Brooke Burke Charvet: Blended Families Are ‘Challenging’

Despite her best efforts, there is no method toBrooke Burke Charvet‘s madness.

“I wish I were always calm in the chaos. I have children with very strong personalities, and as elating as that is, it can also be deflating,” theDancing With the Stars co-host, 40, says inFitness‘s January issue.

“There’s a lot of action in my household and sometimes I’m a referee all day long.”

Mom to Neriah Shae, 11, and Sierra Sky, 9½, with ex-husband Garth Fisher, and Heaven Rain, 4½, and Shaya Braven, 3½, with husband David Charvet, Burke Charvet has made it no secret that bringing her family together has been anything but easy.

“Having a blended family is a challenge. Two of my children are with their father part of the week, so when they come home they want me all to themselves,” she shares.

“Then my other two children, who have had me all to themselves, suddenly have to share me and that can make them very needy.”

Often found walking around the Dancing set greeting the crew, Burke Charvet’s friendliness stems from the demands of raising her four children.

“As a mother, I hardly ever get a thank you. Nobody ever says, ‘Thanks for getting up early and making me that lunch, Mom. I enjoyed what was in my lunchbox today,’” she explains. “So when I do hear that from my kids, it feels really good. Maybe that’s why I treat the people I work with well.”

Over the years, the former model has learned to “roll” with her hectic lifestyle — which also includes work on her blog, Modern Mom — and schedule slots for sleep whenever possible!

“My two younger kids always end up in our bed in the middle of the night,” Burke Charvet admits, adding that she aims for six to eight hours of sleep a night.

“I think that sleep deprivation is a really bad thing for a woman, not only for her skin and eyes, but also for her mood, memory, metabolism, energy, and sex drive. David and I have done ‘sleepcations,’ where we check into a hotel room simply to be alone and sleep.”

But despite her ability to juggle it all, and still dazzle in front of the cameras in the ballroom, Burke Charvet reveals she isn’t a stranger to insecurities of her own.

“My biggest frustration is that I developed bad melasma when I was pregnant with my son. It’s like having a mask on your face. I did peels; I did lasers; I tried every product and saw every doctor,” she recalls.

“Nothing worked. I never used to wear makeup when I wasn’t working. Now I can’t leave the house without thick cover-up, which stinks. I do my best not to focus on it.”

– Anya Leon

Google’s seasonal Easter egg: ‘Let it snow’

Summary: Google’s latest ‘Easter egg’ shows off the search giant’s fluffy side, by letting it snow over a users’ search results.

Google, in keeping with adding hidden search result features to entertain the masses, has released a latest coded search result to celebrate the seasonal holiday.

While many in England will be wondering why Google is shimmering its search results with snow, considering the average temperature is comparable to a warm summer’s day in Scotland (still cold, but not cold enough), Google is marking the festive season as we lead up to the last shopping days before Christmas.

To see Google’s frosty, snowy surprise, type in: “let it snow” in the search engine.

U.S. Senate Passes Unemployment Extension

The U.S. Senate passed a bill which had a provision for renewed unemployment extension benefits.  Florida's U.S. Senator Bill Nelson voted for the bill while Senator Marco Rubio voted against the bill.

Following his vote against H.R. 2055, the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2012, Senator Marco Rubio issued the following statement:

“This massive 1,200-plus page bill represents everything that is wrong with Washington. Our country faces major economic challenges, but Congress wasted the whole year stuck in partisan gridlock only to pass a funding bill that solves none of our problems, just to avoid a government shutdown.  This plan spends too much, wastes precious taxpayer dollars to fund a menu of job-killing regulations, anti-life provisions and earmarks, and has been ushered through Congress in a highly secretive and non-transparent manner that didn’t allow for consideration of even a single amendment. I cannot support it.”

Both of Brevard County's U.S. Representatives, Sandy Adams an Bill Posey, voted against the U.S. House of Representative's version of the bill.
 

Citing deficit concerns, Representative Bill Posey issued the following statements as to why he voted against the bill:

 

“Too many in Washington still do not take seriously $1.4 trillion annual budget deficits, adding billions of dollars each and every day to our nation's $15 trillion national debt.  Americans watch in disbelief as Europe heads toward economic and social meltdown brought on by years of spending borrowed money.  This bill failed to exercise the restraint needed to get our own budget in order.

The decision to abandon the 72-hour requirement for this 1200-page bill and rush through a stack of spending bills that should have been subjected to thorough review is disappointing.  It’s been almost three years since the U.S. Senate has approved a budget. Senate leaders have once again waited until the last minute to consider appropriations bills, which begs the question: just what have they been doing all year besides having dozens of votes on raising taxes?

More American’s are finding themselves without work each and every day as businesses are strangled by regulation and saddled with thousands of dollars of compliance costs. It is imperative that the Senate take up and consider some of the jobs bills we have sent them so that American businesses can grow, expand and hire American workers.

The House, and more importantly, the Senate, should hit the ground running next year and work together to stop Washington's wasteful spending and bring accountability to Washington. Let’s learn from Europe's mistakes and turn things around while we can rather than rushing headlong into the same disaster.”  

In related Florida Unemployment Extension news, Governor Rick Scott is basking in recently improving Florida Unemployment statistics.

The unemployment rate and job numbers for November 2011 were released last Friday showing unemployment down two percentage points since Governor Scott took office and down 0.4 percentage points from October 2011.

According to the Governor's office, a total of 8,500 new jobs were added in November, which makes the total net new jobs for the year more than 120,000.

“We are continuing to move Florida in the right direction by streamlining government, eliminating burdensome regulations, identifying economic development opportunities and prioritizing education,” said Governor Scott. “I am hopeful that we will see Florida’s unemployment rate continue to decline as jobs grow and more Floridians find work.”