The Answer Is NOT In This Blog - or Sonnet!

Last night I went to see Eat.Pray.Love. 
Javier Bardem?  Ah - YUM.

It was lovely to go with girlfriends for a night out at the movies.  We moved half the party over to a restaurant in the strip mall we were at - Our Tea House - and it was delicious to share company and chatter.

Good company - people I find easy and cozy to be around in Becks, her sweet SIL Em, and Mrs. Beth.  We shared a good mixture of dishes and my hope is they enjoyed being with me just as much. 

Sometimes I worry I chatter too much!  :P

After that lovely evening I called home and T-bone told me the good news.  Our air-conditioner had died. 

could something not break?  really? 

  So today is the last day of August - I have not faithfully posted all the poems, but its my blog and I'll post a few here and there when I get the chance. 

Let's get angstful!

I walk through the flood
of the quiet and unknown
waiting for someone
I can truly call my own.
I never knew it could be
so difficult to search
I always thought that love
was as visible as my sea
of empty lonliness.

Which of course that last line was re-written from "lonely emptyness" to "empty lonliness" for the pure - I DIE - factor.

Sigh.

I hope you got something out of ANY of these poems. 

And now I hope you enter my GIVE GIVE GIVE...its the least I could do for making you suffer through this month!  :)

Give Give Give - and three little sonnets

Hey - see that in the sidebar?  At the top over there?  GIVE GIVE GIVE?  On Friday it was my third blogaversary and I am giving away a bunch of stuff.  Don't forget to comment, tweet and/or blog about it for an entry!!! 

Now for the words from my very young self. 

These two are on one page - dated again August 1987 - funny thing is that between the two sonnets I wrote, "Am I a poet or just a frustrated scribbler?"

I vote scribbler.

Are all the flowers gone

now that I am?

Are the autumn colors

faded?

Has the crisp air of December

turned to bitterness?

Or is the spring just

now blooming?

Darkness

floods the countryside.

A fire burns

but I cannot

reach the warmth

my companions supply.

This third one is on the facing page- however it has no date and the poems on the NEXT page were written in 1990...so I am not sure when I put this little sonnet down on paper.

Reaching

over the wall

Feeling

all of your warmth

Loving

is it you or me?

Where can it end

the wall, the warmth,

or with me...

I am guessing it was not too long after the other poems, but the ink is different so I cannot be certain.

Again these are all poems written before I was 25 so they are quite honestly a bunch of crap. 

And I am okay with that... ;P

Silly Sonnetts Deux

I have kind of fallen behind in posting these - hmmm, here are two from when I was about to start at the University of Minnesota.

August 1987

Do you go walking
in the night?
Do you think
What might have been?
I wonder
a lot.
Can you imagine
my love for you?
As I walk these streets
in the night.


Goodnight to you
Goodby to love
I have lost you
but
I have love you
over miles
and times unknown.

Three is magic and mystical and prime for a giveaway...

Today is the day that three years ago I decided to open this blog...because of an email from my dear friend Becks at Just Be.  She started her blog and invited good friends via email to come out and take a look...

I adore Becks for the stong and beautiful woman she is - and the fun she reminds me to have.

So now here we are three years later. 
We both still blog.
We both still have fun.

Are you here for the first time?  Might I suggest you get to know me by clicking

About Me

and

There's A Party On My Bloggy!

On those pages are links to some of my favorite blogs I have written...if you can have such a thing as a favorite blog post!

Now for the good part - the BIG GIVE!!!

PLEASE NOTE: I have not recieved any of these items for review - I have not recieved any of these items for free from anyone - I have hand-picked items that I and Boo Boo La La love to give to you who read about Us and Our Family! 

Its a Thank You that is long past due.

First up are some items where YOU actually have a choice in what you recieve!

One Envirosax bag - your choice - shipped to you - select your favorite bag from the Flora or Retro Graphics collection.  They are the sets I personally carry so when you use it you can think of me as your shopping buddy!

How about a little makeup? 

Your choice of shade of the Maybelline Mineral Powder Makeup and Mineral Veil
p.s. I won't be buying them at Wal-Mart, but CVS did not have a color chart!

Your choice of color of Maybelline Great Lash BIG!  I personally prefer Blackest Black!!

Want MORE - okay, I can't resist you when you beg...

I love pedicures and flip flops and my little sausage toes...

How about a Silpada Toe ring with a cute little heart dangle for you?

Are you Etsy obsessed like me?  Here is a beautiful pair of handmade earrings from

ColorMeKelley Creations & Three Farm Fresh Dryer Balls!

Hungry?  Thirsty?  How about some Ghiradelli Chocolates, A Starbucks Mug, & $5 Starbucks card!

Last but not least - Let's get Pretty!

What you see above is Boo Boo La La's favorite comb and brush set, hair detangler, headbands, and fun bracelets!  She loves loves loves this stuff...

And Mommy's FAVORITE hair product of ALL TIME - Loreal Everpure Overnight Treatment ROCKS the tresses ladies - even if you do not win I highly suggest spending the few dollars this treatment costs.  ;)

So how do you win? 

The rules are simple - And the winner will be selected using Random.org on September 15th!

1) Comment on how much you love this - I can take it!
2) Tweet with hastag #mommylisa and comment that you tweeted!
3) Blog about my giveaway - comment with a link to your post!
4) PLEASE be from the USA or Canada - I cannot afford to ship this GIVE GIVE GIVE beyond that.

Its simple.
Its fun.
Enjoy!

Mommy Sez

"Come Back Tomorrow for THE BIG GIVE!"

I will be posting for my THIRD Blogaversary tomorrow, August 27th a list of items I love and will be giving to one lucky reader!  Some of BooBooLaLa's favorites are also in the mix.

No company has provided me with ANYTHING, not even the items.  They are all just things I love and wish to share with you!  So get ready to enter!!  :)

Eight and One

Sprinkles at the blog wyldechylde tagged me with these eight questions.  I like to answer them, but do not like to tag others - so if you want to play please...and let me know if you did with a link to your blog.


1. Have you ever seen a ghost? If you have, what's the story behind it? No - I have never seen a ghost, but when I was younger I was sure there was one living in my room that would change my radio station or turn on my stereo.  I called him Ralph.

2. What is your most embarassing moment? Have you got a few years?

3. What was your best job and why? The best job I ever had was teaching swim lessons and being a lifeguard at Round Lake in Eden Prairie.  It was a blast.  Isn't THAT sad?  I loved my jobs in radio too and there are things I like about every job, but that one was the most fun all around. 

4. What was your worst job and why? Probably the summer I worked temp at a bakery warehouse picking muffins off a line and putting them on trays to be packaged and sold in convenience stores across the land.  I still hate the idea of lemon poppyseed muffins.  bleh.

5. If you won the lottery, what would you do with the $?  Make my mom retire, pay bills, remodel my home - or if its a superhugeamount - build a home on a lake and fund research for good things or support an inner city school. 

6. Have you met any celebrities? If you have, what's the story behind it?  Have you got some time?  I have met quite a few celebrities - Tom & Roseanne owned their Big Food Diner when I was working radio in Ottumwa, IA - I got felt up by Greg Brady when they were taking a promotional picture for the station in Indy...I got a total body hug from Peter Tork of the Monkees - many many sports figures, I drove Bill Murray once...They are not that special.  They are nice or not - dorky or cool.  They are just people and they even tell dirty jokes. 

7. What is your favorite childhood memory? My parents gave me a great childhood.  How can I choose?  I guess my favorite time was when we drove to Colorado and back...it was pretty fun.  But all our trips were cool - even the "from hell" road trip to Florida where the electrical went and we could not roll down the windows.  "What DIED up in there???" hee hee.

8. What's your biggest regret?  Hindsight is 20/20 - you can wish you didn't do something, or DID do something, but you have to move on and not think about it.  Sorry - I am not regretting. 

And now for the sonnett of the day.  :)



This I imagined in my head as a "lyric" to an unfinished song...OMG so embarrassing if you could even HEAR THIS CRAP in YOUR head.  Ugh.  Here goes...

I'm in love with you tonight
and I know the feelings right
Its in everything you do
you make me feel so right. 

How Don Johnson is that?

Moving with The Monday Minute

So I don't know where the whuck I was...Ian from The Daily Dose of Reality has apparently passed along his Monday Minute to Heather and Melissa - so let's play!

*Favorite 80's Flick
WOW!  Is this hard because I love anything that had Molly Ringwald in it - except Fresh Horses, that was stupid.  I will say Weird Science because they made that shizz into a tv show! 

*One genre of music needs to be banned, which genre?
Gangter Rap - with the exception of Snoop D - O - Double G. 



*All Time Favorite Candy
Snickers if its frozen - Twix if its not.

*How "flawed" is your driving record
There are no bench warrents out for my arrest.

*What was your High School Mascot?
HAWK!

*What color socks are you wearing?
(what kind of question is this?  Its AUGUST!) None, I have on my standard issue summer-time flipity-flops y'all!

Now you go play nice with the girls too. 

Slaving Away!

See that?

This morning I got up and out of bed - came downstairs and began slaving away on this lasagna. 

It does take me nearly 90 minutes for mis-en-place, cooking, and assembly

Four cheeses - goat, ricotta, parmesean (I used Granna Padano thank you!), and mozzerella (FRESH!)

turkey sausage - a mild Italian

fresh basil and Itallian parsely

While I was doing that my dear hubby T-bone was already slaving away at work.  On Sunday. 

Just like he worked yesterday. 

TWELVE HOUR DAYS

and all this week too.  so a little slaving in the kitchen by me is a good thing.  he LOVES lasagna.

especially THAT lasagna.  Thanks Ina for having that recipe out there - I have been making it now for almost TWO years!  It goes into the oven later today!

No clue why - but...

Today's Silly Sonnett was actually crossed out - like I was embarassed by THAT ONE!??!

so here it is

Testing

so young and innocent
Turn back and face the world
CAN IT BE true, can you
IMAGINE IT?
Life was all too easy
Before I left the warm
SAFE
HAPPY place I called home.
But now it's changed
everything is so new.

Enjoy your weekend - T-bone is working all weekend and BooBoo has TWO birthday parties to attend. 

Call me Mama Chauffeur!!!

Return of My Elizabeth Barrett-Browning Self

So instead of "How do I love thee..." in 1987 I wrote this tortured soul poem about being far far away...

from whom?  I cannot recall - really, no clue.  I was not dating my boyfriend who went off to Harvard any longer - I don't believe I was pining for anyone.  I guess its too bad for whomever I wrote this for...

loving you
madly, badly, sadly...
its all the same,
loving you
the way I do
is it hard or am I
just too far away
to be
loving you
LB aug 87

Happy Friday!

Cousins - Identical Cousins

I found these guys here.

And that guy above lives with us.

Aren't they cute?

When you were young...

I was at Caribou Coffee World Headquarters this morning - sounds fancy, but that is the closest coffee shop to my house.  ;) 

There they were!  Us when we were young.

They had on hats, scarves - mini skirt - maxi skirt - HEELS SO HIGH - black tights with a fuscia mini

I remember when WE were like that. 

Sometimes I wish I still was...

thanks fotosearch.com for the image!

Goodbye - Farewell - See you at Thanksgiving...

Since today is the day my dear hubs T-bone takes his first born child off to college I am putting up this Silly Sonnet in their honor.

If I fly too low
you help me off the ground.
If I fly too high
I know your by my side.

again...these are never corrected poems I scribbled in a book when I was an American living and going to school in Norway.  I simply am turning them into digitized versions of their originals.  :) 

Typical Me.

Thanks everyone for the kind words on this project of recording silly little scribbles from an old notebook into my blog.  It is kind of dumb I know - but I wanted to put something unique out there.

Today I am kind of tired after a long and "happily stressful" weekend.  I walked across the stage at my commencement and my step-daughter Sair left our house and I won't see her for months.  She is off to college at Winona with the firm warning that I want a framed diploma from her in no less than five years.  ;) 

Do as I say....

Here is one that is surrounded by funny little sketches...these crazy people I used to draw that had a head, eyes, big mouth and feet...no body. 

They are odd.

!Typical Me!
Sitting in french,
not even trying,
it's a lazy day,
but it's better than
crying.
LisaAnn 86

Our Family by Shell Sheree

My Mother and Father asked me what I wanted for graduation. 

What I wanted was a cool picture of my family - and I found the perfect artist.

Shell Sheree

Don't you love the portrait - yes Boo Boo La La is way younger - but this is the one photo where we are all

DRESSED UP!!!

and color co-ordinated to a point.

What do you think?

Quick Update:  For those of you who do not read regularly - or have not seen my "about me" section here on the blog - the redhead is Sair, my DSD and the blonde is J-Dogg my DSS. 

Where are we?

The month of August is Silly Sonnets - click on Elizabeth above if you want to know more about why I am sharing these with all of you. 

Today I walk across the stage at Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis - My Mom, Dad, T-bone and BooBooLaLa will be in attendance. 

HEY!  Sidenote since this is usually BooBoo Saturday - She has her own Twitter account now that you can follow to read funny things she tells me.  @IamBooBooLaLa ;)  (can you believe there WAS a BooBooLaLa - but they don't even tweet!~ BOO!)

Here is a poem from 1985 today.

am I really here?
Do I really matter?
or is it just a thought
in the mind of another being
I cannot comprehend?
am I really here?

I am sure I wrote this because someone told me about the "brain in the pan" theory of beings. 

It DEFINITELY was not inspired by Keanu Reeves.  :)

Taking a break from the Silly Sonnets 4 Pomp & Circumstance

So today is a good day - but it has been a stressful week.

Yes, we were on vacation last week - but we go to our timeshare we own and I pretty much cook and wash dishes the whole week.  It is not EXACTLY the most relaxing, but we do have a lot of quality time with each other...and there is more wine than usual (and less whine).

The day we got back from vacation T-bone got word that YES he would be working 12-14 hour days all week and possibly the weekend too.  I have had all three kids at home, cooking dinner and ensuring everyone gets to the dentist, work, etc. by myself.  Would not have been too awful, but BooBooLaLa is having a growth spurt that is making her tired and achy and cranky!  I mean I think she grew three or four inches - her Barbie nightgown is now a tunic...like she can't wear it without pj bottoms! 

Thank goodness that the weekend work is off due to their speedy work during the week. 

Mostly because...

Tomorrow is my Commencement Ceremony

The only bummer of it is that the University no longer "calls out" students who have achieved honors.  So I am graduating Summa Cum Laude - but the only place it will say that is on my diploma. 

Not the program - no special tassel - nada.

It kind of makes me sad.  I wanted the recognition of my hard work in getting straight A's over the course of my college career.  Don't you think those of us who worked hard deserve it? 

The other bummer is I just have no idea what to wear.  It says to dress like you were going to a wedding and that it will be super hot!!!  And muggy!!! I think this morning I finally decided what to wear - black double-V top and black lightweight Eileen Fisher pants...maybe with my new iridescent purple flats?

So - like I said it is a good day with some not-so-awesome parts thrown in...now if I could just get Whiskey Marie to bring me one of her red velvet cupcakes it would make it all better!  ;)

Sorry for the whine - join me on Twitter for #wineparty tonight and I will make it up to you!

#wineparty starts at 8pm and no - you don't need to drink wine to join!

Coming Up! My Three Year Blogaversary - and your chance to WIN!

So today I am going to alert you - before I lose anymore followers!  I am going to have a giveaway starting August 27th - my Three Year Blogaversary!!!

The giveaway will be a package of stuff that I love and I will share with one lucky reader....yes, even you in Canada are eligible!  But sorry I am only going to ship to US and Canada.  I am afraid some of the stuff I want to give would be taboo - or too spendy - to ship beyond those borders. 

So if you have read any of my reviews here - or on ViewPoints.com (where I am also Mommy Lisa) the giveaway will include some of these things.  I just have not decided how many - which things to include.  So let me know if anything I reviewed you are interested in and I will try to include those items.  TRY! being the operative word...

NOW for your Silly Sonnet of the day. 

This one is actually from December of 1990 when I was a bit older - but seriously not wiser - than when I wrote the other poems I have posted this month.

The pitch is thrown
its headed over the plate
Get ready for the swing...
Where did he go?
Dec. 90
LAB

Tie A Ribbon Around All The Colors...

The fall and winter I lived in Norway was EPIC for weather for me.  It rained some every day for over 40 days that fall and snow was piled so high in our backyard that winter I could not see out my window.  That bugged the bejebus out of me.  You see my window was a giant picture window that overlooked Molde Fjord below like this:

Right? 

So I did what any normal red-blooded American girl would do.  I got a shovel and dug out my window - then lay there in the snow and sunshine and sighed.

That was a great day and was probably the day I wrote this poem.

rainbow
looking, hoping
and suddenly,
your surrounded.
Comforting rays
of color
flash in your
silky golden hair.
lisa ann '86

Please forgive the grammatical errors in all of this poetry.  Most was written when my days were spent speaking Norwegian and taking a French class in Norwegian and trying to read "the classics" of English literature for fun. 

Yup.  I read "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" for "fun". 

Have a great day buttercup!

Hi Ho - Hi Ho - A poem from January 1986

So today - barring a BIG win on any of my Powerball tickets - I head back to work.

Two things I learned on vacation -

1)  Julie and Julia - I liked the movie better.
2) Sarah Strohmeyer needs to go away - FAR away.

Here is the VERY last of the colour poems in the month of Silly Sonnets.

PINK
fuzzy wuzzy
warm and cozy.
when I'm sunburnt
on my nose
sweaters, bubblegum, &
sunsets and lemonaid
life is always
what pink knows.

I had put arrows on this one changing the order to put "life is always" below "sunsets and lemonaid" vs. before "sweaters, bubblegum &" - but it still is just kind of off. 

Oh well.  Enjoy your day!

Its Boo Boo Saturday so we are bringing on her - AND Miss Iris's Favorite color.
I WAS planning on catching up on blog reading this week - but I have to go to the main building for WiFi so it is harder.  Sorry!

Here is your Silly Sonnet

Purple
happily
I walk along
and realize
what I see.
the color
of mountains
in twighlight

remember these poems are only being digitized, not corrected. 

Yellow

I did not used to like yellow very much - but I always thought of the BRIGHT yellow.  Now with soft colors of butter I think I would re-write the yellow poem of this Silly Sonnet day....hmmm, maybe I need a new notebook.

yellow
happy?
well maybe so
or else you're
just afraid
to face
the truth.

Of Love And Red

Please remember that these Silly Sonnets are just the random scribbles I pulled from a notebook in my parents attic.  They are all mine, but I was like 19-24 when I wrote them.

red
hearts and blood,
love and lying,
can I be mad at you
and want you,
all at once?

Gray

Today while Silly Sonnets are enjoyed we should be out on the Whitefish Chain!  Ahoy Matey - send me more wine!

Gray
cold and tired
old man
sweeps
after all that remains
of the childrens happiness
and cries.

Green with Envy

Enjoy today's Silly Sonnet as Boo Boo La La and I shop in Nisswa and swim in our pool.

Green
Spring
into action.
love
is on the way.
Do not
 be jealous.
It will
go your way.

Again - I am not fixing any punctuation - just moving these from paper to electronic media.  Hope you continue to enjoy my Barrett-Browing  years.  :)

Am I Blue?

This is the month of August and we have begun our annual vacation at Breezy Point...last night we crashed a party - sang karaoke - and had too much wine!  It was glorious!  And is why this post is so late today. 

I won't be late the rest of the week as I am currently sitting at Dockside with a Mudslide and am scheduling my posts.  :) 

The rest of this week are all COLOR poems that I wrote wile I was living in Norway - some time after the turn of the year to 1986.

blue
endless, protecting
never
leaving my side
even when
hope
had died

Today is the first day of the rest of our month together... 

Yes, we made it to August and Silly Sonnets Month in Mommy's Nest.  And since I promised you HORRIBLE poetry I will start you with one that apparently I felt the need to REVISE several times.  I am changing nothing but the medium that the poetry is presented in - the punctuation, spelling and capitalization will go unchanged.  Enjoy!

Eyesight

I had never seen
eyes that glitter,
then you came
and I saw,
mine shimmer
reflected
in your
glittering pools of blue.

Lisa Ann '86