About Jenni Elyse

I enjoy reading, listening to music, watching movies and TV, playing any type of game (especially anything related to Zelda and Mario), aimlessly surfing the Internet, crocheting, knitting, playing the piano, and hanging out with my husband, cats, and friends. Check my About Me page for more details.

May 21, 2012

May Book Club

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This month’s book was Precious Bane by Mary Webb. It’s a lesser known classic about a girl with a “hare-shotten lip” (cleft lip) and her struggle to fit in with society and deal with her greedy, ambitious brother around the time of the Napoleonic wars (at least that’s what I’ve surmised so far). I only made it to page 47 by the time we had our meeting last Thursday, although I’m a bit farther now.

Here are the thoughts from the group:

  • Everyone really liked the book. Most gave it four or five stars. I’m not sure where my opinion sits just yet because I’m having a hard time getting into the story. To be honest, I’m a little worried that I’m not going to like it and be an outcast … kind of like how I’m feeling as I read Pride and Prejudice for the first time. I guess we’ll just have to wait until I’m done and see how I feel.
  • Most had a hard time getting into the story. It took around 100 pages before they started to enjoy the book.
  • Everyone really enjoyed the symbolism. They said it was done right and it was easy to see and understand.
  • Everyone was fascinated with the idea of a Sin Eater because it was a very foreign concept. It was very strange to me, but very enlightening in regards to the superstitions and beliefs around the time of the Napoleonic wars.
  • Everyone thought the raising of Venus was rather comical and brought a particular painting/image to mind that didn’t help the situation. (I haven’t got to that point yet, so I don’t know anything about it.)
  • In my opinion, the language and phonetic spelling of some of the words make it kind of hard to read. But, I do like a few of the words because it reminds me of the Scottish/Irish English dialects.
  • Everyone thought the “precious bane” was either Gideon’s greed and/or Prue’s disfigurement.
  • Everyone thought this story is more a tragedy than a romance.

For next month, we’re reading About a Boy by Nick Hornby.

Filed Under: Book Club · Leave a Comment
May 18, 2012

Book Blogger Hop and Follow Friday

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Book Blogger Hop

This week’s Book Blogger Hop question is: How many books do you own? This can include books in your to-be-read (TBR) pile(s) and books you have already read that are on your keeper shelf.

I have 109 books not counting my husband’s textbooks, non-fiction books, and our scriptures.

Follow Friday

This week’s featured blogger from Parajunkee’s View is Addicted to Heroines. This week’s featured blogger from Alison Can Read is Tribute Books Mama.

This week’s Follow Friday question is: Summer Break is upon us! What would be the perfect vacation spot for you to catch up on your reading and relax?

Honestly, unless I vacation alone, I’m not going to do a lot of reading except at night in the hotel. I like to get out and do things: go to the beach and swim, amusement parks, water parks, etc. I’m not one to lie around reading while I’m on vacation. But, I’d still take my Kindle or other books with me because I’ll definitely get some reading done at night.

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Meme Rules

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Filed Under: Book Blogger Hop, Follow Friday · 16 Comments
May 17, 2012

A Little Bit of Work Fun

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My team at work is scattered across the US. We have seven people, including myself, who work at our corporate building in Utah. We also have nine other employees in various parts of the US–Florida, Virginia, Tennessee, Ohio, Missouri, Minnesota, and Nebraska. Team camaraderie is a little difficult when it’s only over the phone, once a week (sometimes once a month). Fortunately, all my non-corporate team members were able to come to our work conference last week. So, it was really fun to finally meet one (I’ve met all the others) and see the others again.

Since we were all together for the first time, my boss treated us to a night out. Unfortunately, everyone didn’t/couldn’t go, but it was still most of us and we had a great time! We went to Boondocks. We ate dinner, rode go karts, played mini golf, played a few arcade games, and even rode a 4D motion simulation ride (like Star Tours, but with 3D glasses, for those of you familiar with the Disney theme parks).

Here are some of the pictures taken while we were at Boondocks. Not all of them were taken by me.

It was a lot of fun and I’m glad we were able to spend some time getting to know each other better outside of work.

Filed Under: Work · 8 Comments
May 16, 2012

Movie Review: The Avengers

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Title: The Avengers
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Notable Cast: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Mark Ruffalo, Tom Hiddleston, Samuel L. Jackson

When an unexpected enemy emerges that threatens global safety and security, Nick Fury, Director of the international peacekeeping agency known as SHIELD, finds himself in need of a team to pull the world back from the brink of disaster. Spanning the globe, a daring recruitment effort begins.

I’ve been so excited to see this movie since I knew it was happening. I was worried that I’d be disappointed, but there was no need. The Avengers rocked!

I loved the cast. My favorite character/actor in The Avengers was Robert Downey, Jr. I just love Tony Stark’s character and RDJ does such a great job portraying him. My second favorite character/actor was Tom Hiddleston, or Loki. Why does Loki have to be bad?! I loved him in Thor and was disappointed when he went over to the Dark Side, if you will. And, I’m still disappointed. But, as long as Tom Hiddleston keeps portraying him, Loki can come back and wreak havoc any time he wants to. While I’m disappointed that Edward Norton was too much of a PITA to work with and subsequently fired from being the Hulk, I thought Mark Ruffalo did a great job of filling his shoes.

Some of my favorite moments were between the Avengers themselves. I loved their snarky little comments to each other when they weren’t a team yet. And, I also loved the moments between Thor and Loki.

I’ve seen all the individual superhero movies for each of the Avengers. However, I did fall asleep during the last 20 minutes of Captain America: The First Avenger because my family and I didn’t start watching it until 1:00 am. I didn’t think those last 20 minutes would be crucial to The Avengers. They kind of were because I don’t remember …

Spoiler: Show

Captain America being frozen so he could be available in 2012 instead of during WWII or the Tesseract being a part of his movie.
After watching how awesome Hawkeye and Black Widow are together, I think they need their own movie now too.

I look forward to more movies with the Avengers in them. The movie was nicely set up for a sequel and I’m sure the other superheroes will get more movies too. Hopefully, it’ll be sooner rather than later.

Filed Under: Movie Reviews ·  Tagged: , · 12 Comments
May 16, 2012

Weigh-In Wednesdays

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No measurements again this week. It’s interesting how much attending a work conference can set you back not only at work (because you have to catch up on all the work you missed) and in your personal life. I have been so physically and emotionally exhausted to the point that I relapsed into being sick over the weekend. Thankfully, I’m doing better now. There has been some “damage” to my weight loss because of the last couple of weeks, but I’m sure it’ll come off quickly as I get back into the swing of things this week.

Weight

Weight: 233.2 lbs. (+4 lbs.)

Weekly Goals

Here are my goals for the upcoming week:

  1. Walk a mile on Thursday, Sunday, Tuesday.
  2. Walk/run a mile today, Friday, Saturday, and Monday. I’ll walk for a minute and a half and run for 30 seconds, in intervals.
  3. Stay within my calorie limit (1,440 calories) each day and eat no processed sugar. I’ve come up with a meal plan for each day not only to help me with staying within my calorie limit but to help Corey and I stay within our food budget as well. These meal plans include one green juice each day because I know it’ll help me be healthier.
  4. Eat more veggies!
  5. Go to bed by 10:00 pm and stop using all electronics by 7:30 pm. I’ve been slacking on this and I’ve noticed a huge difference in how I feel both physically and emotionally.
  6. Read my scriptures each day, go to church on Sunday, and go to my youth activity on Tuesday.
Filed Under: Getting Healthy, Weigh-in Wednesday, Weight Loss · 7 Comments
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