Memorial Day

Hope everyone has a nice Memorial Day.  When Gpa and I were small the holiday was always the 31st of May(none of this long weekend holiday or changing the date every year).  It was originally called Decoration Day. It seems all holidays have become long holiday weekends, so some holidays have lost their real significance over the passing years.  Not that I object to long holiday weekends; it's just we have lost something meaningful and patriotic as a nation in general,  i wonder if this might be just one little reason that has contributed to this.

As a child and up through the time Gpa and I were married, it was just a one day holiday unless it fell on a weekend.  This was a time when Iris, Bridle Wreath, Snowballs, Lilacs, Peonies were usuallu in bloom.  Flowers were gatbered from neighbors whereever you had them in your yard put in a water container and EVERYONE went to the cemetery.  you put flowers on everyone's grave.  There was always a program put on in every cemetery.  When gma and gpa were first married, usually Gpa Henry Nielsen would be one of the speakers at the cemetery. Gpa, of course was a war veteran and of course remembering veterans and those who had sacrificed life for our country was a big part of the program honoring them as well as all loved ones who were deceased. Gpa Henry was called on many times to speak. Not only was he a wounded war veteran, but a civic leader having been county clerk for Box Elder County, the Postmaster of Brigham City, and he ran for office as a Democrat another time but was unsuccessful.  There were always vetrans of foreign wars, as honored guests, flag ceremony, musical numbers, speeches, and taps.  Nationally, and locally there are usuallystill some programs of some type.

When I was young and lived in Idaho, there were many relatives who had passed away, so all Grandpa Jensen's family would meet and go from grave to grave before and after the program and decorate the graves and enjoy visiting and being together as family.  They did that every year until they all died.  My children may remember gathering with them once.  Gpa and I joined them a couple times in our married life,

When my family moved to Bountiful when I was 7, we would always meet with Gma Madsen's family at the cemetery in Riverton where my mother's younger sister was buried.  We would put flowers on her grave and then all my mother's family went up the canyon to spend the day having a picnic. Traditionally hamberger and hot dogs and salads and treats.  We played a lot of games and generally had a great time.  It initiated the beginning of a fun summer.  We looked forward to Memorial Day.  Still, many do a lot of these same things. There are a few patriotic programs. People buy the chrysanthmems 3 for $12, they order flowers from florists, or use plastic  or silk flowers to decorate.

Maybe our children remember on Memorial Day where we went to Riverton to decorate Ruth and Ira's grave (gma & gpa Henry Nielsen used to ask us to do this) and there was a group of Polonesians eating and singing sitting on the grave.  It was quite the thing.  I understand that is typical for Polonesians.

When my grandparents died, Alonzo and Leona Madsen, my mother started to initiate a family gathering out at the Riverton cemetery.  We would sit and talk at the gravesite about our ancestors while eating goodies. As a Jensen family we have tried to carry that tradition forward by still meeting at the Lakeview Bountiful cemetery on Sundayevenings and visiting, munching on a goodie someone brings and remembering events of life.  This cemetery has a program on a Sunday evening usually put on by Scottish Bagpipe performers.  This is a nice ceremony many bring blanlets or chairs to sit and visit and listen and enjoy family.

Yesterday, Friday, dad (Earl and I) made our annual trip to Brigham to decorate Gma and Gpa Henry's grave, along with Andrew Martin and Anna's grave and Niels Nielsen and his Anna's grave.  Gma Jennie and gma Mona always insisted on edging and triming around the headstone and polishing the headstones.  Remember, in this large cemetery all the lilac bushes planted Round the primiter of the cemetery were planted by your Gpa Andrew Martin. They used to be kept trimmed and pretty.  Funds must be low in Brigham City's budget because the bushes are needing attention and need to be trimmed.  Gma and Gpa Nielsen would never stand for the way those bushes looked, compared to how they used to look!

Well that's the way things used to be. In your day I think you will see many more changes.  But try to never forget your ancestors and those who have sacrificed & paved our way.  Teach your children!  Family ... Our ancestors are important ... Our heritage ,,, keep it alive.

We did try and call Mindy.  She was at work and answered.  We were excited to speak with her.  She sounded so good.  We talked with her about coming to Haley's farwell meeting and coming with Keely.  Then we also called Rees and went to visit him and that has been 2 years since visiting in person with him. (We have tried other times to include them.) Then we were able to go to Wyatt's grave site and place a small remembrance.  Where have the years gone!  On the way home we did stop and visited Tracy and Greg.  Maybe it wasnt nice to cold call, but she is so cute and happy.  She and Greg have such a fun back yard with the lake and boats, patios and decks.  There were sailboats on their lake last night.  Her yard requires a lot of work, but she is retired now,  they talk of building up by pineview.  She is growing all kinds of plants in her garage hot house.  She has it all set up with lights, grow boxes and a special herb garden, and also a vegetable garden.  She was drying herbs and her garage smelled so good.  She does a ton of canning. They sent us home with canned applesauce, jelly and a couple filets of white dear meat, which they say is better than beef and not at all like eating mule dear.  We will see.  So that was our Memorial Day!

We have an opportunity to go to Park City for a few days, so we will be there next week. Hope everyone is well and we love hearing from you all! We look forward to Haley's temple date, and hearing more from Kade and his mission experience which so far has had him on a missionary high.  He seems very happy and excited!

Since I am a high tech dummy and did something wrong and my posts do not show up, i am asking Chantel to copy this and put it on the Nielsen Blog site.  I hope all will take advantage and check out the site and contribute.

To Chels and Dan and Colt, Tani and Chris, Brielle and Fife, Taylor, McKenzie, Chantel, Jesse, Evaline, Todd and Camille, Paige, Jared, Haley, Davis, Troy Carol, Ky, Jake Kade and Brock, Tami and Todd, Oak, Max, Kenz, Nick, Liana, Tric and Mark. WE LOVE YOU ALL! BE SAFE, HAVE FUN, ENJOY THE JOURNEY, KEEP CLOSE AND LOVE EVERYONE,

Love to you all,

mom and dad gma and gpa

Gma and Gpa

How to Post

Okay, seems like some of you are having some troubles figuring out how to make a post. I have listed some instructions that I hope will help. There is a difference between commenting on a previously written post and making a new post. If you are still having troubles I recommend finding a youtube video like, "How to make a post on blogspot" because I'm not sure if I can help you any further without actually seeing what is going wrong.


1. Click the orange pencil icon to write a new post.

2. Next you'll see the post editor page.

3. Next, click the publish button to publish your post.

As the Corn Grows

 Just a quick note, for the past month we have been hosting a fairly recent convert who has received her mission call to El Salvador and who leaves this coming Tuesday, May 26th.   You might remember her from meeting her last April when we came out to Utah. She has been living with us and her farewell is this Sunday and many of her friends from BYU Idaho, and other family members, have come to our home for her farewell. Camille and I will partially supported her on her mission and it has been a good experience, and since Kade, and Haley,  have left, or are leaving for missions, it still feels like we are involved to some degree in the same effort.

 We are closing on a rental home next week and are very excited that Tani and Chris will be the first tenants their after a whole lot of renovation. Otherwise life goes on in Iowa as the corn grows.

Troy & Carol Family

We are pretty busy getting Haley ready for her mission, so it may not be the best time for me to set up/ add to the blog! I guess for now I will add a brief summary of our "happenings". Haley will be receiving her endowment on Saturday May 30th at 7 pm at the Bountiful Temple! She will be sending out an email invite soon. She is preparing to serve in Alabama, leaving June 24th. Her Farewell is on June 14th!! Paige has moved back to Provo where she is working as an Education Specialist/ Supervisor at a Head Start Preschool in a small town south of Provo. This is a great opportunity and we know that Heavenly Father's hand has led her to this job. Jared initially planned to live in Bountiful this summer until he made a last minute change in his major at BYU. So he quickly packed back up again (only home for 10 days!) and moved back to Provo for Spring Term. He plans to pursue a double major in Bioinformatics and Exercise Science! Davis just completed tennis season at Woods Cross High for the year. He placed 1st in Region for Varsity 2nd Doubles! Last weekend he competed in the State 4A Tournament and made it all the way to the Final match against a very good Timpview team. They lost their final match, but placed 2nd in State for 2nd Doubles. That is a quick update of our family. Not sure that's what you wanted - never done a blog before! Hope you are all doing great!! Love ya'll from the Troy and Carol Nielsen clan!

Nielsen Blog

Hi everyone!
Grandma has asked me to start a blog that everyone in the family can contribute to so that we can keep up with all the fun things happening in each of our lives and families. Each of you should have accepted the invite now (the invite expires on June 19th) and should be able to post from your own google account. If you don't have a google account you will need to create one and it should walk you through that.

Please feel free to post pictures and write about what is going on in your lives. Hopefully this will make it easier for us to keep up with each other and stay in the loop.

It should be pretty clear how to make a new post. I think the most obvious way to make a new post is by clicking on the orange rectangular button with the pencil icon. Also there is a similar button that says "New Post." Try to navigate the page and learn the layout, figure out as much as you can on your own ;) I don't know how much time I can put into keeping up the blog since we don't have a computer- just Jesse's work laptop- but I will try my best to check on it and help you out if you need.

I look forward to reading about all of the fun happening in the Nielsen clan.

-Chantel