Let's be honest...after all of this work, I'm totally expecting the second coming of Mary Poppins here.

It looks as though the prolonged nanny search has officially come to an end! We've found someone long-term to cover our open Thursdays time slot with little Miss B! Of course, that's if, by long-term, you mean August-October, with a break in November for some full-time student teaching, then back on again in December, until we lose her to more student teaching in her final semester of school! And considering we've been going week-to-week here for a couple of months, I absolutely consider that long-term.

This is how far I've fallen.

The search, it has done me in, that's for sure. We've joined childcare provider websites. We've posted the job three times. We've had a ton of applicants. We've done several interviews. We found one lady that seemed like a great fit for us, until we discovered she'd been married five times. And I'm not sure that would have been a deal breaker for us, had her nanny profile not made it seem like she had been married to one man for 30 years. Interestingly enough, a creatively worded profile designed to hide some past life choices you'd wish to forget is not what I'm looking for when I'm hiring someone to watch my child. In my house. Without me around.

But it's all over now, at least for the next five months. We found not one, but TWO people that we liked in this phase of job postings, and I've made the offer to one of the candidates, and she's accepted, and I couldn't be happier. Except for that part where I now have to call the other person that I really, really liked, and tell her that while I really, really liked her, I just really, really liked the other girl better. And that kind of sucks. It's like having the break-up conversation, and do you know how long it's been since I've had the break-up conversation? Let's just say it's been awhile. I'm out of practice, and to be honest, I wasn't really all that good at it in the first place. I don't know how the kids are doing it these days. Can I still use the 'It's not you, it's me' and the 'I'd like it if we could still be friends' (or in this case, 'I'd like it if I could still call you to baby-sit in the evenings sometimes') lines?

Or better yet, can't I just pawn this whole thing off on my husband instead? That seems like a much better option to me...

*****

PS: Brigid and I are leaving for Indiana this week, to spend a few days at the parental compound, which is waaaay out in the country. The kind of country where anything beyond a dial-up internet connection does not exist. So...yeah. See you next week, I guess.