O.T.P.A Spelling Bee

WAY TO GO MAC!!!
We are SO proud of you!
It takes a lot of guts and nerve to compete in front of your entire school!
You did TERRIFIC!

Mac competed in his first Spelling Bee Competition today and he made it all the way to the
TOP 7th position before misspelling a word!!
It was a tough one too- "Laborious". He only missed it by one letter.
He was a great competitor and did an outstanding job. We are also very proud of him for being such a great sport when it was time to "step-out" after he spelled the word incorrectly.
Lilly was more upset than he was- She had big tears in her eyes and said, "But I want Mac to win!" It was pretty darn cute.
I think we will make a trip to TCBY tomorrow to celebrate!

LoVe NoTeS

Lately I have been finding little love "notes" all over the house from sweet Lilly Belle. They have been popping up every where...the one above was on Henry's bed, the one below was on Mac's bedroom door.

This one was in our room.
I found a total of 17 love letters today. Each one made me SMILE (:
I better remember to buy some more post-it notes this week!

Snow and Ice Bloopers

Nonna sent this video to me. It's titled "Why we go South for the Winter". I thought it was worth sharing. I can totally relate. We saw two cars slide off the road yesterday morning on our way to school. The kids were laughing. It was a good thing nobody was injured.
Have a good day!

You & Me

This post is for my guy, my husband, partner and best friend.

I think of you when I hear the lyrics to this song.
I am carrying this song with me today in my heart, for we can do anything...just as the song says. We have had a very challenging and sad few months. We both have had to say goodbye to our Fathers, which is extremely difficult to do and the fact that they both passed away so close together in time is just really insane. It has been difficult for our little family- to say in the least. It's hard to "hold" us all up when we are both truly hurting. You have done an amazing job. I appreciate and love you with all I have. Thank you for all your love, strength and calmness. Thank you for reminding me that it's OK and GOOD to laugh/live again after an unspeakable loss.
You have showed me that JOY will wind it’s way around scars that will never un-knot within us – like smiling ivy warming tree roots.
I am so blessed to have you by my side.
Love You (:

So Pleased With Himself...

Another "Griff Mess" happened in The Potter Household today.
This kid keeps me going all the time!

I was busy packing everyone up for the next few days. All 3 kids are going to different places to stay while Pat and I go to the Eugene area to bury Uncle Albert this weekend. I had just packed Griff's "food/snack bag" for Momma B's house and proceeded to head upstairs to do some more packing. Well, I must have left the bag just close enough to the edge of the counter for his lil' fingers to grab it. When I came back down the stairs, he was happily devouring every single item in it...even the raw mac-and-cheese pasta noodles! He was SO pleased with himself. It didn't matter to him in the least that he had spread his snacks all over Henry's dog bed. Who knows what all is on that thing...dog hair, dirt, etc. Yuck-o!

I let him finish his feast and then attempted to have him help me clean it all up!

I wish Momma B the best of luck with him this weekend (:
Also, thanks Izer's and Robinson's for watching over our other angels while we are away.
I also want to wish all my Romp-to-Stomp pals a great, fun, safe and successful race this weekend. I wish I was there with you all. Kick some Butt!!!

The New Year...

The start of the year according to the Gregorian Calendar - Not mine.

Here are a few thoughts I have on 'New Year's Resolutions" ...again, just my thoughts and opinions. After all, this is my blog.

I usually do not make Resolutions like a lot of people I know because most of them never make it longer than a few months! So why make resolutions, when you're just going to break them. Why not make yourself this single promise instead:
To live life.
Your life, and not anyone Else's. Make it a good life, a life you want, a life that makes you happy, a life you are proud of...and remember to help others a long your journey.

Don't promise yourself you'll join a gym you won't go to, don't promise yourself you'll save money you haven't got.

Promise to live your life. That way, when you reflect on what life you want to have, you'll reconsider the extra-fudge brownie, for two reasons: you'll have saved twice over. Once for the $2.75 that could have gone to gas money or groceries, and twice for the 275 calories you didn't eat.

I've been trying to make an active lifestyle change. Not for the new year, not even for my family, but for me. For the fact that I want to live properly. I want to be healthy, and that's not coming from a gym membership. That's coming from the little choices I make that will inevitably make differences in the long term of my life.I have lots of things I think I can improve on, lots of things I have never tried. Maybe, I would learn a lot of new things about myself and hopefully set a great example, as well as teach my kids a few life lessons a long the way.

There's no doubt that a lot of these thoughts and feelings are coming from a deep sadness and hurt that I have been caring around for almost 2 months now...sounds like a while, but in the timeline of "life", 2 months is nothing or is it everything? I guess it just depends-

I know that I am a bit "lost" at the moment, but it's a necessary lost, a lost that I have been forced to experience. How I come out of it and what I learn from it- depends entirely on how I choose to handle it. This reason alone, is why I have decided to make a single promise to myself; not a New Year's Resolution.
Now don't get me wrong here, I am not knocking or putting any of you down that make a New Year's Resolution. I wish you the best of luck with it.
This is simply my first step towards- My Life Promise.

I really hate that I have to start my New Year without a few loved one's in it, especially my father. The thoughts of him that happen daily are just painful. I miss him terribly. I can't seem to find any comfort yet in our thousands of happy memories. This must be why I have put off even thinking or acknowledging that it's 2012. Yes, I know that in time- all of this will change and I will be so thankful for the thousands of memories I have of Dad.

For those of you that know me well, I am NOT the most patient person, so waiting on "time" is not the easiest thing for me. Hmmm... wonder where I got that from? Griffis' are not the most patient people. At-least, I know that I came by this one honestly-
This will be one of the many things I will work on from here on out- patience.

It seems I am rambling now, so I better close before you all come to the conclusion that I have officially "really lost it"...and the fact that Griff just woke up from his nap. Thanks for reading and know that I am attempting to get a little bit stronger each day.
Much love to you all-

Picture of the Day

Griff has a new favorite hiding spot!

Moving along...

I am making a little progress each day. There is so much to do after a person passes away. I have had a gazillion phone calls to make, VA forms to fill out, Thank You cards to write and mail, funds to move around, accounts to close, design a headstone/grave-marker...the list goes on and on. I do it all with a very heavy heart for the most part...but I have noticed that some relief comes out of it as well. I copied, faxed and mailed all the final VA papers today. It was a huge task and I am so glad to have it all done for the most part. I also finalized the design for Dad's headstone. I think it's pretty amazing and everyone will really like it. I have been off and on the phone all week with the Trooper that worked my Dad's accident/scene and also the Towing company that hauled Dad's truck away from the crash site. There are a few things missing that I have been hoping they could track down and return to us. One of them was Dad's glasses. The Tow Truck company found them yesterday and is mailing them to me! I was so glad he took the time to look for them. Some days are easier than others and I notice the kids are the same way.
We are having a service/gathering for Pat's Dad this weekend and the following weekend we will bury my Uncle Albert. Life is just really hard sometimes...it's amazing though, how we all come thru it in time. TIME is my friend right now...I need lots of TIME.
Thank you all for your continued love, support and prayers.

JJ-Jump Extreme

I took Mac and a few of his buddies to JJ-Jump to celebrate Mac's birthday. They all had a blast and burned off some energy.

Mac got all harnessed up for the Zip Swing...OFF he goes!

Lilly got to tag-a-long and had a blast too. She was the first of all of them to get harnessed up for the Zip Swing.
It's a good thing she can keep up with all the boys!

Go Lilly!

After 2 wild hours at JJ-Jump, we came back to the house for pizza and cake. It turned out to be a great party for "throwing" it all together very last minute. A huge Thank You goes out to my sweet friend, Ginnie for getting us all the passes for the day!

Even Griff thought the party was fun.

My First Born is 11...

Happy 11th Birthday Mac.

You are an amazing kid.

We think the world of you and are so blessed to be your parents.

We see you as you really are- Powerful, Sensitive, Determined and Gracious.

We see you achieving everything you choose to achieve.
You can accomplish ANYTHING!
We love you with all we have,
Mom and Dad

Chritmas 2011

Our wait to see Santa was incredibly long this year. All 3 kids did an awesome job standing in line and being patient, which totally surprised me! Griff stayed in the stroller the entire time without much complaining or attempts to break-out. As we got closer to the front of the line, I was feeling pretty good about how the meet and greet with Santa would go and even fooled myself into thinking that I might just get a decent picture this year. Ha! Joke was on me. Griff took one look at him and came UN-glued. Lilly was ticked at Griff for screaming so loud that she could hardly chat with Santa and Mac, well his face says it all.
Oh well, we tried and will try again next year!

Lilly quickly got over her frustration with Griff as soon as she found out she was going to get to ride on the train. She has loved trains since the time she began crawling. I always thought she would sort of out-grow it, but she hasn't yet. (:

We made our traditional gingerbread house too. The kids love all the frosting, candy and mess that they have free reign with for this project...

I do believe that Griff ate the most candy this year!

This was very late Christmas Eve night after Santa came and tucked everything under the tree. We waited for him to leave and then came out to just "rearrange" a few things.

Mac and Lilly were up at 4:00 am ready to rip into presents. Pat and I were SO tired and I wasn't about to wake Griff up, so we started without him. I tried holding them off until Griff woke up, but knew better. It's all about picking your battles...right? That's what I am told anyway-

Lilly was THRILLED with her new mountain bike that was from Grandpa Tex. He had bought it for her before he left and we had told him we would give it to her Christmas morning. She says that she will never, never, ever get rid of it because it's from Grandpa. Bless her heart.

Mac was THRILLED with his Gilly Suit that he got from Grandpa Tex. I know he too, will hold on to it for ever.

Griff woke up way after all the excitement happened. We had his pile of gifts for him to open and he really just wasn't all that interested. He really just wanted to play with all of Mac and Lilly's things that were all over the house. Lilly was more than happy to be his official "gift opener".

Dedication video for my Dad, Jerry M. Griffis

My cousin made this video in loving memory of my Dad. It's amazing.
Bless your heart Tana. Thanks to you all for the love and support.
I am broken, so are many others that loved him. I mend a little bit each day.
Bless you all-
Click on link below to see the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bp4TCHU6d9A&context=C340dfb6ADOEgsToPDskL4rxAVU7cQ5Lq5IzoSgXnT

I had posted it on Facebook, but am pretty sure I will have to remove it due to some copyright stuff.

Pillow Pets...

I found this short video today that I had shot of the kids in November- just 3 days before Dad left to head back home. Make sure you have your volume on. I will so cherish this now. (In the background of video) Dad is in his chair, kicked back, enjoying every second of watching his grand-babies goof around. His big, booming voice is horribly missed in this home. I still have not been able to put his chair back in the living room. We moved it when we got back from Texas to set-up our Christmas Tree. It may have to stay where it is for awhile.
Anyhow, the kids have a new use for Pillow Pets. They make great "riding pillows".
Too funny.

Trying to make sense of it all-

I am so far behind on blogging. I do have Christmas photos and Mac's birthday photos to post, but I am so far behind...I can't get started. We attempted our best for the Holidays and even had a small party for Mac's birthday. He is now 11! Growing up all too fast.
We thought some of the hard times were passing and were vowing to move on into 2012 with a positive mind set.
Got a call on the 30th that my Uncle Albert passed away early that morning. The story is tragic and it was most definitely not expected! Another blow to our already struggling emotions. Our thoughts and prayers are with Aunt Alice, their children and everyone else that loved Uncle Albert. He was always such a fun and happy guy. I will miss his stories, laughter and smile.
We will bury him this weekend, probably on my birthday and we have Grandpa Jack's service the following weekend. I know you have all kept us in your prayers for awhile now, but please keep them coming. We need them.
Love to you all-