The Latta Family

I decided that I wanted to put a curtain over a few of my bookshelves in my classroom.  I have not Pinterested all of the "junk" on my shelves and therefore it's not all color coordinated in awesome fabrics and scrap book paper.  Plus, sometimes they can get a little messy, and so I really just want them covered up.  I figured I would just get some cheap fabric, hem it up, and run a tension rod through them to hang them up.  I saw some fabric at Wal Mart in the clearance section that I liked pretty well, but after doing some "Back- to-School" classroom/library designing with my mother, I decided I would just get white flat sheets from Wal Mart, hem them up, and spray paint them.  Let me just tell ya, that turned out cooler than I thought!  It wasn't necessarily cheaper or easier, but way cooler!!!  Here's what I've got: I meant to take a picture before I started spray painting to show the taped off sections, but I forgot, so you get to s...

Life can be so extreme.  Like I am a completely amazing, genius one day and a completely ridiculously, attrociously, stupid, moron the next.  There's very rarely an in between.  For weeks, possibly months, Alexa has been locked in a food war with us.  It's part of toddler-hood I suppose.  Yesterday I realized that I am probably 75% of the problem though.  We ate dinner at a friend's house last night.  I didn't ask Lulu if she wanted the yogurt and spaghetti noodles- I was at a friend's house, I didn't want to be difficult.  I figured if she ate, she ate.  If she didn't, she didn't.  Well, low and behold, she ate all the yogurt, and even ate a few noodles!!  I was stunned!  It wasn't a big disagreement, there was no excessive sighing on my part, and no stomping and screaming, "No!" at me.  This is what a typical meal exchange sounds like.  I walk into the kitchen with Alexa and I stand at the ca...

Today Alexa is officially 2!!!  We celebrated at Lake Keowee with family and friends.  She was taking the day to act as an official 2 year old: temperamental, contrary, and demanding.  What did she eat today?  Mmm, tube of yogurt, Goldfish, gummies, Whoopie Pies, and ice cream and that's it.  (Jeez, I wish I hadn't thought of that, now I am embarrased and horrified by myself, what a load of crud I fed that kid!) Couldn't you just eat her up??! This is not the cutest picture I have of her, but it's a perfect picture.  You can see her curls, the two fingers she sucks, and Lovey that she always always always has with her.    So here's some things you should know about my girl: 1. She knows her mind.  If you aren't sure, read the post about her picking out the Tiny Trike of Terror 2. She's my helper and she's a good helper.  Andrew left his wet swim clothes in a big heap on the bathroom floor yesterday.  Alexa found the...

I know some of you preserved your wedding dresses, but I am not one of those people.  I don't know why you did because how do you bust it out occasionally and prance around in it??!!!!  Periodically throughout the years (a smidge over 12- to be exact) I like to get out the old wedding dress and just see . . . can I still get it on?  The past 2 times I've done this, I have stunned myself to find I can still get it on.  I was also stunned to find that it got over my hips no sweat, it's the rib area where my problems are.  I guess I take in a lot more oxygen or something because it's way tighter on my ribs than it used to be.  I still got it zipped up- without effort.  However, once I was zipped up in that buddy . . . well deep breaths were a luxury I couldn't quite . . . take in.  Before I put my dress on, I imagined myself prancing around my mother's living room, picking daisies, and small children being in awe of my beauty.  I imagin...

Alexa's birthday is this weekend.  She will officially be 2.  She's certainly got that bossing characteristic down pat.  Doug and I decided we would get her a tricycle.  I had this vision in my head of those Red Flyer, old fashioned, metal tricycles.  How completely cute are they?  She'd be so stinking cute with her little bike helmet on, and her curls poking out underneath.  She'd be totally darling riding around on the driveway.  Well, I puttzed around and finally decided to buy the tricyle, but had to go to Toys R Us, because Target and Wal Mart (stores that are near my house) only carry the type of tricycle I didn't want: plastic, some God Awful Girly character, sparkles, lights, and played music. Since I puttzed around I had to bring her and Andrew with me as we're now on a time crunch.  I wasn't too worried about it.  She is really observant, but I figured I could somehow get this tricycle into my car without her really notic...

Lately, my beautiful son has taken to telling me that Daddy is more fun or Daddy's better or he likes Daddy more.  Let me say in all honesty, it does not hurt my feelings.  It does confuse me, because how can Doug be more fun than me?!  Seriously, I'm hillariously fun!  Here's my proof: 1. When it's just me and Andrew hanging out, I pretty much do whatever he wants.  We go see "Madagascar," go to the pool, parks, Discovery Place, Chick Fil A or McDonalds (although, hardly ever to McDonalds because I can't stand their nasty, fake, scientifically enhanced food).  You want dessert even though you didn't finish your lunch?  Ok . . . yep.  I've become a total slacker (sometimes.  Not all the time) Doug takes him to water the greenhouses, or work in the garden, or to hit off the pitching machine.  Mommy 1: Daddy 0 2.  Doug yells at Andrew on the t-ball field.  "You should've had that!" "Get your glove on the ground!" ...

At the sweet, innocent age of 7, I have discovered that when my son comes home from a hard day of playing baseball, soccer, and helping Dad in the garden, he stinks!!!!  I looked at Doug and I said, "Man, he needs to use deodorant!"  Now I have told you before that sometimes Doug is not exactly the kindest of husbands and sometimes says things that are not exactly loving, confidence building, words of praise.  Doug looks at me and says, "He gets that from you!  I've noticed when you come back from a run, you STINK!  There's no way around it.  You stink."  Huh.  I mean, I've noticed that I sometimes don't smell like roses, but it's a whole other thing to have your husband, the man you love, the object of all you desire (besides Channing Tatum), tell you you stink.  Then my insensitive husband proceded to spend the rest of the evening telling me things like, "Can you hand me a knife, stinky?"  "How about some beans, can't hur...

Oh the troubles with Pinterest and looking at the Better, Homes, & Gardens site!  It creates a longing for a completely redecorated home.  I mean, how have I lived in this blah house for so long?  These walls are all wrong, this furniture positionging, wrong, these pictures . . . wrong!  Trouble is, to completely redecorate it, costs money and time.  And unfortunately, I have to follow a budget and I am a mother.  Which means, I have a small amount of money to completely redecorate and small amount of time.  I hate that moment when you're sitting there happily daydreaming of the beauty your house will be, and then reality hits and you realize, that you live in a house with children and a husband and your house is never going to look like a show room, because your house is actually a home.  And while I would much rather have a home, than a show room, every now and then it'd be nice to have a show room.  I was dete...

I have discovered that I am developing a phobia of hotels. This weekend we went to the big city of Marion, NC for the State 6-U All Star Tournament.  We stayed in a hotel, to the thrill of my children. Not as much to me. Hotels skeeve me out. It doesn't really matter what rating you have, 5 star all the way down to the 2 star (let's be honest, I've never been in a less than 2 star quality hotel. I am a boring middle class person like that) creep me out.  The notion of sleeping on a bed that hundreds of others have slept on, sweated on, and various other things I do NOT want to think about, is disgusting to me  I know the cleaning staff doesn't clean the comforters after every customer, so maybe one night some random, seriously sweaty  person fell onto bed, in a drunken stupor and slept on top of the bedspread, where they drooled all over it.  Then, the next night I check in and set my stuff down on random strangers dried up drunk dr...