Fall 2009

For the last couple of months we've been discussing how much childrearing leave to ask for. Up until this week we were not discussing the % (planning on 50%), but rather how much to ask for. The CBA says you can ask for up to two years, and then you can ask for an extension after that for up to 2 more years. What makes the decision complicated is not knowing when/if we will have/adopt another child. If we knew I was going to be giving birth in January, we'd just ask for one semester of leave because parental leave is much better than childrearing leave. First of all, if I give birth I can use some paid sick leave based on a full-time workload (I have 675 hours accrued at this time which is 18 weeks' worth not that I could use all of that for having a baby, but I could use at least 8 weeks). Secondly, health insurance is covered during paid sick leave plus six months of parental leave. Our contribution is normally $1,382 a year, but if I am working all year at 50% on childrearing leave, our contribution will be $7,602. However, if the ivf doesn't work and we don't adopt during the spring 2010 semester, then I would still want to be on childrearing leave. The director of HR was very vague about whether I could still have up to 4 years of leave if I only request one semester with my first request. She just said it's up to the discretion of the President.

This week I found out I am scheduled to teach 3 classes this summer. I thought I was scheduled to teach 2 classes. This means I'll be away from home 2 nights a week for six weeks and then 4 nights a week for another six weeks. Ideally Paul would only like to come home early once a week, but he definitely can't come home early more than 2 nights a week. So I need to find a babysitter. I would probably leave about 3:30pm so we'd only need a babysitter for 2 or 2.5 hours those days as Paul could get home at 5:30 or 6:00. I'd get home by 8:30pm. Realizing this might be possible, I checked the fall schedule to see if I could add another night class to my schedule. I found one that would work although I haven't taught it before. My department chair approved that schedule change so the plan now is that I will be teaching 75% of my usual load. I will teach Mon, Tues, and Thurs nights. I have choir rehearsal on Wednesday nights so I'll be out 4 nights in a row, but on Wednesdays I won't leave until 6:45pm (whereas I'll leave at 3pm on M, Tu, and Th). So I need to find a babysitter for the fall also to watch her 1-2 days a week from 3:00-6:00. I emailed a former student of mine who is student teaching this semester and goes to my new church to see if she was interested/available or if she could give me suggestions of other people to contact.

So the answer to prayer is that my schedule has been changed from three morning classes (MWF) and one evening class to three night classes. The new prayer request is to find babysitters who live nearby who could watch her in our house this summer and fall. I still am not sure how much leave to ask for. My benefits don't change whether I teach 50% or 75%. Either way I have to pay the extra $6,219 a year towards our health insurance, but my salary of course goes up if I teach 3 classes instead of 2 in the fall semester. I go back and forth in my mind whether to ask for 1 year of a 25% workload reduction or just the fall semester. I wish I knew if the ivf was going to work or not! Well I need to make my request fairly soon so I had better make up my mind! Any input is appreciated.

Today I went to Sears and picked up her pictures. I still love them!!! It was tempting to buy the additional prints they offer you when you pick up the ones you paid for, but I didn't as I think I purchased enough in my initial order. Paul's parents watched Nadia for 3 hours this afternoon so I could drive to work and attend faculty meeting. I gave them some pictures of course. While we were at the mall, I bought Nadia one 12 month outfit (shirt, jeans, jacket) from the clearance rack at Sears, and I bought her a puzzle (had a 40% off coupon) and three books at Borders. One book that is for later on is 128 pages long with many color illustrations for only $2.99 (by Beatrix Potter). It seems that most of my shopping lately is for our sweet little girl. :-)