Mother’s Day 2013

Posted on 5/12/2013 by James

We’ve arrived home after a full day with our family in New Orleans. I believe it was an enjoyable day for Connie and the other mothers in attendance. I certainly hope that they feel appreciated, although I’m not sure we really adequately express that. In reality, it would be best if they felt appreciated throughout the year. The kids each made some nice cards for her. I really thought the boys had forgotten as I only reminded them once, but they came through. Sweet little ones.

I wish that I had a nice picture of the kids with Connie, but in all of the haste to get ready and get to church this morning we forgot to take a picture. On top of that, I forgot my camera at home. With only our phones to take pictures with, we didn’t get any great ones. I did take a picture of them when we got home, however the freshness dating on the kids was already past. Maybe next year.

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Password Day

Posted on 5/7/2013 by James

Seems someone decided we needed a “Password Day“. I don’t want to brag, but I actually use passwords everyday. Passwords are something we all have to deal with and they protect some awfully important information. There’s been a string of high profile hacks that have given intruders access to email address and their associated passwords. So what does the thief do? He then uses this information on other high profile sites to see if they work. I fell victim to just such a scheme earlier this year. It wasn’t a pleasant experience and I wouldn’t wish that on anyone else.

In order to protect yourself, don’t use the same password on multiple sites. To do this, create a very secure root password (upper/lower case letters, numbers and special symbols) and then annotate it with something specific to the site. You can write down the site specific part (just not the secret root part) without giving away your entire password. Here is a great info graphic that McAfee posted on their site. It gives some great advice.

McAfee Password Info Graphic

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Musical Success for Emma

Posted on 5/3/2013 by James

Emma with TrophyAs Emma comes to the close of her time in the Music for Kids program, we look back at the years of her dedication and practice. She’s been so good at not complaining and working hard. The one big competition at the end of this four and a half year program is a scale contest. The students are given a scale to play on the keyboard. It’s randomly selected from a lot of possibilities, so they have to know all of them (I believe they are all major scales). They take turns playing and the one with the fewest mistakes wins. If there is a tie, then they move to the next round with a different scale. This continues until there is only one remaining. For Emma’s class, she ones the one that came out on top!

She’s been practicing so hard the last couple months, so her hard work was rewarded. It’s exciting for her since Quinn also won this contest when he finished up the music program and that was in the back of her mind. Graduation from the music program is just a week or so away. Congratulations Emma!

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Another Trip to PAC

Posted on 4/30/2013 by James

This past weekend, Hayden went with me back down to Pointe Aux Chenes. This was the same place the Quinn and I went the weekend before. The wind wasn’t blowing that hard, but the gnats were pretty bad in some areas. I was sort of aggravated by them, but Hayden looked like he was trying to fly (swinging his hat around). They didn’t stay long, but enough to leave their mark.

I think I should refrain from calling these outings “fishing” trips as fish don’t seem to be a part of them. I did lose a big one due to a broken line which was most likely due to a sticky drag. Oh well, I had a good time and I never regret spending some time with any of my kids. I thought I would at least post a few pictures of our morning. I did get to see some sea snails taking over a patch of marsh grass.

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The Cash Poor Tooth Fairy

Posted on 4/20/2013 by James

Tooth FairyMost parents in the US still play along with the “tooth fairy” story to try to deflect angst away from the loss of baby teeth in their young children. We did that as well. I can remember when Quinn lost his first tooth. Oh what a monumental occasion. Each loss of a baby tooth was heralded and of course it took a while to cajole the little tooth out of their mouth (usually hanging by a thread).

What has been interesting to me is the progression of this from our first child Quinn to our fourth child Maggie. For the Quinn, we spent a week trying to prepare him for the loss of that first tooth, just watching and waiting. We would carefully place the tooth and provide the dollar (going rate in our house) under the pillow for the next morning. This routine was repeated for each tooth and was largely the same for Hayden, but without as much hoopla. Emma was so fearful of losing a tooth, but that was sort of short circuited by the extraction method. Even though Maggie was two years younger (and probably only 2 at the time), she was the catalyst for Emma losing 3 of her teeth. Once to a kick and twice to punches (not in a real fight, but just the rough housing of the girls).

Now with Maggie, we have come full circle. She usually has to tell us that she’s lost a tooth. She will work it and work it until she can pop it out herself. We generally don’t even know the process is going on until she presents the tooth along with a view of her teeth and the missing space highlighted. The sad thing is that the tooth fairy doesn’t have any cash these days. We generally don’t carry cash around (which a whole other post) and so we have to “borrow” from Quinn to allow the tooth fairy to deposit the dollar under her pillow (or on the dresser). To make matters worse, this is usually halfway through the next day when we realize that we shirked our duty.

I kind of feel sorry for Maggie getting the “tooth fairly lite” routine. I wonder if she will continue the story with her own children. I guess it’s really not that big of a deal as the stories only purpose is the help the process along and Maggie didn’t need any help with that. She just wanted to get paid.

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