My friends Kay and Brett came over today for a few hours and brought their new little guy Thomas along. He's a very good little boy; he sat in his high chair at the restaurant and ate his food and munched on his Cheerios. It was quite fun; I showed them the house and the neighborhood. We went down to the pier and then drove into Carlsbad and then back home.



About an hour after they left I heard my doorbell ring; it was three of the neighborhood girls. One of them piped up, "We want to make some money. Do you have something for us to do?"



I thought about it and decided to let them weed the rose bed and the other flower beds and rake the leaves in the front. I told them I'd pay them $5 to do the work. Since they were wearing their roller skates I told them to go home and put their shoes on and come back. When they returned I had laid out the tools and the trash can and they went to work.



Jenny, Rhonda and Wes' kid asked me, "Are you paying each of us $5?"



"No, you will share it, but to make it easier I will pay you $6, so each of you gets $2."



They were pretty excited about that. I went inside to get my jacket and when I came back Katy had joined the crew but was just standing around. "Katy, are you working or watching?" "I'm working." So now I had 4 kids at $2 a piece. Hmmm... this is getting expensive.



So I found another rake and told her to rake the leaves from under the bushes.



Rhonda came over and told me I was overpaying.



"Do you know what my hourly rate is?" I responded. She just laughed. I told her I was already $22 poorer because I bought two things for the Christa MacAuliff School music department fundraiser (2 $11 frozen pizzas) from Lea Ann.



She complimented me on my roses and I told her it was all due to my Mom, I had nothing to do with it. Then I asked her, "OK who are these kids? I know Katy and Jenny but who are the other two?"



When the kids were done they came in to wash their hands and get paid. I had four piles of money and I explained to them that each pile was the same value, but in different kinds of money. I had two piles of 2 $1 notes and two piles of 1 dollar coin and 4 quarters. The older kids took the notes and the younger kids took the coins. "Oh, wow, Sacajawea!"



So, 30 minutes later I had all my weeds pulled and the leaves raked. And now the kids know I'm a soft touch.