• Life

    Celebrating Independence Day 2025

    In our corner of Alabama, my in-laws’ Fourth of July party is a biennial celebration complete with fireworks, laughter, and enough food to feed a marching band. But this year, we kicked things off the day before with a brand-new tradition: making the homemade ice cream ourselves. Usually, the churn duty falls to the seasoned pros in the family—but this time, we rolled up our sleeves and took the reins (and the rock salt). We arrived around noon, the house already buzzing with my nieces and nephews and some of their friends darting in and out. The charcuterie boards were…

  • Travel

    Fun times in the North Georgia Mountains

    Sunday we headed out to the Track Rock Gap Archaeological Area to see petroglyphs made by Native Americans. Most of them were so weather-warn you could hardly make out the shapes, but I just stood there closed my eyes and imagined the Natives pounding away at the rocks to make those carvings. Amazing! We left there and drove over to the John C. Campbell Folk School, which is a school that allows a non-competitive, adult learning community offering classes in art, cooking, craft, dance, gardening, music, etc. that vary in length.

  • Travel

    Another fun day in the Georgia Mountains

    Saturday was kind of a lazy day, much to Rob’s chagrin. He and my FIL, David, ended up going to the store for steaks and also to check out a couple spots. After they got back we ate lunch and decided to go tubing at Pappy’s. Every time we left the cabin, we passed this place and it piqued our curiosity. It was like $6 for an hour of tubing, but it ended up being nearly 2 hours on the river. Really great for the money! Then, when we got done tubing we walked around Pappy’s. There’s a general store…

  • Travel

    Fishing, Young Harris, and Lake Chatuge

    Friday we got up, had a quick breakfast, and headed out to see if we could get any fish to bite. Since we needed to find out a good place to fish and get some bait, so we stopped at Paradise Bait and Tackle. We saw signs for it as we drove toward the river. Turned out to be a little building on someone’s property. My MIL had to use to restroom, so the man called up his Mama and asked, “are you dressed? cuz I gots a young lady customer who needs to use the facilities.” There were several…

  • Travel

    Helton Creek Falls/Dukes Creek Falls

    Day 2 started with some homemade waffles and jambalaya quiche and some web surfing while surrounded in the beauty of the mountains. Soon after, we threw on our swimsuits and hiking boots and headed to Helton Creek Falls Daisy usually travels in a travel crate, but with 8 people in the Pilot, there’s was no room for her crate. All the pics shown on this post are of the upper falls at Helton Creek. On the way back to the cabin for lunch. Quick dip in the hottub. After lunch, several of us decided to hike at Dukes Creek Falls.…

  • Life

    The Wells Family

    Here’s the entire Wells family (minus my 2 brothers on that side of the family). We ate at Joe T. Garcia’s after leaving Grandmother’s visitation at the funeral home. Joe T’s is my Uncle Guy’s favorite place to eat, but it’s been years since I’ve been. It’s an amazing place. Beautiful scenery, fountains, greenery. Highly recommended. More pics coming soon.