Becoming the Noun

I have officially been on the ground in Colorado for one week. It has been a whirlwind week of finding Target and the grocery store, remembering where the restroom is, getting to know my new work family, exploring strategy with our business partners, and establishing new routines in my new home state. Already I am thrilled with so many things, not the least of which is the bright sun and warmer weather. However, my heart has a constant ache as my family is still in Madison. In order to ensure we have a home when they head this way in June once school wraps for MacKenzie, I spent yesterday with a realtor, Nicole, exploring 20 homes. Nicole kindly asked me earlier in the week if I really wanted to see that many places. She was willing to do it but wondered if we might narrow things a bit. I shared criteria including good schools for MacKenzie, a desire for an updated kitchen and bathrooms, a relatively short commute to our offices, and the possibility of more established neighborhood...

I admit I'm a little disappointed with myself and the lag in my posting. The last few months, and especially the last few weeks have been ve ry full. I am challenging myself to get back to a more consistent cadence. Hold me to it. Yesterday I started a new adventure. It was a little surreal sitting at the Madison airport. I’ve been there a time or two over the last five years. However, that is about to change. Today I begin a new journey in Denver. I’m starting a new job at Public Service Credit Union. My time as a team member at Filene Research Institute has come to a close. The swarm of emotions I’ve been feeling over the last several weeks is a stew of joy, fear, excitement, sadness and nervousness. One of the reasons for my sadness is leaving Madison, Wisconsin. I’ve moved several times in my life, and while every place I’ve lived has been magical in one way or another, Madison will always be at the top of the list. This has been a remarkable...

My parents are two of the hardest working people I know. My mom was a public high school English teacher for over 30 years. My dad was a CPA after a period of time co-owning a grain elevator with my uncle and also teaching. I have fond memories of going to work with both of my parents. There was a time when they were both teaching adult education. I remember spending time in their classrooms writing on the chalkboards, reading books, watching the television which had cable (which we did not have then), and even ordering pizza from the Domino’s that was right next door. In my mom’s early days at Hillsdale High School, she was a class advisor. This meant that I had the chance to go with her as she helped to build floats for homecoming and admire the older teenagers who seemed so terribly grown up and impressive to me when I was seven and eight. What I remember most was loving the environment. There was something fun about watching my parents in their element...

I grew up very close to my maternal Grandmother, Edith. She taught history, English and French before she retired. Her energy was a quiet force. She taught me about commitment and hard work. Even in her retirement, she was constantly on the go committing to the public library, AAUW, the Historical Society, writing books tracing our genealogy, and her real passion: spending time with her family, particularly her grandchildren. She taught me that a smile, even in the hardest times, is the very best choice. She taught me that the women in our family had “stones at the base of our spines” and that there was not an obstacle that you could put in front of us that we could not overcome. One of her passions was chocolate. I remember vividly when the research came out about the positive health benefits of chocolate. She was over the moon. She had a saying that “your dessert tube is always open.” In my early teen years, I learned to love baking. Many Saturday mornings, ...

At my first credit union, we had an extremely competent board with strong business acumen. I was lucky to engage with this group as they taught me a number of valuable lessons. I remember vividly having lunch with one of these individuals. He was sharing a story about the early days of his career when he received a promotion. He told me, “I was leading a competency that I had never done before. I had no idea how to do what the people on my team were doing.” He shared with me that he quickly adopted a technique to elicit ideas and solutions from his subject matter experts. When they would come to his office and say, “We have this big problem. What should I do?” He would say, “What do you think we should do?” He alerted his team that they should not even enter his office unless they had ideas about how to solve the problems they faced. He had quickly positioned himself as an expert and quite a dominant influence without any subject matter expertise. He laughed and said to me, “They ...

As a parent, one thing I was underprepared for, (of the many), was how my husband and I would have strong and sometimes passionately different ideas about the values and learned behaviors that were most important for MacKenzie to learn. I’m a vegetarian and Scott is a carnivore. Early on in our pregnancy, we discussed this and both felt it was best to let MacKenzie decide what she likes and choose whether or not to eat meat just as I had. As with most babies, she wasn’t particularly interested in eating meat when she was first being introduced to solid foods. However, both my dad and Scott’s mom and dad were excited to see if she would enjoy meat. One day someone shared bacon with her and her choice was easily made. She is definitely not a vegetarian. Even in these early days she was starting to demonstrate her independence and decisiveness. My husband Scott stays home with MacKenzie and thinks a lot about how that time at home can help to shape her into a suc...