Summer is here!

Although the weather isn't feeling very "summery" quite yet, summer is indeed here. We have several camps planned for the boys, swimming lessons, playing with the neighbors, etc. Connell has a camping trip with the Boy Scouts and I'm sure there will be some other fun things.

All I want for my birthday is my two front teeth...

Connell finally lost the other top tooth last week. So now he is pretty toothless! The tooth fairy has been bringing him $2.00 for the last couple of teeth. He was a little depressed as the first tooth only earned him $1.00.

So sorry!

Well, you can tell that the school year got busy, the French contest took up LOTS of my time in the spring and now I have been busy with end-of-the-year things at school. I promise that once school is out that I will add a few photos of the boys and try to update all of you on life with the Hagens. So sorry.

Happy 2011!

Unfortunately I haven't had a lot to blog about in the last 1-2 months. We have been having a ton of snow this winter which poses its share of problems. Work, school and daycare has been going well for everyone and besides the minor colds that linger, no one has been very sick yet this winter -- well, at least no one has missed a day of school/work yet (knock on wood). The school year will be halfway done as of next week. Mid year conferences are coming up and then we all start looking towards the end of the school year and start to plan our summer! With the temps in the negative single digits most of this coming week, it's hard to think that spring and summer may be just around the corner.

The Blizzard of 2010

Apparently yesterday's snowfall amounts put it as #5 as biggest snowstorms since 1891. We got about 15 inches or so in Apple Valley. Lots of shoveling. The drifts along the driveway are many feet high already and it's only mid-December. Although hunched over in the photo, keep in mind that Ray is 6 ft 2 inches tall!

Ready for Advent

Advent is already here! Wow, time sure flies! Liam is ready with his chain although I helped him make it as you can tell. Connell is still trying to perfect his.

Time gets away from me....

Sorry I haven't posted in ages. Time just flies by without anything too exciting to report. I've been very stressed at school with the end of the trimester being a week from today. Everyone is scrounging to get make-up work in and I am busy creating final exams and getting everything ready for grade reporting. I did have a 3 week stint with a cold and laryngitis and so I am glad to be over that. I did not miss any school -- I simply loaded up on cough drops and Kleenex and tried to relax every evening. But I have also realized that I talk too loud and strain my voice and will constantly have the voice issues regardless of illness. I am trying to drink plenty of water and save my voice whenever possible. It's hard with some of the chatty classes of 39 students when it's so tempting to shout. But it's hard to believe that the school year is about 1/3 done already!

My school year has been challenging in other ways as well. 1/3 of the students in one of my first year Spanish classes are special education students. Unfortunately I don't get any help a special ed teacher since I am an elective class (i.e. in the core subjects, a special ed teacher will co-teach the class with the regular ed teacher when there is a large number of special ed students in the same class). So I am struggling with these 11 kids many who struggle with English skills (reading, writing, spelling, comprehension, recall issues, etc.) in trying to teach them another language. So I have had lots of concerned parents and special ed teachers and have been having to have constant communication with all parties involved in addition to all my other duties.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!