Cj & Robin
Liv
David, Eva, Zach & Mia
Jack
Jim & Margie
Jean
Heather
John, Joann & John
Zoe
Peter
Russo/ Stiritz Family
Cj Russo and Robin Stiritz have been together for 10 years, married for 5. We have two small dogs.
Cj: It is important to me be involved in and give to my community. I have been working on creating cohousing for 10 years, and creating Woodard Lane cohousing since 9/04. Being a part of Woodard Lane cohousing for me means reconnecting with the experiences of community I had growing up in Philadelphia. The commitment of WLC to a lighter impact on the environment supports my personal values of sustainability. I love to be out in nature hiking or on my bike to connect with spirit and the quiet place inside. One of the ways I express my creativity is making digital videos of people, events or celebrations. I have been teaching high school for about 8 years. I have taught math, special education, and for the past 5 years I have taught a little bit of everything at an alternative school.
Liv Monroe
Personal Profile: I am a fearless, free, female with 60 years of experience.
Family Profile: I have two grown sons with great girlfriends, an ex whom I like lots, two nieces, a sister and brother, in-laws with kids and grandkids, a multitude of cousins, aunts and uncles. My parents died in 1988 and 1992. Family is important to me. Both of my sons live in Bellingham. Dane, aged 28, loves parcour, gymnastics, and Angie, aged 25. Ty is 23 and will graduate from Western the summer of 2007.
Friends: My friends are important to me too. I am part of the Violet Femmes, five women who raised their children together and hope to share in the rewards of grandkids too. I enjoy getting together with several other friends of many years, as well as getting to make new friends.
Career: I have spent my adult life as a professional citizen and a traveler. After raising kids and working to develop Options, the local alternative elementary school where I still volunteer, I began teaching Nonviolent Communication which is my current passion. I lead workshops, classes and practice groups. I also volunteer for the Dispute Resolution Center.
Hobbies/Interests: I love walking and talking with friends, hiking and camping in the mountains, dancing, studying psychology and philosophy, and presently working together with others to build Woodard Lane Cohousing Community.
What brings me the greatest joy: I find joy in one on one connections and laughter. I love growth, dialogue, honesty, understanding, and hanging out with family and friends, including a special love for children.
Why I became a part of Woodard Lane Co-housing: I want to live in a community with others who also want to grow and get to know each other deeply. I like the people involved, the close to town proximity of the land, living in a small space and yet having room for large dinner gatherings and dances, owning less, and sharing things and resources.
What I bring to this community: I bring skills, interest, patience, and energy for human relationships, organizing, raising children, seeing the bigger picture, problem solving, and listening. I enjoy both thinking and doing, particularly thinking out loud and doing with others.
David, Eva, Zach and Mia
David and Eva, both 43, have been working as acupuncturists/herbalists in Seattle for more than a decade.
David is currently studying to obtain a certificate in Clinical Nutrition so that he can focus more on his passion with functional nutrition. Eva is a fluent Spanish speaker and would like to try to find a way to incorporate that into her work with their upcoming move to Olympia. Zach is six, is currently in kindergarten, and is very interested in Star Wars, animals and dinosaurs, circuses (and performing them) and movies of any kind. Mia is going on 1 ½ and is quite social, gets into everything, and can be extremely stubborn along with being extra cute. Emma is our 14.5 yr. old golden retriever mix. We’re giving her a 50/50 shot of making it to Olympia.
As a family of four we feel ourselves becoming very nuclear and losing touch with our community. We don’t want that to happen and feel that moving into a cohousing community will give us the opportunity to engage and interact and live and work with others in a way that will maintain and balance the cohesiveness of our family within a larger community. We look forward to not having to travel 30 minutes to have dinner with our friends, to spontaneous and easy gatherings and to our kids being able to walk out the door and play with friends. We also like the idea of living in a smaller town where we can feel a little less hectic and slow down a bit. We’re very excited (and a bit scared) about the opportunity to live at Woodard Lane Cohousing, and look forward to being around other individuals and families that appreciate the benefits of living in community.
A little information about Jack is coming soon!
Margie Schubert and Jim Anest
Family Profile: Jim and Margie have been partners for eight years and were friends for many years before that. We independently came to Olympia in 1972 to attend The Evergreen State College, in its second year of existence.
Margie has 3 children: Delphine is now 30 and works with teenage refugees in foster care. Maile is 27 and working for Drugstore.com in Bellevue. Avery is 20 and in his second year at Macalester College in St. Paul, MN.
Jim has 2 children: Molly is 21 and a senior at Western Washington University. Ryan is 17 and a junior at Capital High School.
Personal Profile, Margie:
I grew up in Oregon, Maryland, and Colorado. After graduating from TESC I lived in Idaho for a year before returning to Olympia to work at Blue Heron Bakery for 10 years. After Blue Heron, I worked in a futon and furniture store for 10 years, and since then I have worked at the Dispute Resolution Center in downtown Olympia as staff support, and more recently assistant training manager. Family and raising kids has been the most challenging and rewarding part of my adult life.
Some of the things I do for fun are yoga, massage, singing harmony, writing poetry, sewing, and kayaking on the Puget Sound. My biggest passion is for being in the wilderness- hiking & backpacking, rafting, cross-country skiing, or snorkeling. Two of the most interesting things I’ve done are living in Nepal for a year, and rafting the Grand Canyon. I also get a lot of happiness and support from my women’s group of more than 20 years. I am concerned about the political, environmental, and spiritual health of our world, and how I can be more effectively engaged. I have always preferred living in larger than nuclear family situations and I look forward to living in this co-housing community.
Personal Profile, Jim:
I grew up in Spokane. After graduating from TESC, I went to law school in Chicago, and have traveled throughout the USA and Europe. I am 56, curious about nearly everything and especially the patterns that connect that everything. I became a widower in 1994 and most of the past 14 years has been devoted to fathering.
Hobbies and Interests: I enjoy kayaking, playing the piano, hiking, reading, thinking, and conversation with friends. I love warm salt water and Rumi Poetry. I am fascinated by the process of moral development. I am particularly interested in the work of the contemporary American philosopher, Ken Wilber. I believe that we have only begun to express our potential to live together responsibly and in mutual respect. We have much to teach and much to learn from one another. I have lived in intentional community for large portions of my life and for the most part enjoyed it.
Employment: For the past 20 years, I have been a policy planner in shoreline management with the Department of Ecology. I have worked in the legislature as a staff attorney and as a lobbyist. For 6 years I practiced law in Olympia.
A little information about Jean is coming soon!
A little information about Heather is coming soon!
A little information about John, Joann, and John is
coming soon!
I’m a skilled “black sheep,” with 65 yrs. of
experience, i.e. in going where my heart leads.
Family Profile: I have a son in Chicago-land with a Masters in International Business, a daughter-in-law who works with deaf students and their son--a fine drummer, an “almost” black belt in karate and an excellent student. Daughter in Sammamish, WA is super-mom of 2 bright and talented boys and an adorable, impish 5 yr. old girl. I love being their “Mima.”
Adventures: I’m a new Olympian! I only arrived here from Vermont in Nov. ’09, having visited with WLC folks three times before making this big “leap-of-faith” move. The drive across country on my own was “fab,” (but I knew it would be, having made my way alone around Australia and driving--on the left--throughout New Zealand.)
Friends: I have close, long-time, friends-more-like-family, especially back east, and I look forward to developing strong relationships here.
Career: I have a dream... which is to be (more) published as a writer of children’s literature. This passion has directed my choice often to work part-time. My interests have grown and varied so over the years that I have become sort of a jack-of-all-trades...1st as piano teacher (Music ed. degree), counselor (M.Ed.), wedding officiant (Ordained Interfaith Minister ’99), nanny, and tutor.
Hobbies/Interests: I love singing, swimming, kayaking, quilting & knitting, especially when doing these with others. Writing, of course, and being in a critique group with other children’s novelists. Another passion is the psycho-spiritual course, Pathwork--which I’ve studied since the mid 90s and look forward to continuing here.
What brings me the greatest joy: Connections with people based on mutual respect, working and growing together.
Why I became a part of Woodard Lane Co-housing: I’ve lived in community and know I love it. My first was Eastwind, a commune in MO where we wove hammocks, made rope sandals, and produced nut butters; then a rich period in the spiritual community (Pathwork Center); and finally, a summer in a cohousing community in NC. Working with groups in VT that never got built made me greatly appreciate these pioneers of WLC! I truly honor their integrity, their ability to work through things--allowing their differences to be a source of richness, sharing a vision and creating it through years of hard work.
What I bring to this community: I bring a lot of enthusiasm, a creative imagination and adventurous spirit, an eagerness to laugh and play, musical and other skills to share, a willingness to grow as a human being, especially as my rough edges rub up against those of others who are willing to grow with me.
Family Profile: I have a son in Chicago-land with a Masters in International Business, a daughter-in-law who works with deaf students and their son--a fine drummer, an “almost” black belt in karate and an excellent student. Daughter in Sammamish, WA is super-mom of 2 bright and talented boys and an adorable, impish 5 yr. old girl. I love being their “Mima.”
Adventures: I’m a new Olympian! I only arrived here from Vermont in Nov. ’09, having visited with WLC folks three times before making this big “leap-of-faith” move. The drive across country on my own was “fab,” (but I knew it would be, having made my way alone around Australia and driving--on the left--throughout New Zealand.)
Friends: I have close, long-time, friends-more-like-family, especially back east, and I look forward to developing strong relationships here.
Career: I have a dream... which is to be (more) published as a writer of children’s literature. This passion has directed my choice often to work part-time. My interests have grown and varied so over the years that I have become sort of a jack-of-all-trades...1st as piano teacher (Music ed. degree), counselor (M.Ed.), wedding officiant (Ordained Interfaith Minister ’99), nanny, and tutor.
Hobbies/Interests: I love singing, swimming, kayaking, quilting & knitting, especially when doing these with others. Writing, of course, and being in a critique group with other children’s novelists. Another passion is the psycho-spiritual course, Pathwork--which I’ve studied since the mid 90s and look forward to continuing here.
What brings me the greatest joy: Connections with people based on mutual respect, working and growing together.
Why I became a part of Woodard Lane Co-housing: I’ve lived in community and know I love it. My first was Eastwind, a commune in MO where we wove hammocks, made rope sandals, and produced nut butters; then a rich period in the spiritual community (Pathwork Center); and finally, a summer in a cohousing community in NC. Working with groups in VT that never got built made me greatly appreciate these pioneers of WLC! I truly honor their integrity, their ability to work through things--allowing their differences to be a source of richness, sharing a vision and creating it through years of hard work.
What I bring to this community: I bring a lot of enthusiasm, a creative imagination and adventurous spirit, an eagerness to laugh and play, musical and other skills to share, a willingness to grow as a human being, especially as my rough edges rub up against those of others who are willing to grow with me.
A little information about Peter is coming soon!