* A Good Family

I got the thought below from a teacher friend. I would like to give it to every parent at the hospital before they take their newborn child home!

A good family loves you in spite of your faults...
In a good family you can say what you really feel...
A good family sticks up for your.
A good family takes care of your physical needs--- food, shelter, medical care.
In a good family you have some privacy.
In a good family you can be your best, and worst self.
A good family teaches you right from wrong.
A good family teaches you what is important in life.
In a good family people will listen to you and respect your honest questions.
In a good family you have some definite responsibilities...

In an inadequate family:
People expect you to be polite and clean all the time...
Everybody knows you too well...
People are always fighting with you or yelling at you.
There are too many rules and regulations.
There is not enough freedome.
People expect you to be perfect.
You can't ever win an argument...

* The Price of Children

My dad sent this to me... This is just too good not to pass on to all. Here is something absolutely positive for a change. I have repeatedly seen the breakdown of the cost of raising a child, but this is the first time I have seen the rewards listed this way. It's nice. Love, Dad

The Price of Children

The government recently calculated the cost of raising a child from birth to 18 and came up with $160,140.00 for a middle income family. Talk about price shock! That doesn't even touch college tuition.But $160,140.00 isn't so bad if you break it down. It translates into:
* $8,896.66 a year,
* $741.38 a month,
* $171.08 a week.
* A mere $24.24 a day!
* Just over a dollar an hour.

Still, you might think the best financial advice is; don't have children if you want to be 'rich.'

Actually, it is just the opposite.

What do you get for your $160,140.00?

* Naming rights. First, middle, and last!
* Glimpses of God every day.
* Giggles under the covers every night.
* More love than your heart can hold.
* Butterfly kisses and Velcro hugs.
* Endless wonder over rocks, ants, clouds, and warm cookies.
* A hand to hold usually covered with jelly or chocolate.
* A partner for blowing bubbles and flying kites.
* Someone to laugh yourself silly with, no matter what the boss said or how your stocks performed that day.

For $160,140.00, you never have to grow up. You get to:

* finger-paint,
* carve pumpkins,
* play hide-and-seek,
* catch lightning bugs,
* never stop believing in Santa Claus.

You have an excuse to:
* keep reading the Adventures of Piglet and Pooh,
* watch Saturday morning cartoons,
* go to Disney movies, and
* wish on stars.

You get to frame rainbows, hearts, and flowers under refrigerator magnets and collect spray painted noodle wreaths for Christmas, hand prints set in clay for Mother's Day, and cards with backward letters for Father's Day.

For a mere $24.24 a day, there is no greater bang for your buck.

You get to be a hero just for:

* retrieving a Frisbee off the garage roof,
* taking the training wheels off a bike,
* removing a splinter,* filling a wading pool,
* coaxing a wad of gum out of bangs, and
* coaching a baseball team that never wins but always gets treated to ice cream regardless.

You get a front row seat in history to witness the:

* First step,
* First word,
* First bra,
* First date,
* First time behind the wheel.

You get to be immortal.

You get another branch added to your family tree, and if you're lucky, a long list of limbs in your obituary called grandchildren and great grandchildren.

You get an education in psychology, nursing, criminal justice, communications, and human sexuality that no college can match.In the eyes of a child, you rank right up there under God.

You have all the power to heal a boo-boo, scare away the monsters under the bed, patch a broken heart, police a slumber party, ground them forever, and love them without limits, so one day they will, like you, love without counting the cost.

That is quite a deal for the price!!!!!!!
Love & enjoy your children & grandchildren & great-grandchildren!!!!!!!
It's the best investment you'll ever make!!!!!!!!!

* Lunch

We had great fun going to lunch together! APPLEBEES! Yummy food and "just the girls!"

Make a Smilebox slideshow

* F A M I L Y: A boy and flowers for his mom...

F A M I L Y

I ran into a stranger as he passed by,

'Oh excuse me please' was my reply.

He said, 'Please excuse me too; I wasn't watching for you.'

We were very polite, this stranger and I.

We went on our way and we said goodbye.

But at home a different story is told, How we treat our loved ones, young and old.

Later that day, cooking the evening meal,

My son stood beside me very still.

When I turned, I nearly knocked him down.

'Move out of the way,' I said with a frown. He walked away, his little heart broken.

I didn 't realize how harshly I'd spoken.

While I lay awake in bed,

God's still small voice came to me and said,

While dealing with a stranger, common courtesy you use,

but the family you love, you seem to abuse.

Go and look on the kitchen floor,

You'll find some flowers there by the door.

Those are the flowers he brought for you.

He picked them himself: pink, yellow and blue.

He stood very quietly not to spoil the surprise,

you never saw the tears that filled his little eyes.

' By this time, I felt very small,

And now my tears began to fall.

I quietly we nt and knelt by his bed;

'Wake up, little one, wake up,' I said.

'Are these the flowers you picked for me?'

He smiled, 'I found 'em, out by the tree.

I picked 'em because they're pretty like you.

I knew you'd like 'em, especially the blue.'

I said, 'Son, I'm very sorry for the way I acted today;

I shouldn't have yelled at you that way.' He said,

'Oh, Mom, that's okay. I love you anyway.'

I said, 'Son, I love you too, and I do like the flowers,

especially the blue.'

FAMILY Are you aware that if we died tomorrow,

the company that we are working for could easily replace us in a matter of days.

But the family we left behind will feel the loss

for the rest of their lives. And come to think of it, we pour ourselves more into work

than into our own family, an unwise investment indeed,

don't you think?

So what is behind the story?

Do you know what the word FAMILY means?

FAMILY = (F)ATHER (A)ND (M)OTHER (I) (L)OVE (Y)OU