Gallbladder Removal: Seeking Comments

(Jenn) To make a long story short, my doctor has finally attributed my abdominal pain to gallstones, which showed up in the ultrasound (nope -- not a baby!). I have a laparoscopic gallbladder removal surgery scheduled for July 23rd. Here are my questions: do any of you know someone who has had this procedure done? Any thoughts? I'm wondering if people have had good/bad experiences with the surgery. Also, I'm wondering about the recovery process. As of now, I have my surgery scheduled for a Monday morning and am planning to fly to Utah that Friday night. Am I crazy? Will that be too soon?

I would love to hear your comments! Thanks!

Umbrellellellella!

(Jenn) "Umbrella" is one of Henry's favorite words to say! It's actually surprising how often he sees umbrellas and points them out. This clip is from a few days after Ben's birthday. He had opened all of his presents except for one, because it was late coming in the mail. It came while Ben was at work, and so Henry and I wrapped it and put the empty box out in the hall to take to the garbage can later. When Ben came home that day, Henry greeted him in the hallway, saw the box, and ruined the surprise by announcing "Umbrellellellella!" over and over again. We got quite a laugh out of it. I should point out that the umbrella in the clip is NOT the new one Ben got for his birthday. It is the old one that Henry now gets to play with!






Umbrella from Ben and Jenn on Vimeo

Go Yankees! And Binkies?

(Jenn) Henry overheard a conversation I was having with a friend on Wednesday about the Yankees. He thought "Yankee" was an interesting word and kept repeating it. As soon as we got home, he had already decided which item to attach the word "Yankee" to. He just can't sleep without his Yankee! I guess he's a true New Yorker now. Watch this:






Yankee from Ben and Jenn on Vimeo

Real Talent

(Jenn) I've heard some women say they could NEVER walk in my 3-inch platform shoes! Henry is a pretty new walker, and he doesn't seem to have a problem with it. After I took these pictures today, he walked around in them for at least two minutes! Now, that's a challenge I dare you to beat!

Ben's Edit: For all of you who, like me, wondered just what it would take to beat Henry's challenge, Henry is 32 inches tall. That means that Jenn's platform shoes increase his height by about 9.4%. So, for me to perform an equivalent task at 6 ft. tall, I'd need 6-3/4" platforms!

Kati and Joe

(Jenn) We love Kati and Joe! They were here from June 5-9 (I know, I'm slacking off on the blogging), and it was wonderful to see them! I felt like I was in a dream world to just get to spend time with my sister for five days. It was unique, though, because Sophie, Isaac, and Ivan had to stay home, so we certainly missed them. But it was great; we had lots of grown-up time (a rare thing) for playing games, talking, cooking, etc. Henry also didn't seem to care that he didn't have cousins around (he didn't know the difference!). Kati and Joe were exciting enough themselves. It's been over a week since they left, and he's still seeing "Joe" everywhere we go (I sadly have to remind him that the mailman couldn't be Joe, because Joe is in Utah). While they were here, he also really warmed up to Kati and snuggled up to her like he does to only Ben and me when he's "shy" (code word for sleepy).

While they were here, Joe had one day of work in Connecticut, so Kati and I got to stay home all day together! She brought an old sewing machine for me to use for all of those Relief Society skills I SHOULD have but don't. Henry took a generous nap, and in that time Kati taught me to use the machine, and thanks to her help and preparation, I got a whole quilt ready for tying (get ready, young women!). While I was sewing away, she made delicious carmels which we devoured for the rest of the week. We both finished our projects, and Henry still hadn't woken up! It was amazing for both of us to see how productive we can be without kids! We enjoyed the rest of the day talking and taking our own naps.
Another thing I'm glad we did while they were here was visit the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, both which can be reached by a ferry from New Jersey. It was amazing to see "Lady Liberty" close-up (she is much bigger and more MASCULINE looking than I ever imagined). Henry loved it and said "Woobie" (liberty) EVERY time he saw the Statue. I would have to say that I think I enjoyed Ellis Island even more than the Statue of Liberty, though. It was surprising to me how involved I felt as we walked through the museum there and learned about the immigrants who came to the U.S. I had an overwhelming feeling of what America is -- practically all of us come from some other place with a story to tell. I think as Americans we take this extraordinary history for granted most of the time.

Also, Henry and I joined them for our first double-decker bus tour of New York City. It was a 90 degree day, which made it a little hard to endure the whole tour. Henry wanted to jump off the edge of the bus the whole time, which also provided a challenge. But it was an interesting way to see the city -- from the streets, seeing several different neighborhoods and how they connect. I believe you have to luck out with the tour guides on these buses . . . ours were fair. My favorite factoids: "SoHo," one of my new favorite neighborhoods of Manhattan, is so named for being the area "South of Houston (say House-ton)," which is the street marking its upper border; "Tri-be-ca," another neighborhood, is named for being "the triangle below Canal Street." Now, I bet every New Yorker doesn't know that! We ended our tour at the south end of Central Park, which is now my favorite part of the park. Kati got some beautiful pictures!

Ben and Ernie?

(Jenn) Last week Henry saw a picture of Bert from Sesame Street and shrieked, "Daddy!" He now officially calls Bert "Daddy," and Ernie is either "Ernie" or "Henny," his latest version of his own name (a big improvement from "Hen," don't you think?). I can easily see the resemblance between these two handsome figures; can you ? Now if only Ben would let his eyebrow grow in to complete his unibrow . . .

Jennica's Big Trip

(Jenn) Ben's mom decided that for each of her grandchildren's 12th birthdays, she will take them on a trip to visit someone in the family. Jennica is the first of the grandchildren to get this grand birthday present, and they decided to come here for her trip! At first, the trip was just going to be Grandma and Jennica, but as the trip planning continued, Grandpa and Andrea (Ben's sister) jumped on board! They were here for a week and left on Tuesday this week. I must say that of all of our visitors so far, these four have been the most energetic and eager to do EVERYTHING! They really did squeeze a LOT into a week, and we had a great time.


They visited Central Park, The Museum of Natural History, Times Square, American Girl Place, The Top of the Rock at Rockefeller Center, the World Trade Center Site, the Federal Reserve Bank, Wall Street, and the Statue of Liberty. They also attended Wicked and Mary Poppins on Broadway; they did a bunch of shopping on Canal Street and at H&M; and we ate at The Cheesecake Factory. To top it off, we squeezed in a birthday party for Ben and Jennica, Church on Sunday, and an overnight trip to Palmyra, NY for LDS Church History sites. Wow! If you've been to New York City, you know that they really did fit a lot into a short amount of time.

Henry loved having the company and warmed up to them fairly quickly, considering the fact that he is now suddenly VERY clingy. He called Grandma and Grandpa by their correct titles about half of the time, although that "ma" and "pa" part is really confusing! He managed to learn a slurred version of "Andrea," and he called Jennica "Jenny" or "Cup!" On Tuesday morning we dropped them off at the train station to send them on their way to the airport for a sad goodbye (although not too sad because we'll be in Utah this summer). On Wednesday morning, Henry and I went out to run some errands, and as soon as we got to the car, he started asking, "Grandma? Grandpa? Cup?" and I was sad to tell him that we weren't going to pick them up from the train station today. It must be so confusing to him that people just show up as a major part of our everyday lives one day, and they vanish the next.

Pictures: Statue of Liberty with Dad I., Ben, and Andrea; Jennica at the top of the Hill Cumorah in Palmyra; all of us on the top floor of the Joseph Smith Log Cabin in Palmyra.

Portraits

(Jenn) Henry had his 18 month pictures taken at JC Penney last week. Here are a few of the samples! He still gets a little tentative about the whole portrait studio thing, so it's hard to capture his happiest faces. But these are still cute and turned out well. Enjoy!

Important Figures

(Ben) Jenn has been making an effort to teach Henry the names of three very important figures in history. Next up, Socrates?






Important Figures from Ben and Jenn on Vimeo

Jenni & Troye

(Jenn) Last week, we had a great visit with Jenni (Wahlen) and Troye Davis. They were here from Tuesday to Saturday. It was so fun to catch up on them and get to know Troye better. Right now Jenni and Troye live in West Point, Utah. Their twin boys, Declan and Keegan (sp?), are almost three years old. They are expecting another boy in September!

On their visit, Jenni and Troye covered a lot of NYC essentials (Times Square, Rockefeller Center's "Top of the Rock" view, a Yankees game, shopping on Canal street, Central Park, the Museum of Natural History, etc.). We also took a day to go visit the New Jersey shore, which was a nice break from all the chaos of the city. It was a beautiful day, and we got to see the view of the Sandy Hook shore from the top of a lighthouse tower. We got to go up the towers of two different lighthouses, which I hadn't done before. We also got to see the ocean just as a storm was coming in!

Unfortunately, the only pictures I have of the Davis' trip was on this day at the shore, and I didn't get any pictures of Jenni. I remember feeling like I was taking a lot of pictures of the two of them, but it turns out they were all on their camera, not ours! So maybe when Jenni sends me a few of her pictures, I'll have to update.

Update: Here's a picture of Jenni and Troye at the "Top of the Rock" at Rockefeller Center. We decided it's by far the best way to get a view of the city.

Grandma and Grandpa Griffin

(Jenn) We have been lucky this week to have a little taste of what it would be like to have grandparents living 15 minutes away. My grandma and grandpa are on a gardening tour, mostly looking at gardens and other sites in New York and New Jersey. Their hotel for the first four days was in Secaucus, just 10-15 minutes away from our house. We were able to have them over for dinner on Monday night, and we went out to eat together on Thursday night. Tonight we will go to their hotel in Fort Lee for a regular Sunday night visit! It's been quite a treat! Henry absolutely LOVES seeing them, and it didn't even take a minute for him to warm up to them. He was quickly comfortable letting Grandpa hold him, read to him, and play with him. All week, he's been saying "Bye Bye! Gomps!" which I interpreted to mean that he wanted to go see Grandpa again. I can't resist a demand like that.

Engagements

(Jenn) We can finally announce that Amy Squires and Jon Gardiner, two of our very best friends, are engaged! Don't be misled -- they're not engaged to each other (we gave up on that dream a long time ago), but to two wonderful other people that we have never met. We have spoken to both Jon and Amy in depth about the fiancé/es, and they both feel like the perfect matches. Amy is marrying Dave Choules on July 31st, and Jon is marrying Kristie Anderson on September 6th. We couldn't miss either of these weddings, so we're planning two trips to Utah this summer, which we're very excited about (check the link to our Google calendar, bottom left, for more details)! We are ecstatic that two of our best friends are so happy and finally get to see what we've been raving about for 3 1/2 years (GO MARRIAGE!!!). Congratulations!

Cheap April Update

(Jenn) Tyler & Alison Squire put me to shame! They have gone almost the entire month now withouth spending a dime on anything except bills and medical necessities. They haven't even filled up their car with gas! But you have to remember that they are them, and I am me. And if any of you know me very well, you know that I like to spend money. It's been really eye-opening to me to see how much it affects me to have only $30 to spend in two weeks. And this is grocery money!

Here's the tally:

30.00 Our budget

-15.53 Milk, eggs, cheese, apples, dishwasher soap, lettuce

-2.34 I can't remember what this was for

-6.99 Cough medicine for Henry

-4.78 Milk

.36 Our total, assuming we don't break down before May 1st

I've learned a couple of things:

1) Grocery spending is my outlet. Since we really don't have much money for me to buy the things I dream of buying (clothes, toys, furniture, decorations, gifts, a house), I can at least set free my need to spend using $300 a month at the grocery store. And it's amazing how much it thrills me to get some incredible deal on cereal (6 for $10, using 3 $1 coupons) or to buy something fun like a new eyeshadow (using grocery money? of course -- it's at the grocery store!).

2) It really pains me to miss a good deal. I know it's good to buy things when they're on sale and stock up, instead of waiting until you desperately need them and paying the higher price. This makes sense. But sometimes I think I may carry it a bit too far. I've been in serious pain over the bottle of laundry detergent -- the kind I use -- that's on sale this week for $1.99, and I have a 65-cent coupon, and ShopRite doubles all coupons under a dollar. So I guess I should have bought it, but we kind of needed milk more than laundry soap. Ouch, that hurt. I just need to be careful and make sure I'm not buying something just because it's a good deal, especially if it's something we wouldn't normally use.

3) We could eat our regular meals more cheaply than we do. It seems like I have been flooded recently with new recipes I want to try. I get recipes from an email exchange, from people at church, and from Martha Stewart's Food Magazine. And when you plan your meals from all new recipes, there are often new and unique ingredients to buy. For the past two weeks, we really haven't felt deprived at all! We have eaten waffles, omelets, soup and sandwiches, pasta, rice, and leftovers. We like eating these foods, and they really are cheaper than a lot of fancier recipes. So I've decided from now on, I need to plan at least a few cheap recipes into each week.

4) I spend a lot of time shopping and cooking. I guess that's not all that bad, because I enjoy doing both of those things. But last week I felt like I had absolutely nothing to do! I spent most of my time reading, and I really enjoyed all the extra free time.

5) Henry likes canned green beans! He ate like 35 of them in one night! And Ben doesn't like creamed corn, which he had never had previously.

6) (And this is terrible) Spending the Church Budget is a last-resort outlet for me. I'm sure I would have had to buy this stuff anyway, but somehow I felt satisfied spending $14.99 on refreshments for the employment workshop this Saturday, and $18 on copies and supplies for the young women. I'll just have to be careful not to get carried away with this!

So it looks like overall, this has been a good experience for me! And I definitely couldn't do it much more than two weeks (we're probably really lacking in our fresh fruit and vegetable consumption), I'm surprised that I actually still have about 5 spend-free dinner ideas left! Wish me luck with the next four days!

Surprise Visit from Robbie

(Jenn) Yesterday I got a phone call from Robbie Mower saying he was at the Newark airport on a long layover on his way home from his internship in Belgium. This was in the afternoon, and his flight wasn't supposed to leave until 7:45pm. I called Ben, who was able to get off work an hour earlier than normal, and Henry and I rushed off to the airport to pick up Robbie. We were able to spend about 3 hours together and feed him dinner before he had to be back at the airport. What a great surprise! It was incredible how the forces worked in our favor on this one so that we could get together with a good friend. By the end of the visit, Henry finally warmed up to Robbie enough to let him hold him.

You'll notice in this picture that Robbie didn't get a haircut the whole time he was in Belgium, and he also hadn't shaved for about a week. A big surprise for his mom, I'm sure! He said working at the MTC prior to his internship made him feel like he absolutely had to "rebel." Robbie is planning to spend the summer in Layton, UT with his family before heading off to George Washington University to get a Master's in International Development. What a great guy!

Musical Discovery

Musical Discovery on Vimeo
(Jenn) Henry discovered a way he can play his own instrument and dance at the same time. I guess there are some advantages to having an organ instead of a piano!

Best Friends

(Jenn) This is Henry playing with his best friend, Evan. Evan is 2 1/2 months younger than Henry, although they are practically the same size. Evan lives about 3 minutes away from us, and we get together with him and his mom Jessica (and sometimes dad!) a few times a week. We met them through the local MOMS Club. These boys really love playing together, and the moms probably love getting together even more! They are great friends.

Body Parts

(Jenn) Henry pretty much talks nonstop now. He is big on identifying things over and over and over and over. Here are some of his favorite body parts. "Elbow" is big for him, as it is one of his first two syllable words, and he says it pretty clearly. If you have a minute, he'd probably love to talk to you on the phone!






Body Parts on Vimeo

Funny Faces

(Jenn) Thought you might be interested in seeing how attractiveness seems to run in our family! Sometimes people shouldn't be allowed to use cameras . . .

April on the Cheap

(Jenn) Since we moved here 8 months ago, I kind of "forgot" to find out how to get to the nearest Wal-Mart, deciding that it was probably too far away anyway. I was happy to do all of that kind of shopping at Target (in my opinion, a much happier place). Well, when my parents were here in March, my mom lost her contact, and I was forced to find the Wal-Mart in Secaucus so she could get it replaced. As I walked around the store with my dad, I started noticing that EVERYTHING is cheaper there. Needless to say, I felt guilty about shopping at Target, just knowing how much money I could be saving. Well, last week I finally took the fateful trip to Wal-Mart to get the oil changed and "pick up a few things." I kept thinking, "I won't be back here for a while, and everything is cheaper here, so I might as well get . . . " I really only had about half of a shopping cart full of stuff (those deceiving extra-wide carts . . . ), and still it rang up to $115! Maybe that doesn't seem like a lot of money to you, but when it's coming out of the $300 grocery budget for the month (and I didn't even get any groceries, because it wasn't a Super Center), it's a lot!

So here were are halfway through April with $30. Ben and I decided that rather than go over our budget by a long shot this month, we're going to try living VERY cheaply for the rest of April. We were inspired by Tyler and Alison's attempt at "Spend-free April" (good job, you guys -- I'm amazed!), and while I'm not sure we could go a whole month without spending money, we're going to try two weeks with only $30! It will be a real challenge for me because I seem to have a money-spending addiction, and I also like to cook and eat. We really have plenty of food storage and left-overs, plus two meals in the freezer. We'll use the $30 for milk and a few other essentials. Wish us luck, and no donations please!

If you have had any similarly frustrating experiences with Wal-Mart, I'm usually up for having that conversation with just about anyone. Or you can read my Wal-Mart poem here.

Chic-onomics

(Ben) For those of you who may still think of economics as "the dismal science," I would refer you to this article in Time magazine. Unfortunately, the web version is missing the snazzy layout it got in the print version, as well as the pictures, but the text is there. It turns out that, according to Time at least, economics is becoming chic and sexy. What do you know? For a long time economists just stuck to their prescribed fields (finance, labor, macro, micro, etc.), but in recent years some of them have begun to branch out to different areas (crime, behavioral science, and, uh, sumo wrestling) and it turns out that economic methods may have a few things to add to those areas. What's more, even the more mainstream economics stuff is getting a bit more notice in the media these days thanks to growing concerns about globalization and terrorism, making it a pretty interesting field to be in these days. I've actually been meaning to add a couple of the books the article mentions to our booklist (Freakonomics and Blink)--I'll try to get to those in the next few days. Anyway, thought I'd let you all know that I'm becoming more chic and sexy by the minute! Just wait till I get my PhD . . . I'll be irresistably attractive. :)