What's Up Wednesday

Well it's Wednesday, so I'm linking up with Shay and Sheaffer to recap what the McClellan clan has been up to lately!

What We're Eating:

Dogtooth Tuna...Yum!

Only on Kwaj, right?! Our good friend Jon owns a boat out here, and he and some of our other friends took it out for an overnight fishing trip, and came back with 80+ fish!!! Johnathon got us in on the fish action, and he came biking home with two whole fish in his bike basket! Johnathon proceeded to chop up both whole tuna right on our kitchen counter, which was obviously pleasing to both my visual and olfactory senses. We had so much fish that we had to give some away, but the guys caught so much it seemed like everyone on island had more than enough fish! Strong fishing gentlemen! I am definitely looking forward to making some yummy sushi this week. That's the one problem though...the fish out here is so fresh that I will no doubt be put off Texas sushi restaurants for life!

What I'm Reminiscing About:

Reminiscing about the pumpkin patch...and Johnathon's hair ;)

Johnathon and I got married in late September 2012, and by the time we got back from our honeymoon, it was early October and starting to feel like Fall. Because we had been married for like a hot second, Johnathon was very accommodating of my desire to take part in an excessive amount of Fall activities. So we got in the car and headed to a pumpkin patch that I had heard of in the Colleyville/Grapevine area. Everyone there had their kids, but it was just Johnathon and I running around the corn maze having a blast! We are headed to Michigan in two weeks and I can't wait to go to another pumpkin patch, but this time we will have Hadley in tow!

What I'm Loving:

I honestly can't remember how I found Lolli's Shop, but I remember I came across these dolls somewhere in blog land, and I knew I had to get one for Hadley for Christmas! I really want Hadley to have one doll that she has all growing up that's her "lovey" or special doll. I saw these and thought they were so whimsical and fun, and I knew that I wanted this doll for her! The shop owner was really easy to contact and was awesome about letting me pick out the fabric and customize what kind of doll I wanted for Hadley! I'm getting her one like the picture above except with brown hair and I added a skirt for fun! I can't wait for Hadley to see what Santa brings her this Christmas!

What We've Been Up To:

So the weather has been crazy out here lately. I've been told it's El Nino in full effect! Essentially this time of year is normally really hot and still with no breeze, but lately we've been getting these intense winds out of the West, and it's made the weather really nice in the evenings. We're still taking our evening bike rides, but we've been stopping at different places around the island to take advantage of the great breeze and surf that we usually don't get much of. On Sunday we biked out to the North end of the island and got to see another spectacular sunset with some impressive rain clouds thrown in for good measure! Hadley even sat up all by herself to enjoy God's handiwork!

What I'm Dreading:

I mean...I think this pretty much sums up my feelings about our upcoming plane travels. Except that in addition to fearing that Hadley will scream our entire trip, I'm also scared of flying in general. Did I mention that all of our flights from Kwaj to Michigan are red eye flights?! Pray for us.

What I'm Working On:

Finishing my books for this month! I've really slacked off in my reading so I'm trying to power through! I'm hoping to make up for my lack of reading on our above mentioned plane flights. You know...when Hadley isn't screaming ;)

What I'm Excited About:

This cutie is 8 months old tomorrow!! I am really loving this age right now, apart from the teething, and I love watching Hadley hit her milestones! She sits up so well by herself, can say Mama (but only when she's upset), she knows who Daddy and Sadie are, and she loves to give kisses! She eats solid food like a champ, and is all smiles all the time! I can't wait for both of our families to see her, and how much she's grown!

What I'm Watching/Reading:

Since we've established that my reading has slacked off this month I'm going to go with what I'm watching. Longmire is our most recent Netflix binge. It is about a sheriff in Wyoming who solves murders. I like it because its suspenseful and entertaining, but not super heavy. I also think they do a really good job of having normal actors play normal people. Not everyone on the show looks like the moonlight as models, and I think they do a really good job of developing the characters! I highly recommend!

What I'm Listening To:

You really can't listen to this man, and be in a bad mood! Also, here is a fun fact for you: He hit on one of my room mates in college. She worked at a really popular restaurant in Fort Worth, and he was performing in the area, and came in with his entourage for dinner. I forget the details, but pretty much he thought she was cute, started talking to her (this was when he was still single), and she somehow ended up with his number. He left his jacket at the bar that night so she called him to let him know, and he said he would come pick it up the next day! Well, I was driving back from visiting my family in Austin when my room mate told me to hurry home because Michael Buble was coming to the restaurant to pick up his jacket! Cut to me driving like a maniac down I35 all the way to the restaurant to MEET MICHAEL BUBLE...and he never showed! Ugh...heartbreaking! So Michael...if you ever decide you want your leather jacket, it's hanging up at Joe T. Garcia's Mexican Restaurant!

What I'm Wearing:

Since our weather never changes here on Kwaj, I feel like my clothes pretty much stay the same... swimsuits, shorts, tank tops, flip flops. BUT....I am having way to much fun pretend shopping for Fall clothes! I found Gray Monroe through Andrea over at Momfessionals and they have such cute Fall clothes for a great price! Here are some of my top picks if I lived in cooler weather:

I love the Bailey vest with the plaid underneath!

Clearly I have a plaid theme going! (Elizabeth Poncho)

Buffalo plaid. Check. Tulle Skirt. Check. Chunk necklace. Check! LOVE!

Love the Penelope dress!

What I'm Doing This Weekend:

The usual...Football. Beach/pool. Hang out with the family!

What I'm Looking Forward to Next Month:

In case I haven't mentioned it enough: 2 weeks until we get to see family and spend some time in the glorious Fall weather in Michigan!!! Cannot. Wait.

What Else is New:

For those of you who are not as involved in the TCU football road to playoffs as I am...here is what you need to know. TCU was favored to be in the College Football Playoffs this year, but due to an ungodly number of TCU fans breaking mirrors, walking under ladders, etc...we have lost no less than our entire first string of defensive players. Fortunately, our offense is amazing, but this leads to some of the most stress inducing games I have ever witnessed. Case in point...TCU vs Texas Tech last weekend. We all knew it would be a close game, but it came down to TCU needing to score a touchdown on 4th down, and- the play above is what ensued. I dang near peed my pants. Fortunately we scored, and held off a valiant attempt by Tech to score in the last 25 seconds and we won the game. I also aged 20 years. I'm not sure how I'm gonna make it through the rest of the season at this rate, but at least it was a win for my Frogs!

What's Your Favorite Halloween Tradition:

Hocus Pocus...duh!

pumpkin carving

Halloween 2014

Halloween 2013

We really only have a few Halloween traditions so far. Watching Hocus Pocus on repeat, carving pumpkins, and dressing up in our costumes are of course a must! When I was little we used to have a big block party on our street, and all the families would get together and have hot dogs and burgers on the cul de sac before we would all take off trick or treating! I remember loving that when I was little! Now that we have Hadley I definitely want to add to our list of Halloween traditions. We plan on taking her to the pumpkin patch and apple orchard this year, and I hope to keep that tradition going every year! There are also a lot of cute seasonal pajamas for kids, and I really like the idea of getting Hadley some fun Halloween pajamas to wear every year! What are your favorite Halloween traditions?! I'm always up for adding to our list!

Hadley Happenings- Teething Edition

Oh hey! If your wondering what Hadley's been up to lately, she's just been busy cutting teeth and not napping. Bet you want to come over and visit, huh? She got her first tooth (bottom-center, right) about a month ago, and it was a fairly painless process. She had a few days were she was a little cranky, and took some shorter naps, but it was nothing major. In fact, I didn't even know that she was teething until she started gnawing on my finger and I felt something sharp bite down on me! Now here we are one month later, and Miss Hadley is going on her 4th day of the dreaded 45 minute nap.

Look at those crocodile tears! Don't worry Hadley- Daddy and I hate teething too!

Over the weekend she really started chewing on everything. This is nothing new for her, as pretty much everything she picks up these days goes in her mouth. However, her chewing started to seem almost manic, and if she dropped whatever she was chewing on she would pick it back up as fast as she could as resume said manic chewing. She also started short changing herself on naps. She normally takes a 2 hour nap in the late morning, then another 2 hour nap in the afternoon. She was still napping well in the morning, but her afternoon nap suddenly became a 45 minute cat nap. Sometimes she doesn't nap as well on the weekends and I'm convinced it's because she knows Johnathon is home and wants to play. I didn't think much of it, but the short naps continued on into this week, and now it's BOTH her morning and afternoon naps. GRRRRRR!!! I'm sure I'm not the only other stay at home mom that feels like their whole day is either made or crushed depending on how well their child naps! lol

Chewing exhibit A: I'm afraid Goodnight Moon took the brunt of the teething

Exhibit B: Chewing on the swing strap...as one does

Exhibit C: Chowing down on her binky

Oh, she also has decided that taking a bottle while teething is for the birds. Instead of taking a full bottle, she will drink 3oz then adamantly refuse the rest, but prefers me to offer her the remaining milk in one ounce increments every 20 minutes or so. #highmaintenance.

I've tried Hyland's Teething Tablets and they helped a little bit. I put some paci's in the freezer and let her suck on them once they're nice and cold. That helps for the 3-5 minutes they are cold, but once they are warm she's over them. I finally caved and tried Tylenol today, and that has given her some relief...at least enough to get a better (1-1.5 hour) nap in. However,  if I could find a teething solution that doesn't involve medicating her with Tylenol I would love that!

Fortunately, her mood greatly improves when her daddy gets home, and they listen to country music while Johnathon shows her all the nerdy cool games on the computer! :)

I'm hoping that since we are on day #4 of teething Hadley, hopefully we are nearing the end of this round of teething. I can see the tooth almost popping through the gum! Bad news...this is only tooth #2. We got a whole mouthful to go. If she could hold off getting any more teeth next month when we have to fly all the way to Michigan from Kwajalein that would be great!

If you have any teething tricks or tips I would love to hear them! Especially, if it involves getting your kids to nap while teething! Thanks!

Hadley appreciates any and all teething tips!

Friday Favorites

Happy Friday y'all! I am once again linking up with Andrea and Erika to share some Friday Favorites! Let's get to it!

ONE

Johnathon starting the beer run-he's the one in muted orange ;)

This past weekend Johnathon decided it was time to test out his knee, post-ACL repair, by partaking in the most logical, safe test option out there- a 1 mile beer run. The premise is this: chug a beer, run a quarter mile, chug another beer, run another quarter mile, etc until you have run one mile as fast as possible. If you throw up at any point during the race you have to run an extra quarter mile. This is the kind of athletic endeavor that happens when you have a bunch of people stuck on a tiny island for too long. Obviously, Hadley and I had to watch. Please note the gusto with which Johnathon is chugging his first beer. One quarter mile later, the chugging looked a little more like this:

And yes...that is REGULAR BUDWEISER they're drinking. No. Just...no. Obviously the subsequent beer chugs were a little more painful than the first, but Johnathon powered through!

Off he goes!

I am happy to report that he finished the race successfully, with no injuries and no puke breaks needed! We were so proud.

TWO

Garrett and Becky at their PCS party!

We met Becky and Garrett well into our stint here on Kwaj, and I'm so glad we did! These two make me laugh more than any other couple I know. We became very good friends with them, and really considered them part of our "Kwaj Family," which is why saying goodbye to them last week was so hard! They moved back to Huntsville, Alabama after 4.5 years on Kwaj. While we are so excited for their new adventure, I know Kwaj will not be the same without them! I do get much happier reminding myself that we will have lots of fun Kwaj reunions stateside once we all move back. In the meantime Becky, I'm just gonna eat my feelings with your world famous taco dip and pizza bread! ;)

The ladies seeing Becky off at the airport

WE MISS YOU BECKY!!!

THREE

 My obsession with all things Fall doesn't end with Pumpkin Spiced Latte's folks. Bath and Body Works finally released their Fall candles and I couldn't be more excited! I ordered several different Fall scents last year, and Sweater Weather was by far my favorite. It's so hard to describe the smell, but it reminds me of crispy fall mornings and apple cider. I already ordered it again this year and I can't wait for it to get here! Go grab yourself this candle now and thank me later! Delicious!

FOUR

HA! You thought I would limit myself to one Fall topic this Friday! WRONG!!! Some serious seasonal decorating went down this weekend with some help from Bette Midler in the greatest Halloween movie of all time...Hocus Pocus. Poor Johnathon, he puts up with so much...including me watching Hocus Pocus non-stop from now until November 1st. I'm a huge weenie and hate scary Halloween movies so I pretty much leave it to Hocus Pocus and Halloweentown to get me in the Halloween spirit! 

FIVE

Hadley's face says it all- the UT game was rough

I have been waiting on pins and needles for the college football season to start. I went to TCU and I'm a huge Horned Frog fan, but my whole family went to the University of Texas so growing up we were a big UT family! Thankfully, my Horned Frogs won, but it certainly wasn't pretty, and I'm a little nervous that their season may not be as good as everyone predicted. So after the TCU game, I was hopeful that UT would give me some reason to believe that at least one of my teams would be a winner this year! Let's just say winning is not in the cards for UT this season. Just know that they played Notre Dame who is awesome. You know who wasn't awesome? Us. Like....3 points not awesome. 3! Ouch. I'm so glad I took the time to dress Hadley in UT colors. It clearly helped not at all. Here's to this Saturday's games being better than last week! 

Hope everyone has a great weekend!  

August Book Review

Well, August came and went which means I've got books to review! I had at least five books on my iPad all lined up and ready to read, and I only got through three of them! Oops. But I really liked all three, and just for fun I thought I would throw in one of my all time favorite books that I feel everyone should read at least once! Okay, let's get to it!

1) The Island- Elin Hilderbrand

If you remember last month I read The Rumor by Elin Hilderbrand, and secretly loved it. I wanted to keep my salacious summer reading theme going, so I picked up The Island hoping for the same fluffy Nantucket escape novel chocked full of  soap opera plots and characters with ridiculous names. I have to say...The Island was not what I thought it would be...it was better! It still had it's fair share of a romance driven plots and names that belong to nobody in the real world ( India, Birdie, etc), but it was much more focused on the bond between mothers and daughters and sisters. I really, really enjoyed this one, and I highly recommend it!

2) Diana: Her True Story- Andrew Morton

Random selection? Yes. It all started when I was browsing Netflix and started watching a documentary on the Royal Family and the scandal that was the Princess Diana/Charles/Camilla Parker Bowles love triangle. I was in elementary school when Princess Diana died, so I really was too young to remember all the drama surrounding Diana and Charles' failed marriage. I also felt like all I really associated with Diana is that she was the "people's princess," she did lots of humanitarian work, and that she died escaping the paparazzi in Paris. I'm one of those people that if I get a taste of something that intrigues me then I immediately need to research the heck out of it. So after I watched the documentary I knew I wanted to know more of the inside story of Diana's life-which led me to this book. The first half is the transcript from secret interviews Diana did with Andrew Morton while she was still married to Charles. The second half is done from Andrew Morton's perspective, and he gives context and elaboration to Diana's interview. I honestly couldn't put the book down, and couldn't believe how dysfunctional the marriage and the Royal Family all were. If you are like me, and are oddly obsessed with the Royal Family this book is for you! If you are also like me and feel the need to read up on all the little known details of a subject, then this book is up your alley as well. Very interesting read.

3) Nobody's Cuter Than You- Melanie Shankle

Melanie is the writer behind The Big Mama Blog which just happens to be the first blog I started reading on a regular basis. She is quite possibly one of the funniest writers I've ever read, and I feel like if we ever met in real life we would be best friends! Melanie- when I'm in San Antonio lets hang out!! (I'm not as creepy as that last statement makes me sound I swear!). This is her third book that I've read. I really liked her first and second books, so I figured this one about her friendships would be no different. I was actually a little surprised that the book was a bit heavier than her previous two books. I'm pretty sure I bawled like a baby at some of the last chapters, but maybe that's not a true reflection of the books' overall tone because as previously mentioned in my last months book review, I am a hormonal mess that can only handle "happily ever after" books. Even with some tearjerker chapters, this book is a very sweet story on the importance of female friendships.

4) The Alchemist- Paulo Coelho

Next to To Kill a Mockingbird, this may be my favorite book of all time. This is one of those special books that just completely changes how you look at life. I believe reading this is what my gal Oprah calls an "AH HA moment!" I'm not alone in this either. The Alchemist has spent over 300 consecutive weeks on the New York Times' bestsellers list. The story is about a sheperd boy who goes on a quest to see the Pyramids of Egypt after having reoccurring dreams about traveling there. The book is short, and told much like a fable about the importance of following your dreams. It is a quick and easy read, but I promise it will really change how you see the world and your future. 

"When each day is the same as the next, it’s because people fail to recognize the good things that happen in their lives every day that the sun rises.”
- The Alchemist
  
 As always, I am looking for book suggestions for next month! I've got The Boys in the Boat, and The Nightingale on my to-read list along with The Rosie Project, but I'd love any and all recommendations! Happy Reading!