Must be responsible, love children, and possess mad julienning skillz

We've started using an after school babysitter on occasion, and my kids adore her, not surprisingly, as she is young, cute, and energetic. I love her because she's mature, responsible, and naturally great with kids. The first few times she sat for us, she told me that I should leave a list for her of things that need to be done around the house and she'd be happy to tackle it while the kids were doing their homework. I kind of blew it off, but she was persistent. So eventually I started leaving her a list that looked something like this:

"Hey Courtney! IF you have time (but seriously, only if you have time) there are clean dishes in the dishwasher -- if you can put them away that would be great, but it is definitely not necessary so DO NOT worry about it if you can't get to it! Thanks!"

Well, despite the numerous outs that I attempted to give her, unloading the dishwasher proved to be no match for Courtney, so the next time she sat I left another note.

"Hi Courtney! Well, once again there are clean dishes in the dishwasher --go figure! -- so if you have time to unload, that would be awesome. Also, there is some clean laundry in a basket in the den that could stand to be folded -- but obviously, none of this is remotely essential so it is totally fine if there isn't time! Thanks! :-) Cathy"

Well, you guessed it, Courtney handled the children plus dishes plus laundry with aplomb. It was clearly time to see what she was really made of.

"Hi Courtney! I ran the dishwasher this morning so the dishes should be clean -- if you can put them away, that would be great. Thank you!! Also, there is some clean laundry in a basket in the den and some more in the dryer, if you have time (and you may well not!), would you mind folding? Also, I left a couple of sweet potatoes on the counter; I was going to make sweet potato fries to go with dinner tonight. Do you think you can peel the potatoes and cut them into kind of fry-like strips? Thank you SO much! Cathy"

And I came home to this:



Ohmygosh!! This must be what it's like to have a wife!! To come home at the end of a long day to an empty dishwasher, folded laundry and perfectly uniform sweet potato strips.

She graduates this spring and is moving back to Kentucky. I will weep.