Pretending to be Normal by Suzy Toronto – White Mountain – 1000 pieces
I’ve been putting off writing up this post because sadly this is the last puzzle my mother and I assembled together; happily though, I love Suzy Toronto and this puzzle was a joy to put together – I have wonderful memories. I’m planning to reassemble it and hang it on the wall in my puzzle room.
Good quality, lots of words, great fit, fun colors – but it really doesn’t matter, because it was our last puzzle together I will cherish it forever.
We started with all the little words, of course – we both enjoyed assembling words in a puzzle – like mother, like daughter. 🙂 Everything was put approximately where it goes and then the harder part began.
These were our two favorite quotes; mine was the hissy fit and mom’s was the sofa. And they both describe each of us perfectly. 😇
Thank you so much Penny for swapping puzzles with me and sending this one. I loved it when mom and I put it together – not knowing it was our last. Now that I do know, I love it even more and it will always have a special place in my heart (and in my puzzle room too). 💖
The most amazing, wonderful, sweet, loving and generous woman I’ve ever known is gone and I am heartbroken beyond imagining. Mom passed away on Sunday, July 14, 2019 while my father, my daughter and I held her hands and told her how much she was loved.
I am grateful that she is no longer in pain or suffering in any way, but devastated for my family and all those she loved and cared for. The loss is immeasurable and our sadness is overwhelming.
My regular readers and puzzle friends know how much she meant to me, and how much fun mom and I had puzzling together. She was my black belt thrift store shopper who helped supply us both with the jigsaw puzzles we loved so much, and loved assembling together. I haven’t touched a puzzle piece in almost 2 months, but when I finally do settle back into the normal routine of life, jigsaw puzzles will be tinged with sadness for me – we shared such a love for them that they will always remind me of her and the time we spent over jigsaw puzzles talking, laughing, teasing, cussing, and enjoying being together.
Looking back now, I am so blessed to have given her the Mystery Puzzle Box last Christmas – it allowed us to spend even more time together than we normally did this year – and I will cherish everymoment we had. We spent hours and hours over that puzzle enjoying each other’s company, talking about everything and nothing, and having an awesome time; it turns out that even though the Christmas present was for her, what I also gave myself was extra time with mom in the last few months of her life. I am unbelievably grateful we shared those moments together.
In addition, this blog is also like a diary of our puzzle adventures together, and I am able to go back and read through old posts and see the puzzles we assembled and how much fun we were having. How awesome it is to have this record of those times we shared. 💕
I will get back to puzzling, posting, and reviewing in the near future, including a post about our last puzzle together. For the moment though, I am mourning my mother, my children’s favorite grandmother, my best friend, and the most important member of my puzzle posse. I love you to puzzle pieces mom, and my heart will never be put back together completely – a large piece is now missing.
So in the two weeks since my last update much has happened. While Shands Hospital accepted mom as a patient, they didn’t have an available ICU bed. We waited for 2 days while she continued to decline, and then the neurosurgeon brought onto the case told us that he believed she wouldn’t survive the 2 more days we might need to get her to Shands – in fact he wanted her in surgery that night.
2 brain surgeries later, we’re still at our regional hospital and we still don’t have a definitive diagnosis. She was in the surgical ICU for a week, then moved to the neurological progressive care unit. Less than 24 hours later we had a big setback and we’re currently back in the ICU again.
Their latest theory/guess/hunch has yet to be confirmed – the samples they took from her second brain surgery were sent to California for testing. It may be a week or more before we have results from those; so we wait and hope and pray that she starts improving soon.
I wanted to wait for good news to share, and although we had some small victories we also had some big setbacks. Trying to remain positive has become a challenge for me but I’m doing the best I can; Dad, my daughter, and I are at the hospital every single day and it is physically and psychologically exhausting.
Dad has slept at the hospital every night, in her room when they allow it and in the waiting room when they don’t. They’ve been married 53 years and he refuses to leave her side. I have gone home a few nights to sleep, but have spent the majority of the nights sleeping on chairs and couches in the waiting rooms trying to take care of both mom and dad. My daughter comes to the hospital every morning before work, bringing coffee, breakfast, or whatever we need from home – she works all day long and then comes back at night to visit and take care of all of us. I have an amazing family. 💕
As I sit here unable to sleep at almost 2:30 in the morning, I’ve been looking through old posts – so many of them mention my momma and our adventures puzzling together. My post from Mother’s Day last year says it all. I love her to puzzle pieces!💖💖
Things have been crazy this year and I didn’t have a puzzle ready for Mother’s Day. I decided yesterday to try and find a great picture of her and use the Ji Ga Zo program and put together a puzzle of my mom. It isn’t perfect, but I like it, and what better puzzle to show than that of one of my favorite people in the world?
This is my mother’s graduation picture from 1965. Wasn’t she a dish? Hot stuff!
My gorgeous momma!
I used this picture in Ji Ga Zo to make a mosaic puzzle of her. If you’d like to know more about the program and how it works, click the link to see my original post about this puzzle game. It took a while to get the picture cropped properly and the contrast right, but she’s worth it. 😎 I wasn’t able to get it all assembled at once, but finished the mosaic this morning. Here she is….
I like to show both pictures together so you can see how close you can actually get with just sepia tones. It isn’t an exact reproduction, but it’s pretty darn close and very entertaining to assemble. It gets better the farther away you are, if you step back from the computer (or hold your phone farther away) it becomes more “clear”. It’s a fun puzzle/game, and mom and I love playing with it and seeing which pictures would make the best puzzles. I think we may be working together to use dad’s graduation picture for a Father’s Day post this year!
My gorgeous momma!
Ji Ga Zo – 300 pieces
My mom is one of the best people I know. She’s flawed, like all of the rest of us; but she’s also kind and loving, smart and well-spoken, funny and silly, open and honest, empathetic and forgiving, and my very best friend. It seems cliche to say that, so many people do – but she truly is. When I’m hormonal and hating the world she’s the only one I want to talk to. When I’m depressed and anxious, she can make me smile and forget my troubles if only for a little while. When I’m tired and getting stupid silly she laughs with me and understands my ridiculous jokes and comments. When I worry about everything (and nothing) she’s always there to listen and just let me know she cares.
She’s also my puzzle dealer, and my favorite person to assemble puzzles with. We have almost a shorthand and work together extremely well. We tease each other, cuss at each other, and give high fives when one of us completes a section or finds that wayward piece. She’s my puzzle posse! Probably 90-95% of the puzzles we assemble come from her thrift store shopping, and as much as it annoys my dad to wade through the piles of puzzles, he knows how happy it makes me and mom and he puts up with it. Most of the time. (He’s pretty damn cool too!)
Being her daughter makes me very proud, and being her friend makes my life better. Happy Mother’s Day mom – I love you to puzzle pieces! ❤
It’s mom’s birthday this week, and I thought I’d re-post some of the puzzles that we did together, and some of the ones I’ve done that remind me of her. She’s pretty damned awesome for a little old lady and I love her to bits❣
She’s a black belt thrift store shopper who keeps us both extremely well stocked in puzzles, and there’s no one else I’d rather sit and puzzle with. She’s also quite an enabler; when I’m looking at puzzles to buy she’s right there telling me all the reasons why I SHOULD buy whatever it is I’m looking at. “What’s the sense in having money if you can’t spend it on things that you enjoy?” “Can you afford it? Yes? Then what’s the problem? Your husband doesn’t care, he wants you to be happy.” She’s excellent at enabling me!
Mom is truly my best friend and my puzzle posse all rolled into one, so today’s post is dedicated to her and just a few of the puzzles that make me think of her. (Click on any of the links to see my original posts for each puzzle) Enjoy the trip down puzzle memory lane – Happy Birthday Momma! 👵🎂🎉
Birthday Party – Puzzlebug – 500 pieces
Mom and I both assembled Birthday Party separately, and neither of us liked it much. This is before we became huge puzzle snobs and she became a little more choosy about the brands she bought at the thrift store. I thought it was a perfect puzzle for today’s post though. 🙂
Mom is the only member of my family who helped me with every single panel of Disney Memorable Moments. She always listened to me whenever I wanted to talk about it and never seemed bored or disinterested for the entire 6 months it took me to finish. My mom rocks!
Country Kitchen by Janet Kruskamp – White Mountain – 1000 pieces
This Country Kitchen reminds me of my mom, she used to have an almost identical stove that she got from her grandmother. She was always cooking and canning and this would have been close to her ideal kitchen.
Black Cat by Steinlen – Eurographics – 1000 pieces
Black Cat (Chat Noir)- ugh! Mom and I DESPISED this puzzle! It makes me laugh now to think of it, but it was so difficult and frustrating that we both would have gladly set it on fire if we weren’t so stubborn about finishing it. It’s the only puzzle I ever was glad that it had a piece missing – because it was extremely satisfying to put this bleeping thing in the garbage can. 😈
What TV Show Is That? – Buffalo – 252 pieces
We had the best time with this puzzle, What TV Show Is That?, it was so much fun! We also assembled What Word is That? which was more difficult, but still completely entertaining. She’s on the lookout for more puzzles in the same vein because they’re so great to work on together.
In Dreams by Geoffrey Gersten – Artifact Puzzles – 116 pieces
In Dreams was my birthday present from mom last year – a gorgeous wooden puzzle with such wonderfully interesting pieces. I think I’ve already assembled it 3 or 4 times, maybe more. 😉
Canned Veggies – Springbok – 500 pieces
I picked Canned Veggies to review because it reminds me of my youth and the time spent with mom in the kitchen helping her with the canning (mostly unwillingly). I look back on it fondly now, but at the time I was completely a bratty little kid about it. LOL
Mother and Daughter (1) – Falcon de luxe – 500 pieces
Mother and Daughter (1) was the first of two puzzles in one box that I bought specifically because the woman in the image reminds me of mom. The pictures of her from when I was young look amazingly similar to the lovely lady shown here. Beautiful puzzle!
Flower Still Life by Severin Roesen – Artifact Puzzles – 330 pieces
Flower Still Life was my Christmas present for mom last year, she picked it out herself. It’s a bit dark for my taste, but it’s a lovely image and the artistic cut of the pieces made for a challenging but extremely wonderful assembly.
Loose Change – White Mountain – 550 pieces
Since today is National Tax Day, I thought Loose Change would be an appropriate puzzle to share. Mom and I completed this on one of our puzzle/visit days and it was quite difficult! I was pretty proud of us for sticking with it and not letting all those pennies beat us.
Mother and Daughter (2) by F. Sands Bruner – Falcon de luxe – 500 pieces
Mother and Daughter (2) is my gift to mom for her birthday this year, along with a triple chocolate mess cake. It’s been glued and is waiting for us to find the perfect frame for display. She’s been knitting and crocheting my whole life, taught me how to as well, and this puzzle is perfect for her (looks just like her too!)
Enjoy your birthday this week mom, and I’m looking forward to another year of amazing thrift store finds, enabling, and many, many puzzle/visit days spending time together. Love you to puzzle pieces! ❤
My Jigsaw Journal 