The Latta Family

Alexa and I had to make a run to the grocery store this afternoon.  After we got all of our items, we got in line.  It was a busy time of day, so we had to wait awhile.  While we were standing there, there were plenty of things to catch our eye and keep us entertained: candy & gum on the right, and glossy magazines on the left. I'm not sure what attracted Alexa to them.  She's never really paid attention to them before, but today she noticed the magazines.  I feel it need to be commemorated. Again, I am not sure what attracted her to the glossy magazines.  Was it me?  I was looking at the covers.  Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner are having marital woes.  One of the Kardashians is too.  I could get a beach bod with Jillian.  Or I could make a delicious dessert.  And Oprah wanted to tell me how to relax. Thankfully this grocery store was a step up from Wal Mart- so there was no Cosmopolitan with it's 8 tips to make my sum...

A few weeks ago, a Facebook friend posted a picture of a list that she made for her children to earn screen time everyday.  It was a stroke of genius and so I stole her idea and made my own list, for my children to earn screen time. I told my mom about this genius plan and she laughed at me.  At. Me.  Not with me.  She didn't believe it would work.  Well, hahahaha!  She was right, sort of. Andrew gets up and dashes about doing his chore, making sure nothing of his is in the living room, and will even be active for 45 minutes.  Get him to read???????  I spend 45 minutes chasing him off of technology, taking it away, nagging him, having him argue with me until . . . he either decides it's not worth it and finds something else to do, or gives in and reads for 5 minutes and tells me he read for 20.  Then reads for 7 minutes and tells me he read for 30.  Tells me . . . well you get the point. The thing is . . . he's fine with reading, ...

Way back before I had kids, someone once said, "Sometimes I get more out of seeing my kid experience something, than if I were to do it."  Well, as a young, childless person I didn't understand that, but now I totally get that. In case you didn't know, this family is a fan of N.C. State.  I am by default.  Andrew and Alexa were born into it, and Doug is an actual alumni. I have 3 kinds of t-shirts in my drawers: NC State, the school where I teach, and baseball teams.  When we're getting dressed in the mornings Doug and I make sure the other one knows which NC State shirt we're wearing, so that we don't match.  That happens- a lot more than you would think.  Andrew's kindergarten teacher asked me half way through the year, if he had any other shirts than NC State ones.  Recently I had picked up one of Andrew's friends and they were coming to our house for the first time, and before we turned in the driveway he said, "That's your house.  I...

I flew in the door about 20 minutes before Doug and Andrew had to leave to go to baseball practice. Doug was heating up leftovers and fussing at Andrew because he was sitting on the couch, still dressed in school clothes and playing MineCraft (he didn't know he had to go- he claims).  He gets dressed, while Doug and I are griping about the day (it's the end of the school year . . . there's a lot of griping and eating chocolate and drinking Diet Coke, even though I almost completely kicked the habit).  As we sit down to eat, Andrew dashes out the door and leaves the door to the garage open. He apparently felt that he had to get his bat bag out of my car, right that minute (although- frankly, it was probably a good idea; he would forget his head if weren't attached).  Next thing, he's standing at Doug's truck bellowing to us, in the house.  We can't hear him so we're hollering back, "WHAT????  WE CAN'T HEAR YOU!!!!!" A= "DAD! OPEN YOUR...