Elder Lillywhite Goes to the MTC

Wednesday, October 31, otherwise known as Halloween 2007:

Josh said that he was putting on his Halloween costume and not taking it off for 2 years! ha ha I was baptized on Halloween, and now Josh goes into the MTC on Halloween. Luckily for him, I'd bought an orange tie for his birthday, so he was very festive on his first day! :)He'd been looking forward to this day for quite some time now. It is always an emotional overload at the MTC - happy, sad, excited, nervous, apprehensive, anxious, etc. Its fun to see so many Elders and Sisters preparing for the next phase of their lives though. And then there's the rest of us who are just goofing off in the meantime ...And what's a visit to the MTC without the last picture of the Lillywhite children together for the next two years ... rumor has it that there are a few people anxious to have this picture grow by 3 spouses while Josh is gone (maybe if we all pray really hard that miracle can happen)!It was really neat to all be together at the MTC experience on Wednesday. Ryan and Matt who were eager to tell stories of their time in the MTC every time we passed anything that they recognized or brought back memories. This is one of my favorite shots - I like to call it "how many hands does it take to put on a missionary name tag?"I held up pretty well until the very end when I looked around and saw everyone else in the room crying. Josh will be a great missionary though - Toronto will be lucky to have him in a couple weeks! Right after we left the MTC (but not before a run by the Creamery for some ice cream), we went straight to the airport and I flew back to Virginia. If I would have thought about that a little better, I probably wouldn't have scheduled it like that - it was a little hard on my mom to lose two kids in one day! Josh is in the right place though and I'll be back home soon :)

Ode to Cafe Rio

What's a trip to Utah without a trip to Cafe Rio? Or in my case, more than one trip? :) Its kind of a joke that the first place I want to go after I get off the plane is not home, but to Cafe Rio. I was able to go a couple times on my most recent trip ... I met Kelli there on Saturday shortly after I got into town. That pork salad has never tasted so good!!

Then on Tuesday, I met up with 3 of my best friends from high school and their kids at the Cafe Rio in Layton for another round of goodness! While I was standing in line, I ran into Christine's sister Stephanie - she was in town from CA for a day or two. Last time I saw her was at Macey's grocery store in Provo. She's my "we run into each other at the most random times" friend! It was sooo much fun to see and catch up with everyone ... Marianne and her darling Brigham & Maya, Josie with her cute Brian & Mackenzie, and Kristy with her precious little Rebecca. All the kids were so good and really good sports sitting there for so long while we talked. Its hard to believe so much time has passed since we were all running around Viewmont High School together! Thanks to Steph for taking a picture of all of us together ...

Cafe Rio and great friends ... you really can't beat that combination (at least I don't want to try)!

My Trip To UT: We Are Family!

I was able to go home last week for a few days for a very big event in the Lillywhite family - Josh was leaving on his misson. My baby brother. (Yeah, it makes me feel really old!) I flew in on Saturday morning and was able to be there for church on Sunday, for the flood of family & friends we had at our house afterward, and for the rest of the nonstop visitors the rest of the day. It was sooo great to be there and see everyone. I saw lots of family that I haven't seen for years (especially lots of cousins who have grown up so that I hardly recognize them anymore)! A few friends came into town to visit me as well, which was especially nice of them.

Monday Matt and I went to the Gateway to do some serious shopping for our family pictures, most of which we ended up not using. I met up with my friend Mike for lunch - he lives in CA and was in town for a couple days, so to continue the random relationship that we have in which we only see each other while we're on vacation, we had lunch. That night we all went to dinner together and just sat there and talked and laughed all night long.

Tuesday afternoon we had family pictures, which I haven't seen the final result yet. Here's one of the kids that my mom took on my camera right before we left:Then we went home to have dinner and change before we headed up to the Bountiful temple to together. What an awesome experience that was (after the sealer figured out that Ryan and I weren't married - to each other ha ha). It was just our family in the room, and it was the first time we've all been in the temple together. After that we went home for Josh to be set apart. It really couldn't have been a better last night all together - complete with Ryan and Matt having a heated Dr. Mario battle (they had no idea I was taking this picture, honestly).

It was the perfect trip home to Utah with my family. I couldn't ask for a better family, and I'm so glad I was able to be there for everything!!!

The Legwarmers Concert

My friend Dean LOVES the 80's more than anyone I know. He is a very loyal fan of an 80's cover band called The Legwarmers. He's told us about their concerts time and time again, and finally we decided that we'd all go to one to see what it was all about for ourselves.

Question: how can you go to an 80's concert without totally dressing up? Answer: you CAN'T!!

The nice thing (or the scary thing, depending on how you look at it) is that you can buy basically anything 80's at totally 'normal' stores now. I got my shirt & skirt at Kohl's (in the 80% off clearance section, even better!), and my leggings at H&M, and lots and lots of tacky costume jewelry. Add a little blue eye shadow, a ton of black mascera, bright pink lipstick, blush, and you're all set and ready for an 80's night out!

Jenny bought me a crimper. Even though my hair is short, I have a lot of it, and it took me about an hour to crimp my head. Rest assured though, that I even used Aqua Net hairspray to do it with (WHY they still sell that crap is beyond me?!?), and then pulled it up using one of the ponytail holders that Jenny bought for me - it was a "Sugar Daddy" branded one! She used the "Hot Tamales" one for herself ...

Unfortunately, it was raining all night so by the time we got inside, the crimping had been mostly in vain. Oh well, you could still tell and it was still funny (at least I thought so) - so now I have a crimper and bright obnoxious plastic costume jewelry at my disposal any time I want it! Oh wait... The show was AWESOME. The band played for almost a full 3 hours, and played classic 80's songs ... Love Shack, Livin' On A Prayer, Rock the Casbah, Karma Chameleon, Just Like Heaven, Welcome To The Jungle, I Love Rock & Roll, We're The Kids In America, Safety Dance, Jesse's Girl, Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, and one of my personal favorites ... Pour Some Sugar On Me ... !


We were really tired by the time the show ended (it didn't start until 10pm), but it was definitely worth it!! The bandmembers were fabulous and they were totally into it the whole time. This was as close as I got to dressing up for Halloween this year (and we had to sacrifice missing the annual Institute Barn Dance - which I was NOT sad about at all!) ... and it was way more fun than any Halloween I've had in awhile!

Matt & Josh Come To DC

I have lived here for over 5 years now and the last time Matt and Josh came to visit was when I was an intern - in 2001. It was high time they came to see me again, and when I found a great deal on airfare, I snatched it right up. It happened to be the weekend before I was in UT, but that's ok. Josh wanted to come before he went on his mission, and Matt wanted to come because he had some time off, so it was a done deal.

They flew in on a Wednesday afternoon, and we'd planned on going to the DC Temple on the way home so we could miss some of the traffic. Great plan. The boys were hungry, so I took them to the Continental Deli, a total dive of a place that my boss loves. I told Matt what to order (the chicken souvlaki with feta) and he was in heaven. I must admit, it was pretty dang good.

Then, it was off to the temple. I love the DC temple, and it was fun to go there with my brothers who hadn't ever been before.
On Thursday, I took them into work for a little while so they could see people there and then I dropped them off at the Metro and sent them on their way Downtown DC. They went to the Bureau of Engraving ("the place where they make money") and the Spy Museum and had an unfortunate experience with a bad food court. After work I met them downtown and we went to the Awakening statue and then to Georgetown.




















Matt wanted to do a little shopping but decided that everything was too expensive for him (he could buy it on eBay for cheaper). We went to my favorite little Italian restaurant, The News Cafe, for dinner and had a great meal before we headed home in time to watch The Office.
Friday morning Matt and I went to the gym and worked out and then I went to work for a few hours before heading home for our adventure to the Big Apple. It started out with traffic right by my house. We picked up speed for awhile and then it hit. Traffic City. What usually takes about 4 hours took us almost NINE. Yes nine hours in the car. It was ridiculous. I am not really sure what the problem was, but there were a couple accidents, lots of congestion, and just plain madness. We almost got hit by a couple busses who obviously couldn't see where they were going. It took us over 2 hours after we got off the exit to go through the Lincoln Tunnel into the City! And then my BFF Jill GPS decided to pull up the wrong zip code when I put the hotel's address in ... I should have double-checked it, but I didn't ... so we wound up in Brooklyn rather than in Manhattan. I'd never been across the Manhattan Bridge though, so now I have done it twice. ha ha Good thing Matt had his iPod with season 2 of the Office on it ... I think we probably listened to the entire season by the time we made it!

Finally we decided to just go straight to Christine's so we could eat dinner and then go to the hotel and relax. She took us to Justin Timberlake's new restaurant, Southern Hospitality and it was soooo good! We hung out there for awhile and then went to check into our hotel. I found an amazing deal on Wicked tickets on eBay (and the girl ended up being a BYU grad in AZ - small world!) and she also had a hotel that she was trying to get rid of, so we took advantage of that and wound up at the Affinia Dumont, a pretty posh hotel that we never would have stayed at otherwise! The concierge told us all the great clubs and lounges that we needed to go check out ... unfortunately we didn't do any of that!

Saturday morning we got up and went down to Battery Park to buy fake watches and sunglasses and purses ... I mean to see the Statue of Liberty. The street vendors are all over the place trying to get you to buy stuff all day long. The lines for all the ferries were way too long and we just looked at Lady Liberty from a distance. That was good enough for us! We then walked over to Wall Street and saw the famous bull and then walked in front of the New York Stock Exchange. Then it was to Ground Zero, which is under construction now for the new building and memorial. It is always a humbling site to see.

We did a little shopping, a lot of walking, and thanks to their directionally-challenged sister, wound up on the wrong side of Broadway before the matinee of Wicked began. But, we made it, and thank goodness we did because it was absolutely incredible. I loved it! Great story, great performers, awesome music, etc. All of us really enjoyed it.

Then we headed over to Central Park and sat there for awhile. Finally some peace and quiet! ha ha We met up with one of Matt's friends for dinner and went to The City Grill, a totally cute and very delicious restaurant. We hung out with her for awhile and then headed back to our hotel, via a cab. I decided the boys needed the experience of a NYC cabbie, and he didn't let us down! We left a little after 9 and just under 4 hours later, we were walking into my house - even after stopping twice on the way home. Now that's more like it! Sunday morning we visited some friends and then headed to church. Then it was party time. Ok not really ... but we did have about 15 people over to our house that night for Katie's birthday dinner. Matt grilled steak & chicken for us and Jenny made the rest of the meal. It was a great night and it was fun for me to have Matt & Josh there to hang out with my friends and get to know them. Just after church that day, Josh said "I like talking to your friends and hearing stories about you Shan, I feel like I really know you now..." I had to give him a hard time for that since he's known me my whole life, but I get what he was saying - it was so much fun to have them be a part of my world (not to sound like Ariel or anything!) for a few days :) I'm sooo glad they were able to come. It was too short, too rushed, and we didn't get to do nearly enough things, but that just means that they'll have to come again! I love having visitors, and family is the best kind to have.

Blow Dryer Update

[YES, I am still alive. I know I haven't posted in over a month ... I have a number of items and pictures waiting to be posted but I just haven't had two seconds to do it yet. Because this post a) just happened, b) doesn't require any pictures to be uploaded and resized and c) makes me laugh, it seems a bit more manageable!]

After the blow dryer incident, I tried emailing pictures and a description of what had happened to Conair. The email was kicked back undeliverable. I tried another address, and the same thing happened. So the next morning I called them, and asked the woman what email address I could send something to, and she asked what I was trying to send. I explained to her what had happened and she was freaking out. Then she proceeded to write up a faulty device report to give to her supervisor. She told me said not to throw my old one away until I hear anything from their Corporate headquarters in the next few days.

Well about a week went by and I hadn't heard anything, until I received a letter in the mail, informing me that they were sorry to hear about my recent incident, and requested me filling out a questionnaire explaining what had happened. I proceeded to complete the questions, and sent it, along with my old blow dryer, using the postage-paid sticker they provided me with, back to them. I also included pictures and the following letter:

Pam Keegan
Conair Corporation
1 Cummings Point Road
Stamford, CT 06902

October 5, 2007

Dear Pam,

Thank you for contacting me regarding the incident I had with my hair dryer. Please find below a description of the incident, as well as the consequences of it all.

On Monday, September 24, 2007 while I was blow drying my hair (no different than any other day of my life for the last 25+ years), all of a sudden, I heard a loud pop, then smelled smoke (or something burning), and felt the back of my head all of a sudden getting very hot and quite possibly burning. I turned off my blow dryer, and started rubbing my head to figure out what was going on. I pulled my hand out of my hair … along with a chunk of my hair! My head was still burning, so I felt back there again and discovered, when I pulled my hand out again, that there was a little spring, one of the hot coils from my blow dryer stuck to my head. The coil had snapped and singed itself to my head, burning my hair and scalp. The smell wasn't just burning blow dryer - it was my burned hair! Gross. It stung all day. Quite a chunk of hair came out in my fingers. I didn’t look until later that night (after going to work and feeling the stinging all day) to see what damage had been done. I moved the other hair out of the way and discovered a red burn on the back of my scalp. No wonder it hurt – I had been seriously burned by my blow dryer.

This was about a week and a half ago now, and the damage is still clearly there. I have showed it to a number of people, who have all been shocked at the size and severity of the burn. The burn has since scabbed over, and the scab consequently came off when I had my hair done (cut and colored) last week and the girl who washed it combed through it afterward, and her comb snagged on the back of my head and caught on the scab, pulling it loose. My hairstylist said the damage looks like a cigarette burn. Luckily, the hair is starting to grow back on that part of my head, so it didn’t damage the follicles, but it will be an interesting battle to keep that portion of my now miniscule in length hair from sticking out underneath the rest of my hair. She said I’ll probably have to buy small bobby pins to pin it down when it does grow long enough to maneuver.

Who knew that a blow dryer could cause such a hazard??

Included are the following pictures:

My blow dryer, after the incident (notice the missing springs on the right side of the dryer).
Hair that came out (notice the black burned dots on the ends that were once attached to my scalp), and remnants of the broken springs.
Day 1 of the burn.
Day 3 after the burn.
Day 6 after the burn.
Day 9 after the burn – showing the scab that had been snagged loose.
Day 9 after the burn – showing the burn after the scab came off.

I will continue to document the damage sustained on my head, through the various stages of regrowth. I would be happy to send you these picures, if desired.

Please contact me as soon as possible after reviewing my incident so we can come to a settlement conclusion. Thank you very much for your time.

As you can see from the date on the letter, this was over a month ago. I hadn't heard anything back from them and just yesterday thought that I should either call or write to them again. I came home for lunch today and found the following letter from Conair in the mailbox ...

November 5, 2007

Dear Miss Lillywhite:

Conair Corporation is willing to compensate you $450.00 for the injury you are claiming. Enclosed is our Release of All Claims form for your signature. When we are in receipt of the signed and witnessed form, we will issue our check to you.

Thank you for your assistance.

Sincerely,

CONAIR CORPORATION

Interesting. Very interesting. So now everyone is telling me what they think I should do ... take it and be done, ask for more money, threaten to sue, actually sue, etc. etc. etc. What do you think? I'm not a malicious person thinking that I'm going to have the next "I'm suing McDonald's because my coffee was too hot" case, but I do think its a bit odd that they're willing to just pay me off to keep my mouth shut. Personally, I find the whole situation very amusing ... and definitely, most definitely blog-worthy ;)

Baby Pictures

My mom posted a couple pictures on our family website and I thought I'd put them here too. I love the little bracelet that I have on ... I learned early the importance of wearing jewelry and having well-styled hair ;) And this one is priceless - my Grandma Woodward came to visit us in Oklahoma when I was born. Apparently it didn't take me long to realize how to open my mouth (and haven't stopped since...)!

The Frosty

I have issues with Wendy's. Not because I had a bad experience with a weird piece of something in my food once (I didn't), not because I never went there in the middle of the night in Provo to get chicken nuggets and a frosty, but because last year they did something that goes against the very trademark that makes them who they are. What am I talking about? The introduction of the "Vanilla" Frosty. I am sorry but "Frosty" by definition means chocolate. No vanilla about it. Who craves vanilla anything?? I just have a hard time hearing people say "vanilla frosty."

I have had this conversation with a number of people, including a random lady at a Nationals game. I was standing in line for soft serve ice cream with a few friends and we got into the chocolate vs. vanilla frosty conversation and I told them what I thought about it and the boys were giving me a hard time. All of a sudden, this lady turns around and said "She's right - a frosty is chocolate." She then went on a rant about hormones and women needing chocolate and that a frosty is not vanilla, and because she was older than them (she was directing her comments to the boys so they would stop playing devil's advocate with me), they should listen to her. It was hilarious.

I'd all but forgotten about my take on the Frosty until last night, after I'd been craving ice cream all day. I was out running errands and saw a Wendy's and thought to myself, "ok fine I'll cave in and get a frosty." So I pulled my way up to the drive-thru lane and the man (who didn't speak English very well) asked for my order and I said "just a frosty please." He then mumbled something that I didn't hear, either because he was speaking too fast, with too heavy of an accent, or it was too muffled by the microphone for me to understand. I said "what?" and he got kind of annoyed - he said "no 'what' - vanilla or chocolate or mixed?" Ok I about lost it and yelled at him! I really wanted to scream "CHOCOLATE" into the metal box in front of my face, but I resisted. ha ha I don't know why I am so passionate about this (its not like I have a Frosty more than a couple times a year even), but I have strong feelings about the frosty maintaining its original purpose - to satisfy a chocolate craving! For all the people out there that like vanilla things, go to McDonald's and get an ice cream cone...

Happy 28th Birthday to Me

28. Wow. That sounds old. Oh well, not much I can do to change it, so embrace it! Regardless, today was a great birthday. Of course a good part of the day was spent in church, but then tonight we had a Mexican Fiesta at my house. What did that entail? Cafe Rio food of course! Ok well not exactly, we couldn't really cater Cafe Rio on the East Coast, so we made our own rendition, including sweet pork, lime cilantro rice, black beans, and all the fixin's, including the awesome creamy cilantro salad dressing. YUM. That's an understatement.

Before the party began, I finally opened Jenny's present that she had been dying to give me. Oh my gosh it is the coolest thing EVER. Seriously. I wondered what could be so big to fit in this huge box that she had wrapped for me.
When we were in Minneapolis at the Mall of America, we went into a store called "Field of Dreams." While I was being wheeled around the store (in the wheelchair, from the near-fainting episode previous to our mall tour), we saw this display case that I immediately fell in love with, and said something about wanting to have one of those in my baseball room someday. I forgot about it after that, but Jenny did not. I don't know how she did it, but she found one and ordered it for me. Basically, its a display case shaped like home plate, with shelves and places for baseballs. They had embroidered baseballs in it, which is my next task - to fill it with all the balls of the stadiums (teams) I have visited. I'm so excited! Sharyn gave me a couple baseballs to start my collection - and amazingly enough she hadn't even coordinated with Jenny on this present, yet they went perfectly hand in hand together. I'm so excited for my new fun present!

Everyone started coming over around 6pm and that's when the party began. We had an awesome dinner and everyone just sat/stood around talking and having fun (at least I hope everyone had fun). I did. Jenny made an incredibly delicious cake - it was a cinnamon vanilla cake with chocolate cinnamon buttercream frosting. Wow. It was so good. It only had one candle - so I didn't have a problem blowing it out. Until I realized that it was one of those trick candles. I blew it out twice and then smothered it with my fingers so it wouldn't keep re-lighting itself! It even had edible flowers on top ...
You can kind of see to the left of this picture the inflatable sombrero drink holder that we had ... I am sad we didn't take a picture of it because it was great!

I am so lucky to have so many great friends who mean so much to me. Friends were so generous and brought me some wonderful gifts, including some awesome (and hilarious) birthday cards, as you can see in the array here.
And now ... for the party in pictures, thanks to Katie for putting my camera to good use:
Megan and Ben eating cookies that Sharyn brought.
Dave, Megan, & Mark chilling on the couch, probably laughing at something Megan just said because she is hilarious. Liz trying to pretend she doesn't know Mike is stuffing his face full of a burrito.Michelle, Darci, Dave, & Cubbie pretending to like each other (ha ha). Neal, Becky, & Lisa full from dinner, waiting for dessert.
Tyler & Taylor ... I am not exactly sure what they're doing, and I'm not exactly sure I want to know.
Tess & me posing cute for Katie taking the picture.Seabreeze, Roshelle, & Tess happy as always.
Dean, Sharyn, me, & Katie hovering by the food table.

There really isn't a much better way to spend a birthday than with some of my greatest friends at my house. I was also able to talk to everyone in my family today and hear from friends all across the country. I really am lucky to have such an awesome support system of people who are so wonderful ... fun (and funny), talented, spiritual, successful, adventurous, witty - the list goes on. Thanks to everyone who helped make it a great birthday.

The 9:30 Club

I am not a 'club girl.' But there is a club in DC called the 9:30 Club that I have always wanted to go to. Why? For no reason other than the fact that because my birthday is 9/30. Yeah, I'm a dork. I'll admit it. I thought it would be fun to go on my actual birthday, but since its on a Sunday this year, that wasn't an option. I checked the schedule a few weeks ago and learned that Brandi Carlile was coming on Friday. I have loved her music ever since her music video to "The Story" debuted on Grey's Anatomy last season. So, I decided that a girl's night was in order. Then Russ decided to come with us - which ended up being a great thing since we weren't mistaken for some of the (many) lesbian girls at the concert!

A group called "A Fine Frenzy" opened the show - Alison Sudol is only 22 years old. She has an amazing voice. She is very young and didn't really do so well with the whole talking in between songs - she was really nervous and was kind of giddy, but it was funny. In between sets, she was in the back meeting people, and I'd made a joke about going to meet her. Well, what else were we going to do? So Russ, Sharyn, and I went and waited in line. We met her and she was so cute - very happy and genuine (or at least she did a good job of tricking me)! She signed a little program "Shanna, happy happy birthday!!! Hurrah for you!! xo" ha ha, and then, of course, we had to take a picture -Then Brandi Carlile was on stage. She was awesome! She played for almost 2 hours. I didn't think it would last nearly that long - and her encore set was almost as long as her first one! She did most of her popular songs and then in the encore did some fun stuff, like Johnny Cash, and a really cool unplugged song. It was a great night, despite standing in 4 inch heels the whole time (my only hope of being able to see anything on stage!!) and trying not to notice all the PDA going on around us...
Hooray for the 9:30 Club, incredible music, and great friends to share it all with!