8th Annual Quail Shoot and Liars' Lunch

SKT Ranch 8th Annual Quail Shoot was last weekend. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to fly to Texas for the big event, but I thought I'd share some of the pictures taken by my sister, Melissa. The family has renamed her APL - Annoying Picture Lady. But you tell me, would these people be posing for pictures if they really thought she was annoying? Yeah, I didn't think so either.

Kevin (APL's husband), bird dog (no, not you Jeremy!), Cameron and Logan

The nieces on their camo 4-wheeler.

Check out Eliza's sweet boots!

My cousin Blayde, the great white hunter.

Cleaning the quail because they don't clean themselves!

The Toone Boys

(too bad Logan and Blayde didn't get their Dads' height genes!)


hahahahahaha!

Truth be told...they are all over 6 feet!

Motley Toone Town

Parking Space Savers

In Southie, if you shovel a parking spot, it's yours. People save their spots with a random and humorous variety of household items. I've thought about taking pictures of these items but boston.com beat me to it. Check this link -

http://www.boston.com/realestate/gallery/parking_space_savers/?s_campaign=8315

Winter Fun

Winter in Boston. What a beautiful and miserable time.

Beautiful when the snow is first falling and it's light and fluffy. Beautiful when you see the Public Garden and Boston Commons covered in a huge field of pretty, white, untouched snow. When the bare tree branches are lined with white powder...

Miserable when you have to commute in the aftermath of the snow. As I have street parking in Southie, I have to shovel my car out of the snow. My first discovery was (1) snow is heavy, (2) I'm not a good shoveler and (3) there sure is a lot of snow. And then the light, fluffy, pretty white snow gets dirty from car oil and exhaust and sand and dirt and it's ugly. And then it freezes and turns to ice...brown, dirty ice. You still have to walk on those icy sidewalks. Not fun.

The silver lining is winter activities. All sorts of fun things like snow-shoeing, snow tubing, snow skating, ice skating and skiing (already know I'm not good). And cross country skiing.

I've attempted to snow ski twice in my life. Both were disasters. I'm not sure why because I can water ski. One wouldn't think it's too different, but for some reason, unknown to me, it is. However, I thought I would be good...ok, fairly decent...at cross country skiing. My parents had a NordicTrack back in the day. I rode it a few times, no problem. I thought cross-country skiing was just like riding the NordicTrack, only you were bundled up in the cold outside with snow all around.

My friend Lauren and I decided to partake in some cross-country skiing one night after work. There is a golf course in her hometown (where I also happen to have a client) that offers cross-country skiing during the winter. We met up the other night to tackle the adventure.

I just clipped my boots into the skis and was feeling good!

Lauren just looks like a natural

golf course at night

I won't drag out the rest...we all know where this going.

I. was. not. good.

My first issue was that we were on the "ski skating" trail instead of the "cross-country" trail. After falling four consecutive times in a matter of oh, eight minutes (I'll admit...I wasn't even doing anything fancy two of the times I fell. I was just trying to stand), we discovered the correct trail and life got better. And warmer.

After 40 minutes of a good workout, it was closing time and we had to head back. I went out in style, though. I tucked my skis, bent my knees and successfully skied down a hill (ie: slight incline) at the very end. Twice. It was victory for me.

Next on the to-do list: snow-shoeing and snow-tubing.

GRAND CHAMPION!!

I have three nieces. They are awesome.

Alexandra is my first born niece. I absolutely love her. She is funny. She is smart. Actually...more than smart. She is intelligent. (Nothing gets by her.) She is creative. She is full of life and adventure. She is so pretty....she has these big brown eyes that look just like her Mom's (Mom is #1, who I happen to think is pretty darn pretty myself.) She is also caring, loving and a protective big sister. She is also a protective niece. The first time a boy showed up with me at my parents house, she totally gave him the cold shoulder. She didn't want to share me! Now that is love!

Alexandra has lived in Mason for all of her seven years. Growing up in Mason is a lot of things 'small town.' One of those things is the county stock show. It was this past weekend. Almost 300 animals were exhibited in the Mason County Stock Show. You can read all about it here - http://www.masoncountynews.com/news/article/10395

This was Alexandra's first year to exhibit in the stock show and, like her Daddy (when he was a little boy,) she showed a hog. Not only did she show her hog, Bud, but she won first place in her class. And....not only did she win first place in her class, but she won GRAND CHAMPION!

For you city folk who don't quite understand what that means, all the first place hogs of each class were judged against each other and Bud and Alexandra won the whole kit and caboodle! 1st place of all the 1st places!

I am sooo proud of Alexandra! It's quite the accomplishment. Especially for a first grader and for her very first time exhibiting an animal in the stock show!

Good job, AC! I am so proud of you and love you to pieces!!

Alexandra, Bud the Grand Champion and Buds' Buyers.

Why No. 3?

I call my parents every weekend. This is how our conversation usually starts out:

Ring, ring.

Dad: Bueno (yes, he really answers the phone like this despite us having to answer the phone "Toone Residence, this is Megan speaking" growing up.)

Me: Hi Dad!! What's going on?

Dad: Oh, well, your Mother is "resting her eyes" on the couch and I'm watching Jay Leno...

heard in the background..
Mom: Who is it?

Dad: It's No. 3.

No.3, No. 1, No. 2 (carrying 2.2) and No. 4

Welcome

I like food. I take that back. I LOVE food. Anyone who knows me, knows how much I love food. And all food. I have a special friend who appreciates food as much as I love food. His name is Danny. We went to Argentina, along with five others, to celebrate his birthday in 2007. Danny started a blog so all our family and friends back home could read about the amazing food and delicious wine we were enjoying in Argentina. Danny was my first blogger friend. http://gourmandadventures.blogspot.com/

I also like to travel. Fine. I love to travel as much as I love food. I have this really cool friend who did a lot of traveling with me back in our younger years. We flew to exotic places like El Paso, Phoenix, Sacramento, LA, Oakland, and Little Rock. We also roadtripped to places just as exciting, if not more exciting, like Ruidoso (remind me to tell you the story of this friend skiing OFF the mountain), Memphis and even Toone, TN. Her name is Meredith. She started blogging after her and her husband, Eric, had their little boy, Riley. Meredith was my second blogger friend. http://rileyalan.blogspot.com/

I like to have fun. And I like to be around people who like to have fun. I have an amazing friend who is fun. She creates fun. She makes fun. She IS fun. And most of all, she is funny. Her name is Amanda. Amanda started blogging when her and her husband, Blake-O, had their little girl, Stella. (Ahem...Riley meet Stella. Stella meet Riley. Now, if they ever get married, I can say I was the person that introduced them.) You see, Amanda and Blake-O live in New Hampshire and all their family lives in the great state of Texas. Their blog allows all their family and friends to watch Stella grow. Amanda was my third blogger friend. http://www.amandaandblake.blogspot.com/

I like to sing. Stop laughing. I never said I sang well. But I do sing loudly. One of my oldest and dearest friends is a really, really, really good singer. Like ridiculously good. One time, we were driving down the highway and I was singing...loudly. He said, "I've never wanted to jump out of a car going 70 miles per hour but I do right now." His name is Jared. Jared started blogging when he and his wife, Kathryn, had their little girl, Lucy. Jared and Kathryn are in the same boat as Amanda and Blake - they live in Tennessee and all their family lives in Texas. Through their blog, we can watch their kids grow up, too. Jared was my fourth blogger friend. http://jaredandkat.blogspot.com/

I like to keep in touch with old friends. This started around the time I was 5. My Dad was career military and we moved around quite a bit. I had the hardest time saying good-bye to my friends. My parents would sing to me "Make new friends but keep the old, one is silver and the other is gold." So, I did. I wrote letters. Yes, letters. This was before the era of email. We did have phones but long distance phone calls were expensive...especially when you have a 12 year old that can talk for a long time about nothing. I've known my oldest friend since I was 4 years old....that may not be that long to some people, but for a military brat - that is a VERY long time. I just went to his wedding last month. He is not my fifth blogging friend. Sorry - that would have been good ending though. My fifth blogging friend I've know since I was 11 and is from a central Texas town called Belton. Her name is Kelly. Belton was the last place we lived before my Dad retired. Fortunately, Belton and Mason were not that far away. One time (once we were able to drive), Kelly came to watch one of my basketball games and then I rode back with her to Belton to visit for the weekend. She is a silver friend. Kelly started blogging when her and her husband, Aaron, had their little girl, Riley. Riley - you can't meet Riley the boy baby because then you would be Riley and Riley Blackman. But, I'm going to have a nephew in March and you can have first dibs on him. http://kellyskorner-kelly.blogspot.com/

I have all five of these blogs saved as my favorites. I check them daily. Some are updated more frequently than others. Sometimes none of them are updated. If none are updated, I have to send a sassy email and amazingly they are updated. I really enjoy reading about my friends' lives through words and pictures. These blogs are such a great way to keep up with people that I care about but am not able to see very often. You also see a different side of someone's personality through their writing. Like my friend Amanda - - she is amazing with words. I guess she is convincing, too. She was the person who got me to join myspace. She was also the person who said to me, "You should blog. You have an exciting life." That was probably over five months ago, but I've been thinking about it. And here we are. Welcome.

I hope you, too, will enjoy reading about my life happenings through words and pictures.