Wow

Pardon the past two months of blog format craziness. I chose this morning to finally, actually, closely read the directions, and VOILA! Miraculously, my blog isn't hard to read any more.

My bad.

It's been a busy month around the Jennings house. I went back to work. Keith left for two weeks on a business trip, leaving me with three small children for the two weeks before we were to host Thanksgiving dinner.

I'll pause while you fill in the blanks with the mean things I thought but, of course, didn't say... :-)
Seriously, it wasn't too bad. I mean, other than spending two weeks sleeping upstairs in E's double bed sandwiched in between him and Laney -- as opposed to sleeping downstairs in my king-sized bed, still sandwiched in between them--, there really wasn't much difference... other than, obviously, K being gone.

I spent the weekend after his return in Charleston with my girl Melissa. Let me give you a little background on my friend M.

M and I met @ Clemson back in the day when we were both recruiting hostesses for our beloved Tigers.

Side note -- before you smirk and think that we were those kind of girls -- we became recruiting hostesses because of our love for football, not because of our love for big muscular men in tight pants. Seriously. I mean, those of you who know my dad know I wasn't allowed to date until I turned 30.

Nevermind the husband of almost 9 years and the three kids.

Anyway, I gave her a ride back to the football office (from where, I don't recall), and we struck up a conversation about one of our favorite topics -- Clemson football. (Shocking, I know.) During the course of the conversation, we discovered that we both *L.O.V.E.* Danny Ford.

It's almost like an obsession, but not quite.

And thus, our friendship was born -- kindred hearts bound by a slight obsession with a good ol' boy football coach who led our sweet Tigers to win the National Championship.

It's really a fairy tale-kind of start, I think.

Fast-forward more years than I care to admit have passed, and here we are today. M lives in Charleston, which is probably my favorite place on the planet. I look for any excuse to visit her... such as a much needed break after two straight weeks with the kids.

A few weeks ago, she messaged me about this upcoming party for a friend of hers... 30th birthday... fun people... like I'd need any kind of arm-twisting to get me on board for a weekend of fun times in my favorite city with one of my favorite friends.

The more I found out about the party, though, the more I knew I had to go. Turned out there was a theme involved... and wigs.

I love a good costume party.

I especially love a good funny costume party... like a redneck trailer trash 30th birthday party. Which, as it turned out, this one was.

My friend Lindsay loaned me her Amy Winehouse wig from Halloween, and I started putting together my costume.

Add one cut-up Tony Stewart racing shirt, one black tank top, one orange bra, one hot pair of jean shorts (otherwise known as jorts), one pair of tan pantyhose, one pair of black high heeled boots, a white leather patchwork purse, and one really hot, pink, flaming heart tattoo.

Throw on some blue eyeshadow, metallic blue liquid eyeliner, hot pink lipgloss, hoop earrings the size of a softball, and one big puffy white jacket, and you have the recipe for pictures that are going to embarrass my kids and husband for years to come.

Like these:

I know that, at some point, my kids are going to see these pictures and say, "Mom! What were you thinking?!?!"... at which time I will venture to explain that just because I am their mommy does not mean that I am not also a person with interests and friends and a life... which means that I have turned into my mother.

Now, I'm pretty sure Mary has never dressed up in any sort of racing shirt... or jean shorts... or sported a fake tat... but she did have black knee boots when I was growing up... (I know this because they were THE staple item in my Wonder Woman costume when I was little... that, a set of Wonder Woman underoos, and some tin foil...)

I find this disturbing.

I will say -- to her credit -- that she has pretty much let me talk her out of wearing any sort of seasonal sweater... but still...

Anyway, despite the fact that I am posting these pictures here and on my Facebook page, Melissa and I took great care to avoid any public appearances while in costume. Obviously, it wasn't quite so awkward once we arrived; the costumes were hysterical! (Think Hannah Montana wig cut into a mullet.)

The party was fabulous and absolutely hilarious (minus getting called out about driving a mini-van -- nothing says "Not a regular party goer" like pulling up to the bash in the MV), but on the way home, we were faced with a major delimma.

I was hungry.

After much debate, we decided to hit the drive through @ Taco Bell.

In line, we caused a little bit of a stir... Two hot redneck women belted into an even hotter mini-van, complete with a school magnet on the back... but this is truly what I found alarming.

The lady at the drive through window didn't bat an eye when we came through.

She didn't even give us a second glance, despite the fact that my wig was seriously almost as tall as I am.

Apparently, hotties like us are par for the course on the islands around Charleston...