What she will do for a pair of cowboy boots

Going to school with a big grin on her face since she got to wear her new boots!

(the back story)

Rachel has been wanting a pair of cowboy boots for quite a while now.  Why? Because we live on the rez, and "all" of her friends have them.  Plus--every year they do a whole month of dress up days and one of the days is cowboy day--and she "really, really, really" wished she had boots to wear.  And in all honesty I have been wanting to buy her some as well, because if you are going to truely live like the locals--then it appears to be a necessity.  If she has to go to school and be one of the only white kids, and learn navajo, she might as well get to wear coyboy boots ...right?!  

The only problem is they are expensive, about $50.  And since she has a zillion other shoes  (not sure how, but I think she has more shoes than me--school shoes, running shoes, sandals, nice shoes from weddings, snow boots, shoes bought by grandparents/aunts and hand-me-down shoes from her cousin).  So I thought about getting her some boots for Christmas, but my logical self decided against it.  

Fast forward to last weekend and we were in Phoenix.  I took her to a used clothing store to buy her some more pants and she saw these boots, just her luck--they were her size and only $20. (more than all three pairs of pants I bought combined).   So we came up with a deal and that was she could have them if she paid for them herself with her allowance.  So she had ten dollars already and I had a perfect idea for a chore that could quickly earn her the other half... picking up dog poop.   Let's just say that it has been a long while since it has been cleaned up (I seriously thought about going out there a few times and then it would snow and get all covered up--not my fault-right? :)   

She agreed to the terms so I bought the boots and she needed to finish the chore before she got to wear them.  (Sam was not a fan that I was teaching her that she could buy things on "credit" but c'mon, we live in the middle of nowhere and can't come back in two days when she earns the money--so I won that battle.)  So if you can believe it she was soooo excited to clean up poop that very night when we got back to Chinle.   unfortunately when we got back it was already too dark and she was crying because she couldn't pick up dog poop  (since it meant she couldn't wear her boots the next day to school.)  Then the next day after she got home from school she rushed home and changed and ran outside with a trash can and a shovel.  I was so proud of her for being excited to do a chore to work for something she really wanted.  

I went out to check on her a while later, and she was crying while scooping poop in the trash can, and when she saw me she said "This is disgusting!!"  and I had to hold back my laughter--because now she was crying because she was cleaning up poop.   She stuck with it and after spending about an hour out there two different days she FINALLY earned the money and got to wear her boots today. 

As you can see, it was definitely worth documenting :)