Meet Chase...

our YOUNGEST Challenge Contender!!

Age: 8

Grade: 3rd Grade

Hobbies: Soccer

He wants to play in the World Cup

He is pretty sure he is going to play in the world cup someday because he absolutely loves soccer, but he doesn't say "I want to be a proffessional Soccer player when I grow up" and then spend the rest of the day playing video games. He spends every free minute practicing, He plays soccer at recess, after school with his friends, and then in the back yard by himself once everyone has gone home. He seems to understand the concept that nothing comes easy, but that anything is possible, so he dreams big and then works his butt off to make it happen!

Hardest Part of the Challenge: Not being able to eat his Halloween Candy
His mom says she will often catch him at the kitchen table around 7:30 writing in his journal, finishing off his servings of fruits & veggies and guzzling the last of his water :) Sound familiar?

Why he did the Challenge: The MONEY!!

His mom said:

"He heard me talking to Matt about it and wanted in. He begged me all weekend long, and then Monday morning the day the challenge started he brought me in $15 of his own money and asked me to sign him up. When I asked if he was sure he wanted to do it he said "For the THOUSANDTH time YES!)"

His mom told this story to give a little insight into Chase:

"When he was 3 Matt (my husband) worked a graveyard shift so I would let Chase sleep with me every night. We were buds, we had our little routine, and Matt was gone anyway so why not right? Anyway, 6 months later Matt got a new job so we started trying to get him to sleep in his own room. We tried all sorts of bribes and threats but we just weren't getting anywhere so we decided we were just going to have to stick our foot down and make him sleep in his own room. He cried and got out, so we put a child lock on the inside of his door and put him back in. He cried and cried, and all the sudden his light turned on and he started playing so we opened the door found that he had used the drawers from the dresser to make a ladder so he could turn the light on, so we took out the bulb in his light put him in bed and left the room. He cried and cried and pooped his pants so that we would come get him out of his room. It is 1 in the morning by now, Matt has to start a new job the next day and this kid will not go to bed in his own room, but we knew if we gave in we would have to do it all over the next day so we kept with it. We took him out of his room, got him showered off (the water may or may not have been warm..) and put him back in his room. He cried and cried and and then we heard a loud thud followed by screaming, he jumped off his toy chest onto his head SERIOUSLY I'm not kidding, just to get us to come back in his room. We made sure his head was okay, and left the room. We sat out side his door thinking this has got to end sometime, at some point he's got to fall asleep from exhaustion but no such luck. At 3 am he was still begging us to open the door and let him come sleep with us in our room. Matt and I were at a loss, we opened the door and both walked back to our room and got in bed. He came in right behind us, hopped in bed cuddled up right behind me, gave me a kiss on the cheek and said "Night Mom, I Wub you" and fell asleep. Matt and I woke up the next morning in awe of the situation, and Matt said " All I can say is I hope we teach this kid good things, and he wants to do what's right because I'm pretty sure no one will be able to stop him from doing anything once he puts his mind to it."

Sounds like a pretty cool kid, and I have to say it motivated me, he even has an average of 65 points per week!! If an 8 year old could do this challenge than I have no excuses.