Things that Blow your Mind...

I found something today...something that I was certain was gone. Something that I wasn't even looking for. To anyone who isn't a member of my household, it's absolutely meaningless but when I saw it I was just floored.

Nearly 2 years ago at our old house, my husband helped the boys put together a super top secret (no girls aloud) lair. But since I'm mommy I got a free pass to enter. Or it could have just been that they needed an evil villain to fight...I don't know. When you entered their top secret lair there were a couple planks of wood that were hung from a tree by rope. On one it said "top secret" and on the other was a "key pad" and 2 "hand scanners." About a month and a half before we moved some neighbor kids went up into the area and trashed everything (teens...pft). After that the boys didn't play up there any more. Admittedly, we also didn't clean up the mess that the teens left. The rope, planks, and anything else that was up there at the time was left to nature.

Fast forward to today...almost a year and a half after the destruction of the secret lair and our move to a neighboring town. I still work not far from where we used to live. There are a lot of really great hills near by and I thought I would go for a walk today. As I got near the area where we used to live I saw something on the ground next to the sidewalk. I was standing across the street walking towards it and it took a couple of seconds for my brain to register what it was. There, laying on top of the ground, nothing on it, barely dirty, still painted clear as day, was the plank of wood with the boys hand prints on it and the key pad.

Keep in mind its been well over a year since anyone of us has seen this! Not to mention that our old landlord had the hill where the top secret lair was cleaned and cleared shortly after we moved out. So to say I was surprised to see this just sitting there is a terrible understatement. I sent my husband a quick message with a picture of it and explained to him that the way it was sitting, the lack of debris on it, its good condition...it felt like someone had walked by a few minutes before I did and sat it there for me to find. It was a mind blowing experience for me cause I really don't know how it still exists.

Needless to say I lugged it all the way back to my office and its sitting on the floor next to me right now. The child like part of me is afraid that if I look away it will disappear as quickly as it reappeared. Tonight I will show it to the boys and see if they remember it. After that it will go up as art work in their room. Probably hung at a level where it can still be "used" to enter their new lair. It's sentimental to no one else but us...but boy does it now have an even cooler story to go along with all our original memories of it.



Finding treasure in unexpected places,

Rachel B.