Can we say, "Stir Crazy"?

My mom (Grandma to the girls) has been in Mississippi for almost a year now helping with my grandmother. My grandmother has had surgery on her shoulder (all those gymnastics classes she's been taking lately) and then fell and broke her arm. Plus, my grandfather passed away during all this. Been a bit crazy for the Felten side of our family.

Anyway, my mother has about hit her limit on being away from her own home and is ready to leave now that my grandmother has received a good report from her doctor and she can drive again.

So, the girls, my Dad (Grandpa) and I headed down south (or at least further south) to Pearl, Mississippi (you have to sat that with a southern drawl to make it authentic) Wednesday and we are heading back tomorrow. The girls have had a good time with Grandma and Mimi (my grandmother). Maybe a bit too much fun...

I think we may have to admit my mother to a mental facility when she gets back home. So sad...such a wonderful mind...and now she has lost it...and I think she's dragging my children down with her.

***Those "things" they have in their mouths are some sort of sick style of shrinky dink thingies my uncle made when he was a little boy about 45-50 years ago. ICK! I'm sure he'll get a kick out of seeing them in use though.

Just Killin' Time...

Ah - the poetic lyrics of Clint Black. Also brings back memories of getting my big sister in my college sorority - she made me sing that song at the top of my lungs in front of quite a crowd of people (nooooo....there was NO hazing in sororities...wink, wink, nudge, nudge).

Anyway, I feel like time has gotten away from me. So let's see if I can catch everyone up on the goings on at the Riggs household. Hopefully I'll have some more things to post about after Thanksgiving.

1. Anna had the same AWFUL procedure Ashlyn had about 2 years ago to see if anything was wrong with her urinary tract. Poor girl kept getting UTI's. Fortunately, there is nothing anatomically wrong with her - she just inherited this lovely trait (frequent UTI's) from me - lovely. She was quite a trooper during the procedure - the girls are my heroes!

2. I'm a preschool mom pawn no more! After picking up 13 meals from McDonald's for my daughters' "Thanksgiving meal" I decided one of the other 12 mothers in each girls' class can step up and take over for a bit. I'm sure this will start some sort of cat fight when the Christmas party rolls around, but I'm ready. I'm thinking of getting one of those cute new pink stun guns and I just might be packin' at that party.

3. I'm in the midst of Christmas shopping. I had high hopes at the beginning of the year and actually bought a few gifts in the spring. That ambition died quickly and now I'm playing catch-up. I am almost done though - hooray!

4. I received a call from my old workplace to do a project - yeah! That will help offset the cost of Vanessa's Tummy Tuck/Boob Job. Now I just have to find the time to complete the project. It has been a while since I worked on a project for them and I'm not sure I have much of a work ethic now. Maybe I'll just sit at my computer and play solitaire - that seems about right.

5. The girls and I are planning a road trip with Grandpa (my Dad) to Mississippi to see Grandma and Mimi. The girls are already VERY excited. I think they are already working on a mixed tape with some road trip songs. Yoo hoo!

6. We're heading to the big town (MUCH sarcasm there) of McMinnville, TN to enjoy Thanksgiving with Mamaw & Papaw and Travis & Yayoi. Mamaw is a FANTASTIC cook so we can't wait to get there and latch on the feed bag. I asked if there was anything I could bring and they told me "no" - I'm definitely not going to argue with that. Plus, anything I might make would not even slightly compare to how good she could make something. I'm literally drooling already. Ah, sweet tryptophan, carry my off to dreamland.

7. I celebrated my 35th birthday this past Sunday. I'm old. Yeehaw! I share my birthday with Mickey Mouse - he's MUCH older than me. HA!

8. I can't believe I haven't taken ANY pictures in November! That is insane as I am such a camera slut. So here are a couple shots of the girls receiving their soccer trophies at the end-of-the-season celebration dinner/bowling event. Anna is in brown/Ashlyn is in orange.




Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Why, oh WHY didn't I take Auto Mechanics in School!?!

I hate vehicles! With as much fiery passion as I hate Wal-Mart (different post for a different day) I hate my minivan. Let me tell you it is definitely not the "minivan that drives like a sports car" right now (true sales pitch for the Mazda MPV Minivan when we bought the sucker about 6 years ago). More like a "minivan that moves like an old biddy with a walker" on the highway.

Last week I had the emissions test done on the minivan. This is something you have to do in Tennessee before paying the annual registration fee. I think it is all a farce and is a way for the state to embezzle $9 per vehicle - genius!

Anyway - all was fine til I started to get on the interstate. I was pressing the gas, the engine was "revving", but the speed was not increasing - lovely! I was able to get to about 50 miles per hour and had about 3 semis coming up behind me - again, lovely. Thankfully, my exit was the next one down so I was able to make it without too many people honking their horns at me (I've got your license plate numbers suckers - not sure what I'll do with them, but I'll figure something out).

So - after an hour long visit to the dealership the very nice head of the service department (not being a smart a** here, he really is nice - must be some sort of mutated dealership employee) told me the bad news. Vanessa (the girls' nickname for the minivan) needed a boob job and a tummy tuck - ok - not really - but that would be what I would consider the equivalent of a new transmission.

As the cost of this overhaul almost knocked me over, I thought I would be a bit more creative in retelling that part of the story. Here goes:

A new transmission for Vanessa equals:

1. 7 pairs of brand new Jimmy Choo shoes
2. 700 boxes of Starbuck's Refresh Tazo tea bags
3. 10 Kate Spade Tarrytown Samson purses
4. 40 American Girl dolls
5. 1 lower level 2008 Super Bowl ticket
6. 35 one-hour-long messages
7. 9 iPhones
8. 5 Wii Customer Choice Bundles

Happy Birthday, Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year's, Happy Valentine's Day, Happy St. Patrick's Day, Happy Easter, Happy Mother's Day and Happy 4th of July 2007, 2008, 2009 & 2010 to me!

Why, oh why - didn't I go to a vocational school and learn the amazing skill of auto mechanics. I just HAD to have that Public Relations & Psychology degree! Dang it!

Dancin' Machines

We went to Ghouls at Grassmere (Halloween event at our local zoo) the weekend before Halloween and had a BLAST. As we were leaving, the zoo had a HUGE video screen playing slides taken from various areas of the zoo and had Halloween music blasting. This - of course - meant we had to break into dance. I swear these girls remind me more of their father every day. I think you'll see what I mean - love ya honey - mean it.


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Candy Overdose!!!

I'm working on another post with all sorts of stuff that I'm sure you could care less about, but I knew that if I didn't get Halloween pictures on this blog before the end of the day that all the grandparents would be calling and harrassing us - and I don't want to have to put a restraining order on all of them again (just kidding).

Ashlyn (L) & Anna (R) gearing up for Trick-or-Treating.

Ashlyn (L), Mommy & Anna (R) (yes, those are pigtails in my hair - don't laugh - I know I look like Eddie Munster)

Anna cheesing it up for the camera.

Ashlyn is striking fear in her football opponents (yeah, right).