See pics at:
Fortie Family Flyer
September 7 – 13, 2009
Dear Family and Friends,
It’s good to see you again; after all it’s been an entire week since we last had one of our little chats. Hope your adventures are top notch.
Well, as for our house let’s see, we had a holiday Monday so we went holidaying. We all went over to Curt and Mary Kay’s for lunner (that’s either a late lunch or an early dinner, take your pick). We ate some fine food and got ourselves rather full, then foolishly went out to play volleyball. Now while everyone else was barefoot, I was playing in my steel toe boots (which I always wear to keep my ankle stable so it will last the entire day) so I with a belly full of food and heavy boots on wasn’t going to do much jumping (we won’t even talk about the fact that I was the oldest one playing). We ended up having Curt, Chad, Jennifer and me against Brent, Craig, Facil and Michelle. After a few minutes I finally decided to take my heavy boots off and take my chances. It wasn’t bad until I started diving and tumbling in an attempt to make some amazing saves (which didn’t work out so well, not like it used to 30 years ago) and on one of my rolls I hit my toes pretty hard. I limped a bit but the adrenalin kept me going. Finally after we won two of the three fairly long games we stopped (I don’t think Brent and Craig tried very hard - trying to be nice to the old folks and all). When I went to put my shoes on I looked at my aching toe and noticed it was very black at the tip (my middle toe on my left foot) I have had a broken toe before and I realized that, once again, I had broken my toe right at the tip. I carefully put my sock and shoe on and stayed off of it as much as I could for the rest of the day. We had a great time there talking, eating and playing then headed home. I taped my broken toe to the one next to it so I wouldn’t bend it as that was very painful. That worked and the tape is still there holding my toe straight until it heals.
As usual, the rest of the week was spent editing pictures of Rauckhorsts and Arnolds and making prints of temples for people in the ward and some out of town who saw my pics on the internet.
On Thursday I went to Repartee Gallery to get a check as we needed money quickly (and they owed me money from January until now). I also went down to BYU to take inventory and put more pictures in. It was exciting that my last check from BYU was double from the month before but my attempts to get Sounds of Zion to distribute them all over the country have met with dead ends. I came home a bit discouraged that I can’t seem to make enough to take care of my family. It has also been very discouraging that my attempt to become a teacher has also, as is the case with so many other things, come to a dead end. My personality is such that I have a hard time (though I know how important it is) keeping a positive attitude when things are not going well. I’ll keep working on it. Artists seem to always have it very hard before things go well for them (some not until they are dead). Believing when things are hard is a challenge. Should I persist or get a job at Wal-Mart to pay the bills or both, I don’t know; probably both.
Late Friday night I was watching an episode of Monk meeting his father that my family said I needed to watch (a DVD from the library – before it had to go back) when I looked up and saw Tyler Rauckhorst in the hallway. He came home with Brian after a young adult activity. I guess he texted Brian saying he was in town and needed a place to stay. We made a bed for him in the family room and we all get to bed at about 1:00 a.m. I wish I had had more time to spend with him but he came to hang with someone in Provo on Saturday and I was gone before he woke up.
With all the commotion I forgot that I was supposed to go administer the ACT test early Saturday morning, luckily they called me and I headed out as quickly as I could. They got my group in their seats for me and I got there just in time to do the test. I am so absent minded. It is always hard to give the test. I like to interact with the kids but they don’t want anything to do with some old guy giving a test that they will never see again. You are a stranger and they just want to take the test and leave; wouldn’t want to do that everyday. One of the younger Fox kids was in my room and he came up to talk to me afterwards (they used to be in our ward out here, before the ward boundaries started shrinking with new houses being built around us).
After the test we all headed to my parents to watch the BYU game. Though it is nice to beat the other team (Tulane) so easily it isn’t nearly as exciting. We cheered for the great plays and ate chips and salsa and cookies and ice-cream and had fun. We had to leave rather quickly after the game, Brian had a singles ward activity and Michelle had homework. Jennifer stayed home as she wasn’t feeling well.
Sunday Jennifer stayed home from church fairly sick. I was called last week to teach the High Priests and was set apart today and taught my first lesson right after being set apart. It was about friendship and I challenged everyone at the end to invite someone over to make a friend before I teach again next month (I only teach one lesson each month). The lesson seemed to go well. After church I made some calls to see who in the ward we could visit to talk to about where their family is at with their genealogy. After getting three families lined up I picked Bro. Mueller up and we headed out. The visits were good and we noticed that some people are more interested in getting genealogy going than others. Hopefully we can get some fires burning under some feet in the ward.
Well, that’s it from our house; pretty exciting huh. Well, maybe not so much but that’s life. Sometimes hard and sometimes fun. I listened to a Liz Lemon Swindle talk on BYU TV while writing this letter and it was helpful. She talked of her history as an artist and it was a difficult one; I guess everyone has challenges. It helped me out and I’m glad I ran into it.
I’m reading a book called “Virus of the Mind,” it’s got a few interesting points but most of it is about evolution and is junk. It makes me want to write a book that makes fun of the foolish THEORY of evolution. I wish I had the money to be able to sit and write. Someone needs to; that stuff is so full of holes that I have no doubt it will someday be looked at like the crazy notion science/religion once had about the sun and all the stars being in a sphere circling around the earth. The strange orbits of the other planets, which they also believed were going around the earth, needed some pretty crazy mathematical formulas to make their theories fit because of the strange orbits. It’s amazing what lengths they go through today to avoid a higher intelligence… selfish genes indeed, what crazy fiction.
Anyway, hope your Labor Day was labor free (just say no to labor on labor day).
Watch your toes,
Ken and clan
From Brian:
Jason Happy birthday! We are sending real tangible letters in your box, but happy birthday, hope all is going well for you.
There is a girl in my ward she’s new. She came up and said, “Are you the ward mission leader?” I said yes that I was, and she said, “What was your last name?” (I had introduced myself in the meeting for new members) I said “Fortie” and she said “are there many Fortie’s around here?” I said “No not many it’s pretty rare.” She asked, “Do you know a Jason Fortie?” and I said “Yep that’s my little brother.” She got excited and said “Oh my gosh, I was in his district in the MTC, I went to Los Angeles Spanish speaking. I’m Heather Fouts. He will remember me as Sister Fouts.” Then she asked me for the missionaries’ number (cause we have sisters so she can go with them.) So she is still doing missionary work, I guess she got back about a month ago.
Don’t know if you remember her. Happy birthday again.
From Elder Fortie:
Alright quickly once again, sorry life gets continually more and more busy. So I got called as the zone leader over the downtown Oakland zone, the largest zone in the mission, 48 missionaries, and I am over the Oakland temple, so my life is a crap shoot of meetings and chaos and all breathing has been put on hold until a later date. Sorry there was no real letter last week, nor really this week seeing as while I was writing last week I got called by pres. to go pick up a missionary who had done something dumb and I had to emergency transfer him to San Francisco, and now I just got called to go help the A.P's so more explanations will have to wait, but I've finally left my San Fran. I'm not gonna lie over here does not feel like my mission, I feel out of place and like I already went home... but we just make the best of what we've got. Sorry everyone, I will write a proper letter some day. Pray that I shall have time to breathe some time this week!Love, Elder Fortie
P.S. (In answer to dad’s letter about getting older) Actually I have been getting white hairs for about the past 6 months... I go the way of all the earth. Hey so the other day I was in the visitors center looking waiting for my companion so I jumped on the genealogy computer to pass some time and I found a Pablo Fortie from Lima Peru!!! He was the only Fortie in all the South American records, might be interesting to look in to. Also I noticed Grandpa's brother Phil who died in the war is not connected to the Fortie family tree on the church's website, might want to look at that too. I'll pray for one and all! Good grief (all the injuries), you all need a nap, or time out or something!
From Michelle:
Dear family and friends,
How are you? How is life treating you? How goes the fight? Just take one step at a time… believe me, it relieves stress! I basically used to be the type that tried to take everything with a running leap… and then I got gray hair… so I’ve just been trying to relax and keep life easy!
I’m not going to give you a day to day update like I usually do, but I will try to quickly hit all of the major points in my life!! First… school is back in session (unfortunately). I was pretty psyched at first to see all of my buddies and the friends I haven’t seen in forever!! But pretty soon, that magic wore off, and I’m just really sick of most of the work and the early mornings. Some of my classes are pretty legit though, and I’ve been having fun with those! My physics class is pretty amazing. Half of it is the fact that I basically have some of the coolest and most fun people EVER in that class. The other half of it is the fact that I pretty much have the greatest physics teacher of all time… that’s all. Mr. Justis is this crazy, funny teacher who is completely unorthodox in all of his teaching methods, but I actually learn a LOT in that class! He’s so great! My French 3H class is pretty great because I have a good friend in there, and he and I have like comedy hour in there! Our teacher says that we argue like a married couple, but we keep him and the rest of the class laughing, so it’s grand!
We had a Labor Day BBQ this past week to celebrate and we went to Uncle Curt and Aunt Mary-Kay’s for some great food and a highly stimulating game of volleyball!! It was a lot of fun and we had many injuries, but ya know, totally worth it!! :] Then we all just kinda hung around and played this game called Fact or Crap, which was pretty freakin amazing, not gonna lie! I won, which was pretty satisfying… :] my competitive side was fed!
For mutual this week, we did service for people in our area who are disabled and can’t do yard work for themselves. On our way there, one of my favorite songs from my favorite band of all time [newly signed] came on the radio… which basically made my day! I was dancing and singing along, as my ward watched and laughed… ‘twas great! Then I got in a plum fight with one of the young men. There were rotting plums on the ground that had fallen from a tree, and we started having a snowball fight with them. It was great, and I think I got him 10x better than he got me! ;] (he wasn’t a very good aim!) And then we ate some delicious treats and it was a great day!
Thursday nights, I have Special Needs Mutual, so I got to go to that again! My little girl was there, ready and waiting to have a great time! She has Down syndrome and is almost 16 years old! She is so sweet and funny, and I love her to death! We had fun singing and coloring this week, and she and I went and talked to her best friend, and a friend of mine that she secretly (or not so secretly) has a crush on! :] She’s adorable and I’ve come to love my Thursday nights!
Last week I forgot to write I believe, but I got asked and answered my Homecoming date, and now I have my dress too!! It’s super pretty and red and white! I love it and I have fun just wearing it all around the house… even though I don’t think my mom enjoy that part too much… she likes it on its hanger! I’m going in a group with one of my best friends forever, so I’m pretty excited! This should be fun! I went on another date with the guy this past week, and we had a lot of fun! He’s really funny, so I’m pretty much stoked!
Friday night I hung with Cole and Courtney (two of my other besties) and we went and visited Taylar Shay (another bestie) and took her a chocolate shake! Then we went to the movie in the park and watched it laying on the grass! It was called… The Man From Snowy River… or something like that… and it was actually pretty funny. We were really hyper, and the acting in it was pretty cheesy, so we pretty much died laughing… that’s all. :]
I think that was all of my week… if I’ve forgotten something big and exciting I’ll be sure to try to remember to add it to next week’s letter, which I will try to remember to write! I love y’all and hope this week goes well!! The greatest weapon a person can own is a confident smile! Much love!!
Love,
Michelle Fortie
September 7 – 13, 2009
Dear Family and Friends,
It’s good to see you again; after all it’s been an entire week since we last had one of our little chats. Hope your adventures are top notch.
Well, as for our house let’s see, we had a holiday Monday so we went holidaying. We all went over to Curt and Mary Kay’s for lunner (that’s either a late lunch or an early dinner, take your pick). We ate some fine food and got ourselves rather full, then foolishly went out to play volleyball. Now while everyone else was barefoot, I was playing in my steel toe boots (which I always wear to keep my ankle stable so it will last the entire day) so I with a belly full of food and heavy boots on wasn’t going to do much jumping (we won’t even talk about the fact that I was the oldest one playing). We ended up having Curt, Chad, Jennifer and me against Brent, Craig, Facil and Michelle. After a few minutes I finally decided to take my heavy boots off and take my chances. It wasn’t bad until I started diving and tumbling in an attempt to make some amazing saves (which didn’t work out so well, not like it used to 30 years ago) and on one of my rolls I hit my toes pretty hard. I limped a bit but the adrenalin kept me going. Finally after we won two of the three fairly long games we stopped (I don’t think Brent and Craig tried very hard - trying to be nice to the old folks and all). When I went to put my shoes on I looked at my aching toe and noticed it was very black at the tip (my middle toe on my left foot) I have had a broken toe before and I realized that, once again, I had broken my toe right at the tip. I carefully put my sock and shoe on and stayed off of it as much as I could for the rest of the day. We had a great time there talking, eating and playing then headed home. I taped my broken toe to the one next to it so I wouldn’t bend it as that was very painful. That worked and the tape is still there holding my toe straight until it heals.
As usual, the rest of the week was spent editing pictures of Rauckhorsts and Arnolds and making prints of temples for people in the ward and some out of town who saw my pics on the internet.
On Thursday I went to Repartee Gallery to get a check as we needed money quickly (and they owed me money from January until now). I also went down to BYU to take inventory and put more pictures in. It was exciting that my last check from BYU was double from the month before but my attempts to get Sounds of Zion to distribute them all over the country have met with dead ends. I came home a bit discouraged that I can’t seem to make enough to take care of my family. It has also been very discouraging that my attempt to become a teacher has also, as is the case with so many other things, come to a dead end. My personality is such that I have a hard time (though I know how important it is) keeping a positive attitude when things are not going well. I’ll keep working on it. Artists seem to always have it very hard before things go well for them (some not until they are dead). Believing when things are hard is a challenge. Should I persist or get a job at Wal-Mart to pay the bills or both, I don’t know; probably both.
Late Friday night I was watching an episode of Monk meeting his father that my family said I needed to watch (a DVD from the library – before it had to go back) when I looked up and saw Tyler Rauckhorst in the hallway. He came home with Brian after a young adult activity. I guess he texted Brian saying he was in town and needed a place to stay. We made a bed for him in the family room and we all get to bed at about 1:00 a.m. I wish I had had more time to spend with him but he came to hang with someone in Provo on Saturday and I was gone before he woke up.
With all the commotion I forgot that I was supposed to go administer the ACT test early Saturday morning, luckily they called me and I headed out as quickly as I could. They got my group in their seats for me and I got there just in time to do the test. I am so absent minded. It is always hard to give the test. I like to interact with the kids but they don’t want anything to do with some old guy giving a test that they will never see again. You are a stranger and they just want to take the test and leave; wouldn’t want to do that everyday. One of the younger Fox kids was in my room and he came up to talk to me afterwards (they used to be in our ward out here, before the ward boundaries started shrinking with new houses being built around us).
After the test we all headed to my parents to watch the BYU game. Though it is nice to beat the other team (Tulane) so easily it isn’t nearly as exciting. We cheered for the great plays and ate chips and salsa and cookies and ice-cream and had fun. We had to leave rather quickly after the game, Brian had a singles ward activity and Michelle had homework. Jennifer stayed home as she wasn’t feeling well.
Sunday Jennifer stayed home from church fairly sick. I was called last week to teach the High Priests and was set apart today and taught my first lesson right after being set apart. It was about friendship and I challenged everyone at the end to invite someone over to make a friend before I teach again next month (I only teach one lesson each month). The lesson seemed to go well. After church I made some calls to see who in the ward we could visit to talk to about where their family is at with their genealogy. After getting three families lined up I picked Bro. Mueller up and we headed out. The visits were good and we noticed that some people are more interested in getting genealogy going than others. Hopefully we can get some fires burning under some feet in the ward.
Well, that’s it from our house; pretty exciting huh. Well, maybe not so much but that’s life. Sometimes hard and sometimes fun. I listened to a Liz Lemon Swindle talk on BYU TV while writing this letter and it was helpful. She talked of her history as an artist and it was a difficult one; I guess everyone has challenges. It helped me out and I’m glad I ran into it.
I’m reading a book called “Virus of the Mind,” it’s got a few interesting points but most of it is about evolution and is junk. It makes me want to write a book that makes fun of the foolish THEORY of evolution. I wish I had the money to be able to sit and write. Someone needs to; that stuff is so full of holes that I have no doubt it will someday be looked at like the crazy notion science/religion once had about the sun and all the stars being in a sphere circling around the earth. The strange orbits of the other planets, which they also believed were going around the earth, needed some pretty crazy mathematical formulas to make their theories fit because of the strange orbits. It’s amazing what lengths they go through today to avoid a higher intelligence… selfish genes indeed, what crazy fiction.
Anyway, hope your Labor Day was labor free (just say no to labor on labor day).
Watch your toes,
Ken and clan
From Brian:
Jason Happy birthday! We are sending real tangible letters in your box, but happy birthday, hope all is going well for you.
There is a girl in my ward she’s new. She came up and said, “Are you the ward mission leader?” I said yes that I was, and she said, “What was your last name?” (I had introduced myself in the meeting for new members) I said “Fortie” and she said “are there many Fortie’s around here?” I said “No not many it’s pretty rare.” She asked, “Do you know a Jason Fortie?” and I said “Yep that’s my little brother.” She got excited and said “Oh my gosh, I was in his district in the MTC, I went to Los Angeles Spanish speaking. I’m Heather Fouts. He will remember me as Sister Fouts.” Then she asked me for the missionaries’ number (cause we have sisters so she can go with them.) So she is still doing missionary work, I guess she got back about a month ago.
Don’t know if you remember her. Happy birthday again.
From Elder Fortie:
Alright quickly once again, sorry life gets continually more and more busy. So I got called as the zone leader over the downtown Oakland zone, the largest zone in the mission, 48 missionaries, and I am over the Oakland temple, so my life is a crap shoot of meetings and chaos and all breathing has been put on hold until a later date. Sorry there was no real letter last week, nor really this week seeing as while I was writing last week I got called by pres. to go pick up a missionary who had done something dumb and I had to emergency transfer him to San Francisco, and now I just got called to go help the A.P's so more explanations will have to wait, but I've finally left my San Fran. I'm not gonna lie over here does not feel like my mission, I feel out of place and like I already went home... but we just make the best of what we've got. Sorry everyone, I will write a proper letter some day. Pray that I shall have time to breathe some time this week!Love, Elder Fortie
P.S. (In answer to dad’s letter about getting older) Actually I have been getting white hairs for about the past 6 months... I go the way of all the earth. Hey so the other day I was in the visitors center looking waiting for my companion so I jumped on the genealogy computer to pass some time and I found a Pablo Fortie from Lima Peru!!! He was the only Fortie in all the South American records, might be interesting to look in to. Also I noticed Grandpa's brother Phil who died in the war is not connected to the Fortie family tree on the church's website, might want to look at that too. I'll pray for one and all! Good grief (all the injuries), you all need a nap, or time out or something!
From Michelle:
Dear family and friends,
How are you? How is life treating you? How goes the fight? Just take one step at a time… believe me, it relieves stress! I basically used to be the type that tried to take everything with a running leap… and then I got gray hair… so I’ve just been trying to relax and keep life easy!
I’m not going to give you a day to day update like I usually do, but I will try to quickly hit all of the major points in my life!! First… school is back in session (unfortunately). I was pretty psyched at first to see all of my buddies and the friends I haven’t seen in forever!! But pretty soon, that magic wore off, and I’m just really sick of most of the work and the early mornings. Some of my classes are pretty legit though, and I’ve been having fun with those! My physics class is pretty amazing. Half of it is the fact that I basically have some of the coolest and most fun people EVER in that class. The other half of it is the fact that I pretty much have the greatest physics teacher of all time… that’s all. Mr. Justis is this crazy, funny teacher who is completely unorthodox in all of his teaching methods, but I actually learn a LOT in that class! He’s so great! My French 3H class is pretty great because I have a good friend in there, and he and I have like comedy hour in there! Our teacher says that we argue like a married couple, but we keep him and the rest of the class laughing, so it’s grand!
We had a Labor Day BBQ this past week to celebrate and we went to Uncle Curt and Aunt Mary-Kay’s for some great food and a highly stimulating game of volleyball!! It was a lot of fun and we had many injuries, but ya know, totally worth it!! :] Then we all just kinda hung around and played this game called Fact or Crap, which was pretty freakin amazing, not gonna lie! I won, which was pretty satisfying… :] my competitive side was fed!
For mutual this week, we did service for people in our area who are disabled and can’t do yard work for themselves. On our way there, one of my favorite songs from my favorite band of all time [newly signed] came on the radio… which basically made my day! I was dancing and singing along, as my ward watched and laughed… ‘twas great! Then I got in a plum fight with one of the young men. There were rotting plums on the ground that had fallen from a tree, and we started having a snowball fight with them. It was great, and I think I got him 10x better than he got me! ;] (he wasn’t a very good aim!) And then we ate some delicious treats and it was a great day!
Thursday nights, I have Special Needs Mutual, so I got to go to that again! My little girl was there, ready and waiting to have a great time! She has Down syndrome and is almost 16 years old! She is so sweet and funny, and I love her to death! We had fun singing and coloring this week, and she and I went and talked to her best friend, and a friend of mine that she secretly (or not so secretly) has a crush on! :] She’s adorable and I’ve come to love my Thursday nights!
Last week I forgot to write I believe, but I got asked and answered my Homecoming date, and now I have my dress too!! It’s super pretty and red and white! I love it and I have fun just wearing it all around the house… even though I don’t think my mom enjoy that part too much… she likes it on its hanger! I’m going in a group with one of my best friends forever, so I’m pretty excited! This should be fun! I went on another date with the guy this past week, and we had a lot of fun! He’s really funny, so I’m pretty much stoked!
Friday night I hung with Cole and Courtney (two of my other besties) and we went and visited Taylar Shay (another bestie) and took her a chocolate shake! Then we went to the movie in the park and watched it laying on the grass! It was called… The Man From Snowy River… or something like that… and it was actually pretty funny. We were really hyper, and the acting in it was pretty cheesy, so we pretty much died laughing… that’s all. :]
I think that was all of my week… if I’ve forgotten something big and exciting I’ll be sure to try to remember to add it to next week’s letter, which I will try to remember to write! I love y’all and hope this week goes well!! The greatest weapon a person can own is a confident smile! Much love!!
Love,
Michelle Fortie
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