Ponzi Schemer

My family has an old friend named Shawn Merriman. Our dad was his scoutmaster in high school, and he joined the church when he & my brother Brian were about 16. We've visited him & his wife Andrea in Colorado where they've lived a very posh lifestyle. About a year ago, he revealed to Andrea and their four kids that he'd been running a multi-million-dollar Ponzi scheme for the past 17 years (here's a news article). As you can imagine, this has been devastating to their family - not to mention all his victims. But Andrea has handled it beautifully. Miracles began to happen for her as she moved herself and her four kids (and little else - they were left with nothing since everything was seized by the gov't) to Orem, Utah, where she was handed a house and a Public Relations job.

Brian and his son Jordan were in town in March, and we got to go to dinner with Andrea and hear all about her last year, plus more details of Shawn's actions. We had a lot of fun, though the news she shared was SO shocking!

She has started a blog recently to document her story. I just know it will lead to a book deal and she'll soon be on Oprah and famous!! HAHA. She's an great writer and can really tell a story. It's fascinating and gaining popularity like crazy. On her fourth day posting, she had 800+ hits on her blog!!! Lots of curious readers!

It was great having Brian & Jordan here for a few days and getting to spend lots of time with them. Jordan was participating in a Ballroom Dance competition at BYU, so we got to go watch his team perform. Very talented kids!!

Dinners with Friends

One week in February, in particular, was filled with dinners with friends. Ollie's birthday dinner was first, followed by karaoke at Mark's afterwards. So fun to see Ollie & Renee and their lil Baby Jet.
I have a friend (Rebecca) serving in the Peace Corps in China who was visiting Utah, and we got to have a great evening together. I feel pretty cool knowing someone like her.

My old friend from UVSC, Deb Thornton, and I got together after having little-to-no communication for a couple years. She'd lost her mom a year earlier, and it meant so much to her to get together and catch up. Again...lucky to know someone like Deb.

We got to go on a triple date with the McElwees (+ Sydney) and the Vladimiroffs for sushi. Great fun to catch up w/ Shauna & Rob, who live in Sun Valley, Idaho.

Ear Candles

**** Disclaimer ****
Some may find this post disgusting, inaccurate, or offensive.

Years ago, I discovered ear candles, a slick way of getting wax out of my ears and thus improving my hearing. I think it's pretty fascinating and just plain good hygiene. Here's how it works: you need an assistant - especially since you're dealing with fire. Cut a hole in a paper plate, then put the ear candle through it. (This way, the plate catches any burnt candle, as opposed to fire falling onto your hair -- NOT good.) Position the pointy end of the ear candle into your ear, tightly. Light the ear candle at the far end and lay perfectly still on your side, as shown below.

As the candle burns, it creates a suction effect that pulls the wax from your ear canal. Once an inch or two has burned, have your assistant clip the candle and let it fall into a bowl of water. Once it burns down to a safe distance from the plate, extinguish the candle. Then comes the FUN part! Unravel the candle at the pointy tip to reveal the wax that has turned into a powdery, claylike substance. It's really fascinating!

Ear candles can be purchased for just a few dollars at your local health food store. Love 'em!

Note: After reading about Ear Candles on Wikipedia, scientists argue their effectiveness. Any thoughts? Experiences?

Valentine's Weekend O' Fun

Valentine's Weekend was pretty fun. On Friday, we went to a concert at the Desert Star in Murray with Shaunna & Keith. Shaun Barrowes performed, who we'd seen a few other times, and the concert included a pretty decent dinner buffet.

Saturday, Jeremy & I went to one of our favorite restaurants, Indochine, where they were celebrating the Chinese New Year with a dragon dance. Then we went and saw the Valentine's Day movie, which I really enjoyed. Great cast, lots of little vignettes.

Here are the beautiful roses that Jeremy gave me. Ahhhhh, what a sweetie!

On Sunday, our friend Mark invited us and a few others over for dinner - Mexican Fiesta style. This is Mark, wearing one of the best shirts I've seen.

Weekend in St. George

The month of January ended with a fun weekend in St. George. Kristin & Michael bought a house in St George, so Jeremy and I wanted to go down and help them with some renovation/cleaning/painting or whatever they'd let us do. We ended up doing a little moving and cleaning and not much else that was helpful. They had already done a lot and weren't quite ready to start new projects. So, we got to take a couple of naps, go out to a few nice meals, spend time w/ their adorable children, and enjoy a very inspiring church experience at their ward:
A man with Down Syndrome sang a duet w/ a woman, "I'm Trying to Be Like Jesus." It was one of the most amazing things I've ever witnessed. I can't describe how I felt. The innocent, eager, sincere look on his face as he sang those words was just so inspiring to me. I don't know how his singing partner kept it together. I just bawled through the entire song. Two young men, both with severe physical disabilities, also reported on their recently completed 1-year long service missions. Both had such positive attitudes about their limitations and it seemed their testimonies were shaped by their circumstances. The second speaker said he was born without femur bones, or essentially, without legs. I wish I could've met him or seen what his lower half looked like to exactly. One thing he related to us was the conversation that may have taken place in the pre-existence as he begged to come to earth. "Let me go! Give me no legs - heck, throw in some acne, I don't care! Just let me go!" Everyone laughed at this, since it was apparent that he had some acne scars. What a great attitude. Wow. He also said "I love myself. I love who I am." I think those of us with complete bodies have an extremely hard time loving ourselves and our bodies, so I was quite impressed w/ his perspective.

We enjoyed the kids and took lots of pictures - especially of Ellie, since she is less mobile than Carter! No two pictures were the same - she has so many different faces - it prompted me to create "The Many Faces of Ellie." Such a cutie!!

For more pictures, see my Gallery.

January's over already??

I know I say it all the time... Time is flying by much too fast for my taste. January was busy and, looking at my calendar, filled with dinners w/ friends and family members, which are always fun. Here are my highlights!

- An enjoyable dinner at the Jordan River Temple cafeteria with my friend Kim
- Meeting our friend Ollie & Renee's new baby Juliet ("Baby Jet") - Jeremy's stepmom Brenda's birthday dinner at Matt & Britton's
- Dinner at Cheesecake Factory with my old friend Sheri (former mission companion, now mom of 3 in Heber) - Dinner at Jeremy's mom's (Workmans) - always healthy & scrumdili-icious!!
- A nice day off to honor MLK with a lounging day with my sister and a visit to Park City with Jeremy
- Dinner at PFChang's with my friend & co-worker Kristin McQuivey to celebrate her birthday - A gourmet, homemade dinner with the other RS Presidency and both EQ Presidencies, prepared by the men. Impressive!
- Dinner and a movie (Leap Year) with my friend Melanie
- A lovely steak Sunday dinner at cousin Scott & Shannon's - so fun to chat w/ them for hours
- A fun birthday get-together to celebrate my friend Amy's birthday
- Dinner as a RS Presidency at our new bishop's house to get to know him & his wife - such a yummy dinner, I snagged all her recipes in their recently published recipe book! Excited to try some delicious menu items! Thanks, Sally!

Happy New Year!

It was so nice to have two 4-day weekends off of work in a row, though I ended up working a bit New Year's Day (while I watched a movie, so not too bad). I've been sort of burned out w/ work since we've been so busy with documenting a huge project. It'll be nice when that is done - if it's ever really considered done.
Anyway, for NYE, I got to spend the morning with Shaunna while Keith worked a half-day before they left for Logan. We watched Julie & Julia together and it was delightful! For the evening's festivities, Jeremy and I met his friends and their wives at Buca di Peppo for a yummy Italian meal. Then we went to his sister Angie's place and played games w/ his two sisters & cousin and their significant others.
NY Day was a nice, lazy day of movie watching, then Jeremy picked me up and we met his dad & his wife Brendy, her kids and their families at the Spaghetti Factory at Trolley Square. It was great fun, and we did an impromptu photo shoot afterwards on Santa's sleigh. Good times...

Christmas and stuff

December flew by even faster than November. What's the deal with that? One highlight, before the holidays kicked into gear, was doubling w/ my cousin Angie & her hubby Anthony. We went to one of our favorite restaurants, Cafe Med and talked & laughed for hours. Love you guys! We need to do this stuff more often! Anthony is training to be a super-cool helicopter pilot, and Angie is a very successful and talented photographer. Check out her website to view her fabulous work!
It was fun to spend some time w/ Jeremy's family and my family as we celebrated the season. For pictures of the holidays, see my latest postings on my Picaso Web Gallery.
Since buying and decorating my house, I've had a few needs for a sewing machine. Shaunna has loaned me hers and helped me to sew curtains for my bedroom and also some pillows. So a year or two ago, I put a sewing machine on my Amazon Wish List and then forgot about it. Fast-forward to this Christmas, and Jeremy's dad & his wife Brenda were trying to figure out what to get me for Christmas. Jeremy had seen my wish list and suggested to them a sewing machine, which they got pretty excited about. They would never buy “just the basic, standard model” though! They got me a fancy sewing machine w/ 80 different stitches! SO generous! Then Betty – knowing I didn’t own a sewing machine and not knowing about the Willeys gift – gave me a sewing manual and a super nice sewing kit for Christmas!! Somebody up there wants me to SEW! I'm pretty sure my Mom orchestrated the whole thing from Heaven.
Brittany & her family came to town after Christmas and she got to spend a fun 24 hours with me at my place. Unfortunately I had to work during the day, but we still managed to have some fun. We did some shopping, ate at Wingers, and drove around (slowly) in the beautifully falling snow! We love the snow!!

Thanksgiving and Birthday Karaoke Jam

It was lovely to have four days off to celebrate Thanksgiving and my birthday. For Thanksgiving, Jeremy & I spent the day at his mom's. The food at the Workman household is always dee-LISH and we played a marathon game of Phase 10. Woah, seriously? 4 hours? :)

After the game, we watched Christmas Vacation at Jeremy's dad's place. It's an annual tradition. The next day was my birthday. I made it a goal to be ultra-productive and get lots of my "to-do's" done - which I did. Jeremy (and Mara - thanks for the gift card!!) took me to dinner at The Cheesecake Factory, and then we went to our friend Mark's place where a bunch of my friends gathered for karaoke. It's always a good time at Mark's. Thanks to everyone who was able to come! I wish I would've thought to pull out my camera before the majority was gone, but oh well. Here's what I got.

November's here already?

November just fleeeeeewwww by! It's crazy how fast time flies by with each passing year. Lots of birthdays to celebrate this month, including MINE. Stephanie's came first, and we celebrated at one of our favorite spots, Indochine Vietnamese Bistro. Here is the adorable McElwee family:

My birthday got stretched out at least a week, since my sister Shaunna & Keith left for Italy on the 21st. So we celebrated early by going to the Cheesecake Factory. Shaunna & Betty presented me with this awesome t-shirt quilt that I'd requested months ago. I was so surprised - I didn't expect it til Christmas! It's the coolest. I've numbered each square below so I can give the background on each nostalgic t-shirt.

1- These are some of my favorite flannel pants - little dogs and bones.

2- Just a fun t-shirt "Sunny California" to commemorate my mission.

3- One of my favorite most comfortable t-shirts - no idea if this school exists, but it's orange!

4- Oakley Networks - where I worked from '05-'06 and still have many friends.

5- My VH-1 I Love the 80s shirt.

6- Wells Fargo Health Benefit Services - where I've worked for three years today!

7- A t-shirt Shaunna made me after we attended our "dream show" of Chess in Concert with Josh Groban, Adam Pascal, Sutton Foster, Julie M..., and Carl Lewis. NYC '03. Seriously, one of the best shows I've ever been to!!

8- Claude Monet's gardens - Shaunna & I visited Monet's home in France while I was in London, studying abroad.

9- Parting gift from one of Mark Holt's fabulous birthday parties.

10- Jekyll & Hyde, my favorite musical ever!

11- Kawarau Bridge Bungy - where I jumped for my 32nd birthday in Queenstown, New Zealand.

12- A t-shirt from one of my visits to beautiful Edinburgh, Scotland.

13- New York City, baby!

14- My first visit to Chicago - it's my kinda town!

15- See #16

16- My t-shirt from the fifth grade. I was in a 89ers "club" with a bunch of awesome girls. We've recently reconnected on Facebook and old pictures of me wearing this shirt were shared. Awesome!

17- The Civil War, from the first production that my mom, Shaunna, and I attended in '98. Great memories from that weekend with mom.

18- The backside of #17.

19- A t-shirt my friend Shauna gave me: MY SUPERPOWER IS SHOPPING. She knows me well. Actually, you hardly have to know me to know that.

20- A pajama top from one of many given at Brown Christmas by the illustrious Betty!

21- One of my favorite t-shirts from my skinnier days. New York rules!

22- The back of #6, listing all the departments in my division at Wells Fargo HBS.

Here is the back of the quilt. Also used are old, worn flannel pants and old jeans I can no longer squeeze into. I hope you like it! Good luck finding someone to make you one! (I'm SO lucky!)