The Latta Family

Last week, when I took the dog for her last walk of the night, we encountered the crazy cat.  That cat has totally ruined my life.  I have since changed my walking routine.  The new routine has brought about an awareness of a sinister presence on my street!  Obviously- the cat is a black cat.  True story. So, there Gracie (that's the dog) and I go, out and about tonight.  Tripping along, she's enjoying the pleasant scents, and I've got my eyes pealed for that stupid cat, in case it's trying to sneak up on me. When I get a few houses past my house, I let my guard down.  I checked out this one particular house that I enjoy looking at because the landscaping is so lovely. I realized, that again all of the lights were completely out.  The entire house was pitch black.  Come to think of it, the house is always pitch black when I take the dog out around 9- 9:30pm.  I mean- there's not even a glow from a cable box or clock.  It's super...

Way back when I was a small child .  . . possibly around the age of 8 or 9, my mother had a "Mean Mother Moment."  I was sent to bed without dinner!  Can you believe that?!  When I was 8 or 9, I thought she was the meanest mother ever!!! As an adult, and a parent myself, I totally had it coming to me. I was being a TOTAL brat!  In defense of my 8 or 9 year old self, she made stir fry.  I HATED stir fry.  I could not stand those snow peas.  They totally grossed me out!  As an adult- stir fry is delicious and I LOVE snow peas now.  So . . . there you have it 8 or 9 year old self, you were wrong, Mom was right.  As I was tonight, when I had my Mean Mother Moment, but . . . being right doesn't feel nice. Alexa experienced the brunt of my Mean Mother Moment tonight.  She didn't get dinner.  Now, in my defense, I didn't try to feed her some crazy meal of stir fry.  I fixed her: chicken tenders (these were homemade ones), ...

We always take the dog out for one last walk of the night.  Depending on which one of us takes her- that walk happens anywhere between 9:30pm and 12:30am. The other night, Doug comes dashing in the door.  He's talking all about how this weird black cat chased him and the dog home.  He mentioned it SEVERAL times the following day.  I should probably have been more sympathetic.  I mean, Doug isn't exactly a scaredy cat (hahaha, see what I did there).  That's me.  He doesn't imagine werewolves in the bushes, or rabid animals stalking him. That's all me.  He's also not one to embellish, for the sake of a good story.  I don't do that either- for the record.  My stories are all completely accurate.  You can count on me to tell the facts, and only the facts.  (I need to make sure you know that- because the following tale is straight up for real.) You should also know three things: 1 our dog HATES cats, 2 the dog is a great big old...

Poor Doug.  I have issued 2 threats to him, within a 12 hour period. Doug and I came down with a stomach bug within minutes of one another on Tuesday.  Honestly, the timing is quite bizarre.  He dashed into one bathroom, and minutes later I dashed into the other.  Y'all that stomach bug is no fun!  However . . . I haven't had to eat one cookie in 2 days, and the ones I ate the night before I got sick were all free calories.  :-) I felt terrible.  I felt terrible physically, and I was guilt ridden.  Poor Andrew and especially Alexa. Andrew had friends I kicked him out to play with, but Alexa . . . her friends are gone this week.  She and I made a list of things we were going to do this week.  It was supposed to be a week of fun!!!! She handled it like a champ.  She was only too happy to watch Netflix for the entire morning while I recovered.  Unfortunately, later Tuesday evening we had make plans to go to our favorite colleg...

It's been almost 4 months since I have blogged!  What's the deal?!  Well, I've been struggling with this whole social media thing.  I am feeling disenchanted with it.  Well, with parts of it.  I unplugged for awhile, while I tried to get my head around it. I got rid of Facebook a few weeks ago, and then I creep back on every now and then, because I want to see your pictures and keep up with old friends, but . . . then I see why I am not on there.  Then I read a comment and I go, "Oh yeah.  That's why I don't like it."  It's been so freeing not being on it. Not being aware of people's hurt feelings or drama, that doesn't include me.  I like it.  I like not snooping to find out why so and so got upset.  It's unhealthy.  Except, I can't stop.  Realizing this, I want you to know- that I will keep up the blog, because I love doing it.  But you'll have to check it on your own.  I'm taking an extended break from the o...

Periodically throughout the elementary years Andrew has come home with common elementary aged type jokes. Like, "Mom, you say, "Shhh," and I'll say "it." They're hilarious.  I mean, I totally can't stop laughing. Hah, ha ha, haaa. . . Sometimes they get more advanced. "Mom, say "Fork" with a British accent."   Now that one did entertain us for a bit, while I demonstrated my spot on British accent. Today he said, "Mom!  Hahaha, say "Sofa King."  Well, I'm no do-do, I thought about it first. Nothing.  I couldn't think of a thing.  But . . . it obviously had something, otherwise why would I say such a ridiculous thing. Finally, after minutes of waiting for me, he says, "So . . . fa king . . . " Huh.  I see where he's going with that, but who walks around saying, "So f*^#ing." I pondered on this the rest of the ride home.  I mean, it just doesn't make sense.  We stoppe...

Alexa got some "Ivy and Bean" books for Christmas.  If you haven't read them, and you have an early elementary aged girl . . . you should!  I was rolling. We finished the first book tonight.  In the story, Bean- a little sister that is a bit of a pest- decides to get revenge on her older sister Nancy (who, at the ripe old age of 11 years old, is a bit condescending and bossy).  So Bean, and her new friend across the street, decide they're going to cast a spell on Nancy and make it so she won't be able to stop dancing . . . EVER!  In order to do so, they need worms.  Obviously, things didn't go as planned.  However there was a scene that reminded me of something I may have done to my own sister at one time.   I am thinking I was around the age of 10 or 11, which meant my sister was around the age of 5 or 6.  I had been being a bit of a brat. I don't remember what I was doing.  Probably nothing. I was probably being angelic and my m...