good old-fashioned advice

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABY!!!! it's my honey's birthday today....i'm going to write more about how i love to celebrate the day he was born.

my mil gave me this tonight and i love it:

"we tried to make things better for our kids that we made them worse. for our grandchildren, i'd like better.

i'd really like for them to know about hand-me clothes and homemade icecream and leftover meat loaf sandwiches.

i really would.

i hope you learn humility by being humiliated, and that you learn honesty by being cheated.

i hope you learn to make your own bed and mow the lawn and wash the car.

and i really hope nobody gives you a brand new car when you are sixteen.

it will be good if at least one time you can see puppies born and your old dog put to sleep.

i hope you have to share a bedroom with your younger brother/sister. and it's alright if you have to draw a line down the middle of the room but when he/she wants to crawl under the covers with you because he/she's scared, i hope you let him/her.

when you want to see a movie and your little brother/sister wants to tag along, i hope you'll let him/her.

i hope you have to walk uphill to school with your friends and that you live in a town where you can do it safely.

on rainy days when you have to catch a ride, i hope you don't ask your driver to drop you off two blocks away so you won't be seen riding with someone as uncool as your mom.

if you want a slingshot, i hope your dad teaches you how to make one instead of buying you one.

i hope you learn to dig in the dirt and read books.

when you learn to use computers, i hope you also learn how to add and subtract in your head.

i hope you get teased by your friends when you have your first crush on a boy/girl and when you talk back to your mother that you learn what ivory soap tastes like.

may you skin your knees climbing a mountain, burn your hand on a stove and stick your tongue on a frozen flagpole.

i don't care if you try beer once but i hope you don't like it. if a friend offers you dope or a joint, i hope you realize that he is not your friend.

i sure hope that you make time to sit on a porch with your grandparents and go fishing with your uncle.

may you feel sorrow at a funeral and joy during the holidays.

i hope your mother punishes you when you throw a baseball through your neighbor's window and that she hugs you and kisses you at hannukah/christmas time when you give her a plaster mold of your hand.

these things i wish for you-tough times and disappointment, hard work and happiness.

to me, it's the only way to appreciate life.

written with a pen. sealed with a kiss.

i'm here for you.

and if i die before you do, i'll go to heaven and wait for you. "

paul harvey