Potter Times- it's all about faith, family & friends.: August 2012

Savoring...

I feel the inevitable end of summer creeping in on us. It makes me "almost" sad every year. I love lazy summer days, trips to the beach. I love barefootin' it... tank tops and skirts. I love wildflowers, tomatoes off the vine.....OY... time will not stand still for me, or anyone else.

Fall is so very near, I can feel it in the evening air... along with it comes school- in just ONE short week, Mac and Lilly will be off to school all day long, five days a week! We will have car-pool, home work, school functions, fundraisers, numerous sports practices and events and games every weekend...birthday parties..class parties.

Fun, Fun, Fun...Busy, Busy, Busy.

I am going to miss them and Griff is going to miss them!

We are touring a preschool/daycare center next week for Griff. He will be going there once a week. I hope it will help him with a few things by being with a group of kids his own age. He is a wild child for sure and I hope he doesn't get kicked out! LOL...I am sure it will all go fine.

Yep, lots of changes coming upon us fast...I am sure it will be a bit of adjusting for all of us. Autumn colors will begin to show and any rocky routines we face, will settle into rhythms once more.

From Daisies to Brownies

Our little Girl Scouts are growing up! I don't know where the last 2 years have gone, but they just graduated from Daisies to Brownies. Wow!

It has been such a privilege and honor to be with these girls. They are all very sweet and very kind-hearted. Alyssa and I try teach them things like; self respect, safety, independence, discovering who they are and what they value; connecting with others; and taking action to make the world a better place. We try to encourage them to always believe in themselves and that the work of today is the history of tomorrow, and we are it's makers.

Troop 45512 ROCKS!

On Sunday we had a Bridging Ceremony to honor their hard work as Daisies and "bridge" over into becoming Brownies. Parents, siblings and even Grand-Parents came to celebrate with us.

We make lots of time for "goofiness" too!

Each girl was called across the bridge where they put on their very special Brownie vests and retired their Daisy vests...

Alyssa and I both were teary-eyed as each girl came across and we hugged them.

Ta-Da!

Lilly

Courtney

Rory

Maddie

Iris

Kaylee

Introducing...Brownie Troop 45512!

We were missing one sister girl scout, but had her in our hearts and have her Brownie vest waiting for her.

We love you Ava and will see you soon!

After the bridging ceremony, we had a yummy feast!

The girls enjoyed chasing Griff around, playing in the water and playing in the park.

Alyssa and I are looking forward to another great journey with these gals!

Football Season has begun!

Yep...it's that time of year again! Mac is super excited about this season. He is also very thankful to even be having a season! If you read my following post about our Fundraiser, it will clue you in a bit on what's happening.

Anyhow, he is #83 this year. He will be playing middle line backer, receiver and tight end positions in his games. I think it is awesome that he has the chance to play that many positions throughout the season.

His first Jamboree was this last weekend. He played middle line backer and receiver. He did a great job!

He is on an outstanding team, with great players and has awesome coaches.

We are looking forward to a fun season!

GO SANDY!

Sandy Youth Football BBQ Fundraiser

Pat and I cooked and cooked all week to get ready for a BBQ fundraiser for Sandy Youth Football. Mac has played with this league for 4 years now. I have been Team Mom in the past years for his team and this year I am on the Board and am Team Mom/Parent Coordinator.

We have helped in the past with fundraising, but this year is VITAL.

We almost didn't have a season...we found out in July that a very large sum of funds was missing from our account. It's under investigation currently, so I will not make any further comments about it.

It is very frustrating and has put a lot of people under a great deal of stress and hard work.

The BBQ Fundraiser turned out great. Everything was donated by local businesses and local families. We had tons of help and volunteers for the event and people came from all over to help support SYF.

It was a great day!

Lilly pitched in and helped too...

I wish I had more pictures, but I was pretty busy...so these are all I have.

Thanks to everyone that donated and helped out!

We have more fundraisers coming up. If you would like to help our league out, please contact me!

Every little bit helps...and these boys deserve to play ball.

Enchanted Forest GS Trip

On Thursday Alyssa and I took our Girl Scout troop to The Enchanted Forest. They paid for this trip with part of their hard earned cookie money! They have been looking forward to this trip all summer.

The girls loved all the rides...

Alyssa braved The Frog Hopper. I did not...

I would have needed to pack a Depends to ride that ride after having baby #3

that weighed a whopping 10 lbs!!

We had just enough time to squeeze in a theatre performance of Cinderella.

It was awesome!

I think the water log ride was the all time favorite.

They all rode on it twice and loved getting wet!

It was a great day. The girls worked hard for it and enjoyed every second of it.

It's a blessing to have each one of them in our troop.

Newport "Get-a-way"

Last Sunday, Pat and I, made a quick one night trip to Newport without the kids! He has been working a lot lately, Traveling some for work, I am gone most evenings for football...

we each seem to just be going in opposite directions while "shuffling" all we have going on...

it was time for "US" time!

We stayed on Nye Beach. I have to say it is definitely one of my favorite beach spots on the Oregon Coast. I love the shops, the small feel of the town and beach area and the people are great too.

We left early on Sunday morning and made it back just in time for football on Monday evening.

It was great-

The weather was just PERFECT!

All the big boats are too cool!

I thought this sign was hilarious...

Pat was even able to catch up on his karate skills...LOL.

It was a great, short trip...a much needed trip.

We had to hit the ground running when we got home on Monday.

I had my Girl Scout Troop's trip to The Enchanted Forest, a Bridging Ceremony for my GS Troop...they just became Brownies!!! I also had to coordinate Sandy Youth Football picture night for all the teams...and to top it off- we were also cooking briskets all week for a SYF Fundraiser that we were running all day Friday. Pat had to work his "normal" job thru it all as well. It was one crazy week!!! We survived it and I have lots of updates to come. A big THANK YOU to Momma B for staying with the kids while we escaped for the night!

Thanks for reading!

Birthday Wishes for Momma B!

Saturday was our very Sweet Momma B's Birthday!

Momma B has a very special place in The Potter Family's life and hearts.

She is such a kind, gentle, loving and wonderful person.

She does a lot for us and we appreciate her always.

We were honored to have Her, Jim and Rosie over for a small Birthday celebration.

We enjoyed visiting, chasing Griff all over (he liked the balloons) and playing with Rosie!

She was eagerly waiting for snacks from anyone that would feed her one...

Griff was not a fan of the camera. He was trying to take it from me the whole time.

Earlier in the day Mac and Lilly went on a successful crawdad hunt. A few of them were pretty good size. Mac wanted to cook one of them and eat it.

I told him that I had never cooked one before and just wasn't sure about it.

Well, Jimbo is a crawdad expert, so he and the kids cooked one of them up...after it was cooked, it looked just like a lobster. I was surprised by this. Mac ate it up and said it was good. I "passed" on trying it, as did Lilly. I will just take their word...that it was good.