Bday interview

 Birthday interview Me, Chelsey, age 51

Technically it’s Chelsey Alayne Mergenthaler

Interview done and written by:  Ben Belt with Jordan and Mckenzie commenting in the background.  If the grammar is bad, blame him.

My favorite color: Blue.

My favorite food: Filet Mignon.

My favorite treat: Ghiardelli’s sea salt almond dark chocolate, or a warm drink…like a mocha or chai (she’s a sinner and going to hell) ((actually outer darkness since hell isn’t real in Mormonism))

My favorite thing to do at work (the question is really your favorite subject in school, but she’s not in school): Talk to her favorite patient (she hates her not favorite patients because they’re mean to her, “I bet I’m paying for your kids next year in college”-patients).

My favorite sport: what is considered a sport? Basketball, my favorite son made me a basketball hoop.

My favorite hobby: that’s tough too, listening to podcasts.

My favorite movie: Dune 2, it was beautiful and well done and the main looked like my favorite boy.

My favorite book this year: I really enjoyed a book called the women.

My favorite animal: Bear, not a bear but bear our dog(don’t tell blue).

My favorite song: Orange Juice, Noah Khan, it explains a lot about people changing through life and how friends can hold on through change.

My favorite restaurant: Zia’s, cheap, good, reliable. I like to know what I’m getting

My favorite vegetable: that’s a hard one, ummmmmmmmmmmmmmm, yellow/orange peppers.

My favorite fruit: Pink lady apples.

My favorite place to visit: Anacortes in the summer.

Where I want to visit some day: so many places, Bariloche Argentina.

My best friend: Dad, Brady Daddy.

My best girlfriend: Tammy Fenberg.

My favorite thing to do with my children: so much, they are the best, mainly Ben. I like one on one talks with them no matter what we’re doing.

My favorite thing to do with my dad: Going on walks.

My favorite thing to do with my mom: I like when I can get my mom to laugh.

My favorite thing to do with my siblings: Laugh and cry about our childhood.

I want to learn to: Dance the Salsa all sexy like.

My greatest talent: this is a hard one, she said that twice now, I don’t know what it is, I’m good at relationships, also super power cheesecake, much better than Jordan’s, and bone broth. The ability to get people to talk.

Other strengths of mine: Consistency, Reliable and Loyal. I try not to talk bad about other people but if I don’t like them I do think it’s funny. “This woman loves to talk shit, are you kidding me????” - Mckenzie said cackling

I wish: I don’t know, I wish for stability.

I wonder: Is there really a God?

I miss: watching my kids do cool things, just Jake left now and soon he will be gone.  I’m preparing to miss his cool things.   Sometimes I miss teaching, being a positive influence to help people believe in themselves

I get nervous when:  My kids are about to wrestle.

I am happy when: I have good relationships with others.

 

The age I look forward to:  The age when I have grandchildren, Ben please stop practicing safe sex. Molly and Jordan???

What was good about this last year: I really liked the trip to Moab, and I appreciated the outdoors a lot more this year.

Where do you see yourself in five years: I try to live day to day.

Who’s your favorite child: I don’t have one 🙄, it’s the one I’m with. 

What does your perfect day look like: I get up early at 6 and I’m done by 8, I take a shower, look super hot with lots of good hair and makeup, talk to each of my children, and I watch one of my children do something cool at night with Brad. And I get to listen to any kind of music, which helps me relax. Bed at 10 or 11. I enjoy something beautiful with someone throughout the day.

“I’m not gay, but if I was gay I’d be gay for Jonah Kagen” - Jordan

12 years plus

 Yesterday I went to a wrestling tournament to watch Jake wrestle.  Brad came too and took pictures.  Jake took second.  I've been at a wrestling tournament 4 out of the last 5 weeks.  I plan to be at a wrestling tournament 4 out of the next six weeks.  We started the kids in wrestling when Jordan was in 6th grade.  Ben was in 2nd grade and Riley was in kindergarten.  That was 15 years ago.  Of those 15 years, 12 have been spent in the high school; Jordan 4 years, Ben 4 years, Jacob 4 years.  I'd count Riley but he overlapped Ben and Jake...so you can't count that.  The first four years I had a middle school wrestler and two peewee wrestlers.  I was overjoyed when we just had middle school and high school wrestling and then finally just high school wrestlers.  When my husband enrolled my sons in wrestling I had no idea what I was getting into.  I was never around wrestling.  It was always during basketball season and I played basketball.  Plus, my dad discouraged us from going to wrestling tournaments.  He lost talented basketball players to wrestling because wrestling was THE SPORT for young men in my high school.  Every year wrestlers placed at state.  In 1991, when I was a sophomore, the team took state.  I just had to look that up.  Again, I was totally ignorant of wrestling.  I didn't know what a fall was, what a takedown was, what a reversal was.  I didn't know what back points were, what a half nelson was, what a double leg was.  I definitely didn't know the way a mom's heart races before a match of her child or how few win, actually win, in their very last match.  No matter if you win all your other matches to get to the first place match there is only one winner and one loser.  Duh, Chelsey, you may be saying because in every sport there is always one winner and one loser, it's just that in wrestling it seems so much more....personal.  Or maybe it's just that 2nd place in a wrestling tournament is much more disappointing than second place in a track meet, which is the only individual sport I participated in.  I went into the sport knowing nothing.  I just wanted Jordan to win is all.  And he did sometimes and he didn't sometimes.  I didn't know what camps to send him to or how to make him better.  I just trusted the coaches.  

My first four years I couldn't go to many of Jordan's matches because of the little kids.  I did always go to the local tournaments though and I would hate when I traveled there to watch my kids go two and out.  Losing in wrestling is hard.  You have to overcome the mental loss more than the actual loss.  And you have to be willing to go out there again and take the risk of being beat up again.  And, in wrestling, if your team is small, there is no team to absorb the loss.  It's all on you.

Mentors stepped in for my kids....like Josh who drove all of my boys to tournament after tournament after tournament across the states to get them more matches.  Or Jeremy and Matt who coached my kids (who were losers at the time) in peewees.  They were there consistently and were willing to raise my boys up with their wrestlers.  I got to know parents as the years came by.  I met the parents in junior high, travelled with them in high school and watched them leave as their child graduated and I still had another boy left to wrestle.

More mentors came in...Luke, Silva, Akana (I think I spelled that wrong), Grizz, Griff, Paul, Moss, more parents and suddenly I was the mom teaching others where to go and how to get their kid to state.

I have spent a lot of hours with the wrestling program.  And now, we are in the final 6 weeks of my last son's wrestling season.  5 weeks if he doesn't go to state.  Less if he gets injured.  Jordan was unable to finish his senior year when he broke his elbow during wrestling practice.

What will I do next year?  Will I still coach the girls?  Can I give enough time?  Do I have enough knowledge to be valuable to the coaching staff...or should I just take a break from the racing heart and sweaty hands as I watch the wrestlers I love, especially mine, step onto that mat and into that circle?

Such short time we have.  Those never ending 7 hour tournaments where I sat on hard wooden bleachers in hot, stuffy gyms are now not seeming long enough.

I'm proud of my boys for wrestling. Wrestling is the hardest sport I personally know of at the high school level.  As I am prepping myself to take off my mama wrestler hat I realize just how much I will miss it...all of it; sweaty gyms, heart attacks, thrills, tears, pain, effort, and friendships.  Here's to a great 12 years spent.  Let's go Jake!

My annual Christmas card....a recap of 2025

 Happy new year to all of our friends and family!  We hope this letter finds all of our friends happy after the Holidays and ready to face the excitement of another year.  I did post a very brief update of all the going ons in the Belt family on facebook around Christmas time but if you want a deeper insight into our family and what has been happening, read on.  If you are satisfied with the brief synopsis given, feel free to skip the following.

Yes, Riley is wearing his coat underneath his suit coat and an arcteryx beanie that he wouldn't take off Christmas day.  We did try to encourage him to dress nicer, which is why he put on the suit coat, so at least we got that.  Also, this is always the way the Belts roll, so none of what I just said should surprise you.

Let's start with Brad.  Brad is still building his sauna.  

He did take a sabbatical from his sauna making as he:

Welded a snowmobile rack for his trailer,

resurfaced a snowmobile trailer,

tied flies,

perfected his new traveling camper,

and fixed wounds, on the table, while eating breakfast.

Brad is always learning and endeavoring to improve our lives and surroundings.  Hopefully, next year, I can report the sauna finished.

Chelsey, that's me.  I am still tending chickens, attempting to prove I am as tough as Brad when I mountain bike, pretending to be a wrestling coach (which while I do like, I know that I really would feel more comfortable coaching basketball), getting stronger (I deadlifted 245 for 6 reps this year and can now do 8 continuous pull-ups) and am attempting to adjust to the reality that life will be very different next year as all my children will be out of the home.  Who will I make instagram reels about now?  No one wants to hear me sing.

Jordan and Molly are thriving in Salt Lake just like last year.  Jordan is in his third year of Dental school while Molly is supporting the family working as a MA for a cardiologist group.  I've said this before but I am so impressed with the two of them and what they are accomplishing.  They really pull the kids together in Utah with dinners at their house and adventures.  This year they took up concerts and backpacking. I should also add that Jordan mountain biked the most miles of any Belt this year.  I wish I could remember the number, but I cannot.  You will have to ask him.

McKenzie is in her second year of dental school.  Has gotten into weight lifting and birdwatching.  If you go on a hike with her, she is always asking, "Did you hear that?" and getting out her binoculars to find out just what bird it is.  She has so many hobbies and, besides becoming a dentist, truly wants to be a naturalist and is learning about plants and animals as much as she can.  

Ben is in his final year of the University and will graduate with a civil engineering degree this fall.  He interned this summer with a geotech engineering firm in Utah that works for UDOT.  He still wrestles with a wrestling club and is a huge help to his brother, Jake, when he comes home and volunteers to be his wrestling partner.  Ben is up for any adventure and has the most perfect hair of any Belt when he actually combs it, but why comb it when a hat looks just as good?

Riley is a sophomore at Utah Valley University and is studying pre-med hoping to become a surgeon one day.  He is ambitious and driven.  He worked as an MA in an opthalmology office here in town trying to get more medical experience for his application to Medical school.  He has been spending a whole bunch of time rock climbing hoping to do a multipitch climb this coming spring.

Last, but not least is Jake.  Jake is a senior in high school.  He is currently in the middle of his final wrestling season and wants to be the first Belt to not only make it to state, but place at state.  He works hard and we hope to see him achieve his goals.  Secretly, he wants to be a jedi master and got a banana katana for Christmas from his sister.  He'd also be happy as a singing cowboy...someone like Charlie Crockett.  Jake keeps us laughing and entertained with his great sense of humor, music, impersonations (he does a pretty good Trump) and charisma.  He wants to attend UVU next fall so he can be with his siblings in Utah and thinks he might want to pursue a pre-dental degree.

We have had many adventures this past year together and apart.  We have grown and changed over the past years and this mandates flexibility, kindness and forgiveness in our family relationships to stay close.  We value our relationships with others and are grateful for the way you all have enriched our lives.  We hope this year, though you may face challenges, that you have much joy and growth and rich interactions with others and that this letter finds you in good spirits.  We love you all!

The Belts

A motobee family Christmas

 Everyone was home for Christmas this year.  I know this is a rare event and am reminded that this may be the last Christmas where everyone is home together so I tried to soak up every minute.

Presents were opened...Riley was the elf.

Is that a banana katana you ask?  Why, yes it is.  

Games were played, saunas built, chickens taken care of and puzzles put together.

Hikes were taken.

And basketball backboards were built and installed.  Warning....DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME!

Moab

November 1 we met up with our Utah kids and enjoyed beautiful Moab while camping, mountain biking and hiking.  The trip, to me, truly felt surreal.  I loved every moment of the time we got to spend together.