FOUR

Today was VERY nice.  The staff at Clark planned a surprise breakfast retirement party.  Well, I kinda knew about it.  I figured it out when Cathy told me that Arod wanted to see us at 8:15 for our evaluation.  I kept fretting and complaining about the time and then it dawned on me.  ooohhhhh.  But, I was surprised for sure by the number of people who came and by the very generous gift of $300 that I received.  That was why I didn't want to have anything.  I didn't want people dipping into their pockets for me what with everything going on right now.  But it really touched me and I did break down for a bit after reading the card and what everyone wrote.  It was so sweet.  I couldn't have asked for a better place to work for my career.

The fact finder report came back last night.  Give up 9 more days of paid days on top of the 3 we already gave up.  No Voluntary Professional Days, and reduce the amount of overage pay from $5 per child to $2.50.  The district wanted to reduce it to 25 cents!!!  But the fact finder rejected that and agreed to the $2.50.  That is bad enough if we are going to be staffed 1 to 50.  I can't believe these fricken people.  Union meeting tomorrow morning.  It is not going to be pretty.  I predict the contract will be rejected and the union will strike.  Thankfully we still have the power to do that.

We got our fingerprints and BCI checks taken care of this week.  I have to take Scout in for her shots and exam on Saturday.  I am so irritated that I have to see Dr. Matt again, but maybe it will give me an opportunity to give him a piece of my mind about how he handled Pongo's cancer.  Luckily though, the tech at Wellington is very experienced in shipping dogs out of country so she knows exactly what needs to be done.  I feel a bit better now because the vet techs at Douds kept arguing with me about how and what needed to be done.  They were freaking me out.  As an aside...the people who frequent the Lorain Co. jail and Sheriff's dept. are a piece of work.

Tomorrow is Tali's 8th birthday.  We are taking her to get her ears pierced and then out to dinner.  Saturday we are headed to Columbiana for a party and then cake and ice cream at our house on Sunday for Tali's birthday.