.htaccess rewrite code to ignore directories even with RewriteEngine On

Hi guys, I feel silly asking this question, because I know I found the solution a year or so ago, but now I am at a loss and am hoping someone out there remembers the work-around for this. I have “RewriteEngine On” in my .htaccess file via WordPress to redirect files/folders into the special date format that most people use. However there are some directories that are in the same/main folder of my blog that I want to be ignored from the RewriteEngine rules. Do you guys remember how to do this?