Puzzles.
It all started with our last snowstorm. You know...the one where we got 22 inches of snow.
We knew we would be snowed in for days.
Right?
Wrong. The stinkin' snow plow guys worked overtime and got us out in 24 hours.
But we had dug out our puzzles and started putting one together.
And then another.
And another.
I must confess that they were only 300 piece puzzles.
But we were ninja at them.
And we had so much fun together.
So I got the brilliant idea to try a 1000 piece.
After all...we were knocking out our 300 piece puzzles in two hours or so.
How bad could 1000 pieces be?
Bad.
Really bad.
Especially when you get them out of the closet thinking they have all the pieces.
I should know better.
After several maddening hours of trying to find a piece that wasn't there, we did eventually get our puzzle together. It was missing 9....count them, NINE, pieces.
Argh.
So we went to Target to buy a new 1000 piece.
Because we were not going to be beaten by a crummy puzzle.
Jillian chose one and I chose another.
I am more experienced than she is, so I chose one that had lots of detail because they are far easier to put together.
She chose a beautiful one that had a gazillion shades of the same color.
When we got home, she wanted to do hers first.
I started putting all the pieces out on the table and quickly became overwhelmed at the dizzying display of multiple shades of lavender.
I starting complaining.
And maybe did a bit of whining.
She got the hint and said, "Maybe we should do your puzzle."
Gleefully, I shoveled hers back into the box. Pieces were falling on the floor but I was sure I got them all picked up.
Later that evening, one of the kids picked up two mangled, slobbered on pieces of paper.
To our horror, we realized they were puzzle pieces.
Our stinkin' dog had chewed them!
What in the world?
So now we have a brand new puzzle with two missing pieces.
Nice.
The little kids wanted in on the fun so we got out some easier puzzles for them to try. Jake thinks he is so clever 'helping me' with my puzzle by taking an already attached piece out and then putting it back in as if he had found it himself.
This was the finished product. Yep...that is all the pieces that were left of the United States puzzle. Sad.
And then, in another location, poor Zoey put the finishing touches on this one. Sigh. In its defense, I think it was Ryan's when he was in grade school and had endured several moves. It went in the trash.
We are still putting the second 1000 piece puzzle together and our obsession is starting wane significantly. It's pretty much down to...."Well...we have 600 pieces done, I guess we should finish the last 400."
