Things I Like - November

1) Eleanor & Park

I passed by many recommendations for this book before finally adding it to my to-read list.  And I'm really glad I did because it might by my favorite book I've read all year.   It's the story of 2 teens who meet & fall in love in 1986 (when I was 3...).  It sounds really simple and it really kinda is but the story completely hooked me in.  I had the flutters in my stomach like I was falling in love for the first time.  Even though Matt & I were a little older when we met & started dating (18 and out of high school) I still remember those nervous/excited feelings.

I meant to read a few chapters of this on a Friday night before turning off the light (needed to wait 10 minutes to put my sock over my foot ointment).  That was midnight.  Which quickly turned into 1am, then 2am, then 3am.  Yep, this was a need-to-read-in-one-sitting, literally-can't-put-down, read-until-3am, kinda book (which I can only remember doing one other time in my life, the day I got I, Promise, the final story in the Christy & Todd series).  It took a little over 3 hours but it really felt like maybe 20 minutes.  It was that good. I'm even considering rereading it before returning it to the library.  I don't know that I've ever done that.
  
2) House Hunters

 
I've mentioned it multiple times and we are still hooked so I'll put it on a list.  We don't have cable/satellite/Fios/etc. but when we've been in hotels or in the hospital waiting for Luke to be discharged from surgery we watch a lot of HGTV.   Pretty much House Hunters.  They just hook you right in!!  I've read articles about how fake it is but we still enjoy it, trying to figure out which house they picked, waiting for them to say "stainless steel appliances" and "granite countertops" (which pretty much 99% of the people want), maybe mocking them when they are overly picky ("I can't buy this house, I don't like that wall color.").  We found free episodes on Hulu and HGTV.com a few months ago and still haven't run out of new episodes to watch between House Hunters, House Hunters International, and now House Hunters Renovation.

It's very interesting to see what houses are like in different parts of the county or the world and to see what markets are like in different places (we live in a VERY affordable part of the country!!).  We aren't in the market for a new house yet but this gets me excited about it.

3) The Aviator's Wife

I read a lot (but not as much as I should be to make my 75 book goal for the year) and lately I've had a lot of good ones.  I recently finished this book, The Aviator's Wife.  It is the fictional, but historically based, story of Anne Morrow Lindbergh, wife of Charles Lindbergh.  I knew of him and his flight to Paris.  Once I started reading I remembered the kidnapping of their baby (but didn't remember how tragically that story ended).  Towards the end I remembered reading about his grave on Maui (we didn't see it but weren't too far from it).  Anne was a fascinating woman in her own right, becoming a licensed airplane pilot and helping Charles navigate and map many flight routes.  I know this is fiction but it was still so interesting reading a "behind the scenes" of sorts of a very famous marriage.  If I were to do a top 5 new books I read in 2013, this would probably make the list.

4) My sweat/yoga pants

I might becoming a bit of a stay-at-home-mom cliche but I pretty much live for the days I get to wear my sweats all day (they are my winter equivalent of my summer knee-length yoga pants).  Matt got me these for Christmas 2 years ago and they were long my "wear after work pants".  They are now my "wear as much as possible" pants.  They are incredibly comfortable and I can wear them out of the house (most frequently to the library).  I wear them on our winter hotel stays or overnights away from home.  I was woring them to the doctor the day I found out I would need surgery.  I am wearing them as I type this.  I would pretty much live in them if I could. 

This might be a little true:

The exact day I saw this on Pinterest I had a 10 minute discussion with Matt about how we should go to Kohls but I didn't want to because that would involve changing out of my sweats... (I was just going to go to the post office...I can wear sweats there and not feel weird).  But that might partly just be a desire not to change clothes because of the time it takes in the winter with all my layers.   

5. Target Cartwheel

I'm going to sound like another advertisement for Target but I don't mind because I'm pretty excited about this.  Target has a new-ish program called Cartwheel where you can pick various discounts and use them when you shop at Target.  I use the app on my phone but I believe you can also do it through the web and print off the barcode.  There are many different discounts to choose from, all sorted by category and then sub-categories.  I try not to buy things just because they are on sale (formula is the only thing we majorly stock up on) but I found plenty of discounts to use on things I was going to buy anyways.

Some I have stored in my Cartwheel are:
-5% off Up&Up body wash (what we normally use)
-10% off Market Pantry ice cream (what we normally buy)
-5% off Ritz crackers (we buy our wheat Ritz at Target)
-10% off Market Pantry flour (I buy my wheat flour at Target)
-5% off up & up diapers (the rare times we buy diapers we buy up & up)
-15% wall frames (I was buying frames anyways for my office wall and our vacation wall)

It's pretty exciting to get an extra discount on things already on my shopping list.  I don't do much couponing (besides formula) since we buy so much at Aldis.  But for the things I do buy at Target, between Cartwheel, mobile coupons (I get 5 bananas for $0.20 about once a month!), and Target coupons (just found one for $5 off Gerber formula!), I am saving some money.  It's all pretty exciting.