Happy Birthday Grandpa!!!

This is our grandpa Gilmore. He came in one afternoon with this candle taped to his nose. "I sure like the smell of this thing" he says.

Our grandpa Gilmore is one in a million. We love him so much. Rich and I met and began dating about 15 ½ years ago (HOLY COW!). I have had that long to get to know Rich’s dad who we affectionately call “The Sir”. It has been a wonderful experience and there has been much joy in those years. I think the sir and I are kindred spirits with a similar sense of humor.

I have tons of funny stories but one of our favorites to laugh about happend one year at Christmas before Rich and I married. I was doing the twelve days of Christmas for Rich. Each night (or I guess it would have been morning since it was about 2am) I would sneak over to Richs house and leave a poem and a gift on Rich’s car.

One morning it had snowed. I do not like driving in the snow but, you do what you have to for the one you love, right! Anyway, I was a nervous wreck already and I go tippy toeing (at 2 am remember) up to Richs car trying to be stealth like, and reach up to put the gift on the roof of the car and WHAMO!The carport FLOOD lights turn on and I jump and duck down paralyzed with fear (Its funny now. I was so afraid Rich would find me and he totally knew it was me!).

“Who’s out there?!?” he says(kind of gruffly I might add, after all, he thought he was thwarting some sort of burglary in progress).

“It’s just me” I squeak back trying to reach up and wave from where I had dove for cover.

“Okay.” he chuckled

And the door closed and the light turned out. And that was it. But for some reason it is hysterical! I stood there shaking in my boots wondering why I was risking life and limb to do the twelve days of Christmas anyway, and he went in thinking some scary guy had been trying to break into their car,poor guy! I guess alls well that ends well.

There are so many stories about our funny grandpa. He always has a funny joke (notice I didn’t say a funny NEW joke) and a silly prank (see above photo) to keep us on our toes. But there is more to our grandpa than fun and games. He is a wonderful example of so many things. He has been a spiritual leader and teacher to many. One thing that I will be eternally grateful to him for is a lesson he taught his son without even knowing he was teaching.

My husband tells me he loves me about 300 times a day. As I pass him he will say “Hey, I love ya babe” or he comes up while I am working on a project and whispers in my ear that he loves me, he calls me from work to tell me he is thinking about me and loves me. I know that he learned this wonderful thing from his dad who is always telling ALL of us that he loves us. “Hey, I sure love ya.” He says. He was a wonderful example of love while Rich grew up and it has carried over to our family. I know that our home is better for it! Thank you sir, for all you do, for the example that you set, and for the choices you make for your family. We all love you! Happy Birthday!

One last thing…
Last night I had a dream I was eating giant marshmallows and when I woke up my pillows were gone!