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?

Back on my old stomping ground..

And by stomping ground, of course I mean Big Surf Waterpark, where I worked like a billion years ago.

And I did not get one good picture the whole time! Kendall looking away, Selah's glasses all askew...I'm so disappointed in myself.

Moving on. About a week ago, the Clark family decided to have a family day at Big Surf! Since me and Kendall are the only ones without kids, we adopted Selah for the day and let her tag along with all the little nieces and nephews. It was so fun to watch those little fish while I worked on my tan in the pool.

I think it's safe to say, I'm going to be sad when you're gone, Summer.

I shouldn't be alive.

The idea was an amazing idea. It was magical, actually. For a short drive down the way and an easy morning hike, we'd be frolicking in woodland flowers and crystal waters for the day. It seemed worth it to us on our vacation at the cabin, and we packed our small bags and headed out.

That was us excited and happy to be spending the day together doing two things we love: hiking and adventuring. Did you also catch somewhere in the middle of all those pictures a particular sign? The one that said "4 miles" and "4 quarts of water recommended?" Yeah...about that. We took this picture and neglected those teensy little facts. On our little trek, we only packed two water bottles, sunscreen, cell phones, and my inhaler. We figured that would be enough for our "short" hike. The last time I had been to Fossil Springs, I was able to drive down to the springs and play in the waters to my heart's content. Apparently they closed off the road and now the only way to get there was to hike the four miles. But that didn't stop me. I run 3 miles a day, what's an extra mile, right? Wrong.

We started the hike giddy as school girls, and though we got tired throughout, we knew that was just a symptom of hiking. Until about 3 and a half miles in, when we reached the dry riverbed. I could have cried. I sat down on a rock, after all my hard work, and couldn't move. How could we have gone all this way just to find a dry riverbed! Why didn't anyone tell us on their way back up? Oh, and we had just run out of water. Fabulous.

After sitting down for a few minutes, two ladies and their dogs passed by and asked if we had any duct tape for their dog's paws. We told them no, and asked what happened to his paws. They informed us that the pup had cut his paws in the water on the jagged rocks of the river. It was like the skies had parted -- there was a river! We promptly picked up all our gear and trudged on, hoping to find the river within the next half an hour; and, oh, did we.

I really wish I would have taken more pictures, these two do not do it justice. It was like an oasis in the desert, it was such a relief when we finally reached the water and I dipped my tired toes into it's cool springs. The waterfall was like something out of a movie. It was magical.

There was still the problem of having no water left to hike another 4 miles up the trail. Part of the reason I didn't take more pictures was that I was so stressed out that we were going to drop dead of dehydration and heat stroke. We spent about 2 hours at the falls, then decided it was time to hike back to the Jeep before the storm came through. As we hiked, we discussed how exactly we were going to get the water, not to mention food, in order to have enough energy to make it. 

A group in front of us stopped suddenly, and were talking about a spring that was high enough above the river to get water out of. Although it was high enough, the group was using chlorine and iodine tablets to purify their water. This made Kendall nervous, and he decided to keep looking for another area for water. I was TO'd, because I just freaking wanted water, whether it made me sick or not, but I followed him. I'm so glad we moved on. As we hiked up more, we came to a campsite. Kendall finally plucked up the courage to ask someone for a little bit of extra water. We asked the right person. He knew of a place just up the hike that had pure spring water, straight from the earth, no purification necessary.

Hallelujah!

It was the most delicious, magical, pure water. How amazing is Mother Earth? She sure saved our tushes. We sat drinking her water, Kendall even dunked his head in, for probably a half an hour before we could pull ourselves away to hike the rest of the way. Two women were sitting at the spring when we got there, and they just so happened to be Members too! They shared their food and some kind words before we headed off for the long trek to the Jeep.

The hike back up was brutal, but it was worth every minute. The experience made us so appreciative of each other, of the earth, and of the small blessings we receive everyday. Oh, and of not dying on our vacation weekend. That too. Not to mention the rain that fell on us as we reached the end of our hike, and the rainbow that towered over us like a gift for all that we had accomplished.

Kendall and I have always loved the show I Shouldn't Be Alive, but we never thought we'd come so close to being on it. I'm so grateful for that hike and for the lessons I learned; like reading signs and preparing for things so I don't die. So there you have it, the filling to our Oreo cookie of a cabin weekend.

The end.

An angel.

Today started off a little strange. 

I was more tired than usual and had to absolutely drag myself out of bed. I forgot to eat breakfast and went through the whole morning with a grumbly stomach while dealing with an overly emotional 3-year-old girl.

Then it happened.

Out of nowhere, the world kind of stopped. My sister, my life-long best friend, and a huge part of my heart woke up to her 3-week-old son cold in her arms. The rest of my day was a blur of feelings, emotions, and interactions until I heard her voice on the phone telling me she loved me and wanted to see me. Her voice shaking and breaking brought me back to reality. This wasn't just a baby somewhere far away. This was my nephew. My sister's son. My family's pain. This wasn't something that I could feel discomfort about and then it was gone. This was something that was going to last forever.

Sometimes life isn't fair. Sometimes inconceivable things happen to people who don't deserve it, people who already have a difficult life as it is. Sometimes hardship falls on those who can't handle it. Sometimes hardship falls into the hands of those who can handle it, because others in the world can't. My sister is one of those people who can handle the burdens of the world; she is the strongest person I know.

I wish I could be there for her more than anything; to comfort her, to tell her what I know and that she'll be with Isaac again someday. That a precious baby left her side, but an angel watches over her from above now. As sad as it is to see a beautiful soul leave this earth and the sadness it brings to my family, I know that Heavenly Father needed him home more than we did.

I can't wait to meet you someday, baby Isaac, my beautiful nephew. We miss you too much already.

Cabin fever.

This past weekend, we got some much needed R&R.

What does R&R mean in our case? Probably not what we thought it might, but we'll get to that later. For now, I'm going to tell you our weekend novel the same way I like to eat my Oreos, cookie first, and I'll save that sweet filling for later.

We took Friday afternoon off work to drive up to Kendall's family cabin in Strawberry, Arizona for a short weekend vay-cay. The weather was magical, and I could smell those pines from miles away. My dad even let us borrow his Jeep for our romping pleasures. When we arrived, we threw our stuff inside and headed down the road to Strawberry Lodge for dinner and the best pie of our lives. Seriously. If you've never had Buttermilk pie, you need to rethink what your life is coming to.

Let's not mention our Friday night spider hunting fiasco and skip forward to Saturday night. We get a text from our sister-in-law asking how long we were planning on staying and that her little family might want to come up. Once they listened to our coaxing to get their tushes up there, we spent the rest of our weekend watching movies, shooting into the wind, and eating more pie.

How cute is our family? How fun does this vacation look? Does that gun make my butt look big?

Kendall's going to have to put up with my whines and moans about going back soon. Very soon.

Bridals.

So, Kendall and I just got back from an amazing weekend up at his family's cabin in Strawberry filled with adventures and I-shouldn't-be-alive moments, which I will tell about in vivid detail in the days to come. In the midst of the excitement I, once again, neglected this here blog! So what I'm trying to say is, I hope that looking at these long awaited pictures of our bridal shoot help your process of forgiveness.

Thank you thank you thank you again to my beautiful amazing wonderful photographer! I'm so in love with these pictures and I'm so happy that she brought them by for us. I seriously have a photography crush on her. If you do too, set up a little photoshoot for your beautiful self. These pictures are like owning a piece of magic, a big piece of HP magic.

Sarah Waggoner Photography