It's been awhile!

Since Nutrogena stopped making their "Healthy Skin" foundation the way I used to like it, I have been fruitlessly trying to find a new make up. Everyone foundation I try is either too light or too dark or too heavy or too light. I can't even tell you how many bottles of make up that I have bought and not been able to use. It is so frustrating.

But I think I have found a good one. Revlon makes it. It is called "Custom Creations". It actually has a few different colors of foundation in the bottle. There is a dial on the bottle and you just turn it to the left or the right depending on what color shade you would like. You can basically custom create your very own foundation that matches your skin tone. It has a pump on the top of the bottle, which with all of my current searching of foundations, I have decided that I really like. So I think my search is over. I am really happy with my new find. (Do I sound like a commercial?)

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Cory celebrated his 36th birthday. Corynne celebrated her 6th birthday and Jordan is going to be 20 this month. Some where along the way, I turned 35. The only upside of 35 is that I can be president now. (yeah right! could you see me as president?!) Where does the time go? It is seriously flying by! It is so hard to believe that Jordan is going to be 20 and that we really don't have any babies in our house anymore!

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Basketball in my house is over. (Thank God!) Not that I don't love basketball, because I certainly do, but it was just getting really crazy with all the games. Now we have a little reprieve until baseball/softball/soccer start.

The boys are playing baseball and Corynne is playing both soccer and softball. I am now wondering why in the world I have decided to allow her to play two sports at the same time. I don't really have an answer for myself on that question. We will just have to hope that I am not too crazy come spring.

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School for me has been interesting. We have been negotiating our contract for over a year now. We have been working contract-less since last June. Because our negotiations have been very unsuccessful, we decided to go into "Fact Finding". Fact Finding brings in a completely unbaised neutral third party who looks only at the "facts"...hence "fact finding" I guess. Well from their current research, it seems that the facts state the following:
#1 we are the lowest paid teachers in Beaver Country by a landslide
#2 on the average, I lose 2000-5000 per year working at Beaver Falls by comparison to neighboring school districts
#3 working for 13 years in BF, I have already lost over $90,000 and
#4 (i saved the best for last)...My school district has the money to pay us, but they just don't want to pay us....the fact findings showed that it is not an inability to pay us (as they have told us year after year after year) but instead it is a refusal to pay. WOW!

I think the district is screwing with us because last week, out of the blue, they decided that woman can only take 12 weeks unpaid on a maternity leave. We used to be able to take basically as long as we wanted. If you remember, I took a year off with Corynne. To say I am furious with the district regarding this issue would be a great understatement. But the good news is that the district cannot just decide to change something out of the blue that has been a past practice for over 25 years, so the union has decided to file a grievance on behalf of the women who were denied their maternity leaves.

I am really thankful that I was able to take so much time off with my children. I am also very thankful that it was my decision to make. Apparently, the superintendent stated that by allowing these women to take these long blocks of time off in order to raise their children causes a great detriment to the students at Beaver Falls.

Really??
So what is a sleep deprived, totally stressed, breastfeeding, new mom who has to come back to work too early and deal with crazy middle schoolers with raging hormones?
To me that is a great detriment to everyone involved!!