The Puzzle.

Our family beach trips have created a few traditions and routines...

 

 Almost every night the kids go to the BP for ice cream (or fat-buckets, if they are lucky enough to get the end of the gigantic containers). We ride on the beach on the way to the Raw Bar, and Carolina has a least a dozen of baked oysters all to herself. There is usually a football game on the beach, something grilled, sometimes a bonfire or fireworks. 

  Puzzles do not make this list.

 

For some reason, while I was cooking for our feast, Tradd said,

 

 "Hey, let's do a puzzle!"

and his younger siblings said,

"yeah! let's do one!"

 like it was the greatest idea EVER. 

(what do we think they would have said if I had suggested a puzzle?)

They quickly found one that hadn't been contaminated opened

and dumped it on the small coffee table.

 My heart was overjoyed!!! All my darling children, playing together so nicely, and without any cell phones!!

 

Then, my control-issues-concerning-puzzles kicked in.  "Why don't you wait until after we eat, so that you can move it to the big table?"

no response.

"Um, kids,??? you aren't going to have much room doing the puzzle there??!!"

no response.

Now I was getting nervous and the situation was getting serious.  Pieces were dropping on the floor.  The dog was sniffing some of them. The sweet potato soufflé needed my attention but FOR THE LOVE OF GOD

 "How will you find all the borders and make the frame first??? Measure the TABLE it is certainly not big enough to fit the entire completed project and THEN WHAT WILL YOU DO????  OH MY GOSH YOU MUST STOP RIGHT NOW YOU AREN'T DOING IT RIGHT!!!!"

 

3 pairs of eyes are now looking at me strangely while 3 brains send telepathic messages back and forth to each other:

 "Mom's losing it again.  Are we gonna have to let her play with us?"

 

 "Mom, it's fine", said the wise college senior. 

 "We'll just work on finding all the borders right now, and then after dinner you can help us move it."

("And that's how it's done, kiddos", said his telepathic message to his younger brother and sister.) 

 I'm pretty sure they were thinking by the time I finished cooking Thanksgiving dinner, drinking, eating, and cleaning up the whole thing I would a) forget or b) forget.  

 

No such luck! After I masterminded the entire process of moving all 1,000 pieces and carefully explained the correct method of puzzle solving the fun began! Soon my kids realized that ignoring my methods was such an easy way to drive me crazy! And after several hours of the four of us working on a really difficult but not attractive puzzle I realized that the ways in which we worked really said a lot about our personalities.

 

Tradd and I (first-borns, rule followers) worked on getting the border completed and turning over all the pieces.  He also worked fast and gave names to all the problem areas. Carolina soon had our music going, but liked her own "private studio" (as she named it) and her own section to work on.  However, she knew what everyone else was looking for and was constantly sharing pieces she'd find to help us out. Middle child peace-keeper all the way.  And then there was Tucker.  Tucker had to be constantly on the move.  He had to check in with Dad and all the scores of the football games.  He would go upstairs for a while to watch another TV.  Then he would look at the pieces for 3.2 seconds, find one that fit somewhere, and declare it "MONUMENTAL", letting us all know that none of us would be able to get anything done without his brilliance.

We worked on that thing for hours.  I sat with my kids for hours. at. the. same. place. at. the. same. time!!!!  Glorious!!!!!

Tradd and I tried to stay up and finish it...(first-born, over-achievers) but he finally had had enough and quit went to sleep.  I made it another hour or so (stubborn) but decided to be an awesome mom again, and allow my darling children to have the reward of finishing the puzzle.

The next day these two did, indeed, finish our ugly-but-interesting puzzle. We thought about leaving a "monumental" piece for Tucker, but the early bird gets the worm, and he was still sleeping.

 

He told me later that my puzzle OCD was ok, and that "you get like that sometimes, mom".

Tradd comes home next week for Christmas.  There may or may not be something interesting but ugly with 1,000 pieces under the tree.

Dear [new owner] and your sweet daddy...

Dear "new owner" (and your sweet Daddy),

We are thrilled that you have chosen to buy our house and will be living in our home.  I know after having met you  last night on our cold doorstep...with your 84 year old daddy in tow...that it will be taken care of and filled with new, loving memories.  That is exactly what we did when we moved in, almost 17 years ago.  At that time it was just my husband, my first little boy, who had just turned 4, and my very, very pregnant self.  We had been looking in Dunwoody for several weeks, and obviously, I had a deadline! I fell in love with this house from the moment I walked in.  The previous owners were being transferred, but were so sad to leave, as they had only been in it for 9 months. They had just had their first child and put in hardwoods upstairs.  Although there was hideous wallpaper covering every bathroom and the kitchen, (metallic and pastels!! Really!!) and was “sponge painting” faux finishes in the sunroom and foyer, (teal was apparently the favorite color of another owner) I saw the potential and was ready to move in-that day!  I can remember getting the message that our offered was accepted at the school where I was teaching…and our life in this house began. (way back in the dark ages, when a message meant the school secretary slipped a hand-written note under your classroom door...back before text messages, emails, and docusign.)

I brought home my 2^nd baby, a beautiful daughter, to this house, just 4 weeks after moving in.  This house already had a nursery and the previous owners had a baby girl who just happened to have the same unusual middle name that we had chosen for ours. We began stripping wallpaper and making friends, and a year later, brought  our last baby home to fill up the bedrooms. 

This house has held our family in close.  We’ve celebrated countless birthdays, mothers’ days, fathers’ days, Thanksgiving and Christmas.  We’ve had big crowds for the Superbowl, and small spontaneous dinners with friends.  We've had blazing fires in the winter and candlelit dinners when the power went out during summer storms. Kids and pets have run from one end of the house to the other, from the front door through the back door, and all over that backyard.  That backyard was the scene for our son’s 8-year old Food Fight birthday party, his graduation lunch, Easter egg hunts, freeze tag, snowball fights,and late night “dates” with my husband. The little house in the back was my daughter’s birthday present when she turned 2.  My sweet daddy built that for her and was a mini house full of love and laughter. My youngest has had many a game of soccer, football, golf, bow-hunting, baseball, you name it-back there.  And one our favorite family memories will be the arrival of spring and our cherry trees we planted 15 years ago…just wait!  My husband swears if you stand still you can watch them actually bloom.

I’ve tucked in 3 amazing little people into bed under this roof.  I’ve put dollar bills under pillows, hidden Christmas gifts in the basement, and marked heights on the wall.  I’ve high-fived teenage boys, listened to girls giggle and sing with the music turned all the way up, worried as new drivers back out, and hugged little bodies like crazy.  I’ve said prayers and wiped tears, and used up a lot of bandaids and Tylenol.  And I washed 1.2 million loads of clothes in that laundry room.

This is the only house my 2 younger kids have ever lived in. My oldest has few memories of his first house, and will come home from college this year to a different address.  We’ve lived an amazing life of a family under this roof…and we will be leaving it empty of furniture, but full of our love.

We wish many wonderful days and nights for you and your family and friends under this roof.  We know life isn’t always a smooth ride, but we hope that when the road gets bumpy, this home offers you a soft place to land, as it has always done that for us.

So yes, it looks like we are moving...and FINALLY
selling our house.  Apparently the 3rd time on the market was the charm.  After a bazillion showings the first 2 times we

were on the market, this time we had an offer in hours.  The events following that day have been bizarre and crazy and unexpected, (including a bidding war and a late night drop-in visit from meaningful yet strangely desperate possible buyers..) and well, have shown me once again, that I am NOT in charge.  So boldly we go.  Without a clue or place to land (yet), but knowing that someone else does.  I can't wait to see what He has in store for us!  (and this picture of Tucker playing tennis last night is random and I just got tired of trying to figure out how to move it out of this post.  Enjoy!)