July 5 - 11, 2010

Fortie Family Flyer

July 5 – 11, 2010

Dear Family and Friends,

The first part of this week is a continuation of last week’s trip to Nathan and Paige’s home in Washington to be a part of Wyatt’s baby blessing.

            (Here is a little note from Friday night of last week.) When we first arrived in Washington we found our hotel was not in the best area and there were several people wandering past our door that we were a bit nervous about. The boys didn’t seem to be bothered because they had lived for two years, on their missions, in areas much worse than this hotel was in so it was no big deal. However, those of us who had daughters were a bit more nervous. Some families decided to get another hotel for the rest of the trip but I had a feeling we would be alright and Brian and Jason and I talked to the people and made friends with a few of them so we seemed to be accepted and the feeling was that all would be well.

(Now back to Monday.) On Monday we headed to Nathan and Paige’s home from our hotels for a group breakfast. The funny (and a bit scary) thing that we found out that morning was that right outside the hotel that everyone else went to, in order to get away from the one we stayed at, there was a man murdered during the night. With all the police activity there at the hotel the others were delayed so the breakfast was a little late. Everyone joked about how funny it was that our hotel turned out to be the safest. I think it was our attitude towards the people that helped the most. Anyway, we had a nice breakfast and said our goodbye’s and headed out. We sure enjoyed our time with Nathan and Paige and little Wyatt. Hope to see them now and then as he grows so he will know who we are.

We separated from the others to take Brian to Oregon to see some of the people from his mission. We left him in Salem with a member who helped him get around and Jason, Michelle, Jennifer and I went to see Silver Falls just outside of Salem (Tami went with grandpa and grandma). It was just as beautiful as I remembered it from the last time I was there many years ago. We hiked around, took pictures then headed for the coast. I was hoping to walk along the sidewalks of one of the little towns along the coast to get a souvenir and just feel the atmosphere there but we got such a late start and had a hard time finding things in Salem that we didn’t get to the coast until sunset. Jason was driving and got stopped by the police for speeding. I looked over at the speedometer when I saw the police and saw that he wasn’t going that fast so when they said he was going 75 I sat up (I had been resting) and just said there was no way he was going that fast because I looked over right when we saw the police car. They went back to there car for a few minutes and then came back and said they would just give us a warning and told us to be careful. Makes you wonder how honest they are or how much pressure there is to give out speeding tickets so the city can make money (especially from people from out of state).

Anyway, we took a few pictures of the coast at sunset (which was rather windy and cold, in fact, much of the weekend was quite cold for July) and headed home. The rest of the drive was uneventful through Oregon, Idaho and Utah.

            When we got home we had a few days of rushing to unpack and pack by Thursday the 8^th to send Michelle to girl’s camp for three days and Jennifer to France for two weeks. I’ll have to see if I can get the girls to write about their trips and add it in.

Once the girls were gone I had meetings with the Census Bureau to get a new crew for the last phase of the census which was checking on duplicates and other strange problems like addresses that had been marked as non existent to try one more time to be absolutely sure we got everyone. There were a few people in my new team that were pretty good but for the most part I really missed my old crew. In fact, a few of the people drove me crazy with problems and talking my ear off about every little detail that I didn’t need to know, etc. I was glad that group only lasted a few weeks.

After a few days in Oregon Brian flew home and seemed to have a good time.

On Sunday I taught the High Priests about The Priesthood. I found most of my material from We Believe a book of quotes from general authorities… good stuff.

Well, that’s it, or at least that’s it for me. Brian and the girls of course had some great experiences and hopefully I can get them to get it down in writing.

Keep traveling,

Ken and clan

Jason, Michelle and Jennifer along the trail near Silver Falls Oregon

Reflections of Silver Falls

Green along the trail near Silver Falls Oregon

A farm near the coast of Oregon

Jason on the beach

Michelle and Jennifer on the beach

A lighthouse along the Oregon Coast

Night along the Oregon Coast

Michelle at girls camp with Kristin Hutchings

Where Jennifer stayed in France

June 21 - 27, 2010

Fortie Family Flyer

June 21 – 27, 2010

Dear Family and Friends,

            Well, we finished up the regular census (I am writing this several months late so I’m not exactly sure about dates, etc) and our Salt Lake area finished first in the country and to my surprise, my crew tied for first place in the Salt Lake area, not only in being completely done first but in quality of work (fewer returned to be fixed because of problems). I did work hard but it was still a shock to me since I don’t consider myself a good paperwork person. I became close to my crew and they worked hard for me and about 5 of them were top notch people and could handle anything I gave them. In fact, one crew was having a hard time with an apartment manager and they asked for help so I gave Tim (one of my good crew members who happened to be one of Nathan’s friends from the singles ward when Nathan lived with us years ago) a very official looking letter from the Census Bureau and instructed him on how to handle the manager based on my experience with an apartment manager I went and talked to weeks ago that one of my crew members was having a hard time with. He went there with great confidence and did as I said and the manager immediately gave him everything he wanted. The other crew leader was surprised that it went so well for us when they had been working on it for so long. It’s funny how certain experiences can help you down the road with similar situations.  

After we finished with the main census the crew leaders and a few others were sent out in the Salt Lake area to take care of real problem people. That was my first experience going door to door (besides going here and there dealing with people my crew couldn’t handle) and I actually liked it; figuring out how to get problem people to cooperate was very stimulating. I found many people to be fine to work with; they were just hard to catch home. One guy kept avoiding me and even ran in the house when I pulled up to the house while he was sitting in his carport with his dog. I drove around the corner and then walked around the area getting information about him from neighbors. As I walked past his house again he was out watering his lawn (guess he thought I was gone). I walked up and started talking to him and was able to get him to relax and cooperate.

On the last day of finding problem people I came in to hand in my last few binders and a girl came in and said she didn’t dare go into the gate of one home because of some big dogs. The FOS turned to me and asked if I would give it a try and I said I would. I went there and found a big gate with no trespassing and beware of dog signs all over. I first went around to all the neighbors and found out what I could about the guy, and then I went up and rattled the gate to see what I was dealing with. No dogs came so I figured I got lucky and they were in the house so I made lots of noise as I opened the gate and went up to the door. The guy answered the door to the sound of some very big mean dogs that were in the house barking and trying to get out of the door to tear me up. The guy was in shock that I would dare come up to the house and he asked what I was doing there. I told him I was with the census and needed to get some information. He asked if I saw the no trespassing signs and if the gate was closed. I said I saw them and the gate was closed. He said well then I think I will call the police. I said he should go ahead because the census is part of the constitution and we are required to answer the questions and there is a fine if we don’t. I told him it would not be the first time the police had been called on me and since they have to cooperate with me when they arrive it would be very helpful to me. I just acted confident and said I didn’t want to be there and he didn’t want me to be there but since I had to be there we might as well get this over with. I really took him by surprise so he settled down and answered my questions then I smiled and said to him, see that wasn’t that bad, and he smiled back at my boldness and we said our goodbyes and I left.

I had a few others that were adamant about their right to privacy and I had gone to their neighbors first (that’s the secret with these problem people) and got most of their information and I just said I needed to verify that the information I already had was correct (I didn’t tell them where I got it). They seemed to always want to hear what I already had so they let me continue. When I read names and birthdays, etc. they would just answer if they were correct and fix any that were not. With my sneaky tactics I got more information than the average census taker. I learned some pretty good tricks in those few weeks. Too bad they can’t use people who know what they are doing over and over again with each census. Practice makes perfect but since it only happens every 10 years they can’t really get too many people who really know what they are doing to come back (actually some of the people who did the census have done it before).

After that program we were all told that since we finished early we might go help other states. We heard that we might go to Louisiana, then South Dakota, then Las Vegas – all places that were behind and might need our help. Most of us were very excited to be able to go; it would have been good money for us and a new experience. Well, the excitement didn’t last very long because a few days before we were supposed to go they called and said never mind. Then they thought we might go to St. George to help there, then they said no but we would help in Provo. When Provo found out about that they weren’t very excited about it since they wanted to get paid to do their own work and just because we finished early we shouldn’t get their paychecks, anyway it was a mess and I don’t have time to go over all the details (besides you would get bored if you aren’t already). Well Salt Lake sent us down there anyway and we did a few days of work with them not being very grateful (as I said, all this happened over a few weeks and I’m not exactly sure now which ones (I’m writing in January 2011) but I think it was all in the last few weeks of June).

I also believe I got my next group to train for a few weeks of work in Salt Lake to look for places that had been labeled as nonexistent. I was sad that I couldn’t have kept my top 5 people from my original group but they wanted new groups in case people were working together to fake information but not really do the work. During training one of the people in my new group told me he though I would make a good boss. I hadn’t thought that while I was evaluating them as to how good they were going to work for me, they were evaluating me as to what kind of a boss I was going to be compared to their previous boss. Anyway, the training went well and we prepared to do the work after the 4^th of July (I think that’s how it happened – can’t remember if the training was after the 4^th or just the work, oh well, it doesn’t matter that much).

Well, other than the census the girls wanted to paint their rooms since they had marked up the walls with tape from posters and junk over the years and they were having girls come stay with them for 2 weeks from France, so they figured out what they wanted and they went and bought the paint and I spent much of the week helping them paint. It was a big project but it looked good when we finished.

The girls and I (Tami wasn't feeling well) went to Park City on Saturday as JetBlue booked the entire place for all the employees to come and play in. We went down the Alpine Slide and got some of the free food but we got there so late because of our work schedules that the lines were too long to really get around to all the cool stuff that was up there. We did have fun and once while we were standing in line I heard someone yell from across the way, “Mayor Shinn,” I knew they were calling for me so I looked over and sure enough it was someone else that had been in the play so we talked for a bit. I get that now and then in the library or at Smiths. Kids will tell their parents, “There is Mayor Shinn” because they don’t know my real name but they recognize me from the play. It is funny to see the reaction from some of the people once in a while. The librarian thought I must be someone real important because everyone kept coming up and talking to me when I was standing near the counter. I’m not used to that.

Jennifer bought a new bed so I spent part of this week (or the next, can’t remember) putting it together. It is a nice bunk bed with a couch on the bottom that can be made into a large bed and a normal twin bed on the top. She sure likes it.

After some good response on Facebook to a picture I took a few weeks ago of the Jordan River and Oquirrh Mountain Temples in a row I decided that since that shot was a bit foggy because of bad weather I should go out and get a better shot. On Friday the 25^th I was out doing something early in the morning and I went over to the same spot and got some better shots. On my way back to the car I noticed some yellow flowers (weeds really) that had the sun behind them. I couldn’t resist so I took some pictures of them. To what end I don’t know but I took them.

Well, that’s all I can remember from this week.

Keep your journals up, it’s hard to remember a half a year later what went down,

Love you all,

Ken and clan

May 10 - 16, 2010

Fortie Family Flyer

May 10 – 16, 2010

Dear Family and Friends,

So, the week was a census week for me and that about sums it up. Lot’s of interesting stories from each of my crewmembers about strange people and their strange responses to the census. Nothing really new though.

I have been getting headaches almost everyday for several months now. I have been experimenting for a while to determine if it is a food allergy or what. It is hard to tell, sometimes I think it is wheat, then sugar, then chocolate. Maybe I’m just allergic to food in general. If I stop eating for a few months it will probably all go away. I’ll have to figure it out.

I took a break from all the chaos this week and I rode my scooter up the canyon and stopped in a quiet place where I saw several deer. I walked up a dry streambed, sat down and played my flute to the forest. It was a nice break from the hustle and bustle of modern day life. After that little break it was back down to my meetings with my crew and all the paperwork and dealing with problems.

Sunday was a nice break as well. I did have to get up early to collect binders and papers from my crew and get them to my boss (not fun or relaxing) but then I didn’t have a new class yet to start the genealogy lessons over again and I didn’t have to teach High Priests so I used the time to create a questionnaire to find out where everyone is on their genealogy and passed them out to everyone in Priesthood, Relief Society and Primary. After church we wrote letters, Tami made a dessert, and we all took a nap while we waited for Brian to come home from his meetings. The home teachers came by while we were all asleep so it took us a few minutes to get our bearings as we let them in. We enjoy their visit and tend to keep them here longer than we should but we like the company.

After that we headed to grandpa and grandmas for dinner. It was a nice day so we had a BBQ outside. I went out back with Spencer to explore and I found a watering can in his favorite shed. I filled it and had him help me water some flowers. He got quite a kick out of that so we kept doing it over and over again. Later Brian chased him with those big punching balloons and he would run into the shed and shut the door screaming all the way. We all had a good laugh at the performance; nothing like a good dinner and a show. After dinner we played ‘keep the large bag of old birthday balloons off the ground,’ it was fun. We then played a few rounds of golf and headed home.

That’s it from our house.

Keep playing music,

Ken and clan

From Elder Fortie:

Well, it's my last day in the field... tomorrow I will spend the day with president, then the next day... well the next day I'm not sure what happens but I think it's something comparable to the great wall of china falling down or something like that....

Well I have a request. My homecoming is next week, as I'm sure you are all aware of. My request is, that as many non members as possible are there to hear me speak! Invite everybody you know! Spread the word through the ward, family members etc. to bring as many non-member friends as they can muster up! That would make my day to be able to talk to one last group of people that don't yet have the gospel! Can you imagine if every member brought one none member!???!!!!!! (I had to use as many of those as I could with that statement!) So spread the word and bring on the people, and tell whatever Elders that cover our area they are welcome to bring investigators, and I will try not to let them down! So let it be written so let it be done!

Otherwise, well I suppose I'll talk to you all next week... not much else to say for now... uhm, oh, so Satan is a mean cuss! He is not letting me quit easy. So my eye is recovering just fine from the last weeks surprise, but this week, hehe... I may have damaged some of the discs in my back slightly... I'm now on some more happy medications, and pain killers... and I possibly will have to see a chiropractor... but I should be fine!!!! emphasis on that, meaning no need to call and bother the office people, they can't tell you anything more then exactly what I just told you, so yeah we shall see how that goes, but Satan is just cruel that's all I gots to say.

Well I shall see you all soon, take care, be happy and keep on smiling!

Love, Elder Fortie

From Jennifer:

Hello! I thought since this is gonna be the last letter, I’d better write!

            So elder Fortie, how are things going? I never finished with my Disneyland telling but I think I will just wait for you to be home. We have lots of pictures to show you! And I’m sure you have plenty to show us. Sorry, don’t mean to make you trunky ha ha.

            This week I babysat everyday and had some fun moments with the boys! Last week the little guys and I made a mothers day dinner of slightly soggy spaghetti, meat blobs and chocolate cupcakes that had marshmallow cream inside, but we forgot to only fill them 2\3 of the way and we filled them to the top, making them overflow all over, but it was fun! But there was so much batter left, so we ate it all and got our faces really messy, the pictures were priceless!

            My school finished up with end of year testing this past week, making school now pointless, but really fun! Freshman year baby! I’ve been so good with my grades lately, I’m not gonna lie, I’m pretty proud. Anyway, the school had all the students take the personality color quiz thing, I’m a white with blue and yellow perfectly tied in second, and absolutely no red. It was really cool to learn about the different personalities! And fun to learn what my best friends are, none of them are white, just me, all alone. Ha ha, but that’s okay, because when I’m around them the more yellow in me comes out! I had yet another friend pass me up, I’m now the shortest one in our group, I guess I should get used to that, alas, I am done growing, at a whopping 5ft.2in. I know, I’m gigantic! But on the positive side I can always wear heels on dates! J Bonus!

Well, I had a way fun night with some of my best friends-Hannah, Derek, Gabe, Sharpie (his real name is McKay), Kati, Kevin and Sarah. We played basketball for a minute, well the guys and I did, which I epically failed at, because I’m almost a whole foot shorter then sharpie, but oh well! Then we all played boys against girls keep away and watched a movie called Hoovers, really boring movie by the way! We were all more focused on the guy’s creepy short shorts and our candy! Yummy! Then we made delicious personal pizzas that were actually really big! I didn’t come close to finishing mine! But I tried an anchovy at the same time as Derek and Sharpie, really not THAT bad, but I’d never have them again, I’ve tried it once, now I can say I’ve done it and go on with life!

Which I have to go do now! Off to grandma and grandpa’s! Can’t WAIT to see you! Good luck on your mission! Love you, and bye.     

Jennifer