New Sitter….

February 18th, 2008 at 12:14 pm

Saturday dh and I went to a friend’s house for dinner. It was potluck.. so I was asked to bring my garlic breadsticks and dipping sauce. There was this fantastic spinach salad with sliced almonds and cranberries, a couscous dish, some meatballs in sauce, some ribs.. it was all delicious. Anyways… that evening was the first night with our new sitter, who is a 14 year old nerdy girl who lives literally across the street. I love nerds. I am a nerd. Go Band Camp!! seriously though… I was impressed. With all the Prosti-Tots roaming the streets with their thongs hanging out and their skirts touching their earlobes… this one just about had Rainbow Brite on her sweater, and carebears embroidered on her jeans. I was thinking… SCORE! THIS one won’t go dipping into my bar! She came over at 6:30, with her mom. Cute. So I chit chatted with the mom for a while, until she must have decided we weren’t some predators out to get her precious daughter, and finally left, eyeing the inside of our house like she wanted a tour. So we gave the sitter the rundown of what was going on with the kids currently, what to do with the dog, where the snacks were, etc…

At this point in time, both Zacharie and Emilie were in their beds, although not sleeping. Naomie had taken a late nap, so she was watching a Dora video in the living room. The dog was outside. It’s 6:45. I told her that Naomie must be in bed by 7:30, and that’s the time where we start paying her 6$ an hour, and that she can let the dog in at that time… if she doesn’t want the dog to be roaming the house, I told her she could put her in her cage, showed her where it was… and said she could give the dog a cookie to lure her in her cage.

So around 9pm, I get a phone call on my cell, saying the dog won’t stop crying. I ask where the dog was - she said the dog was right there with her… I asked if she had put her up in her cage, she said she did for a while, but she let her out. So it being 9pm, a couple hours after the dog was last outside… I ask her if she’d let the dog out to pee? She said… no…. I said let her out to pee… and then give her a cookie. She said she’d already given the dog a couple treats, so I said ok well then skip the cookie, she’s had enough for the day..and we’ll let the dog in when we get home. (it wasn’t too cold out, the dog was fine. ;) )

I must mention that when we first met our sitter, she had given us a slip of paper with her “fees”. 5$ an hour, for one child. 2$ for every additional child. Um… that’s 9$ for us. I had told her, when I first talked to her, that it is more than what I am willing to pay, especially that most of the babysitting she will be doing for us is when the kids are sleeping or just about bedtime… and so I don’t see why I should pay 9$ for her to watch tv…especially that if the kids wake up, they won’t wake up more than 1 at a time…. so I told her that unless she was willing to negotiate, she was too expensive for me. Of COURSE, as expected, she’s all “Oh we can negotiate!!”. Final price? 10$ while awake… 6$ while sleeping… and bedtime’s at 7pm… we give it to 7:30 at 10$ / hour. She cost us 31$… whereas our old sitter would have cost us 40$. Big savings? no. But, this one has a curfew of 11:30 pm and so it keeps us honest and home by then….and so savings in spending at whatever location we happen to find ourselves after midnight. Eww.

So we go home, pay her, she walks home across the street while we “keep an eye on her to make sure she gets in ok”…… (LMAO) And we chill for a bit, and then go to bed. The next morning, I go to give the dog a treat. I can’t find the container in it’s place. I’m looking… looking… of course I’m looking for a clear container with dog treats in it… I didn’t notice the EMPTY clear container on the counter…

The little twit gave the dog, no joke, at least 60 treats in the course of TWO HOURS. I couldn’t believe it!!!!! So around noon, I give her a call, and ask how it went, since we didn’t really have a chance to talk when we got home and she left.. she said everythign went fine.. I asked her how many dog treats she gave the dog… she said “quite a few”… quite a few… no kidding, quite a few… no kidding the dog was crying, probably had a belly ache, quite a few… anyways I mentionned that the next time, to not give the dog more than 3 treats in the course of the evening, because I didn’t want the dog to get sick, I told her that the treats were “like vitamins” and if she has too many, she can get sick. Band Camp Girl was ok with that… apologized, and said she’d only give her a few next time. Ahhh…innocence.

Her, I definitely won’t be worried about a snuck in boyfriend. Oye…

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Garlic Bread Sticks

-3 cups flour

-1 teaspoon salt

-1 teaspoon garlic powder ( I usually add 2, I really love garlic. :) )

-1 tablespoon baking powder

-1 cup milk

-1/2 cup margarine

-1 more teaspoon garlic powder

-1/2 teaspoon salt (optional)

1) Dump your flour, salt, garlic powder and baking powder into it. Stir them up. Add the milk. Stir it up to make a ball. If not :sticky” enough.. add milk, one tablespoon at a time. Stir between.

2) If you add too much milk… dust the ball with a little flour. You’ll get it eventually. lol

3) Gently knead the ball of dough for about 30 seconds (5 or 6 times)

4) Put the dough on the counter… roll it into an approximate rectangle shape the size of the pan you’ll be using (9×13).

5) in the meantime… melt your margarine in the pan, in the oven at 425. When it’s melted, take it out of the oven, sprinkle the 2nd tsp of garlic powder and salt in the bottom, and plop (carefully) your rectangle shaped dough into the pan.

6) Cut the rectangle of dough into strips with a sharp knife…make sure you get all the way through. Strips should be about 4 inches long and about 1 inch wide.. whatever you want, really. I like them thin, to dip. The margarine will start to come through…that’s GOOD.

7) Bake for 20 minutes at 425. They will be a little brown and crispy. They’re fantastic dipped in spaghetti sauce….