some good news!

We had a FAST doctor's appointment today! It was scheduled for 10:50 and we were out by 11:00. We got there at 10:30, so that probably helped. Anyway, I hit the 20 pound mark- I'm up to 142. And tonight I measured around my belly, and my waist is now 40 inches! Oofta!

We didn't have an ultrasound, but by feeling, Dr. Keeler thinks the baby flipped from 2 weeks ago and is head down now. The body parts we are feeling the most are probably feet. The baby actually stayed still for 15 seconds so we could get more than 4 beats of his heart, and then he started moving again after we were done listening. Good baby. :)

We talked about Chicago, which I was a little nervous about since it seemed two weeks ago that he did NOT want me going. But, since I haven't had any problems yet, he told me right now it would be silly for him to tell me to stay home. He said I just have to take it easy from now until then, watch for any problems at all, and we have an ultrasound scheduled for Aug. 7 just to check on things. And while I'm in Chicago (if things still look good on Aug. 7) I just have to make sure to take it easy. But right now, I still get to go. YAY! They way Josh and I figure, I'll be closer to any hospital in Chicago than I am staying here at home- it's 40 miles to the nearest hospital here, 96 miles to the hospital we go to, and in Chicago there's probably one every 5 miles. :)

Then, we just hung out at Kristen's until my defense at 2:00. We had a chase around Registration and Records this morning trying to get my degree check done. The guy I had to get to sign my papers was busy, so they sent me to another lady who, very snottily said, "Did you get an email saying you could come today?" I said, "um... no...." and she told me I had to go to the grad school because she couldn't help me. I told her I KNEW my papers are here, because my friend Erin saw them yesterday, and she said, "sorry." So I went over to the grad school and the lady said, "I sent them over yesterday!! I know I did, because I sent all of you music people, and I remember because you all did things wrong and I already chewed out your dept. head". So BACK to the other place I went and finally got to talk to the guy I was supposed to, and he said, "Yeah, I have them right here!" Sheesh. Got my work out, that's for sure.

My defense went well though. The professor I was worried about pretty much just kept his mouth shut and didn't make things hard for me. The special education professor on my committee was super nice (and it helped that she knows Jeffrey and LOVES him), and the other committee member said he learned a ton from my paper that he didn't know already. I have to change a few errors I made and just caught, and add a paragraph or two to my conclusion, but other than that, I passed! They all signed off on my form and I brought it to the grad school as soon as they signed it! So I'm officially done. That's so nice!!!!!

We're headed to Lingle tomorrow for the weekend. My friend Erin is throwing me a baby shower so I'm looking forward to that on Sunday. Our dogs will be super excited to learn that they get to go with us this weekend. When we went to Gillette last week, they had to stay in the kennel and they made sure to tell us how mad they were at us for leaving them when we got back. They LOVE going to Lingle. They have lots of room to run around and Craig and Lennie's dogs to "play" with.