diff --git a/.github/workflows/tests.yaml b/.github/workflows/tests.yaml
index f95128b..5dc195a 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/tests.yaml
+++ b/.github/workflows/tests.yaml
@@ -23,3 +23,5 @@ jobs:
         run: python3 setup.py install --user
       - name: verify we can import
         run: python3 -c "from datemath import datemath; print(datemath('now-1d'))"
+      - name: verify our version 
+        run: python3 -c "import datemath; print(datemath.__version__)" 
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index a844f42..770d451 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -5,6 +5,14 @@ All notable changes to this project will be documented in this file.
 The format is based on [Keep a Changelog](https://keepachangelog.com/en/1.0.0/),
 and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0.html).
 
+## [3.0.3] - 2024-09-12
+Please use 3.0.3 going forward!   3.0.2 has a breaking bug.
+
+### fixed
+- Fix: issue where version wasnt getting populated
+- Fix: move version out of `VERSION.txt` and into `datemath/_version.py` directly
+- Fix: typos in CHANGELOG.  Thank you @s00hyun!
+
 ## [3.0.2] - 2024-09-11
 ### added
 - Feat: Complete typing with strict type-checking [#43](https://github.com/nickmaccarthy/python-datemath/pull/43) Thank you @Avasam!
diff --git a/MANIFEST.in b/MANIFEST.in
index 9dd3e50..c4747a2 100644
--- a/MANIFEST.in
+++ b/MANIFEST.in
@@ -1,4 +1,3 @@
-include VERSION.txt
 include README.md
 include CHANGELOG.md
 include LICENSE
diff --git a/VERSION.txt b/VERSION.txt
deleted file mode 100644
index d9c62ed..0000000
--- a/VERSION.txt
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-3.0.2
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/datemath/_version.py b/datemath/_version.py
index 0708e9a..8d1c862 100644
--- a/datemath/_version.py
+++ b/datemath/_version.py
@@ -1,7 +1 @@
-import os
-
-current_dir = os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__))
-version_file = os.path.join(current_dir, '../VERSION.txt')
-
-with open(version_file, 'r') as f:
-    __version__ = f.read().strip()
\ No newline at end of file
+__version__ = "3.0.3"
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index 5b33202..6089176 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ more-itertools==10.4.0
 mypy==1.7.1
 mypy-extensions==1.0.0
 nh3==0.2.18
-packaging==16.8
+packaging==24.1
 pkginfo==1.10.0
 Pygments==2.15.0
 pyparsing==2.2.0
@@ -32,6 +32,7 @@ requests==2.32.2
 requests-toolbelt==0.9.1
 rfc3986==2.0.0
 rich==13.8.0
+setuptools==74.1.2
 six==1.16.0
 tqdm==4.66.3
 traceback2==1.4.0
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 8feea92..36b3376 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -8,16 +8,17 @@
 from setuptools import setup, find_packages
 # To use a consistent encoding
 from codecs import open
+import os
 from os import path
+from typing import Dict
 
 here = path.abspath(path.dirname(__file__))
 
-# Get the long description from the README file
-with open(path.join(here, 'README.md'), encoding='utf-8') as f:
-    long_description_from_readme = f.read()
+version: Dict[str, str] = {}
+with open(os.path.join(here, 'datemath', '_version.py')) as f:
+    exec(f.read(), version)
+    VERSION = version['__version__']
 
-with open(path.join(here, 'VERSION.txt'), encoding='utf-8') as fv:
-    version = fv.read()
 
 setup(
     name='python-datemath',
@@ -25,8 +26,8 @@
     # Versions should comply with PEP440.  For a discussion on single-sourcing
     # the version across setup.py and the project code, see
     # https://packaging.python.org/en/latest/single_source_version.html
-    version=version,
-    download_url = 'https://github.com/nickmaccarthy/python-datemath/tarball/{0}'.format(version),
+    version=VERSION,
+    download_url = 'https://github.com/nickmaccarthy/python-datemath/tarball/{0}'.format(VERSION),
 
     # The project's main homepage.
     url='https://github.com/nickmaccarthy/python-datemath',
diff --git a/verify.py b/verify.py
index 21c23a5..ec1cfdb 100644
--- a/verify.py
+++ b/verify.py
@@ -3,10 +3,6 @@
 
 
 print(f'datemath version is {__version__}')
-with open('VERSION.txt', 'r') as f:
-    version = f.read().strip()
-
-assert __version__ == version
 
 
 print(f'Now is: {datemath("now")}')