Conferences and Star Day

We met William's teacher recently to see how the semester had been going.  We thought pretty well since we hadn't heard from her before, and because he had been recommended for a rotation in the talent acceleration program.   She had really wonderful things to say about his academic skills.   In math, she often relies on him to explain to the class the logic behind solving problems, and that his vocabulary and story comprehension really bring up his reading skills.  But the nicest thing to hear was how helpful he is in the classroom.  She said there was a substitute art teacher who told her how helpful he was with his classmates getting a project done.  We are so proud of the kind soul of this child.

He had his "Star Week" and put together a newspaper style poster of his favorite things.   Although he has done that in each grade, apparently unique to 2nd grade is that all of your classmates write you a star about what makes you special.   My heart burst with all the lovely things the kids wrote about him being a good friend, being kind to everyone, being smart and good at math; being fun and funny.   Makes a mom proud!

 

 

iFly

For John's birthday present, we went to iFly Indoor Skydiving.  I was probably the most excited about it (after all; it was my idea and I bought the Groupons!); William was most scared (he thought he'd go up to the top of the tube like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory); and John was most indifferent (after real sky diving, I think he doubted the experience).  But we had an absolute blast!  It was a fun family time!  We each did two, one-minute flights.  And for the last 20-30 seconds of the second flight, we did "high flight" where the instructors spins with you up into the higher section of the tube.  We followed the evening up with school fundraiser night at Buffalo Wild Wings where we ran into several neighbors.   We also ran into one of William's classmates and her family at iFly; her brother was flying for his 12th birthday, and the rest of the family was there to watch.  

  

 

 

 

PPMD Meeting

The only good part about retiring early on Halloween is being well rested for my 6:30 a.m. Tuesday flight to Las Vegas for the Deloitte PPMD meeting.   All the partners and managing directors with school aged kids took super early Tuesday flights.  Those without kids at home or at least ones not of trick or treating age took leisurely travel options on Monday.   It was great to see all of the PPMDs from various cities and our tremendous line up of speakers.  Over 6,000 people were there, so you had to be intentional about finding people.   Oh, and I got to watch the Cub win the World Series surrounded by all of my Chicago partners at the Delano Sports Book.   The best was seeing the joy as one of our soon to retire partners called his son - and then his dad - in tears over the fact that the Cubs had won the World Series in his lifetime!  What a week of celebration.   Except for that sick kiddo at home and the cancelled vacation. . . .but Southwest made it easy enough to change my flight to head home instead of my original plan to meet the guys in LA.   We all enjoyed a relaxing weekend at home after that.

 

 

 

 

I ran into a lot of people from Kansas City, including Jana (Reichenberger) Souder, my college sorority sister and bridesmaid who is an audit managing director!  I don't think I've seen her in at least 10 years.

In our tax breakout the last morning, they had screens of everyone who had been admitted to the partnership or promoted to managing director in the two years since the last meeting.  And thus concludes my year of celebrations as a new partner!  I'll be the old one next round.

 

Halloween

We had a fun Halloween planned with neighbors who have boys in William's class.  After the school party, we were meeting up for trick-or-treating and then collect for dinner/movie night.  Unfortunately, William woke up sick that morning.  He went to school but was a wreck when I got there for the party.   I took him home at 3:30 and he went right to bed.  He got up around 5 to put on his costume (last year's Boba Fett costume with new jet pack and arm shooters).   We hit a few houses with the neighbor crew but he couldn't keep up with the kids.  Less than 30 minutes in, he called it a night and we went home.   He ended up missing the entire week of school due to fever and fatigue.   And then there was a long weekend for fall break, so he was home for 8 straight days!  We had planned a Los Angeles and Universal Studios Hollywood vacation for the school break but had to cancel it.   Poor guy was so sick, he never even asked if we were going to Harry Potter World like we had been talking and planning for weeks.

 

Fall Family Photos - The Field

Fall Family Photos - The Barn

Cub Scout Campfire (and Selling Popcorn)

This year in an effort to maximize our limited time at home, we pre-ordered our Cub Scout popcorn, filled the wagon and went door-to-door on our street with the inventory to sell versus the traditional order form/deliver a month later method.  This cute little Cub Scout sold more than half of his wagon load that way.  His operations manager (mom) needs to order more lower priced items next year; the $25 bag of caramel chocolate and the $60 Blackhawks tin didn't sell as well as the $10 and $20 items.   Hence, me now being the owners of a Blackhawks tin of popcorn (and the other multi-packs).  Totally worth it though.  We only did a few hours of work and he earned his coveted Kylo Ren light saber "free gift."   And my teams at work have enjoyed the assorted popcorn snacks!  Hope my Indiana family knows that Blackhawks tin is coming to the holidays! 

The guys had to miss the fall campout since we had family pictures scheduled for that evening.  But no one minded.  We finished pictures at sunset and headed to Buffalo Wild Wings for family dinner.  The theme of our fall has been travel, and we were happy to have a mostly "home" weekend.

We did join the Wolf Den for a backyard campfire - complete with a smoky fire pit - of games, silly songs and skits, and snacks with the boys and their families.  Our den is such a great group of people; we really enjoy hanging out with them.   Everyone bought delicious fall treats - mostly sweets - but I brought a sunchoke spinach dip.  The sunchoke (aka Jerusalem artichoke) was from my CSA box, and the recipe from a friend.  This week was my first experience with that veggie (I think it's a vegetable at least. . . ) but it looks a lot like ginger root and cooked up like a boiled potato.  In the dip it tasted like artichoke but smooth with none of the strings of a traditional artichoke.  

 

 

 

 

Global New Partner Seminar

With my admission to the partnership this year, I've had summer and fall full of internal meetings.  August was the female tax partner/director celebration; September was the U.S. new partner/director celebration; and October was the global new partner seminar.  The global meeting rotates between Asia, Europe and Americas as host, and this was the Americas.  We met at Terranea Resort outside LA.  Ironically it was my first time to ever fly into LAX.   Internationally there were 600 new partners (125 women) from over 100 countries.  The "roll call" was one of my favorites.  Each country's flag was flashed on the screen and all of the new partners from that country stood up.   There were the countries represented by a lot of people (U.S., Canada, England, Mexico, China) and then there were places that had one.   The singletons received a lot of applause!  It was also a lot of fun to spend time with the fellow women in my new partner class.  The U.S. group got to know each other really well throughout the year, and it's great to have a network to rely upon.