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Quintaessencias

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Judge Cafe

Judge Cafe

Come visit us at the Judge Cafe in Salt Lake City! 8 E Broadway (300 S).
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Scottish Festival

Today we went to Payson, UT for the annual Scottish Festival. It was loads of fun. There were a number of competitions including dance, solo bagpipes, and bagpipe bands. And, of course, the athletic competition, also known as the Highland Games.

You can get more information on each of these competitions at www.paysonscottishfestival.org.

Below are some pictures and videos of some of the activities we watched and participated in.

This is a picture of the Galloway Highlanders
Pipe and Drum Band. This was the only band I saw
where the drummers wore a different kilt than the pipers.
Another band.
Band marching in formation to exit the field.
And another band. Notice the many different
colors and styles of shirts, kilts, and socks.
Each clan (tribe) in Scotland has
a unique kilt design and color.
These are a few pictures of some girls
performing traditional Scottish dances.
Landon said Grandma would like the outfit
worn by the girl in the third picture
(Grandma likes purple).


Landon got a chance to fight the GIANT!

Unfortunately, our batteries ran out in the middle so you don't get to see him win. If you notice, though, the giant begins with the sword in his right hand and the shield in the left hand. Landon gets the giant in the right arm so he had to drop the shield and hold the sword in his left hand. Without his shield the fight was all but over.


Parker also got to fight the GIANT!

Jessica had replaced the batteries so we got his full fight.

Super cute! :)

More Scottish Festival

An unsuccessful Sheaf Toss.
The sheaf needs to go over the horizontal bar.



An unsuccessful Caber Toss.



A successful Caber Toss.

Oquirrh Mountain Temple Open House

We went to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple Open House today. It was really neat. You'll notice the horn and arm on the Angel Moroni is blackened. A few weeks ago it was struck by lightning.

South Jordan CountryFest

Today we went to the South Jordan CountryFest, which is a city fair. They have a parade, carnival games and rides, a rodeo, and more. Part of the rodeo festivities are rodeo events for children. This year we entered Landon into the Mutton Bustin' competition and Parker into the Stick Pony race. For those who don't know, Mutton Bustin' is where the children ride sheep and see how long they can hang on. Most of the sheep that day were pretty calm, but you'll see in the video that the one Landon got to ride was anything but.

Landon Mutton Bustin'


Parker started strong in the Stick Pony race. I think he got a little too excited about being in front and took out two of the kids behind him. Jessica was so involved with giving Parker instructions that she forgot to watch the camera. Parker ended up finishing second.

Parker's Stick Pony Race

Catch a break!

When can a woman catch a break?! This year has not been a good year for me as far as health goes. Usually I get sick once a year and it’s been twice so far plus another disaster. We visited Joe’s family for New Year’s, which was a blast, but his sister and her youngest son were sick. As much as we all tried to not pass it on. I, unfortunately, got something towards the end of our stay. It was a massive soar throat. I have never had any sore throat so bad before. It hurt to simply swallow, so it was more painful to swallow food. So I didn’t eat too much during that time. I did go into the doctor b/c I just couldn’t handle it any longer. What she prescribed helped a little and made it a little more manageable to eat, but it still hurt. After about 2 weeks of this, it finally went away. Then I had 2 good weeks and then again at the first part of February, I got a cold again. Luckily it wasn’t it my throat, just my nose. Usually Sudafed 12 hr decongestant works for me, but not this time. I had to go to the Mucsinex D to even get it to somewhat clear out so I could breathe through my nose at night. My next hurdle—abdominal pain. Out of the blue, I had pains in my lower abdomen. Something that I though just might have been gas pains, but the next thing I know it’s moving up into my upper abdomen. The next thing I know—it’s hard to breathe. I can’t take deep breaths, only shallow, short ones. I can’t use any of my abdominal muscles or it feels like I am being stabbed with 100 knives. It hurt to lay on either side, but my right side more than the left. (I think, or it was the other way around). I also couldn’t flip over in bed. I had to slowly lift myself up, stand up, and then gently lay myself back down on the other side. Needless to say the night of Feb. 6, I didn’t get a lot of sleep. This went on for a few days (on top of the cold, mind you), gradually decreasing each day. Unfortunately, I couldn’t teach my Primary class Sunday, February 8th. I was just not going well at all. Luckily, I was doing good by Valentine’s Day though. (that’s another post.) Then come President’s Day. Unfortunately, Joe had to go to work, but thankfully he not has a job to go to work. But since he’s still in his “probationary phase” if he didn’t work, he didn’t get paid. So we went in. we didn’t really have anything planned, but the worst of all my problems came that day. I had made a list of things I needed to get done that day. (Lists are the best!!!) One of them was laundry. Landon needs pants for school. It was about 11-11:30 in the morning and I take the boys’ clothes down to sort and wash. As I was bending over sorting the clothes, all of a sudden and out of no where, I am collapsing on the floor from sharp pains in my lower back. Oh, it was so awful. I tried to stand up, but that wasn’t happening. All I could do was lay on the floor and not move too much. A few blessings came out of this. As I was laying on the floor wondering what I was going to do and how I was ganna take care of the kids, Joe called. He usually does not call me from work. Maybe b/c it was a slower day with it being a holiday and he was bored that he called. I asked later and he wasn’t sure why. But I know it was the Spirit telling him to call. I told him what had happened and what should I do. Since this has happened to him twice last year, he could empathize with me. He said that all I could do was lay down and rest. I had to call the boys in (luckily Landon was home b/c of holiday b/c being older he understands a lot more than Parker and can help out) and explain to them that mommy needed their help b/c I got hurt. Landon, with some help from me, started the wash. Then I managed to get over to the couch where it was a little more comfortable. Around 1 pm, when I realized that I hadn’t eaten anything that day and I am sure the boys would be getting hungry soon, I thought to get up off the couch when I heard the garage door open. Again, another blessing. Joe was home!! Perfect timing again!! He helped me up to bed where I would be more comfortable and warmer, brought me some food, and then took care of the boys the rest of the day. I was down for a couple of days. I finally felt ok enough to stand up and take a shower. (b/c before standing, I felt like an old woman totally hunched over and hobbling or crawling wherever I needed to go. With the crawling thing, I wonder how kids do it. It’s a lot of work.) Now even 5 days later although I don’t have shearing pain, it’s still a dull pain. One thing I know for sure I don’t want that to happen again. I am ready to be totally healthy. I now am grateful for the little things of my body. It’s amazing what I take for granted everyday of my life when I am healthy—things like my back and being able to get around easily and walk quickly down the hallway. I am truly grateful for those little things in life. I just hope and pray that I will recover from all these things soon!

Landon's homework

Landon is in the first grade and loves it. He brings home homework on Monday and has to get it done by Friday. Well, one of his papers for this week was called “Name Something.” So he had to “name something” that’s yellow, etc. One of them on there said “Name something that’s purple.” Landon replied, “Grandma!” Now if any of you know my mother, you know that she LOVES purple and when I say LOVE, I MEAN LOVE!!! I did have to tell Landon that although Grandma does love purple, she herself (unfortunately for her) is not purple. But that we could mention something she has that was purple. I mentioned a few things and he chose “Grandma’s toilet!” No joke! She loves purple that much. My brother calls it scratch-and-sniff. When I talked to mom and told her, she thought it was a hoot and wants me to put next to the answer that it’s not a joke.

Another one was “Name something pretty.” The first thing that came to his mind—and may I mention that it came rather quickly—was girls. I agreed and let him write it, but my thought was oh, great! He’s started early. (remember: he’s in 1st grade and the youngest in his class. He’s only 6 ½ and won’t turn 7 until after he starts 2nd grade!) Joe was shocked and laughed when he saw what he wrote. I told Joe it’s what Landon thought of and wasn’t going to disagree!

The last of his “name somethings” that I want to mention is “name something strong.” Landon thought of dads. I told him that was a good one. Then Parker, my 3 year old who was sitting right next to him, said “Me too or Parker.” I don’t remember which one exactly, but Landon did write it down next to dads. Now what you have to understand is that Parker does this pose where he kinda squats down and flexes his arm muscles and says, “me stroooooong.” So it was so cute and funny to think that Landon needed to write down that his brother was strong too. If I can get Joe to do it or I figure out how…I think we have some of it on video.

Valentine's Day

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!! We actually went out on the 13th! The stake was having a western themed dinner and dance and Joe is always all about free food. I guess I am too for that matter and we both love to dance, so that’s what we did. Then afterwards we had some coupons that expired that night to Joe’s Crab Shack and we got some dessert from there. It was pretty good, the next day. We were too full to eat it that night, but I am sure it would have tasted much better fresh. On Valentine’s Day morning I had a quick 2 hr Mary Kay event that I went to and then we spent most of the day running errands. It was fun all being together. There was also a huge sale going on at the car dealership. We got a letter in the mail and Joe wanted to go and check it out. So we did. Unfortunately we didn’t qualify—our van wasn’t worth enough for a good trade it—which was not pleasing to Parker b/c we test drove some vans first that had tvs in them. When it was time to go, he didn’t want to get into our van. He totally threw a fit in the parking lot that he wanted the “Har movie,” in other words, he wanted the car (van) with the movie/tv in it. Not fun. It was kinda cute and funny that he was so adamant about having the van, but not fun with the tantrum. We should have checked the qualifications first before doing any test driving. Oops! Now we know. By this point it was 6:30—dinner time. We had more thing on our list, but we were hungry. We stopped by Wendy’s and got some dinner b/c I told Joe I wasn’t cookin. Not only that, our last stop as at T-Mobile which was at the mall across the street, basically, from where we were. I knew if we went home, we weren’t going out again. I told Joe I really wanted to buy something that day. He joked that we got diapers, I gave him the look. How unromantic diapers were for Valentine’s Day. I wanted to get t-mobile at home and get some free updated phones. Now is that really too much for a girl to ask. The t-mobile at home would be saving us a bunch of money each month + it has bonus features that we didn’t get with our phone before. It was really a no-brainer to get, except that there was an activation fee and a router to buy for it which cost about $70. Now with Joe not having a job before it was hard to come up with the initial cost. With a job now, I thought it was a little easier. Anyway, we get in there, tell them what we want and low and behold…it cost us NOTHING!!!! Mary Kay has a deal with t-mobile. We already get a discount on our cell phone bill each month. So because I am a Mary Kay consultant, we got the activation fee waived and a credit of $40 for the router (that’s how much that cost). So it cost us ZERO! I was very excited!! Then I was kickin myself that we didn’t do it earlier when Joe didn’t have a job and we could have been saving money during that time. Everything we read and heard about said that there were those fees. It wasn’t until we went it that we found out that we didn’t have to pay for them. ARG!! So I love the t-mobile at home. All phone benefits for $10 a month. You really can’t beat that! (so anyone reading this that has t-mobile and who is thinking about switching, go to the t-mobile store at south towne mall and tell them that we referred you and we get credit for it. It would really help us out and we would appreciate it! It has to be at that store. It’s something that manager there does b/c he’s really passionate about the t-mobile at home. FYI-you need to have hi-speed internet for it to work though) So at the end of the day, I was happy to have my Valentine’s gift!!!

Happy Birthday, Sariah!!

Today is my niece's birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

Happy Birthday, Mary!!

Today is my sister's birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Happy Birthday, Peter!!

Today is my nephew's birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

I found a job!!

Yay!! I'm no longer unemployed! I've been hired at a mortgage firm in Salt Lake called Primary Residential Mortgage. I will be doing the accounting for their Texas division. I'm so excited to begin working again. Having the last seven months off was nice, but it sure was hard on the bank account. I applied for the job early (2 am) Tuesday morning; received a call at about 9 am to set up an interview for the next day; met with the CFO and Director of Finance on Wednesday morning; and was offered the job in the interview. It was pretty cool; I've never been offered a job in the initial interview before. I start on Monday, February 2. Thanks to everyone who assisted me in looking for a job...we appreciate all that you did.

Happy Birthday, Stephanie!

Congratulations on the new baby.

Clark's getting married!

Jessica's brother Clark has found the woman of his dreams. Her name is Lonnie. He gave her about 100 engagement rings before she finally said yes. Seriously! They will getting married on April 15 (Tax Day!) in the Atlanta temple.

CONGRATULATIONS you two!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

WELCOME 2009!!

LET'S HOPE IT'S A GREAT ONE!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Today we celebrate our Savior's birth. May all your prayers be answered.

BLACK FRIDAY

Today is Black Friday. Lots of stores are having huge sales. Jessica went out early this morning (4 am) to pick up a couple of things. The last couple of years we went pretty wild, but this year, since I'm still unemployed, we only bought a couple of necessities and gifts for others.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We celebrated Thanksgiving this year at the Oliphant's house. We had a large Bobo-Edwards-Graham-Ho-Oliphant get-together. Twenty-three people in all. Good food, good people, good fun.

Parent-Teacher Conference

Yesterday we had our first Parent-Teacher Conference with Landon's teacher. He is doing great. She loves having him in class. His best subject is math. His biggest struggle is handwriting and paying attention to his own work. Apparently he likes to walk around and see what everyone else is working on. His favorite day is Thursday because that is PE day. His favorite lunch is on Wednesday's...PIZZA!