Olivia the Lab Rat

I love the Mommas in my playgroup. Not only are they reassuring, funny, and fun to commiserate with but, they are always a wealth of information. Most recently, one of my friends clued me into doing market research. There is a company here in St. Louis that does market research for consumer product companies and often need participants. And the participants get paid! A couple of the playgroup moms have done diaper studies with them and told me it was an easy way to earn some extra cash. So I signed up with the company and a few days later got called. This week Olivia and I helped out with a study about size 3 diapers. We drove to their office 3 days this week for 2 hour sessions where Olivia wore the diapers they were testing. Unfortunately, Aidan wasn't able to go with me as they had a clear "no sibling" policy however, finding places for him to go didn't prove to be too hard. So, we went to their office, where Olivia hung out with out her pants on, wearing the "test" diaper, playing with other kids. They measured how the diaper fit on her and then put saline into the front of her diaper. We were sent off to the playroom for a while and then we were measured again and filled with more saline. At this point, the diaper was looking a little squishy and this was usually when the kids got a little fussy. After the designated time had passed, we were measured again, given a fresh diaper and then free to go. Pretty easy work. We did that Tuesday, Thursday, Friday this week and on Friday, we walked out with our check for $240. Woohoo!! This is my first "paycheck" in over 3 years and it felt kind of nice. Julien asked me what I was going to do with my new found wealth. I assumed it would go towards bills. Julien said I earned it and it was my money so I could do what I wanted with it. I have decided that it will go towards the playset fund. Now if I could get into another study that would just about pay for the whole thing. Here's hoping they give me another call!