Summer Visitors

Summer is long gone. Heck, it never even showed up in New England. We had a very cool summer, which I believe my Southern visitors enjoyed. I have hundreds of pictures from all my visitors this summer and the sights we saw. I enjoyed three Duck Tours this summer, capping out my total Duck Tours at ELEVEN. Boston Duck Tours should make me an honorary ConDUCtor. I love my friends and family who come visit me. If you haven't come - COME! If you've already visited - COME AGAIN!

4th of July was spent in Breezy Point, NY with my friend Chris (formerly known as Ohio, more recently referred to as "Two.") Breezy Point is a "sidewalk community" and I like to say it's a place frozen in time, as children play freely outside, running around with neighborhood kids from sun-up to sun-down with no regard for the concerns that exist outside the island. I found this quite amazing, as Manhattan is right across the bay. I went to Coney Island on the 4th and watched Joey Chesnut win the Nathan's hot dog eating contest. GREAT people watching!

My Mom and Dad (pick up your jaw off the ground - yes, my Dad came to visit) came to Boston the week after the 4th. The weather was exceptionally cool and windy when my Dad was here, but he thought it was great. My Dad saw all the sights of Boston and we wrapped up his visit with a nice dinner at Mooo. My Mom stayed for another week and I loved having her all to myself. Keep in mind, being the third daughter, I've never had her to myself before. We made sure to see some sights I'd never seen before, including the JFK Presidential Library and Museum, some of the mansions in Newport, RI and Castle Island, a former US Army post.

Melissa and her family came to visit for a week. It was a very action packed week! Duck Tour, Freedom Trail, Children's Museum, Aquarium, Red Sox game, beach and numerous dinners....we never stopped going! Kambree and Kanyon were great tourists! My favorite picture of Kambree is from the first hour she arrived in Boston. I had gone to Target to buy her another face mask-goggle thing. It happened to come with a snorkel and fins. As soon as I gave it to her, she immediately put it on - all of it. She must of noticed the elliptical machine the very next minute, as she started riding the elliptical with all her snorkel gear on. It was hilarious. For the rest of the weekend, anytime we spent at my apartment, Kambree spent on the elliptical. If only I was that committed...

The day the Kothmann's left, some Mason friends arrived. They should have ran into each other in the Austin airport, as they were boarding the plane the Kothmann's were getting off, my thanks to a certain someone who is chronically late, they missed each other (my Friends thankfully made the flight!) Scott, Kylie and Jeff came for some unprecedented Boston fun. And were the co-riders of the 11th Duck Tour.

Perhaps I can move onto Fall Fun now and be a little more timely with my posts.

May 2009

I have a little (or a lot) of catching up to do.

Memorial Day weekend, the girls and I headed to Nantucket for the big Figawi weekend. The weekend consisted of sailboats, The Tavern, The Gazebo and Straight Wharf. We laughed a lot.

Chris, Katie, Colette, Heather, Brooke, me and Anne.

Our cute little cottage where we stayed for the weekend.

On the ferry heading back to Hyannis.

The following weekend, a friend from Mason came to visit. We kicked off the weekend by seeing Willie Nelson and Dave Matthews perform at Fenway Park. Great concert!

me and Chris

Jeremy and me

The following night, we drove to Mansfield to see The Man perform at the Comcast Center. George Strait was everything I hoped...and more. When he sang "Texas" and flashed pictures of bluebonnets, the Alamo and the Texas flag up on the jumbo-tron, I got chills. It was a pretty awesome moment to hear him singing about the homeland all the way up in New England. Loved it!!

WE SURVIVED SIXTY MILES!

DAY 1: POURING RAIN.

It gave a new meaning to raining cats and dogs. We had on leggings, fleeces, raincoats and ponchos and were soaked to the bones. 19.7 miles. But we cruised and finished in the top 50 out of over 1,700 walkers.

Tranquility Camp - love the sea of pink tents.

DAY 2: BLISTERS

What a long and painful day. 22 miles. Hills. Multiple hills. Little sidewalks. Highways. High traffic areas. Oh and hot, hot sun. We were cruisin' until we hit lunch. It was downhill after that. We all hurt. Knees, calves, thighs, and feet. Oh, the feet. Many, many blisters. It was not pretty.

Team CashForGoldUSA that we cruised with. If you look closely, you can see the Boston skyline in the background.

Supporters. They were awesome!

Waiting for the "blister tent" at lunch.

Only 6.1 miles to camp. These are fake smiles. We were definitely in pain.

We made it!
DAY 3: CELEBRATION

We were up early and ready to hit the pavement. My feet were in such bad shape I walked in flip flops the entire day and my feet thanked me 10,000 times. It started off slightly chilly but quickly warmed up. The course was much more enjoyable as we walked through Cambridge, through the Back Bay, through Southie and along the water to the UMass-Boston campus by the JFK Presidential Library and Museum. We were so ready to cross that finish line. The supporters along the course were amazing. They handed out candy, stickers, water, frozen grapes on a stick (my favorite), slushies....the list goes on and on. Parents had their children out in the rain cheering for the walkers. Businesses were handing out free donuts, water, iced tea... It was touching. We saw many of the same people cheering us on every one of the three days.

I loved these three men. They were on the trail everyday. We would see them at mile 1, mile 9, mile 15 and at the finish line. They told us "you keep walking and we'll keep stalking." So cute.

Finished! 60 miles done!!

Celebrating with other walkers.

Thank you to everyone who donated to our team and supported us in this cause. It was truly an amazing experience. And who knows - we just might walk again next year!

"How to" by Auntie Megs

How to entertain young children at Wal-Mart:
1 - Bring along Auntie Megs
2 - Auntie Megs finds a bench

3 - "crazy" pictures via camera phone

4 - Mom shops happily and peacefully

How to enjoy dinner at a restaurant:
1 - Choose an "it's okay to be loud/bring kids" restaurant

2 - Bring along Auntie Megs
3 - Seat all kids by Auntie Megs
3 - "crazy" pictures via camera phone
4 - rest of family dines happily and in oblivion

Sweet Baby Kanyon at 3 months.
Thankfully, he doesn't know how to make scary faces. Yet.

BEST NEWS OF THE YEAR!!

(other than the birth of my newphew...)

SONIC is FINALLY coming to the northeast. I can hardly believe it myself and I'm dizzy just from the thought of grilled cheeses and vanilla diet cokes WHEN.EVER.I.WANT.

Yay! Yay! Yay!

Mom and Dad and all the others that pick me up from the airport - No, this does not excuse you from making a bee line to Sonic as soon as me and my luggage are in the vehicle.

http://www.salemnews.com/punews/local_story_111002441.html#disqus_thread

Happy Anniversary!

On June 12, 1971, Karen Lyn Mutschink and Steven Bland Toone said "I do" in a little rock church in Art, Texas.

Thirty-eight years later, they are still going strong. I am blessed to have a kind-hearted Mother and a strong and loving Father who not only compliment each other, but always work as a team. They raised us to be kind, work hard, know right from wrong, value family, to always have fun and most importantly, to love. They have set a wonderful example for their children as to what a marriage should be. I am a lucky daughter.

Happy 38th Anniversary, Mom and Dad!

WHAT?

It's mid June and 57 degrees. I just don't get it.

I haven't even turned the AC on since I turned if off last September!

This is NOT summer!

I've received quite a few inquiries as to the lack of activity on No. 3. I'm going to respond with the most overused excuse ever..."I've Been Busy." But really, I have.

On Tuesday, March 17th - the real deal Saint Patrick's Day - my audit team drove 40 miles to Plainville, Mass to see our client and his band play at the Chieftan Pub. It was fun. We had "bangers and mash" and cold beer. The band was good. And as you can see, we are nuttin' like the stereo-typical boring accountants.

Then we had to go back to our computers and calculators and bean counting because we had a big March 31st deadline that kept us at work past midnight on consecutive nights. But we issued our reports. Yeah for the accounting nerds.

That's when I flew to God's Country because my friend the Lizard (some nice people just call her Liz) got married. Her wedding was an absolute blast! And she was a stunning bride.

Mister and Missus Rolando McPherson

...and I got SONIC!!!

Mister Kanyon is still growing...he's quickly becoming a BIG BOY. This is Kambree with Kanyon at three weeks. He is now about 7 weeks but is wearing 3 -6 month clothing. I told you he is becoming a BIG BOY.

Most of you know that I'm walking in the Breast Cancer 3-Day walk in Boston in July. Two of my friends, Bree and Donna, are coming up from Texas to participate, as well. We are walking SIXTY miles over the course of three days. Talk about blisters and sore feet. I started a 16-week training program. I walk a lot.

Here is the link to my personal page if you would like to support me and my feet with a donation.

Click here to visit my personal page.

If the text above does not appear as a clickable link, you can visit the web address:http://www.the3day.org/site/TR/Walk/BostonEvent?px=3050576&pg=personal&fr_id=1292&et=FxigT8oNkhP2p8ri5p6JfA..&s_tafId=84824

Then I had another big deadline on April 30th. I survived that one, too.

Then my friend Chris from Ohio turned T-H-I-R-T-Y. We threw her a little surprise party at Lucky's Lounge. THAT was a fun night!!

We didn't laugh. At all.

Then I flew to Florida to watch my dear friend Katie participate in the Gulf Coast Triathlon.

She swam...
...biked...

...went for a little jog...
...and FINISHED!!

Katie did AWESOME! She finished 11th in her very competitive age division. She's a haus. Then we went to Savannah, Georgia and Amelia Island, Florida where white girl got a tan and one sunburned knee cap.

And then I came back to Boston on Sunday night and had a $40 ticket by 7am the next morning. Somethings don't change.