SU Graduation

It's hard to believe I am now finished with my Ed.D.--dissertation submitted and approved, all course work done, comps passed. I think it will take a while for it to really sink in that I have finished the program. It will be nice to start with a summer without homework, papers, or research. Although I love the SU library, it will be nice to not have to go there each day :)

Here are some highlights from our graduation party and the graduation itself.

30th Birthday

Hard to believe that the big 3-0 is already here! Although the celebrations were sober on my part, I had a great time celebrating with friends and family!!  Friday night Pat and I enjoyed a great dinner at The Melting Pot. Neither of us had been there before and enjoyed the food and the novelty of fondue. We didn't quite realize it was so much food, or that you actually cooked your own meat :) We loved the evening together and opportunity for a fun date night.

In the morning I did a great hike around Deception Pass with the other birthday girls Elaine and Christen, as well as Erica, Madison, and Rachelle. We loved the hike--easy at parts, exercise at parts--and the views around the park. After our hike we enjoyed a great lunch complete the cupcakes compliments of Elaine!  For dinner my family and I went to the Chili Parlor. Ceej hooked us up with great food, as always! Some friends came to meet us for drinks after. Although I forgot to take pics for the most part we got a few as we celebrated.

Sunday we had a great day with my many of my Cohort members on Tana's tugboat. We cruised around Ballard, Fremont, and Lake Union out on the water. It was a beautiful day to be out on the water and it was super fun to be on a tugboat. Pat talked with Tana's husband about the engine and other random engineering stuff :) Hard to believe my time with my cohort is coming to an end...but also exciting to be getting so close to graduation.

Here are pictures from a great weekend!!

Baby McGah

We are very excited that Baby McGah will be joining us around December 1st!! This Spring has been full of so many full celebrations and accomplishments, we are thrilled that making it through the first trimester of pregnancy can be added to the list!  As of today we are almost 15 weeks pregnant, have heard the heartbeat, had an ultrasound (got verification there was just one in there, not two!!), and have began the transition to maternity clothes. We are excited to find out the gender come the middle of July and once the school years are over, we will switch over the guest room/office to the nursery. We are also loving being the third of my siblings to have kids...we have all the furniture for the nursery and more already :)

Seeing the ultrasound was pretty amazing. The baby was moving around the whole time, loved having her/his fist by it's face, and has all the major body parts (2 arms, 2 legs, head, abdomen, etc.). It was so fun to just watch the little baby moving around. Everything seemed much more real during and after the ultrasound. It is amazing how much s/he already looks like a baby, even though s/he is sooo small still. Ann shared with us that when Pat was a baby he also loved looking at his fist...maybe it runs in the family. One funny moment in the ultrasound was when they finally let me pee, I come back to the room and the screen is now in color and the ultrasound tech is taking an ultrasound of her forearm. Pat and her are discussing blood flow and the various ways to measure it with ultrasound technology. Apparently they were just fine without me and the baby in the room :)

Here are a few fun pictures from the last few months...

We gave my mom this birthday card to share the good news

Once she got to the end she was already in tears :)

Since Caroline and I are the Lady McGahGah's,
I made this onsie to tell Peter and Caroline there would be an addition :)

First three months...starting to show a bit. I can tell that the month 4 picture will show even more!

12.5 week ultrasound

Baby McGah loved keeping her/his fist by her face...Pat's response, "It has knuckles!" We love you Aunt Colleen :) 

This was our FBO announcement to share Baby McGah with the facebook world

Seattle U milestones

It's been a while since I've posted...mainly due to Seattle U taking over all my free time. But, in 49 days when I walk across the stage at graduation it will definitely all be worth it!  April was a big month of milestones in my program at SU...I took my comps, got inducted to an honors society, presented at a conference, and defended my dissertation!

On April 6th I took my comprehensive exams. It consisted of three questions in the morning (four hours to complete them) and then two question in the afternoon (with two hours to complete them). We could use one notecard which was definitely helpful. Of course, mine was color-coded and laminated :) A few weeks later I received word that I passed both parts of the comps!!  It was definitely a challenging process, but in the end went well and I'm glad it is done!

front of my notecard for the comps

passed!!!

April 15th I was inducted into Alpha Sigma Nu, the Jesuit honors society. It was a great honor to be one of the doctoral students selected this year. Pat and I attended a great induction ceremony, with many interesting Jesuits who spoke. One perk is that I get to wear the medal at graduation...since I never had honor cords at HNA I'm excited to wear the medal this time! :)

Fr. Steve, the president of SU, congratulating me

Stephanie, Nadeje, and I were inducted also!

April 20th we had our SU Leadership Conference planned by my cohort. The keynote speaker was Cheryl Broetje, from Broetje Orchards (http://www.firstfruits.com/). They are an orchard in Washington that is completely people first. Over the years they have met the needs of the workers on their orchard by building housing, a school, daycare, creating summer programs, and nearly all of the kids of workers go on to college. She was very inspiring and a great speaker to kick off our day!

I was able to present my dissertation research during the conference. It was fun to share about my research and to practice the presentation before I defended. Many people came to cheer me on which I was so thankful for--in addition to my cohort members, my mom, Becky, CJ, Colleen, Pat, Maria, Nick, Erica, Elaine, and Meghan were there!

presenting my dissertation study at the SU Leadership Conference

The last big milestone this April was that I successfully defended my dissertation on April 26th!!!!  There were so many days I didn't think I would get to this point, but it felt so good to finally have it all done and be excited to present to my committee. The defense consisted of a presentation (basically the same presentation as the conference) and then questions from my committee and people in attendance. It was so great to have Pat there with me, in addition to Ashlee from my cohort and Julie, Julia, and Amanda from HNA. Julia and Amanda even made me a d-fence sign! My committee had good questions and overall had many good things to say about my research. At the end of the questions, everyone was asked to leave the room and the committee deliberated. About 7 minutes later, John, my chair, opened the door and said, "Congratulations, Doctor!" It was so exciting!!!

Celebration dinner!!

Official dissertation defense announcement around Loyola