The Money's in the Can!

Richard has always been a "saver". He likes to collect his money with a specific goal in mind. Over the years he has purchased numerous video games, scout equipment, and even his own Game Boy SP! The time I remember with the most fondness happened several years ago when he was about 6 years old. He wanted to buy the Poke'mon Red game for our Game Boy Color. He saved his birthday money and all of the spare change he could find for about a year and finally had saved enough! He could hardly be patient enough to wait for a Saturday when we could drive into Orem (yes, not so long ago American Fork did not even have a Wal Mart!) to Toys'R Us. He marched in carrying his Large Tootsie Roll penny bank and went straight to the video section. He asked the man behind the register if he could come with him to get the game out of the locked case. When it was retrieved we walked back to the register with Richard and the man looked at US and asked, "and how will you be paying for that today?" I pointed to my son and said, "HE will be paying cash, thank you!" Richard then opened the Tootsie Roll can and dumped out all of his money, $35.00. He told the man that he had been saving for a long time and was very excited to be buying the game. They man looked surprised and then said, "well let's all help you count it and we can get you going!" After the game was purchased he told Richard that he was proud of him. He said he sees so many spoiled and selfish kids in the store every week that it was refreshing to see a boy who did not expect his parents to pay for something he wanted so badly! He congratulated Richard and told him to keep right on saving...which he has! Today he went to Target and with birthday money and Lawn mowing earnings he bought his own Nintendo D.S. and a game to go with it!

The thing that makes me most pleased with my son is that he has worked REALLY hard for this one. Lawn mowing is hot, itchy, and long! He has taken over the duty from his Dad and we pay him for it. He wanted to speed up the process so last week he hired himself out to his Scoutmaster. Brother Davis' lawn is as large as ours because we are back to back on corner lots. Richard couldn't get it done on Labor Day as he had planned because of the rain and so he had to wait two more days and was that lawn ever thick and long! I really felt sorry for him as he went out after dinner to get it done. I heard that mower going and going and going. Pretty soon the sun was down and it was still going! Sister Davis told me later that they tried to get him to stop after it had gotten dark. They said he could come back the next day to finish but he told them he wanted to finish what he had started and he really didn't mind.

I am proud of my boy! He is so sweet and good and always wants to do the right thing. I am glad he came to our houseful of girls and has added "balance to the Force"! We love him!