February 23, 2008

Miasmatic Mathematics

So, this Monday I have an Actuarial Exam. This is the first of a series of 10 tests, and deals with probability. It is affectionately called the P-Test. This wonderful test costs $175 to take, and about 1 in 3 who take the test pass it on their first try. In other words, P(pass) = 0.333 .

If that doesn't tell you how hard the test is, here's an example from the study guide.

77. A device runs until either of two components fails, at which point the device stops running. The joint density function of the lifetimes of the two components, both measured in hours, is

f (x, y) = (x + y)/8 for 0< x <2 and 0< y <2.

What is the probability that the device fails during its first hour of operation?
(A) 0.125
(B) 0.141
(C) 0.391
(D) 0.625
(E) 0.875

I'll give you a hint--it's the blue one. If any of you can tell me why, you're doing better than I did!

So, if any of you want to say a little prayer for me, that'd be GREAT!

February 6, 2008

Jeshurun

Here is the long awaited picture of my nephew!


February 2, 2008

He's Here!

My nephew, Jeshurun Kaleb was born today (February 3rd, India time) at 12:18 am to my sister, Evie, and her husband, Ravi. He was 7 lbs when he was born and has a very lusty cry (from what my mom and sister say). Once I get pictures of him, I'll put them up so everyone can see him.

Washing Machine: 1, Cell Phone: 0

Well, this morning I decided to wash my phone, as it was quite dirty. After one wash cycle, the phone was sparkling clean, but also quite dysfunctional. The keypad still lit up when buttons were pressed, but the display did absolutely nothing. Surprising, no?

As it stands now, my new phone, which I got only 3 months ago, is fried. Luckily, the family plan I'm on included a free spare phone, so I at least have a different number I can use temporarily.

Moral of the story? If you want to clean your cell phone, don't use a washing machine to do it. Also, check your pockets!

Little Lady Katie

Last weekend, Tim and I went up to Sandy to finally meet our niece, Katie. She is a beautiful little girl, and that isn't a biased auntie's opinion!





Her big brother Jack was, of course, very fun to be with.


He loved waking up his uncle Timmy...


Tim "loved" being woken up as well!




And a little bit of auntie time.

February 1, 2008

I Finally Have the Computer

After a week of Tim using the computer for his schoolwork, I finally am able to put something up. I love the weekend!
Here is a bit of what we did last month.

Covenant Life Fellowship Marriage Retreat in Bandon

Tim and I went on our first marriage retreat a couple weeks back. It was weird to realize that we were actually eligible to go to a marriage retreat when we first heard about it. We had a great time with the 3 other couples that we rented a house with. The sessions were very convicting and gave both of us a lot to think about and work on to make our marriage a Godly one. Here is a bit of how the weekend went...

I got the whole day off on Friday and was able to do what I actua
lly want to do with my life.... be a housewife! I cleaned house and baked cookies and got both of us packed up for our trip to the coast.



Tim and I left for the coast as soon as he was out of class for the day, but had to stop off at a closed weigh station to put some more oil in our car. Tim got the bright idea that we should weigh ourselves on the scale there and here is what our combined weight was
Yeah, no wonder it was a closed scale.


Here are some views from our rental house.




One of my favorite times during the trip was putting Bethany York to sleep.


Although the walk to the end of the pier and back with Tim was fun as well. We saw some waves crash beautifully onto the rocks, some seals who teased me mercilessly as I tried to take their picture,
Oh yeah, I became deafened by the fog horn that warns ships of where the rocks are.

The building with the orange triangle has a horn in it that is VERY loud when you walk out past it.

Well, I don't know how to cleverly end this post, so I won't.

January 4, 2008

A Trip Down Memory Lane

Well, now that it is 2008, I thought that it would be fun to reminisce over what happened in the past year.


January.

My older sister, Evie, got married to Ravi Kumar in (of all places) India.

It was a wonderful trip (although I wish that we had a transporter instead of airplanes).


February.

My sister and Ravi got married again, this time before the state of India. The pastor forgot the legal documentation at the first marriage. None of the bride's family were in attendance.

March.

A friend surprised us with a cash gift of $400. We didn’t realize that we actually needed it until our car got hit 3 days later. The $400 covered the deductible to fix the car, one grocery trip, and a tank of gas. Isn’t God amazing how he blesses us before we even ask or know that we have a need?

June.

I got to witness the birth of the son of one of my dearest friends.

Evie called with the news that she is going to have a baby herself.

One year of marriage.

Donald James Earl Shire is born.

July.

Evie came home from India for a visit. Unfortunately Ravi had to stay back due to immigration laws in the US.

August.

Evie leaves for India. :(

September.

We got a cat and named him Mongkut. Tim named him and said that he can name the animals and I can name our children. I’m perfectly fine with that trade after hearing the name that he wanted for our cat. *Interesting Note: Mongkut was the name of the King of Siam in the King and I.* He was a stray that my boss took in and doctored up and then gave to us with a HUGE assortment of toys, food, litter, and other paraphernalia.

November.

Thanksgiving at the Whittakers. I didn’t take any pictures there, so these are taken off of my sister-in-laws’ blogsites.

December

Selmet Christmas party.Unfortunately, I didn’t win any prizes, but we had a great time.


Christmas and New Years Eve.

You’ll have to look at the below posts for details and my favorite pictures.



The Lord has richly blessed us this year more than we deserved A new brother, nephew, money for unexpected car repairs... Most of all I am thankful for the grace he has shown to Tim and I in the redemption of our souls. Well, I hope you all enjoyed this little trip down memory lane with me.

New Years Eve

We woke this morning to a blistery 29°F with a sheet of ice covering the road to work. It was a …fun drive. *Note to self… braking on ice is not the most brilliant idea.*

After work, Tim and I went over to our friend’s, Grant, house for dinner and fun.


Food……

"Woman! Put down that camera!"

Drink…..





......GLOBAL DOMINATION!!


Pinky and the Brain....

...one is a genius, the other's insane!

Happy New Year!

December 29, 2007

Christmas 2007

Tim and I had a wonderful 4 days of Christmas that was filled with family and friends.
Here's a bit of what happened.

Whittaker Family Christmas
Fort Building for Donny by Auntie Jo.

Nephews Galore.
Jack pretty much ignored his 6 month old cousin, Donny, until Andy, Kim, and Donny were just about to leave. Then he was all about helping out with his cousin by putting in his binkie whenever Donny spit it out.


Auntie Jo and Monkey's Uncle (aka Tim) playing with Jack.



Presents!
We got Jack a Bob the Builder Hard hat and tool belt for Christmas. He didn't like the hat at first until other people started to wear it, then he wore it and put it on his mom, Beth.




And of course the 2nd annual wake up Uncle Timmy with Jack and marshmallows. Beth, of course, was thrilled that Joann and I gave her son marshmallows to carry around and get sticky from.



Luse Family Christmas

After leaving the Whittaker Christmas we headed down to Roseburg for church at Covenant Life Fellowship and then to my parents house where we stayed until after Christmas Dinner. Sorry, there are no pictures from this Christmas due to the fact that my camera batteries died and I couldn't go out and get more. Apparently, I took too many pictures of our nephews.
My family spent Christmas Eve doing our traditional dinner of snack foods while watching Scrooge. Christmas day was spent making culinary perfections with my mom and watching my dad and Tim clean up after us. In my family, the women cook and the men clean up.

December 27, 2007

Old Man Whittaker

Last Wednesday was Tim's 23rd Birthday (although he claims that he is 22 again because he doesn't like the number 23- it's Micheal Jordan's number). Here are some excerpts from it.

Tim's Present (notice the Elmo Wrapping Paper)!


Tim loves his new shoes!

America's Next Top Model?
And finally Apple Cherry Pie!
Tim wants to have weird combination pies for his birthdays. Next year he's thinking of having me make grape pie (thanks Kim for that idea).

So Tim's another year older and another year wiser (so we hope).

December 19, 2007

You Live and Learn and then get Benedryl

This last weekend was rather interesting for Tim and I. Tim started to get a rather substantial tooth ache on Thursday evening, which, we found out later, was caused by an abscessed tooth. We ended up going to the Urgent Care on Saturday because the pain was horrendous and the dentist was closed for the weekend. Tim was prescribed amoxicillin (antibiotic) and some prescription strength Tylenol.

By Sunday evening Tim had taken 3 doses of the amoxicillin and was getting very itchy. He was so feed up with not being able to stop the itchyness that he pulled off his shirt to get a better angle on the matter. There were small lumps (kind of like hives) all over his torso. I looked on WebMD and it said to call a doctor if this occurred. I said to call urgent care and get the doctor on call, but Tim said that if we called the hospital, we could talk to someone immediately, so he called. The nurse said to come in and they'd check it out. We bundled up and headed out the door.

Amazingly, we had to wait at most 5 minutes before we got sent to a room. I kind of felt bad for the others in the waiting room who were there way before us. There was a young boy with a cast on his leg who was looking very miserable as he sat curled up tightly on his dad's lap.

We went into a room and the nurse asked some basic checking-in questions, and finished up by asking if he took any benadryl. NOTE TO SELF: IF YOU HAVE ANY ALLERGIC REACTION, TAKE BENADRYL BEFORE YOU GO TO THE EMERGENCY ROOM.

The doctor came in and checked him out and said, "Yep, that's a rash." She gave him some prescription-strength benadryl and a prescription for a different antibiotic. So, we left the ER a littler poorer, but also a little wiser in the ways of allergies.

Now, when we think we should go to the hospital, we will pause and take three deep breaths; if we still think it's a good idea, we'll go.

December 17, 2007

So You Started A Blog

Heather and I have officially entered the blognation! Yes, it took a lot longer than it should have, but then again, we have very few bloggable events happening to us.

We'll post a news update later. 'Til then!

timmy