Dusting off the Blog

Before diving into a reflective post on our readings, I must memorialize the summer of 2010. It has been fabulous! Anticipating the coming year of full-time graduate coursework and full-time employment following graduation in May 2011 (God willing), I aimed to take full advantage of our family's summer schedule after I studied for and passed the SPHR exam in June. Since my children are of elementary age and my husband teaches in high school, we were ALL OFF ALL SUMMER!

Even before school let out in June, my girls were practicing daily with our neighborhood swim league. The weekly meets were so fun and probably as much for us parents who like to socialize as for the kids who love to swim.

Our big vacation was a 2 1/2 week trip to Bali, Indonesia and Singapore. We survived the 23 hours worth of flying time each way by watching lots of in-flight movies (the girls watched How To Train Your Dragon no less than 5 times) and reveling at the cool Asian food that was served for airline meals. The landscape is beautifully tropical (as are the bugs) and seeing our 5th and 2nd graders experiencing such different cultures was priceless. The occasion for gathering were milestone birthdays being celebrated by my sister and husband who live in Singapore so we also had some neat time with family and friends who traveled there as well!

We ended the summer with a new addition to the family. Copper, a 9 week old beagle puppy, came to live with us, in honor of my daughter's 10th birthday. Ever since, we've been exhausted and reminded of just how tough and rewarding it is to raise an infant!

Although I tried and mostly succeeded in letting go of school and professional cares this summer, I did have some fateful interactions with "HR" over the summer. Highlights included a morning-long conversation with my sister's friend who is a Regional HR Director for Arnott's in AsiaPac . We shared strikingly similar tales of people process improvement projects and leadership struggles which underscored for me that the need for good strategic HR management is a global concern.

Poolside in Bali (tough life I know!), my Dad and I conferenced for part of another morning about his role as President of the Board of Directors for Open Arms Institute Inc. which is struggling with how to best fulfill its mission to plant Lutheran congregation by developing child care center. It was neat to be able to challenge my own father to step back from an intense and consuming process problem and to look at how the organization's mission and vision could re-focus and lead them to the right answers.

While in Singapore, I organized a lunch meeting with a former co-worker from the Houston office of IHS who now works in Singapore. While dining at the Raffles Hotel, she and I reminisced about some great and not so great times working together to provide HR support to the Energy segment. It was most fun though just to hear about her new challenges working as a an ex-pat for the company. This visit in particular made me really excited to go back into corporate HR work, if for no other reason but to be able to continue making great connections with HR colleagues worldwide. I hope that excitement burns until May when I have to go job hunting!

To top off the summer, a personal and professional highlight coincided in the form of a 2-day Appreciative Inquiry Summit at our newest elementary school, J. Blaine Blayton. My 5th grade daughter and I were among a handful of student and parent representatives invited to help the Principal and new staff create a vision for the school. It was so exciting to experience "live and in person" the large group intervention strategy that we spent time reading and practicing in ADLT 625 last Spring. All of the participants were energized by the positive change approach and as a parent, it was refreshing to see the staff "gel" through the inquiry process and adapt so well to the idea of dreaming and designing the "Blayton Bumblebees" future. I also had a big "a-ha" moment watching the leaders of the event (the facilitator and the Principal) try to stay on the positive track even as the ache to go "stressed and worried" took over when the sessions ended 6 days before the school was supposed to open its doors for the first time ever.

The summer of 2010 will be easy to remember via our travel photos and the growth of our new puppy. What I will also strive to recall is the true excitement I feel when thinking about using what I have learned during this academic and personal hiatus when I go back to work in Human Resources.

Cheers to a great 2010-2011 academic year!