_{Happy New Year! We hope 2018 has treated you well and wish you all the best in 2019!   Well, we survived another year at our house, but just barely. Here is a little update.}

     _{Keith is 54 and I am 52 and we feel old. I even joined AARP, for the free travel bag. Keith refuses. Only a few more years and we can order off the senior’s menu at IHOP!  We also celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary in May this year. We feel so grateful to have made it this far without stabbing one another.}

    _{We are also a house full of working adults now. Keith is still at Wayfair and commuting to Ogden every day, which he so enjoys. He also is at Vivant Arena part time working events, mostly Jazz games right now. He absolutely hates it, really a nasty gig.}

     _{Zach is 25. and still works for Precision Technology testing circuit boards. He works to support his Amazon addiction, poor thing. And to help his parents pay the bills. Zach has taken up photography and that took us to Moab for our vacation this year. Per my usual, I fell off a curb into the street wearing flip flops as we walked through the town. Go Mom…but we have some gorgeous pictures!}

     _{Holland is 19 and started working full time for ABC New Beginnings Preschool & Day Care in January of this year as a part time aide. Today she is a full time Co-facilitator of the Infant B classroom. 6 to 12 months old. She is doing great! Holland also has an on-line shopping addiction she caught from her brother, but she also contributes to household bills. Now if we could just get her to learn to drive.}

   _{I spent this year working for Harmons in Draper at the Bangerter Crossing location as a Sous Chef and as a Foodie in Sales and Events. In November, after a year and a half at Harmons….and driving Holland to and from work, I started to get a little restless and began looking for a position where I could combine my Business Management Skills with my Culinary Skills. So, I went to Indeed and the first job that popped up was a Culinary Services Director at The Wentworth at Coventry Independent & Assisted Living & Memory Care in Cottonwood. It sounded like the perfect fit, so I applied. I got a call the next day and an interview two days later. A second interview the very next day and a third, corporate interview 4 days later and then a lucrative offer on the day before Thanksgiving.   Boom! I started on December 10th and I have had few days off since, but no looking back. I really love it!}

   _{True to form for me, as I age less gracefully each year, I had my share and your share of accidents this year. I think I have the record for the most incident reports in the shortest amount of time at Harmons. They know me by my first name at Workers Comp. Trips and falls, cuts and face plants, I had at least one of everything…again. The most recent was just December 23. I had made a whipped jello salad, a family favorite, and was carefully carrying the loose jello through my kitchen to put in my garage fridge. Just as I got to the top of my cement steps in my garage, my jello sloshed. Damn! I was in bare feet and took a step right in the jello and slipped, bam, bam, bam down my garage steps! Covered head to toe in green whipped jello, I banged my right ear on the railing and stopped by hitting my left leg into my chest freezer and sliding on the jello under my car. it was after midnight. So, there you go. I never disappoint. Except no jello for Christmas. LOL!}

     _{Thanks to the fact that we love one another, we make a good team, and the fact that we are heavily medicated, we feel blessed and grateful and certainly sometimes pitiful. But life goes on, so we try not to sweat the small stuff. So, Cheers to that and to a happy and prosperous new year! May your days be merry and bright}

 _{The Beltz Family, Keith, DeeAnn, Zach & Holland}     

                                                           

 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! We hope all is well for all of you! 2017 has been fast and furious…and yet draggy and frustrating…and even meandering and exciting.  It has been a weird year.  Good, but weird. Thank goodness we are all still heavily medicated! LOL!

Keith has had another year of transition.  He was laid off from Aspen Press in the spring, yeah the beat goes on with us and our run of less than fabulous luck.  However, it turned out to be an opportunity for Keith to switch gears and do something completely different.  He landed an Account Manager position at Wayfair in their growing Business Division.  Hooray!  A few drawbacks, his office is in Ogden and the pay is half what he was making before (heavy sigh).  BUT, it is a fresh start, Keith is doing well and likes what he does and who he works with and…well…it’s Wayfair for crying out loud! Hello, employee discount! Keith is still the golf loving, movie going, yard working, OCD guy we know and love, but happier than he has been in a while!  Another Hooray!  Except the commute, it drains him dry and he sleeps on the couch most of the evening after he gets home…or maybe it’s just old age.  Anywho, the pros far outweigh the cons at this point.

                        

Zachary turned 24 in October and is working full time for Precision Technology in their Testing area.  They are great to him and pay him well and he likes what he does.  With a house full of adults now, Zach has become an integral part of our family team.  I’m sure he won’t be thrilled with me spilling the beans here, but he does dishes and laundry and cleans his room and the bathrooms as needed.  He is kind to his sister and makes sure she gets lunch and a trip to Maverick or Maceys for a snack every day before he goes to work.  I think that makes him a great catch.  {He did not want me to write that…in fact, neither he or Keith think I am one bit funny.} Still, he takes care of our doggy Bayja and his beloved truck, pays his way and is a joy to have around. Zach also bought a new bike this year and is getting to like riding more and more.  Zach usually sports a full beard with his beautiful dark green eyes.  And…per Zach, that is all I can write about Zach, thank you very much.  Good luck and have a pleasant day

            

Now, about our Holland.  What a year she has had!  Holland turned 18 in April and graduated from Hillcrest High School in June.  She had a fantastic senior year and made the Honor Roll 3 terms in a row!  She worked very hard but also had the most social year ever.  She taught at Hillcrest’s Preschool all year and is planning to study Early Childhood Development. We are very proud of her! Let me take this moment to thank all of you that sent Holland a graduation card and/or gift. She is an adult now and responsible to finish her own Thank You notes…so, enough said.  Holland told us she was going to “take the summer to relax”.  Fair enough.  We planned a trip to Mazatlan, Mexico for her graduation and had a fabulous time.   We had parties by the pool and Holland slept all day and stayed up late into the summer nights.  So much so I began to think maybe she was a vampire. And then it was September, and time to join reality; learn to drive and get a job.  Holland would really like to work as a preschool or daycare assistant.  She has interviewed for a couple of positions but no offers yet.  So she is currently helping her Aunt Chris two days a week in her first grade classroom to hopefully get her foot in the door for an aide position.  First grade is like the wild, wild west.  But she loves teaching the little ones.  She also loves movies, reruns of Law & Order and our diva dog Bayja.  And, she has recently taken up knitting!  (I was so relieved, vampires don’t knit, right?)  Beanies for everyone!

So, since I am not getting any younger, I am working quickly to get my Culinary career moving forward.  I graduated with my Culinary Arts Degree and National Honors in January, 2017 and walked in April, 2017.  Big Hooray!  In May I took an offer from Harmons at Bangerter Crossing in Draper as the Sous Chef in their Cooking School.  As much as I enjoyed working for Grand America in Garde Manger, I got ants in my pants and decided it was time to combine my Culinary Arts degree with my previous degree in Business Administration and experience Developing People.  This offer was the best of both worlds.  However, I am still me and my life is full of weird experiences to say the least.  So you won’t be surprised that I have lit a towel or two on fire in front of a class, had an epic failure making soft pretzels in front of a class, fell off a step ladder getting pans off the top shelf, dropped cast iron oven grates on my foot (breaking several toes and cracking a foot bone) and had an emotional meltdown at work that resulted in a “talking to” in the last 6 months. But I love every minute of it!  I am teaching our Jr. Chef kids classes now and it is great.  I like teaching kids and have a knack for it I guess.  Or maybe I am just not above putting candy corn fangs in my lip for a class of kids while decorating Halloween Cookies.  I also launched my own business this year, a catering company, Strong Celebrations, LLC.  I was able to book at least one catering per quarter in 2017 while also working full time.  Each party was customized and successful and at least broke even. Nevertheless, I have put my bookings on hold for now because catering is massively time consuming and takes a ton of work, sometimes in less than ideal conditions…like no running water or no electricity or no refrigeration…no kidding.

For now I am focused on building a career with Harmons and enjoying my family.

We had a fantastic trip to Mazatlan, Mexico in July to celebrate both mine and Holland’s graduation.  We enjoyed a beautiful resort, fabulous beach, coca cola “lite” and guacamole and chips for lunch every day, gorgeous sunsets and mingling in the local culture.  Things we did not enjoy, a very loud and very flat mariachi band that walked the beach from sun up to way past sun down…enough already!   Plus near 100% humidity away from the ocean = very frizzy hair and enhanced hot flashes.  (I think that was just me & my sister actually) But frankly, we had a blast and would go back in a Mexican minute!

So we hope you too have a blast, during the Holidays and in the coming year!  Do more things that make you happy with the people you love!

Be Brave, Be Strong, Be Kind, Be Grateful.

With love, The Beltz Family, Keith, DeeAnn, Zach & Holland & Bayja.

 

 

Joyous Holiday Blessings from the Beltz Family!

Hello!  We hope this finds you and your family healthy and happy! As for us, we cannot wait for this year to be over. You know, some years seem to just fly by.  While others feel more like you are slogging through cold mud, with someone holding on to the back of your shirt the whole time. I know, right?  So yeah, good bye 2015!

Actually, we did lose one of our own tribe when Keith’s Dad, Laverne passed away from heart failure in April of this year. We miss him and love him and GO UTES! It wasn’t pretty for the Red in the end, but a win is a win. We know Papa was there in spirit and letting the expletives fly!

As for us, I lost my job at Wells Fargo in January 2015 after 27 years.  I fought it and was re-instated in April 2015.  Then Keith lost his job at Hudson after over 25 years in June 2015.  He found a new job in August 2015.  Then I lost my job again, (yes the same freaking job!) in September 2015.  Then Zachary decided to quit his job at Hudson in October 2015. At this point we decided to move to Disneyland!  As it turns out, you can only visit there, you can’t live there.  Bummer.  So we stayed a week and came home.

So Zach is 22 and thankfully has found a new job with Tele-Performance in their Customer Support / Gaming Area.  I knew all those video games had to pay off some time!  He has enjoyed having the Holidays off to relax and experiment with his beard growing abilities. It takes him about a week to grow a full beard. That kid had hair down his back and on his back from the day he was born!  Zach has started attending the Singles Ward on Sundays. (Thank you Lord!)  He will become an Elder in January, 2016. Zach is a good egg.  He is a Chicago Bears fan, a Utah Jazz fan and bleeds Ute red like his Papa!

However, Zach and Keith made a foolish mistake while living in Disneyland this year.  They chose to eat the BBQ Chicken skewers at the Bengal BBQ in Adventureland, across from the Jungle Ride. Fair warning to all, the both of them spent the next day with a case of the rumbly tumblies along with violent diarrhea.  They missed our visit to Old Town in San Diego and had to stay close to the porcelain throne in the air conditioned condo.  It was too bad really because it was a beautiful day in Old Town and Holland and I had to spend several lonely hours browsing the fabulous boutiques…all by ourselves, alone…with no one standing outside the shops tapping their toes and waiting to leave. Poor diarrhea stricken, sick kitties.

Speaking of Keith, after losing his Dad in April and leaving his job at Hudson, it took a little bit to get up and move on. But he quickly found a new position at a competitive printer and was able to join Aspen Press in August.  So far, things are good for him and for us. Their summer party was a paid and catered day at Lagoon, a local amusement park, and their Holiday Party was a private showing of the new Star Wars movie with drinks and popcorn provided!  We believe the Force is with us at Aspen Press.

Our Holland turned sweet 16 this year!  One day this summer she announced she was ready to learn to drive…with Mom.  Mom?!  Why Mom? I am the worst driver I know, except for maybe my sister Chris. Never the less, the rite of passage began, as it did with many of us, at the church parking lot.  I have to say, I was as cool as a cucumber and so, very, patient as a coach.  I swelled with pride as she hit about every other curb.  I am a curb hitter myself, as many of you know.  She takes after me.  At one point she asked for a tissue and I looked over to find her drenched in sweat with a droplet about to fall from the end of her nose.  I thought, ‘Oh my goodness, she is more nervous than I am!’  So we took a tissue break and soldiered on.  After more than an hour in the church parking lot practicing her driving skills, we decided to head home. I told Holland she could drive us home, it was just down 7800 S. and around the corner on 1000 East. She was mortified.  I told her she would be fine and she was feeling more comfortable so she agreed, and I am an idiot.

The minute she turned onto the ‘real road’ my mind voice began screaming at me, ‘MISTAKE! MISTAKE!’  There were cars coming at us, cars parked on the CURB…curb hitter!  Left hand turn!  Pedestrians!  Now I needed a tissue, and a Xanax and possibly an adult diaper.  I began sweating profusely and my ‘cool mom’ exterior melted and ran down my back and my front in rivulets.  Of course, we made it home and Dad was standing there, waiting in the driveway.  Holland jumped out of the car and proudly announced, “Well Dad, I know how to drive now!”  I gave him the big thumbs up, walked directly into my bedroom, took that Xanax and ate a Hagen Daz ice cream bar before I got the vapors.

Holland will be a senior at Hillcrest in the fall.  She enjoyed her first Prom this year and is a member of the Husky Club and an excellent artist.  She also went to Girls Camp and had a great experience, especially with her Mom as the (now retired) Camp Director.  Her favorite things are cheese dogs from Hot Dog on a Stick (New! Hooray!), her iPhone and iPad Mini, Scary Movies, (The Visit…hello!?) and her puppy Bayja, the princess diva dog.  Holland is a beautiful light in our home.

And at least our lights our still on…LOL!  Kids, you CAN afford to contribute to your company’s 401K or an IRA. 30 years of contributions saved my family’s behind during this year of unexpected and unpleasant surprises. However, it will not save your sanity.   Fortunately, we have the Light of Christ and our Faith in God to help and guide us. Not to mention the four of us are still, heavily medicated.

For me, the roller coaster of this year of unemployment, re-instatement, unemployment again and finally the loss of my career has been a lot like a ride my sister and I took at Lagoon this year. We affectionately refer to Lagoon as Galoon in our family, so we will go with that.  This year at Galoon, we rode the brand new roller coaster called ‘The Cannibal’.  When I was fired the first time from Wells Fargo, there was a long and painful process of sending resumes and applications and then waiting…and waiting,  for a response. As it was with The Cannibal, we had a long wait in line in the hot sun, fretting about it. And then I was given my job back. Time to get on the Roller Coaster. As I stepped into the Cannibal and rode the elevator stories high into the air, I felt excited and afraid for this new adventure.  Then, the elevator stopped and the doors opened to I could see the valley of the Shadow of Death, or it may have been Davis County.  I believe I caught a glimpse of the waving cowboy in Wendover.  It was exhilarating, for about 3 seconds and then I realized I was about to drop off the end of the track I thought I was on.  I looked wildly at my sister and she looked at me and said, “Mistake, big mistake.” I turned to the 7 year old sitting to my left and said, “I believe this to be big mistake on my part.” And then we sailed off the end of the world and down the Cannibal’s throat.  And I walked right back into Wells Fargo’s Executive offices.  Just like The Cannibal, it was scary at first and I thought I had made a mistake.  In hindsight maybe it was, but I trusted this Company, just like I trusted Galoon.

Going back to my job was kind of like the corporate version of “Lord of the Flies” and I ended up on the sharp end of the stick. Pun fully intended. Once the ride was over and I struggled to stand on jello legs and make my way to the Cannibal’s exit, shaking and crawling along the handrails. Dry heaving and having a hot flash all at the same time. I look up to see, by the grace of God, my sister, with both hands on the trash can sweating profusely and dry heaving just like me. And I am not alone. I realize sometimes you just need to sit one out with a cold drink before moving on to the next thing.  Just do something  benign, like squirting water into the clowns’ mouth until you win the BIG prize or grow a salad garden.  Then you must start over.  Which is what I have done.  I will start Culinary School in January, 2016 and I am working as the evening Catering / Bistro Associate at the Courtyard by Marriott in Layton. Either way it is costly, but will be rewarding in the end. I will not be returning to Wells Fargo or The Cannibal, anytime soon.

So before this gets too sappy, which would fly in the face of the point of this annual Holiday letter, let me share a recent, classic “DeeAnn” experience.   Just after Thanksgiving I had a bout with Bronchial Pneumonia. I thankfully recovered relatively quickly, but during this time I had an incident. I was about to eat a bowl of Coco Puffs one morning and as I took a bite of cereal I had a coughing spasm and actually choked on my Coco Puffs. I was in my room, silently choking and turning purple, Zach and Keith were down stairs. I could not breathe or speak. I finally put my fingers down my throat and was able to vomit. But I began coughing violently and could not get a breath. There was a terrible pain in my right lung. But at least I was loud enough to get them to come running. Again, I could not speak and I was covered in tears, puke and snot all over my face. A pretty girl, is like a melody… The pain in my lung was incredible and I realized I had aspirated the freaking Coco Puffs into my lung. The coughing was hard and unforgiving and to make matters worse Keith was smacking me on the back like I was a two year old choking in their high chair. I managed to croak out ‘911” and then help was on the way.  Keith carried me out to the living room, but all I could think of was that the cast of Backdraft was coming to my house and I was covered in puke and snot and I wasn’t wearing a bra.  I am telling myself ‘DO NOT pee or crap yourself now!’  Anyhoo, they came, they helped and the Coco Puffs dissolved and, like I said at the beginning, we survived.

So Life is good!  But you will also get a lot of unexpected line drives right to the face. So keep your mitt up.  I will be sticking to protein shakes for breakfast and… starting over.  But it is about enjoying the climb even more than reaching your destination.

We wish you a Happy New Year, with fresh starts and new adventures! Have a fabulous holiday with those you love and care about the very most!

With all the love and joy we have to give,  The Beltz Family
Keith, DeeAnn, Zach & Holland & Bayja.