The Compulsive Ramblings Of A Philotherian: azalea festival

Work started a day early last week, so we were away from home for almost 4 days which is never fun. The end of last week and the beginning of this week have all been so off for some reason. I don't know why, something just isn't aligned properly.

Thank god I didn't have to go in Walmart this week. Last week was a nightmare, running in and out of stores like my life depended on it. I just had to run in Buchheit's and Frank's Produce in Perryville, then it was off to grocery pickup in Fredericktown, yay!

I didn't managed to find some amazing looking green bell pepper plants at Rozier's in Perryville, then I found some zucchini, cantaloupe and orange bell peppers at Frank's. Since we only have 3 surviving okra plants due to the horrid rainfall and cold temps, I have to try and find some okra plants somewhere. They had some at Rural King last week, but we didn't need them then. Worse case scenario, I'll try to get some more seeds since no one has any okra plants anywhere.

The weekend was long, but went by fast, which I'm always grateful for. They had 'Cruising on the Square' in Perryville Saturday, which is so stupid. Obviously no one was wearing masks, but that should be a given. And to top that off, they're having Mayfest and the Azalea Festival this coming weekend... lunacy! I know people miss having fun and going out to festivals and so on, but come on. There's going to be hundreds of people from all around coming to both of these events. Super-spreader much?

I'm sorry for any of my conservative readers, I know this doesn't sit well with most. Not saying all, but from where I'm from your view on wearing a mask or not rests on your political views. It's sad that health doesn't come before your president of choice.

That's enough of that, don't wanna burn too many bridges. It's Monday and it's cold and rainy out. I've been out of the house for the first half of the day, but it's so good to be home. I haven't taken many pictures at all lately, so I'm going to share photos from my cameral roll on my phone. I know that's very taboo for me, but I can't really post without at least sharing some form of pictures. Enjoy!

The gorgeous green bell peppers I found at Rozier's.

I also picked up food for my baby brother Saturday and this is how they spelled my name. The lady at the drive thru was like "I'm scared to ask what your name is because we have some creative spelling going on." It was a laugh.

Miss Layla.

These the cutest little old lady chihuahua.

Our baby chicks from late last week. All trying to snuggle in LaVaughn's hands.

They're seriously the best.

Max is happy that we're home. Snapped this perfectly cute pic earlier today.

Garden update:

The lettuce is coming in nicely.

As are the onions. I apologize for the crappy pics.

Close-up of the lettuce.

Our potatoes seriously look amazing.

They look the best out of anything.

Our baby chicks. The black one is Boppo, the one we had to assist hatch. I don't know why, but that's what we started calling him.

I also don't know why these pics are sideways - stupid phone. They're adorable and perfect, though.

Well it's official, we survived the Azalea Festival -- I honestly didn't think we would at times. There were just SO many people there... people we knew! Not to mention, it was hot! When I woke up today it felt awesome outside, almost chilly. It's like Mother Nature knew we would be outside today and amped up the heater. It didn't help that I was wearing a sweater -- super thin, but a sweater all the same.

Upon arrival we immediately thought of leaving. The people were in abundance and it was hot, not to mention we got there just before 4, which was a tad too early. We stuck it out and stayed.

We walked around and surveyed the entire carnival before deciding what to do next. I took pictures of all the rides, people, more rides, more people, then the craft sections. I even took pictures of more rides after that.

We knew there were going to be some familiar faces there, but not half as many as we suspected. LaVaughn saw a friend that she used to go to school with -- someone she talks to online almost daily, we saw our cousin Tiffany, her two kids and her husband. I guess she un-friended me on FB, because I can't tag her in the pictures I took. Oh well, her loss. We also ran into two of our other cousins and their kids. Aside from them, I saw a guy I used to work with and I'm pretty sure I saw a girl I went to school with in 6th grade, I'm not too sure about that.

We ended up buying 22 tickets for $20 -- wanna guess how many rides we rode? One, just one. We rode Pharaoh's Fury together one time... it was terrible. I thought I was going to fall out of my seat, had it not been so unbelievably snug. Why do people put themselves through that?? Lol, it was horrible! We ended up selling the remainder of our tickets and leaving.

Not before grabbing a funnel cake and strawberry shake-up for the dumbfounding price of $20! Those people seriously have to all leave rich, no joke. We didn't even bother getting food there, we went to Dairy Bar and Hardee's for food. Which took forever, I might add. EVERY single place in Fredericktown was packed.

So here I am, at home, trying to wind down from all the excitement today had to offer. I'm also in the process of booking a hotel room for tomorrow and Monday via Priceline. So far they're considerably cheaper than just going to a hotel... AND you can use Paypal! How awesome is that?? Until next time..;

Love & Peace

-Megan

It was considerable harder than I thought it would be to downsize the amount of pictures I took. I did, though. I somehow managed to get them from 230+ down to just 114, enjoy!

The field parking lot: