Girls' Day Out - Canton Flea Market (Bucket List #74)

On Thursday, my mother, my cousin Michelle, and I went to Canton, Mississippi, for their annual fall flea market.  If you have never been, you should go.  I've been one other time, and I hope to get to go back next October.   Going to Canton is #74 on my Ultimate Bucket List.

Canton is a really neat little town in central Mississippi.  They have a really neat downtown area.  It is actually where the movie A Time to Kill (based on my favorite John Grisham book) was filmed, so there are some pretty cool little tourist spots to check out on a normal day.  Here is a shot of the courthouse (Matthew McConaughey and Sandra Bullock have stood on these courthouse steps!)...

On flea market day, the entire town works together to host one of the biggest flea markets I have ever seen.  They even let school out on that day.  The entire town caters to the thousands of people (mostly women) who come out to see what all the different vendors have to offer each year.

It starts at 8:00 a.m. and lasts all day.  Make sure to wear comfortable shoes, because you are going to be doing a lot of walking.  The vendors set up all around the courthouse square and move out a few blocks in each direction from there.  They have crafts, food items, furniture, antiques, home decor items, clothes, jewelry...pretty much everything you can imagine.  There are also food trucks and food vendors set up (you have to try the food at Penn's - they are famous for their chicken on a stick, which is a skewer of chicken pieces, dill pickles, onions and potatoes that is deep fried and definitely worth the calories).

Here are a few of the treasures that we found on this trip...

I love the grey chevron on this elephant.  And, of course, I LOVE that it says Roll Tide!

My mother got this wood sign for the front door of her new house.  When she finishes remodeling it, she's planning to paint the front door this color blue, so it will look great on the grey brick next to the bright blue door. 

I love old things, and I was super excited to find this antique tool box for just $10!  I snatched it up fast.  I have no idea what to use it for, but I'm sure that I'll think of something.

We actually found this old toy bank at an antique store on the square at Canton and got it for my dad.  It hold nickels, dimes, and quarters and counts them as you deposit them.  It won't open until you have saved $10 worth of change, which I thought was pretty cool.

Bucket List #5

On my Ultimate Bucket List, #5 is Lead a person to Christ.  This is something that I hope I can do many times in my life.  It is something that all believers are called to do.

I've talked to people about God and taught children's church and Sunday school lessons for years, and in that time I was blessed enough to get to be part of leading one person to Christ.  I have had students in my classes make decisions before, but this was the first time I actually got to pray with one of them and be there in that moment when she asked God to come into her heart and life.

When you're part of someone making that decision, it is a big deal.  I can't explain how amazing it feels to know that someone that you care about has made the decision to trust God with their life.  There's a special connection between you and that person when you share a moment like that.  I will never forget the night that Meagan asked me to pray with her.

We had been studying Dare to Be a Daniel, a youth evangelism study by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, for about 13 weeks.  During that time, I could see God working in Meagan's life.  The last night of our study, we had a graduation celebration for the kids that had attended the class.  We ended the night with a testimony service and an altar call.  Meagan went to the altar that night and asked me to pray with her.

One of my other students shared that she had gone through the Dare to Be a Daniel gospel presentation with one of her friends at school and that her friend had also gotten saved.  That year with my Junior Youth Group kids is one that I will never forget.  It was evident that God was working in our lives and He was going to do big things through those kids.  

I have gotten to see Meagan and all those kids grow in Christ for the last few years as their Junior Youth Group Leader.  I have moved for school and don't attend church with them anymore, but I hope that we will keep in touch.  I know that God has big plans for all of them and I can't wait to see how He uses them for His kingdom.

I may never accomplish anything else from my bucket list, but this is one thing that I am glad to say I have done.  I hope that I can continue to cross this off my list many more times in the years of my life.  Crossing this item off my bucket list is one of my proudest moments.  I may not have accomplished most of the things I thought I would have done by now, but I know that I followed God's leading and that I got to help point Meagan and the other kids in the Junior Youth Group to Him.  I am by no means the greatest example, and I hope these kids learned that they don't need to be like me, because I am a sinner just like everyone else.  I was there to point them to God and show them how they can be more like Him.  I am thankful that God gave me that opportunity.  My time with those kids was precious.  I loved them all like they were my own.  Even though I am in a different season in my life right now, I hope that I can continue to be a light for God and be used by Him.

 Don't ever think that God can't use you.  If He can use me, He can use anyone.  He doesn't need your talents or abilities.  He needs your commitment and your time.  He needs for you to have a desire to follow Him.  If you have the desire, He will provide the rest. 

I hope leading someone to Christ is on everyone's bucket list.  Think of how great it would be if we all reached just one person for God.  He can use you and He will if you are willing.  Don't let your past or your shortcomings stand in the way.  God has the power to overcome them.

My Ultimate Bucket List

Everybody seems to have a bucket list these days.  They pin things they want to do to Pinterest boards and post them to Facebook and Twitter, but how many people actually do those things?  There are lots of reasons why they don't get done.  Money, time, responsibilities...  But those things must be important to people, right?  Why else would they make it onto a list of the most important things that person wants to do before he or she dies?

Here's my ultimate bucket list - 100 things that I want to do in this life.  The items on this list range from silly little wishes to major life goals.  I'm sharing my list here, and I will come back to this post and cross these things off as I do them...  What would make it onto your bucket list?

1.  Get a college degree
2.  Go to a game at every MLB stadium
3.  See Peyton Manning play football in person
4.  Have an article published in a magazine
5.  Lead a person to Christ
6.  Have a guy sweep me off my feet
7.  Dance with my Daddy at my wedding
8.  Visit every state in the US
9.  Learn to make homemade bread
10.  Learn to play golf
11.  Write a novel
12.  Have my own house/apartment
13.  Go to an Alabama/Auburn game in Tuscaloosa
14.  Go to an Alabama/Tennessee game in Tennessee
15.  Spend a summer working as a mascot for a baseball team (MLB or Minor League)
16.  Take a group of kids on a mission trip
17.  Build a house with Habitat for Humanity
18.  Run a 5k
19.  Own a pair of real diamond earrings
20.  Go to Italy
21.  Go to Germany and do the Grimm's Fairytale Tour
22.  See Westminster Abbey
23.  Go to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City
24.  See a play on Broadway
25.  See Romeo and Juliet (preferably at Shakespeare's Globe in London, but any live play will do)
26.  Get really dressed up and go out dancing at a really fancy, piano lounge type place
27.  Support a child through Compassion International or World Vision
28.  Kill my first deer (I've been hunting with my grandfather since I was little, but I've never killed one)
29.  Learn to sew
30.  Go to a wine tasting
31.  Go eat at some of the places Guy has visited on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives (like The Shed in Ocean Springs, MS)
32.  Write a cookbook (even if it's just for my family and never gets published)
33.  Watch all the Star Wars movies
34.  Read all the Harry Potter books
35.  Take a fun art class (photography or painting, maybe?)
36.  Go to a rodeo
37.  Have my own child/children
38.  Host a big family dinner at my own house (like Thanksgiving or Christmas)
39.  Coach little league baseball with my husband
40.  Be kissed in the rain
41.  Make a difference in someone's life
42.  Go to Vegas
43.  Read through the entire Bible
44.  See the Grand Canyon
45.  Drive through a giant redwood tree in California
46.  Learn to make Aunt Sarah's fruit cobblers
47.  Start my own family tradition (like counting down to Christmas by reading a different book each night or something)
48.  Learn to play the piano
49.  Go ice skating
50.  Get snowed in at a cabin in the mountains
51.  Be healthy/happy with my body
52.  Cook a beer can chicken (I have always wanted to try this.  I have no idea why.)
53.  Eat at Paula Deen's restaurant in Savannah, GA
54.  Eat at Bobby Flay's Burger Palace in New York
55.  Go deep sea fishing
56.  Milk a cow  (Another thing I have always wanted to do, for some unknown reason.)
57.  Learn to play pool
58.  Master making my grandmother's biscuits
59.  See the Red Sox play the Yankees at Fenway Park
60.  Go to Mardi Gras in New Orleans
61.  Go to Passion in Atlanta
62.  Teach a creative writing class
63.  Make and decorate a wedding cake for somebody
64.  Spend way too much money on a Michael Kors bag
65.  Get a full body massage
66.  Completely spoil my future nieces and nephews
67.  Actually print out and scrapbook the pictures from a big event instead of just leaving them on the computer
68.  Find an amazing antique piece of furniture at a flea market or yard sale and refinish it
69.  Go to an opera
70.  Meet one of my favorite anons from Twitter
71.  Have a house with a pool in the backyard
72.  Go to Dickens Downtown in Northport
73.  Go to the Kentuck Arts Festival
74.  Go to Canton Flea Market
75.  Play paintball
76.  Go to Hollywood
77.  Learn to surf
78.  Go skinny dipping
79.  Run the Color Run
80.  Ride on a train
81.  Visit the White House
82.  Go to a Drive In Movie
83.  Kiss under mistletoe
84.  Build a treehouse with/for my kids
85.  Learn ballroom dancing
86.  Pay for a stranger's dinner
87.  See the Northern Lights
88.  Go on a carriage ride in Central Park
89.  Go to the Museum of Modern Art
90.  Take my kids to Disney World
91.  Fly first class
92.  Visit Loch Ness in Scotland and look for the Loch Ness Monster 
93.  Go to Casa de Giulietta in Verona and leave a letter for Juliet
94.  Go to the Sam Adams brewery in Boston
95.  Share a romantic picnic with the guy I love
96.  Make a time capsule (maybe with one of my classes once I start teaching?)
97.  Go on a date and order dessert first
98.  See a World Series Game
99.  Sing karaoke with friends
100.  Go to the Blue Bird Cafe in Nashville

I realized a few days after writing this that I left off one very important thing, so I am adding one more...

101.  See the September 11th Memorial in NYC