Must Share!

Okay, I know there are SO many other things that I should be blogging about, but I'm too overwhelmed! I really a trying! But, in the meantime, I MUST share this with you guys.

So my friend Angie (hi Angie!) told us last weekend about this thing called Bountiful Baskets Food Co-Op. Basically, you pay $15 for a basket, and then they (the volunteers) take everyone's money and get a deep discount on local produce and other food products. Then, you go on a Saturday morning and pick up your basket. You never know exactly what will be in it, but it's supposed to be a really good price so I thought I would try it out this week. I feel like I got a fantastic deal (I still need to go price out what I got). So, for $15.00 (plus a first time user fee of $3) I got the following:

2 heads spinach
5 potatoes
2 bunches of celery
2 red onions
1 package mushrooms
8 bananas
2 lbs baby carrots
1 lb green grapes
1 cantalope (spelling?)
1 pint blackberries
10 fuji apples
1 head brocciflower (spelling)

I also added on a citrus box for $18 and got 22 pounds of citrus:


6 limes
2 lemons
6 grapefruit
10 oranges
20 fairchild tangerines
30 satsuma tangerines

Holy cow! So the next pick up is in two weeks, which should be just enough time to get through all this. Maybe this isn't as good as a deal as it feels like, but so far I'm happy!

If you want info, here is the website! http://www.bountifulbaskets.org The one downside for me was that their website was a little confusing...I got it figured out though!

Alive, I promise

No, I have not died and fallen off the face of the earth. I'm just trying to adjust to this new life we have going on here. I have lots and lots and lots of things to blog about, and will start getting them up here soon. I just need to get through this weekend.

Until then, enjoy this picture of the cutest little girl ever.

Baby Nora is here!

We are thrilled to welcome baby Nora Mae Biesinger to our family! Following a 52 hour labor, which I am sure Mandy will post details about in the near future, she was born at 9:33 p.m. on Wednesday, July 29th. She weighed in at 7 pounds eight ounces and measured 20 1/2 inches. Mom and baby are both doing fantastic. More to come, but here are some pictures to hold you over until then. I know. Cutest. Baby. Ever.

29. Eek.

Last catch up post...I promise!

Yup. I’ve hit that magic number. Last Friday was my 29th birthday. I can’t believe it! My last year in my 20’s. Talk about overwhelming. 29 is how old my mom is!!

No, Garrett did not make this for me. But yes, that is kind of how I feel!

I had a fantastic day, thanks to Garrett and all my friends. It started out wonderfully, as the night before was the first time that I had slept the entire night in at least a couple of weeks. Thank you baby Nora for actually keeping it down in there! I woke up to beautiful flowers on the counter, and then Garrett got up and made me breakfast. Mickey Mouse pancakes (since we couldn’t go to Disneyland this year) and bacon. Yum!

After my delicious breakfast, I was lucky enough to have to go to work. Wahoo. Actually not a bad day though. Friday was graduation up at the U of U, and I was able to help out at our college convocation ceremony. I have now attended more graduation ceremonies than I ever thought I would. For work alone I’ve been to 7! Every year it runs just as smoothly as the year before though, so I can’t complain.

After graduation, I was able to relax for a little bit before our birthday plans with friends. We met Kristalee, Levi, Gemma and Mike at McGrath’s for dinner, where I was lucky enough to wear the fish hat once again and be serenaded by all the servers. Yes, someone got a picture (thanks Gemma). No, it will not be posted. Man pregnancy does a number on your looks! ☺ We had a great time at dinner though!

Afterwards Garrett indulged me in my Hugh Jackman obsession and took me to see Wolverine. It was a great movie! There were definitely some parts that got me confused, but over all a nice way to relax.

All in all, I had a great day! Thanks to all of you for the calls and facebook messages! I love my family and friends so much!

Pregnancy Update…Wahoo!

And now for more catching up….

Last time I blogged about pregnancy I was 22 weeks. Now I am almost at the end of week 28. Where on EARTH has all the time gone??? It went so slowly at first, but now things are just moving far too fast for my liking. We still have so much to do!

Anyway, officially in the 3rd trimester. This weeks growth, according to Baby Center is…

• She now weighs two and a quarter pounds (like a Chinese cabbage) and measures 14.8 inches from the top of her head to her heels.
• She can blink her eyes, which now sport lashes.
• With her eyesight developing, she may be able to see the light that filters in through your womb.
• She's also developing billions of neurons in her brain and adding more body fat in preparation for life in the outside world.

Yummy, cabbage.

It’s crazy how fast they grow. I’m feeling her move more and more. She is definitely already starting to keep me up at night! It’s a really cool feeling though, I wouldn’t change it for the world. Unfortunately, she is already defying her parents, as she refuses to move for Garrett. Poor guy!

An another pregnancy related note, we started our birthing classes at the beginning of April. They have been absolutely awesome. It’s been nice to go every week for a couple of hours to spend time with other first time parents learning about what is going on and what will happen. Some weeks I dread the fact that I have somewhere to be, but once I head home from class I am always glad I went.

We did have a bit of a weird scare a couple of weeks ago though. On April 22 I woke up around midnight in absolute agony. I had these sharp stabbing pains all along the back half of my right side that wrapped around my stomach. It was awful, and lasted a good couple of hours. I finally fell asleep, and woke up the next morning feeling fine. But the next day around 10:30, they started in again, and it was worse and more consistent. Called the doctors office and was instructed to go straight to labor and delivery, so off I went. Talk about scary. Luckily my friend from work drove me and was able to stay with me, which was a good thing. She was MUCH less emotionally involved than anyone else would have been, and did a pretty good job of keeping me laughing though the pain. They hooked me up to all the machines to monitor what was going on. The baby was moving great and had a really strong heartbeat. I had or two small contractions while I was hooked up, but nothing they were too worried about. They ended up checking me for a urinary tract infection, as well as kidney stones and gall stones. After the most PAINFUL ultrasound I have ever had, they were able to rule all of that out. So, after a couple of hours of hanging around on the monitor, they sent me home with strict instructions to go see my doctor if the pain worsened or didn’t go away by the next morning.

Well, after another sleepless night of pain, I did end up going in. After rechecking everything for infections, the “theory” that my doctor has is that I had a growth spurt in my stomach that my back was not prepared to carry. So, she thinks that I essentially tore muscles along the right side of my back. Which makes a lot of sense due to the pain that feels like muscle spasms.

Anyway, way too much information, but as this is the only journal…I figured we should put it down! I’ve been trying really hard to not over tax myself and let my muscles heal. Now that it’s happened once, the likelihood of it happening again is definitely there. I’m trying to train myself now for what would have happened once the baby got here anyway, meaning dealing with a dirty house! ☺

Other than the craziness of my stupid back, everything else has been great. I can’t believe that we only have around 11 weeks left until she gets here. And we still have so much to do! We haven’t done ANYTHING in her room yet, and we haven’t started buying anything. I think it’s time that we started getting cracking!

We have gotten one thing of my list though, and I know Garrett is so happy that I am no longer bugging him about it. The most important thing on my list was choosing her name…which is….

Nora Mae Biesinger

I think it’s super cute and can’t wait until she is here! 11 weeks (eek) and counting!

California Trip

Wow. We are really behind on posting. So, I guess it’s time to get a bunch of posts up! I need to be better at this blogging thing, as it’s my only journal!

We went to visit Grandma and Grandpa Casler April 15 through the 19. It was such a great trip! We were lucky enough to have Grant and Amber (Garrett’s brother and his wife) come with us. They are such great travel companions! The first night we left right after work and drove to Las Vegas. We didn’t get there until 1:00 in the morning, since we had a late start and then had to stop along the way for me to walk around. We stayed in The Orleans hotel, which wasn’t too bad, except you had to walk all the way through the casino to get to the rooms. Ugh. My feet were killing me!

Two of my favorite people!

The next day we had a nice leisurely start. We hit up the Paris Hotel for Breakfast, but didn’t get there soon enough to actually get breakfast. We went for crepes instead, which turned out to be a good choice! Along the way, we stopped at the outlets, but didn’t end up finding anything. Always disappointing to not find anything when you are shopping. Boo. We finally made it to La Crescenta around 5:30 or 6:00 on Thursday. I always LOVE going to Grandma and Grandpa Casler’s house. They are such great people, and I am so blessed to have married into their family. We don’t see my Grandpa Sadorus very often, and my other grandparents have passed away. So having Garrett’s grandparents around has always been such a blessing!

What a good looking sailor!

The next day was a day full of interviewing and picture scanning. Garrett and Grant got everything set up to start recording life stories, and away they went. Garrett spent the morning working on Grandpa’s stories in his office. Then the afternoon was Grandma central! I spent most of the time scanning pictures and napping (thanks to Grant and Amber taking over!). All in all we were able to get around 3 ½ hours worth of tape between the two of them, which is amazing. Garrett was the only one in the room with them when they were taping so I missed hearing all the stories. Garrett is going to work on putting all the stories together with the pictures we scanned, and I can’t wait to see the finished product.

That evening we had the chance to spend time with Garrett’s cousin Christie and her husband Clark. We went to dinner and then to Griffith Observatory. We had such a fun time with them! It was really great to catch up and hear all the stories about their family, they have some crazy kids! I wish we all lived closer and had the opportunity to get together more often.

Grandma. What a beauty!

Saturday we spent the morning scanning a few more pictures and playing games. After that we spent some time at my favorite place, Descanso Garden, and then went down to the Santa Monica Pier. Holy crowded, that’s all I have to say! Oh, one more thing. Nasty dirty bathrooms. It was fun to get out and see some things, but I have to say I do not think I could ever live in LA. Too much traffic and too many people for my taste!

This is the picture that was with their wedding announcement. Aren't they a good looking couple?

Sunday morning we packed up and headed out. But only after we raided the lemon tree in the back yard! They had so many lemons, it was amazing! We took 5 full bags, and the tree didn’t look like it had even been touched. After loading up and a few quick goodbyes, we hit the road. Looking back on it, probably not smart to drive from LA to Bountiful in one day when you are pregnant. No matter how many stops you make, it sure is uncomfortable. And, I never knew my ankles could get that big! ☺

We had an amazing time though. I love spending time with the grandparents, and am so grateful that we have had the opportunity to see them so much in the last year. I’m also grateful that we were able to record some of their stories and look forward to sharing them with our kids!

What a cute baby!

Oh, aren’t I a cute baby? I mean seriously. ☺ Garrett and I are heading to California next weekend to video tape his Grandma and Grandpa Casler’s life stories, and we decided that while we were there we’d take the time to scan as many as the family photos that they have as possible. In preparation, we spent some time last night playing around with the scanner, and found this super cute picture of me. And no, I’m not biased.

Seriously though, I never realized how big my ears were, even then! I definitely notice that they stick out now, but they were MUCH more noticeable on a little baby. If you look close you can see one being bent by the high chair! Poor kid. ☺

It makes me think about what this little girl will look like. What parts of Garrett and I will she get? Or, will she have traits from some past generation? I am getting REALLY excited to see who she looks like! Hopefully she’ll get the traits I love and not the ones I hate. Although, maybe I’ll like them on her.

In other news, we are slowly getting ready for this baby. I’m hoping that this week we can start the big room move so that we can empty out the nursery and start decorating. We have the start of a plan in mind, and I am excited. We’ll post pictures once it’s done!