Oh what a year it has been!

Since I'm bad about sending out the annual Christmas card (I've never done it) I figured I would do the Dwyer 2009 summary in my blog. Clay and I had a wonderful year filled with some interesting challenges and amazing blessings. So here we go!

January - Clay and I spent last Christmas in Montana with my folks. Unfortunately Clay had a little run in with the moguls and tore his ACL so January was spent preparing for surgery. I also started my last semester of law school! However, our greatest blessing was finding a new church home and making some great new friends!

February - Clay had his surgery but not until we got to see our favorite comedian, Bryan Reagan, in concert. The show was awesome! Clay's surgery was very successful but it made for a challenging month because he spent 6 weeks on crutches and couldn't drive.

You can tell he's thrilled!

March - We had a huge windstorm which blew down our fence. Since Clay was stilled laid up we called in the cavalry and my uncles helped fix the fence. Thanks again Uncle Don and Uncle Dean!

April - I had my 29th birthday so I am now as old as I'll ever get! I spent my time enjoying the last month of being a student (maybe forever) and preparing for my last finals!!! Clay finished rehab and got back on his feet (literally)!

May - I graduated from law school and was blessed to have lots of friends and family come to celebrate. My folks, Amanda, and Gene and Pati came from the far off reaches of the northwest to help celebrate. Plus lots of friends came over to the house from around the city to enjoy a great dessert reception! SO MUCH FUN!!! Also later that month we were bless to have my grandparents stop by for a visit as well as my sister's family. So much fun!


June - All I can say is BAR PREP! I spent the month working part time and studying for the bar full time! Clay was a trooper and did a summer class and helped out as much as he could. Unfortunately there's not a lot a person can do to help someone who is freaking out!

July - THE BAR!!! July 28th I took the bar! While it was scary I was mostly glad to have it over with. I think Clay will join me in saying that I NEVER want to go through that again. Clay helped out a ton by cooking for the study group and trying to keep us all from complete panic and melt down. Thanks Clay!!!

Everything you need to know for the bar!

August - August was a BIG month! I rejoined the workforce and again became a full time contributor to the gross national product! YEAH ME! I love my job and have been very blessed. Also Clay celebrated another birthday by fishing in Canada with my dad. (If you want to hear some tall tales... I mean fishing stories just ask!) Clay and I also celebrated 5 years of marriage. I love you honey!


September - Clay's work took him to Winnipeg where he got to spend time with his family. (Hi Ally, Rick, Aiden, Drew & Rhys!) I found out that I passed the bar and was sworn in as a member of the Oklahoma Bar Association. (Yes I'm now a licensed attorney :)!)


October - Clay had to return to Canada for work (this time Calgary) so I took up my latest sport - rowing! I had a great time in my learn to row class and found my new favorite activity :)!

November - While Clay was still in Canada I went to visit him in Banff! We had a wonderful time staying in a castle and exploring the Canadian rockies. We also participated in our favorite Thanksgiving tradition - overindulging and Ellen and Phillip's house :)!


December - As we wound down the year Clay was back in town and we spent a great deal of time with friends at different holiday functions!

Clay and I have been truly blessed this year! We hope 2010 brings even more adventures to the Dwyer household. We hope to be able to visit many of you in the coming year and as always if you find yourself in good ol' OKC please stop by we'd love to see you. God bless and Happy New Year!

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas

Apparently Oklahoma hasn't had a white Christmas in around 50 years. Today is going to change that. Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow!








At 4pm the airport had reported 10 inches of snow in OKC and every major highway and road was shut down.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Rowing

I haven't posted in a while so I thought I would update on my rowing. I've learned a lot about this sport over the last few months which has been a lot of fun. It's not very often I get the chance to be immersed in a completely new activity.

Today I did my first 20 minute Erg test. The Erg is the real name for the rowing machine that typically sits lifeless in a gym because most people don't know how to use it. However, the Erg is interesting because you can get a cardio and strength workout simultaneously. Bottom line, if you use the machine properly it will kick your butt!

Anyhow, back to the test. The goal was to Erg as fast and hard as you could and be able to maintain that pace for 20 minutes. Since I didn't know what I should be aiming for my coach suggested I try to keep a 2:22 split. That means I can row 500m in 2 minutes and 22 seconds. Halfway through my piece my coach asked how it felt and based on my reaction she had me step it up to a 2:20 split.

The workout was really hard but my problem has been I don't know what's "good". So I cornered my coach and what I learned today will really help. To compare rowing to running I know I can run a 9:30 mile and keep that pace forever. I may not be fast compared to other people but I know if I'm going to run a distance race that's the pace I will set for myself because I'll be able to finish and have kept my pace the whole race. Today's Erg test was designed to find my "9:30 mile pace" for rowing. Right now my pace is about a 2:21 meaning I can row that pace for as long as I need to.

Now the next question is if this is a "good" pace. Apparently female rowers who are Olympians or who are at the top colleges on scholarship will have a flat 2 minutes or below split time. So, as in running, I'm not fast but I do know that I can keep my pace for a long time. And now I have an idea of what kind of time I should be shooting for when I take my next 20 minute Erg test.

Sorry it was a boring post. I promise to have something more interesting soon!

Pics

For all of you dying to see the new living room and dining room here ya go!

Chocolate brown yumminess!

I felt brave going for blue in the kitchen but I really love how it turned out.


(Another angle)
I ended the blue at the dining room so it wasn't too overwhelming.

Much ado about nothing

Today I rowed in my first rowing race! (Sorry no pictures) I'm not sure how well I did because times won't be posted until Monday but I had a lot of fun. Since I'm a novice I only raced a 2K (the "big kids" got to race a 4K) but I was surprised how much work it was. I've been working out a lot at the boathouse which I think did a lot to prepare me for the race but I can tell I still have a long way to go before I'm ready to compete with the next level of rowers.

In other news I re-painted my kitchen this weekend. Long story short, I was really sick of my living room and kitchen. I had a red wall in the living room and the kitchen was done in a gold-ish color. I had painted before law school and as part of the purging process all of this had to go! So I did what any sane person does I looked through the Pottery Barn catalog to see what's new. I fell in love with the chocolate brown and steel blue color combination. However since no one can afford Pottery Barn accessories I decided to see if I could duplicate the colors at Target. Of course I was successful! I then painted my red wall chocolate brown which meant my gold-ish wall no longer "went" with the decor. Now I had a problem. I had no idea what I wanted in the kitchen but since I have an open floor plan I had to do something. Consequently I pulled in the neutral tan that I had throughout the living room into the kitchen. I HATED IT!!! As Clay sait it made the whole house look small. So this weekend I fixed it and now I have a blue kitchen. It's MUCH better. However you will have to hang on for pictures because I'm not done decorating so it looks a bit sparse.

'Til next time :)!

Oh Canada!

As many of you know Clay has been spending a lot of time working in Canada lately (and will be for the foreseeable future). Luckily Clay works for a generous company who allows one of us to travel to see the other every other week. A couple of weeks ago I went up to Canada to see him (yes I realize I am WAY behind on blogging). We spent the weekend in Banff at the most amazing resort ever!

Instead of spending the weekend in Calagary Clay decided we should go up to Banff which is a lot like Jackson Hole, Wyoming and is a gateway to the Canadian Rocky Mountains. Having grown up around the Rockies my whole life I was amazed how much more rugged the Canadian Rockies are. We drove up Saturday morning which was snowy and raingy to first visit Lake Louise which is this picturesque glacial lake. Luckily I did pack my ski jacket, hat, and gloves. But even with all of that we could only stand to stay out for a few minutes because the wind was blowing so fast off the glacier and across the lake I could barely stand up!

Me attempting to stand up in the wind.
(And yes, that is the color of the water!)

After nearly freezing to death we decided it was time for lunch at the Chateau Lake Louise which was really wonderful. After lunch the wind had calmed down a bit and we took our chances at a normal looking picture.

Not sure I look normal in my goofy ski hat, but Clay looks handsome!

We stayed at the Banff Spring Hotel (if you ever visit Banff you MUST stay here) which is a 5 star resort. At first we had planned to just drop off our luggage and head down to Banff but after discovering I was staying in a Castle we spent most of the afternoon exploring our awesome digs!

An upclose of the castle (we really couldn't do the building justice).

Clay really spoiled me with a massage at the spa. It wasn't just a massage though it was the whole spa experience complete with mineral pools, relaxation room, sauna, hot tubs, steam room, and of course "purification water" which was sliced cucumber and basil (YUM!)! The massage was amazing and I loved the spa experience. I even told my massuese I suggest she buy a castle with a mineral pool. She just laughed at me.

While I relaxed in the spa Clay had a swim at their Olympic size salt water pool (which he loved) and then we had dinner at their Italian restaruant. All I can say is they frown on licking your plate at 5 star restaurants otherwise I would have licked my plate. AMAZING!! The best part was the dessert (okay just one of the best parts) which was ice cream truffles. Yeah they were good :)!

Finally Sunday we did find time to explore Banff which was a wonderful little town with neat shops. If you ever get a chance I highly recommend visiting. The weekend was really special and I was glad to see Clay. Right now we are lucky that he gets to spend some time at home which we are enjoying. So with that I shall leave you with the breath taking scenery!

The view from our room. (We had a "cheap" view)

From the highway during our dreary Saturday drive.



This is Cascade Mountain which was one of my favorite views

The drive home on Sunday was partly cloudy which made for some amazing views. This picture really doesn't do the mountains justice. Imagine this about a zillion times cooler!

Sunny Days

Sweeping all the clouds away!
On my way to where the air is clean!
Can you tell me how to get ...
How to get to Sesame Street!

If you haven't googled this week you're missing some adorable headers. I can't seem to find a link to all of google's headers but they are celebrating Sesame Street's 40th anniversary and if your childhood was anything like mine Sesame Street was a big part of it.

Today's post was brought to you by the letter "Q" and the number "3"!

UPDATE: Here is the link to all of google's Sesame Street Logos. Enjoy!

Editorial

I would encourage everyone to read my sister's post from yesterday titled "In the beginning." I couldn't agree more.

PS. I just got back from Canada and plan to have a real post of my own sometime soon :)!

Whole lot goin' on

So I've neglected my blog for several weeks now but I swear I have a good excuse! Okay I have no excuse but I will try to be better.

In the big news Clay has been gone for several weeks. I am trying not to count how long because that is just depressing. Last weekend was his weekend home which turned into a whole fiasco. He flew from Calgary to Houston to OKC. There had been a big storm in Houston which had backlogged all of the flights. Technically he made it to Houston in time but with the backlog his seat was given to someone in standby. He ended up spending the night in Houston and the airline couldn't get him to OKC so he flew to Dallas and I made a quick trip to go get him Saturday morning. By quick I mean I drove to Dallas, picked him up from the airport, got gas, hit a drive through for some lunch and drove back to OKC. Sadly Clay's time at home was about 36 hours total because he flew out again Monday morning :(.

To keep myself occupied with all of my newly discovered free time I've taken up a new sport. I decided to learn to row. Oklahoma City has a boathouse that offers lessons to those who want to learn to row and I am really enjoying the new sport. It's a lot more complicated than it looks but I like that it's a style sport that you can participate in your whole life. After years of running and soccer my knees are spent so I was looking for something low impact that would keep me in great shape. Also I was really getting bored with running and needed something with a different challenge. Rowing seems to fit the bill. So goodbye running and hello rowing!

Other than that things are going well. Fall has definitely arrived with a vengence. (I'm already sick of the cold weather.) I will get to visit Clay in Calgary over Halloween weekend. Even though I hate cold weather I have decided to fully embrace my time in Canada and Clay and I are going to try and find opportunities to go skiing, snow mobiling, cross-country skiing, and maybe even try snow shoeing! For the true Canadian experience I may even ask to try curling! We'll see how that goes.

'Til next time...

Purging Law School

While Clay was packing and getting ready to go on an extended work trip to Calgary, I spent some time purging law school. I had been meaning to do this for a while but it seemed appropriate now that I know the experience is over. One law school experience I wrote about several times was the now infamous note card writing during finals. I kept all of my note cards I wrote. I'm not sure why. I suppose some part of me feared I would have to retake the class and those note cards may come in handy yet again. Some other part of me just can't stand to throw away that much time and effort. So today while I was packing up and putting away I took some pictures of my note cards.

The pile

The front right is an unused stack of 100 notecards, just to give you some perspecitve!

And just to show you how Type A I am, here they are laid out by class in order. The ones on the left are the bar review note cards.

Sworn In

And no dad, not sworn at.

Today I was sworn in to the Supreme Court of the State of Oklahoma. That sounds official, doesn't it? Anyhow, I'm sure all of you (mom) wanted to hear me take the oath, so here it is. Sorry the picture is jumpy, Clay only had my little point and click to work with because we weren't sure that cameras would be allowed.




Anyhow, here is a pic of me and a few of my girls after the ceremony. We had a great time and I was definitely blessed to make some wonderful friends during my law school journey.

Kelly, Nicole, Me, Jessica

A million miles a minute!

Sometimes life goes a million miles a minute and I don't know why. This has been the case the last few weeks. While I have pictures and stories to share I'll just stick with the highlights. Everyone said once law school and the bar was over things will slow down. They sure didn't for me!

First of all I forgot to blog about Clay's birthday in August! Yeah that's right I'm a horrible wife, and while I did remember to throw him a little get together I just forgot to mention it on the blog. So WAY happy late birthday honey!

I did however, manage to blog about our anniversary which was a lot of fun. And Clay did get on and tell about his fishing trip so that was good. However, I didn't mention Clay has been back in Canada for work the past couple of weeks. He got to visit his family and spend some quality time with his nephews. So if life ever slows down we'll get some pics posted.

Finally, last but certainly not least, I passed the bar! Whoopee! I'm sure that my loyal readers (both of you) already knew this but I just had to post it for all to see. Next week I'm sworn in and at that time I will require all of my friends to refer to me as "Counselor." (j/k) But I'm very glad that chapter of my life is through and am now working on getting caught up from putting all of my projects on hold for 3 years!

The BIG 5!

So it's true folks, as of last Friday (8/28) Clay and I have been married for 5 years. And believe it or not we love each other more now than we did 5 years ago. For our anniversary Clay and I went to Tulsa to our favorite bed and breakfast.



Friday night we had dinner at this awesome little restaurant in Tulsa called The Palace Cafe. I had a yummy dinner and the presentation was to die for.

(Yeah I wore my graduation outfit again!)

Saturday morning Clay surprised me and had my masseuse, Julie, drive from OKC to Tulsa for a nice relaxation massage. (He got serious husband points for that surprise!) Then we went for a hot air balloon ride. The story of the balloon ride is long and crazy, but the bottom line it was an incredible experience and I would highly recommend everyone go on a ride if you get the chance. Here are a few of my favorite shots from the ride.

Our reflection as we passed over a little pond.

There was a hobby group of balloonist there and we launched with about 8 or so other balloons. Here they are getting ready to take off.

And here we are back safe & sound on the ground!

I love you Clay! I can't wait to spend many more years and have many more adventures with you!

Guest Blogger

Hello It's Clay,
Shyla helped me post about my fishin trip to Canada. For the most part we practiced the art of catch-and-release whereby you:

1. Torture the fish with a hook
   
2. Haul it out of its natural environment
3. Measure and document the experience
   
4. Set it free to start the process all over again

Bruce assured me this was ok since God instructed us to "subdue his creatures". It rained for 6 of the 7 days oddly enough we didn't notice until the fishing wasn't so good in the sun so we wished it were raining again. We each grew some sad looking beards but were happy to look scruffy just the same.

One of Bruce's subdued Creatures

If you know Bruce he is a hobby magician, he amazed our guide with a coin trick then pulled out perhaps his most impressive feat yet, check out this picture as he went for a stroll.

Bruce walks on water

One of many bald eagles

The trip was very successful we each caught fish larger than 30 inches long the largest of which was a 35 inches in length, for perspective the fish Bruce is holding above is about 21 inches. I did manage to get a few fingers cut up from a fish bite, apparently he wasn't following the subdued fish guideline. One finger was a nice black color afterward but it has since healed. I can't wait to do it all again.

Guest Blogger,
Clay

GNP

Well I am officially supporting the GNP again as I am back to working full time. I'm really glad to get back into a routine after the bar. I am also glad to be working where I do. They really provide some amazing benefits. One of those benefits is a fitness center where I have committed to working out at least 4 times a week over my lunch. I've decided I need to shed the law school/bar weight and get back in shape. I also have a girl I work with who has committed to being my workout buddy so that has been very motivation.

Anyhow, last week was my first full week back and Amber and I were going full speed ahead. On Wednesday she decided it would be a lot of fun to do a spin class. I had never done spin and I had heard it was good exercise so I thought "what the heck" and off we went. There was a substitute teacher and it was HARD! We climbed "hills", we raced down "mountains", we did squats while riding the bike. However, I was able to do the whole workout so I thought I was pretty tough.

So Friday Amber had a family emergency and I decided to conquer spin again all on my own. This time the normal teacher was there and besides me there was only one other student. The other student was a man who, from what I gathered, spins all the time and actually rides real bikes that go places. So the teacher and the other student were talking about what kind of workout he needed and he said he really needed to work hard and he wished the class was an hour because he needed a hard workout. Meanwhile I'm struggling to properly adjust my seat and handlebars. So we get going and we're going all out. We're madly climbing "hills" and racing back down. Then about 2/3 of the way through my legs are BURNING! I want to stop but since there is only me and super biker man in the class I can't stop. I have to show I'm tough enough. At the end of class I could hardly get my feet out of the pedal cups and stand up. Again the guy was talking to the teacher saying he could have gone another hour. The teacher asked how I was doing and for a split second I thought about lying. I didn't want to lose face. But then I had to confess that the workout kicked by butt. I seriously could barely stand.

Anyhow, welcome back to work!

P.S. My friend Becky posted a very thoughtful blog today with an article that you should read. Enjoy!

Bar Gifts

Did you know that you get gifts just for taking the bar? To get these wonderful gifts all you have to do is go to law school for 3 years and then spend the most miserable summer of your life cramming ridiculous amounts of information into your head and then sit through a 2 day exam. Sounds worth it doesn't it?!?!?

First of all my mommy and daddy sent some wonderful congratulations flowers for surviving the experience.

Ain't they purty!

Second my wonderful husband bought me the most addictive device on the planet.

Yeah for my new iPhone!!

Anyhow, I've spent a restful week recovering from the bar. Thanks for everyone's thoughts and phone calls. Man I've missed people. But I'll be back to work on Monday. I guess someone has to support the gross domestic product!

The Other Side

While studying for the bar my friends and I kept making reference to "the other side." We'll have fun "on the other side." We'll eat normally "on the other side." We'll watch TV "on the other side." Well I'm happy to report I am on "the other side."

Yes the bar was all of the horribleness it was supposed to be. We put in long days. There was crying and stress. At times we were pretty sure we could not remember one more rule of law. But the exam is over and now we wait. Results come out September 9th.

Thanks everyone for your support. A special thanks to my wonderful husband Clay for putting up with me not only through the bar but for the last 3 years of law school. You're the best Clay!

So now that I'm on the other side let's do something fun! Call me :)!

It's 3am

If the bar doesn't hurry up and get over with I fear I may never sleep through the night again.

Duck, Duck, GOOSE!

Looks like we have some new neighbors.

Apparently these guys like the neighborhood as well.

Whelmed

I know you can be overwhelmed and underwhelmed, but can you ever be just whelmed? - 10 Things I Hate About You

I think I'm officially whelmed.

T-30

That's right folks one month from today the bar will be over and I will be recovering from this fun little process. Please continue to keep me in your thoughts and prayers. I promise I'll be back to my normal, fun self shortly.

Final Grades ........ Finally

Today I received my final grades for law school and now it's official - I graduated! Good to know or that party would have been for nothing.

Now back to our regularly scheduled bar review studying.

The Best Selling Car

Good news folks. The best selling car in America is VERY environmentally friendly and affordable!

Photo Shoot

I just had to share this series of pictures of me and my best friend Amanda from graduation.


A: Which camera do we look at?
S: I don't know, I'm looking at Clay.
A: Ok I'll look at Clay.
S: Dang it I looked at mom.
S: How about we just look wherever we want.
**Cue uncontrollable laughter**
And we finally pulled it together.

You would think with the combined brain power of an associates degree, two bachelors degrees, one masters degree, and one juris doctor we could figure out which camera to look at! And that my friends is why we've been best friends since 7th grade.

Graduation Recap

This past weekend I graduated from law school. Here are a few of the highlights!

I got to wear an awesome outfit!

I also got to wear a goofy outfit!
(I just graduated!)

I got to hang out with my girls!
(Check out our cool shoes!)

My parents came in town

We hosted an awesome dessert reception!

Good friends came to visit

And more good friends dropped by the after party!

As well as some family

I have a ton more pics so if you didn't make it onto the blog I'm sorry. I had a wonderful time and now it's time to hit the books one more time!