He would have been 76 today.

I know I have been slacking on my blog, and I am going to work on catching it up. I just wanted to write today a little bit about my grandpa--Robert Bluemel.

Today is his birthday--May 13th. He would have been 76 years old today. I miss him so much! He was the best grandpa ever. I look at my girls some days and think of how much they would have just loved him. I wish he was still here to teach them all of the things they would need to know about horses, and life.

He would come down to our house almost daily, and honk the horn out front until somebody came outside. I remember looking forward to him coming. He taught us so much, we learned how to ride horses with our grandpa. I remember getting bucked off and falling in the corral face first in the horse poop and he'd yell at ya and tell you to get up and get back on the horse. I remember loving when he would help people push cows, and we would get to go with him and it was so much fun.

I have so many fond memories of him. He loved us so much, and he did not care what my mom thought, he would give us whatever we wanted and if we ever needed anything or a ride anywhere he was always there. I remember the roads used to flood at the ranch (where my mom lives now) and the water would cover the road and flow across it like a river in many spots. Grandpa would tell us grandkids to roll down our windows and hold on tight. He would drive as fast as he could through the water and it would splash up and splash us all over in the car. We would all laugh and laugh and thought it was so much fun. Of course grandma did not think it was so funny, but grandpa always did it anyway. :)

I remember that anytime grandpa got stuck, they would owe everyone twinkies. We used to hope that grandpa would get stuck on the tractor down in the field so that he would have to buy us all some twinkies.

He taught me about the "swift kick in the butt". If you weren't doing what you were supposed to be, grandpa would fold his tongue over and bite it, and grab onto you and kick you in the butt. He also taught me how to drive. I remember being 14 and he took me in their huge chevy astro van out to turtle hill. It was a stick shift and I remember being so nervous going down the hill! He would also have us drive the "rice rocket" into the field when he was haying and take him some lunch.

I remember my mom getting so mad when he would have water fights with cups in the house! He would get a cup out of the cupboard and fill it with water, and then just fling it on someone making a huge mess everywhere. My mom would get sooo mad!

I remember as a kid he would get all of us grandkids to shovel the horse poop out of the barn. It was quite a task...and he told us he'd take us for ice cream sundaes if we shoveled it all out. We were kids, of course we thought that was a great deal! Boy when I think back about it now man for doing that job I think we deserved 10 sundaes! LOL! But grandpa always got us to do it, and he would take us to harold's to get an ice cream sundae when we were done.

I miss him a lot and there are a lot of days when I just think "man, I wish grandpa would pull up at my house and honk the horn" It's funny how when they are doing something like that at the time you hate it and roll your eyes, but once they are gone you'd give anything to have them do the thing you once most hated, just so they would be here again. I just really hope he knows how much I love him and miss him, and I cannot wait to get to see him again some day.