Lost A Dear Friend...

Kelli was a good friend of mine since we were kids.  We had sleepovers and played basketball together.  I loved the time I spent with Kelli and wish it was more often after we were both married but life gets to be too busy with our families.   She died unexpectedly after work walking to her vehicle, her heart just stopped beating.  She will be greatly missed.

Toby and Kelli's kids and grandson

Picture of her family at the funeral

January Birthdays...

January 13th was Wanda's 72nd birthday...Stacie, Kris and I put our heads together and we brought dinner into her.  It was simple yet always really good.  We got her a new sweater and I made scalloped potatoes and a jello pudding cake which is one of her favorites.  It was fun!  And since it was Friday the 13th Stephen and Kris came out to our house after for a horror movie but I usually hide under the blanket when I watch.

Looks amazing for 72!

We weren't able to celebrate Tyson's birthday together because Stacie went out of town for business, but she had a party for him on the 14th at the bowling alley.  Kacie and Brady were able to attend but I had baptisms that day because they were canceled the week before due to all the snow.  We celebrated Ryan's birthday on January 22nd.

Movies and Inauguration...

 On January 16th (Martin Luther King Jr day) Brady and I went to see "Sing" with Mom, Teniele and her boys.  It was a really cute movie and a lot of fun. We all loved it!

We were all pleasantly surprised when Donald John Trump beat Hillary Clinton in the election.  Today January 20th we listened to his inauguration.  My favorite quote from his speech was, "That whether we are black or brown or white, we all bleed the same red blood of patriots!"

Record Snow Year...

Jan 4th was suppose to be the kids first day back after their Christmas break but they had a snow day which I was really happy about since Kacie was sick.  The kids were pretty excited too.  Kacie also had a doctor's appointment with her kidney doctor so Scott drove us to Boise.  The roads were pretty bad so I was glad we had 4-wheel drive.  Dr. Jenkins treated her for a UTI and said if she isn't feeling better in a week to call him.  After the appointment we went to Cabela's so Scott could get stuff to make jerky from all the geese they have shot.  It took us 30 minutes to get from downtown so it was good to let the traffic kind of clear a little bit.  We then got something to eat at Jimmy John's and then made a quick stop at Costco before heading home.

Mom and Dad were so awesome to get out and play with the boys while we took Kacie to the doctor.

The next day we got hit with freezing rain so the kids still didn't have school.  Mom created a snow hill off of their deck and the kids had a lot of fun doing that.  Even Brady was getting into it.

Can you believe all this snow...the freezing rain made it look really pretty.

Decided they better start shoveling off the snow off their deck.

January 16th

I can't believe all the snow and it's still snowing

We already had a big hole in our mat from Mallory falling through it last summer so we weren't too worried about it.  Good thing we haven't replaced it yet.

January 19th we woke up to more snow and another snow day.  I think we ended up with eight snow days when it was all said and done.  I couldn't sleep much the night before worried that our roof was going to collapse so I decided to get up on the roof and start shoveling.  Ron and Ryan came out to help us which was super nice since it was Ryan's birthday too.  It took us about four hours to get it all off and I was so stiff and sore when we were done.  I couldn't believe how much snow was on our roof.  We even had four foot drifts in parts.

Can you believe all that snow came off our roof.  We could have gone sliding right off the top.  Haha!  In all my life we have never had to shovel snow off of roofs before.  It's been a crazy winter.

It has been so devastating how many onion sheds and buildings have collapsed under all this snow.  This one was by the underpass in Nyssa and they had to close the road for several hours to clean it up.

Frahms lost an onion shed...so sad!

Froerer's lost several sheds as well as Skeens.  Below is the only grocery store in Weiser that went down and so did the Twilight in Nyssa.

The next day we worked on Mom and Dad's roof.  They had a ton of snow too!

They said this was definitely a record year for snow fall.  I'm sure we have had a lot of snow but never this much accumulation at once.  I know we had a lot more than Boise but Weiser had more than us.

Aunt Berniel...

I love social media and how we can stay connected with those that we love.  I copied this post that Jenny said so beautifully of her mom...

You know how you see a person going through a trial and you think why? Why them? She/he is the best person I know. Well I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one that thinks that about my mom. I remember thinking while growing up, thinking everyone likes my mom. She never says anything bad about anyone. She is the best listener and because of that everyone called Berniel! Anyone that needed a listening ear called Berniel. They knew they could tell her and she would give the best advice. She taught me to be friends with everyone and take an interest in them. She truly has charity for everyone! So when her diagnosis of ALS came all we could think was why her? She has not done one thing to hurt her body. What is she to learn from this? What are we to learn from this? My mom has never had a sick day. She was constantly taking elderly friends to the dr. She doesn't go to the dr. Service was her middle name. Now she experiences the trial of allowing people to serve her. The definition of warrior is someone showing great courage, vigor, aggressiveness, fearless and strong. That is just what my mom is! An #alswarrior ! She is fighting this neurodegenerative disease that no one gives any hope for! And with that this BRAVE woman flew out of the country for the first time to go to Thailand for a Stem Cell transplant from an umbilical cord . Many of you know the US does not approve of many medical procedures that other countries do. So to Thailand we came! Her and my dad can't believe where they are but are very excited and faithful that she can see some improvements in her symptoms! She will be here for two weeks. Right when we got off the plane at the gate this man was waiting for Mrs. Berniel and Mr. Brent. Mom about cried thinking she came clear across the world and someone was waiting for her to help through immigration and customs in this very foreign country. This man was so good to help us show where we needed to be and carry bags. It was so exhausting with his help that we don't know how we would have done it without him. Mom and dad appreciate all your love, prayers and support and we will keep you updated as mom #kicksals  

 Day two was a great day for mom. She had OT, acupuncture, PT and her first 30,000 stem cells intravenously. She is loving the therapies and therapists.

 After the first week then Hailey went out and Jenny went home.  I believe Shawn and Uncle Brent stayed the whole two weeks with her.

 Love this picture of them...

Copied from Hailey's post...
Thailand 🇹🇭 treated us so good. Met lifelong friends and have been apart of so many blessings and little miracles along the way. Thank you for all your prayers and love. ❤️ We are so hopeful and so grateful for the doctors and staff at Unique Access . They gave my mom hope. My mom is doing great and is already feels like she has more energy. Now we just wanna go home! Lol. Stuck in Seattle but so grateful to be back in the USA 🇺🇸!! #kickals #stemcelltherepy #uniqueacess