A New Computer

Our sweet old Mac died after a great 5 year run. There's only so much the Mayo laptop doctors and duct tape can do to prolong its life. Our archaic Dell filled in beautifully for the last couple months for the kid's school work and the occasional photo upload, but with memory smaller than my own brain's capacity (22gb) I was pretty limited. Still, there's no real good excuse for not posting the occasional hello here.
I'd like to welcome the new addition to our electronic family: an HP TouchSmart all-in-one desktop. This is the best part... for a low price of 237 buckaroos!! What?!
It was a floor model marked down from $829 to $537 with an additional 10% off since it was missing the manual. It rang up at $261 to the manager's and our surprise. As Albert and I enthusiastically high five each other in the middle of Sam's Club with 3 very confused children at our side, the manager continues to knock the price down by honoring the 10% discount. Triple score. And happy dance ensues.

So, what have the Gutierri been up to? Here's a quick top 5.

1) Settling in. Hallelujah! It takes me time to warm up to change and we have had a whole mess of it this year so you can only imagine how un-normal I felt. It's the simple things like being able to walk around in the dark in our rental without stubbing my toe every 6 inches that puts this woman at ease.

2) Visit from The Picker Family! Jen and her most wonderful husband and children spent four days with us this month. The details and pics of their visit will come in another post. Their visit was food for my soul, food I've been snacking on since they've left. My heart is so happy.

3) Bella is officially in double digits... how that happened, Lord only knows. I look away for a moment and she's grown a foot. I have a ten year old. TEN. Let that sink in for a moment. Ten. We always have some sort of New Year's Eve celebrations for her birthday and this year we had Karen and Greg Hintermeister from Rochester join us. Their youngest son and Bella were classmates in Rochester so Karen and I got to know each other a little while volunteering at school. They were here for a short getaway and graciously took time out of their trip to spend an evening with us. We thoroughly enjoyed getting to know them and look forward to their next trip out to the Valley!

4) Jacob turned 8! We're driving down to Tucson for the Gem and Mineral Show next weekend... a birthday dream he's had for the last 4 years. This show is the largest of its kind in the world and a rock hound's dream. It is an event I looked forward to as a child and now get to share with my kiddos...very excited.

5) I think we've found our new church home. I joined a women's Bible study and that's darn near close to signing in ink in Krista language. The Messages on Sundays are clear, concise, on point, challenging, simple, and completely Jesus focused. There are plenty of weathered faces, pudgy little faces, and everything in between. The worship is gripping and diverse. The church offers so much to young and growing families; not a necessity, but a very welcomed benefit, especially during our Residency years.

6) Because it is probably the most best thing to ever happen to Scottsdale ever in the history of ever... Blimpie's at Scottsdale Pavillion now serves (drumroll please)..... EEGEE'S!!!!!! Excuse me while I thank God for bringing the best things to my new home.

The End.