Is my mac mini dying?

I have a mac mini that I use at work. Among other things, I'm the bookkeeper for our little business so it's pretty essential that it continue to live and be happy. I've noticed this week that everything is running slower than is normal and the computer & applications are generally "odd". I've included screen shots of my mini to save some typing.
I am running VMware Fusion 3.1.3 with Windows XP SP3; QuickBooks Pro 2011 is installed in WinXP. For the most part, QB is the only application that I use on the XP side. As far as the mac world, I actively use QuarkXpress 9.3, Photoshop CS3, Adobe Acrobat Professional 8, and Microsoft Word & Excel. I try not to have all of them running at the same time. For some time, things had been running great. The transition between the Mac/Windows applications, while slow, was virtually problem-free. I took care to close any applications I wasn't using so as to help things run smoother. I occasionally run Onyx for maintenance on the mac side and I have Vipre installed on XP, as well as doing an occasional defrag.
I installed some plug-ins for CS3 last week. I haven't attempted to use many of them as of yet, but I tried a few. The problems started occurring about the same time. The transition between OSs and the recovery time (the time it takes for the application to work) is slower. If I stay in the Mac OS, the transition between applications is fairly smooth, but I've noticed that some of the applications themselves are having issues. I've had to reinstall QB (XP) and QXP (Mac). Acrobat (Mac) is having more issues than is normal; normally when I print multiple pages onto one page (duplexed), the 2nd side prints in reverse...I could read it in a mirror! Last night I attempted to print a PDF file, and although the printer started up, it seemed that the job was deleted from the printing cue and the printer stopped before printing. Today I accessed the file from the XP side, using Acrobat Reader, and printed the file.
Generally, applications open more slowly, initiate more slowly and transition more slowly. I'm praying that my mini, or some component inside of it, isn't dying.
Any ideas? Thanks so much in advance...I really appreciate your time!

Thank you!
I've heard the 'shock and awe' from several people regarding the applications and the memory. I'm quite amazed myself; in fact, I never expected it to function as well as it had been!
Thank you all for the suggestions. I used the disk utility this morning to check the disk, it's the first of the suggestions that I've done thus far. Sure enough, there are issues. It's suggesting that I get a Mac OS X startup disk from which to boot and repair it. I'm assuming that will be the Snow Leopard one that we used with the last OS upgrade (yep, it's been a while). I'm trying frantically to track it down. If not, I'll have to contact Apple directly and find out what to do.
As for the external drive...been there, done that. Time Machine runs every day, but now I'm thinking I should've partitioned that disk with a little more space for the Mac. The bootable clone is a fabulous idea...thank you for that. I intend upon doing that (as soon as TM finishes it's current backup) while searching for a startup disk.
Thank you all again for your help! I'm hoping that I'm able to mark that you all helped me!

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