Forgotten Treasures

You know, whenever I am not feeling well or I am in a hard place in life, I tend to revert back to things that have comforted me in the past. Whether it's pulling an afghan out to keep warm, because it "smells like Mom" or cooking comfort foods (mashed potatoes and gravy), I will go back to what is "known" for me.

While talking to my Kade about what it was like in my childhood, (he does this with his dad, too. I think he just likes to ask his dad things like "did you have a butter churner back in those days, dad?" Just to see his dad's face go red.) I told my Kade about my grandmother. More specifically, I told him about her love of Legos. Up until she died at the age of sixty-four, she played Legos with us. The pastor even mentioned it in her eulogy, that's how much she loved those things. She would even sneak out to the store, telling my Grandpa she was going to Dunkin' Donuts, but instead she'd buy more Legos and hide them until we got there. We never let Grandpa in on this. I have no idea why he didn't notice that she never had donuts with her when she came back.

(While writing this entry, I have remembered something quite amusing that I will share, although it has nothing to do with what I'm writing. There was one time that my Grandma, Mom and I had gone shopping and when we came back, my Grandma went to put her newly purchased items away. While she was doing that, my Mom and I turned to the tv to see what my Grandpa was watching. And there I saw a woman in bikini bottoms and nothing covering her breasts save some tassled pasties. And man, was she swinging around those tassles! After my mother gave her father a rather reproachful look, he yelled, "What?! It's no big deal, she's covered up all the good parts!")

My grandma had the construction ones. We had the pirate and space series. This was good, because whenever we were bored with ours, we could go to Grandma's and play with hers. Now I still have all our beloved Legos from years past. I even still have the directions on how to put all the sets together. I know, I'm really awesome like that. I don't know whatever happened to Grandma's set of Legos, but my brother and I kept ours completely in tact. There might only be one or two missing pieces. So Kade, having listened to our stories of how much fun Legos were, decided to pull them all out. They are all out, all over his bedroom floor. And because I kept all those directions, he is able to put them together correctly. I bought him a few more sets for Christmas. He is getting the Star Wars series from now on. He has already put together his new sets and all but two sets of the old ones. He got some gift cards for Christmas, which he immediately went to Legos.com to see what he could get. A week later, he had two new sets of them, which took him an hour to put together. He is putting them on shelves all over my house. He doesn't play with them!!! He just likes building them. He keeps the people out of the sets, though. That's the only thing he does play with.

And while all this is going on, I mentioned to Kade about my love of puzzles. I thought he'd jump on this bandwagon, too, but he's way too addicted to Legos at the moment. So I'm stuck on this one myself. I had a puzzle growing up. Well I had tons of them, but there was this one that my stepdad had gotten me. Now I may not speak to this man now, because of past conflicts that I am in no mood to get into, but I will say, the man KNEW how to give the perfect gift. It was an island with a maze on it. Throughout the maze, monsters lurked everywhere. I LOVED THIS PUZZLE. I put it together everyday after school while watching He-man. So I took a cue from Kade and started searching for it online. After months of searching, I found it. Turns out this little five dollar puzzle goes for seventy-five dollars on ebay because it is so rare.

I haven't been able to purchase it, yet. A) Because who spends $75 on a puzzle!? and B) the auction had already ended on this item. But I will keep looking for this thing. Now you might ask, why is a grown woman looking for a silly puzzle? I don't know. I guess even after all these years, that tiny cardboard puzzle still gives me a little sense of peace. While I was putting that thing together, I could tune everything out and be in my own little world. And that world was awesome, with mazes and monsters lurking around every turn. You can't get much better than that... unless you're my Grandpa and you have some tassled pasties swinging around somewhere.