What's Up

I wanted to update you on what has been going on in my life lately.

After my family vacation, I fully intended on posting more regularly and adding pictures to my blog. I planned to post pictures and blogs about my son playing football, as well as updates on my doctorate and anything else that I think might be interesting. Since that time, I haven't posted a blog and have felt like life is speeding by and at times I am watching from the sidelines. I have had ups and downs and have been working to get through everything and remain positive.

As a part of dealing with stuff going on, I would go to post a blog and would look at the page for a few minutes and decide my heart just wasn't in it. I applaud those of you who blog on a regular basis and are consistent with your posts. I wish I was as good at it.

What has been going on:

My son did start playing football in July. It was his second year and I was once again one of the assistant coaches. On the second day of practice, Nathan decided football was not his thing. His heart wasn't in the game and nothing I could say or do would change his mind. We decided to respect his decision and let him take the year off and decide next year if he wants to get back into the sport. At the same time I was facing some personal issues that I felt required me to step down from coaching. The first few weeks following the decision for Nathan to quit playing and for me to quit coaching, I was miserable. I missed it so much. Nathan didn't miss it, and showed no interest in even going to watch his former team play. People have told me that I shouldn't have let him quit. That I should have made him play. My response: have you ever tried to make a six year old do something physically when their mind is set against it? I guess we made the right decision because so many other things have taken place that would have been hard to work around if he was still playing football.

One of those things is my job. I got a promotion where I now manage a team of people who are trying to do something that has never been done before. It has been a crazy experience so far, because we have to come up with the plan on how to do it, and then prove that our plan works. When it is something that has never been done, a lot goes into developing that plan, and there is a lot of trial and error. Also, we are on a limited timeline. We have to have a workable plan completed by the end of the year and prove it works by the end of February. Needless to say, it has been taking a lot of my time. It has also required a little more travel than what my old job did, but if we are successful it will all be worth it.

To add more to my schedule, I will be defending my doctoral dissertation this Friday, October 26th. It is open to the public if anyone wants to come to Nashville to participate. This is the final hurdle in my degree before I sprint to the finish line towards graduation. The plan right now is for me to graduate on December 8th. It is exciting to think about, but hard to believe that it has already been almost five years since I started the program. What is harder to believe is that I am about to cap my college education and have a terminal degree. There will be nowhere else for me to go from hear, unless I decide to try for a second doctorate somewhere. That idea only has a .00000000000000000000000000000000000000000001 percent chance of happening, if that good.

I am thinking about planning a trip to Oklahoma next year. I am really missing someone really special to me and hope that we can work out a time to get together.

For now, my brain is telling me that's what's up.