October

October is a favorite month of mine, as fall comes to the northwest with brilliant colors & sunshine-filled days. Warm drinks & pumpkins, cozy boots with skirts & tights, chilly mornings with chimney smoke, mums & cabbages & bright leaves in every hue. I love it all. Right now, as I write this, the wind has picked up & is swirling leaves across the ground, tossing them up to a stone grey sky. Since taking my job with Heifer, this season is also one of the busiest as we participate in the Combined Federal Campaign & gear up for holiday giving & events. This October was even busier than most with multiple events surrounding the visit of Heifer's West Africa Regional Director, as well as trips to California & Little Rock. During all this Levi was also attempting to give reviews to 25 employees.
On October 2nd, exactly one month before her 93rd birthday, my Grandma Mary passed away. Within a week, the Winston/Whetstone family flew in from Anchorage, DC, Santa Fe & Oregon to celebrate & remember G'ma. I will share more about this in a separate post.

For now, some photos of October events.

California -- a lovely time at Hidden Villa, making plans, carving pumpkins, hosting volunteers, hiking in the hills & remembering that I have amazing colleagues (even if I only get to see them twice a year).

Then I got sick of my hair & chopped it all off. Fortunately a friend on Facebook posted about donating hers to Pantene's PonyUp program & gave me the idea to donate 8" of my hair to help provide wigs for women fighting cancer. Win-win.

  Mid-October included a week of hosting Rashid Sesay, Heifer's West Africa Regional Director, in Seattle. Five presentations, including a dinner & a much coveted invitation to the Microsoft campus. Rashid is currently very busy working on a multi-million program proposal for the drought & famine stricken Sahel region of West Africa. It's an amazing project that will reach across four countries and provide new techniques for land & animal management to slow down the desertification that affects the region.

Our nephew Myles' first birthday!

PEPS (Program for Early Parent Support) babies' birthday party.

A whirlwind 48 hour trip to Little Rock -- a dear friend's wedding, a couple meetings at good 'ol HQ, & much needed silliness & snuggles with Catherine.

Pumpkin Patch outing with PEPS friends!

More to come soon about October...