WEEK 15 - BACK IN THE SADDLE AGAIN

Total Exposures Filmed  38,332 to date, BUT WHO IS COUNTING?

We are going to post a running total of the number of exposures that we have taken. It will help us and you understand the progress that we are making.

THE LAST MONTH IN SUMMARY

This was our Santa Photo for our
Christmas Cards before we knew
we were going home.

This is not news any more, but we returned home to attend the funeral of Bradley Jay Udy held on December 21st in Garland.  We were saddened by his death, but strenghten by family and loved ones that we were able to see.  We were fortunate to linger at our home through Christmas. We returned to Oklahoma the next day.  Our decision to come home was made by counsulting with our Mission President, President Taylor.  He was supportive and sent us with his blessing.  On Sunday evening, Dec.18th, we were faced with the dilemna of how to get home.  Short notice airline tickets were almost $800 each.  The drive time was about 18 hours in good weather.  We planned on driving to save some money and to allow us to return with some things from home that we needed.  The weather forcast said that Colorado and Kansas would have snow starting Monday morning and clearing by Tuesday morning.  The only possible way to avoid the storm would be to leave immediately, drive through the night, then sit out the snow in a hotel until Tuesday morning.  We would then proceed the remainder of the distance on Tuesday in clear weather.  We started to hurriedly pack.  We could have started the drive in less than an hour (about 7:00pm Oklahoma time).  As we started to pack we looked at each other and determined that praying about this hasty decision was in order.  We knelt together.  Afterward we concluded that another attempt at air travel was necessary.  We checked our frequent flyer miles and Grandma had enough miles for the trip.  We then dicided to call Delta and have an attendant help us with our travel plans, rather than spend the next hours trying to do this online.  The attendant was very helpful, gave us a bereavement rate and assigned us great seating.  We were in the air the next morning. 

We watched the weather develop the next two days over Colorado and Kansas.  Interstate 70 was closed for almost a day.  Four people were killed with numerous accidents and extreme driving conditions.  Prayer makes all the difference.  God does continue to watch over us.  He helps us in trying times when our own decision making ability is weakened.


GOODBYE TO BRAD (for a time)

We express our deepest saddness to Margaret Ann and Farrell, Josh and the family for the lose of Bradley. The support, attendance, and expressions of Brad's family and friends was a fitting tribute to him.  It said a lot about Brad's influence on us for all these years. 




GOODBYE TO JERRY MADSEN (for a time)

On Monday, Dec 26th, as Jason dropped us off at the airport, he recieved a call from Jen that her father, Jerry, had just died.   We express sincere sorrow to Jen, Jason, their children, and Sally and her entire family.  He leaves a big hole in their family.  But he leaves a strong family who we know will heal, maybe slowly, but certainly completely.  We both had the greatest respect for Jerry.  Our prayers are with them all.



GOODBYE TO KIM

This welcoming sign hangs above the front window of

Boommerangs.  Grandma and Grandpa will send ten dollars

to the first Grandchild who can 'Decode" this message. 

You will need to send a text to Grandpa with the correct

interpretation. Hurry!  By the way, this native Oklahoman.

Kimberlin Long was a manager, and a server at our favorite eating place, Boomerang, in Chandler, OK. Judy and I developed a good friendship with her. In January she will be married and she left the café for a better life. We will miss her wonderful, happy personality. We left her with a wedding gift of a full set of bathroom towels along with a personalized copy of the Book of Mormon. We included the following message inside:

A contented Grandma inside Boomerang.
We wanted to get a picture of Kim with
Grandma.  But we forgot when we had
breakfast there on her last morning.

"Dear Kim, We offer, to you, The Book of Mormon, Another Testament of Jesus Christ. It is, in every way, a true witness of Jesus Christ. The Book of Mormon is in harmony with the Bible. Together they contain the fullness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Our knowledge and faith in Jesus Christ has made all the difference in our almost 50 years of happiness together. Judy and I have enjoyed a wonderful life and a wonderful family which we attribute directly to His teaching.

We promise that if you read this book, with true intent and pray about the truths within, you will receive answers that can give you happiness forever. We offer this gift to you because we have observed, in you, a genuine, kind, and caring person who deserves an abundance of happiness. "
Sincerely, Your Friends

Jay and Judy Nielson





PRE CHRISTMAS IN OKLAHOMA
As we were preparing for our solo Christmas, we attended a wonderful event that the Oklahoma City Stake has done for the last 3 years.  We were astounded to find the entire Stake Center with every room filled with nativity scenes from around the world.  They assembled 664 nativity scenes.  It has become famous, locally.  Other faiths and collectors have brought about 100 of the nativity scenes to the event.  This was extremely well done.  We spent about an hour and a half looking at them all, including a live nativity scene. 

This is a Peruvian Nativity.

This woman was there helping to guide people, answer questions, and provide some security for the collection.  She looked very familiar to me.  We spoke to her and found that she was from Richmond, Utah.  Her name is Amber 'Traveler' Butler.  Grandpa asked her if her husband was related to any of the Butlers in Garland.  She said yes.  She looked at me and I looked at her, both thinking that we knew each other.  She said, "are you Jay?"  I said, "is your husband Jeff?"  We both said yes.  Jeff worked for me about 6 years ago at Logan City.  He is the grandson of Heber Butler of Garland. Heber is the brother of Uncle Joe Butler (Grandma Nielson's brother-in-law).  Jeff is working as a planner for Oklahoma City.  We are going into Oklahoma City on Tuesday to see a sinus specialist for Grandpa.  We will try to arrange dinner with them.  Amazing, somehow, we are all connected and we seem to make the most unsual connections here.  Not by chance.




WONDERFUL CHRISTMAS AT HOME

The evening that we arrived back in Salt Lake,

we attended a performance of Cinderella. Bryn

was one of the town people and the kings court. 

We enjoyed, very much, watching her

perform with her great smile.  She looked like

she was having a lot of fun.  We also noticed

that she was always in character.  Way to go

Bryn. 

After visiting home and our family,  we have been impressed that they are doing just fine without us.  In fact, we have been so very much pleased that they are still doing things together.  We think that finally they actually love each other and enjoy being together.  There was some question about that when they were growing up together. For them to be joining together without our influence has been a sweet reasurance to us in our absence.  This willingness to spend time together is made possible by the support of our children' s spouses.  The quaility of our family has been increased by the addition of Jen, Jenny, and Wayne. We also are truly grateful to you for the unified family support that you gave to the Udy and the Madsen families in their time of need. 

Brooklyn was one of Cinderella's mice.  We thought
she was the best mouse in the house.

Amber hosted a great party at her house the Friday before
Christmas.  The entire family was there.  Notice Kaden's
hand moving like lightning toward the food.  I looks like he
has enough in his mouth to last 3 meals.

Here some of the kids are gathered around the computer to see
Mylee's video from Santa Claus. Everyone was very pleased to
hear that Mylee had been good enough for Santa to visit her. 
The others were kept in suspense until the very last moment.

During the party major dental surgery was

performed.  Brooklyn had a wire from her

braces spring away from the tooth into her

cheek.  It was cutting the inside of her mouth.

Her father and Wayne sprang into action with

all manner of shop tools.  Wayne's 36 gigawatt

power flash light provided the illumination.

Unfortunately, nothing could cut the surgical

wire, not even the searing heat from Wayne's
super light. So she spent the night and
next day with guaze in her mouth until they
could see a dentist.

The grandchildren performed our traditional nativity scene.
What a wonderful site it was for us to see.

Kaden did a great job finding and organizing  games for us

to play.  This was a contest to see who could make the

highest stack of coolwhip.  The adult version was a bit more

controlled than the  kid's contest.  It very quickly degenerated

into a food fight.

We had all of the Grandchildren at our
 house on Saturday, Christmas Eve Day. 
We looked around the room, at one
time, and noticed that all of the
children were playing their own
hand-held computer games.
We laughed about how good it

was for the kids to be playing
together.

These are the documents that we are now

filming.  What you see is about 25% of

the total collection.  Each of these envelopes

contain an average of 50 folded, handwritten

papers that describe the estate of a person who

died.  We remove the papers form the envelopes

and unfold them.  Every paper is photographed,

front and back.  The difficulty comes deciding

how to film each paper that is a different color

and requires it's own unique light setting. 

At present we are able to film about 100 images

per hour.  We think that will improve over time.

BACK IN THE FILMING SWING

Well, we started filming again on Tuesday after Christmas.  We arranged for the prison trustees to help us move about half of the records to our filming office.  They were very helpful and pleased to be able to help us out.  We had a good time laughing and joking with them. 

This collection of records are old probate files from the beginning of Oklahoma recorded history 1892  to 1930.  We are anxious to get this record completed, but it will take us a while.  Family Search, in Salt Lake, estimated that the collection contained about 200,000 separate documents.  We make new calculation every day, to estimate how long it will take us to complete.  Our earlier calcs said it would take 12 months.  Last week we decided we could do the work in 6 months.  Our most recent calculation, today, said we will be done in 8 months.  No matter, we will perservere.

A probate is created by the courts whenever someone dies without a will.  A judge must decide how much the dead person owes other people and how much the property and belongings of the deceased is worth.  The judge then decides how to fairly distribute the property of the dead person.  We have include a probate file of a man who died in Oklahoma in 1896 by the name of J.D. Bradshaw.  We took this photo of a portion of Mr. Bradshaws probate file that we filmed the other day.  This is a list of all of his assets or property.  We, sometimes, are tempted to stop and read information because it is very interesting.  You can look over this list showing everthing that he owned and how much he was worth. There are somethings on this list that we have never heard of.  Who knows what blackening is?  We do.  Do You?  Notice that the things that were of greatest value were those that helped Mr. Bradshaw make a living and sustain his family.   It looks like J.D. was worth $302.34.  He had no land or home, so he likely rented housing.  J.D. was rather well to do, compared so many others we have seen in the records.  Hope you find some interest in this. 

Elder Westwood is from a small

town south and east of 

Richfield, Utah.  He is a

cattlemans son and great Elder.

He is senior companion.

MORE TIME WITH THE ELDERS
We have been fortunate to spend some time recently with the Elders.  Since we have been back we have gone on visits with investigators and less active members.  We have enjoy this experience and we plan to do this many more times.  We like to be with the Elders. They seem like our own children away from home.  We also realize that we are giving them support that they can get in no other way.

Elder Peterson is from Wellsville.  His parent moved there several years ago.  They live in the old house with the big white barn at the mouth of  Wellsville Canyon. He has been in  the mission field for a month now.  He too is great.  We are confident he will mature into a good leader.

We took them out to dinner on New Years Eve to a great "Q shop" in Stillwater.  They were so appreciative and we were delighted to have some company.  So everyone benefited.  These young missionaries could eat a hole in the side of a box car. It was a pretty wild New Years Eve, everyone was home at 9:00.

This is John (forward) presiding over the
entry of  his cows into the auction arena.  The
mounted cowbay is one of John's
40 cowhands.

THE CATTLE SALE OF CATTLE SALES
We were invited to a cattle sale before Christmas.  You may remember us telling you about John and Jeannie Griswald ( no relative of Clark).  She is a cattle woman and cattle show judge from Beaver, Utah.  She married John a year ago.  He was then baptized about 8 months ago.  They are planning to be sealed in the Temple after their baby is born in February.  Together they have cattle ranches in Utah, Nebraska, and Oklahoma.  They are great folks. 

John is manager of the entire operation, The Griswald Cattle Company.  They had 200 female show cows for sale that day.  The auction lasted 6 hours ( we did not stay that long).  The top cow sold for $76,000.  The average cow sold for $8,000.  Do the math yourself.

All 200 show cows were in viewing

pens for inspection hours before the

sale.  Every animal was trained to

lead and had been maticulously

groomed and trimmed.  We met the

trainer.  Her sole job was to gentle

and train the cows to lead. 

The parking lot for the sale had more stock trailers than I have
seen at a rodeo.

Elders Peterson and Westwood where there to help move
cows into the auction house.  Grandma is  trying to stay
warm.  Eric Davis is on the right.  He is a cattlman
himself.  He baptized John.  Eric is the best member
missionary I have ever been around.

They had food that would knock your
socks off.  Everything Oklahoma, endless
brisket, beans, corn, slaw, spuds, and rolls.

The sale in full swing.  Jeannie is on the call stand on the right
 of the auctioneer.  She made introductions for all 200 cows
that entered the arena. 

THIS WEEK'S HISTORY LESSON
To much to do this week.  See ya later on this one.

ONLY IN OKLAHOMA


A few nights ago, our neighbors, the

Readings, dropped in.  We were

sitting in the living room when

Grandpa noticed some movement on

the middle of the carpet. It was one

of these beauties, a scorpion.  He was

less than two inches long.  Grandpa

wanted to do the Bear Grylls survival

trick and eat him but he moved 

too fast and we squashed him.  We

don't walk around in our bare feet

anymore. This is not the actual scorpion.
Our was to flat to photograph.

You know you're from UTAH when the "U" is not just a letter - Neither is the "Y"

You know you're from OKLAHOMA when you save all your life for your dream vacation, and use it to go the the OU/Texas game. 

This beautiful scene welcomed us on our way to Church on Sunday.

                             HAPPY TRAILS TO YOU.  LOVE,   GRANDMA AND GRANDPA