we're back...

so after an unexpected hiatus, we're back. Last Thursday evening I came upstairs to check the weather online (we don't have cable), and was met by Nathan who informed me we had a problem with the computer. I had just been on the computer the hour or so before and everything had been fine. As it turned out, our laptop had crashed...again. It wasn't but a few months ago that Nathan's laptop decided it didn't want to work anymore and we had to switch to my old college laptop. Needless to say, this left us without a home computer. Luckily we could use Nathan's work laptop to check email in the evenings, but we couldn't do much other than that on it. Technically we could have lived that way for a while I guess.... that is if the readers of this blog didn't mind a long lull. But since today was Nathan's last day at Medrad, he had to turn in his laptop.

Last night after Nathan got home from his happy hour party with his work buddies we ran out to Walmart and Best Buy to see if we could get a new computer. After running back and forth for a good hour looking things over we settled on a Dell Desktop from Best Buy.

Desktops these days aren't too expensive, especially if you look at how much they used to cost, but what gets you is all the new software you have to have. Since Windows doesn't do XP anymore, you have to get the new Vista. And even though we had anti-virus software at home, it wouldn't work with Vista, it was PRE-vista. Lets not forget that even though we aren't in college any more, no one really likes MS Works, so we wanted to get MS Office so we could have WORD and all the other things that go along with that. Once you add all that up, it starts to get pricey. We did get lucky though, BB was having a sale and we were actually able to get a better computer for a lower price, so we upgraded (it was the same price as the next comp. down!) Plus, in this computer deal, we got everything; the tower, a flat screen monitor, speakers, keyboard, and mouse. We also got a really nice "all in one" printer as a bonus; I've always wanted one of those. With this splendid package we also got the anti-virus software and MS Office on discount... so we couldn't pass it up. Oh, and one last perk for the computer package, the Geek Squad had already gone into Vista and gotten out the bugs... apparently Vista has a few problems when you first buy it and unless you know what you are doing, you just have to live with them.

I am so thankful for this new computer so I can keep in touch with people. Although I must say this past week without a computer was nice. It was really quite around here, and I spent most of my time reading and doing things around the house... and napping of course.

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As for baby Ava, things are going well. We are still on track with everything and she is currently in a growth spurt. I can actually (physically) tell that she is bigger, and I am becoming more and more uncomfortable as a result. Oh well, at least she will be healthy... just hopefully not a 10lb baby like her daddy. We are still working on a middle name, but have it narrowed down to two I believe. Other than that, our Dr.'s appts. are much more frequent now and before we know it, she will be here. I can't believe its almost August and Ava's two friends/"cousins" will be arriving shortly, not to mention Ava who is due only 3 weeks later. (We can't wait to meet you Addi and Trent!)

We'll try to get a new belly picture up soon, we haven't taken one in a while, I'm sure you'll be amazed at how much my stomach has grown. Nathan says I have a Pooh Bear belly now, as my shirts don't seem to quite cover my entire stomach... hehe.

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Enjoy your weekend!