Week 64
Really not a whole lot to report--another busy week of lesson preparation and teaching, but nothing out of the ordinary in that.  We love the time/assignment we have to study the gospel and then teach and discuss it with our classes.

FHE was a photo scavenger hunt.  Five groups had 50 minutes to find and take a picture of as many items on the list of 27 campus spots as possible.  We didn't look for anything, but did stroll around campus, and ran into a couple of groups madly looking for the spots described on the list.  They had a great time, and the winning group found 26 of the items or places.

Wednesday Kerby told me to come look out the window.  He said, "Quick--it's some kind of blue bird!"  I looked and said, "Well, it's actually a bluebird."  There were three of them outside our bedroom window.

Such a welcome visitor--the bluebird of happiness!

Wednesday evening we had a ward temple baptism trip, so we had a carload of YSAs, which we always enjoy.  One of the young men did a baptism for Heidi's grandfather.  Then on Friday we went to the temple again with Heidi, and Kerby was proxy for her grandfather's ordinances.  It was special to me, because I knew Heidi's grandfather from my young adult days when her mother, Paula, and I were friends in Kansas City.

In honor of Chinese New Year yesterday, I made a Chinese dinner for the missionaries today.  Happy Year of the Rooster!  I got to spend two lunar new year days in Taiwan on my mission, and fell in love with the holiday.  Hard to convey what a big deal it is to westerners, but it is huge in Asia or Asian communities around the world. Here's a website for just a glimpse:  http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/inpictures/2017/01/year-rooster-millions-chinese-year-170128052310196.html

Week 63
We had a busy week because the semester finally started (that was an incredibly long break!).  It felt really good to get back into our routine of Soup Tuesday and teaching classes.  As I mention frequently, we just love these YSAs and feel it such a privilege to work with such fine people.  Since classes started on Tuesday, we meet with our Monday Doctrine and Covenants class for the first time tomorrow; then we will have all three classes going.   No matter how many times we've read the scriptures before, we find new insights each week as we prepare our lessons.

The only unusual thing to happen this week was a woman backed her truck into the medical clinic where we go.  Though we wouldn't normally mention a car accident, Brother Valletta, the institute director, was coming out of the pharmacy across the street, and just happened to be the first person on the scene--he said the woman was elderly and seemed dazed (though unhurt) when he got to her. Brother Valletta was late coming to the institute on Friday because he had to make a statement to the police.  The woman had obviously built up a pretty good speed in the short space of the parking lot, and got confused on forward and reverse!

We've been in the very exam room she opened up! No one was in the room at the time

The weather has moderated and we're enjoying temps in the 60s.  Still seeing gorgeous sunsets and sunrises, still loving our interesting birds, and still loving life in Oklahoma.

Week 62
We got more serious about lesson preparation this week, and can't wait for OSU classes to start on Tuesday.  We have one Monday class (so that will start the following week) and two on Thursday.  We start Soup Tuesday this week with tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches.

Wednesday was perfect for our last little "day off" before school starts.  We went to the gym, as usual, then went to the temple.  Following that we had the best Thai lunch at our favorite little Thai restaurant (Charm) in the city.  By the way, the temperature was 74 degrees.  We went to the movie Hidden Figures, and it's one we highly recommend.  We came out of the movie to the beginning of one of the most spectacular sunsets ever!  It started out a blaze of gold and then deepened to almost magenta--it also lasted longer than any sunset in memory, changing colors as it went.  While that was entertaining us on one side of the drive home, the full moon was dancing in and out of clouds on the other.  We ended the day at Smokey Pokey's--it is the restaurant at the truck stop where we turn off the interstate to head into Stillwater.  One of their big highway signs boasts, "The Best Pork Butt in Payne County."  That was the first sign we saw as we drove into Stillwater over a year ago, and we've been intending to check it out since then.  Well, it's pretty darn good, and the fried green tomatoes were really good, too.

Freezing rain was in the forecast for Friday, so everything that could close was closed.  Saturday was supposed to be even worse.  Freezing rain is taken seriously around here, because there are so many accidents on the slick roads and because of the high likelihood of downed power lines.  We did have some freezing rain, but the ground was so warm because of the high temps the day before that it didn't get treacherous.  I think other parts of the state got it worse than we did.  We stayed in Friday and Saturday, so it was nice to go out to church today.  It's been raining all day, but the temperature has been above 32.

Our entire car encased in a thin layer of ice and ice on the stairs, trees, and bushes

Elite Repeat, the classy resale shop were we volunteer on Saturdays, passed a great milestone last month.  It's donations to local charities went over $3 million.  Elite Repeat has been in operation since 2002, has no paid staff, and relies on over 90 volunteers.  It works with 11 different agencies in town--the $10,500 donation to Habitat for Humanity in December pushed it over the $3 million mark.  Fun to know that our little effort contributes a bit to that good work.

Almost all our YSAs were back in town today, and it was so fun to see them.  We've gotten very attached to these kids, and it will be hard to leave them when the time comes.

Week 61
As we near the end of the semester break, we are also coming near the end of our "to-do list" for the holiday.  This week we finished cleaning out, straightening up, and revitalizing every nook and cranny of the institute and our apartment.  We got rid of things that I don't think anyone's eyes had fallen on for years!

Next semester we will be teaching three classes (if they all carry)--Doctrine and Covenants, Part II; Pearl of Great Price; and Jesus Christ and the Everlasting Gospel.  The last one is one of the new core classes for institute graduation, and we're very excited to teach it.  Brother Valletta's responsibilities changed a couple of weeks ago, and he now is responsible for seminary and institute in the two stakes in Tulsa and the one in Bartlesville in addition to the Stillwater and one OKC stakes.  The south OKC stake he previously had went to the director in Norman.  That means a lot more travel for him, and is the reason we'll pick up the core course.    We've been working on syllabi for all three classes, and printed those on Friday.  This week we'll work on preparing the actual lessons and power points to be ready when classes begin on January 17.

I've mentioned the bulletin boards before.  In preparation for the Jesus Christ and the Everlasting Gospel class, I decided to make the big bulletin board (that just gets changed once a semester) about Christ.  Here it is:

On the way back from the temple on Thursday, we made two stops at places on our list of things to see before we leave Oklahoma.  First was Pops in Arcadia.  It's a burger place/gas station on Route 66 that sells hundreds of kinds of soda pop.

The bottle with straw is 66 feet tall (for Route 66)

Soda pop everywhere!

When we got back to Stillwater, we went to the OSU art gallery, housed in the old post office.  It's very small, and is now showing works by female Native American artists.  Very enjoyable.

Friday we woke up to an inch of snow.  That's not much compared to what much of the country is getting right now, but it's still on the ground because it's been really cold.

Snow at the institute

Saturday we had a CES in-service in Edmond.  In-services are always uplifting and always give us something to think about improving our teaching.  We had heard about Teds--supposedly the best Mexican food in OK--and it's just a few blocks away from the Edmond institute building.  So we stopped there for lunch, and it was excellent!

Our ward met today and it was so nice to see a lot of our students after the long break.  This evening we have a potluck supper to be followed by the worldwide YSA broadcast.  President Nelson will be the speaker, and I can't think of a better way for the students to get themselves ready for a new semester than listening to an apostle speaking directly to them about things that concern them now.

Week 60
With our students still gone for the break, we took a little break this week, too.  We worked on things at the institute Monday and Friday, but Tuesday through Thursday we explored more of OK.  We made the two-hour drive (to the northeast) to Bartlesville on Tuesday (we stayed overnight and spent Wednesday there, too), and started our "tour" with a stop at Murphy's--a steakhouse started in the late '40s.  It's a hole-in-the-wall type place that is famous for the "gravy over all" burger.  That's a piece of toast under a hamburger patty under a pile of french fries with gravy over all; lots of gravy!  We shared one and it was still a lot of food, and now we've had the experience and don't need to have it again.

We went to the Phillips Petroleum Company Museum (we went to the Conoco Museum in Ponca City in the spring; the oil and gas industry is a huge part of Oklahoma, and since we use those products every day of our lives, pretty interesting to learn about).

A couple of early delivery trucks

The company was started by brothers Frank and L. E. Phillips.  They had drilled three dry wells in about 1904, and then tried one more--it was a gusher and they had over 80 successful wells after that.  The company soon went from just crude oil to refineries and opened its first gas station in 1927 in Witchita, KS. The 66 was added to the name in 1927 when the company lawyer was out with a driver testing a new fuel on Route 66 and the car got up to 66 miles an hour.  The corporate headquarters are now in Texas, but the service center and research arm are still located in Bartlesville.

The first commercial oil well in Oklahoma was called the Nellie Johnstone, dug in 1897.  We saw this fun replica on the exact site of the original well:

 Bartlesville has the only skyscraper in the world designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.  Called Price Tower (Price was a pipeline construction firm), it has 19 stories and now has some hotel rooms, some preserved rooms to tour, some offices, and some art exhibits.  It was very interesting to tour.

The olive and martini glass on the lower right are for the "Olive Drop" on New Year's Eve

Near downtown is the railway depot with a fabulous steam engine, oil tanker, and caboose that have been beautifully restored. The steam engine was built in 1903 for the Santa Fe Railroad, and is the only survivor of 332 engines just like it.

The Frank Phillips Home, replica of the first Phillips 66 gas station, and the steam engine

The Frank Phillips Home is a 26-room beauty built in 1918 and expanded in 1930.  It had running water and electricity from the beginning, and he had enough influence to get the city to agree that any house built within a certain distance had to have running water, as well.  No outhouses in sight! 95% of the furnishings and artwork are original.

 Frank was a very generous man, and over a couple of years during the depression, he anonymously went to banks and paid off the mortgage of every church in Bartlesville.  He also had huge Christmas shows for the children in town, bringing in entertainers the kids would know of and enjoy.  Each child received a bag with candy, nuts, an orange, and an apple.  Then he shook each child's hand and gave each a silver dollar.

An unexpected stop was the Keepsake Candle Factory and store.  This all started with a woman and her family making 60 candles for the Methodist church Christmas Bazaar in 1969.  They made molds from antique cut glass (circa 1820-1940) to form the hard wax outer shell, then filled them with softer, scented wax to burn.  Pretty soon there was a demand and now they sell in gift and specialty shops nationwide.  It was fun to see the original glass pieces used for the molds.  The website is: http://keepsakecandles.com/classics_collection.aspx (click on the Victorian collection to see even more candles made from antique glass).

Many cities have decorated animals all around town--individuals, businesses, etc. put one near their site and decorate away.  (Moose in Park City, UT, camels in Dubai, butterflies in Stillwater, etc, etc.) In Bartlesville it's buffalo, and here are just four of the dozen or so we saw.

Bartlesville Buffalo

About 12 miles west of Bartlesville is the Phillips family country estate.  It's called Woolaroc (that's for the woods, lakes, and rocks found in the area).  It has been open to the public for a long time, and houses an incredible western art collection and many natural history exhibits in a huge museum.  It is also a wildlife refuge for native animals but also several exotic creatures that Frank Phillips had brought in (a zebra, llamas, water buffalo, ostrich).  We had to wait a while for a group of bison to cross the road right in front of our car.  Really a great place to visit.

Sighted at Woolaroc

On Thursday we drove about 1 1/2 hours southwest to Tuttle, the headquarters of Braum's.  Braum's is our favorite burger/fry/shake place, and they have a little fresh market at each store selling all the things they make plus produce and a few meat items.  Braum's maintains their own dairy herd to make all of their milk, ice cream, and other dairy products.  Forty calves are born every day, and they raise them until the females are ready to join the milking crew or the males are ready to be sold.  There is also farmland on which they grow much of the feed for the herd.  They also have their own bakery facility in Tuttle that makes all of the buns, bread, cookies, sugar and cake cones, and cinnamon rolls.  There are 300 Braum's stores, but all within a 300 mile radius of Tuttle, because everything is shipped from the central processing area, and all the drivers can go out and be back every night to be with their families.

Braum's products really are superior (the milk is just amazing), and we're going to miss them when we go home.  Another fun tour (especially since it ended with a free ice cream bar and sugar cookie).

The tour bus moos

Our ward didn't meet again today because of the break, so we attended one of the family wards and had very nice meetings.  However, because the YSAs are our reason for being here, we will certainly be glad to see them come back to town!