The Latta Family

I think this story of my son and Dad perfectly captures their relationship and their personalities. Andrew, Alexa, and I went down to my parents while Doug went to the Eastern part of the state to help with the Hurricane Matthew rebuilding efforts.  On Saturday evening, we decided to eat some pizza for dinner.   At 6:00, Dad, Andrew, and I set out to go pick up the pizza, so that Alexa could have her dance party without Andrew yelling at her to stop, and her yelling back, and blah blah blah.  Keep in mind the following things: 1. we're on our way to pick up pizza.  2. we had been snacking a good portion of the afternoon.  3. the pizza place is perhaps 8 minutes from my parents house. As we're driving down the road, Andrew turns to my dad and says, "Hey!  We should get an ice cream cone before we pick up the pizza!"  My dad responds, "YEAH!  Let's do it."  The thing is- my dad: an adult, a gainfully employed grown up, the receiver of senior citizen

Yesterday was a probably the most stressed I have been at school in a really really long time.  With exams starting yesterday morning, it was coo-coo for Cocoa Puffs.  What added to my stress was my anxiety about a student.  He has a VERY hard time dealing with stress.  The days leading up to exams had been . . . emotional for him.  I understand his anxiety- I do not begrudge his anxiety.  However- I had no idea how I was going to help him get his meltdown resolved, and get an exam started with my class- all in a flutter because we were in a different classroom, and answer 5 bazillion questions from the other students who were all thrown off by the change in schedule.  Just thinking about multi-tasking all of that . . . had me freaking out.  In addition to the other crazy things that had happened that morning: like an excessively snotty nose, and a crazy itchy ear from the Poison Oak. As I was walking towards the trailer to start testing, my student that I was most worried about, saw

I've been with Doug for 19+ years.  You would think at this point he wouldn't catch my by surprise, but every now and then . . . Way back when Andrew was in kindergarten, he told his teacher "my dad's just an agriculture teacher. He doesn't know how to read."  I still laugh about that.  It's just so funny, because honestly, Doug is one of the smartest people I know (obviously- he knew to marry me.  :-)  But Andrew's perception of his dad, and how he told his teacher.  Hahahaha Alexa is watching something on Netflix this afternoon, and one of the characters yells out, "BELLA!!!!!"  Doug overhears it, and yells out, "STELLLAA!!!!"  If you don't know- (which I only know because I teach in junior English classrooms and we read this play) he just quoted "Streetcar Named Desire."  What the what?!  Can you believe that?  Just goes to show . . . Ag Teachers are like onions.  They have layers.

I am.  Just ask my son.  Well, he might not say I'm a loser.  He'll say I'm weird.  Embarrassing. Awkward.  Dorky.  Uncool. I used to be cool.  I'm still cool.  To a 6 year old girl.  Not to an 11 year old male.  To 11 year old males- I'm totally the opposite of cool. But Doug's cool.  Like- cooler than cool. I can't figure it out.  Doug is hypercritical of Andrew.  He nags him . . . loudly.  He's bossy and he micromanages Andrew.  All things that drive Andrew crazy and yet . . . he's the cool one.  (Of course, I'm the parent drinking a drink he fixed to take to school- and forgot, and eating some Christmas candy that he hasn't eaten yet.  Chill out- it's January 13.  I mean- it's like 20 days ago.  That's my cut off and then I'm eating it. It sat in the pantry at eye level for 20 days.  Not anymore.) Last night, as we were leaving a baseball workout- I waved to one of his friends, "Mom!  What are you doing?!"

I have a friend that lives in North Dakota.  She has been posting updates on the weather situation up there. There were low temperatures of -30, and like 53 inches of snow so far this year (I won't lie- I can't keep up.  Anything more than 6 inches is too much.). I think of her everyday.  I have Bismark saved on my WeatherBug- just to shock myself. We just had like 1/2 an inch of snow and some other precipitation. . . Rain? Snow? Sleet?  Ice?  All of the above? Yes.  A bit of all that.  The temperature has been hanging out under 30 degrees for the last few days. I have been MISERABLE.  I HATE being cold.  Abhor it.  My body just aches.  My muscles are sore.  I'm super whiny.  On Saturday at 7:55am, Alexa said, "I'm bored.  What are we going to do today?"  O. M. G... The day hasn't even started.  I haven't even had coffee yet.  It was the worst day.  There was enough "snow" on the ground to tempt the kids outside, but not enough to actuall