Audio Book: Thirteen Reasons Why

Thirteen Reasons Why

by Jay Asher

Length: 6 hours, 24 minutes

Format: Audiobook
Price: Downloaded from Overdrive

How I heard about it: My girls have been reading this book right and left. It's also on my list.

Basic Premise: Clay Jensen receives an anonymous set of 7 cassette tapes in the mail. Amused (who listens to cassettes anymore?), he pops the first one in his dad's old stereo and discovers the tapes are the final thoughts of Hannah Baker, who killed herself two weeks ago. Each side of the tape includes a name - a reason why.

My Take: 8 out of 10 (scale here)
It's hard to say I liked this book, given the dark and gut-wrenching nature of the subject matter. It was well-written and formatted. Each side of the tape contained the name and story of one person whose interactions with her contributed to her decision to end her life. In most cases, people had done really terrible things to her. But a few of them were positive interactions, and for whatever reason, they weren't enough for Hannah to keep from giving up. It was an incredibly eye-opening story about what can happen when people feel beaten down, overlooked, and as if they have no way out. Several students popped into my mind at various points in the story, as did kids I went to high school with. It was a good book, but hard.

List Progress:

1. I Am Malala by Christina Lamb and Malala Yousafzai
2. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
3. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
4. Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher
5. The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
6. A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
7. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
8.  Does My Head Look Big in This? by Randa Abdel-Fattah review here
9. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Timeby Mark Haddon
10. Uglies by Scott Westerfeld (read before I started blogging)
11. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz
12. Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
13. Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson (read before I started blogging)
14. Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
15. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
16. Bossypants by Tina Fey
17. Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey
18. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (read before I started blogging)
19. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd (read before I started blogging)
20. Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen *abandoned*
21. Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell review here
22. She’s Come Undone by Wally Lamb
23. Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling - can we have a moment for whoever created this list? "Harry Potter" is not a book. It's a series of books. Sheesh.
24. Looking for Alaska by John Green review here
25. The Book Thief by Markus Zuzak review here
26. The Kite Runner by Khaled Housseini review here

Back to Yard Saling!

I am not quite as devoted to yard saling as I used to be 1) because the city I live in doesn't do a very good job with them and 2) because I like being home with my kids on Saturday morning.  So my recent plan has been to those only nearby and only with good-sounding ads.  Saturday, I was pretty happy with my spoils:

 1. Lots of little girl clothes. These were $1 each, but they were in excellent shape (some even had the tags still on) and Lucy is in desperate need of 9 month clothes.  I went ahead and picked up some 12 months stuff too, because our 7-month old is in 9 months and growing bigger by the minute.  You'd never know that girl was a premie!

 2. Little girl dresses. $2 each.  The front one is SO ADORABLE and will be what Lucy wears to our Fourth of July parade.  The back two were adorable and from the UK (the lady who was having the sale had a cute little British accent, and since I am obsessed with anything British, I probably would have bought these from here even if they weren't adorable.)

3. 4T Winter Coat. This was $2 and in good shape.  I'm putting it in Charlie's 4T winter clothes bin for next year. 

3. 4T shirts and bike helmet. The helmet was my main score here - $2!  We are hoping to get him a bike this summer, and helmets can be expensive!  The shirts were $.50 each and will also go in his 4T bin, though he can probably wear the polo this summer.  Being a tall boy, 4T shirts fit!

 4. Mixing bowl with a spout and Pampered Chef onion-chopper thing. $.10 and $.25, respectively.  I am particularly excited about the chopper!

 5. YELLOW filing crate! In the front of my classroom, I have five crates like this - one for each class I teach.  I color code them - 1st hour is red, 2nd hour is yellow, 3rd hour is green, 4th hour is blue, and 6th hour is purple.  I use these colors for all kinds of things, but the colored crates are to hold their ISNs.  After searching the stores far and wide to find a yellow one for my 2nd hour, I had to go with this:

It irked me that my crates didn't correspond with my color scheme.  The yellow crate above was actually being used to prop up a table and was not for sale, but I explained about my search for a yellow crate, and being kind, good-hearted people, they let me trade them my ugly black one for their beautiful (albeit a little dirty) yellow one.

A great success! TOTAL: About $22.

Yard Sale 2013: Week 1

This week I went with some friends to a major neighborhood sale.  I had yoga at church at 9, which meant I only had about two hours to really hit the sales.  This being my first week of the season, I went a bit overboard, but I'm not worrying too much about it because I saved so much on grocery from last week!

1.Thomas the Train PJs - $1 My son LOVES Thomas the Train. It's how we've gotten him in the habit of "making water" in the potty - he has a sticker chart and he gets a train each time he gets 5 stickers.  So I was pretty excited when I saw these.  They were size 4T, in great shape, and they fit perfectly!
2. Mr. Potato Head - $2 To my knowledge, my son has never played with a Mr. Potato Head, but I thought he would LOVE it.  Sure enough, when I got it home, he played with it for over an hour STRAIGHT!

3. Adorable 12-month outfit - $2 This is something I normally wouldn't buy.  My target price for clothes is $.25 per, and I will usually go for $.50 if I really like it, but this was something I decided my daughter had to have.  So. Stinking. Cute.

4. 12 month pants - $.25-$.50 per Our 6-month-old is already in size 9 months, so I went ahead and picked up some 12 month pants. I got 4 pair of jeans and 3 pair of cords.  Not bad.
5. 9 month sleeper - $.50 It's light-weight, and adorable!
6. 9-12 month tops - $.25-$.50 per I got 5 tops, including a heavy sweater for winter and a lovely Jayhawk onsie.  She's grown out of the other ones, so this was a must-have.

7. 4T PJs - $1 per These, along with the Thomas jammies in the first pic, were purchased from the same sale and in great shape.  The Thomas ones are short-sleeved and have shorts that go with them and will be perfect for this summer!
8. 4T Cords - $2 per These were more expensive than I normally spend, but they are Gap and Old Navy brand, in great condition, and adorable.  I have a thing for cords, and these were perfect.
9. 4T Superman Tee - $1 It was an impulse buy.  He has a long-sleeved one and loves it, so I threw it in with my other stuff from this lady.

10. 6-12 month swimsuit - $2 This was my FAVORITE purchase of the day.  Isn't it adorable?  I already bought her a swimsuit for this summer, but as we plan to be at the pool 4-5 times a week this summer, we could use a backup.  This is Gymboree and in GREAT shape!  So excited about this one!

11. 4T Footed Sleepers - $2 per  Heading into summer, we obviously aren't experiencing a need for thermal footed pajamas.  But we love sleepers, and these are Carter's, in great condition, and will come in very useful in the fall and winter months, so I got them.

12. Newborn Sleeper - $.50 Okay, so this is obviously too small for my girl, but I have a baby shower for a friend in a few weeks and thought they needed this. :)

So all in all, I thought it was a great opening weekend!

TOTAL = (approx.) $25.00

At first I was a little disappointed, feeling like I had spent too much money (after all, I only saved $15 at the grocery store), but I thought about how far $25 would go at the store, or even at a consignment sale.  That and the fact that my husband thought it was all well worth $25 made me feel much better. :)

*I may or may not have also purchased a funnel cake from a Boy Scout troop fundraiser.  And spilled powdered sugar down my front while trying to drive and eat at the same time.

Yard Sale: Week 7

Since finding out about our baby girl, I have been working on building up a stock pile of little girl clothes at yard sales.  I decided not to go out this weekend because 1) none of the sales online looked that great and 2) it was FREAKING hot.  However, on the way home from running errands midday Saturday, I saw a sale in my neighborhood with a table full of little girl clothes.  The price?  All you could fit into a grocery bag for $2.  My kind of sale.

My bag was pretty full, so I went ahead and paid $3.  I got a crib sheet, a dress, 5 shirts, 4 onsies, 5 sleepers, 2 pants, 2 shirts, and a skirt.  I also got a shirt and some PJs for my niece.  And check out this adorable little dress:

So sweet!

Yard Sale: Week 6

I was out for about 45 minutes this morning and scored all kinds of great stuff!

 These are clothes for my niece.  Some will fit her now but most will probably be for next year.  They were $.50 per.

 PJs for my son and nephew.  The back stack is my nephew's and includes two sleepers, a pair of Thomas the Train PJs, and a pair of Buzz Lightyear PJs.  The front stack is for my son and includes three sleepers and two pairs of Thomas the Train PJs, all $.25 per.

Name-brand jeans for my son - $1 per

Okay, now here's where it gets exciting.  We are having a little girl in November (more on that later), and I have about four clothing items for her.  I hit a sale today where the clothes were $.50 per, which is above my target but I decided to look anyway.  Not being a girly girl myself, it's hard for me to imagine my daughter in pinks and frills and ribbons, so I kept my eyes out for cute things that didn't scream pink, and I found some adorable stuff!

These onsies are so cute and in good shape.  I love the top one - I don't know if you can see it but it's Baby Gap and it has super-cute embroidered flowers.

These are sleepers, mostly Gymboree and Carter's.  A few of them are snap-ups, but the rest are zip-ups, which we prefer.

The picture didn't turn out great, but these are two pairs of jeans with little embellishments, a denim skirt with an attached bloomer, and a pink hoodie that says "love" on it.

Total for day: $16.50

Not bad!  Looking forward to adding these items to my small stash of little girl items.

Yard Sale: Week 5

I have taken a break from yard saling for the past few weeks.  We had our yard sale, I helped with my sister-in-law's, and I decided there wasn't really much I needed.

Except a side-by-side double stroller.

(photo credit)

This is the type I've been dreaming of - it has an adjustable handle (so my abnormally tall husband won't have to bend over to  push it), shades, cup-holders, and is SO much easier to steer than those stacked ones.  I got this picture from Amazon and it is listed at $509.  Yeah, right.

Anyway, I woke up at 7:30 Friday morning (how's that for sleeping in?!), grabbed my Nook, and looked online to see if there was anything worth getting out of bed for.  Answer: a sale near the lake with a side-by-side double stroller.  Which opened at 8:00.  I jotted down the address, jumped out of bed and made a beeline for the East side of town (which, as it turns out, I don't know all that well...I definitely took the long way).  I made it at 8:02 only to find that they had sold it.

I was devastated.  Had I realized there was a highway connection less than a minute from this sale, I might have beat the scumbag who bought it.  (Okay, that was a bit harsh.  I'm sure she was a nice lady.)

But it ended up being worth the trip because I got a ton of little boy clothes!

1. 2T clothes and PJs - $.50 per I got 4 pairs of PJs, 1 pair of jean shorts, an Elmo AND a Thomas shirt, and a spare pair of swim trunks.
2. 3T and 4T clothes - $.50 per These will go in the tub in the closet until my son is big enough to wear them.  I got 4 pairs of jeans, 1 pair of khaki cords, 2 shorts, 2 short-sleeved shirts, one long-sleeved shirt, and 3 sets of PJs.
3. 5T clothes - $.50 per My friend Jen (the one who helped me make my crate seat) has a 5-year-old boy, so I picked up 3 pairs of PJs, a pair of jeans, a pair of jean shorts, and two shirts for him.
4. 3T and 4T clothes - $.50 per I got these for my nephew who is the same size as my son.  Because of this I rarely pick up things for him - if I like it enough to buy it, I usually keep it for my son!  But today's sale was from a set of twins, so if I liked it, I just kept one for mine and got the other for my nephew!  I found 4 pairs of PJs, 5 pairs of shorts, and two pairs of pants, including identical khaki cords!

TOTAL = $25.00

More than I normally spend, but I'm not sorry.  It's a lot of stuff, and I know from experience how much easier and cheaper it is to shop this way than to try to shop sales at the stores!

Summer Yard Sale, Part 2: The Sale

Let me just start by showing this picture and saying that this happened even before our sale got started:

Yep - that's right, folks - a bird pooped on a pair of shorts.  Right in front of a customer.  Great.

So after ardently preparing for our neighborhood sale, and getting all our stuff sorted, organized, and priced (HUGE thank yous to my husband and parents for their help!), we had our long-awaited garage sale from 8:00-1:00 (actually, it was more like 7:15-1:00, thanks to those early birds).  I should have taken before and after pictures, but we started with a whole ton of stuff - the tables were covered - and this is what we ended with:

Enough for three boxes and one bag of clothes worth of donations.  We also made triple the amount of money I was expecting, but the money was truly a bonus.  I did this to serve our neighborhood by advertising and coordinating the sale and as one step toward creating a more simple, organized home (more on that later this week!).

Take Aways:

• Being a good garage saler (which I believe I am) does not necessarily mean you will be a good garage sale-haver.  Case in point - I got royally ripped off on a very nice bench my parents brought.  I told the first person who asked $10 and she bought it immediately and said she would come with a truck to pick it up later.  I feel like a complete idiot now, because while she was gone, several people asked about the bench and one lady said she would have paid $50 for it.  Ooops - lesson learned.
• Most people saw our add on Craigslist.org.  A few said they drove by signs, but most said they heard about it from Craigslist.  I did not advertise in the paper because it costs money, and I don't think our sales suffered as a result.
• Neighborhood sales are the way to go!  We had a sale one house down and several throughout the neighborhood, so we had tons of traffic.

Overall, the yard sale was a great success.  I'm eager to hear how other folks in the neighborhood did, and it's the first thing I can cross off my list of summer goals!

Summer Yard Sale, Part 1: Prep

One of my summer goals was to coordinate our neighborhood garage sale and have one myself.  In coordinating the neighborhood sale, I contacted neighbors interested in the sale, advertised on Topekagarasales.com (my favorite site for finding garage sales) and Craigslist.org, and, the focus of this post:
MADE SIGNS

I am of the firm belief that signs are key to a successful yard sale.  And there are right and wrong ways to do signs.  They should be bright with big letters that are easy to read from the road.  I decided on this cheap, easy method of sign-making that I picked up from a friend in Lawrence:

Step 1: Gather materials

• brown paper bags
• brightly colored signs with info printed on them
• packing tape
• weights for bottom
• newspaper

Step 2: Tape the signs together
Trim up the signs and use the tape to affix them to both the front and back of the brown paper bag.  (My niece helped me with this part.  She very proudly told me she was learning to use scissors! :)
**NOTE** I chose to draw the arrow in myself once the bags were made.  I'm sure you could mathematically figure out how many you needed pointing this way and that way, but this seemed easier to me!

Step 3: Place some sort of weight in the bottom.  We used landscaping rocks from our back yard.

 Step 4: Stuff the top with newspaper.  We used some from my dad's voluminous stash.

Step 5: Staple the top together!

A few other notes about signs -

1. Be sure to place them in prime locations.  I made nine signs for all intersections around our neighborhood.
2. You don't want to place your signs until the morning of.  If you are against early birds don't place your signs until you are ready to receive customers.  (Seriously, there is nothing more irritating than following a sign to a garage sale only to hear the people say, "We don't open for another half an hour." Then don't put your signs up so early!)
3. Take your signs down immediately upon closing your sale.  It's courteous to remove your signs when you're done so people aren't driving around looking for a sale that no longer exists!

Yard Sales: Week 4

Confession: I went a little overboard today.  I went retail shopping this week (with gift cards, of course) and could not believe the prices I saw as compared to what I can usually find at yard sales.  So today when I was out, I found myself saying, "Well if I were to buy this at the store..." As a result, I spent more than I would have otherwise.  I wasn't planning to go out this morning, but when my son was still asleep at 7:30, I decided to run to one in my neighborhood.  I was out for half an hour and ended up going to three sales total, resulting in the following items.

Boys Clothes = $4.00

1. Fleece lined swooshy pants - $1.00, size 2T, these will be good for winter!

2. Green cargo shorts - $1.00, size 2T, so for this summer

3. Striped green T-shirt - $1.00, size 24 months, but it looks plenty long, which is the problem we usually have...

4. Navy dress shorts - $1.00, size 2T, so also for this summer!

Misc Items = $9.75

5. Maternity Denim Shorts - $4.00 These retail at RIDICULOUS prices, so even though they were pretty expensive and much too large, I went ahead and bought them.  My mom can take them in and I'm expecting to get a lot of wear out of them this summer.

6. Crocs - $5.00, size 8 This was my splurge.  I don't normally spend more than $2.00 for used shoes, but these were super cute and in good shape. When I got home, Charlie immediately asked to wear them!

7. 2 Bags Used Crayons - $.75 I am hoping to use these for this project at some point this summer.

Total for Day = $13.75

Yard Sales: Week 3

I made a good haul this week in town with my friend Jen.  Our favorite part of the day (not) was getting yelled at by a crotchety old lady for blocking her driveway.  Seriously - I parked halfway in front of her driveway for two minutes at the very most while Jen ran to the sale next door.  I did not get out of my car.  This woman opened her garage door to come out and tell us not to block her driveway.  I told her we were leaving, and then she went back into her house and closed the garage door.  Seriously?  Was it really worth a trip out of your house, opening the garage door, yelling, and then going back into your house and shutting the garage door?  I can understand being irritated if you were trying to back out and your driveway was blocked, but let's get real!

Anyway, aside from that, I had a great day!  Instead of breaking them into sales, I broke them into categories:

Boys Summer Clothes = $1.00

1-2. Button-up short-sleeved shirts - $.25/per, size 3T, so for next summer!
3. Old Navy t-shirt - $.25, size 2T
4. Good, heavy jean shorts - $.25, size 2T

Boy's Bottoms = $5.00

5. Dark Jeans - $1.00, size 4T.  These are super cool with holes in them.  My husband is a fan.
6. Cool fleece-lined jeans - $2.00 These were rather expensive, but the fleece lining is so nice for playing outside in the cold, so I went with it.
7. Light Jeans - $1.00, size 4T.  These are also super stylish!
8. Khaki shorts - $1.00, size 2T, so shorts we can wear these now!

Maternity Clothes = $4.50

 9-10. Maternity Dresses - $.50/per I got these at the sale of my friend Caroline (who blogs here) and she was slashing prices after two days.  I was so excited about these, since I will be getting big over the summer.  These will be soooo nice!
11. Floral Dress - $1.00 This is not a maternity dress, but the skirt is so full I think I can wear it for quite awhile.

12. Long-sleeved maternity shirt - $1.00 I may regret this...it's too big but I was hoping my mom cantake it in a little.  I borrowed nearly everything for my first pregnancy and all of those friends are pregnant now, so there's no borrowing again :(  I really need clothes I can wear to work, and if we can adjust this one, I think it will work.  If not, it was a waste of $1.00.
13. Short-sleeved maternity top - $.50 I also got this one from Caroline and it will be a great one for summer.

14-15. Maternity swimming suits - $.50/per My last purchases from Caroline's sales.  I was just looking at some online last night (we plan to spend a lot of time at the pool this summer) and they are SOOOOO expensive!  The ones I was looking at at OldNavy.com were $25 for the top and $19 for the bottoms.  If I went with those prices, I saved myself $88!  I am excited to try these out this summer!

I also picked up a few things for my nieces, but I dropped them off before I came home.  I think I spent $2.50 on a night gown and two shirts, so:

Total for Day = $13.00!

Yard Sale Trip #2

First of all, I didn't get this at a yard sale, but I got it this morning right after my yard-saling outing:

My friend Kristie made this.  She made it.  Like, drew it with her own hands.  The picture doesn't do it justice (I'm a terrible photographer, I know), but you can check out her work here.  She's amazing.

Okay, so yard sale trip #2 was today in Lawrence.  I went with the goddess of the garage sale, the woman from whom I learned all my yard sale tricks, and that is none other than my good friend Jo Marie.  Jo Marie blogs at...well, nowhere (seriously Jo, you need a blog) and she runs an eBay business with her wicked garage-saling skills.  When I am with her, I know it's going to be a good day.

Sale #1: = $5.00

*This sale was donation only.  On one hand, I hate these because I almost always end up spending more than I normally would.  On the other hand, it was a church sale, and they were raising money to go to Haiti on a mission trip, so the extra $3 I forked over was ultimately money well-spent.

1-2. Clothes for my niece.  I try to pick these up whenever I see things that are 1) relatively inexpensive, 2) in good shape, 3) about her size or the size she will be in a few years, and 4) things that are her style.  She is a girly girl, so pink is perf.
3. A floor dinosaur puzzle.  My son has come into a recent obsession with dinosaurs.  He already has an obsession with puzzles, so why not?

Sale #2 = $3.00

 4. Serving Plate - $2.00 You can't see it very well (due to my poor photography), but this is a serving dish that just so happens to be the same style as our dishes.  Did I need this? No, but it matches and I know I will use it.
5. Size 4T Swim Trunks - $1.00 A little steep for trunks he won't wear for two more years, but this was also a missions fund-raising sale - this time to the Dominican Republic - so I again felt good about the purchase.

Sale #3 = $1.00

 6. 4T PJs - $.50 Still a little big, but I have a bin for clothes that are too big, and I'll just add these to it.
7. Thomas the Train Puzzle - $.50 Puzzles + Thomas Train = winner

Sale #4 = $.55

8. Christmas Storage Containers - $.10/per  I bought 3 of these because I do baking at Christmas time and always store them in Ziplock baggies.  These are cheaper and cuter.
(The $.25 missing from the math here is a bag of cookies I purchased.  I was hungry and it was a church sale, so again, the money went to a good place, and my stomach felt better afterward.  Win win.)

Sale #5 (AND MY FAVORITE!) = $3.25

This sale was AWESOME.  It was one of those sales that makes the whole day worth it, even if you didn't find much else.  Jo scored on this one, too, and even got some free stuff thrown in.  She is a pro.

9. American Eagle Shorts - $1.00 In great shape, my husband's size, and just in time for hot weather. Score!

10-11. Head bands - $.50/per My brother and sister-in-law are having a girl and these were so stinking cute, I decided I had to buy them!

12-13. Baby girl shirts - $.25/per Also for baby neice...so cute, so cheap, and in such great shape!

14. PJs for winter - $.25 They say "I love Mommy!"

15. The stinkin' most adorable sandals ever - $1.00 Jo found these for me - can't wait to see my baby niece in them!

Total for Day = $12.80!

First Yard Sale Weekend

It's finally garage sale season!  I had a great day Saturday, and I was only out from 7:30 to 8:30!

Sale #1 = $3.50

 1. Train Toy - $.50 This item was unmarked. I was going to offer $1, but I know from experience to ask them what they want for it first.  If it's higher than what I want to pay, I say "How about x?" and go from there.  Today, she said $.50.  If I had offered my $1, I would have paid double.

2. Cool Winter Sweater - $3 It might seem a little strange to spend $3 for a winter sweater in the spring, but I have been FREEZING at work the past few days, so I may even wear it this season!

Sale #2 = $6.00

 3-5. Polo Shirts - These were for my dad, and they were in great shape and only $2 per shirt!

Sale #3 = $1.50

6. Cardigan - $.50 and just my size
7. Green Flowered Shirt - $.50 and something different than what I usually pick for my wardrobe
8. 3T Train Thermal Shirt - $.25 which is my target price for kid clothes. It's too big now but it will fit perfectly next year.

Sale #4 = $1.00

 9. Misc. Kitchen Items - $1 (if you click the picture you can see they were individually marked...I over-paid by $.15 just to save the lady the hassle of finding a dime and a nickel.)  I've been doing a ton of baking lately and am finding that you can never have too many measuring cups or teaspoons.

Total for Day = $12.00!