95 years young

today is my nanay's 95th birthday.

a few weeks ago, my mom alerted me to the fact that she was struggling with some health issues that were a little concerning.  the problems are typically fixable with surgery, but despite the fact that she's always been super healthy, it's not a feasible solution for her.  it's not life-threatening, but does require her to have round-the-clock care now in her little apartment that she's been so happy in for over a decade.

this prompted my cousins and me to band together and create a weekly check-in with her using zoom (because pandemic).  we extended this out to our parents, and so every sunday we've been virtually meeting up for a family get-together with my gram.  my aunt and uncle who live close to her and have been taking her to her doctor's appointments are always there to help her get logged in, and it's been fun to see everyone every week.

we're deviating from our normal sunday zoom and meeting up tonight for this milestone birthday.  normally, we would have planned a big bash and celebrated happily with hugs and laughter and tons of food and slideshows and performances galore.   i have some pretty fun memories of the other parties we've thrown to mark previous milestone birthdays.  i wish i could find the photos from those times, but with everything we own boxed up in the garage it's a little tricky.  luckily, i remembered that i have two boxes full of old photos under my nightstand and so here are a few vintage pictures of my beloved nanay.

back in the day when halloween was a favorite family holiday (check out that awesome dot-matrix printed festive banner!):

with my gramps...our tatay.

we surprised her with...something here.  i just can't remember what.

she's always been so proud to be a grandma.  these are just a few of my cousins.

and this is probably the last time she visited disneyland.

i wish i had more pictures of her with my girls, and i know there are some *somewhere*...but for now this is all i could find.

tonight we'll log on to zoom to show nanay some birthday love, light a candle on a cupcake and sing her the birthday song.  it's a little weird and definitely not how we would have wanted to celebrate with her, but we make do with what we can.  

happy birthday, nanay!  we love you so much!

getting spoiled on mother's day

i'm super late with this post because - well, let's face it, i've been terrible about blogging lately.  i've got to get back into the groove, because while we're still on lockdown there are still fun things to share!

anyway, my mother's day was really lovely.  a few days before, i'd placed an order with a local baker who was offering delivery of afternoon tea packages.  we've been missing going for tea and this was pretty much the only option we had (although of course, after we ordered this one we came across several more opportunities for tea at home packages, oh well).  and while the hub was out picking up some breakfast for us, the delivery was dropped off at the front door.

the poor hub.  he tried so hard to find something extra delicious for brunch, but because it was mother's day and a few local favorite spots had just opened days before for pickup they were all swamped and not accepting any more orders.  instead, he picked up breakfast burritos from one of our favorite greasy spoon drive-thrus and some caffeine from the nearest starbucks.  it was all delicious and it was nice to sit in the back yard and enjoy the beautiful weather as we ate.

and of course, i got my mimosa.  heh.

we busted open that afternoon tea package not too long afterwards.

there were freshly baked scones and a mini jar of strawberry jam:

homemade shortbread, which was light and flaky and really good:

crispy, sweet meringue kisses:

of course, there were teabags with detailed instructions for DIY.

i never did get around to taking a picture of the other box, but it contained slices of lemon pound cake, a sponge cake with strawberry filling and three macarons.  the whole thing was nicely presented and everything was really good - not the same as going out for tea, but it was as close as we were gonna get.

that mimosa put me right to sleep, but did you expect any less?  i did manage to wake up in time to enjoy some pool time, though.

later, the hub headed to the grocery store and came back with all the stuff to assemble kabobs that he bbq'd for dinner.

the old lady and her special friend had brought me a pretty pink bag that contained a cute new t-shirt with a floral print (which was significant because we'd just had a conversation about how i'm not a big fresh flowers fan, because while i think they're beautiful we all know that i'm a plant killer with a black thumb), some super comfy sweatpants (because we're still all in loungewear mode 24/7, right?) and a pretty, sparkly lip gloss.  the bean made me an incredibly adorable animated e-card that she won't let me post, and the hub said that the gift he'd ordered had been delayed.  he gave me the option of finding out what it was that day or waiting until it was delivered, and while i'm typically an instant gratification kinda girl i decided i wanted to be surprised.

a few days later, he and the bean handed me this box:

and when i opened it, this was inside:

woohoo!!  and it turns out that the band he'd picked out to go with my new watch was what had caused the delay.  apparently it was so fabulous that it'd been on backorder, but that's okay because it was totally worth the wait.

happy mother's day, indeed!

welcome to slab city

"
as we were discussing where to go for our next road trip, the hub said "let's go check out the salton sea!" i really didn't have any idea what to expect, but it's always nice to get out of the house and take a drive.  this one took us out in the palm springs area, and based on a recommendation from the old lady and her special friend we stopped at TKB bakery and deli in indio for lunch.

as we waited for our sandwiches to be ready we walked over to the kiosk set up right next door for some caffeine.

because i was starving i never did stop to get a picture of my sandwich, but it was really delicious.  and huge!  luckily we'd been forewarned, so the bean and i shared one and it was more than enough to fill us up.

it was a really pretty day, perfect for a drive.

the salton sea was...nothing to write home about.  not even to take any pictures of, really.  just a big ass lake out in the middle of the desert that smelled terrible.  we stopped for a potty break at one of the deserted campgrounds and i forgot to grab my phone to take pictures and it didn't even matter.

we did stumble across something else that ended up being the highlight of that daytrip, though.  salvation mountain is a permanent art installation made of adobe, straw and paint with messages of love and peace, created somewhere around 2000ish.

although amongst all of those loving and peaceful sentiments, there were lots of these signs too:

super welcoming, huh?  and the bean swears she heard some woman yelling at us to keep moving.  heh.

as we continued along that street, more interesting sights popped up.  there were RVs everywhere, areas that were fenced off using old tires, other artistic pieces using recycled items.

 i'd never heard of slab city before, so i looked it up.

i guess the area is occupied by some folks year-round who've decided to live off the grid, be left alone, and not have the responsibilities of living in a regulated town or city.  they don't have any official electricity, running water, trash service, post office - what you see is what you get.  it was bizarre and fascinating and weird, and we drove around pretty much the whole "town."

slab city.  huh.  you learn something new every day.