Back From Peru

Opening Day 2010

2010 Opening day didn't turn out well for the home town 9. 4-0 loss to the A's. M's need to find some offense fast.

2010 Mariners

RJ aka the Big Unit

A budding Superstar

An established Superstar

A fading HOF'er

Merry Christmas!

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas. We are enjoying a great day with my family in Spokane.

Advent Sharing

Above is the nativity that was always displayed at my Gowey grandparents' house during Christmastime. From a young age I remember admiring it in its corner cupboard spot, especially the lit star in the old paper creche. This will be the second Christmas without both my grandparents & my mother & her five siblings recently sorted out all of their holiday decorations to be distributed among our large family. Little did I know that this nativity set actually belonged to my mother & has now found its way to me. She received the creche & holy family from her grandparents (my great grandfather Clarence Lawton & great grandmother Harriet Eagle) when she was a little girl & each year would buy an additional figure until the set was complete. Below is a clearer photo of the nativity, now in my home. My mom told me that somewhere there is a photo of her, around 6 years old, playing by her grandparents' Christmas tree with the newly-gifted creche next to her.
Today is the third Sunday of Advent, the focus on Joy. I find joy in this family treasure handed down to me, in holding hands with my mother at church this morning & doing the advent reading together, in the lightest snowfall, in my husband making me breakfast, in my kitties curled up asleep, in so many things. We've been absent from this space for some time & have many things to share. In the coming weeks I hope to share some of my favorite photos since we took a hiatus from blogging in June, as well as some of the fun things we've been up to lately (both a 1920s & 1950s themed parties!). For now I want to share with you the words to a favorite hymn--we sang it in church a little while ago & the words have stayed with me, my hope for a joyful, peaceful world.

Abundant Life

We cannot own the sunlight sky,
The moon, the wildflowers growing,
For we are part of all that is
Within life's river flowing.
With open hands receive and share
The gifts of God's creation,
That all may have abundant life
In every earthly nation.

When bodies shiver in the night
And weary, wait for morning,
When children have no bread but tears,
And war horns sound their warning,
God calls humanity to wake,
To join in common labor,
That all may have abundant life
In oneness with their neighbor.

God calls humanity to join
As partners in creating
A future free from want or fear,
Life's goodness celebrating,
That new world beckons from afar,
Invites our shared endeavor,
That all may have abundant life
And peace endure forever.

What do you find joy in today?

JP Pond Skimming on July 4th at Baker

Baker in August

Lake Anne

Thanksgiving and all that.

We had a great Thanksgiving. Can you pick the turkey out in this picture?




The Chef, my sister, did excellent job cooking the 24 lb Tom. She also had the added excitement of getting engaged to the Turkey in the above picture.


The turkey took up the entire oven. But since it was a convection oven it cooked in an outstanding 3.5 hours.


Hailey was a big fan of the Turkey as well.

As is tradition my father carved up the giant bird.

And we all ate as much as we could for 3 straight days. Watched football and played games.

Reviving the Blog

This blog has been hibernating for nearly 6 months. Like most people we drifted off to Facebook. But I am ready to drift back. I have decided Facebook doesn't fill the roll of this blog. This blog is a living history. It is an electronic scrapbook. Facebook, for me, is a planning tool, but if used more then that it gives me a false sense of community.

So with that I plan on posting again. Sharing our life and documenting our adventures.

So what have we been doing over the last 6 months. Well quite alot. I will try to post about past adventures as well as future. However one thing to note is we have been eating some glorious food over the last 3 months. That was the time a Organic Butcher went in about a mile from work. I had forgotten how good meat can taste. I never knew how great fresh cut greens can taste. There truly is a difference.

Bill the Butcher

Changes

Earlier this week I was notified that I will still be working for Heifer International. I also learned that over 90 employees in the U.S. have been laid off or redistributed & all of our regional offices will be shut down--it was an incredibly emotional week. At some point, I hope to have the energy & articulation to express my personal feelings & experiences, but it will not be on this public space (it may be time to take Emerald Life private). In the meantime, I leave you with the message I sent out on Friday to Heifer supporters in the Pacific Northwest:

Dear Heifer supporters,

As you know, the current economic crisis has forced many non-profits to make reductions in staff in order to continue their important work. Unfortunately, Heifer is no different. This week some very difficult and painful changes were made in order to position Heifer to maintain our current projects and assist more families around the world. These changes include office closures, restructuring, and layoffs across the organization.

For the Pacific Northwest, you will likely not notice any immediate changes. I will still be working for Heifer from my Seattle office, but will now be supporting you as the Western Zone Volunteer Coordinator, covering a substantially larger region (shown in blue on the map below). Our Western Zone Office in Sacramento will be closing by the end of the summer. The four zones, as pictured below, will no longer have zone offices, but each will have one Zone Volunteer Coordinator. Phone representatives based at our Headquarters in Little Rock and Major Gift Officers placed around the U.S. will ensure personal contact with our supporters. The closing of zone offices and reorganization of staff is in effort to provide cost effective and efficient communication with donors and volunteers.

* Please disregard yellow dots.

Below are some other changes at Heifer you should know about. When reading this it is important to keep in mind that our overarching goal is to position Heifer to assist more families to make an impact around the world, including the United States.

• Going forward, Heifer activities in the U.S. will focus on integrating the U.S. program, education, advocacy and fundraising around the theme of “food sovereignty” or health and sustainable food systems. They will also be more cost-effective, which is critical because the U.S. is one of the most expensive of the forty countries in which Heifer bases its operations.

-The U.S. Country Program reduced staff by approximately one-half and the field program office is moving into Headquarters space in Little Rock. It will honor existing project commitments in the U.S. but transition to:

· A partnership based delivery model

· Projects designed to enhance food systems or urban agriculture, or serve indigenous people or immigrant farmers

· Program work will be concentrated in the Southwest, Mississippi Delta, or Appalachian regions

-This reduction in U.S. program staff affected our own dear Colleen Donovan, Program Manager for the Pacific Northwest. The Ellensburg, WA program office will be closed, effective June 19^th. Any and all are invited to stop in the Ellensburg office for one last hoorah next Thursday, June 18^th, from noon on. Colleen can be reached at her Heifer email (colleen.donovan@heifer.org) until next Friday and after that I can provide her personal contact.

• 61 staff members in the U.S. and 169 staff members outside the U.S. were laid off.

-International Programs has closed or scaled back regional offices to make the best use of available staff and resources.

-Heifer will phase out project support in countries where we do not have offices and projects are managed from neighboring countries. These include Myanmar, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Moldova, Macedonia and Bulgaria. We are also scaling back and repositioning programs in Mexico, Haiti, Guatemala and Nicaragua.

Heifer will move forward as a leaner, focused, accountable and more flexible organization.Your support will be critical in maintaining existing relationships and in opening up new growth opportunities for Heifer going forward. We are truly grateful for your tireless support, and we humbly ask for your patience and understanding as we go through these difficult changes.

If you have questions or concerns, Donna Jared, our VP of Regional Operations, welcomes them at donna.jared@heifer.org. I am also here for any questions or needs you may have.

On a personal note, I would like to ask for patience as I transition into the new role as Western Zone Volunteer Coordinator. The full scope of my job has yet to be determined and I will need time to work through new processes and communication systems. While I will do everything I can to provide you the best support, I am sure that changes and challenges lie ahead. This time is not easy for any of us – we are losing many dear and valuable colleagues and friends and changing the way Heifer has operated for the last decade. I feel honored to be the Volunteer Coordinator for the Western Zone, but I am taking on the roles of three coordinators who have built an incredible volunteer base and will be sorely missed. I assure you I will do my best to honor their hard work and your commitment to Heifer.

During this challenging time, I find hope and inspiration in the lives of those Heifer helps. Our struggles are minimal compared to the world’s poor and hungry and their perseverance and caring spirit renews my sense of purpose. I still envision “a world of communities living together in peace, equitably sharing the resources of a healthy planet” and helping Heifer to build a strong, compassionate, community-based volunteer program is a step in that direction. I hope you feel the same and I look forward to working with you to empower people around the world.

-Eliza Penick

Western Zone Volunteer Coordinator