Homesick for Fall

hi! It has been awhile I know. I have been super bogged down with test. I still have three more to go but I can't just keep studying. I have to have a break.

I hear all your stories of how "Fall is in the Air" and the crisp cool smell, and the pumpkins and the leaves, and all the excitement. Let me just say that Mississippi doesn't even know what fall is!! I wake up in the morning, go outside to let the dogs out and take a deep breath.............its chilly but it doesn't smell like Fall. :( It doesn't feel like fall.

Dr. Baily, my anatomy professor, ate lunch with me and the girls the other day and he says that somehow Mississippi skips fall altogether. The leaves don't change color they just turn brown and fall off. I told him that was the saddest thing I had ever heard, of course he just laughed at me and immediately knew I was one of the South Carolina Girls.

He expressed to me that while he loves a SC, GA, and NC fall; we will not be getting one of those here in MS. I mopped around all day after that because Fall is my favorite time of the year....here are the reasons why I love it so.
1. Smell (as I have already expressed)
2. Orange (its everywhere!!)
3. Scarecrows, pumpkins, and decorations (mom and grandma Jute always make it look awesome)
4. Pumpkin Ice Cream at Callaham's Peach Orchard (ohhhh how I will miss this!!)
5. The little cousins getting together and painting baby pumpkins (it's a tradition)
6. Tyler and I carving a pumpkin together
7. The famous BON FIRE that my Papa's brother Jone's has every year, people from our family get together and build a HUGE bon fire right in the middle of the neighborhood, he always has a GREAT bluegrass band there, hot dogs for everyone, the most CANDY you have ever seen in your life and of course ROASTED MARSHMALLOWS!!!
8. which is definitely worth being its own number so......Roasted Marshmallows
9. after the Bon Fire, my grandmother Judy has a family get together at her house, the only one of the year at her house, and we have Salmon Stew and Oyster Stew. YUUUUMMY!! The little kiddies from Pelzer come a knocking on her door and they are always so precious!
10. The church also always has a Fall Festival that is filled with fun and games and food
11. Halloween is my BEST FRIENDS birthday and I will be missing it this year :(
12. helping my grandmother Jute decorate her house with pumpkins, scarecrows, window stickers, candles, spider webs (made of cotton on the front porch, and whatever else fun Halloweeny thing we can think of.

................oh the list could go on and on but I am getting more and more depressed just thinking about it. I went to Wal Mart today mainly to get dog food because my free bag hasn't come in yet, and my eyes were assaulted with Fall, Pumpkin, Orange, candy, Halloweenish things. I went through Wal Mart looking like a fool cause my eyes were teary the whole time. Then as I checked out my bags and got in my car I realized that I had forgotten dog food!! I went back in through the back door where they keep the flowers and of course the back is where they keep all the hardcore decor for every season and if the few things here and there in the big part weren't enough to make me sad this sight was EVEN WORSE!!!! Even the mums (yellow and orange) were scoffing at me.

I know I know the only post in a while and it is a sad one. I assure you my spirits are still high. Tyler is coming to visit the week of Oct. 6th so expect pictures soon and Kim has promised that we will attend every Fall Festival from Mathiston to Starkville (as long as we don't have a test the next day) :) Our Vet School is having a Halloween Party where everyone will dress up, and the new church I am attending is also having a fun filled day in celebration of Fall. Things are good here and I can't help but be thankful and KNOW that I am exactly where I am supposed to be. I just don't understand why Fall couldn't follow me here!