Fortie Family Flyer
July 6 – 12, 2009
Dear Family and Friends,
Well, the cool rainy June is gone and July is hot – hot – hot. Actually that’s a bit of an exaggeration; it has been in the 90’s but no 100’s yet. Its felt hot mostly ‘cause of the cool June we had. Anyway, how the heck are ya. It’s been a rather busy week this week. Evenings have been spent at the pavilion practicing our play in a bit of a panic. Several things seemed to go wrong until we were quite worried about what was going to happen opening night (or if it was going to happen). But by some miracle (I’m sure prayers were involved here) it all came together and opening night went well. It was the first time we actually performed with all the scenery (it was still being painted the day of the play). It all looks good and though I was nervous through the whole thing (I drew a blank in one spot in the dress rehearsal) everything went well for me the first 2 nights. The part I am playing (Mayor Shinn) is way over my head and I have worried the whole time that I would forget a few lines and not be able to recover. It’s crazy how I get myself into such messes. I first took the girls to tryouts last year for the Sound of Music and they said they needed men in the show so I should try out. I did and they gave me the part of the butler. That was scary enough with about 6 lines. Now this year I thought I would join Jennifer in the play again and was hoping for about the same level of participation so I tried out for the constable, which only has a few lines. Instead they put me in as mayor and I had no idea what I was getting myself into. His lines are so strange that they are hard to memorize and some scenes he says something very similar to a section of another scene so it is hard to keep them separate. I think I will be nervous until it is done. I don’t know if this will help improve my bad memory or scar me for life. I have also had people constantly say they were expecting me to do the same thing this year that I did last year, which was to throw in a crazy line or two for some laughs. All through practices I have not been able to come up with anything until Saturday afternoon. I was going through my lines and came to the part where I tell Tommy that he was “taggin’ down Main Street after my oldest daughter last Sunday.” I got the idea that I should change that to Monday and then say “and we were trying to have family home evening.” I told Landon (Tommy) I was going to try it and see what the audience’s reaction to it was. If they laughed we would keep it, if not I would be embarrassed and leave it out and get out of town before the director shot me for taking such chances. I put it in and we got such laughter that we both started snickering and I lost track of what should come next for a few seconds. The audience didn’t notice but a few of the people on stage with me did and ribbed me about it after. L. D. (Professor Harold Hill) rolled his eyes and said “family home evening?” every time he passed me back stage for the rest of the night. Everyone thought it was great so I guess I will be using that for the rest of the performances. It’s funny how you never know what is going to happen. Now some of the pressure is off to come up with something crazy, (unless they are expecting more than one funny line). I think the favorites for the show are Marian (her voice is amazing), the Pick-A-Little ladies, and the quartet. Someone from the audience came up to me after the performance and asked how I memorized the lines for the mayor because he says such strange things. I told him it was not fun. We had lots of favorable comments from people; they all seemed to love it. We could tell that this was not as popular as the Sound of Music last year because our audience seemed to me to be a little over half of what it was then. Perhaps it’s the economy, perhaps because of a few other activities going on around this corner of the valley, I don’t know. I hope it isn’t because people would rather support the movie theater rather than the local community activities. It is interesting how we can’t resist giving money to the people in Hollywood who seem to hate us, which gives them more power to hate us (Mormons) all over the media. I guess that’s one of the interesting things we have to learn here. It doesn’t work to say we love God without offending the devil. Well, once again I find myself on my little soapbox.
Anyway, not much else going on for this week. Speaking of supporting the enemy, on Monday we went to see Monsters vs. Aliens. It was pretty funny but didn’t quite have us rolling in the aisles. The rest of the week has been work on photography or work in the yard and house (nothing newsworthy).
Hope all is going well for you.
See you at the theatre,
Ken and clan
From Brian:
July 5-12
Dear family,
This week was normal. On Monday we had family home evening in my ward. Bishop did the lesson. He had two places set at a table. One was a nice plate and silverware, with a big U of U mug, and nice folded napkin. The other was a grungy plate with a huge knife for cutting lettuce, a broken salad fork and a big blue cup. With a newspaper folded up for a napkin. He picked me and a girl as the people to sit at the table. He told her she got to pick which seat. She picked the nice set one. He asked her why she picked that, she told him that it looked nice. He asked me which one I would have picked (I got the other by default) I said the one I had anyway because it had a blue cup instead of the U mug. hehe.
He asked her which of two desserts she wanted, a frosted brownie and some ice cream or a cinnamon role with frosting. She chose the brownie. He brought it to her and promptly picked it up in his hands, and smashed it together, letting the ice cream ooze through his fingers. Then he threw it on her plate. Then he nicely brought me my cinnamon role and gave it to me unaltered. He told me to eat it. I started, and he went on about appearances and how what something looks like on the outside (all nice) is not always what you will get. I ended up cutting mine in half, (which was way good by the way) and giving her half.
It was a good lesson. Then we went to a park and some played Frisbee, but I swung on the swings with two girls.
Tuesday my scooter was fixed, there was a problem with the spark plug, so that was good to get transportation again. I went to Greg’s and we watched support your local sheriff. There is a sequel called "support your local gunfighter" so I checked it out at the library.
I went back to the apartment late that night. I live with my friend Jonathan in a tiny apartment for a little over a month. He is getting married in August and wanted someone to be his roommate until his wife moves in.
I spent Wednesday going to pharmacy's and asking if they had tech training programs, to hire me and train on the job as a pharmacy tech. I did some reading too. I am studying in depth, the apostasy. I also went to a seminar for some network marketing with the maintenance guy of our apartment. That was interesting.
Thursday my singles ward had an activity. we went on a hike to doughnut falls. (or not so doughnut falls now, since it fell.) A night hike, in the dark, it was fun. But one girl fell in the stream a bit and got her pants wet.
I went with the Elders Quorum President, Tyson. He got so lost getting there, and was getting so mad. I ended up calling grandpa and asking where big cottonwood canyon was. Tyson was going crazy. We've got pretty close because we talk a lot about the efforts of the Elders in missionary work for the ward. He offered me a job since I need work bad. He is starting his own business, so I will be doing over the phone commission sales, selling self-help, or business classes to business owners who can afford to learn to make their business better. Not my cup of tea so much, but it's work for a while till I can find something.
I got sick on Friday and stayed at mom and dad's. Chad and Greg came over and we watched "support your local gunfighter" It was sort of funny, but no where near the original. It really isn't a sequel either. The same actors play different characters.
Saturday I studied a lot, and went through the BYU education week catalog, seeing what classes I want to take.
On Sunday at church one of my investigators came. I asked if he wanted to meet with the missionaries, but he said not yet, but that he wanted to study with me for a while. So I will be teaching him until he is ready for them. Bishop had an extra quad sitting in his office, so he gave it to me for Sean, during PEC.
We had an amazing lesson on the creation in gospel essentials, with little paper bags with stuff in them for each day of the creation, and some amazing quotes. And in Priesthood the lesson was way strong on why we keep commandments. The teacher Cody, is an excellent teacher. He had everyone single file, walk past the white board and make a tally mark under one of the numbers 1-7 for how happy they were with their life. Most people were under 5, one was a 2. but it was a good wake up call. Tom, who is the second councilor in the Elders quorum, is a big guy with a big voice. He is so sarcastic, and has the driest sense of humor I've ever seen. It is so funny, you never know when he's serious. He walked out and someone said "what did you put down Tom?" "Eight!... (there was only 1-7) I mean, I am 29 years old and still single, who could be happier!? Forgive me, almost 30, I'm almost 30 and still single!" and then Tyson said "I bet your so happy cause you have a great roommate huh?" (Tyson, the EQP is his room mate) then Tom said "no he's kind of a jerk, but I have other friends to make up for it." and just kept a straight face like he was totally serious. Then Tyson said "I'm gonna go change my score." And got up as if to go back and put his tally on a lower number.
But the spirit was way strong there.
Well, I love you all so much. Jason, I remember when a boy drowned in a river on my mission and we came to the people waiting for him to be found and pulled out. That was way hard to come onto. We ended up praying with and teaching a little of the plan of salvation to the youth group who were waiting for his finding. It was very sad.
Love
Brian
From Jennifer:
HEY!
I’m not really sure what to say this week but um oh! The play! Dad and I have done that most of this week… ok correction ALL of this week! We had dress rehearsal on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday then Friday was the performance! And Saturday and then on Monday and then Friday And Saturday and Monday… again! For now the little River City is my home and the year is 1912!
Because of the play I haven’t been able to work and I already miss my 4 little boys! I think this break was good though, I was getting stressed and being less fun than usual. So I will come back with a creative mind again to keep them out of trouble! We are Potty training Adam still but I think he has got it down! There are still a few accidents here and there but most of all he knows when to run to the toilet! He just turned three and I can’t believe how fast he is growing up! My first day there he was barely one! There were only a few words he knew and now all that has changed! He talks in sentences and he isn’t a little baby anymore! And the 4 year old Sam too! He will be starting Kindergarten! HOLY COW! Time flies when your raising boys!
LITTLE BABY SPENCER WALKED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He took his first three steps from Alicia into Chad’s arms, now he is walking everywhere! We are going to head out to Grandma and Grandpas to see him for dinner! I’m so excited! Well I have a meeting with the bishop DUN DUN DUN! (We Got trouble) yah he found out about my master drug dealing skills, no it’s my annual checkup you get every year! Anyways I’m done talking now! Bye!!! Oh. P.S. Elder Fortie- the cats are going bye bye!
-JENNIFER
July 6 – 12, 2009
Dear Family and Friends,
Well, the cool rainy June is gone and July is hot – hot – hot. Actually that’s a bit of an exaggeration; it has been in the 90’s but no 100’s yet. Its felt hot mostly ‘cause of the cool June we had. Anyway, how the heck are ya. It’s been a rather busy week this week. Evenings have been spent at the pavilion practicing our play in a bit of a panic. Several things seemed to go wrong until we were quite worried about what was going to happen opening night (or if it was going to happen). But by some miracle (I’m sure prayers were involved here) it all came together and opening night went well. It was the first time we actually performed with all the scenery (it was still being painted the day of the play). It all looks good and though I was nervous through the whole thing (I drew a blank in one spot in the dress rehearsal) everything went well for me the first 2 nights. The part I am playing (Mayor Shinn) is way over my head and I have worried the whole time that I would forget a few lines and not be able to recover. It’s crazy how I get myself into such messes. I first took the girls to tryouts last year for the Sound of Music and they said they needed men in the show so I should try out. I did and they gave me the part of the butler. That was scary enough with about 6 lines. Now this year I thought I would join Jennifer in the play again and was hoping for about the same level of participation so I tried out for the constable, which only has a few lines. Instead they put me in as mayor and I had no idea what I was getting myself into. His lines are so strange that they are hard to memorize and some scenes he says something very similar to a section of another scene so it is hard to keep them separate. I think I will be nervous until it is done. I don’t know if this will help improve my bad memory or scar me for life. I have also had people constantly say they were expecting me to do the same thing this year that I did last year, which was to throw in a crazy line or two for some laughs. All through practices I have not been able to come up with anything until Saturday afternoon. I was going through my lines and came to the part where I tell Tommy that he was “taggin’ down Main Street after my oldest daughter last Sunday.” I got the idea that I should change that to Monday and then say “and we were trying to have family home evening.” I told Landon (Tommy) I was going to try it and see what the audience’s reaction to it was. If they laughed we would keep it, if not I would be embarrassed and leave it out and get out of town before the director shot me for taking such chances. I put it in and we got such laughter that we both started snickering and I lost track of what should come next for a few seconds. The audience didn’t notice but a few of the people on stage with me did and ribbed me about it after. L. D. (Professor Harold Hill) rolled his eyes and said “family home evening?” every time he passed me back stage for the rest of the night. Everyone thought it was great so I guess I will be using that for the rest of the performances. It’s funny how you never know what is going to happen. Now some of the pressure is off to come up with something crazy, (unless they are expecting more than one funny line). I think the favorites for the show are Marian (her voice is amazing), the Pick-A-Little ladies, and the quartet. Someone from the audience came up to me after the performance and asked how I memorized the lines for the mayor because he says such strange things. I told him it was not fun. We had lots of favorable comments from people; they all seemed to love it. We could tell that this was not as popular as the Sound of Music last year because our audience seemed to me to be a little over half of what it was then. Perhaps it’s the economy, perhaps because of a few other activities going on around this corner of the valley, I don’t know. I hope it isn’t because people would rather support the movie theater rather than the local community activities. It is interesting how we can’t resist giving money to the people in Hollywood who seem to hate us, which gives them more power to hate us (Mormons) all over the media. I guess that’s one of the interesting things we have to learn here. It doesn’t work to say we love God without offending the devil. Well, once again I find myself on my little soapbox.
Anyway, not much else going on for this week. Speaking of supporting the enemy, on Monday we went to see Monsters vs. Aliens. It was pretty funny but didn’t quite have us rolling in the aisles. The rest of the week has been work on photography or work in the yard and house (nothing newsworthy).
Hope all is going well for you.
See you at the theatre,
Ken and clan
From Brian:
July 5-12
Dear family,
This week was normal. On Monday we had family home evening in my ward. Bishop did the lesson. He had two places set at a table. One was a nice plate and silverware, with a big U of U mug, and nice folded napkin. The other was a grungy plate with a huge knife for cutting lettuce, a broken salad fork and a big blue cup. With a newspaper folded up for a napkin. He picked me and a girl as the people to sit at the table. He told her she got to pick which seat. She picked the nice set one. He asked her why she picked that, she told him that it looked nice. He asked me which one I would have picked (I got the other by default) I said the one I had anyway because it had a blue cup instead of the U mug. hehe.
He asked her which of two desserts she wanted, a frosted brownie and some ice cream or a cinnamon role with frosting. She chose the brownie. He brought it to her and promptly picked it up in his hands, and smashed it together, letting the ice cream ooze through his fingers. Then he threw it on her plate. Then he nicely brought me my cinnamon role and gave it to me unaltered. He told me to eat it. I started, and he went on about appearances and how what something looks like on the outside (all nice) is not always what you will get. I ended up cutting mine in half, (which was way good by the way) and giving her half.
It was a good lesson. Then we went to a park and some played Frisbee, but I swung on the swings with two girls.
Tuesday my scooter was fixed, there was a problem with the spark plug, so that was good to get transportation again. I went to Greg’s and we watched support your local sheriff. There is a sequel called "support your local gunfighter" so I checked it out at the library.
I went back to the apartment late that night. I live with my friend Jonathan in a tiny apartment for a little over a month. He is getting married in August and wanted someone to be his roommate until his wife moves in.
I spent Wednesday going to pharmacy's and asking if they had tech training programs, to hire me and train on the job as a pharmacy tech. I did some reading too. I am studying in depth, the apostasy. I also went to a seminar for some network marketing with the maintenance guy of our apartment. That was interesting.
Thursday my singles ward had an activity. we went on a hike to doughnut falls. (or not so doughnut falls now, since it fell.) A night hike, in the dark, it was fun. But one girl fell in the stream a bit and got her pants wet.
I went with the Elders Quorum President, Tyson. He got so lost getting there, and was getting so mad. I ended up calling grandpa and asking where big cottonwood canyon was. Tyson was going crazy. We've got pretty close because we talk a lot about the efforts of the Elders in missionary work for the ward. He offered me a job since I need work bad. He is starting his own business, so I will be doing over the phone commission sales, selling self-help, or business classes to business owners who can afford to learn to make their business better. Not my cup of tea so much, but it's work for a while till I can find something.
I got sick on Friday and stayed at mom and dad's. Chad and Greg came over and we watched "support your local gunfighter" It was sort of funny, but no where near the original. It really isn't a sequel either. The same actors play different characters.
Saturday I studied a lot, and went through the BYU education week catalog, seeing what classes I want to take.
On Sunday at church one of my investigators came. I asked if he wanted to meet with the missionaries, but he said not yet, but that he wanted to study with me for a while. So I will be teaching him until he is ready for them. Bishop had an extra quad sitting in his office, so he gave it to me for Sean, during PEC.
We had an amazing lesson on the creation in gospel essentials, with little paper bags with stuff in them for each day of the creation, and some amazing quotes. And in Priesthood the lesson was way strong on why we keep commandments. The teacher Cody, is an excellent teacher. He had everyone single file, walk past the white board and make a tally mark under one of the numbers 1-7 for how happy they were with their life. Most people were under 5, one was a 2. but it was a good wake up call. Tom, who is the second councilor in the Elders quorum, is a big guy with a big voice. He is so sarcastic, and has the driest sense of humor I've ever seen. It is so funny, you never know when he's serious. He walked out and someone said "what did you put down Tom?" "Eight!... (there was only 1-7) I mean, I am 29 years old and still single, who could be happier!? Forgive me, almost 30, I'm almost 30 and still single!" and then Tyson said "I bet your so happy cause you have a great roommate huh?" (Tyson, the EQP is his room mate) then Tom said "no he's kind of a jerk, but I have other friends to make up for it." and just kept a straight face like he was totally serious. Then Tyson said "I'm gonna go change my score." And got up as if to go back and put his tally on a lower number.
But the spirit was way strong there.
Well, I love you all so much. Jason, I remember when a boy drowned in a river on my mission and we came to the people waiting for him to be found and pulled out. That was way hard to come onto. We ended up praying with and teaching a little of the plan of salvation to the youth group who were waiting for his finding. It was very sad.
Love
Brian
From Jennifer:
HEY!
I’m not really sure what to say this week but um oh! The play! Dad and I have done that most of this week… ok correction ALL of this week! We had dress rehearsal on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday then Friday was the performance! And Saturday and then on Monday and then Friday And Saturday and Monday… again! For now the little River City is my home and the year is 1912!
Because of the play I haven’t been able to work and I already miss my 4 little boys! I think this break was good though, I was getting stressed and being less fun than usual. So I will come back with a creative mind again to keep them out of trouble! We are Potty training Adam still but I think he has got it down! There are still a few accidents here and there but most of all he knows when to run to the toilet! He just turned three and I can’t believe how fast he is growing up! My first day there he was barely one! There were only a few words he knew and now all that has changed! He talks in sentences and he isn’t a little baby anymore! And the 4 year old Sam too! He will be starting Kindergarten! HOLY COW! Time flies when your raising boys!
LITTLE BABY SPENCER WALKED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He took his first three steps from Alicia into Chad’s arms, now he is walking everywhere! We are going to head out to Grandma and Grandpas to see him for dinner! I’m so excited! Well I have a meeting with the bishop DUN DUN DUN! (We Got trouble) yah he found out about my master drug dealing skills, no it’s my annual checkup you get every year! Anyways I’m done talking now! Bye!!! Oh. P.S. Elder Fortie- the cats are going bye bye!
-JENNIFER
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