Hard WORK Paid Off

Cole worked so hard doing chores and finally earned enough money to buy his Dinoco trailer. Russ made a deal with Cole that he would pay for half of it -- the darn toy cost $22, and since he was only paid .25 cents for each chore, it took a while! But, after about a month of chores (he had to do 50 total) he reached his goal. The only problem: the stores were all out of the Dinoco trailers. Uuuggghhh!

This toy is an exclusive of Target, so you can only get it there. I wanted Cole to earn the money and then go to the store and buy it after he had enough (I'm trying to teach a principle, right?). I wanted him to feel good about all of his hard work when he got it. I called all the Target stores in the area and none of them had the trailer. So, I got online. I had seen it on target.com a few days prior, but when I looked again they were not even available online. Uuuggghhh!

So, now what do I do? Here I am trying to teach a great principle about the rewards of working and the reward is available. At this point I seriously started praying for a solution. I didn't know what to do. Russ went on a weekend trip with his brothers, brother-in-law, and father to Texas (more on that on another post...), so I begged him to try and find a Target in his travels. He sent me a text that said, "How much do you love me?" and a picture with his brother, Bryan, holding the Dinoco trailer. Yes-- success!! Even if we had to go to Texas to get it, it was worth it! After I picked Cole up from preschool I just handed him my cell phone and he took one look at the picture and squealed. To say he was thrilled is a huge understatement. Off and on for the rest of the day he check the picture on my phone, just to make sure it was really still there.

Russ got home last Sunday night, so on Monday morning Cole raced into our room and Russ gave the Dinoco trailer to him. Russ told me that he was so excited, but put the trailer down, ran over to him, and gave him a big hug and said, "Thanks, Dad!" We just can't get over how grateful he was, amid the excitement. So, I guess all in all this has been a great lesson for all of us. I am so proud to have such a darling little guy as my son... how did I ever get to lucky?

Here is the Dinoco trailer -- so glad to have it in his little hands!


Cole even had to sleep by his new trailer on Monday night.


The trucks all arranged and ready for bed