Surprises, jigsaw puzzles, quilt, door poster, Carl Warner artwork, and more

I want to thank all of you who have been keeping in touch with me, praying for me, and sending me your kind thoughts. It all means so very much to me. I’m still about the same, not much is new healthwise. Which I guess is a good thing, it’s giving me more time here to have with my friends, find things locally to do, and just enjoy every day to the fullest. If anyone has really bad tasting medicine they have to take, I have a suggestion. I have to take some really bitter liquid pain medicine and I dreaded when I had to take it. I tried taking it on a spoon of ice cream, with cookies, and other ways, nothing was working to hide the bitterness. I finally found something that works and I want to share it with you in case you know anyone that has to take anything that is bitter. I bought some carrot juice and I put some in a cup, I’m guessing about 4 to 6 ounces of carrot juice, then add the medicine, stir, and sip it slowly. The carrot juice seems to be a strong enough taste to mask the bitterness of the medicine. As I sip or drink the juice I keep it in my mouth, under my tongue for about 15 seconds or so since it also gets absorbed in the mouth.

I’ve still been working on jigsaw puzzles, and when my friends come over they help me with them. Several of them have been extremely challenging since many colors are similar. We also assembled two that have been lots of fun because we get to look for objects hidden in the puzzle, such as the legs and backs of chairs are pretzels, ceilings are the back of playing cards, a door mat is a page of a crossword puzzle, a fire extinguisher is a small battery, sticks of gum, etc. One of the objects in the most recent puzzle we completed brought back a childhood memory. It was a stack of  cap-gun cap rolls. Some of you that are older like me might remember cap guns where we loaded strips of red tape with a little powder of some kind that would make a gun sound, or we would lay the strip on a sidewalk and tap it with a rock to make it pop. I haven’t thought about them since I was young.

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I’ve been receiving some surprises and I want to share a few with you. One of my friends who lives out of state has a brother who lives two cities away from me. In February, I had told her about a great gelato store not far from where he lives and suggested that she tell him about it in case he doesn’t know about it. Again, I didn’t think anything about it, I often forget things or places. About 2 weeks ago she sent me an email asking for the name of the gelato store and what flavors I would recommend. So I responded and made suggestions for 3 of my favorite flavors. Again, I didn’t think anything about it. Last Thursday afternoon, I got a phone call from a man identifying himself as my friends brother. He said he wants to bring me some gelato… I was really surprised and said thank you and told him to bring some for him too so we can both enjoy it. A while later he came over and opened the cooler he had with him and took out 3 containers. He had my 3 favorite flavors. Of course, we had to eat some right away, so I put some of each into a large dish for each of us… it was so delicious!!! As we ate our gelato we shared about our lives and got to know each other. We also exchanged the names of restaurants we liked to eat at since we live in different cities. A few days later I took my mom to one he suggested and found it to be excellent. He let me know that he went to one I suggested and also liked it. Now, I feel I have a new friend.

Last week another friend told me that she sent me a package and it should arrive early this week. I received it today… boy was I surprised. It was from a friend in Georgia and her quilters group called Color Wheel Quilters. They made a beautiful quilt especially designed and named for me. It also has a handwritten tag on the back of it saying that Happiness is Quilts! They named the quilt “Always Thankful.” I was so touched by their thoughtfulness. Being a quilter myself, and knowing all of the thought, planning, and love that goes into making a quilt, I know how much time and effort goes into all stages of making a quilt. I will use it with pride and know that it was made with love and prayers.

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I’ve also been adding things to my door poster, it’s really evolving. As someone told me, it’s like a big scrapbook page on my door. It’s really a great way to display meaningful pictures, cards, poems, and other items.

 

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I was going through a box of my important papers and found 2 gift certificates I purchased in 2009 that are for 2 snorkel trips. At the time, I donated money at a fundraiser for our Relay For Life and thought that the money went to a good cause and maybe I would use the snorkel trips. I am not a big water person. Swimming or snorkeling is not high on my list of things to do. Shortly after I first moved to Florida I did a snorkel trip. It was okay, but nothing I was very excited to do again. The waves were pretty rough so snorkeling on the surface was not much fun. Also, I am not a good swimmer. So after finding these certificates I went to the dive shop that donated them and they said they would still honor them since there was no expiration date. I told one of my friends about them and she like me wasn’t overly excited about going snorkeling, so I gave them to her for her children to use. Instead, we went to the IMAX theatre in Fort Lauderdale and saw two shows. One was Born to be Wild which was about two preserves in Africa. One rescued orangutans and the other rescued baby elephants. These preserves raised the animals and then when they were ready, released them to the wild. The other movie we watched was about living reefs and how the environment is now endangering them. Watching the movies was better and more scenic than us doing a dive. I was not really excited about jumping off a boat in the ocean.

I hesitated writing about the surprises, but decided to write about them to perhaps inspire others to do something nice and unexpected for someone. It’s paying it forward and doing a random act of kindness. I’ve done it many times for others, it’s different being on the receiving end. Do something nice for someone you care about, or that has done something nice for you. It can be someone you interact with during the course of your day, someone where you shop or eat regularly, a friend or family member, or even a complete stranger. You will be amazed how you will feel. It doesn’t have to be anything extravagant or large. Even a small token of appreciation will mean alot to someone.  I used to give out smiley faces when I passed people grocery shopping, eating, etc. Just seeing their expression change was really a blessing. I find that stepping outside of myself to do for others brings such joy. Holding a door open for someone is also a kind jesture and often surprises the person since so many people are in a hurry and don’t wait a few seconds for someone they don’t know to go through a door.

I found an interesting website to explore, www.carlwarner.com. Take time to explore this site. Carl Warner makes pictures, tv ads, etc. using various foods. Look closely at the pictures. The About tab you can click on a photo and it will tell you the story about how it was made. The tv ads are really interesting, a river might be pineapple juice, or carrot juice. Trees in some of the pictures are broccoli, mountains might be loaves of bread. The ocean might be salmon filets or whole salmons… it’s very unique.

Cucumber-BridgeWell, that’s about it for now.

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2 Responses to Surprises, jigsaw puzzles, quilt, door poster, Carl Warner artwork, and more

  1. Chuck Kadlecik says:

    Hi Carol. Glad to see you are still up and about and writing about it. You are a strong person and hope people know how much good you do for other people. Love Chuck.

  2. Chuck says:

    HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY from all of the animals at sues and myself. Keep up the good work. Go to publix at get some of that special ice cream and enjoy.

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