I'm married to a senior citizen.

My dear husband turned 65 this past Sunday.  I thought I would help him embrace his becoming a "senior" with a few advantages he now has over the rest of us young whippersnappers.


Some Advantages To Turning 65


People no longer consider you a hypochondriac.

Your assorted joints can forecast weather changes.

No one expects you to run into a burning building.

There's nothing left to learn the hard way.

Your secrets are safe with your friends because they can't remember them.

In a hostage situation you're likely to be released first.

You enjoy hearing about other people's operations.

Your investment in health insurance is finally beginning to pay off.

You quit trying to hold your stomach in, no matter who walks in the room.

Kidnappers are not very interested in you.

Your eyes won't get much worse.

You can sing along with elevator music.

Happy Birthday, Honey!  Looking forward to spending my golden years with you ... but you have a while to wait for me (grinning).

Vacation Days - Faster Than a Speeding Bullet

Having just returned from ten days of vacation, I sit here and wonder, "where the heck did the time go to?"  The weeks leading up to my vacation seemed to just drag, and then a few days before with preparation and anticipation, there seemed to be less than adequate hours available in order to get things done. Then BAM, we're on the airplane heading out of town and anticipating some fabulous memory-making days ahead.  I found the following article about why time seems to fly faster the older we get.  I thought the author made some really good points of fact.




As people get older, "they just have this sense, this feeling that time is going faster than they are," says Warren Meck, a psychology professor at Duke University.


This seems to be true across cultures, across time, all over the world.

No one is sure where this feeling comes from.

Scientists have theories, of course, and one of them is that when you experience something for the very first time, more details, more information gets stored in your memory. Think about your first kiss.

Neuroscientist David Eagleman of Baylor College of Medicine says that since the touch of the lips, the excitement, the taste, the smell — everything about this moment is novel — you aren't embroidering a bank of previous experiences, you are starting fresh.

Have you noticed, he says, that when you recall your first kisses, early birthdays, your earliest summer vacations, they seem to be in slow motion? "I know when I look back on a childhood summer, it seems to have lasted forever," he says.

That's because when it's the "first", there are so many things to remember. The list of encoded memories is so dense, reading them back gives you a feeling that they must have taken forever. But that's an illusion. "It's a construction of the brain," says Eagleman. "The more memory you have of something, you think, 'Wow, that really took a long time!'

"Of course, you can see this in everyday life," says Eagleman, "when you drive to your new workplace for the first time and it seems to take a really long time to get there. But when you drive back and forth to your work every day after that, it takes no time at all, because you're not really writing it down anymore. There's nothing novel about it."

That may be because the brain records new experiences — especially novel and exciting experiences — differently. This is even measurable. Eagleman's lab has found that brains use more energy to represent a memory when the memory is novel.

So, first memories are dense. The routines of later life are sketchy. The past wasn't really slower than the present. It just feels that way.

Older people have novel experiences — lots of them. Some of us have crazier middle ages than youths. We fall in love, out of love. Then our parenting years are filled with watching our babies' first thises, first thats. Retired people travel — if they can afford to — to duplicate some of those rushes of novel experiences.

Yes, it's true, the youngest years are chock full of novelty, but Duke's Warren Meck points out that when you hit your 60s and 70s, and time is beginning to run out, experiences get more precious and once again you remember all the details.

So take this "novelty" explanation for why time moves faster as you age and weigh it as you will.

So Proud to be an American

Vacations - Yep - They're Like This!

This is my final day of vacation and I can so relate to the photo below.  Sterling and I left last Friday for Denver and had a FABULOUS time with my son and daughter-in-law at their home in Parker. My son is a wonderful cook, and we landed in time for dinner, which he was cooking as we drove in. He has such a way with grilled foods and we had a delicious dinner of bison burgers, chicken burgers and seasoned grilled veggies. 





But it didn't stop there!  We spent Saturday at a beer sampling event at Tipsy's where all the Colorado micro breweries had booths where you could sample their different beers.  While I'm not a beer lover, and my son doesn't drink either, we enjoyed watching our two significants hop from booth to booth.  Sunday we had yet another relaxing day.  My son prepared a pasta dish I had found on Pinterest which had fresh asparagus, penne pasta, and a sweetened butter balsalmic vinegar dressing. It turned out QUITE tasty! 

Monday we rented a car and spent two glorious days up in the mountains at Black Hawk. There really is something so therapeutic about sitting on a veranda, sipping a Starbucks with the crisp mountain air and tall pines surrounding you.  Wednesday we drove back down the mountain and met the kids for a delicious lunch at the Elephant Bar and then headed to the airport for our return to reality.

Of course, with vacations comes cleanup and laundry, which I did on Thursday, along with making a trip over to Whole Foods to stock up on some groceries!

Tonight we're having my nephew and his fiance and daughter over for a belated birthday dinner.  I'm making my famous lasagna and apple crisp for dinner.  Also making some monster M&M cookies for his daughter, Hailey, to enjoy. 

And then tomorrow kicks off the holiday weekend, and we're having the family over on Monday for an afternoon cookout.  I'm also hoping to get in a few hours of crafting on Saturday.

And Sunday my hubby turns 65.  Not sure yet what we'll be doing, but I'll do my best to make it a special day for him.

Wishing everyone a safe and fun Memorial Day weekend!

Oopps ... I did it again!

Seriously, there is nothing quite like seeing something you've created premiered in a prestigious papercrafting magazine.  I was so delighted and surprised to see yet another one of my card creations chosen to be published in the Spring 2012 Stampington & Company Take Ten publication.  Just makes me smile out loud!!

 

Here's the page and my card:

 

Paisley Sideways

I couldn't figure out how to rotate this photo, but figured you all could have fun doing so!  Here's a pic of Paisley at 5 months old ... she's starting to chatter, roll, bounce, giggle and has a smile for just about everybody! 

National Buttermilk Biscuits and Gravy Day

A special day just for Biscuits and Gravy?

Now you're talking!!

And here's one of my favorite recipes from Ree Drummond (back before she got famous), and one that I still use time and time again.







http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2007/09/biscuits_and_gr/

Me Oh My, I Love Pie !!

It's strawberry season and the MOST requested recipe around our house is Strawberry Pie! 

I have a recipe that was given to me by my children's grandmother, Kay Rosenthal.  And I have yet to find any other recipe that can compare.  And don't cheat and use a boughten crust.  This crust is so flakey and delish and you seriously can't mess it up!

Several years ago I made my daughter and daughter-in-law family recipe albums as a holiday gift.  Here's the page I made featuring Kay's winning recipe.

You can click on the image to get a large view of the recipe, but here it is below for your convenience.  Go ahead and make it this weekend ... you  know you want to !!

CRUST:

2 cups flour

1 cup Crisco

1 tablespoon sugar

dash of salt

5 tablespoons ICE water

Prepare crust by blending all ingreidents with pastry blender and roll out for a 9-inch crust (prick crust with fork before baking).  Bake at 350 degrees for 12 minutes or until thoroughly cooked and lightly browned.  Cool completely.

FILLING:

1 cup sugar

1 cup water

3 tablespoons strawberry jello

2 tablespoons cornstarch

1+ quarts fresh strawberries (enough to fill 9 inch pie crust)

Mix sugar and cornstarch.  Add water.  Cook until thickened and clear.  Add jello to mixture and stir until dissolved.  Cool. 

Fill cooled crust with washed, stemmed and hulled berries.  Pour gelatin mixture over fruit.  Chill until set (approximately 5 hours).  Garnish with FRESH whipped cream.

Brother and Sister

Everytime I look back at Jonas' baby photos, I am AMAZED at the similarities between he and Paisley.  You can definitely tell these two are siblings!  WOW!

Jonas at five months

Paisley at five months

Happy Birthday to my Grandson, Jonas

My sister, Gloria, is SO good about taking pictures at all of our family events. 

Here's a photo of my grandson, Jonas, celebrating his 4th birthday this past weekend.  Oh my, four years old already??!!

It seems like it was just yesterday that he was learning to crawl.  Which is what his sister, Paisley, is now getting ready to do.   And here's a unique way of altering a photo ... it's called pencil drawing and it can be applied to any photo to give it that "artsy" look.  Pretty cool, huh?!  This is a photo of me (Grandma Cat) holding precious Paisley and watching Jonas open some of his birthday gifts.

And Jonas received a "cape" and was called Super Jonas all afternoon.
Here he is on the trampoline trying to fly!



Drive With a View

I can't remember which blog I was on today, but I came across this lovely photo and thought to myself, now what I wouldn't give to have THAT as a road hazard just once in my lifetime.  The photo was taken in an England village.