Proud to be a Mississippian!

Just coming back from a long trip to MS, it seems fitting to do a blog about my home state/town.

Since moving from MS, I appreciate life there so much more. Every time I visit, it's full of reminders of my memories from childhood into early adulthood. I grew up with a grandmother and great-grandmother that lived simple lives. They had gardens (HUGE ones) that were more fields of gardens than just little one person gardens. I rode on the tractor with my Papaw and I loved it. We spent the weekends picking the garden, shelling butter beans, along with crushing cans that we saved to go on our church youth trips. You wouldn't believe how much money we made doing that! We may not have wanted to get out in the heat at the time but looking back now, I really appreciate learning to do it and having the experience of gardening and just some good yard work. Soon we plan to have a small garden of our own. We better get to it!

Here are some things that in some way or form, have some odd memory attached to it or it's just something that I love and miss about Mississippi.

• Lightenin' bugs :) Fireflies.
• Gumball trees .... it's what we called them and apparently, so did someone else. See below what a gumball tree is. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquidambar_styraciflua
• Picking up pecans
• Tons of birds and squirrels, all different types! Hummingbirds, mocking birds, cardinals, bluejays, woodpeckers, and finches that turn yellow. Gorgeous!
• Beautiful rolling hills of Mississippi (some parts of MS)
• Slow paced life, close knit families, and SOUTHERN cookin' !! Nothing better than home grown veggies cooked by someone that has been doing it for years! It's awesome!!!! Oh man! 
• Bradford Pear trees. These were blooming when I was home and they are gorgeous! I want these going down my future driveway.If you have never seen these in person, you are missing out.  http://huntsville.about.com/cs/women/l/blbradfordpear.htm 
• Cotton fields and corn fields! I love cotton fields. 
• Kindness, hospitality.
• Magnolia trees!!!!! 
• The river !!!! Makes me think of the song 'Pontoon'. Lance and I lived right on the river for a while and it was awesome!! So calming to get up in the morning and just look at the water and listen to the birds chirp, boats sometimes coming by and just all of the other outside noises you'd expect to hear. I miss that place.
• Deer, deer, and MORE deer. Not that I miss dodging these at night and watching carefully as I drive down the highway after dark but it's nice to see some wildlife once and a while other than squirrels and cows.
• The southern accent that I have managed to somewhat lose though every time I go home, I pick it up again BIG TIME! I just love hearing it, especially when little kids talk. They are so cute! 

I'm sure there is a TON more that I am forgetting but after 8 days of being out of town and a few days of catching up, my fuse is about burned out. :)