Lisa Lisa Bo Bisa

Another Christmas season has come and gone. And man, did it go by fast! But it sure was a good one, filled with lots of family and good times. Christmas Eve we spent the day with Jon's family. First, at his aunt and uncle's house, where we ate delicious meatballs and bacon-wrapped chicken wings to our hearts' content as we all visited and caught up with one another. The little kids gleefully opened presents and made a proper mess of the living room, the not-so-little kids were consumed by video games, and the adults milled about the house chatting and joking with one another. And then we had a delicious Christmas dinner of Sarpino's pizza! Why should Jon's mom and aunt slave away in the kitchen every year? They shouldn't, so they took the year off (though still spent hours making delicious appetizers). All in all, it was a lovely day. Around 10pm we headed over to Jon's parents' house for our immediate family Christmas. Our nephews dutifully handed out o...

As everyone in Minnesota is well aware, last weekend was one for the books. Our weathermen clearly warned us well, as our local grocery store on Friday at 11pm was a pure mad house. We needed to stock up on some very important things - baking supplies - as I had big plans with friends to bake Christmas cookies on Sunday! But first, we enjoyed a lovely day all snug in our house, watching the snow pile up quickly outside our window. It was a good day. I wore my pajamas all day, spent most of it curled up on our couch watching Christmas movies. I loved it, but admit that by the next morning I was getting a little stir crazy. I was so thankful I had the genius idea to host a cookie baking party that day. I hope the girls didn't mind the drive over to my neck of the woods, but at least they all went home well stocked with a variety of cookies. It was so much fun! Everyone pitched in and in a matter of a couple of hours we had a table full of cookies. We even had this little helper, who ...

I love Thanksgiving weekend. It rocks for so many reasons. 4-day weekend. Seeing family. Delicious food. Sleeping in. Great deals. Time - plain old time to do whatever we want. I love it! This Thanksgiving was really nice. We spent Thanksgiving day at Jon's grandma's house with the whole family. It was tight quarters with all 20 of us in his grandmother's trailer home, but we all managed to find a spot to relax, read through the shopping ads, watch football, and visit. I miss those days at my own grandparents' house, so it has been so wonderful to experience that again. Our nephews spent the afternoon pointing out every single video game, sports equipment, etc. that they wanted for Christmas. Oh, to be a kid again. I don't know who told them we were made of money, but they will be sorely disappointed. :) Friday Jon and I decided to hit a few stores for some Christmas items, but we somehow ended up buying more for ourselves than presents for others. Granted we were s...

I can't believe it is already Thanksgiving! THE day to feel extra thankful. It also means we don't have to work (yay) and we get to stuff ourselves with all sorts of wonderful food and spend time with family (double yay). You can't go wrong there! I really have a lot to be thankful for, though I know I don't always appreciate it. I dwell on what I don't have or what doesn't go exactly how I'd like it. It's part of human nature I suppose, always wishing for more/better, but this season I'm making a conscious effort to realize how fortunate I already am. My mother and sister just spent time in Haiti, on separate trips with similar agendas (and coincidentally similar timing), doing what they do best - helping people. My sister helped to educate people on cholera and how to treat and prevent it. My mom went to facilitate clinics to administer medicine and diagnose ailments, as well as visit children in an orphanage. Both being honorable missions indeed, ...

Last night was a nightmare on the road. One that today I still can't quite get over all its craziness. In all my years of MN driving, I have never been through something like that. Our evening started out great. Jon and I had dinner in uptown and then attended Vince Vaughn's Comedy Show at the State Theater for his birthday. We enjoyed the show - one of the comedians had me in such a fit of laughter that I found myself crying! We then met some friends for drinks at the W Hotel to celebrate a couple of 30th birthdays. I'm still not sure how it is that we are all turning 30 already. All was good until around 11:15pm, when we heard that the roads were getting slick. We decided to call it a night and head home before the roads got too bad. That's what we thought, anyways. Upon exiting the hotel bar, we quickly realized that it had begun to rain and that everything was covered in ice. Seriously everything. People were frantically grabbing onto the building walls, ...

Everyone looks forward to the weekends.  Ok, maybe if you work weekends than you might not, but in general I feel that is probably a fair assumption.  Well, I have been looking forward to the weekends like never before.  NEEDING them.  Like I would almost willingly give up chocolate for the rest of my life  just to fast forward time to be Friday night.  (I did say almost). The last few weeks have been incredibly stressful, mostly because of work.  I have too many projects right now that I feel I am losing my own sanity.  I get into work, grab a quick cup of coffee, and bam - off I go.  And I don't stop until 9 - 9 1/2 hours later.  I get consumed by paperwork and meetings and my very needy clients, including one that calls me at least 4 times a day and pages for me if I don't pick up.  My stress levels are high, as I don't have nearly enough hours in the day to get everyt...

I get this question a lot these days, sometimes multiple times a day.  And I’m never really sure how to respond, especially when it's your random co-workers and clients that are asking and you don't really want to devulge too much of your personal life. So how do you really answer a question like that?  I usually just smile and respond with something like, “Oh it’s great!” or “It’s good, no complaints yet!”  I suppose most of the time they don’t really want to know much more than that anyways.  They are just being polite and making small talk with me, which is ok - it was a big recent event and definitely up for conversation starters. Truthfully, life doesn’t feel all that different from the 6 months leading up to the wedding. Asking how things were going after I first moved into Jon’s place would have been a question I would have had a lot to respond with, because that was a big change. A good change...

The other day, I was on my way home from work, making my trek across the cities, when the funniest thing happened.  I had had a loooong day filled with meetings and spreadsheets and more issues than I cared to deal with, and I found myself in a sour mood wishing I was home already.  Seriously, when do we catch up to the Jetsons and we can travel at the blink of an eye?  Maybe they didn't actually do that in the show, but I bet they could have.  So on that drive home I was in that daze that I so often find myself, where only the gossip and gab of the radio keeps me conscious.   About half way home, I saw a headlight come up behind me out of nowhere.  I wouldn't normally pay much attention, but I recall thinking that that motorcycle must have been going fast (because I myself have a lead foot and was going at a pretty good speed already).  A few moments later I see him pass me on the...

The last month has been a whirlwind of activity, and I can't help but feel a little disappointed that it all went by so quickly.  I'm a married woman!  Craziness.  Everything went beautifully and we couldn’t have been happier.   But because it came and went so quickly, I want to hold on to every detail of my life as a bride.   So this is my attempt at capturing them as they are still fresh in my mind, solely for my own keepsake.  For you lucky readers, you may want to skim through what is bound to be a lengthy and very detailed account.  Don't say I didn't warn you.  :) The morning after my last post (where I lacked focus and felt stress-free and calmer than ever) was the day before the big day...when all things turned crazy!  Jon had to work that morning, so off he went, while I sat down at my computer with a cup of coffee to print our programs.  Of course that didn't go as quickly as I'd hoped, but after a few for...

It almost seems fitting that on my drive home tonight I saw two hot air balloons ahead of me.  The same two balloons that launched with ours that wonderful day last October when my life changed for the better.  Only 2 days away from when we say "I do," seeing the balloons reminded me how all of this started.  It's amazing to think that we've been planning this wedding for almost 11 months now.  I don't think I've ever focused on anything so consistently for so long in my life.  College was 4 years, but let's be realistic - the focus was never consistent.  Costa Rica was almost 3 years, but it never felt like it required much focus.  My trip to Peru was about 8 or 9 months of planning, but still weak in comparison.  So it feels good to be at this point.  Really good.  I should probably be freaking out, in a nervous panic, biting my nails and running around frantically.  But what am I doing?  Blogging.  And far fro...

We are down to the single digits - only 9 days to the big day!  I couldn't be happier, though I can't fool myself that these next 8 days won't be insanely busy and probably a tad bit stressful.  But both Jon and I have out-of-state siblings flying in this weekend, plans for the State Fair with them all, and even a date night for just the two of us this Friday, so we have a lot of fun to look forward to amidst the craze. As a typical bride, all of my focus has been on the day itself, how to throw a most wonderful event that lived up to my dreams and wouldn't be a bore to our guests.  I successfully avoided becoming a bridezilla (at least I think I have), and I am quite pleased with how Jon and I have put together this little shindig.  We're hoping it will be a fabulous day! Today, however, I realized everything that would be new  after we say "I do."  Oh man! New Name:  Holy moly, this one really baffles me.  I will have a new last name...

Since my last post, Jon and I have been coming up with our game plan.  How were we going to approach this issue with insanely expensive photos that we could not really afford?  So, we did our due dilligence and researched other competitive photographers in the area that we had originally met with way back when, talked with friends who had their own photography experiences, and came up with our strongest arguments.  (Thank you all for your perspective and great points you shared on my post - it was so helpful!)  All along we kept in mind that the last thing we wanted to do was harm our good relationship with him.  He DOES still need to take our wedding photos, afterall, and I do not want him to have a bad attitude about us or our photos.  Oh, how sad that would be. And so, tonight was the night we were going to call and chat with him.  I was nervous that we would get nowhere with him, but Jon and I had agreed that we would either get them if he d...

Less than a month to go and things are finally starting to really come together!  Thank goodness.  We have definitely had our fair share of surprises in planning this wedding, but nothing compares to the doozy we got yesterday.  We finally had our engagement pictures taken.  I know I know, most people get their engagement pictures taken when they are somewhat newly engaged, not 29 days before the wedding.  We intended to have them taken in early June but hesitated to set up the appointment as it seemed rain was in the forecast every day.  We really really wanted some nice pictures outside.  July just got plain busy, and a couple of those weeks I was consumed in panic that our photographer would not actually live up to my expectations of the style we wanted.  Fortunately my concerns were mostly short-lived, as he showed us examples of his photography that reassured me he was still a good choice for us.  And so that brought u...

My life has taken a turn for the busier, where I have to rely on my pocket calendar to keep track of what I have going on each day.  But it's mostly all fun and full of wonderful moments and great laughs, so who can complain?  A week ago Friday night Jon and I played golf (which we have had little time to do lately), and even though it was literally 90+ degrees well after 5pm, we had a great time.  And I received a very sweet compliment from the ranger on the last hole that made my day.  I've grown so accustomed to strange looks when I step on the same tee as the other men.  You know, because I'm a woman and should be playing from the red tees way up closer.  But then they see my tee off, which is usually decent enough, and then only sometimes give me some credit that I actually know what I'm doing.  But I digress.  So that night the ranger told me tha...

This weekend has been good to me.  Nothing super exciting or special occurred, but it was the last calm weekend of the summer so we made the most of it.  I love keeping busy, but there is nothing better than waking up, on my own time, and having the whole day at my disposal to do whatever I want.  So, here's what I did: 1. I finally caught up on sleep - hallelujah!  I'd been running on 6 hours of sleep or less for quite some time and it was starting to really get to me.  I felt like I was stuck in this zombie-like state where I couldn't think clearly and had to muster up the energy just to do the simplest tasks.  We have had plans every single evening and weekend for a couple of weeks now, so I have had no choice but to stay up later than I know I should.  I'm sure there are plenty of people that can function just fine on 6 hours of sleep a day, but I need at least 7.  So Friday night I got over ...

I don’t know if anyone else ever feels this way, but I hate lunch during the work week. Yep, only Monday through Friday. I hate trying to figure out what I’m going to eat for lunch, and because I appear to have a “healthy” appetite (as my grandmother would say), I’m starving by 11am and already have food on the mind. Thoughts of both dollars and calories spin around chaotically in my mind, causing a feeling of guilt no matter what I decide. Do I spend a crazy amount of money on a salad from Lunds to be healthy? Or do I forgo the calorie concern and get a $2.99 snack pack at Culvers because it won’t hurt my bank account as much? Either way I lose. Subway has been a source of comfort for me, being relatively cheap AND healthy, but I’m no Jared. I cannot eat it every day! I could avoid this stress altogether by bringing a lunch. Though that in itself creates stress. That would mean I have to go to the grocery store on a regular basis (which has not been occurring with the ridiculously b...

The other day, I found myself reminiscing about Costa Rica, a place I proudly used to call home.  It was just for two and a half years, but it was long enough to feel like I belonged.  And long enough to have made an impact on my life.  I learned to confidently speak Spanish (which I have since returning lost), I learned to get out of my shell and talk to new people, I learned to be brave and fend for myself, I learned to appreciate my good fortune, but perhaps most importantly, I learned that no matter who you are or where you are from, we are all essentially the same.  We breathe, eat, drink, laugh, love, believe, share, feel...maybe just a little differently. As time passes, my life there is becoming more of a distant memory.  Which makes me sad.  I don't think about it regularly anymore, and I fear I am forgetting some amazing stories/experiences that I long to hold close.  (I should have started this blog back then, as I would hav...

The last couple of months have flown by. The weather turned beautiful super early this year for us, and in an instant our schedules doubled/tripled with the endless things nice weather will bring. (Though I could have done without the endless rain recently). When time flies and my list of things to do remains as long as it started (or sometimes even longer), I wish there were more hours in the day.   We are now counting down in the double digits to the big day. 85, to be exact. Wowzers. After a short break from the wedding plans earlier this spring, I quickly jumped back into them when I realized the clock was ticking. So I’m trying to stay focused with checklists and spreadsheets galore. Love it. As it gets closer, it’s becoming more and more real to me. Oddly enough, I only recently  truly pictured myself as “the bride.” Before then, I was just planning a huge party, thinking of only what we needed for the event - location, dress, flowers, food, music… In all of my ...

Those of you that have done any sort of registry can probably appreciate my post today. Wedding registeries - I thought they'd be fun. I mean, when else do you get to wander a store and at the click of a button make your ultimate wishlist?! While parts of it have been fun, there's definitely more to it than I thought. A part of me can't help but feel a little timid about the whole registry aspect. I know it's part of the process, and our guests will hopefully appreciate knowing what household items we like and would be practical for us. And I know that traditionally the gifts are intended for us to start our new life together (and make me all domesticated, so it seems). But I can’t help but feel a little uneasy, like we're demanding “Here everyone, buy us this!” I'm sure this is not the impression people get from a registry - I know I never have while being on the gift-giver side.  And since it’s better than the alternative (getting random gifts that we’d nev...

This weekend was pretty darn close to perfect, in many ways. After innumerable days of BLAH, my plea for no more rain on Thursday worked! (Or I timed my plea just right). Though I did get drenched running out for lunch that day, the weather later did a quick 180 and we had a BEAUTIFUL weekend. It was so refreshing. I was able to spend some quality time outside – garage sales, walks, farmer’s market, and golfing – and I soaked in every ray of sunshine I could get. Without getting burned. I didn’t make out very well at the garage sales. It was immediately apparent that I’d need a small child in order to do that. Nevertheless it was fun to walk around and browse…and be outdoors. I also sat out on our front patio (only the second time it’s ever been used) and read for awhile on Saturday, which was wonderful. We definitely need patio furniture now so we can do that more often! I also got to spend some quality time with great friends, which reminded me how lucky I am to have them in my l...

This rain business has got to end. I know nature is loving it right now, and I’m sure we will all be thankful for the beautiful scenery that is to come as everything grows. However, it’s been 4 straight days of rain (or maybe more, I could have lost track) and I don’t know how much more I can handle. Everyone seems to be gloomy and unenergetic, which makes it hard to get much done. It makes me want to curl up under a blanket and watch movies all day long.  I will say that I am glad that this seemingly never-ending supply of rain has made its visit during the week and hopefully not the weekend. We have a big day of garage sales tomorrow that I’m praying will be a dry adventure! I particularly want the rain to stop this very moment so that I can go get some lunch before my next meeting. You see, today was the one day that I did NOT wear my raincoat, optimistic that it couldn’t possibly be like the previous 3 days have been. Genius. So today I either starve or get drench...

Flowers are not cheap. Add the fact that they are for a wedding, and you’ve been financially hit two/three times as hard. I sat down with a florist for a wedding consult, and she pretty much quoted the most "basic" arrangements for the wedding party and ceremony for, oh, four times my flower budget. Come on, really? Exercise is good for me. This is nothing "new" to me, but I definitely got into a rut over the winter months and forgot how great I feel after a good workout. I think it helps that I joined a new gym and love it. The one near us is generally pretty quiet, small but with all equipment you could ever want, and I don't feel intimidated by any hardcore athletes that I used to see at the larger gyms. It feels good to have renewed motivation. Here's goodbye to several extra pounds! I need electricity. We woke up the other morning to no electricity, and needless to say, it was not a great start to my day. I could barely put on make-up by candlelight...

Spring is here and Jon and I have been SO excited to break out the golf clubs.  The Friday before Easter we thought we'd give it a try.  The forecast called for rain that afternoon, but we were unrealistically optimistic.  We headed over to our favorite course in Stillwater that is super reasonably priced and off we went.  It felt so great to be out there again.  I am a total geek, I know it.  But it is one of my favorite ways to escape the hecticness of everyday life.  When I'm out on the course, I am not preoccupied with any worries (which currently would be mostly wedding-related).  My only thoughts are how I am going to get that 1.6" ball into the 4" hole in the fewest strokes (and beat Jon).  And of course the whole time enjoying the fresh air, sunshine, chirping birds, and beautiful scenery.  A lot of people find golfing stressful and frustrating.  I think I'm over that.  To ...

Today marks five months to the big day!  I can't believe it.  We have come so far and yet have so much more to do.  I took a 3-4 week hiatus from wedding planning, aside from a few things here and there.  I had plenty of other things going on to keep me busy, and I think I needed the break for sanity's sake.  Jon has been helpful with most of the major decisions, but he's happy to leave the details to me.  Lucky me (and I mean that with almost all sincerity).  Realizing today is five months, my hiatus and lazy days must end - summer is approaching and things will start to get really busy.  I now find my mind spinning with where to start next.  My long list of things to do is a bit daunting, but I'm up to the challenge.  After all, I'm only doing this once in my life!  It's been stressful and overwhelming at times. Too many choices, too many decisions...fortunately I have wonderful friends that have...

I have to give Alicia a HUGE thank you for introducing me to raisins in my oatmeal. I am in heaven! She probably doesn’t even realize she did anything, which makes this even more random. I think she posted something on FB, it could have been months ago, about how hot oatmeal with raisins is a great way to start the morning on a cold day. Or something like that. Whatever it was, it clearly stuck in my mind. I eat oatmeal almost every morning. I generally go for the Maple & Brown Sugar Weight Control, since it has extra fiber to feel fuller longer, and I swear one packet makes almost double what a regular one does. Gotta get my money's worth.  The Weight Control brand, however, only makes this one flavor. Though I am generally a creature of habit and have no problem with repetition, I do find myself getting sick of it from time to time. Alicia’s FB comment about raisins and oatmeal recently popped into my mind, out of nowhere, so I bought raisins and oh my gosh. It is so...