Weekly iPhone Roundup {2.25 - 3.3}

 Another week has come and gone. My grandma used to tell me that the older you go, the faster time passed. That is the truest statement I've ever heard anyone make in my entire life. Don't get me wrong, time went by fast at times when I was a kid, but nothing compared to today.

I think the logic behind this is that the older you get, the more precious time becomes to you. When you're little you don't think about things like that. For me, I was mainly worried about having to go to school or summer break being too short. Once you grow up and the reality of life hits you, that's when time runs short.

Anyways, that was a little over the top, lol.

This week as semi-uneventful I suppose. Ended up going home through Farmington just so we could hit up the Desloge Walmart because they're the ONLY place that has Dr. Pepper Zero Strawberries & Cream. Let me just say... worth it!! I'm a huge fan of Dr. Pepper to begin with. I only drink the diet or zero, but both are amazing. I'm not huge on flavored soda, but this one is the best thing ever.

Aside from that, I also made the mistake of going into Buchheits over the weekend and acquiring more baby chicks. I called them Saturday and was told that they had both Silver Laced and Golden Laced Wyandottes. Literally one of my favorite chicken breeds ever! By the time I got to the store, all the Silver Laced were sold, which was massively depressing because that's the one I wanted more. Instead of getting one of each color, I got two Golden Laced and two adorable White Brahma chicks. 

I have to stop. This is becoming an expensive addiction.

I guess that's all for now. 

McDonald's Americanos are addicting.

Damp and foggy night in Perryville last weekend.

The streets in Perryville always look so creepy at night.

It helps that two cops live next door.

Here are the new baby chicks. Two Light Brahmas and two Silver Laced Wyandotte's.

Here's the highly sought after Dr Pepper Strawberries & Cream Zero.

Finally starting my herb seed collection. I found two different types of Basil, Thyme, Dill and Chives. Still have a few more to go.

Here's all the baby chicks snuggled up in a box while we clean their bedding.

All the older chicks (Easter Eggers, Dominiques, Barred Rock) fast asleep.

Their long little chicken necks make me want to squeeze them.

Here's all the younger chicks - I legit love them so much.

But I honestly don't know who couldn't love baby chicks.

Rainy Day Landscapes & Sunstars

 The weather has been really nasty today. It was dark, rainy and very cold. Then, out of nowhere, it cleared up and the sun started shining. I love nothing more than when the sun shines right after raining, especially in the evening hours. Since I had my Tokina near by, I took it outside to try and capture some decent shots of the yard and the way the sun casted such beautiful shadows. 

The execution wasn't as I expected, but they turned out nicely. I really should have edited them in Lightroom, but that's just too much work, lol.

Here are the pics from early today:

PS: Today is my little brothers 27th birthday! Like excuse me, it seems like he was just 12 last year. :(

This is the yard just before the sun popped out.

Our yard after the rain. I also managed a sunstar.

Smaller sunstar.

I couldn't up the aperture too much for the sunstar because it darkened the foreground too much.

The lighting was still beautiful. I love the Tokina lens.

This would've looked even better in the fall.

This is a great representation of how hilly and uneven our yard it.

Last landscape photo of the yard with a sunstar for the win!

Weekly iPhone Roundup {1.28 - 2.3}

 As I'm sure most people in the US know, last week was full of snow and ice. Much to my surprise we also got mass amounts of ice Sunday night into Monday morning. I really had no clue it was supposed to happen or LaVaughn and I would've both left Perryville Monday morning after work. Of course, things didn't happen that way and by the time I woke up at noon on Monday it was too late, the ice was everywhere.

The joys of working until after 4AM is not being able to wake up earlier.

If you know anything about us you know that the ice didn't stop us from clawing our way home. It took twice as long to get home, but thank God we made it in once piece. We did slide to a stop in Fredericktown before we picked up our groceries, resulting in me almost rear-ending the car in front of me. Thankfully that didn't happen.

I've driven on snow and ice a few times before, but nothing as bad as this. It was stupid and careless of us to attempt to make it home, but every homebody in the world knows they'll do whatever it takes to get home.

In non-near death experiences, my heat mat arrived for my lemon trees this week. It's really new and won't lay flat just yet, but the more it heats up the better it will work.

I think that's all for now. I hope everyone had an awesome week!

Ice covered window in the car. We legit had to let the car run for over 20 minutes. We both got out and scraped the window multiple times, but the ice was so thick.

We stopped for a coffee at The Station in Fredericktown. You know, priorities.

Waiting on Walmart pickup.

This was highway 67 - not as bad as others, but still pretty bad.

This is highway 34 coming into Piedmont. It was really nasty.

We parked at Murphy's Pizza in Piedmont to call my aunt to let her know we were okay. As you can see, the roads were terrible.

This is highway 143 just past the store I used to work at in Des Arc, completely covered in ice.

Our frozen yard. This was fun to walk on.

I ventured out on Thursday for some necessities.

Our county road was still completely covered in ice.

Thankfully the highway wasn't and there was enough gravel showing through to give me some traction.

Some of my lemon seeds are starting to sprout up!

This is the heat mat I bought from Amazon. So far so good.

Look at all these little guys snug on their warm mat.

Forgotten Photos

 I completely forgot that I took some photos with my Nikon Friday. I guess cause of all the chaos of the week, not to mention working in Perryville over the weekend. It's rare that I ever go out and take photos this time of year due to the cold and there being nothing to photograph. I mean, there are loads of things to photograph, but it's too repetitive.

I not only used my 105mm lens, but my Tokina as well. I don't always keep my Tokina attached, but I keep it close by at all times. We're on the brink of Milky Way season and I don't want to miss anything, lol. 

Anyways, here are the pics that I took last Friday:

Landscape view of the yard.

The tree on the right is so beautiful in the spring and fall.

Always trying to capture sun stars whenever I can.

Found a nice dead twig.

Max pretending he's an orphan.

I honestly don't know why he lays in this rickety old dog house sometimes. He loves to hide in here when it's storming, as opposed to being in the house where he lives.

More puffball weeds.

I really don't know what these weeds are called.

But they're cute.

And photogenic.

Last pompom in the sun.

I do love these pine trees on the other side of the fence. This isn't the best picture I've taken of them, but it's still nice.

Idk why this dog is so cute and so mean looking at the same time.

It's a big, 120lb ball of love.

Mid-January Snow Storm

As I'm sure most of the Midwest knows this by now, but a considerable snow storm ripped through Southeast Missouri last night leaving thousands without power - including us. Thank God that it's back on today, but it has flashed off a couple times leaving me with lingering anxiety that it's going to go off again. There are still people close to us that have no power, so we're one of the lucky ones, which I'm undeniably thankful for. 

I documented most of the snowfall on my phone, which I'll share Friday, but I did take my camera and wide-angle Tokina lens to the front door to try and capture a better photo of just how much snow was hanging on the trees. It was a very dense, heavy snow which is why there were so many power outages last night. I'm just thankful ours is back on and pray to God that it stays that way.

Here are some pics of the heavy snowfall on the trees:

See how immensely heavy the snow was on the trees?

The snow covered weeping willow looks haunting.

Not gonna lie, all of the trees look kind of spooky covered in snow.

Last snow covered tree photo. I'm in love with how well the Tokina does in low lighting.