Claire's Preschool Program & Graduation

I can't believe it...my baby is all grown up (at less than 5 years old) and has graduated from preschool!  We attended her end of year program and graduation ceremony this morning.  Claire's teacher, Miss Char, did a wonderful job with putting the whole thing together and the kids were SO darling!  They recited poems, sang songs, showed some of the sign language they learned, did a couple of dance and music number, and they all had speaking parts (Claire's part was with her cousin, Tyler, and they talked about reading books and the difference between fiction and non-fiction).  At the end of the program was the presentation of diplomas - complete with the kids wearing the cutest little black caps.

After the ceremony was over, there were refreshments galore brought by all the moms.  I basically let Claire gorge herself on whatever she wanted.  I figured that a kid only graduates from preschool once...at least that had better be the case!

I am so proud of my cute girl.  I know they practiced like crazy for today and in spite of her sometimes shy personality and being unsure of having everyone watch her participate, she did a wonderful job. 

Way to go, Claire!!

Late Night Craving...

A little bit ago we were breezing through the American Idol finale (love TiVo...and our favorite won!) when I suddenly felt super hungry.  I ignored the feeling.  Now I'm sitting at my computer getting a few things done and I'm having a harder time dismissing my stomach as it gurgles and begs me to feed it something.  It's usually not an issue for me but tonight the hunger is different...my tummy is begging for vegetables.  What the?!  Late night cravings usually hit me when watching cooking shows and are supposed to be reserved for things such as the following:

• Dove chocolate, Guittard milk chocolate maxi chips or PB M&M's
• bean and cheese burritos
• ice cream (perhaps vanilla layered with peanut butter...with Magic Shell on top?)
• freshly popped popcorn with melted butter and Lawry's Seasoning Salt
• a New York steak - grilled medium/medium rare - possibly with a nice caramelized onion & blue cheese sauce on the side (this is yet to be available at our house late at night...strange)
• salsa rice with sharp cheddar cheese melted on top - to be eaten with tortilla chips
• some sort of high calorie baked treat that I may or may not have hidden from my family in the freezer

 Apparently my insides didn't get the memo on these things.  Even as I typed the above list, it still whined for something green.  The thought of eating a different - aka normal - late night snack did precisely NOTHING for me.  I want an enormous mixed greens salad (with gorgonzola or blue cheese crumbled on top, sunflower seeds, sprouts, chopped hard boiled egg, cucumber slices, maybe some dried cherries or cranberries, chopped or sliced beets, shaved carrots, peas...).  Or maybe a caprese salad with fresh tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, basil and balsamic vinegar.  Roasted brussel sprouts also sound really tasty as does a huge bowl of sauteed fresh vegetables like zucchini, carrots, red onion and grape tomatoes.  I'm actually salivating as I think about these options.  Now, I know that Team Veggies definitely beats Team Evil Food in terms of nutritional benefits and lack of weight gain.  But seriously.  Who craves healthy food late at night?  Something is wrong with me.

And no, I'm not pregnant.

Back Up & Blogging

About a week and a half ago my poor computer fell ill.  Really, really ill.  It wouldn't boot up and kept giving me all kind of rude errors when I would try to do so.  I was absolutely terrified that we had lost years of pictures, documents (including a massive recipe collection), etc.  I spent a lot of time fretting about it.  My kind hubby took it to our computer peeps for me and they informed us that some connections on the mother board (that's just fun to say!) had fried.  Thankfully none of my files were lost.

We had two options...

1) have them repair my computer for $$$

2) have them transfer all my data to a newer computer that we had sitting around for $

No brainer!

Max dropped the newer computer off to them and they set to work.  Said work was supposed to take a few days.  It took longer and I was without my precious computer and a normal internet connection (I have my iPhone, iPad and we have a laptop but I very much prefer my PC) for almost 10 days.  It was painful and I have a lot of blog reading to catch up on.

So today I'm sitting here at a new(er) computer with Windows7, faster everything, etc.  The only downside is I'm having to transfer a whole bunch of stuff from a single folder to where it belongs on the new hard drive.  I shouldn't complain, though, because I am so grateful that we didn't lose everything.  And I'm glad to be back in touch with the world again.

I'll get back to normal posts again soon...