Jim and Elaine's Georgia Experiment

The Plan

Our plan was to setup a second home in Carrollton Georgia to be with our three children (Jason, Alison, and Cameron)and their families. We plan to live here for approximately six months...up to Allan's BYU graduation in Economics and Business Management in April.

Travel To Georgia

We started our trip to Georgia on the September 2, 2008. There was a lot of packing for our six-month stay in Georgia. We crammed all we could into our QX-56 plus a car top carrier. Our plan was to take our time and enjoy our beautiful country and visit friends and family.

The following are the places and people we visited on our travels:

1) We visited Carla Miller in Mesa Arizona for a few days and went through a session in the Mesa Temple. Carla has a very nice condo and she is enjoying Mesa.

2) We also visited my nephew Jeff and Mary Catherine Biddle and their lovely children. Had a lovely lunch with their family at a local restaurant. Jeff and Mary C are building up Jeff's Law Practice in Family Law.

3) Drove to Sedona and took a 4 hour railroad trip up a beautiful canyon in the Mesa State Park. We just loved it. We stayed overnight in a local hotel.

4) We then toured the City of Sedona. This is such a beautiful city in the middle of a State Forest Park with beautiful mountains and huge boulders. The homes are very expensive adobe homes.

5) Next we traveled for about 5 hours to Albuquerque New Mexico. This is where the Kent Humphery's family lived for several years before moving to Santa Barbara.

6) We then traveled for about 6 hours to Amarillo Texas and attended Church on Sunday.

7) Our next stop was to Elaine's sister Lesley's home in Kiefer Oklahoma. We stayed there for two days then traveled for 6 hours to Branson Missouri with Lesley and her two daughters with their families.

8) Branson Missouri Stay: We stayed in Branson for five days in a very nice time share hotel. This is a very nice town that has several entertainment events each and every day and evening. The shows which we saw: a) Ripley's Believe It Or Not b) Dutton's Variety Show (A Mormon Family) which was excellent c) Family Celebrity Entertainers (Tina Turner, Elvis Presley, Lisa Minnelli, George Strait) d) Shepherd in the Hills which showed life in Georgia in the 1800's. Very Good! e) To conclude our trip we went on a River Paddle Boat named the "The Branson Belle". The dinner and show on this boat was the highlight of our trip. The men went to an antique car show while the girls did some shopping.

It was so nice to spend time with Elaine's sister's family and Elaine's Mother. Their family is a very nice Christian family. We had not seen Elaine's family for years.

9) Elaine and I then traveled about four hours to Memphis Tennessee to visit Graceland and learn more about Elvis Presley and his family. He has a very lovely home that had a very comfortable feel to it. You got the sense that Elvis was a very generous man that loved his family and friends. He could not handle fame and died from too many drugs in his system. It was amazing to us how many trophies and record sales he had received over the years. He died at the young age of 42 years old. We stayed in Memphis for two days.

10) We concluded our trip by traveling 7 hours to our destination of Carrollton Georgia.


Arrival To Our Rental Home in Villa Rica Georgia

Prior to our trip, we rented a home from a member of the church in a gated lake community named "Fairfield Plantation". When we got to our home we found a great big sign on the front door welcoming Grandma and Grandpa to Georgia. Our children had moved some of their old furniture into our home along with several things we had purchased for the home months before. It was so nice to see how the family had worked to get us setup.

Decorating and Furnishing Our Georgia Home

Elaine and I have enjoyed purchasing furniture and decorating our home. We have a beautiful small three bedroom two bath home on a 3/4 acre wooded lot. Our children have given us many household items to help us become comfortable with our new surroundings. We enjoy the squirrels, birds, and beautiful tall trees. It is a blessing for us to live in a gated community with two lakes and a golf course. It truly is "A Great Life".

Georgia Family Events

1) Halloween - All the Georgia grandchildren when trick or treating together in the Oak Mountain Golf neighborhood. We had so much fun driving around in golf carts to all the homes for a couple of hours. Each kid got about 5 pounds of candy.

2) Volleyball For Adults - All of our children played either high school or college volleyball. Our children organized a Carrollton Ward Volleyball Team to compete in the city league. They won the championship by defeating about 10 different teams. They only lost one game the whole year. After each match, they organized a pickup game in which I had the opportunity to play. I had a great time playing with my children.

3) Thanksgiving - We were very blessed to have all our family for Thanksgiving with the exception of Colleen. We had so much fun for a solid week playing games, going to movies, and enjoying many dinners together. Our Thanksgiving meal was at the Carrollton Ward Building. We had a great meal, games, and picture taking.

3) Birthday Party - We celebrated all Curtis children's December birthday's at the park. Hours of fun!

4) Game Night At Jim & Elaines - During the Thanksgiving holiday weekend we had a game night at our house.

Christmas at the Curtis Family in West Virgina

Elaine and I had a delightful two weeks at the Curtis home over the Christmas holiday. Some of the activities were Michael's ice hockey games, family ice skating, WV College Basketball Game with Reagan, Pool Game With Reagan, attend Michael's school Christmas program, played in the snow at the park, and enjoyed several rental movies. Christmas day was so much fun with the kids. Colleen was with us for most of our trip in WV.

Michael's Baptism

A big highlight of our trip was Michael's baptism. There was a very large turnout for Michael's baptism. The Bishop, Primary President, Family, and many friends attended. Reagan performed the ordinances; Sharleen gave a talk on Baptism and I talked about the Holy Ghost. It was a very beautiful spiritual day.

Dreams For The Future

We really enjoy living in Georgia and wish the entire Mount Clan could live in the same town. Of course this is impossible. With a large portion of our family living in Georgia, Elaine and I would one day like to own a lake front home with a pontoon boat and water ski boat to entertain our family.