Gearing up for the move to Maryland

The countdown is officially on. I will be leaving North Dakota in 18 days to drive back to Maryland and help my family get settled in. We are very excited to be heading east. We left the east coast in August of 1995 about two weeks after we got married. Over the last 14 plus years, we have gone back on many occasions to visit. We probably average about 2 visits per year, but we felt that the time had come for us to move back closer to our families. We have a great sense of peace about this move and the kids are very excited. Thanks to my boss, I will have a few extra days to spend in Maryland because he has honored my request to take a few extra days off during our Easter break here at the college. This extra time will allow me the chance to get things moved into our new townhouse and get some things in order. I will then fly back to North Dakota in mid April to finish out my last couple of weeks of teaching/final exams before heading off to Finland in early May for the 2009 football season. Estalita and the kids will join me in Finland sometime in mid May.
Needless to say, life is very hectic right now. We are still trying to sell the house and we are in the midst of going through all our belongings and packing things up. Estalita and I are both still working our jobs, ordering items for the new place and making all the arrangements and transitions that are associated with a long distance move. I am also doing some training with one of my players from Trinity who is coming over with me to Finland to play football this season. The preparations for Finland such as designing playbooks and keeping up my communication with my new team is also very important right now. I try to keep up with my writing and blog, but this usually happens around 1 or 2 am when I have a few moments to spare. Last but not least, we have to see to the needs of our 3 kids who are holding up very well during this transition. Estalita stays home with Kaylin ( who is going through her terrible, uhh I mean terrific two's) while Kamryn and Kodie attend school. I try and hang out with them for a few hours each evening while my wife gets caught up on her work.
Fortunately, my training in the army has prepared me well in life for sleep deprivation. It is currently 1:35 am. I should be in bed by 2 and then up around 7. That is about normal for me. I do hope to increase that by an hour or so when I get to Finland. Many people have said to me that they think I keep crazy hours, but I figure I will have plenty of time to sleep in about 50 years!! I recently heard the famous chef from England called Gordon Ramsay say that being tired and fighting through it was a key element of his success. His ability to work through fatigue and his willingness to suffer a bit helped him to separate himself from the pack. I tend to bring this world view to my teaching and coaching philosophies. I tell my teams that all players get tired and fatigued in the 3rd and 4th quarter, but the mentally tough teams find a way to rise above it and overcome. The mentally weak ones succumb to the discomfort and make excuses for their mistakes. One of my pet peeves in life is hearing people who sleep anywhere from 8-10 hours a day repeatedly say throughout the day that they are tired. To take it a step further, I really believe one of the main reasons our country is slipping is that many of our fine citizens are slumbering through life while the rest of the world is getting after it. Case in point is the college campus where I currently work. In my 6 years here, I have observed that most of the students on this campus take a rather long afternoon nap. AS IN EVERYDAY LIKE CLOCKWORK!! In fact, they get more consistent naps than my 2 year old daughter. Some of them sleep most of the day away and even sleep right on through dinner. They sleep in class, through class, and after class. They forget to set their alarms, or they ignore them entirely. Many of them can simply not handle the idea of a 6 am football workout or an 8 am class. I must admit that I remember doing this nap thing in kindergarten, but that practice stopped somewhere around age 5.
I feel much better now that I got that out of my system. Sorry for bashing all you sleep lovers out there. My ranting and raving on this whole sleeping thing has come to a close. Besides, I am tired and I must get some rest.

Lights out.