Happy List

A few things that made me smile today...

1. My body automatically wakes up at 6am everyday. Today, I woke up and realized I'm on spring break! I gently laid my head on my pillow and fell back asleep with a huge smile on my face.

2. A clean house. Next on the list for tomorrow: spring cleaning beginning with the closet. Believe it or not, I enjoy doing stuff like that. 

3. My sugar blossom candle. Yes, this my third one this year. I'm obsessed.

4. I had to go to urgent care this past weekend and supposedly I have a respiratory infection, makes sense to why I haven't been able to breathe all last week. The antibiotics I am currently taking is making me feel like my old self again. It's even helping with my allergies. I hope I feel the same or better once the antibiotics are gone. 

5. My fur-babies. Koopa's shadow looks too cool in this picture. They love their walks :)

6. This man of mine. He has such a strong work ethic. He's been doing temporary jobs here and there and applying everywhere for almost two years now. It's really tough to start your career after college, especially in the field he's in. Your hard work will pay off soon, Mi Amor, I can feel it. We got to have faith.

6. Dancing with the Stars. Go #TeamValenRue

7. My baking skills. I've never had mad skills with baking but you gotta make the hubby happy, so I've been practicing more and he ate about 10 cookies in an hour. I think that's definitely a sign that he approved. 

8. On Spotify, I found my current favorite playlist...Disney Instrumental Songs. It has over 500 songs, I'm in heaven. 

9. Reading all the marriage and baby announcements on my social media. Yes people, overflow my feed with positive messages, I love them! 

10. This picture of my husband as a baby. Wasn't he the cutest!?

Just thinking about the rest of the week and sleeping in really brings me joy. I'll get to recharge so come Monday, I'll be at the same level of energy as my kids. Their abundance of energy astounds me. 

Hope you all have a productive and full of happy moments week! 

With love,

Ale

Board games, dancing, and making memories

Sometimes the best weekends are those spent with great friends. Kevin and I are extremely lucky because we are surrounded by stunning individuals in our lives. This weekend was spectacular and a total de-stressor.

Friday night was game night and let me tell you, it was pretty intense. We played Kevin's current favorite board game called One Night Ultimate Werewolf. This game is so mysterious, it can turn the most honest people to dirty liars or influence husbands to lie to their wives (ahem! Kevin! Still can't believe you did that. I believed you whole-heartedly!). After a good hour of playing, we turned to Cards Against Humanity for some good laughs, that game never disappoints. Thanks friends for coming over, we had a blast.

Saturday was full of good food, great company and plenty of d..a..n..c..i..n..g, all of my favorite things in one day. I was thrilled. Kevin, on the other hand, he likes food and enjoyed the company of our friends but he doesn't have one bone in his body that responds to the beat of music. The poor man suffers but he did fairly well after the consumption of a Tokyo Iced Tea or two, haha. 

With the exception of my mother and sister, these two women are so important in my life. I love our times together. 

Hope you were able to de-stress as well. 

Hello Monday, I'm ready for ya.

With love,

Ale

Allergies.

They suck and I wish it can all go away.

😟

With love, 

Extremely irritated Ale

Papapa

First off, I want to wish my Papapa Humberto a happy birthday. I know very well that he is enjoying his time in Heaven with my grandma beside him. We miss them so much. I still have mornings where I forget that they are no longer with us, that they're only a Skype call away. I may never be able to hear their voices again but I know they both leave little signs for us to notice and feel their love and wisdom. Last night as I lay my head to sleep, I whispered my grandpa a "happy birthday" and before I passed out, he came to visit me in my dreams. I saw his wave and heard his silly " Ello, how are you?" (that man was always practicing the same verse in English). He walked towards me and that's all I remember.

My grandparents were two beautiful individuals and to honor my grandfather on his special day, I want to share this list of 10 memories. If it wasn't for his guidance and teachings, I would have never learned to do the following:

1. Ride a bike with no training wheels

2. Color (inside the lines)

3. Roller Skate

4. Have a love for Jazz Music

5. Have a love for Frank Sinatra & Nat King Cole

6. Never EVER slouch or put your elbows on the table 

7. Learning that your parents are your best friends

8. Have a love for Peruvian music 

9. He used to say that cleaning windows with newspaper leaves the glass "extra shiny" (I still have my doubts, I must not be doing it right)

10. Writing in cursive 

Thank you Papapa for showing me those things and for showing me kindness through the love of a grandparent. I promise to have your teachings live on so in that way, you are always here with us. 

Te quiero y te extraño.

Con mucho amor, 

Tu querida nieta, Alessandra

About the blogger

Back when everybody was crazy about Myspace (including myself), one of my favorite things to do was completing questionnaires and sharing them with everybody. Some may think questionnaires are extremely boring and lame, but I luvvvee them. For those who read my blog and want to know a little more about me...please continue on reading the following :)

Full Name: Alessandra Sofia Morris

Maiden Name: Alessandra Sofia Mendoza Castro - No offense to my handsome husband, but I love(d) my last name. I loved it so much and I loved how my parents added my mom's maiden name as well. Again, I'm just saying I miss it. I am so grateful that my initials haven't changed (thank you FATE!)

Age: 25

My Favorites: (I don't really have ONE favorite. I will try and limit myself to sharing maybe 3 of my favorites on each category or maybe 10, or 5. We'll see...)

Food: Macaroni & Cheese, Anything with pesto, PB&J's, my parent's cooking, CHOCOLATE, ice cream, ribs with plenty of BBQ sauce, shrimp, popcorn with lots and lots of butter, NUTELLA, and rice.

Drink: COFFEE, H2O, and orange juice.

Book: The Art of Racing in the Rain, books written by Nicholas Sparks, Sookie Stackhouse Series by Charlaine Harris, Anything Chicken Soup for Soul, The Bible, Siddhartha

Song: I cannot pick one song for a favorite. Here's a few that is on repeat as of recently...

1. Mean to Me - Brett Eldredge

2. Love Me Like You Do - Elli Goulding

3. Anything Backstreet Boys, Spice Girls, or Destiny's Child

Movie: Again...I cannot pick ONE. I love movies and my list would go on and on but here are a few of my favorites.

1. My Best Friend's Wedding

2. Now & Then

3. Big Hero 6

4. Harry Potter Series

5. Brave

6. While You Were Sleeping

7. Mean Girls

8. Pocahontas

9. Matilda

10. Fried Green Tomatoes

Band: Paramore, Avenged Sevenfold, Maroon 5

Solo Artist: Beyonce, Ariana Grande, Enrique Iglesias

Place: My parent's house and wherever my husband is.

Sport: I’m not really as athletic as I wish to be, but I do enjoy watching soccer, tennis, basketball, and volleyball. However, when the Olympics are on, I can watch every sport.

Male actor: Johnny Depp

Female actor: Sandra Bullock or Meryl Streep

My Life:

School: Graduated from Los Banos High in 2007. Graduated from CSU Stanislaus in 2012 with my Bachelor's Degree in Psychology and Spanish. Finally earned my Education Specialist Credential in 2015. I want my Master's, but that will be in the future.

Religion: I work on building my faith everyday in some shape or form either by reading The Bible or praying. Both my husband and I practice our Catholic beliefs together.

Tattoos: none. yet.

Piercings: Just my two boring earlobes.

Languages: Read, write, and speak Spanish.

Hobbies: My husband and I love to purchase board games. We recently bought Ultimate Werewolf. Ohmygosh, so addictive. We love playing that game with a big group of friends. Another favorite of ours is Ticket to Ride and Settlers of Catan.

Husband: Kevin and I had our very first date in 2009. He proposed August 2nd, 2011 and not a whole lot of people know this, but we got married civilly on August 19th, 2011 (while we were both still in college and super broke).  Our biggest dream was to save enough money to get married with God as our witness and with the union of both our families. On August 2nd, 2014, we had the wedding we always dreamed of. We chose a perfect, small, Catholic Church in Hilmar and we were joined by all who love us. It is one of my favorite days. This topic will for sure be talked about in another blog! :)

Job: I am currently on my second year working as the Education Specialist for Middle School at Vanguard College Preparatory Academy for Aspire Public Schools and let me tell you, I LOVE IT!

Future: Kevin and I would like to travel to a few more places before we start our own family. We're thinking Peru and Hawaii.

Favorite quote:  "Hope will always be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light." (20 points to whoever knows the reference to it!)

Gosh...how I love questionnaires. I hope you are all having a wonderful weekend.

With love,

Ale