911

Ashlyn: (From our upstairs balcony) "Mom, call the police!"

Me: "Why?"

Ashlyn: "Anna broke my golf club!"

Me: "I have the police on speed dial honey. They'll be right over."

I swear I'm not as crafty as this makes me look

So I've been suckered, I mean coerced, I mean had a gun held to my head, I mean been encouraged into becoming a lead teacher for our church's Vacation Bible School.

Actually, this church has everything very organized and I have some wonderful helpers that will be with me all week - yoohoo!

To get back to my craftiness (or lack thereof)...

Originally, we weren't supposed to be able to decorate our doors, but as of yesterday the decorating committee decided we were going to decorate the doors (riveting information, huh? are you asleep yet?). Now our age group's director had to come up with a door idea all the teachers in the preschool department (9 I think) could do on the fly. She gave me a call to run something by me and - since I had a meeting with my group in our classroom last night - I agreed to do what I could with her idea and go ahead and do my door (man, I'm snoring just typing this story).

Anyway, without further ado...here was the finished project:

I think the bamboo I drew on the lovely brown paper is really the highlight of the whole door, don't you?

We all know your children's names now...

HOLY COW LADIES (at our YMCA pool yesterday)!

It is break time. That's when (typically) your hellions, oops - I mean "precious children", are supposed to be resting for a short amount of time before going back in the pool. I used to be a lifeguard (and had the Baywatch body to go with it - ahhhh - those were the days) and even though you think those 5-10 minutes are a hassle as you have to actually pay attention to your children during that time (obviously not something you do on a regular basis), those are typically the only minutes the kids have to (forcibly) take a break from their strenuous pool activities during high temperature days out in the sun. It is done to help your children, not hack you off.

While I truly enjoyed listening to the two of you berate the lifeguards and their "silly" policies, my favorite part was you yelling at the two youngest of your children - Mason and Ashley. Do you know how I know what their names are? Easy. You must have screamed their names no less than 100 times during that 5-10 break. And by screamed, I mean truly SCREAMED. I mean they heard you clearly in downtown Nashville (and we were a good 20 miles away from there).

"Ashley, get away from the edge of the pool!"
"Mason, stop running around!"
"Ashley, get back here!"
"Mason, don't throw my dried apricots in the pool!" (which the mother made NO attempt to go get)
"Ashley, stop gnawing on the lifeguard's leg!"
"Mason, make your head stop spinning and stop yakking up that pea soup!"
"Mason, Mason, Mason, Mason, Mason!"
"Ashley, Ashley, Ashley, Ashley, Ashley!"

How about this ladies!?! Sit your kids' butts down on a pool chair and tell them to stay there til the whistle blows again. Period. End of story. Now SHUT UP and I hope to NEVER sit near you again!

Summertime!

Summer has hit NashVegas full force and the Riggs family is planning on taking full advantage of every hot day! Even before the big pool opened, the girls decided to break out the little pool and make our own water slide. Of course our girls have vivid imaginations, so we couldn't just "play" in the pool. They wanted to play "lifeguard". Here's how it all worked out...

Man, that lifeguard is HOT!

Pomp & Circumstance

The girls graduated from Pre-School yesterday and it was quite the momentous occasion. Lots to write on this subject, but only photos for now.

I knew there was a reason I hated yard work

Meet Delilah and Priscilla - my pet names for the two HUGE black widows I found in our landscaping bricks just about an hour ago.

Great - now I'll have the eebie-jeebies all night.

I HATE SPIDERS!!!!! And these suckers are common in Tennessee. We'll be moving on Monday.

Time keeps on slippin'

I know I'm on a roll with pictures lately which probably isn't as interesting for those of you that aren't family, but I just can't help it. I think the reality that the girls are starting kindergarten in the Fall is slowly creeping up on me.

I really haven't felt too sad about the whole thing - til now. I had a good friend ask me how I was after signing the girls up for kindergarten about a month ago. She was concerned that I might be a bit upset. I wasn't - really. The girls were able to do a mini-tour of the school that day from a friend with an older child there already and there was lots of excitement in the air because school was still in session.

This same friend asked the same question after kindergarten orientation. I was fine - again. We received an "official" tour and the girls were able to meet all 6 kindergarten teachers and see all the classrooms. It was fun.

And - to tell the truth - I really haven't had time to think about this new milestone much. It is the end of the year at the girls' preschool, and - even though they only go a couple days a week - there are still lots of activities to plan for (Luau parties, graduation, bubble day). Plus, POTATO has required quite a bit from me lately, I've been preparing for Vacation Bible School, there have been soccer games & practices, and life is just busy in general. Just not much time to really sit and think about the girls growing up...

Yesterday I had a moment to think. I picked the girls up from preschool (it was Luau Day at preschool which explains the floral outfits and flowers in the hair - and, yes - I did have to hold Anna down to get her in this) and it was a gorgeous day. We immediately went outside when we got home and started playing with some new bubble things. I grabbed the camera on my way out the door as an afterthought. I just started popping off some pictures and luckily nailed this shot.

It isn't perfect, but I love the way the bubbles help tell the story of how much fun they had. Then I started thinking of how we only have a couple months of "fun" before school starts. Craziness. I took several more pictures (including the one below) and then just sat back and watched them have a good time. I tried to breath in every moment so I could hold onto it forever.

Here's hoping for an endless Summer...

Mother's Day Photo Session

Most mothers tend to not be in many pictures with their children as they are the picture takers of the family. This is the case with our family as I am a bit of a camera slut and love taking tons of pictures, but rarely include myself.

On Mother's Day I just hoped I could get one sweet picture with my girlies...

Nice face Ash, let's try this again.

Ok girls - look at the camera and try to smile.

Nice forced smile Ash and what the heck is that face Anna?!?

Oh just forget it! We'll try again next Mother's Day.

Now can you tell who's who?

We went to the eye doctor a couple weeks ago and found out both girls have astigmatisms. Yep - they inherited so many wonderful traits from their parents: allergies from me and eye issues from Chris. Lucky girls!

Ashlyn's eyes require glasses immediately and Anna gets to wait a year or two (much to her dismay as she was all excited about getting glasses too).

I took Ashlyn to pick out her frames (purple metallic) and she did an amazing job. So for those of you that have a hard time figuring out who is who, you will have it a bit easier for a while.

I know she is my daughter and I'm a bit biased, but I think she looks pretty darn amazing in glasses. Not everyone can pull them off like she does.

* Disregard the lovely blue tape on the bathroom wall in this picture. We are in the process of painting that bathroom. Also disregard the photographer in the background as she is not wearing any makeup and is sporting one ugly headband.

Bits & Pieces

• Holy cow! I'm exhausted! Haven't had a full night's sleep since Thursday as Anna has the cough from Hades (literally sounds Hellish - like we're calling in the exorcism people ). It has been getting better, but now she has another UTI. Lovely.

• I didn't care how tired I was, I was going to the POTATO meeting last night. It was Spa Night!!! Yoohoo!!! The scantily clad men fanned us with palm leaves while firemen type guys fed us grapes. Ok - not really - but there was a chocolate fountain and that's all I needed to know to get me there.

• My feet STILL hurt from the Country Music Half Marathon! What the ?!? I'm using that as my excuse for only going to the gym once since the run. Hmmm...maybe I should call the scantily clad men from last night to rub my sore tootsies....mental note.

• Ashlyn woke me up this morning with a cough that sound like a barking seal. Yep - she's now sick and so am I. Who saw that one coming? Anyone, anyone...

• Trying to figure out what to do to keep the three of us sickies entertained today without having to exert too much energy. Hard to do with two VERY active 5 year olds.

• I'm pretty sure my husband ran to get out of the house this morning. I get the feeling he doesn't want to be around us for some reason. I can't imagine why..hack, hack, cough, snort.

• I volunteered to teach Vacation Bible School this summer at the church we've been "visiting" for the past year. You would think I would have learned to say "no" to requests like this since my VBS experience a couple years ago scarred me for life. This group seems to have everything very well organize. I have high hopes.

• It is slowly creeping up on me that the girls will be starting kindergarten in the fall. We went to registration and to orientation, and the girls are getting more and more excited about it. When the heck did they get old enough to go to Kindergarten!!??!! Crazy!

• I have about 10 bins around the house where I've reorganized the stuff I plan on selling at the next POTATO consignment sale and transitioned the closets from winter stuff to summer stuff. They've been hanging out for over a week and the girls are starting to give the bins names. Hmmm...I guess we had better put them up in the attic sometime soon.

• I'm going to fix me some hot tea and continue hacking up a lung. This is destined to be a great day!

Go, Baby, Go

This is going to be fairly quick as I am trying to fit about 3 weeks worth of cleaning into one 3 hour time period (the kiddies are at Pre-K - Yoohoo). Anyway, I wanted to get these on here because I have some family members (yep, that's right Mom & Dad - I'm talkin' to you!) that are harassing me and sending me threatening messages. This is not at all unlike them. They have been so cruel to me over the years....someone hand me a Kleenex and get me a couch to lay down on. I'll tell you all about it.

Ok - just kidding. I grew up in the most Cleaver-ish home ever. I have wonderful parents who don't have a bad bone in their bodies (well - maybe a couple bad bones - but just like the little pinkie toe bone - tiny - insignificant). Plus, I need to speak well of them as I want to stay in the will. Heck - who are we kidding - I'm an only child and will get everything anyway. Bwah - ha - ha - ha (evil laughter sounds in case you were trying to figure that out).

Now what was I saying...? Oh, yeah - this is supposed to be a quick post - oops. So much for that. Let's see what I can do...

Chris and I took the girls to Lexington, KY a couple weekends ago. That is where I lived before moving to Nashville for some boy (oh, that's right, he's my husband now). Anyway, we visited the location of our first "date" - Keeneland Racetrack. If you have never been there, it is worth the trip. I know when most people think about Kentucky horse racing they think of Churchill Down in Louisville - where the Derby is held - but I personally think Keeneland is much nicer.

So - without any further ado (and, man! I've been "ado-ing" a lot in this post) - here are a few highlight pics of our trip. I've added a flickr pics feature on the right like the one from the 1/2 marathon, so just click on that for more pics. I've added descriptions so you can know what's going on.

This is my friend Neal. Our families have known each other for years and we've stayed in touch. He and his wonderful wife (Christy) have a beautiful little girl (Mayson - in the green jacket) and they joined us at Keeneland on Saturday morning. Keeneland lets you walk around their barn area and see the horses up close.

Here's Mayson, Ashlyn & Anna in front of the jockey statues in Keeneland's Paddock area. Chris and Neal weren't able to take this picture because they were shaking in laughter from one of the winning horses listed on the plaques the jockey's are holding. The name of the horse was "Panty Raid". Boys will be boys.

Lexington has a wonderful children's museum called the Explorium. We were there a little over two hours and the girls didn't want to leave. This picture cracks me up as the baby doll seems to be looking at me pleading for help.

This is part of the phenomenal sculpture/statue exhibit in downtown Lexington. There is a great story that goes along with this about the creation of it, but I'm not sure of it and will have to get back to you. The girls loved being at the "finish line". They were quickly done though and started heading back to the van. Luckily, they didn't notice the lovely homeless man relieving himself in front of God and everybody just up on the hill.