He missed Sofia’s 5th-grade promotion, his birthday at home, our annual Father’s Day breakfast, and today, he will be missing the 4th of July celebrations with us. We have a yearly tradition of having sweets in our front yard. We bring our blankets and chairs and enjoy a plate of a delicious dessert we purchased or a fun recipe we found online and watch the free fireworks show happening at York field. Usually, we try to get one of Grandpa’s favorite desserts, rhubarb pie or anything with strawberries. Oh, how He loves strawberries!
He is our Grandpa Mike; he has been with my girls for every Holiday, birthday, Dodgers Win, the first day of school, and last day of school, I can keep going, Grandpa Mike has been a part of it all!

We will visit him today, take him a slice of strawberry pie from Marie Calendar’s, give him the biggest hug and tell him how much we miss him. I wish we could bring him home, set his chair in the front yard, and put his blanket on his lap while we wait patiently for those fireworks. But instead, we will be leaving him at the skilled nursing facility he resides until we figure out what is next step is.

He has been away from home since May 25th, what was supposed to be a routine foley catheter change at home, turned into a nightmare for all of us. The nurse that changed his catheter that day did not insert it correctly, which caused an infection. That infection led to sepsis, which caused him to get severely weak. He now needs 24-hour care and perhaps has the beginning stages of dementia. We are praying it is just delirium and that he gets better, watching someone you love tell stories that do not make sense. Let me tell you, it hurts and makes you cry your heart out when you walk away from visiting that loved one. How do you comfort your crying daughters? When they’re asking me why their grandpa is saying things that make no sense? You don’t! you just cry with them and tell them that he is still their grandpa, that he now has interesting stories to share with us and that he loves us.
And how do you comfort your husband? while he is overwhelmed with trying to decide what the next step for his Dad is? calling nursing homes in panic and trying to find a place that will be close to home so we can visit him daily, so Grandpa knows he is very loved and that we are not abandoning him, that he is still very much part of this family and that we want him home. His mind is not 100% since his hospital stay, I fear he wakes up in a panic wondering why he is in a strange place? Why his daughter in law is not there taking him his meals, why his granddaughters are not there saying “Hi Grandpa!” and why is his son not there to get him ready for the day? IT ALL HURTS! It’s an angry hurt, a why did this happen?

We are still going through the process of figuring out what the next step is, we pray for guidance and strength. Thank you to all who have checked in on Mike, checked in on us, those who have visited him and those who have sent comforting messages. It means a lot! For now, I leave you with these beautiful snippets of Grandpa Mike and “his” girls…

San Clemente you stole my heart! We stayed at this little getaway with our friends a few months ago. This campground is a must to visit if you are a So. Cal resident and wish to get away from your daily hustle and bustle of life! I stumbled across their page when I was trying to reserve The Cottages at Crystal Cove beach (another place we have our eye on to visit!). I love exploring beach areas that are within a 30 min drive from us. If you would like to explore this place, here is the link to the California page if you want to take a look. Make sure to type The Holidays vintage trailers on the search tab.

https://www.reservecalifornia.com/CaliforniaWebHome

I have a nostalgia to family vacations that remind me of my childhood, ironically these vintage trailers have nothing to with my childhood. Both my parents are Mexican nationals and I spent most of my Summers and holidays in Guadalajara, MX. Maybe it’s because I always wondered what it would feel like to go camping and have the traditional American vacation (whatever that may be!).

So together with our friends, The Yeaton’s, we booked our two nights in these adorable trailers for St. Patrick’s Day weekend. The trailers are located in San Clemente state beach. This is an RV park on top of a mountain cliff overlooking the beach.  There are other trailers and families, which makes it fun for the little ones to make friends.
We had such a wonderful time! These are just a few memories we captured during our stay.

The beach is a short five minute walk from the trailers, we packed a lunch and let the kids catch the waves. The Dads were on kid watch while we  enjoyed the sun and did some people watching. It is a favorite spot for locals and you will see many surfers in the water.

Both my girls were fluid swimmers by age five, I wanted to make sure they were comfortable in water at a young age. We are truly lucky to have the beach so close to us!

That being said, a variety of bathing suits are a must in our household. You know?! So we can be ready for our next beach day! 😉 I am always on the hunt for cute and bold styles for my girls.

Since St. Patrick’s was the next day, we had the little ones create a trap to catch a Leprechaun. We had no luck in catching one, but the kids had fun creating it. They even got a special treat left behind from the Leprechaun and It was good bonding time with their friends. There are many benches by the trailers, games and other activities the kids can get into. But I do recommend bringing bikes, skates etc… I wish I would have done so; this would have kept my kids busy.

We had a great time hanging out with our good friends and hope we can do this as a yearly tradition. I want my girls to have fond memories of their parents, our good friends, these cute vintage trailers and how much fun they had catching those waves.

Thank you to our dear friends! We had a great time hanging out with you and making beautiful memories.

Welcome to my blog!

This adventure began about four years ago, I was a SAHM and enjoyed planning birthday parties for my girls. The details, the color palettes and most of all…the memories made with family and friends. I have always liked things that were creative and wanted to share my ideas with friends. When I made my blog, I wrote about planning parties, but never made it public. I was shy, worried I was going to be someone’s topic of laughter, so I let this site idle for four years.

Fast forward four years later, I decided to make 2019 my year of setting goals and going for them!

Though my focus has changed (I still love planning parties!). My life has gotten busier in the last four years. I work part time as an Instructional Assistant at an Elementary school, I take care of my Father-In law’s needs (Such as Prescriptions, Dr appointments and advocate for him when his doctors lose focus), he has Parkinson’s disease. I am a Fur Momma to a black Labrador and a Pap Chi, they are very spoiled and loved. I am the wife to one of the most loving and supporting husband’s (I know, how corny and cliché!) I will have to share one day how I met him. And last, the most Important job I have! I am Mom to two little ladies. Why is it Important? Because every day I worry if I am guiding them, teaching them and loving them enough. Enough so they can grow up to be genuinely good people.

I asked my friend Desiree (who happens to be an awesome photographer) If she could capture a few pictures of me, I shared my visions with her and what I wanted out of this blog. She was magic! She understood exactly what I wanted and even suggested a few ideas. Se captured my visions and the excitement that I have with this blog with her pictures. Check out her work here: https://www.desireeariasphotography.com/

So with the excitement of all the fun pictures Desiree took, the ideas I have in store, and the support I have from my family. Let the Everyday Yaya adventures begin!

Today was a lazy kind of day, my girls had no school due to the President’s day holiday. So on a day like this, what new hobby can we do?

Making soy candles sure sounded like fun!

I had a huge 10 lbs. bag of soy wax I had purchased a while ago (I was going to make candles for my sister’s birthday) but never got to it. My girls are pros at navigating youtube, I told them to look up a video on how to make soy wax candles with essential oils. There are many videos and all looked fairly easy. Here are the items you will need:

1. soy wax flakes (I got ours from Amazon, but you can get a 2lb. bag at Walmart)
2. cotton wicks (amazon or any craft store)
3. Small containers (metal or glass, about 4oz)
4. Microwavable measuring cup/or container
5. essential oil of your choice

Instructions:

I let the girls choose a You Tube tutorial that was easy for them to follow.

Here is one they chose:

https://youtu.be/k4_hAxNAj6I

 

Keep in mind, I did this activity with a kid led mentality. Meaning both my girls (7 and 9 years) led the activity and followed the Instructions on YouTube on their own. I was just there for supervision and guidance. My eldest really enjoyed it and wants to make this a hobby. The youngest was done as soon as she poured her hot wax into her container and went back to coloring in her room.

The wax will be hot once melted, so that is where the parent supervision comes in. We did not have a thermometer to check the temperature on the wax. We just eyeballed it, if it was all clear and melted, it was ready.

 

Hopefully our lazy day hobby motivated you and your little ones to make fun scented candles!

 

@everydayyaya