Arkansas Women Bloggers

#ARWB Leadership Team Profiles

Why do we always say #ARWB? ‘Cause we’re on the Twitter and that’s the hashtag for Arkansas Women Bloggers! Join us!

If you find yourself with loads of spare time on your hands and would like to learn more about the Arkansas Women Bloggers leadership team, fret no more: read on for 15 Questions with each of the leading ladies…

Stephanie Buckley- Founder & Public Relations Princess

• Born: Meridian, MS, a sweet magnolia from the magnolia state. And, a steel magnolia when need-be.
  
• Raised: 5th Generation Meridianite, until I bolted for college. Great place to be from, a place where your bosoms can be fake, your smile can be fake, and your hair color fake, but your pearls and silver must always be real.
• Lineage: Mississippi-bred Southern Belle who knows what “Bless Your Heart” really means. 
• Educated: University of Southern Mississippi, B.A. in Journalism, emphasis Public Relations, Minor: Spanish (I really wish I would have paid more attention to that now)
• Hubs: The extraordinary park ranger, who really is not a park ranger, he is a park superintendent, but, he wears a brown uniform and sometimes a gun, in a holster, and a bullet proof vest. These senior tour bus groups can be a gnarly bunch.
• Responsible for: Saving the world, well, not really my Jesus already did that, but He has given me two little guys who I am charged with raising to be warriors that seek the face and heart of God, as they learn to wield a sword and conquer the ugly in this grand adventure called life.
• Day job: Wife, homeschool mom, small farmer, city council member, farmers’ market manager, freelance writer, and maker of cool things out of refrigerator boxes.
• Blog(s): I am known as The Park Wife in the web world, of course, that is not my real name, I just pretend it is. It’s fun, and a little crazy. Yep, that about sums me up. I started blogging in 2007 as a way to express my inner writer and connect with… I really had no idea. I liked getting comments. Plus, The Pioneer Woman had a blog, I thought it was cool… badah-boom-badah-bing…The Park Wife.
• Other passions: Did I mention that I am married to a HOT park ranger? There’s my passion girls.
• Favorite author/books: List of books on my desk right now: The Help, Local Flavors by Deborah Madison, The Penguin Complete Novels of Jane Austen, Crazy Love, The Encyclopedia of Country Living, Janet Evanovich How I Write,  and The Pioneer Woman Black Heels to Tractor Wheels and her cookbook that she signed for me to give away on this blog soon!!!
• Favorite blogs: The Pioneer Woman (of course) BooMama (because I went to high school with her and she is a genuine, beautiful soul), Eat2Gather (my soul sistah), and blogs of my fellow ARWB gals.
• Dream vacation: Small Italian village where I can grow a garden and have an 80-year-old Italian woman teach me all she knows about cooking and life.
• On the Twitter: @parkwife
• Where else to find her: At the Farmers’ Market, oh the virtual world, I love me some Pinterest, and can not give up my Facebook addiction (I have tried…repeatedly).
• What to contact her about: PR opportunities, ideas for your company or brand to collaborate with ARWB, product offerings for our member bloggers, event partnerships or just to seek counsel for your blog.

Julie Kohl – Content Cultivator & Calendar Girl

• Born:  In the Nutmeg State.
• Raised: In a barn…well not really but my dad would always ask me if I was when I would leave the front door wide open (a habit I still have to this day!) I grew up in the Green Mountain State.
• Lineage: Since moving down south I have been constantly informed that I am a Yankee.  At first I was offended by the way people said it but now I am proud of it! My dad was also a “Nutmegger” and my mother hails from the Garden State.
• Educated: BA in Education – Harding University; BA in Art –Harding University; Masters in Gifted and Talented – Arkansas State University
• Hubs: Richie – he teaches Gifted and Talented students in Bradford. He is the love of my life and the best guy I have ever met.   Honestly, I feel bad for all the other women out there that I snagged him up before they could!
• Responsible for: Cooking, cleaning, gardening, chickens and more!  Pretty much if it needs to be done I am
  responsible for doing it or at least telling my husband to do it!
• Day job: I get to play with paint, markers, crayons and clay all day! I am the 5-12 Grade Art Teacher at the Bald Knob School District.
• Blog(s): Eggs and Herbs…where creativity meets the farm and The Renegade Farmer –  (Contributing Author)
• Other passions: Arkansas Chess Association, Reading, Crafting, Writing, Painting, Art Journals and Zentangle
• Favorite author/books: Laura Ingalls Wilder, Carl Hiaasen, E.B. White, Kristen Hannah
  I enjoy books about cooking, pioneering and mysteries.
• Favorite blogs:  Deep Space Sparkle , Desperately Seeking Gina – (A fellow #ARWB member!), Art with Mr. E, Daisy Yellow, Tasty Kitchen, Artsyville
• Dream vacation:  I love anywhere I can go to be with my husband but my absolute favorite vacation destination is the Holiday Inn Resort in Panama City Beach, Florida.  It is fun, beautiful, romantic and relaxing. We always have a good time there!
• On the Twitter: @eggsandherbs
• Where else to find her: Facbook and Pinterest
• What to contact her about:  Guest Blogging Submissions, Blogger of the Month

Debbie Arnold – Foodista (and  Whatever Stephanie Says)

• Born:  During a snowstorm a week before Christmas in a rural south-central AR town at a small medical “clinic” that also served as the doctor’s home.   I always seem to make things complicated.   Or at least interesting.
• Raised:  Arkansas has always been my home.  I choose to be here.  I’m proud to be from here.  I did spend a year in California after which my mom said that was when I picked up my stubborn streak.  I really think I came by that naturally – a maternal inheritance most likely.  My Nonnie would definitely agree with that.
• Lineage: I have dirt under my fingernails from grandparents whose family farms exceeded several acres and a great grandmother who loved flowers but thought grass was a weed and pearls around my neck because I’m just made that way.
• Mamaw taught me how to make homemade potato chips and the best chicken and dumplings; she also taught me how to wring a chicken’s neck and how to make paper dolls from a Sears catalog.  Nonnie taught me to love family and traditions, how to slather myself with nasty sulfur rub before heading out to pick blackberries, and why composting is good for the garden.  They both taught me that faith and prayer are privileges to be nurtured and exercised.  I’m pretty sure they both believed “spare the rod, spoil the child” was created just for me.
• Pa taught me how to snake a sewer line and how to roof a house – skills I hope never to use again.  From Papaw I learned about gee and haw, but I never learned how to convince a mule that it couldn’t quit.  They also taught me that good men come in all shapes and sizes and show their strength by how well they treat their spouses and love their families.
• I grew up knowing all of my grandparents, a great grandmother, surrounded by tons and tons of aunts, uncles and cousins and in a two-parent home.  Yes, I was fortunate. And loved.  And secure.
• I’m named after my mom’s baby sister, Aunt Sue, the kindest soul on Earth.  I did hear her say sh*t one time.  She was so embarrassed that she almost passed out.  I can’t ever let her let her find out that I told you.
• My little sister is not as old as I by five years. Bless her heart; she paid for that.  She had a gray streak by the age of 14; I’m glad she got those genes.    She’s wild; she drives a red Corvette and rides motorcycles.    We both love convertibles- hers is red;  mine is black.
• Educated: Graduate of the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville with a B.A. in Speech Pathology and the University of Central Arkansas in Conway with a M.S.E. in Learning Disabilities.  Don’t ask me how I spent over twenty plus years teaching English and Pre-AP English.  To middle schoolers no less.  And no, I do not have lots of patience.
• Hubs: I’ve been hanging out with this special guy for more than forty years—technically longer than that if you start counting from the day I met him.  He’s a trained chemist turned lawyer turned prosecutor turned circuit judge.  I suspect his next turn will be golfer or fisherman.  I’ll keep you posted.  You can call him Gary; our grandchildren call him OoHoo – it’s a story for another time
•  Responsible for: regularly telling Hubby each spring that we need more garden space and that the “weed” he just pulled up was a peony, a pea or a petunia .  I also think I am responsible for making a difference in the lives of my students.
• Day job:  I work rather diligently at being retired these days.  Some days it’s a tough job.  I never pass  up an opportunity to have play dates with my grandchildren.  Their kisses, hugs and laughter are  worth more than dollars any day.
• Blog(s): Dining With Debbie where I write about food, faith, family and fun.   Arkansas Bloggers, which I intermittently co-sponsor, links up bloggers across the state.
• Other passions: My perfect grandchildren, Connor and Kate, since you asked.    Occasionally, I watch The Food Network or The Cooking Channel or Julia Child on P.B.S. I love holidays and holiday decorations, especially Christmas.  I dearly love warm summer sunshine, a homey fireplace in autumn, a pristine snowfall in the winter, the green of new spring growth and the beach anytime of the year.  Any beach.  Anywhere.   Oh, and I’m crazy about Duck Dynasty.  That’s a fact, Jack!
• Favorite author/books:  That’s like asking who’s your favorite child.  Impossible.  You’ll never guess how many cookbooks I own.  That’s impossible as well.
• Favorite blogs:  It depends on what the day brings; it’s probably yours.  I love it by the way.
• Dream vacation:  I’ve never met a vacation  I didn’t like.  Hubby once surprised me with a birthday trip to Italy.  That was pretty dreamy, especially the hot air balloon ride over Tuscany.  I’ve skied blue slopes at the Continental Divide (not blacks – I’m no fool), zip lined through a jungle in Costa Rica, swum with the fishes in the Hawaiian and Cayman Islands, stood in awe on the rim of the Grand Canyon and cried at Ground Zero.  I’ve seen the Crown jewels and shared a picnic at Mont Blanc and a croque monsieur on the steps of Sacré Coeur.  Ireland, Scotland, and Australia — they’re on my list.  A few weeks in the South Pacific wouldn’t be too shabby either.  Hey, it is my dream after all.
• On the Twitter: @diningwithdeb
• Where else to find her: Facebook at Debbie Horton Arnold and Dining With Debbie, Instagram (diningwithdebbie),  and at Pinterest.  Oh, there’s Google+, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Foursquare, Get Glue, Gowalla, Periscope and…my head hurts just thinking about it.  I may need intervention.
• What to contact her about: Interested in writing for AWB for Foodie Friday?  Do you know about an interesting farmers’ market, food festival or foodie event?  What about a small Arkansas specialty farming operation?  Have you written a cookbook, ebook or otherwise?  Contact me at diningwithdebbieblog AT gmail DOT com and let’s get you scheduled.  If you have ARWB social media questions, I’m your gal.
• Otherwise, contact me for lunch.  At your place.  With you cooking.  Thank you very much.

A huge thanks and many jewels in her crown for keeping us all straight is the extraordinary Fawn Reckhemmer, Insteadofthedishes.com, MOMcation.org, and 4rechs.wordpress.com. Even though she has moved back to her home state of Missouri, she will always hold a special place in the Arkansas Women Blogger world. Thank you for being you and everything you did for ARWB Fawn!