Something Moore

Clay and I went to Montana for Christmas to spend time with my family. My sister (Alyson) and her husband Jim came with Miss Lily. We had a grand time. Here are some of the things we did with our Christmas vacation...

Before we left Clay and I had our own Christmas together!

I've decided I'm a grump during finals. I informed Clay of this fact to which he replied he wanted to be a grump (mostly because "grump" is fun to say.) I told him that only one of us could be a grump at a time and I "called" it first. Consequently I'm a grump. It will be his turn to be a grump once finals are over.

P.S. Just try saying grump 5 time fast, it will make you smile!

... note cards all around.

The last couple of days have been dedicated to writing note cards (about 600 so far). Yesterday was the last day of classes and now I have a week to learn all there is to learn. Wish me luck!

See ya on the other side. Maybe I'll have some Christmas spirit then.

I found this story on Rachel's blog and I just had to share. Enjoy!

For the past few years Clay and I have been involved in a service project with Memorial Road Church of Christ called Celebrate Recover (CR). Nearly every Friday night Clay and I have cooked dinner for the CR program. It has been such a blessing to us and we have grown spiritually through our service. However, this week the time came to say goodbye. Clay and I have decided we need to find a church closer to home. So with many tears we say goodbye. While we know we can always go back our memories for CR will always be cherished.

Sing it with me "is Carmen Sandiego!"

Ok maybe it's not Carmen Sandiego but I found a cool new web site. The author (or authors) of this web site put together maps of the world that are proportionate to all sorts of interesting facts.

For instance here is the "normal" map which is based on land area . . .


BUT here is the map based on yellow fever cases . . .


Anyhow, I'm completely fascinated by all of the different views of the world. Enjoy!

My dear friend Sarah wrote me an email the other day giving me my first official alias. I told her that Clay and I are excited to go skiing over Christmas and she wrote . . .

I was reading your blog the other day, how sore you were and everything and I was remembering how many accidents you had. I think there is one in every family, but we have a name for that in our family. His name is Crash Klaudt. I should have done this long ago…I dub thee, Crash Blackketter-Dwyer. Now with that new name, DO NOT, hurt yourself skiing. LOL.

Yes I am officially Crash! To really appreciate this you must see me from Sarah's perspective. Sarah and I lived together for nearly 6 years (all the way through undergrad). During that time Sarah had the opportunity to take me to or visit me in the ER or hospital on numerous occasions. A quick recount of my injuries included a torn ACL my freshman year, my sophomore year I had to have a second "clean up" surgery, my junior year I again re-tore my knee (I was in Japan at this time), my 1st senior year I split my leg open trying to jump upon on a wall and had to have several stiches, my 2nd senior year I had pneumonia, and right after I graduated I was playing indoor soccer and tore all the tendons in my ankle. To top off the list there were number of minor bumps and bruises from college soccer as well as numerous injuries when I trained for my marathon. And yet Sarah was always there to help me through. (Thanks Sarah I owe you one or seven!)

So with that I fully embrace my new alias! I shall report back after Christmas on the success of the skiing!

One of my favorite authors of all time passed away this weekend. Michael Crichton gave us sci-fi with just enough reality to make it believable. After all he brought dinosaurs back to life! If you've never read his work two of my favorites are Sphere and State of Fear. And of course there is always his most famous work Jurrasic Park which was my first exposure to Crichton when my best friend Amanda and I raced through it in 7th grade. Goodbye Michael, you'll be missed.

Two years of campaigning is finally over for me. I voted and as of today the campaign commercials can be OVER!! How exciting is that. Not to mention the 2 year build up to find out who our next president will be can finally be done :)!

Is it time to start campaigning for 2012 yet?

I have determined that my muscles (specifically my hamstrings) have atrophied recently. You may ask how a person knows when their muscles have atrophied. Well, faithful reader, I'm glad you asked. Over the past few weeks specifically I have done a ridiculous amount of sitting. Now granted I am a law student so I generally do an exorbitant amount of sitting, but lately this problem has been especially bad. Furthermore, I have not felt well lately (see prior post) and have cut back on the amount of exercise that I am getting. (You know things are bad when someone who considers them self to be sedentary is telling you they cut back on exercise!)

So with all of this how does a person know their muscles have atrophied. Well this weekend Clay and I took the dogs for a walk. Sadly we have missed our walks lately and so we walked them Saturday AND Sunday. And now I am so sore I can hardly stand up or sit down. (seriously this is KILLING me) My hamstrings have officially atrophied to the sitting position and to extend them to standing hurts more than I care to comment on. Now I'm stuck with a choice, do I force myself to walk more and work my muscles back to their prior glory (or lack there of) OR do I simply accept my fate. Considering the bar is coming and the MPRE is this weekend I think for now I shall accept my fate.

On a side note ...

This week (and especially this weekend) I have felt completely worn out. I have no energy and it's been impossible to concentrate. At first I contributed this to senioritis (or is it 3Litis in law school?), but I have since decided my body is trying to get sick. Of course this could not have come at a worse time. It's nearing November and I need to be getting my outlines in order. Also I have a text edit that is due in the next couple of weeks for Law Review. And to top it all off I'm taking the MPRE on Nov. 8. I do NOT have time to be sick, yet here I am. Being a good Canadian Clay has suggested that I drink hot tea to cure all that ails me. So I've drank about a gallon of hot tea today as well as orange juice and water. I slept until 8am and then took a nap this afternoon. ARG! I need to be healthy!

I have so many wonderful friends and this weekend Clay and I were blessed to spend the weekend with two of my best friends and their beautiful families. Sarah and Shelley were my college roommates. (Yes our household was Sarah, Shelley, and Shyla ... say that 3 times fast.) Sarah and I lived together for all of undergrad right until the summer we both got married (somewhere in the neighborhood of 5 or 6 years). Shelley joined the crew for 2 or 3 of those years. The times we spent together are some of my favorite memories of undergrad. These girls have seen me at my best and at my worst and I'm so thankful they've stuck with me. Now we try to stay in touch by getting togehter once a year to catch up. They both have married amazing Christian men and our husbands all hang out and do "boy" things while we catch up on our lives.

So without further ado here are a few pics...

Today I ran across an article where a letter from President Lincoln has been found and is going up for auction. In the article the curator noted, "Abraham Lincoln was one of the four most hated presidents in U.S. history. . . . The other three are Andrew Jackson, Harry Truman and George W. Bush." WHAT?!?! Comparing Abraham Lincoln to George W. Bush? After all Lincoln is one of our great presidents. Lincoln's legacy consists of emancipating the slaves and saving the union. His face is on Mount Rushmore for crying out loud! and now this guy is comparing Lincoln to George W. Bush whose legacy is the Iraq war and our current economic crisis? What was he thinking?

But then I got to thinking, perhaps a president's legacy can only be viewed through the lens history. Who knows what our children and grandchildren will think of our current times in 50 or 100 years. Perhaps the Iraq war won't be so washed in controversy, but instead will be noted as the turning point in middle eastern politics which opened the door to equality between men and women and different tribes in the region. Perhaps our current economic crisis will be seen as a starting point for even greater economic growth and freedom from over consumption and reliance on credit. Perhaps. . .

Anyhow, it reminded me about the movie "Charlie Wilson's War". (If you haven't seen it you should.) The movie is based on a true story which has some interesting relevance to our current situation. In the movie the supporting character has a wise saying that he shares which goes something like this:

“A boy is given a horse on his 14th birthday. Everyone in the village says, “Oh how wonderful.” But a Zen master who lives in the village says, “we shall see.” The boy falls off the horse and breaks his foot. Everyone in the village says, “Oh how awful.” The Zen master says, “We shall see.” The village is thrown into war and all the young men have to go to war. But, because of the broken foot, the boy stays behind. Everyone says, “Oh, how wonderful.” The Zen master says, “We shall see.”

So with that, we shall see . . .

Yesterday I ran in the 15th annual OKC Race for the Cure. Apparently there was something like 20K participants. The race took us around Bricktown and pass the National Memorial. I have run this race before and it is always a great time and benefits a wonderful cause. I don't know what my time was yet because they haven't posted the race results and I had a difficult time finding the clock at the finish line. They did have a split time clock at the 4k mark which I hit at 25 minutes so assuming I kep my pace I probably finished the race in about 32 minutes.

Overall I had a great weekend. Here's to Monday! (just kidding)

This weekend Clay and I went with our friends Justin and Misty to see Frank Calliendo. We had so much fun and Frank was a freakin' riot. For those of you unfamiliar with Frank (yes we are now on a first name basis) he is best known for his George Bush and John Madden impressions. In fact he was in my favorite Superbowl commercial last year. Anyhow, if you haven't seen his work here is a Youtube video. Enjoy!

So if you get a chance I highly recommend his show. He's very funny!

I just had to share this video I saw today. Enjoy!

Here's what I found when I got home yesterday . . .










So Clay's shaver has an automatic cleaning program that makes this horrific noise while it cleans. It always scares me (even when I know the shaver is running) since I can't figure out the cycle time so every time it goes off I jump. So yesterday when Clay started the shaver before I got home Clay made these little notes so I wouldn't be scared.

P.S. For those of you who didn't get the reference the notes were a tribute to a book both Clay and I loved as a kid.

Last night Clay and I were getting ready for bed when he finished his "go to bed routine" before I did. While I'm still brushing my teeth he "steals" my pillow. (It is an on-going joke that we steal each others pillows.) The conversation proceeded as follows:

Clay: Oh look at the "extra" pillows
Shyla: Leave my pillows ALONE!
Clay: But they are "our" pillows: you own half and I own half
Shyla: You may have legal title in the pillows but you do not have a possessory interest in my pillows
Clay: Yes I have an interest in possessing your pillow
Shyla: (dies laughing and cannot come up with a witty response)

Yes law school has officially taken over every aspect of our lives.

So I almost didn't go on vacation AGAIN! Clay and I were supposed to meet our good friends Sarah and Jonathan and Shelley and Travis in Shreveport for a get together. Shelley and Sarah were my college roommates and we try to stay in touch and get together every year. Last year was unsuccessful since they both had babies and it was just too much to travel with little ones. Consequently this year it was very important that we get to see each other. Enter hurricane Ike!

Unfortunately for all of our planning we could not control the weather. Amid stories of bad weather and feared gasoline shortages we decided that caution was the better part of valor and decided to reschedule for sometime in October. (Let's just pray that there isn't a earthquake.)

To make matters worse Clay was feeling guilty since I had now missed somewhere in the neighborhood of 9 vacations this year (see prior post) and he wasn't about to let that happen. Since we were already packed up and ready to go with Nikki scheduled to stay at the house he figured we might as well head out of town. So we went to Tulsa and had a wonderfully romantic get away at a bed and breakfast (which Clay would like me to note included the best breakfast with fresh orange juice and quiche). We had dinner at a great jazz club/restaurant. Then we spent today at the Oklahoma Aquarium with the sharks and stingrays (who apparently jump up out of the water when they think you're going to feed them)! So what started out as a nearly failed vacation turned into an excellent romantic get away.

P.S. Shelley called and apparently they have been without water and electricity all day. They are doing okay but it look like we made a wise decision in not going to Shreveport. Please say a prayer for all of those affected by hurricane Ike.

Sometimes I wonder if our stuff controls us or if we control our stuff. Take for instance my new car. It came with an auxiliary jack for plugging in my iPod. I found this a necessary feature when I purchased my car even though I didn't own an iPod. I justified it by saying that I would probably own an iPod during the lifetime of this vehicle and therefore the auxilliary jack would be a "necessary" feature.

A few weeks later, my good friend Nicole happened to acquire an "extra" iPod which she offered to sell me since she already had one and didn't need this one. Great! I "needed" an iPod. Anyhow, the one she sold me was an iPod touch. So I went from having no iPod to having this crazy touch screen, scan the internet, organize my life, and incidently play music device. And, of course now, I'm addicted. The stinkin' thing has all sorts of functions and buttons and a new surprise around every turn. Goodbye homework... hello iPod!

I love the anniversary tradition Clay and I started in our first year. Actually Clay had no idea he was starting a tradition at the time. As everyone knows newly weds save a piece of their wedding cake top (or the whole thing) to be eaten on the 1 year anniversary. The question is "who wants to eat year-old cake?" Anyhow, Clay was being especially romantic so he had the same bakery recreate our cake top so we could have a bite of the old stuff but enjoy the good stuff. Consequently, every year we have gone back and had our cake top remade.

Another tradition is the toast. My dear friends Gene and Pati purchased our toasting goblets for our wedding on the condition we would toast our marriage every year. So of course we do!

YEAH tradition!!

I believe that at least once a day everyone should have a good belly laugh. One of the places I go when I need a good giggle is to this web site where a lady shows some of the greatest failures in cake making history!

Specifically my favorite entry is this one. Read the story I promise you'll laugh!

Sing it with me...

Happy birthday to YOU!
Happy birthday to YOU!
Happy birthday dear CLAYTON!
Happy birthday to YOU!!!
and many more

My childhood has just been shattered! When I was growing up my family often did "sing-a-long" while we drove down the road. My parents liked to sing and it kept Alyson and I from fighting (mostly) so we sang silly songs. One of those songs was the ticky tacky song. As a kid I never really paid attention to the lyrics but to this day I remember all the words.

The other day I was listening to one of the local radio stations and the topic of the afternoon was favorite TV theme songs or jingles. Callers would say which song they hadn't heard in a while and the radio station would pull it up from YouTube and play it. So this one lady calls in and requests the theme song from "Weeds" and what do you know but they play the ticky tacky song I knew as a kid.

I had never heard of "Weeds" so I figured I would research this show that used one of my favorite childhood songs. YEAH it's about a suburban mom who sells marijuana! WHAT?!?! I thought this was an innocent song about ticky tacky (whatever that is) not about the illegal drug market. What were my parents thinking?!?!

Anyhow, for those of you who are interested, here is the now infamous ticky tacky song.

We finally settled with the insurance on the old Jetta. While it was sad to part with that car we went and bought a NEW Jetta today. It even has that new car smell!

I love the Olympics. Clay and I always watch WAY too much television during the Olympics because there are so many neat events to see. Furthermore, the Olympics provides me with a great opportunity to show Clay how great I could have been at certain sports. For example, during the last winter Olympics we have some great shots (that will never be seen in public) of me displaying my figure skating talent.

Anyhow, last night before going to bed I decided that I would practice my Olympic sports for this year. I have selected this high jump which consists of running from the living room into the bedroom and taking a flying leap before landing on the bed. I am VERY good at this sport. I also decided I would brush up on my boxing skills which requires using Clay's pillow as a punching bag. Clay is less than thrilled about my Olympic boxing experience. So we'll see how short lived my Olympic career will be this summer.

In other news, Clay is continuing to get better. Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers during this time. We still haven't settled on the car so it will be a few more days before we buy a new car. And (sadly) only a little over a week before school starts again!

I thought I would follow up the last blog with a bit of an update. We are slowly working through the process of insurance and physical therapy. Clay is well but he still has his good and bad days and has missed this whole week of work. We'll just wait and see how next week goes. We've also been doing a bit of car shopping but it's hard to know what to do until we get the insurance stuff worked out. All in all this has been a big headache. But we are thankful that things are slowly starting to work themselves out.

In other poopy news Clay and I had to cancel our vacation to Mexico next week. Clay is just not well enough to travel so I guess we won't get to lay on the beach drinking fizzy lifting drinks :(. Maybe next year.

** For those of you who are counting, if you consider the fact that I missed a wedding and can't go to Mexico then factor in my early summer problems I have officially NOT gone on 5 vacations this summer.

This weekend Clay was in a pretty scary car wreck. He was hit from behind on the highway while coming to a stop near an earlier wreck. Praise God Clay walked away and we are continuing to assess any ongoing health concerns. However, I had to say goodbye to my baby car.

When I graduated from college I was really ready for a new car since I had spent my college days in an ever so stylish 1992 Ford Taurus. So once I got a job I bought my dream car a 2002 VW Jetta. This little car was great. Great gas mileage, lots of fun to drive and so much more.

Lucky for Clay he was driving the Jetta at the time of the wreck. I had taken the Alero to a friend's wedding in Missouri. Unfortunately the wreck happened before I got to the wedding and I had to turn around and come home (sorry Jessica). But the lucky part is that the Jetta is a tank! As Clay put it, my little tank saved his life. While we don't have official word on anything yet we're pretty sure the car is totaled.

Goodbye Jetta! We will miss you.





Praise God Clay is safe. However, now I have to go new care shopping. I was not previously in the market for a new car so I'm having a hard time getting geared up for this. But I'm sure in the next week or so I will be excited and find something great which I will share with my blogging friends. In the meantime we appreciate everyone's thoughts and prayers for Clay's continued recovery.

I have been somewhat frustrated during my blogging experience that I couldn't figure out how to link my blog to other blogs of friends I enjoy reading. When my sister started her blog I asked her how she set it up and she said she kind of stumbled onto it. However, today when I found out that my friend Xela (one of the least technical people in the world) knew how to link her blog to other blogs I was determined! So now you will notice the great new look with hyper links to blogs I read. I feel empowered by this new found ability. Who knows what I'll learn tomorrow! Maybe I'll finally learn how to do a picture on the top???

Some coincidences in life just can't be a coincidence. This summer I was supposed to be in the Louisiana land department at the company I am interning for, however, on the first day of my summer internship I was told I would be working in the Wyoming land district. I was thrilled because, for those who don't know, I'm from Wyoming. This of course made my work incredibly personal. Furthermore, to satisfy my internship requirements I HAD to go on a business trip so they sent me to Wyoming. I went to Casper, and while it is not my home town of Green River, I got to catch up with some old friends. It was so much fun. Anyhow, here are a few pics of my trip (most of them taken while driving down the road). I didn't get pics of all the friends I visited so sorry if you didn't make the post.