Vernon Township Puzzle Hustle

I've always been an avid puzzler and puzzle-lover. Puzzles have been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. It may have started years ago, when my mom saw that the local township community hall was hosting a contest for with an age category for grade schoolers. My mom pulled out all our puzzle boxes and timed me while I practiced on the kitchen floor of our first family home. 

I ended up placing top 3 at the event. My mom was so proud and couldn't stop telling everyone about it. 

Before my husband and I bought our own home, I never had the space or a proper location to keep puzzles out long enough to complete them. Then for my birthday last year, my husband got me this thing of beauty:

Since getting my puzzle table, I've been completing around 1-3 puzzles a month. Since becoming a mom, I've been actively striving to find and make time for myself and working on puzzles has become my main me-time activity in the evenings when both kids are down for the night. 

My husband has always been a strong supporter of allowing me time to do my hobbies...and even though he's not a huge fan of puzzles, he generously indulges me. Earlier last year, I signed us up for a team speed puzzle competition at a local library. My husband and I came in second; the first-place team had 4 adults so it was a slim chance we were going to beat them...but holy moly, I had so much fun. The thrill from competition is addictive and I was bitten by the speed puzzle bug again.  

Since then I've been keeping my eye open for other speed events, and earlier this month I managed to get the last slot to the Vernon Township Puzzle Hustle team competition and also found a local teammate for the event while my husband stayed home with our kids. 

There was an incentive to get to the event early and on time as the first two teams to check-in would receive a 1-minute pause card to use against another team of their choice during the event. I somehow managed to get to the venue as the second team to arrive so we got the second, and last, pause card in play. 

My teammate L showed up about 10 minutes later. We picked out our puzzle table and did a fun mini puzzle to warm-up while we waited for the other teams to arrive. Looking around the room, we were the smallest team there with only 2 people, while others were around 3-5 people. No worries though, we were in it to have fun...but let's be honest, who doesn't like to win?  

At the 5-minute warning, we went over our game plan one last time. When time started, we opened up our tote bag and hit a huge snag...Our puzzle, new in box, was already completed! We immediately flagged down an event organizer and they quickly handed us a different puzzle to work on. The other teams thanked us for being honest and not cheating. 

L and I were definitely a little thrown off by the surprise, but we were able to hit our stride and moved along as planned. She's faster at certain things and I'm faster at other elements so we complemented each other pretty well.

Before we knew it, 500 pieces were done, and we came in first with a time of 56min 52sec.

Finishing under an hour was pretty great, and we were very happy with how we placed with just two people. It was such a nice feeling getting back into speed puzzling again. I'm excited to do more events soon!