Happy belated birthday, Dani!

Business is growing steadily in the new location.  We’re excited to keep seeing it grow.  We’ve had some mishaps since the opening (trouble with product delivery, getting our alarm system registered with the city and Police department), but, for the most part, everything runs pretty darn smoothly.

Froyo now has free wi-fi and a few of our customers have already taken advantage of the service.  We hope this will be a reason people will want to keep coming back for the best frozen yogurt ever.

We currently have five employees.  They do an awesome job and we love them.  They’re always so willing to get the job done and so friendly with the customers.  They make the Froyo experience great for everyone that comes in.  We couldn’t ask for better employees.

We have the signage for our menu and our flavors finally.  And, we’ve added a couple of plants to the decor.  The store’s getting better and better!

Anyway, we hope to see you at the grand opening!  It should be a lot of fun!

Happy birthday, Addie!

Last night, I finished reading Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater.  It’s the first book in a series of I don’t know how many books yet.  However, Linger, the sequel, is due out Fall 2010.

The story’s about Grace, a girl who has been watching the wolves behind her house since she was 11 years old.  One wolf in particular captivates her more than the others.  Little does she know that this wolf is actually Sam, someone who has been living two lives.  Sam spends the winter in the woods with his pack and watching Grace.  In the precious months during summer, he spends his time as a human.  When Grace meets Sam, she realizes he has to be the wolf that captivates her so much.  As winter nears, Grace and Sam must fight to keep Sam human, otherwise risk the possibility of losing each other forever.

I absolutely loved Shiver.  In fact, it has earned a place on my Favorites shelf.  The story was sweet and sensual, exciting and heart-breaking, and happy and sad.  And, even though it seemed kind of slow at first, I was hooked from the beginning because of the characters.  Grace and Sam made the story seem so real.  I loved the cleanliness and innocence of the sensuality of Grace and Sam’s relationship.  I also loved the awkwardness of experiencing first love through them.

My favorite thing about the book was that it changed from Grace’s point-of-view to Sam’s and vice versa.  In fact, now that I’ve read Shiver, I think the change in point-of-view between the two main characters is the one thing Twilight is missing, at least until Stephenie Meyer finishes Midnight Sun.  Getting to experience the world from both the human and wolf perspective was so enlightening and added so much to the story.

Because of Shiver, I want to read more books written by Maggie Stiefvater.  She’s so talented and does a great job of forming the story and pulling you through it.  I definitely recommend this book as a good read, especially if you’re a Twilight fan.  However, even if you aren’t a Twilight fan and you like young adult paranormal romances, I think you’ll like Shiver.

Happy belated birthday, Eli!

This afternoon, Corey and I attended the dedication for the Oquirrh Mountain Utah temple.  This was the second time I’ve attended a dedication.  The first one was for the Bountiful Utah temple in January 1995.  I had remembered a few parts from the Bountiful dedication, but I didn’t remember the exact details or the importance of some of the goings on since it was almost 15 years ago.  I was excited and looking forward to the Oquirrh Mountain dedication, so I could refresh my memory of what a temple dedication’s like.

I love anything and everything about temples.  I always feel so peaceful and happy when I visit the temple and when I think about or participate in anything temple related.  I was disappointed that Corey and I didn’t have the chance to go to the open house for the Draper Utah or the Oquirrh Mountain temples.  We tried to go to the Draper open house for our anniversary, but we had to cancel at the last minute because of work deadline issues.

Anyway, I’m really glad we had the chance to go to the dedication today and I can’t wait to take the time to visit the Oquirrh Mountain and Draper temples!

I haven’t posted an update on my weight loss for about a month, so I thought it was time again. At this point, I’ve lost 30.8 lbs.  I’ve fluctuated between 30 and 32 lbs for the past few weeks.  I’m not discouraged with the fluctuation like I was in the beginning.  I’ve realized that it just happens.  I only use the loss of pounds as an estimate at how I’m doing with my eating and exercising and I mainly go by my body fat percentage and loss of inches to measure my real progress.

I’ve lost 4.6% of my body fat since the end of February.  And, I’ve lost 2.25 inches from my waist, 2.75 inches from my hips, 2.5 inches from my chest, and 2.25 inches from my thigh since the end of April.  I think those are pretty good indicators of what I’ve been doing for the past 29 weeks.

I’m really enjoying my sessions with Brandon, my personal trainer.  Even though I’m dead tired when I get home and sore for the next few days, I’ve noticed a difference in my energy level, how well I sleep, and how well I feel.  The week before Froyo opened in American Fork, Corey and I had to cancel our sessions because life was just so hectic trying to get everything ready.  I noticed a huge difference during that week.  I was a lot more irritable, tired, and stressed and I nearly died when we had a session again.  Corey and I also missed our session yesterday because our car died on the way there.  Luckily, Brandon had an opening today, though.

I haven’t been riding my bike as much lately.  I’ve noticed that has taken a toll on my mood too.  I’ve been a little more depressed lately because I just sit at home and waste time on the computer.  I need to get back into that because I love doing it and I love getting outside.  Frankly, I just stopped because of lack of time.  No more excuses, though; I going to ride my bike on Friday since I have a session with Brandon today and tomorrow.

As far as eating, I’m still keeping track of my calories each day.  Some days and weeks are better than others.  My weekly average stays lower than my limit, which is good, but my daily average has been a little more unstable.  If I do go over my limit, I don’t go over very much and I’m still eating healthy things.  I’m just a little hungrier on some days than others.  C’est la vie, I guess.

Happy birthday, Luisa!

The New Moon trailer was released on Friday with the movie Bandslam, but has now hit the Internet in a “legitimate” form.  Here it is for your viewing pleasure.

I finished reading My Big Nose and Other Natural Disasters by Sydney Salter today.

I didn’t have high expectations for this book because it was written by a local author.  I know that sounds kind of mean, but most of the books I’ve read by local authors have only been just so so, apart from Shannon Hale and a secret someone (you know who you are ).  However, I was pleasantly surprised with My Big Nose and Other Natural Disasters.

I really enjoyed the story.  The message of learning to love yourself the way you are is conveyed in hilarious, heartbreaking, and all-too-real, disastrous moments most people can relate to just because they attended high school at some point in their life.

Welcome to the Summer of Passion.  For seventeen-year-old Jory Michaels, that means three sun-and-fun-filled months of spending time with her best friends, obsessing over her crush, trying to find something she is passionate about, and … saving for a nose job.  Jory is determined to lose the big, honking, bumpy monstrosity she calls the Super Schnozz–the one thing standing between her and happiness.

So accident-prone Jory takes a job delivering wedding cakes to save up for surgery; she even keeps a book filled with magazine cutouts of perfect noses to show the doctor.  To find her passion, she tries yoga; she tries becoming a foreign film buff; but nothing is quite as interesting as finding a boyfriend.  And that can’t happen until Super Schnozz disappears … right?

Jory is in for some big surprises when passion finds her–and she discovers the beautiful people she longs to look like are not as perfect as they seem.  In her hilarious and heartbreaking debut novel, Sydney Salter delivers a story about broadening your horizons, accepting yourself, and finding love right under your nose.

I enjoyed seeing Jory grow and start to love herself, even with the Super Schnozz.  Some of the themes and messages were a little too close for my comfort, but I think it helped me identify with Jory a little more.  I think Sydney did a great job using humor to convey all the embarrassing moments one feels during high school.  And, even though you just wanted to give Jory a huge hug because of all the mishaps she was going through, you couldn’t help but laugh during some of her overly dramatic thoughts and embarrassing moments.

In July, I had the chance to meet Sydney and she’s very sweet and down-to-earth.  Debbie, my friend, arranged for her to come to a book club gathering for My Big Nose and Other Natural Disasters.  It was a lot of fun.  We played games, in which I won a $5 gift card from Subway because I was the one who had tried to craziest diets, and got to ask Sydney questions about her life, writing, and books.  Debbie’s sister even made a really yummy wedding cake for the occasion.  The only thing missing from the party was a group picture.  Oh well, though.  We still had tons of fun!

Happy belated birthday, Michelle!

This afternoon, I went to The Time Traveler’s Wife with some of my friends.  If you read my review, you know I was disappointed by the book for a few reasons.  Even with the disappointment, though, I was still looking forward to the movie.  I loved the movie for the same reasons that disappointed me about the book, or I should say lack of the reasons that disappointed me about the book.

For those of you that enjoyed the book, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed by the movie, even if Eric Bana isn’t your ideal Henry or Rachel McAdams isn’t your ideal Clare.  The movie was a very good adaptation.  There were some changes, but not a lot.  Mostly, things were just left out, like the f-bombs and graphic sex. (As a warning to some, you do see Eric Bana’s and Rachel McAdam’s butts a couple of times throughout the movie.) Even with leaving out some of the parts, all the pivotal moments, the moments I thought were most important, in Clare’s and Henry’s life were put in the movie.

One of the reasons I was disappointed with the book was the ending.  As I said in my review:

It bugged me that Henry told Clare not to wait for him after he died, but then told her that he sees her when she’s 82.  Of course she’s going to wait for him armed with that knowledge!  She’d been waiting for him her entire life.  He just needed to let it happen like so many other things did during his and Clare’s life.

That wasn’t the case with the movie.  Henry and Clare were still able to say good-bye after he died.  But, with the way the movie ended, I got the impression that Clare wouldn’t wait around for Henry for the rest of her life, which I liked a lot better.