Grandpa and Grandma's Visit

So it's already been a few weeks since they've been here, but better late than never right?  We were privileged to have Russ' grandparents visit us over Father's Day weekend.  They were troopers and dealt with the heat and our busy household with grace!  It was so fun to have them here and to show them our lives here in the Lou.  We visited the Gateway Arch, went to church, out to eat, and ended the visit with seeing Hamlet at Shakespeare in the Park. Here are a few pics from their visit. 

Grandpa and Grandma at the Arch

Russ, Grandma, Grandpa, Derek and the girls walking

Looking up at the tallest monument in the country

They had a baseball exhibit in the museum downstairs...perfect for the worlds biggest baseball fan!

Pointing out Duluth, MN's minor league team on the list

Great-Grandparents with Sophie

Tori did not want her picture taken

She finally was happy to get one with her Great-Grandma!

We had so much fun and can't wait until we get to see them again!

Let's Go To the Movies!

Yesterday Tori got to see her first movie on the big screen!  We took her to see Toy Story 3, in 3D even, and it was a hit!  She enjoyed popcorn and a coke sat quietly thought the whole movie except one part where a toy monkey started screaming and leapt towards us (thanks to the 3D).  She screamed and started crying, but once I settled her down, she was fine for the rest of the movie!  It was a great movie and a great time was had by all!

Design

So I've been playing with the new design tools on blogger, but am having a little frustration!  I've reset the colors so that the background should be a teal blue, but it's coming up pink on my computer still.  Is it just my computer?  Is it coming through blue to you?  Thanks for your help!

Knick-Knacks

When we moved into our current house, it was still filled with the belongings of a woman who had lived in the house for almost 60 years. Needless to say, there was a lot of stuff. As we began taking things down, I looked around in disdain with my nose pulled up over the fact that this woman had covered her house with knick-knacks. It seemed that any open place on the wall required a tacky picture, fake flowers, mugs etc. You can some see all the nail holes in the walls as evidence.

Well, today I worked around the house quite a bit, trying to get things clean and organized, but I also pulled out my box of house decor to put a few things out. You see, up until this point I haven't had the energy or surety of our living situation to go through the effort to put pictures and knick-knacks out. We are still no closer in knowing whether or not we are staying in this house for our last year of seminary, but I decided I needed this house to feel like home, so now pictures, candles and other fun things grace the mantle, coffee tables and even some of the walls. As I was going through my stuff, I realized that just like the little old woman who lived here before us, I also have a hard time getting rid of anything that feels sentimental. Thus, I still have a lot of the decorations I had out in high school and college, some from even before that! I'm definitely feeling a little more gracious in my attitude towards the woman's decorating style. When I'm 90, my house will probably be the same way.

I need to take some pictures, but here are a few of the things I was talking about...

A ceramic bear given to me in 5th grade by my then best friend Jenna.

A ceramic jewelry box made for me by Heather sometime in Jr high or high school

A bulletin board made for me by my friend Amanda in Jr high or high school

A picture frame I made sophomore year of college that says, "4th Hill 4 Life" and contains our floor picture

And the list could go on. I am very sentimental and have a hard time letting go of these types of things, so when I'm 90, my house will be filled to the gills, especially considering my husband is the same way! :) Sorry Tori and Sophie, your work will be cut out for you someday.

Pondering

Is there ever a time you have everything figured out? When things work just the way you want to? Probably not. I've been struggling a lot lately with feeling inadequate. I think this may be a normal feeling for wives, mothers and nurses (my three main roles in life), but it's something most of us don't like to talk about. Admitting that we can't do it all, can't be all to everyone, and that we can't have everything totally together is hard. I think though, that the good moms, wives, and people in general, are those who can admit that, and deal with that admission in a healthy way.

See, I think my problem lately is that I've been expecting too much of myself, to the point that I constantly feel like a failure, which them leads to an unmotivated and grumpy Brianna. If I didn't have unrealistic expectations of myself, I'd actually come closer to meeting them! Does that make sense? What I mean is that by not thinking that I should be able to do everything and feeling like a loser when I can't, I'll actually come closer to being the person I want to be and accomplishing my goals because I'll feel good!

So how do you stop making unrealistic expectations? How do you change a way of thinking that's so ingrained you don't even realize you are doing it? How can I let go enough to be happy and satisfied in work accomplished, rather than feeling constantly disappointed with what's not done? And how do you do this while at the same time keep two babies out of trouble, fed, happy and clean?

These are my ponderings as of late...

Where the Wild Things Are

I haven't seen the movie, and I honestly don't remember the book too well, but I thought the title was applicable to the Tamm household here in the Lou. Each of us have been a little wild recently, in our own ways...

Russ is wildly busy with school and work. What else is new? He's taking a summer class that meets daily and requires quite a bit of reading, which is enough all on it's own, but in addition, he's also working 20 plus hours a week at the Alpine Shop. Needing to take advantage of every min, we often have days where our only time to see each other is in the transition of one of us leaving or going to bed. Thank God we only have one year of school left!

My crazy life hasn't changed too much, still working, still chasing babies...reading the updates on the girls will give you an idea of what that looks like! I've also added another thing to my plate, exercise! I'm actually regularly exercising right now, hoping to run a 5k mid-July! My friend Leah and I run the long runs together, and Russ and I try to do something active together on the off days.

Tori is a busy almost 2 year old who loves playing outside, eating snacks and reading books! She's talking up a storm, though I still often have to interpret her language to others. She uses new words daily and is saying phrases. She plays daily with her best friend Jude, our next door neighbor, and lately they've enjoyed the plastic pool we set up in the back yard!

Sophie has probably become the wildest of us four. She's crawling, pulling herself up and walking around furniture almost constantly! This also provides plenty of opportunity for falls, so I'm really on my toes trying to keep up with her! Soon she will be chasing her big sister! She's very jolly as usual, and often sports a big smile, showing off her 3 new teeth on top. She also enjoys the pool and is unafraid to get wet! In fact, I think she enjoys the water more than Tori!

Since we are so wild, we decided to embark on a family adventure: camping! We spent two nights at the Johnson's Shut-ins State Park, stopping at the Elephant Rock State Park along the way. We enjoyed rock climbing, swimming, sleepless nights and lots of fun exploring! We definitely think camping will be a fun family tradition, but Russ and I also look forward to camping when the girls are older and we don't have to tote them, their diapers and other gear around!

As June continues, I'm sure we'll have more adventures, but the ones we look forward to the most are a visit by Russ' grandparents, Shakespeare in the park featuring our friend from church, and new on our housing situation!

Another Shot: Where We Are Now

I've been trying to blog for over a month now, and keep finding myself stuck. Stuck without a computer. Stuck without any energy to think clearly enough to write. Or, stuck trying to figure out what to write about. Do I try to catch up on everything I've wanted to write about for the past month and a half, or do I just start where I am now and get going again? I've chosen the latter, but I will give a quick update as to where we are now.

March turned into a crazy month. My brother Tyler came for a visit during his spring break. We saw the St. Louis sights and had fun just hanging out watching The Long Way Round. Then, the morning after he left, we moved back to the extended stay hotel for the county to finish lead abatement work on our house. By the time we got back into our house, we had around 24 hours to get ready for a 10 day trip to Seattle. Our trip was wonderful! Just what we needed in this busy time of life. It was a great balance of relaxation and activity and we are so thankful for the time we had to connect with family and friends. After returning from our trip, our landlord and her family arrived to do some work around our house for a few days. The following weeks have just been attempts at catching up. Most of you know that after travels, moving in and out of the house etc you just have a lot of work to do around the house to get back into the flow of things again. I think we are finally getting there!

Now, we are heading into finals, which basically means I'll see Russ in 2 weeks. Final papers and tests take every last free min that's not spent in class or at work. We are both feeling a little discouraged and overwhelmed with this, but we've survived every other semester, I imagine we will survive this one!

Our housing situation is still up in the air. There is someone we know considering the purchase of our house, which means we would not have to move, but he has not decided yet, so we are waiting. If you think of us, pray for speedy decision making and wisdom in choosing a new place to live if we do have to move.

I think that's most everything for now. I will attempt an update on the girls soon!