The married thrift.

When I started reading blogs, I did not understand everyone's obsession with thrifting. I tried to fit in, bought a couple shirts at Goodwill, then gave up that dream of being a hip and happenin' blogger. But when I got married the thrifting switch was flicked in my brain, and now I can honestly say I'm a trendy blogger who refuses to pay full price for anything and would rather have something gently loved than quickly manufactured.

{sweater: Forever 21; shirt: Downeast Basics; jeans: AE}

All our living room furniture? Thrifted. All my new clothes? None more than 10 dollars. In my premarital days, I never would have shopped the sale rack at Fiesta Mall's Forever 21, but on Friday that's where I found myself. Kendall would say I'm becoming an extreme cheapskate, because he loves comparing our lives to his favorite show at the time. (Side note: have you seen that show?! Those people are crazy!) But I'll just say I'm thrifty, because it's cuter.

Is anyone else loving these sweaters over tied and collared shirts? I saw it on the mannequins at Forever 21 (can you tell it's my favorite store?) and wanted to buy every single outfit. But I didn't. Because I'm thrifty.

To all you married thrifters out there,

Go you!

and me.

Saturday obsession.

Have you ever had one of those days that you needed? This Saturday is one of those days. Selah is here to play, Kendall is working on the yard, Sirius is sleeping at my feet, and I'm enjoying the cool weather and the relaxation from a drawn out week. And this beautiful voice, which is a typical obsession of mine in the autumn months, is serenading my lovely November Saturday. I want to live in this music video, it looks mystical and magical, as winter should be.

Oh happy Saturday.

A goal.

As I sat contemplating the reasons that my favorite month has to leave me for another year, I realized something about months. I guess you could say this about weeks and days too, but for some reason months are a huge change in our lives. Months are when we pay bills, determine weather conditions, and count down to special events in our lives. Months seem to be the perfect time to start things -- weeks are too short and years are too long to truly commit to change.

A goal that I've struggled with for years is accepting my self-image. It's such a cliche thing for girls to be concerned about, but it is a serious issue for most of us and not something that I tend to take lightly. So, as my October came to a close, I came to the conclusion that I wanted to be better for myself. To make a new me on this first day of November.

Goal: Love myself.

All hallows eve.

The ghosts and ghouls are roaming the streets tonight, ringing my doorbell every couple minutes bartering their cuteness for my prized sweets (more widely known as Reece's). This is my first Halloween EVER passing out candy, and so far it's pretty relaxing. It's so fun to see all the little kids costumes and think back to when I used to be allowed to stay up until 11 on Halloween. It was a big deal, guys. The only thing that would make this better is if Kendall wasn't at work.

I'll cheer myself up by enjoying a mug of hot cocoa, some yummy candy, my huge crush on Binx, and my Halloween decorations I threw together today.

I'm pretty proud of my craftiness this season. Not only was I decoration crafty, but Kendall and I were pretty costume crafty as well.

I'm so lucky to have a husband who fuels my unhealthy obsession with all things, specifically Once Upon A Time related. But that's a story for another day!

Happy Halloween!

Western Halloween.

Halloween around these parts, to me at least, means getting down and dirty with some local farm festivals. I have an unhealthy obsession with pumpkin patches, corn mazes, barbecues and pig races, and in October it is out of control. Like, those around me should be scared for their lives if they try to get in the way of me and my farm festivities -- I will take you down. Eventually Kendall had to cave and appease my compulsion, and willingly took me to my all time favorite farm, ever.

SCHNEPF FARMS.

I seriously used to go here every year as a kid, and then we became long-lost friends through my teenage years. Last year, our love affair was rekindled and now all I think about all year is the dusty manure filled air, the surprisingly scary roller coaster, the fluffy goats, and of course, the delicious farm fresh food. I just think that Schnepf embodies everything that I love about October, and brings me back to my roots.

The highlight of our night was sitting behind this boy and his dad on the roller coaster. After the first drop, Kendall exclaimed appropriately that it was a pretty rough ride. The little boy turned around, laughing, and said "that drop made my stomach feel funny!" After the third time around the track, Kendall turned to me and said, "what a great dad. I bet this ride is killing his body, but he's doing it to make his son happy."

Just another reason why I love Schnepf Farms, and will continue to wish every month is October until it comes back to me next year.

Punkin.

Probably the only tolerable part about Kendall's night job is that I get more girl time than I normally would during the week. Luckily, I have great girlfriends that want to spend time with an old married lady like me and try to make plans with me during their hectic weeks. Last week we got together for a Halloween themed pumpkin carving night. Kendall was kind enough to buy us pumpkins and left us some Martinelli's to add a little "sparkle" to our night (cue "awwwws" now).

Seriously, look how flippin' talented we are at the art of pumpkin carving. Those are some professional looking pumpkins. Halloween is my favorite time of year and stabbing the crap out of a pumpkin definitely satisfied my Halloween itch. These girls are so awesome and I'm so glad I was able to spend time with them. There were lots of secrets, gossip and giggles happening up in here. I recommend for all married women to get in some quality girl time -- like pumpkin soup for the soul.

A song for the deaf.

Anyone who knows me knows that music therapy is the perfect career for me. They also know that it abducts me from real life and makes it impossible for me to function throughout the year, which I think is going to be totally worth it in the end. So basically I'm putting the blame on music therapy for my hiatus. 

Sorrynotsorry.

I've always liked to think music is magical, and music therapy allows me to continue that belief in a socially acceptable way. This semester I've been working with children who are deaf and hard of hearing -- I know, it doesn't make any sense, and that's why it makes sense. Music is so much more than I could have ever dreamed in my wild magical dreams. It is so magical that it helped me connect and communicate with children who can't even hear me. It showed me that unicorns and Hogwarts must be real, because music can do the impossible.

As Dumbledore once said, "music, a magic beyond all we do here."

It's been too long...again.

Everyday, I get this overwhelming feeling that there is a part of my life that is missing, and everyday I know that the part of my life I'm missing is journaling and blogging, taking pictures, documenting my life. I tend to get overwhelmed with school, and life in general, and think of blogging as an added layer on my stresscake of a life. Like girls do, I make it out to be way more difficult than it has to be. In reality, blogging helps me to let out how I feel and express myself in a way that my stressful life doesn't allow for!

So, here's to trying, once again, to blog. Consistently. Forever.

And an update of what has been happening at the Lewis and Clark residence.

Basically these last few weeks have been filled to the brim with fall activities, hanging out with the Sirius monster, crafting and knitting, and food. I've been trying to juggle full time school with husband time and housework time, all while not chopping my own head off. I don't know how you girls do it, but I think I'm learning. Slowly.

Sick day.

I woke up this morning feeling absolutely awful. I popped the good pills, and no more than an hour later my pain was back. So, it was a day in bed with my husband for me! Not that I'm complaining about the husband part. As much as I hate being in pain, I love love LOVE watching movies all day in bed with Kendall. Now that I'm stuck here sick, I'm sitting here on the computer trying to decide on a much needed vacation for us over October break. 

Basically, these are our options:

1. Disneyland. Are you surprised? Halloweentime is my favorite ever. The price? Not my favorite ever.

2. Las Vegas. Recently I've seen a lot of people taking vacations there and that they have a lot of fun Halloween themed things! And they're having a sale on hotel rooms.

3. The cabin. Beautiful getaway and free! Not so excited about dealing with spiders again, though.

4. Camping. Again, beautiful and bugs.

5. Any other fun getaways, preferably with a Halloween theme.

Seriously, I don't know what to do. What are some of your favorite Fall vacations?

HELP!

Can you hear the people sing?

I'm not gonna lie, I'm one of those stereotypical musical theater nerds who grew up singing all the soprano solos for Les Miserables and dreamed of one day being able to sit in the front row while listening to real live singers belt those beautiful lyrics and tug my heart strings with those unbelievable chords. Not to mention that Jean Valjean is the musical man of my dreams, and Javert is the musical man of my nightmares. Not enough imagery for ya? Well here are some pictures of my amazing night seeing Les Mis with my wonderful family...before my camera died.

That last one is supposed to show the rest of our family...and that was the best I could do before my camera took it's last breath.

But on a serious note, Les Mis was the bomb dot com. I wanted to go every single night after that to watch it again. I'd probably rank it as my 6th best experience of my life, and I cried at least 53 times, but who's counting?

Highlight of my night: Kendall expressing confusion until I related the characters to Hugh Jackman and Russell Crowe. Of course as soon as I related it to a movie a received a huge "OH!" and he was immediately interested. Instead of calling them their stage names, he continued to call them Hugh and Russell through the whole musical. I love my movie nerd of a husband.

you GUYS!

I'm SO sorry for the abrupt way in which I left you hanging in anticipation of my next brilliant blog post (ahem, sarcasm)! Bad Brittany. I basically cry about it every night before I lay my head down for my "beauty rest," which my Anatomy teacher confirmed is a real thing.

ANYWAYS.

So many things have been going on around these parts. Hopefully now that we have the internets back you will learn more about my exciting* life for the past couple weeks! Hopefully I will be able to get back into the groove. Hopefully I can find a better word to start my sentences besides "hopefully."

For now, I leave you with a sneak peak of my wedding ceremony/reception, which my photographer just brought by my house last night.

I'm in photography love with Sarah Waggoner.

The end.

*not exciting at all, more like stressful, busy, and sucky suck town time. ha!

A blur.

Week two of husband's night shift.

I don't think I'll ever get used to it. Even when I'm busy and studying and working and worrying about a million other things, I hate the idea of taking a break from those things alone. I miss being able to just sit with him, doing nothing. I work for the week to be a blur so I can see Kendall clearly on the weekends.

This week was crazy and hard and stressful, and this morning when I woke up next to Kendall I felt it all fade away, like it didn't matter what happened during the week because we'd end up together at the end.

I just need everything to come back into focus.

Ever feel like you need a cupcake?

Me too. 

If I were a doctor, I would prescribe cupcakes too all my patients, for everything. Depression, skin rash, a long week of work/school/no husband time, you name it! A cupcake will fix it. Case study is currently being conducted.

I just felt like being a good babysitter, so I took little Ms. Selah to a cupcake shop that I had seen in passing once in Gilbert. OH MY GOSH. I seriously think that it is the best cupcake place, ever. Like, better than Sprinkles. I even had a dream about living there and eating all their cupcakes. They have the best flavors, you can choose different icings, and they even have a topping bar! Hence the name.

I'm making myself hungry now. Get in my belly, cupcake picture.

And get yourself down there to eat some local business goodness. Mm!

Today is a new day.

I started out this morning with a pretty positive attitude. I was coming to terms with my favorite summer coming to an end and getting a little excited about getting back into music therapy for the semester. I adore my major, so that part isn't too hard. The hard part for me is the motivation to go to class, study, and care at all about classes that I don't care about. But I was willing to look past that and try my hardest to enjoy my first day of my senior year of college.

Then I realized I didn't have a parking pass and had to be dropped off at my class. I was late to my first class because I had to print off a powerpoint that my teacher didn't end up using. My dad had to pick me up like I was in elementary school because I didn't have a car and my husband was at work. When I got home, I realized my keys were inside the house, so I had to borrow my dad's car, drive to Kendall's work, get the house key, then drive back home. By the time I got home, I had been gone for 13 hours.

And somehow I'm still alive. Even when the world gives me crap to work with, I'm going to try not to let it break me. That's my usual problem with school. I let the world break me. This semester, I have an amazing husband to support me and I'm motivated to do it right.

Take that, world.

Update schmupdate.

For the lack of a better subject, and my energy to generate cute blog-worthy pictures, this is basically going to update you on all the crazy things that have been happening up in hurr (hurr = the Clark residence).

Kendall starts school tomorrow, and I start on Thursday. We just barely got our schedules worked out, but we also just barely were able to apply for financial aid...oops. It's really confusing when you're married, but hopefully all the hassle and extra paperwork will be worth it when we get that sweet cash money that pays for our torturous classes for the next few months.

On top of starting class tomorrow, Kendall also starts a new job...the night shift. Which means no more dinners together or anything. I'm pretty stressed out and sad about it, even though I'm so proud of him for taking responsibility to have a full time job, no matter what it takes. Any advise about how to keep sane during this would be much appreciated.

Also, the family that I work for is moving, and not just down the street. They're moving about 30 minutes away from where we are going to be living. I'm going to try to stay with them and still work with them everyday like I do now, but I don't know if it's going to take a toll on me and if I'll be able to keep up with it. But I also don't know if I could ever leave them. It's the best job I've ever had. I would work with them for the rest of my life if I could.

Oh, did I mention that Kendall and I are moving, too? In the midst of all this craziness, we're moving into my grandma's house because she's moving out and wants us to take it over. It's a beautiful house and way less for us to pay than our apartment, but it honestly came at the worst time ever. School, work, life, ward duties, etc. I'm a little overwhelmed, if you couldn't already tell. On top of that, I've been sick all week. Ha!

I guess I'm just sad that the best summer of my life is coming to an end.

Instabalance.

I don't know what it has been lately, but I have felt very 60s hippy-ish. Maybe it's the Olympics, rekindling my love for all things flower, peace, love, and Beatles. Maybe it's the fact that I'm starting school in a little over a week, Kendall's starting a new job, we're moving, and everything's changing, that makes me feel like I need a more chill, balanced life right now. Whatever it is, analyzing my Instagram tells the story.

1 & 2. Just spending time with my husband. Watching movies, hugging, cooking, going to Good Will and finding funny books or smelly curtains. I just have craved us time lately. Also, notice the hippy-natural-throwinabraid hair? Apparently I unknowingly boycotted products and heat in my hair for the last three weeks.
3 & 4. Homemade. I have always loved cooking, but I've been trying harder to think of interesting things to make using the food we have left at the end of the month. French bread grilled cheese and Oreo shakes.
5 & 6. Not-so-homemade. We've tried to balance homemade food out with actually going out to eat to treat ourselves. Red velvet pancakes (I DIE.) and the best pie ever (I guess you can call it Buttermilk pie, if you must).
7 & 8. Nature. What else does a hippy need besides fresh air, stars, and some tunes?

What's your instalife?