moving...

We are in the middle of moving, so I am without internet for a couple of days except for at work. 

When I return, you can expect some very exciting posts, tutorials and pictures of the new place we call home!

xo, alyssa

our first home

I think I will be leaving a little bit of my heart at 82 Westcomb Crescent. I think I will smile every time I remember when I told someone we lived in apartment 'zero'. I will be so happy to remember all of the good and even the bad times Haig and I had in this apartment. This was our first home as a married couple, a place we loved to live and a place where we learned a lot about marriage, each other and this crazy thing called life.

what happened in brussels

I am sure that my parents were just as concerned about me as I left on a school trip 6 years ago for a week in Europe. It was the most exciting thing that has ever happened to me, However, parents yesterday had even more concern as terrorist attacks occurred in Brussels, Belgium. Students from the Island French schools are on their school trip to Europe and they had been in Brussels just hours before the attacks happened. Luckily, they are safe.

Others, were not safe. 

I have been thinking about what happened in Brussels yesterday and also what happened in Paris just a few short months ago, and things that happen in the world every single day. These events are significant though. These events prove that there is hate and evil in this world. These events prove that there is incivility, there is cruelty. There is envy, strife and malice. There is great fear in our world, in our society, in our communities.

These events also prove to me however, that we can be unified. How can we be unified when these awful events occur? Perfect love casteth out all fear. I was inspired by what a friend on instagram posted. She explained that we need to choose love and choose light over the darkness in this world. I agree that when events like this take place, everyone quickly acts as if we are always unified, when really we need to try harder everyday to give someone a helping hand, say kind words and 

judge less. 

I hope and pray we can all embark on a pursuit to become more humble. This virtue will lead us away from being arrogant, prideful. If we can become a more humble society, it will foster a sense of growth, prosperity, loving kindness and solidarity. 

  

why you shouldn't ditch the blog

In the past couple of years, part of me has struggled with the idea of "blogging". If you have been reading for some time now, you have probably noticed it. I go in between writing a lot about different things I am doing and feeling and ways in which I am growing up and living my life. Sometimes, I have felt that some things are too personal to share, or some things may not be well received, or I think why would anyone want to read about that?

THREE REASONS YOUR BLOG IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN EVER (AKA WHY YOU SHOULDN’T DITCH THE BLOG)

I found this post a couple days ago and it really inspired me to make my blog all that I want it to be. I was really bummed out this past week when I found out that Instagram will be changing their feed with an algorithm-based personalized feed. Instagram is stating that on average, people miss about 70 percent of the posts in their instagram feed. Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter (which I was very happy to get rid of recently) and other social media platforms will always be changing.

When I started blogging in 2010, I had no idea what I was doing with my life. I just wanted to write about it. My blog probably looked so ridiculous for a long time, but over time I have created my own online space to share my lifestyle. My blog is valuable to me and I am going to continue to put time and effort into posts about my life and also pursue ideas about postings tutorials, do-it-yourself projects, cooking and baking and travel.

My blog has become a journal and home for some of my thoughts. I mentioned that sometimes I feel like things have been too personal to share. I may not go into too many details about a certain situation, but it has been important for me to express my emotions in writing on this blog. I have been able to reconnect with people, friends have been able to see what I have been up to and I have also been able to create a print document of my blog as well using Blurb.

My blog has been able to evolve with my lifestyle. In the past 6 years of blogging, my medium went from a sweet and care-free eight-teen year old chick, playing and having fun, unsure of the future, to an almost TWENTY-FOUR year old woman, wife and homemaker with goals, dreams and plans for the future! If I stop blogging now, where will I post all of the things that I accomplish in the next year, the next 5 years?

I will not be 'ditching' the blog anytime soon.

Mattie in the morning'

A couple of weeks ago my sweet friend Mattie told me she would be visiting her grandparents, Bob and Pat as I know them, over her spring break. You see, Mattie lives in America! We have seen each other a couple times over the years as she has visiting her grandparents, but we never found the time to do anything while she was here. Luckily with my new job, I actually had a whole day off and I asked her if she wanted to do something for the afternoon. On Monday, we had so much fun looking around Charlottetown. Mattie especially loved the St. Dunstan's Basilica. We also found a book that I recommended her to read at a great price, and she also picked up some of her favorite Island drink, raspberry cordial. We picked up Haig from school and we went out to have dinner at her grandparents house. I love the Steens' house "by the bay". We had some PEI mussels for dinner with a vegetable stir fry and rice. We also played a couple rounds of Mexican domino train and one round of Skip-Bo. 

It was sad to say goodbye to Mattie at the and of the night. After all this time, I was so thrilled to have found such a strong connection and friendship between us. We bonded over our love of the gospel, the love we have for our family members, the similarities of our likes and preferences, what books we like to read and of course our goals and desires. I told Haig so much about our lovely day together and he said "I wish you had a friend like Mattie that lived here". When I talked to Mattie this next morning, I decided that we would do something again before she left for home. We met up on Wednesday morning for a delicious breakfast, some treats and a quick trip to the Confederation Centre Art Gallery. I will be so happy when Mattie visits again later this summer. I hope I do a good job of playing tour guide for her. I think we will do all things "Anne" and I think we will also make a trip over to the Halifax Temple. 

Until then, I hope to stay in touch with this wonderful, kindred spirit friend. 

Laurie Drive

We got the keys to our new apartment. We are so excited for this new journey. A new opportunity for us to grow and live in a new place. We are looking forward to having more room and to no longer be in the "basement" apartment. I have been having a hard time with moving, but I am happy we are doing it now. I just have so much love for this first home of ours and I will be sad to leave it. With our new home, we will be able to work towards growing our family, being able to entertain more of our friends and also have more space to create new things, learn and 

develop new skills and talents.

Mr. Pinsent

oh my gosh, heart eyes emoji

I am sooooo lucky I get to call this handsome man my husband. 

I snapped this picture when he came home one day from some mock interviews for his 

co-operative education program at UPEI.

My hope is that someday, he will come home looking like this everyday.

 Or he will be able to wear whatever he wants to work because he is the freaking boss, because maybe he could be someday!

real life post: baby hungry

this is going to be a quick one, I won't go into too many details. I feel like every time I turn around, I find out someone is pregnant. Every time I check social media, I see cute bellies and very cute babies.

so, I've decided I want one real bad. I am pretty baby hungry. At church on Sunday, I literally just wanted to take someone's baby home with me. Is that normal?

I just want my own little human. They are so fun, curious, sweet and adorable. They keep you up all night, they poop a lot and they might even throw up all over you, but I've decided I want one of my own forever.
 

house sitting

Our friends from Utah that moved here almost two years ago asked us to watch their children and house sit for them to go away for the weekend. It was something that Haig and I have never done before and I was excited to be able to do it for them because it was my weekend off work. We picked up two of the kids on Friday night from a community activity. We took them home and read the scriptures and said a prayer before bed. I couldn't help but smile while our little friend Matthew said the sweetest prayer, especially when he thanked Heavenly Father for furniture. I need to be more like Matthew when it comes to gratitude. Mariah was a great help all weekend with getting things done and informing us of the usual routine. When the kids went to bed, Haig and I relaxed and watched some of our current TV series before going to bed.

I had plans of waking up very early to prepare myself for my new job starting on Monday, but that didn't happen on Saturday morning. I wanted to wake up around 6:00 am so I could feel what it was like to get my day going that early, because I haven't started my day at that time in awhile. But, I slept in with my husband and awoke to the most gorgeous view. When we arrived the night before, I didn't realize how close the house is to the water. I did have to get ready for the day, I was going to meet for our church quilting group. I got a lot done that morning and I felt really impressed with myself and all of the hard work I have been putting into these quilts.

I went back out to the house and quickly made us some macaroni and cheese for lunch before heading back into town to take the kids swimming. The pool was packed full of families, and especially young screaming children. I was happy that we didn't have to do too much monitoring of the kids since they are both old enough to look out for themselves and for one another. Haig and I even sneaked away to sit in the hot tub together for a couple of minutes! Haig lost a contact in the pool, and I had to drive home which I wasn't too happy about because the roads were not so great from snowing and the road the house is on is quite a mess from mud. I didn't fuss too much though because I felt pretty bad for Haig not being able to see anything!

When we got home we started to get dinner ready. I planned to make pizza. I started making the dough and let it rise. I started to make some brownies. The dough seemed to take forever to rise, but finally we started to put the toppings on the pizza. Then, it took us the longest time to figure out how to use the convection oven and its various settings. We got the pizzas and brownies in the oven and I also made a salad. We all ate and cleaned up and started to watch a movie when one of the older girls arrived home from spending the weekend away. Ellie wasn't feeling well so we left her alone to rest for the night.

On Sunday morning, I did get up pretty early again so I could get ready for church. I guess I just wasn't sure how long it was going to take getting ready in someone else's house. Once we were ready for church, Haig and I spent some time talking about what our plans were for the next couple of weeks and even months. We have a lot of goals, that we really need to plan for more, but I know without a doubt we are going to make everything work out somehow! We took the three kids to church, and we met the oldest child, Emma at church (she had spent the night with another family). Again, it was nice to be able to let the children do their own thing at church and not have to worry about taking them to primary or anything.

Later, we headed back home and relaxed with the kids. We talked about lots of different things like school and church and things that we like to do. The kids were so sweet to us and I hope we will spend more time together in the future. I had such a nice weekend away from our apartment with the cute guy I like a lot.

when I grow up...

With this big change that I have made in terms of my work, I am growing more concerned about what I want to do in the future. Stephanie Nielson shared this quote on her blog. When I grow up, I want to be a mother, a wife, a friend and a homemaker.

"The homemaker has the ultimate career. 

All other careers exist for one purpose only- 

and that is to support the ultimate career. ” 

-CS Lewis

last day as a youth educator

I decided it was best for me, my personal and mental health to change jobs. I was working as a youth educator with 14 children. Since I started my undergraduate degree, I have been inspired to work with seniors and older adults. I decided, with the help of my loving husband that now would be the best time to do that. I had a wonderful offer from my part time job, at a retirement home to go full time. Everything was falling into place, except I was really scared to leave this job. What would the children think? What would the parents think? Would they think I was leaving because I didn't want to work with them anymore? It was really hard to have all these thoughts and ideas come into my head. I knew that this was the best thing for me, I wanted other people to know that. 

When I told my families and the children, I received a lot of support. In PEI, I know that people understand the need for full-time employment with benefits, flexible hours or whatever someone really needs. Many of my parents were impressed with the decision that I made. One of my parents was very happy with my decision and she told me "Alyssa, you need to do what you need to do". My children were mostly sad, and some of the younger ones didn't quite understand why I had to leave. It was interesting to me that some of the younger children didn't necessarily understand that people make career changes. I guess when I was probably their age, I would have thought that someone does something for their whole lives. 

Now was the right time. I start my new position next week and I am looking forward to this learning curve. I am looking forward to working with this new age group. I really hope that this new opportunity will open other doors for me, especially in terms of working with older adults and seniors and helping them realize their potential as members of a community and members of PEI.

welcome to the family

we've got someone brand new in our family!

Isla Beth Persson was born on March 2nd 2016.

We are so proud of her momma, our big sister Katherine, for her strength and perseverance. 

I hope to be a great mother like Katherine someday. 

We love this family so much. I am really looking forward to seeing some more pictures of Isla with her big sister Cecelia! Isla looks just like Cecelia when she was born. 

Katherine and Eric are surely going to have their hands full with these two as best friends. 

Gosh, I just love sisters. I just love BABIES. I am a little more baby hungry now than ever before ;)

MARCH

new month

new job

and...

a new apartment!

this is going to be one heck of a month