On the Way

My new computer is finished and on the way!! YAY! Lisa finished building, testing, and installing programs on Wednesday. It should be here Monday. I'm soooo excited!! I've been computer-less for far too long. 4 weeks is a long time to be without a computer...at least for me.

I'll finally be able to share more pics of the 3 cutest kids ever! It will take me at least a few days after it arrives to get to that, though. I'll need to do an XP transfer and install Photoshop, Office, Sims 2, and other necessities. Lisa already installed Firefox, AVG, etc. She also ran about a billion tests. According to PC Pitstop, my new computer is in the top 23%. Sweet! Better yet, the graphics card is in the top 5% :D And it's one of Lisa's hand-me-downs. Yep, my sister loves fancy graphics cards. She's a little OCD about it. Not that I mind; I always get her old ones when she upgrades!

Yay!!!!! I'm finally going to have my own computer again!! Soooooo awesome! I can't wait!

Computer-less

I am still computer-less. The building process is taking longer than anticipated, due to a flaky motherboard. It wasn't playing nice with the graphics card or the RAM.

On the plus side, this means I get a new motherboard...and a new processor!! It'll be twice as fast as the one I was going to get :D

The downside, however, is that we had to order those parts, so I have to be computer-less for longer. It's definitely worth the wait, but...I'm more than ready to have a computer of my own again. Especially since I am now craving to scrap and play Sims 2. Why does lack of accessibility cause such cravings? *sigh*

But, life has a way of keeping me busy, whether I have a working computer or not. I've been trying to keep up on cleaning. I started working on our bedroom, but I didn't get as far as I wanted to. At least I got my clothes all hung up and put away. But the clutter? Still got a long way to go.

And, of course, kids definitely keep me busy. Since my last real non-computer post, Hyrum said his first official sentence: "Mommy, I love you." <3 Best first sentence ever! He picks up on more and more words and phrases each day. He totally repeats everything he hears. He also discovered that he can open the fridge...and doors, with or without the plastic knob covers. Good thing we keep the front door locked at all times!

Nathan rolled over since then, too. He's getting soooo big! He's 17.5 lbs and 27.25" long. What a big boy! He's getting close to growing out of his infant car seat. Nathan is such a sweet, cuddly baby. We love our adorable little redhead!

Emma is such a knowledge sponge. She's going to do so great in school! What a smarty. She loves doing at-home preschool each day. It's so fun! She always asks to learn more, and she remembers extremely well. She has an amazing memory. Clearly, she takes after me ;)

Speaking of school, John applied for grad school. Yay! We're still waiting to hear back; we probably won't hear until March since the deadline is March 1st. We're also on a waiting list for an awesome duplex near our grad school of choice. It's exactly what I'm looking for: inexpensive, 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, garage, yard, and only sharing walls with one neighbor. Yay!

Graduation is coming up in less than 2 months and we couldn't be more excited! It'll be sooo nice to have that behind us. I can't wait to move to a bigger place. We so desperately need more space. I even have a list of organizational projects to do after we move. It's pointless to do all of it now since I don't know what kind of space I'll have to work with yet.

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[Emma typed that and said, "don't take it off, ok?" So...I'll leave it just for her :)]

So, overall, life is good. Stressful, what with kids and school and everything, but good. I am very excited for my new computer to be done and here. In the meantime, I'm going to work on other non-computer things. The kids are clamoring at me, so this will have to be short. Time to make dinner! The life of a mom. Always busy!

Computer Failure

One of my goals this year is to blog and digiscrap once a week. Last week, I was going to blog about Christmas (yes, I know it's late). This week, it was to be Hyrum's birthday celebration post. How ironic that my computer decided to die just a few weeks into the new year...

I've been computer-less for a week and a half, and it's driving me crazy! I'm currently using John's laptop. However, sharing John's computer doesn't really work well. For one, it's a laptop. I don't like laptops. I use them as rarely as I can. And it runs Vista. Blech. Secondly, John's homework trumps blogging...or scrapping, or Facebooking, or Sims 2. It's kind of in my best interest to let him do his homework...I kind of want him to graduate in 2 months ;)

Thank goodness for my Android! It's let me keep some semblance of sanity while being computer-less.

As for what's wrong with my computer, we (meaning my super techy-nerd sister Lisa and I) think there are several issues. First, the graphics card seems to be dead, as well as the DVI cable (cord that connects computer to monitor for the non techy-nerds out there). We borrowed a VGA cable (another kind of cord that connects computers to monitors) and a monitor from a friend so I could test things out.

The most success I've had is routing the borrowed VGA cable to the craptastic on-board graphics. Windows started to load, but the computer randomly shut itself down. This happened on multiple occasions, at different parts of the startup. So, now we're thinking that the motherboard and/or the power supply are dying as well.

Thankfully, my hard drives seem fine. They better be! Especially the slave drive I just replaced a few months ago when its still-under-warranty predecessor had bad sectors. I have a fairly recent backup, so I wouldn't lose everything...but I would lose a bunch of Nathan's baby pictures :( I'm pretty sure my hard drives are ok, though.

Rather than try to replace out-dated old parts, we decided it was time for me to get a new computer. After all, my current motherboard and processor are 7 years old...I've upgraded other parts in the meantime, but most of what I have has been there for 4 years or more. So, it's time.

The good news is, my sister is building my new computer! We've actually been talking about it off and on for almost a year now. Like as a, "when you need a new computer" thing. Ironically, we were literally talking about it moments before my computer randomly shut down; the first of a series of computer-dying-ness. I did a full virus scan one of the times it was working and it came back clean. No virus; just old dying hardware issues.

Some of the parts for my new computer are Lisa's hand-me-down parts. Like the motherboard, processor, graphics card, RAM, and power supply. None of them had problems; Lisa just likes to upgrade. When we first started talking about building me a computer, we decided that a locking Hyrum-proof case would be necessary. He has this thing for power buttons... I tentatively thought of naming my new system The Childproof, but Lisa pointed out that'd be like calling the Titanic unsinkable...

My new computer won't be top-of-the-line, but it will be substantially better than my current one. Of course, a working computer is always significantly better than a dead one. I'm getting a dual-core processor, a better graphics card, more RAM, and SATA capability. I'm also getting a bigger boot drive and Windows 7 :D And a pretty black case that locks over the power button. No more Hyrum pushing the power or reset button on me!

So far, all the parts have shipped and some arrived already. The case came yesterday, so I wouldn't be surprised if Lisa installed the hardware she already has. Once it's all together and set up, Lisa will send it to me. Then, I'll get to install necessary programs like Photoshop and Sims 2.

I'm so excited!! I can't wait to play with my new computer! But first...it needs to be built. I hope to be up and running again soon!