Mother's day recap

Hello! How was your weekend?

Sunday was Mother's day, so Hannah and I made my mom breakfast. She usually just has a protein shake in the morning, so having an actual breakfast is definitely a nice alternative to that! We fixed a fruit salad (with kiwi, mangoes, pineapple, and strawberries.) and some gluten free pumpkin pancakes.

Can you tell my mom likes purple? ;)

I saw these flowers at the store and had to get them for my mom! I thought the hydrangea was so pretty! 

My mom loved the flowers and the breakfast. So after breakfast we had my mom open her presents. She really liked the gifts we got for her. 

When we were done with presents, we went to church. We've really been liking our new church and it is nice to finally find a church we like! 

After church we came home, had lunch, and then did Facetime with Michael. It was so nice to see him and we talked with him for quite a while. We would have talked longer, but his wifi is terrible and it kept cutting out and finally would not connect anymore. :/

After our chat with Michael, we went on a walk before coming home and I started dinner. My mom did some sewing (she's been working on a project and is finally getting near the end of it.) My mom requested honey mustard chicken and spinach salad for dinner, so I cooked that. It was all quite good! She also requested a gluten free pumpkin cake, so I made that as well.

We ended the evening by watching Harry Potter. We are trying to watch through all of the movies before we go on the studio tour.

All in all, I think it was a pretty good mother's day for my mom. I know she was sad that Michael wasn't here, but we all enjoyed being able to Facetime with him.

Did you have a nice Mother's day?

Five for Friday

Hello! I am linking up with Della Devoted, Coffee With Caitlin, Cup of Tea and Bright on a Budget for another edition of Five for Friday!

1. This was the view outside my hotel room my first morning in Alaska. I thought it was rather pretty! And almost made up for the fact I was awake at 6 am! Almost. 

2. After the everything that went on over the last few weeks, I decided some chocolate chip cookies and magazine reading was in order. Chocolate chip cookies make everything better, right? ;)

3. I finished my Mother's day shopping. I almost forgot about it, but we did some shopping this past week and I think we got some pretty good stuff! Have you gotten your mom anything fun? 

4. Have you heard of Seche Vite top coat? I got it as a Christmas gift this past Christmas and it's my favorite top coat! I always smudge my nail polish so having something that dries almost instantly is great! I definitely recommend buying it!

5. Have you tried Ben & Jerry's Tonight Dough ice cream? I've been looking for it since I saw it on The Tonight Show. Hannah and I found it last week at Fred Meyer's and we tried it. It is SO good!

Hope you have a great weekend!

The last two weeks

Well, I definitely did not plan on taking a two week break, but unfortunately you cannot control what life throws at you. I'll warn you now, this is going to be kind of long!

I've been trying to think of how to put everything into words, but it's hard to know what and how much to say. But basically, the last two weeks have been hard.

My mom, sister, and I were out on a walk when my dad calls. It's not normal for him to call in the middle of the day (or 3 in the afternoon to be exact.) since he is working at that time. My dad was calling from the hospital in Anchorage. He'd been airlifted there from his job site. (Which is a big deal considering where in Alaska he works.) His appendix had ruptured and he was about to go into surgery. 

His appendix had ruptured 10 1/2 hours prior to this phone call. His job never bothered to call and tell us anything!
And also the fact that he is still alive 10 1/2 hours after his appendix ruptured is a miracle in and of itself and considering how bad it really was. 

My dad was in so much pain and could barely talk so we didn't quite know what was going on; we just knew it wasn't good. And the doctor had also found another problem. One we later found out was an abdominal aneurysm. We hurried home and two hours later I was on a flight to Anchorage to be with my dad. My mom had been sick all that week so she was not able to go. I was pretty fortunate to be able to fly up there at such short notice. Thankfully Alaska Airlines was able to get me on a almost completely full flight (with a window seat!) so that was nice.

I talked to my mom during my layover in Seattle and she said that my dad was out of surgery and was in the ICU.

The flight from Seattle to Anchorage felt like the longest flight ever. I was so nervous not knowing what I was going to hear when I turned my phone on again. I spent a lot of time praying on that flight!

It was after 11pm when I finally left the airport in Anchorage in my rental car. I hurried to the hospital and I got a little lost (my directions were wrong so I had to turn around but I figured out where I was supposed to go.) But anyways, I arrived at the hospital and saw my dad. 

As soon as I got into the ICU the nurse came over and took me into my dad's room. It's scary seeing your dad in the ICU; hooked up to machines and unresponsive. The nurse said he was doing really well despite everything. He was on a ventilator because during surgery he went into what's called ARDS (or Acute respiratory distress syndrome) from the sepsis during surgery. The nurse was really helpful and explained everything to me really well. She said a few times that he was doing really good. My mom and the nurse had been talking over the phone about what was going on so my mom was well informed. 

Once the nurse left, I sat with my dad for a while. I can't even explain what it was like sitting there, except that it felt very surreal. My dad is pretty active and always making jokes so it was just so unnatural to see him like that. 

My dad spent two days in the ICU before they moved him to a regular hospital room, where he spent another three days. He was released on a Wednesday, and then had a follow-up appointment on Friday with a doctor. After the appointment the doctor sent us straight down to the ER because she was concerned about the aneurysm and wanted it checked again since she knew we were flying out the next day. So we spent most of Friday in the ER. Everything was okay as far as they could tell.

I'm still worried about the aneurysm. I'm trying not to worry about it but it's hard. My dad has absolutely no reason to even have an aneurysm. He's not even at risk for one. The doctors don't even know why. They said they don't even start checking for aneurysm until you turn 65 but considering my dad has none of the risk factors they wouldn't even have looked. So had my dad's appendix not ruptured, we never would have known about the aneurysm and that is scary to think about. I guess doctors don't like to operate unless they absolutely have to (which I don't get because aneurysms don't just go away, so why not do the surgery and just get rid of it since they are going to have to operate eventually?) My dad has a follow-up appointment on the aneurysm in August, so we just have to keep praying that it will be okay until then.

This was definitely a scary experience and not something I ever want to go through again! My family is all extremely close and we are so thankful for all the people who were praying for us. I'm glad I was able to be there with my dad and I am also now glad I do not have an appendix!

Here are a few pictures from my flight from Boise to Seattle.

If only the propeller wasn't in the way! I tried getting rid of it in Photoshop but it didn't look right :/

The mountain was out! The plane made a turn and I looked out the window and Rainier was right there! It's always nice to see Mt. Rainier!

I'll be sharing some pictures from my trip next week. Once my dad was released from the hospital, we did a little sight-seeing. So I have some nice pictures to share.

Five for Friday

Hello! I am linking up with Della Devoted, Coffee With Caitlin, and Cup of Tea for another edition of Five for Friday!

1. We got to Facetime with my brother earlier this week. It is always nice to see him! Even though he has pretty much the worst wifi ever. I think third world countries have better wifi than him. 

2. Have you seen the new Star Wars trailer? I am pretty excited about it! My sister and I are SO excited for the new movie! And the trailer has Han Solo and Chewie. Um it's awesome. 

3. And continuing on the Star Wars theme, I came across this video and thought it was pretty hilarious. It's Darth Vader and four storm troopers dancing to Can't Touch This. It's pretty funny!

4. We tried a new church this past weekend and I think we might have finally found the church for us! We have had a really hard time finding a church here and we are hoping this one will be okay! We have only been to one service, so hopefully I won't jinx anything by saying something!

5. I apparently have a thing for baker's twine. I didn't realize I had such a collection of it! I just picked up the blue and green twine in the middle from Target yesterday. I use the twine a lot, so it isn't a waste. I just think it looks neat! 

Do you collect any random things?

Hope you have a great weekend! 

À bientôt!

A few of my favorite travel pictures

Alternate blog title
A delightful collection of pictures I already have on my computer and thought I would share with you today.

I am in the midst of working on some photography assignments so I didn't have as much time to work on this post as I had hoped. I was all proud of myself for finally getting the assignment done and was under the impression I only had three photos to submit for a project. Only to log onto the website to find out I need six total images.

(source)

So. Anyways, back to today's post. I thought I would share some of my favorite travel pictures I have taken over the years.

 Space needle - Seattle, WA

 Seattle, WA

 Las Vegas, Nevada

 Las Vegas, Nevada

 Sedona, Arizona

Sedona, Arizona

Florida Keys, Florida

St. Louis, Missouri

 Mt. Rainier - Washington

 Multnomah falls - Oregon

 Golden gate bridge - San Francisco, California

Golden gate bridge - San Francisco, California

I hope you have a great rest of your week! 

Poppy seed muffin recipe

I have always really liked poppy seed muffins. I have tried SO many recipes over the years and have never really found one I liked, so I kind of threw some ingredients together, did some revising, and came up with this recipe!

The ingredients. With the exception of the yogurt, which I forgot to include in the picture!

The wet ingredients. Looks so delicious. (Totally being sarcastic here.)

 Add dry ingredients to the wet and combine.

Poured into muffin tins.

All baked and ready to eat!

1 stick (8 tablespoons) melted butter

3/4 cup sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp. almond extract*

2 1/2 cups flour

2 1/2 tsp. baking powder

3/4 tsp. baking soda

3 tablespoons poppy seeds

8 oz. vanilla yogurt*

1/2 cup milk

*You can also use lemon extract and lemon yogurt if you want lemon poppy seed muffins. Vanilla extract or plain yogurt is fine too!

1. Preheat oven to 375°F. Then line muffin tins with muffin liners. I get 18 muffins.

2. Melt butter, then let it cool to about room temperature. Then add the sugar and stir together.

3. Add the eggs and extract and combine.

4. In a separate mixing bowl whisk together: flour, baking soda, baking powder, and poppy seeds. Add dry ingredients to wet as well as the yogurt and milk. Stir just until combined. It's okay if it's a little lumpy, as long as there are no huge chunks of anything, you're fine. You do not want to over-mix muffins. Over-mixing will put too much air into the batter and create a dry muffin. 

5. Spoon batter into the muffin tins and bake at 375°F for 10 minutes, then after 10 minutes, lower the temperature to 350°F and bake for another 7-10 minutes. 

Starting out at a higher temperature will create the nice domed tops on the muffins. (This also works well for cupcakes!)

Enjoy!

Five for Friday

Hello! I am linking up with Della Devoted, Coffee With Caitlin, and Cup of Tea for another edition of Five for Friday!

1. I picked up these flowers a over a week ago and am glad to see they are still looking good! I learned a trick a few years ago to get fresh flowers to last longer. Just add a couple of tablespoons of sugar to the water and your cut flowers will last longer! I really like having flowers in the house, so the longer I can get them to last, the better!

2. I ordered this dress from Modcloth and I am really hoping it fits! I have had bad luck with dresses from them lately, so I am really hoping I won't have to return this one.

3. My sister came home from Tae Kwon Do on Monday...with a brown belt! She has worked really hard to get here and the only belt left now is black!

4. Ace of Cakes is on Netflix. I don't know how long it's been on there, but I am glad it's on there! So I have been watching that the last couple of days.

5. My friend posted this on Instagram earlier this week and I thought it was too funny not to share! 

Hope you have a great weekend! 
À bientôt!