Always Raney: July 2014

Here we are, 7 months later, and Violet continues to show us her spicy personality day after day. We've pretty much accepted the fact that she looks like Daddy and acts like Mommy! Her little life brings me a greater joy than I could have ever imagined. I am so grateful that the Lord entrusted her to us and that I get to be her mom!

The biggest change that happened in our family is that we moved! It went surprisingly smoothly, thanks to so much help from our friends and family! We chose the two hottest days of the summer (90+ degrees) to do most of the move, but we made it and are slowly settling into our new home. I have about half of the boxes unpacked, but thankfully most of the boxes still packed are out of sight in the basement. Looking around, I have no idea how all of this stuff fit into our old house, but somehow, it did! My wonderful niece Amanda was basically my personal assistant/nanny all week. She helped me pack, unpack, carry, load, watch Violet, and more. I could not have done it without her!

We are already enjoying our new home so much. The backyard is so beautiful and we have loved sitting on the back deck, eating, relaxing, or hanging out with friends. So far, we have painted a few rooms, and there are two areas I need to remove wallpaper and paint (that will be a project, not something I am going to tackle right now!).

Violet has been sleeping pretty well in her new nursery, especially considering how abnormal her days have been (Tim and I both took off work last week to move).

One thing I wasn't prepared for was how emotional it would be to leave my old house. The first time I stepped foot into that home, I was a 22 year old, freshly graduated, ready-for-anything young girl. 10 years later, I am not that girl anymore. So many things happened in my life in that house. As I handed the keys over to the lady that we are renting it to; I told her I hoped she would enjoy it as much as I had. Tears filled my eyes as I pulled out of the neighborhood; knowing that I would be back only to check on the house, never to live there. It was just a reminder that life is but a vapor. My years in that house seem to have happened in the blink of an eye. I am excited to move forward and make memories in our new house, but still cherish the old ones.