Oh, what to report?!?!

I realized that it has been more than a week without any posts. I stopped to think about what I could say. I could mention that we have all had colds in the last week. I could post a photo of the boys watching some tv as it's been below zero again and too cold to play outside (especially with colds). I could mention that my French contest initial mailing went out to teachers and so I am already dealing with issues/inquiries this far in advance (the actual contest date is April 21st). But I have realized that all of this would be quite boring and so that is why I haven't blogged in the last few days.

Ladies' Night Out

We had a small group out tonight at the Chianti Grill for Ladies' Night Out. Only 6 of the 11 of us were able to make it.

We had a nice dinner, played "Deal or No Deal" and enjoyed homemade scarves (made by Clare) and homemade caramels (also made by Clare). Jennifer took the banker for $6., Monique took home $3. and Deann played it to the end winning $2. It was a lot of fun.

(From left to right around the table clockwise...Deann, Clare, Jennifer, Monique, Vicki & Megan)

Time flies...

I really haven't had anything exciting to blog about lately. Ray is about to redo our office with a new computer, new computer desk and some new IKEA shelving. Ray's job seems to be going well. I am very adjusted to Liam's lack of naps (he quit Dec. 8 although a few days in Dec. he was still falling asleep on the couch for a 30 minutes snooze around 4 pm -- that quit with the new year). Tonight is Ladies' Night Out at the Chianti Grill in Burnsville and so I am excited about that. I have been keeping up with Facebook, trying to keep the house from looking like a tornado hit it (much harder than it sounds) and just taking things day by day. Sorry that there is nothing of any interest to report.

Like mother, like son

I finally got two photos side by side to show how Liam and I really looked a lot alike as toddlers. I'm not sure how old I was in this photo, and excuse the poor quality (scanned in from a poor photograph to begin with), but I think you will notice the similarities in features. Not to mention the fact that we had the same haircut --- except that my hair hadn't grown in yet so it really wasn't a haircut at all!

Child Labor?!?!

Man that Liam can sure scoop up a lot of snow on his shovel. Don't worry -- I was paying the boys $.10/hr each so I'm sure that it is legit! Ha, ha. They were actually more of a hindrance than a help. And we already had a good 3 inches out there and it was coming down like goose feathers as we went back in so I imagine that I will be right out there again before Ray gets home. The plow hasn't even come by yet.

Lots of Heavy Reading

Last Monday I started reading "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini. I fell in love with it and between the next three evenings, I finished it. It was so depressing and yet the story was so compelling, I could hardly put the book down each night. After finishing it, I felt drawn to get Hosseini's second novel "A Thousand Spendid Suns" -- another novel that took place in recent Afghanistan but revolving around strong female characters instead of males like in "The Kite Runner". So I started it on Saturday evening around 7 pm and had it finished by 4:30 pm on Sunday. Yes, that's right -- all 390 pages of it. Unfortunately I have now completed the only books that Hosseini has written and so I must move on to another author after the combined 710 of his pages. Oh, but I just fell in love with his style, the details, the plots, etc.

Today is a snowy day and we probably will stay in. No huge news around the Hagen household.

Real Life, Computer Virus - oh my!

This week we are back to attending preschool, church programs, ECFE, etc. It is hard to get back into the routine, but really necessary for our sanity!

Unfortunately a nasty computer virus took over our computer on Monday and so Ray worked for hours Monday eve, Tues morn before work, Tuesday eve and even a little this morning trying to get everything cleared up. He still has some stuff to fix, but it appears to be pretty much gone. I am totally lost without Internet use -- I found that out with the 36 hours that I was forced to stay offline. So I started reading again although this book ("The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hommeini) is really depressing and so I have been crying my way through it.

Monday before the computer virus hit, the boys somehow managed to pull an entire curtain rod out of the wall and also totally "cut" the cord to the baby monitor receiver that sits in the basement. So with the computer virus, that made a perfect trifecta for the day!

Christmas Tree Disaster

Tree up...Monday, December 8th, 2008
Tree "down" (The culprit is hiding in the background)...Friday, January 2nd, 2009

That's pretty good given the behavior of our boys!

Yahtzee Mania

We went to my mom and dad's house for New Years Day and Connell played lots of games with my sister, Neysa and my mom. They played some card games like Crazy 8s and Go Fish and also played Sequence (a favorite of Connell's) and then Yahtzee. Connell had played Mickey Mouse Yahtzee about a year or two ago when I picked it up at a thrift store for the boys and yet within a month, half of the dice were gone and the fun was over. So he really took an interest in the REAL game yesterday and although they only played 3 games, he wanted to fill up the entire card (6 games). So this morning he talked me into creating the game at home for him. We found 5 dice from different games and got a cup. I printed some Yahtzee card masters off of the Internet for us. So he and I played 2 games this morning (I won both because I got a Yahtzee in each game and Connell ended up having to cross it out both times). Liam helped me roll the dice.

For those of you who know Connell quite well, this story will seem logical... As he and I were looking together at a map of the Cities this morning, he spotted County Road 25 and announced to me, "Look there is road 25 -- that's the number of points you get in Yahtzee for rolling a full house!" That is what started his begging to play at our house...