ll have Montana girl and BlogHer CEO Lisa Stone, Sheila, and Loralee there with me to make sure I don’t get into any trouble. Oklahoma is a red state, after all.

Contributing Editor Erin Kotecki Vest also blogs at Queen of Spain blog and would much rather talk Health Care Reform than Cattle.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

I Checked ‘Wife’

April 5, 2010 by Queen of Spain 22 Comments

My daughter wants to know when boys marry boys and girls marry girls if everyone gets to wear a pretty white dress.

This is her big question tonight as I put her to bed and she nestles her chin into my neck. Clearly she’s been mulling this over in her five-year old brain and it needs an answer.

I explain that everyone can wear whatever they want…and you don’t need a white dress for a wedding. She nods her head and then proclaims that she’ll be wearing a white dress to her wedding, and she thinks she wants to marry a boy, but maybe she’ll marry a girl.

So long as you love each other and want to spend the rest of your lives together, that sounds wonderful.

And then my son chimes in that he’s probably never going to get married. And he’s going to get a ‘house on wheels’ and live next door to me…so we can always cuddle.

So long as you are happy and this is what you want.

As you fill out your Census forum, know that “the Census Bureau says same-sex couples in any state who consider themselves spouses should feel free to check the ‘husband’ or ‘wife’ boxes on the census form, rather than ‘unmarried partner.'”

However you define your relationship, here’s hoping you can check the box you choose, wear the dress you want, or live next to your Mom in a house on wheels.

Filed Under: Feeling YaYa, Holding Court