Big News!! (I'm not Preggers in case that's what you think i mean by Big News)

So Olivia IS officially a crawler. She stared on Tuesday night, but we kinda pretended like it never happened so as not to jinx it. It's really slow and methodical and SOOOO cute! Marcus being the ever faithful coach/cheer section would chant "Livy, Livy, Livy" and she would rock back and forth with her hands in the air in a kinda victory dance. It would have been fine with me if she waited longer-cuz I know she's going to be getting into everything now-but Marcus has been very excited for this next step. He kept crawling around her to show her how, she just laughed at him like he was a crazy, and then he has been doing the Livy chant.
Whenever he comes home she is euphoric with excitement. He can get her laughing so hard that she is almost falling over, and tears streaming down her face (not an exaggeration, she literally will laugh so hard she cries). I try not to get bent out of shape about it, b/c it is seriously cute. I can make her laugh and we have cute times together, but me making her laugh is nothing compared to the party her and Marcus have together. when I make her laugh it will be for like a minute and Marcus gets her going for like 5 min. But seriously I'm glad they get to have that special time together. I get to see a lot of special things with her all day, and sometimes Marcus gets frustrated he can't be here for more of it. So when they do spend time together she is completely enchanted, it's really good for both of them. Plus she see's me ALL DAY LONG-I bet a change of personnel is fun for her. Like right now he is giving her a bath and I keep hearing uncontrollable mirth with intermittent squealing echoing down the hall, gotta run so I can watch some of it!

Way to be Neighborly

Olivia wouldn't take her morning nap, so we decided to go for a walk. We left our house on Everson Goshen and headed down Central. Sometimes we go down to the end of central, but there are a lot of dogs that bark (they are all fenced in so it's not scary or anything, just annoying). Every once in a while we turn by Butch and Patsy's to go down this dirt road that heads back almost to Fazon Lake. It's nice down there and no dogs! Plus it's nice to mix it up with different scenery. Now this road takes like 10 min to walk to the end of and gives access to like 7 or so acre plots, two of which are Butch and Patsy's-she gave me the idea to walk down there. The first house has started construction and I can see it straight across the pasture from our house. (This means lots of noise with the trucks dumping things and hammering).
So we are walking past the construction house (by we I mean Olivia in baby bjorn and our shitzu Lady) and this lady is walking down the driveway to us. The house is set back from the access road, it's not like I was walking right by her house or anything, here's the following conversation:
HER: What are you doing?
ME: Going on a walk (I thought that would have been obvious in my tennis shoes and work out clothes) I live right across the way, you can see my house..see?? (I'm pointing across the way)
HER: Well this is private property, you can't just walk back here. Especially during the construction phase we don't want just anybody back here while we aren't here to keep an eye on things.
Now I know I must have been very intimidating. My dog had on a bright hot pink collar and leash. Olivia was decked out in her cute pink hoodie, sucking her bright pink binkie and gooing at Lady. Meanwhile Lady is wagging her tail and laying down on the ground belling up for Ms Crank to pet her. I'm very impressed with her at this point for uncovering my plot to steal an air compressor and graffiti her house with the can of spray paint I have tucked in between my belly and Olivia.
ME: trying to be nice Well I didn't know I wasn't allowed (thinking in my head-her property might be off limits but this road isn't. After 900 feet a road is no longer private, it is a county road, therefore open to all including Mom's walking their babies and dogs. I know the 900 feet thing from our home construction). I'm just that green house right there pointing again we are practically neighbors and just thought I'd see how the construction was going, sorry.
HER: ignoring the fact I am still pointing behind her Well just don't come back here again, my parents will be building back here too and I KNOW they don't want just anybody back here. I just looked up and saw you and it startled me and I was like "holy cow where did she come from".
At this point I'm amazed she had no idea where I came from, there are houses everywhere, I guess my appearance was so alarming she must have thought I just materialized out of thin air
ME: Well you can get here from central, which was where I was on my walk, sorry again (I didn't want to fight with here about the legality of me being allowed to go on a walk, I'm still trying to be nice but getting annoyed and trying to back away, but she just won't stop!)
HER: Well it is private property
ME: OKAY!! Sheesh I get it!! (Kinda being rude-oops!)

Now I kinda pride myself on being a good neighbor. My two neighbors across the way love us, they leave us treats on our mailbox, we always talk when we run into each other in the grocery store. I had every intention of bringing her some cookies when they were all moved in beings how we have straight shot views of each others houses, but now I just feel like being "screw you", except in a Christian friendly neighborly way. I am determined to not have her hate me though (I know from experience what having a bad neighbor experience can do to you) so I might still bring her some goodies, maybe. Heavenly Father must be trying to teach me patience, and anger management, and turning the other check, not being hateful, smiling in the face of adversity, setting a good example to our offspring (which I was until the end), and forgiveness. It just sucks when it's a beautiful day and your in a good mood and then someone just dumps all over it. So in a effort to calm down, I put Olivia down for her nap. I made some cocoa, settled into my comfy couch, picked up my new book to read (thanks Kaitlyn). Then I took I calming breath and looked out my big gorgeous picture window to take in the view of Mt Baker, which is directly above the new construction house over the pasture. Maybe I'll have to try practicing all the good, Christian attributes tomorrow.

For Santaija

So my sister sent us a whole bunch of clothes when Olivia was first born, and I kept forgetting to get her the pictures of her in some of them. She checks this blog so I thought I would post some older pictures of Olivia in some of her cute clothes from her Auntie! The yoga pants in the first picture were my fav item of all time. I kept her in them until they were high waters on her. I've tried to find more of them so I can get them in bigger sizes to no avail. They were just the cutest looking pants ever!

So on a side note we were playing games with the Trevor and Kaitlyn last night and I am proud to say that I won @ phase 10. To some of you this might seem like a small feat, but for me it was ginormous. You see I am forever loosing, game of choice is usually Settlers of Catan. Not by choice-I really try to win and the only excuse I think I have is that I'm just not that good, not that I suck, the games are usually pretty close. There are times I come close, but I'm pretty sure I only won once in Catan once like 3 months ago. (I have won playing against other people, Trevor and Kaitlyn are just hardcore good). Normally I accept my defeat graciously, once in a while I get upset (can you blame me?? Week after week of getting my trash kicked!). One time I was so close to winning and out of nowhere Trevor (who prior to this was bringing up the rear) worked some crazy magic and won. This was not one of my gracious defeats-I kinda freaked-okay REALLY freaked. I was so close to victory I could taste it and then HE whips me! Ashamedly I through the tensiest TANTRUM, which to this day we call "going Catan". IE: "Wow- you really went Catan on that one!" or "Way to throw a Catan!". Needless to say I was pretty excited about my victory last night. That should be able to last me another few months until I can wrangle another win in.

FACT: The Office is BaCk Sept 25th!!

Oh how I missed you so!! I am so excited for the new season to start I can hardly stand it!! We have been DVR-ing the re runs on TBS and saving them (currently taking up 46% of the space on my DVR, I think it's like 45 episodes). We normally ending up watching one a night (which only takes like 15 min when you can fast forward through the commercials!). Marcus kept trying to get me to watch it and I didn't think I would like it, but after like 3 episodes I was HOOKED!! It is so hilarious and I still laugh at the reruns. It was much funnier when I went to the beginning and watch all of the older ones.
I love these two together! It's my secret wish that they will end up together in real life, the Casino Night is one of my favorite episodes!
"It's a real shame because studies have shown that more information gets passed through water cooler gossip than through official memos. Which puts me at a disadvantage, because I bring my own water to work. "

"Welcome to the 8th annual Dundees awards. Before we start, a few announcements. Keep your acceptance speeches short. I have wrap-it-up music and I’m not afraid to use it. "


"So you got the fax. So why didn’t you add it to the resume? What do you mean? Of course martial arts training is relevant. Oh excuse me! I know about a billion Asians that would beg to differ. Uh, yeah I get a little frustrated when I’m dealing with incompetence. Well you know what? You can go to hell too, and I’ll see you there, burning! Fine…oh wait, so you’ll let me know when you’ve made a decision? "

FACT: Dwight K. Shrute is my hErO!!

Last Week They had some of the original episode's of The Office on BBC America, and they too are hilarious!! I've only seen three but I might have to rent and watch all of these too!

So basically I can't wait for the new season to start and am counting down the days until I get my Office FiX!

FACT: I am "The Office" No.1 FAN

It's Heritage Time!!

This....Plus this....Equals THIS!!!!
So my dad is Cree Indian (Saskatchewan Cree, of the Big Bear Tribe, to be precise) with a little french mixed in and my mom is French. So I guess combine the two and you get a curly haired girl that could pass as Greek, Jewish, German etc. My younger sister Santaija looks the most Indian, darker skin that tans very quickly. She also has amazingly thick, gorgeous hair. She could totally be one of those native people in the movies with hair down to her bum (it's actually almost that long now!). When we were younger she always looked like the little native girl-so cute. I'm kinda the in between one and then Myriah is more fair skinned with lighter hair (when she was little it was blond, when she's in the sun it really lightens up!). Well now you know what it took to make me!! I'd be interested to know everyone else's background-let me know in the comments please ;)

We're Back!

So we just spent the week at the Potrie Family Reunion. My family from the Motherland. It was such a blast!! I will post pic's later, haven't had time to download them yet. We ended up coming back a day earlier than scheduled, a lot of people were sick. Some of the younger cousins were finishing up being sick when they got there and then it kinda flew through the group. A lot of people were hit with "rumbly tumbly" as I like to call it. Quite a few of us had almost all night vigil's at the restroom, or were frequently leaving the room to "look at the scenery". I did figure out that I can eat raw garlic, as long as it was diced up on some toast. My family are all about natural healing and my uncle Dan (one of the unfortunate souls making trips to the loo) told about how raw garlic really helps get rid of yucky bacteria you might have in your system. I was pretty sick of being bloat-city so I sucked it up and tried it. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE GARLIC, but more like cooked, not raw. Dan said if you spread it over buttered toast it takes some of the sting out of it. The only garlic we had was my Grandpa's elephant garlic which I found out later is off the charts hot, the upside being since then any garlic I've had pales in comparison to the fire-fest in my mouth from that first sample. But it wasn't too bad, I liked it after I regained my sense of taste back and my ears stopped sweating. It worked so great- my stomach settled right down that night and I was even starting to get a cold and that completely backed off. I made sure to take a couple of doses over the next day, the heat is kinda like hot salsa, you get used to it. Luckily enough of us were eating garlic that we all hung out so we wouldn't stink anybody out. That garlic like sweats through your pores, a lot of people already think I may be Greek (curly hair, robust nose) and add that smell to it and boom, My Big Fat Family Reunion!! (I am not Greek, in case wondering, although I love Greek food--hello feta-- so it would have been a good fit if I was born into that kind of circumstance). After all this stink talk you would think the Reunion was lammo, that was just a small ripe part of it.

The reunion was a couple extra days longer than the usual, which was so great b/c we had more time to just talk and hang out by the campfire instead of sticking to a set schedule. Instead of a talent show we did a Roadshow, with all the topics being stories from when the aunt's and uncle's were little. The result was comedic genius!! Each sibling was in charge of their own skit and theme, and everyone remembers different stories differently so it was so funny to hear everyone Else's point of view. Some of the themes were: fave family dinner, fave FHE, fave hunting story, fave bear story. We had fave family dinner and my MOM did a variation of the Potrie Party Palace were Marcus and I were playing the romantic couple dining out. My mom was the waiter and she ended up doing a cross between a french/spanish accent "oui, oui, madame--fetch their food ondele, ondele--ci, ci" our menus were in code "chokum-bum=slice of cheese, loggers special=toothpick, mellow yellow=mustard" so we kept getting these ridiculous combinations on our plates that my mom made ahead of time. All the while we are getting sick of the lack of food, right when we are about to leave my mom AKA frenchy/mexico waiter insists we get take out, she rushes out with a cloth grocery bag with Olivia peeping out of the top in which case we exclaim "EXACTLY WHAT WE WANTED!" I was very impressed with mom-mad skills in thinking up our skit, it was so fun!!

The auction was the most successful one I have ever bid in. Everyone has to pay for the camping, so to make it more fun everyone brings homemade items of fun that we bid on and the money goes to the camp. So you get to leave with a fun trinket, your paying the money anyway. I scored some awesome matching mom and daughter aprons (the smaller apron won't fit Olivia for while yet) made by aunt Laura. Then I also scored a Christmas book made by cousin Jackeileen which has a special story for everyday leading up to Xmas. One of these books were in the last auction and I got out bid, so I was so happy to get both the things I wanted!! They also had a silent auction which was new, they are trying to downsize some stuff at Grandma and Grandpa's. Instead of Goodwilling it they brought it to the Reunion for silent auction bidding. I got some old story books, another mini apron handmade by either Grandma Potrie or Grandma Zimmerman. The most precious being one of Grandma P's old edition Hymnals. In the old edition they have the Hymn "Come thou Fount" which for some reason is excluded from the hymnals' we have today. It is very well preserved and it felt so good to leaf through it's slightly yellowed pages. I've been playing hymns out of it every chance I get.

We played many ridiculous games by the fire, talked and laughed til it hurt. I was so glad we went!! Pictures to follow soon!!

PS- can anyone guess my ethnic heritage?? I'll give you a clue--I'm not Greek, as aforementioned, nor am I Jewish (another very common guess). If you already know, please keep quiet so as not to give it away. Guess on the comments!! Your reward will be the supreme awesomeness of knowing you are queen of ethnicityness!!