Where did you get that cute....? In Canton

I grew up in Canton, MS which is a small town (about 11,000 people) in Central Mississippi.  When I was growing up Canton was struggling to find its identity.  Our claim to fame was the Canton Flea Market and Arts and Crafts Festival.  We have this twice a year on the second Thursday in May and October.  It is actually a huge arts and crafts festival that shuts down the town and people come from all over the South to shop.  This year the Flea Market attracted 50,000 people.  In the mid 80’s a group of visioning Cantonians formed a long range plan to turn Canton into a tourist attraction with speciality shopping.  Our friend, JoAnn Gordon, had an idea in the late 1980’s to turn Canton into a movie site.  We have a gorgeous traditional square that is very open that is ideal for filming, and also many beautiful old homes.
 Over the next ten years several movies were filmed in my hometown:  A Time to Kill, My Dog Skip, O Brother Where Art Thou, Ponder Heart, Benji Returns, and a small part in Mississippi Burning.  When Time to Kill came to town the whole town worked to make it happen.  Everyone who worked on the movie has invited to the premier which was held in Canton,  The utility workers to the actors all rubbed elbows.  My dad, Bob Montgomery, worked with Matthew McConaughey to help him learn to be a small town attorney. He was an unknown then and I loved getting to meet him.  My sisters and husbands were on BET dancing.  .  Samuel L Jackson was the first black member of our Country Club.  

Also during this time Canton became the City of Lights.  It is gorgeous during the Christmas season, Christmas music is always playing on the speakers around town and each store is lighted as well as the center square.  Animated villages were created too.  The tourism office worked on collecting retired figures who collecting dust in an attics of a department stores.  They are amazing.  There are 3 villages total with multiple scenes in each one.  There are tons of stuffed animals and antiques.  One goes through the decades and tracks the progression of the cost of living and family life.  There are a few kids from Small World and I think I saw Snap, Crackle and Pop in there.   They are magical.  They don’t allow pictures in there so I can’t show you, but imagine every nook and cranny filled to the brim with animated animals, people, toys and creative stories to go with each scene.  There is a  horse drawn carriage, a train, carousel, mini cars and hot chocolate.

  I always love shopping in Canton, MS.  I find such unique things at such good prices.  The people are very friendly and it is so nice to walk all around the square.  I thought I would share some of my favorite shops. 

Noble Watts Jewelry
157 North Union Street
Canton, MS 39046-3740
(601) 859-3553

http://www.jenniferthamesoriginals.com/

P is for Primitive
141 W. Peace St.
Canton, MS 39046 
Ph. 601-859-4252
http://www.pisforprimitive.com/

Madelines

133 West Peace Street
Canton, MS 39046-4535
(601) 859-9887

Sulms Gifts

3338 North Liberty Street
Canton, MS 39046-3739
(601) 859-7851

Canton Square Antiques

175 West Peace Street • 

Canton, MS 39046 601-859-2209.

Charlotte's Webb

100 North Union Street

Canton, MS 39046

(601) 855-0285

Union Street Books

107 N. Union Street

Canton, MS 39046

(601) 427-0703

Heartspun House 601) 859-6466

Barbara and Herb Power

Primitives-Furniture and Collectibles

Kay and Ducky Longgrear-601-859-4887

 

I love all the unique things that you can find in Canton.  Anytime you want to go visit, just let me know.  

What I am Thankful for

What I am thankful for

My God and savior Jesus Christ

Driving through New Augusta, MS and seeing a Shetland pony hanging out in a front yard

My kids, who are an interesting mix of Brian and I which is funny since we are opposites

My husband who is unselfish and way better than I deserve

My sisters who made my childhood fun and made it possible for me to get along with any women

My new puppy Annabelle who loves me the best

My church, which is directly and indirectly responsible for 98% of my dear friends

My job, which is so much fun and the children who make me, feel like a rock star everyday

My first crummy job that taught me to love computers when my unscrupulous boss hired me on a Monday and told me I was teaching a computer class to adults on Friday, I had never used a Windows based computer before that Monday

My parents who taught me the importance of being honest, reading, relaxing, good manners and loving others

My dear nieces and nephews

My education at Mississippi State University in the classroom, the KD house and McKee dorm

That Brian was sitting in the Union doing a crossword puzzle and sitting with his little brother when I walked by, he decided to ask me out because I was nice to his brother, by the time he graduated three weeks later we were in love

Growing up in the faux country, with a swimming pool and a barn

My home that can hold a party with friends and out of town guests

That little things make me happy

Wonderful health care in Birmingham AL

The hard things in my life and the lessons they have taught me

My curly low maintenance hair

My friends who make me laugh and love me no matter what

My mattress and memory foam pillow

Sonic Route 44s

My Gold Quest van that has taken us all over the southeast and east with no problems, except for a new battery in Disney

That I don’t have the worry gene

Sports  (those that have know me forever will laugh at this one)

My neighbors who I love

Forgiveness and redemption in my life and others

People in the service industry who take pride in their work and customer service

Hair color

The US military

Euro comfort shoes

Unexpected bargains

That I don’t mind speaking in public

My mother in law and her mother who are great help and the best bakers I know

Laughing until I cry

Reese’s

Facebook and my friends there

My boyfriend Mac (what Brian calls my laptop)

The hills in Birmingham that make the landscape so pretty, since I grew up in flat Mississippi this is a change

Oak Mountain schools

My family’s health and mine

The Internet that really feeds and satisfies my need for knowing random things

The color red

The kid’s school bus and their drivers Mr. Gary and Mr. T, no carpool for me

Music that makes me happy and triggers old memories

My iphone

Fiber

DVD players in vans with headphones

Southern Company/ that gives my husband a job he loves

Magazines

Diet Cokes

Being Southern

You for reading this far in my list

Happy Thanksgiving, Gobble, Gobble!!

My blog has a new home

I switched over to blogspot because of the artistic capabilities.  Some of the code got messed up in the conversion.  Happy Thanksgiving to you all!!
myfullerjoy.blogspot.com

Where in the the world is Ozark, AL??

One word of warning, do not look on Petfinder.com unless you are seriously considering a pet.  Here is how Annabelle came to be living with us.  We lost our sweet Mary back in February, we knew we weren't getting a pet this summer.  So the kids had been saying they wanted a puppy for Christmas.  I started to work on Brian a little and one night he looked at Petfinder.com with me.  We saw these precious puppies that were located in Ozark, AL.  I mapquested Ozark, because no one seemed to know where it was.  I looked and it was only 2 hours away.  That might work.  I called and the only one not spoken for was Gail the darkest puppy.  They were mixes of Golden Retriever, Labrador Retriever, and maybe Shar Pei but more about that later.  So I asked Ruth (who runs the shelter) to email me an application.  Then I had to send pictures of our home and yard.  She said if I was approved Gail would be ours.   She emailed later in the day and said we could come get her on Thursday.  The kids were out of school and I figured we could make the day trip.  I looked at Mapquest again and started mapping our course.  That is when I realized it was 2 hours and 59 minutes.  That is what I get for rounding down, Brian says I do this all the time.  I do it a little after a shopping trip.  These puppies were left in the woods by their Mama dog who is a stray.

So the kids and I loaded up in the car and went to Ozark, AL.  The shelter was only open between 8:00am and 12:00pm.  So we got up at 6:00 and left by 7:15.  We get there about 10:30.  This shelter is little, so many volunteers working hard.  We all hurriedly jump out of the car.  Lewis said he needed to go to the bathroom.  So Ruth showed him the bathroom.  We started talking about Gail and then Lewis hollered out, "I can't get out!!"  He was locked in the bathroom.  I told him just turn the knob.  Ruth said, " I don't have a key." We were all laughing so hard we could barely try to help him. Ruth then said, "I guess we are going to have to call the fire department to get him out of the there." So before we resorted to that I passed a note under the door to him showing him how to unlock the door, then she said it was kind of backwards.  Somehow Lewis got the door open and we continued the process of adopting Gail.  The puppy cost $95 which should have included the spaying but she was too young.  So she said we can send her the receipt later.  I told her she could keep the change from the $100 and she said good because she didn't keep change.  Smart lady.  We were leaving with Gail now Annabelle and Ruth said I love your house, I told her come visit anytime!!



[caption id="attachment_470" align="alignleft" width="540" caption="Ruth, Rob, and Gail/Annabelle"][/captio





When we were leaving we ran into a lady from Saint Petersburg FL who had come to adopt Gail's sister.  The litter went all over the Southeast.  Ruth posts all the adoptions on their Facebook.  It is amazing how she uses the internet to get the pets adopted.  Before I left I asked Ruth why Gail was the last one left.  She said well, actually she was the first one adopted, but the family who adopted her had a baby and Ruth said Gail was a crybaby who cried all night long.  Oh well I could handle it.  I will have to say there has been many times over the last week that Annabelle has reminded me of Clara as a toddler.  She was sweet and easygoing unless she really wanted something and then be prepared, she would not give it up.

It was a beautiful day to get a beautiful puppy.  She is sweet, not hyper at all.  She has a problem with her eye and we have been putting drops in her eye.  She has a spotted tongue which is a feature of Shar peis, unfortunately this weird eye condition where their eyelashes turn in and scratch their eyes is also a characteristic.  I guess we will see, she might have to have an eye lift.  Seriously.  We tried to figure out a radio fence for all of Sunday afternoon but I gave up.  Everytime I tested the spot by the road it wouldn't work, and the Mom in me figured that Annabelle is probably like her sister Clara in enspousing the moto, "No Pain No Gain" So I hired Donny to fix our fence.  We have a big backyard that has a run off ditch in it.  It doesn't fill very often but when it does it carries leaves and sticks with it.  Part of our fence fell down and we didn't have to fix it for Mary.  So we are finally fixing it for Annabelle.  Donnie is a great guy that works for me doing jobs around the house, when he first looked at it he said he was really busy and couldn't do it until the 13th of December.  I must have looked disappointed.  So when I called back the next day to say we needed it done sooner and who could he recommend, he said I looked at it again and I can start on Monday or Tuesday.  I was thrilled, then he called back an hour later and said I have a friend that can start tomorrow.  He is a great contractor, he knew that would bother me and worked it out for us.  So hopefully Annabelle will not be a Houdini dog like Mary was.

I went to Rob's first wrestling match last night.  It was wild.  I had tears in my eyes while I watched the first match, and I didn't even know any of the boys, they weren't even members of our team.   It was hard-core, don't know what I expecting.  Rob wrestled once and he lost, but I thought he held his own.  It is really like when you used to see your preschooler getting in a fight on the playground but in this case you stand on the edge of the playground and cheer him on.  I have to admit, it was amazing how strong our boys had become.