Updates

It's been a while since my last post! Although we had internet access at my sister-in-law's house, I didn't take much computer time. We didn't keep our schedule too busy, which was nice, and I got lots of help playing with and taking care of LB! Poor DH, however, found himself spending most of the week finishing up his dissertation. We all wished that it could have been finished before the week started, but that didn't work out. The good news is that his dissertation is DONE and has been submitted to his committee!!! (If you're not familiar with the Ph.D. world, I'll just say that this is the BEGINNING OF THE END, which is an excellent thing!) So here's the timetable for his degree:

• Dissertation has been submitted to the committee.
• They have until July 20th (technically July 19th? not sure) to make any changes/recommendations/complaints/etc.
• On July 20th DH give his DEFENSE. This means a 45 minutes presentation followed by a question and answer session that can last as long as his committee wants to grill him.
• Following the defense, the committee will deliberate and then inform DH of the outcome: pass or not. Unlike with the proposal, however, it's highly unlikely that he would have been allowed to get this far and not pass, so we're not too worried.
• Then the paperwork gets all turned in, I get to explain to DH's advisor that we have a son, and then DH will get his diploma in August.

So with the clock ticking down on DH's time at Vanderbilt, he's been searching for and applying for jobs. So far he's submitted applications to Google and Microsoft in WA and CA and some military contracting companies in AL and while we were visiting family in PA he applied for a positing with St. Jude Medical in Southern CA. One of the Google positins and the St. Jude position came with recommendations from friends, and so far the St. Jude possibility is the only one to respond. DH spoke with an HR representation yesterday, and will be setting up a phone interview in the next couple days. It's very exciting! First of all, we're excited simply that he's gotten a "call back". (You know, you put yourself out there and you're never really sure whether anyone will notice!). It's also very exciting because the work would require the knowledge and experience he has from BOTH of his fields (he has degrees in Biomedical Engineering and Computer Science). Finally, it's really exciting because of the location. Although CA IS more expensive in terms on cost of living, it's SO CLOSE to family. Let me help you visualize it (because I'm a visual person).

My parents and his parents are in So. CA, about 3 hours away from each other. The path between them is an L shape (to go from mine to his, you go south, then east). The job opportunity is right at the corner of the L. I'm not kidding. It's as close to halfway between them as you can get! It's more than coincidence, I'm sure.

So we're trying not to get TOO excited, because it still may not work out, but we're definitely excited.

I'm also excited for Friday morning. We have our 2nd trimester ultrasound, and hopefully we'll be able to determine the gender! I hope the baby cooperates :) It's kind of silly, but I feel like so many things hinge on knowing whether it's a girl or boy! Knowing the gender will help us pick a name, decide on whether we're sticking with Classic Pooh or switching to a more pink theme, and we need to know if LB's clothes will work or if we need to ask for girls' clothes!

Speaking of LB, that boy is getting so tall, we need to get him a new car seat! The shoulder straps are too low - they're behind his shoulders instead of above them. We were in Walmart last night and stopped in the baby section to look at the car seats. LB was noisy and pointing and full of saying "please" (in sign language) until we finally figured out what he wanted: he wanted to get in the car seats that were on display! Which turned out to be good, because then we could see if the shoulder strap slots were tall enough. We probably won't get a new one though, not on our budget! So I've found a couple on Craigslist that might work. I'm waiting for the measurement from the seat (where the child sits) to the top strap slot. We decided we need to get one before we move since we'll probably be driving across country and LB needs to have a properly fitting car seat.

So driving across country. It's kinda fun. DH and I have done it twice: from New Orleans to So. CA after we graduated from Tulane (just the two of us) and then from So. CA to here (with DH's folks and brother). This time, however, we would be traveling not only with a toddler, but two cats as well! We haven't spent much time working out all the details yet, since we don't know where we're going yet, but we do know that shipping the cats could costs as much as $1,000. It'd be nice to ship the cats and have movers come in, pack up our house and drive the truck, but we may have to do more of it ourselves, depending on what kind of help DH's new company can give us. So we'll see.

Well, back to unpacking, washing diapers, and other such things.