User:Flossiethebossie

I was born November 26, 1945 (a date my mother NEVER 	could remember correctly), in Salt Lake City to Royce S Bringhurst--the descendant of pioneers from Nauvoo--and Pearl Davidson, the daughter of immigrants from Hopeman, Scotland, who joined the Church in Canada and went to Salt Lake City when their families objected. I have a rich heritage and hundreds of cousins. I am the second child in a family of six children--five daughters and one brother. My older sister Jean was my friend and mentor in the world. (Sadly, she passed away nearly two years ago from cancer.) In my early years we lived first in Logan, Utah, then in Badger Village, Wisconsin, where my father earned a PhD in Genetics from the University of Wisconsin in Madison. From Wisconsin, we moved to Los Angeles, California, where my father taught at UCLA. I went to four schools there for kindergarten through second grade. Population was exploding and schools couldn't be built fast enough. Three years later we moved to Davis, California, where Dad worked with strawberries. We had a memoral drive in 100 degree heat up the central valley of California in an old, second-hand Pontiac. I finished my schooling in Davis--going to four different schools there as well. Only the high school was new. Our family was very musical, all of us singing and playing instruments. My violin became a very important part of my life. I went to the University of California in Davis, majoring in English. One week after graduation, I married Larry Nielsen in the Oakland Temple. I had "waited" for him while he served a 2-1/4 year mission in Brazil. I had wonderful time in college. Our first eight years of married life involved Larry earning a PhD in history from the University of California, Davis, and me earning my PhT (Putting Hubby Through) working in the English department I had previously graduated from. In 1976 we packed two suitcases and a violin and moved to Florianópolis, Santa Catarina, Brazil. The single branch there had 19 people attending, and no one besides the missionaries spoke English. While there, we adopted two babies, Daniel and Elisabeth, bringing them back to the States with us in 1981. We lived for eight years in Mission Viejo, then moved to Fullerton, California, for four years. Larry taught fourth grade in a rough neighborhood in South Central L.A. and I substituted in many schools around Fullerton, earning my secondary teaching credential at night. From there we moved to the northeastern corner of California where I taught English at a small high school (90 students) in Surprise Valley, Modoc County, for two years, enduring the worst winter they had seen in decades. We moved again, this time to Yuba County, California, where I taught Drama and English at Wheatland High School for twenty years. I retired a year ago. Larry had retired earlier from teaching at Juvenile Hall. We now live in the foothills above the Sacramento Valley with one dog, five cats, eighteen chickens, and a duck. I enjoy reading, writing, music, knitting, crocheting, embroidery, cross stitching, and canning. My husband has a phenomenal garden, even during the present drought. Recently, we were privileged to revisit Santa Catarina, Brazil, and found that the tiny branch we had attended there has grown overwhelmingly into stakes and a mission, and the children we knew have become bishops, stake presidents, mission presidents, and one area representative. We have five grandchildren now--one only three months old--and both of our children live nearby. We are singularly blessed.