"Now I guess I have to eat my words," Kistner laughs. "But I'm more than happy to do so."

Thanks to Green's love of TV and talent for solving word puzzles, she and her mother may be the proud owners of new Mazda RX8s, valued at $33,360 each, depending on whether they choose to keep the sports cars or trade them in for other vehicles.

The two got their 15 minutes of fame—actually 21 minutes—as contestants on the May 4 Wheel of Fortune show themed "Mom and Me," taped in San Francisco. Not only did they leave the show with keys to their own cars, which they got after solving "Mork from Ork" during the bonus round, they won $10,150 in cash.

"I kept saying 'Mark' even though I knew it couldn't be right because we chose 'A' as our vowel and it didn't show up on the board," Kistner says. "But Lisa was able to solve it. I don't know how. She's good at that kind of stuff."

Initially, when Green found out the show was taping in San Francisco, she went online to get tickets to sit in the audience.

"We watch the show at home a lot and I thought it would be fun to see it live," says Green, a fifth grade teacher at Saratoga Elementary School. "But I saw an application to be on the show and I thought, 'Why not? What are the chances?' "

Apparently, chance was on their side. Out of 4,000 applicants, they were among 200 pairs who were randomly selected to audition and made it to the final round with 21 other pairs.

The selection process was a lot more intense than the two had anticipated. Not only did they have to play a couple mock games in front of the selection panel, they also had to take a written test with 20 puzzles to solve.

"They were pretty hard," Green says. "I was able to solve maybe half of them and my mom solved about two."

They might not have aced the test, but that didn't stop judges from choosing them. Four days after the auditions, they got the call to say they were in.

"I couldn't believe it," Green says. "I was all alone in the classroom when I got the news. I screamed and nobody heard me, so I ran over to tell another teacher."

Kistner says she was also shocked when she heard to news.

"I couldn't believe I was going to be on TV," she says. "I went along with this thinking that whatever happens, happens. We just wanted to have fun. I never expected us to make it this far."

Green and Kistner say they didn't pay much attention to the cameras during the actual taping because they were so focused on the puzzles.

"We had to pay attention to the letters being called so that we wouldn't make a mistake and call out the same letter," Green says. "I pretty much forgot about the cameras."

She also almost forgot about her group of cheerleaders sitting in the audience. In fact, she wasn't even allowed to make eye contact with her kids, father, brother and sister sitting in the crowd as part of the game rules.

Stealing the spotlight from the other two contestant pairs, the mother and daughter team solved four out of five puzzles during their first rounds, in part because the teams before them either landed on the "Lose a Turn" or the "Bankrupt" slot on the wheel. In one puzzle, the two gained from another's mistake when they answered, "Lynda Carter as Wonder Woman"—again relating to television and entertainment, Green's forte.

"I think the guy knew what the puzzle was but ended up calling out the wrong letter," Green says. "He though Lynda was spelled with an 'i.' I was hoping he would make a mistake. So when it was our turn, we solved the puzzle almost right away. We didn't want to take the risk of losing a turn if we spun the wheel. It was all about luck."

Green and Kistner say they would do it all again if they could, not necessarily for the money or the prizes, but for the experience and to see hosts Pat Sajak and Vanna White again.

"They were extremely personable," Green says. "Before the actual taping, Vanna came up to us to greet us and wish us luck. She had just gotten out of the shower. Her hair was wet and pulled back. She's even more beautiful without makeup."

As for Sajak, Green says he has the best one-liners.

"He's a closet comedian," she says.

The two say that being on television and winning hasn't really hit reality yet. For Green, she says she'll believe it when she gets the check in her hands.

And when she does, she'll be using it to pay the taxes.

"At least we'll have the car," she says.