Home Is Where The Heart Is.

As I mentioned at the beginning of the week, I recently came to the realization that we have a new house that really is yearning to be made “our home”. I must admit that I’ve been a little scared to become attached to this new house, because the idea of another move is always at the back of our mind, especially with Earl’s career on the move as it is. He’s eventually going to be promoted again, and it’s probably going to entail a relocation. It’s a prospect that I’m very excited about, however, it does make me a little hesitant to become attached to the wonderful house that we live in.

Now I just say, “screw it”.

This week I began the project of installing my collection of school clocks. The installation project has gone well, and I have around half of my clocks installed and fully functional. Just in time for daylight savings time tonight. I’m going to work on the more difficult-to-install clocks this week while Earl is in Ohio. Let’s see how well I do installing wire in walls stuffed with insulation!

We had a little “spring fling” dinner this evening, having my mom and my sister, my aunt and uncle and my cousin and my aunt’s mother and her husband over for dinner this evening. It was so nice to get together. It’s always an enjoyable time, and we laughed and laughed and laughed. The sound of laughter and the obvious feelings of family love definitely made our house feel like home this evening.

Prepping for the party yesterday, Earl went to the brand new Linens and Things and picked up some new decorations for the great room and formal living room. We’re going to do a little more shopping tomorrow during the day – I’m trying to convince Earl to go antiquing, but I don’t think that he’s in the mood to do so. I think it’d be fun. We’ll just have to see what tomorrow brings.

Earl and I, along with my sister, my mom and her dog went to get family portraits taken today as well. So we got all dressed up and headed to The Picture Place to spend the gift certificate that we had given my Mom for Christmas and had some really nice pictures taken. The cool thing about The Picture Place is that you get your pictures an hour after their taken… so we were able to bring them home with us. I’m going to scan them in tomorrow and share them. They came out really, really well. At Earl’s request, I went clean shaven for the pictures (save for my ever present soul patch), so if you’re keeping track, please mark the appropriate spot on your J.P. facial hair score card.

And lastly, I’m starting to get really jazzed about my trip to Iowa in 1 1/2 weeks for computer training. I can not wait to take the drive. I must admit that I am a little sad because I’m going to do the 18-hour in each direction trip alone (as I always road trip with Earl as my co-pilot), but I really like the thought of the drive and the opportunity to meet other individuals that have the same sort of job that I do.