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Fortie Family Flyer
May 11 – 17, 2009
Dear Family and Friends,
Well, weeks come and weeks go and this is one of them. The scooters continue to be fun to ride. To get it up on the kickstand (two prongs that lift half the scooter off the ground) you have to push down on the kickstand and lift up on the back of the scooter while pulling backwards on the handlebars. It’s a bit tricky and in order to ride the scooters beyond just around the neighborhood to friends houses Michelle has to be able to park it (by herself, no friends helping). She couldn’t quite get it until a boy at her school offered to help. Well, you know Michelle, she can’t appear weak in front of a boy so she said she could do it herself and pulled with all her might and finally got it up. What a competitive little thing. At school the coach wouldn’t let her play games during gym because of her broken nose and she wanted to play so he said he would let her if she would wear a football helmet or a hockey mask. She chose the hockey mask so she could play softball. She pitches for her team so they needed her. I would like to have had my camera there to get a shot of her out there pitching softball with a hockey mask on; crazy kid. She seems to be one of the coach’s favorites and gets away with pretty much anything she wants. She can play most of the sports and keeps things fun so the coach likes her.
After our visit last week to the insta-care we decided her nose was looking a little crooked and we should make an appointment with a specialist. In talking to some of them they said that insta-care doctor shouldn’t have said we should wait but that we should have brought her in right away. Unfortunately none of them could get her in within two weeks of the break which seemed to be important to do before it set up wrong and the surgery would be harder requiring a three day stay in the hospital. They told us to just go into the emergency room where they would have specialists on duty who could perform surgery right then. Wow, this is crazy stuff. We told my dad about it and as he was talking to Linda who works at a doctors office they found a specialist who also does plastic surgery who said he could see her next Friday and even though that was a day past the two weeks he said it would be ok. So the saga continues. We’ll let you know next week how that goes. The crazy thing is (if this isn’t all crazy enough) she is in one of the specialty dances for the temple dedication program and out of the 20,000 kids performing she and her partner will be right in the front and in the middle about 3 feet from where the Prophet will be sitting. This is being broadcast to all the Stake Centers around the United States and Canada and all the cameras will be focused on her as they do some rather difficult moves which include her partner running up behind her and putting his hands on her shoulders and jumping over her head. All this is one week after her surgery. A few days ago she wore some Groucho Marx glasses with a big nose that she jokingly told her friends was her real nose now. Maybe she will have to wear that during the performance to protect her nose (j/k). We are going to talk to the doctor about it because she has been training for some time for this and it would be difficult to get someone at this point to take her place. Well, we will keep you informed.
Jennifer’s back was on again off again this week but seems to finally be better. My cough is still hanging around but I am able to do most everything I want. So, for the most part, we are improving.
Nathan called out of the blue this week and said he was home safe and sound. I was thinking he had a few more weeks of depopulating Alkhida system Lords, so that was a welcome relief. He said all went well but things are a bit boring there compared to Iraq; not as much action. He also said the media is really causing a problem by believing reports from Alkhida about all the women and children the US soldiers are killing. He says the stories just aren’t true and the media broadcasting their stories is just causing a lot of hate for Americans that shouldn’t be. I have heard reports on NPR that the Alkhida leaders are killing them and acting like it was the Americans (must be true). People need to be careful about what they believe from TV; they are just after ratings. Anyway, Paige drove up to Washington this past week and got an apartment so they could start somewhat of a normal life together finally. They are still waiting for the moving van to bring all their stuff so they are sleeping on the floor for a few nights (Nathan has a bed in the house he was living in before they were married they are going to go get). Paige’s house in Texas hasn’t sold yet so they are thinking of just renting it out until they can get back there to live in it when Nathan gets out next year. So anyway, welcome back Nathan.
May 11 – 17, 2009
Dear Family and Friends,
Well, weeks come and weeks go and this is one of them. The scooters continue to be fun to ride. To get it up on the kickstand (two prongs that lift half the scooter off the ground) you have to push down on the kickstand and lift up on the back of the scooter while pulling backwards on the handlebars. It’s a bit tricky and in order to ride the scooters beyond just around the neighborhood to friends houses Michelle has to be able to park it (by herself, no friends helping). She couldn’t quite get it until a boy at her school offered to help. Well, you know Michelle, she can’t appear weak in front of a boy so she said she could do it herself and pulled with all her might and finally got it up. What a competitive little thing. At school the coach wouldn’t let her play games during gym because of her broken nose and she wanted to play so he said he would let her if she would wear a football helmet or a hockey mask. She chose the hockey mask so she could play softball. She pitches for her team so they needed her. I would like to have had my camera there to get a shot of her out there pitching softball with a hockey mask on; crazy kid. She seems to be one of the coach’s favorites and gets away with pretty much anything she wants. She can play most of the sports and keeps things fun so the coach likes her.
After our visit last week to the insta-care we decided her nose was looking a little crooked and we should make an appointment with a specialist. In talking to some of them they said that insta-care doctor shouldn’t have said we should wait but that we should have brought her in right away. Unfortunately none of them could get her in within two weeks of the break which seemed to be important to do before it set up wrong and the surgery would be harder requiring a three day stay in the hospital. They told us to just go into the emergency room where they would have specialists on duty who could perform surgery right then. Wow, this is crazy stuff. We told my dad about it and as he was talking to Linda who works at a doctors office they found a specialist who also does plastic surgery who said he could see her next Friday and even though that was a day past the two weeks he said it would be ok. So the saga continues. We’ll let you know next week how that goes. The crazy thing is (if this isn’t all crazy enough) she is in one of the specialty dances for the temple dedication program and out of the 20,000 kids performing she and her partner will be right in the front and in the middle about 3 feet from where the Prophet will be sitting. This is being broadcast to all the Stake Centers around the United States and Canada and all the cameras will be focused on her as they do some rather difficult moves which include her partner running up behind her and putting his hands on her shoulders and jumping over her head. All this is one week after her surgery. A few days ago she wore some Groucho Marx glasses with a big nose that she jokingly told her friends was her real nose now. Maybe she will have to wear that during the performance to protect her nose (j/k). We are going to talk to the doctor about it because she has been training for some time for this and it would be difficult to get someone at this point to take her place. Well, we will keep you informed.
Jennifer’s back was on again off again this week but seems to finally be better. My cough is still hanging around but I am able to do most everything I want. So, for the most part, we are improving.
Nathan called out of the blue this week and said he was home safe and sound. I was thinking he had a few more weeks of depopulating Alkhida system Lords, so that was a welcome relief. He said all went well but things are a bit boring there compared to Iraq; not as much action. He also said the media is really causing a problem by believing reports from Alkhida about all the women and children the US soldiers are killing. He says the stories just aren’t true and the media broadcasting their stories is just causing a lot of hate for Americans that shouldn’t be. I have heard reports on NPR that the Alkhida leaders are killing them and acting like it was the Americans (must be true). People need to be careful about what they believe from TV; they are just after ratings. Anyway, Paige drove up to Washington this past week and got an apartment so they could start somewhat of a normal life together finally. They are still waiting for the moving van to bring all their stuff so they are sleeping on the floor for a few nights (Nathan has a bed in the house he was living in before they were married they are going to go get). Paige’s house in Texas hasn’t sold yet so they are thinking of just renting it out until they can get back there to live in it when Nathan gets out next year. So anyway, welcome back Nathan.
Curt took a group from his base on one of their weekend trips to the Lehman Caves just over the Nevada line. He had room for a few more so he invited us to go along. Brian, Michelle and I went along (Tami worked and Jennifer had a friends birthday party to go to) along with Mary Kay’s nephew and his wife. Mark (one of the employees who went on the Logan trip to the Yurt) and his wife went along as well. We went Friday afternoon, stopped in Delta Utah for dinner then continued to the campground near the cave. It took longer than we thought so we arrived after dark, set up camp quickly and headed for bed. We had planned some Dutch oven peach cobbler and s-mores cooked over a fire for the evening but it was just too late so we had to save those for another trip. Curt brought one of those tent trailers that folds out into a nice roomy place. It was very comfortable; wouldn’t mind having one of those. In the morning we fixed a nice breakfast then headed for the cave. We thought we were still in the Utah time zone but when we arrived at the cave we were an hour early. It turned out fine as we used the time to walk a nature trail up above the cave. It was a nice time and we got a few pictures of lizards, wild flowers, etc. We went on the 90 minute tour of the cave at 9:00 a.m. and it was great. Lots of beautiful formations; a good time was had by all. I wasn’t sure if I should take my tripod or not and now I wish I had, the pictures turned out best if I could set my camera up on a wall or something to use the lights in the cave rather than a flash. When you use a flash it really flattens things out and washes out the beautiful colors in the formations; maybe next time. After the cave we went on a drive up the mountain then went back for lunch and headed home. I got a few pictures but would like to have stopped in Delta for some fun shots of that farm country at sunset. It was very rustic and pretty country. Eureka was also an interesting town that would have been fun to wander through getting some fun pictures of some of the old mining town buildings that are barely standing. Well, we enjoyed the trip and I would like to plan another trip with just photographers to go through the cave to see who could get the most creative picture. Maybe have a contest or something; I’ll bring my tripod for that one.
On Sunday we crashed grandpa and grandma’s house for dinner so we could see Spencer crawl. He is doing great and is still happy as can be in spite of his surgery to get some of his plumbing fixed. It’s going to take him awhile to get back to normal but he’s a trooper. We played golf (the card game), had brownies and ice-cream and made up scripts for a play using Star Wars characters in a spoof on the Wizard of Oz. We had some good laughs with that and decided we should have our own reality show with our family. Some of the crazy stuff we come up with is better than most of what we see on TV and we always end the day with a scripture and prayer so people could get a little spiritual stuff as well. In fact we realized that our scripture time is when some of the craziest stuff comes out. We’ll have to think about that.
Well, it’s late and I must get to bed. Take care and keep spelunking.
Ken and clan
From Elder Fortie:
Well, I'm not dead yet, I can still stand without a walker, and there's still a smile stuck on my face. There sound good? Sometimes I think people would be happier if my e-mails were thus, but alas, they are not. They are more like as follows... Dear people...
Well another week in the canal and things are heating up, it hit 101 degrees yesterday, which when you walk around all day in a black suit with a 20 pound back pack on your back and you live 500 yards from the ocean so the humidity level is pretty high that is a rather less then comfortable situation. My white shirts are no longer white, no matter how many times I wash them they now are a permanent Ivory/grey color... and the collars are just straight up black and brown on the inside. Yes I'm sure you all wanted to hear that, sorry, that's my life so that's what I've got to say.
We've still been hitting the streets hard trying to find anyone worth finding before they ship us out of here, it should be less then a week before I have an idea of which mission I will be sent to, but with me president may decide to make me wait to know for sure until 2 days before our mission ends in the end of June, so we shall have to see... But for now the work still rolls forth. I knock about 200 doors a day here, and of the thousands of those, I think we have about 15 that have told us to come back... so not the greatest success, but success none the less! To all of you out there, let me tell you how much more effective MEMBER missionary work is! If YOU as a member get your friends or neighbors of family members to listen to the missionaries THAT is where the missionaries are effective. It is common belief that tracting is just what missionaries do, it's bunk! It's what we have to do because we don't have anything else to do because members don't do their jobs! SO get out there! Find a body, and make them an appointment with YOU AND the missionaries. That's all I have to say about that. Thank you.
Otherwise things have been going alright here, we seem to be quite the attraction for the drunks around here, all the time they will pull over in their cars as we are driving by and just say stuff like "hey, if you drink a beer with us we will talk about Jesus!" Ever so tempting... but no thanks, but we can still talk about Jesus if you want. Interesting people... Alcohol... it's one of the most evil and ridiculous things on this earth, I say we go back to the days of prohibition, I do believe our crime rates would drastically drop and there would not be nearly so many nuts to drive me up the wall here. My companion had a bit of a breakdown this week, he's from Pepperwood, which is a very rich private area in Utah, and I don't think he's had to make to many decisions for himself nor take to much responsibility on his shoulders before. He is none the less a good hard worker and a decent missionary, but when the work wasn't going the way he wanted it to, and suddenly for possibly the first time in his life everyone around him was not treating him nice and taking care of him, he seemed to have a bit of a melt down. But I had a long chat with him and he seems to be doing better. Hopefully he will hold out this week till transfers, I don't know if he is cut out for work in an area as rough as this place. He lets stuff get to him too easily, you need a pretty thick skin to stay smiling in a place like this.
Well I think I am about out of time, and besides most of what I have to say mostly consists of the strange things people do when they answer their doors while I'm tracting which probably does not interest most of you, so I shall make an end. Thank you for all your support, I hope all is well with all of you, take care, drop me a line some time, or cookies, you can drop me those too if you're in the neighborhood, there is never enough of those (though I do always keep some on hand hehe). Congratulations to the fam on all your callings as ward missionaries, get in there, do me proud, remember, your calling is truly the life blood of what makes us full time missionaries effective, your efforts make our valuable time used more efficiently. Michelle, I have been praying for the quick and surgery-less recovery of your little nose-ito (in Spanish if you want to say something is small you add ito to the end haha). And Jennifer I hope your nose stops picking up strange smells in gym... that is a little awkward... Chad and Alicia I'm glad to hear little Spencer is on the mend and that he is still smiling, you must load him up on lots of sugar to get such a happy face all the time! Nathan and Paige, welcome back Nathan! I wasn't expecting you to be home for another month or so and was about to write you a letter over there, so it's a good thing I knew you got home or that would have been a vain pursuit. I hope you two can get settled in and that all goes well for you! Take care all and keep on smiling, life could be worse (I promise I see it all day every day haha).Love Elder Fortie.
P.S try not to kill yourselves on the scooters.
From Jennifer:
Hello one and all!
Some crazy stuff has been happening around here! Michelle has officially broken her nose and will be going into surgery soon! I had a lovely back injury that had me down and doing nothing for a couple days, then it healed and I managed to hurt it again by thinking it was fine to do gym! But at least it didn’t hurt until AFTER gym (during math, yah my plan worked perfect!) (Just kidding…Maybe) so I still got to do gym! Dad has been quit sick and has been chillen at home for the past couple weeks and much to our surprise mom was the healthy one! But that could not last forever of course so she got a nice big migraine Sunday and she could not make it to church. HaHa. Yup pretty crazy, but that’s our family so what can I say! Well the other week we went to the… are you ready for this? Be prepared for some shock and extreme jealousy! CHINESE BUFFET! YUM! It was heaven! My stomach was having a party! So yummy so yummy! It was for grandpa’s birthday and was great fun! And we got to hang out with the family! It was just amazing!
Mother’s day was super fun to! We headed over to grandma and grandpas for dinner, which was super good, and we got to see the cutest kid on earth, Spencer! And then we were scheduled for dessert at uncle Curt’s but Jason called and all us blabber mouths set off and by the time we hung up dessert was over. But we got to talk to Jas oops I mean Elder Fortie!
The other day at school we were in gym and yes I really was healed that time! But we were jogging and then there was the weirdest smell! I decided to ignore it and keep jogging but a couple minutes after that I started getting a headache! I looked around and realized from everyone’s facial expression they were to so I spoke up and asked if any one smelled that and they all said yah. So we called our coach over and she could smell it to. So pretty soon the janitor was in there and before we know it we were getting told to go in the locker rooms because it smelt like a propane leak. We were hoping school might get canceled but nope we had to stay! Never did figure out what it was but it was kind of cool!
Well Baby sitting is great, I’m trying to teach Sammy how to read! Its really fun! But hard at the same time because he has a super short attention span! But oh well! It’s a virtue, right? Everyone is heading out (to grandpa and grandma’s again for dinner) so I got to disappear! I love you all and remember a forced smile is ALWAYS better then a natural frown! Okay hear we go! POOF!
- Jennifer Fortie
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