1990s – Re-marks – 1500 pieces

This puzzle was perfect for motivating me to get out of bed after my surgery. Collages are truly my happy place, and knowing this beauty was sitting on my board waiting had me up and puzzling much sooner than I thought I would be.

It was a good quality puzzle, though the loose fit sometimes was annoying to work with – moving completed sections could be quite a pain if you weren’t paying attention. Otherwise the image reproduction is lovely, though the finish is somewhat shiny. I know these things (the little problems in quality) about Re-marks puzzles, but am willing to put up with all of them because they have an excellent catalog of collage images that I want to assemble.

The image itself is great, but it isn’t going to spark a long post filled with memories of my childhood. During the 1990s I was a young wife and mother with 3 small children; by 1992 I had all of my children and spent the rest of the decade being immersed in raising them and keeping our home. Most of the things shown in this collage are things I am familiar with, but there just isn’t as much identification with any of them as is usual with these decade images. I had to really think about which smaller pictures to take so that I could talk about them.

In the end I decided that since I spent the 90s raising children I should chose one section that reminds me of each of my babies – cause I’m a mom, that’s what I do.

Our whole family enjoys the Harry Potter books and movies, but my daughter (a voracious reader her whole life) was the most taken with them. She still remembers sitting in the living room with me while I read this aloud to them. In the 2000s I was always the one who was tasked with taking her to the bookstore so she could be there at midnight when the newest book was released. I love that she’s a reader, it makes me unbelievably happy. ❤📕

Surprisingly, I had to make her stop reading many times – otherwise she would have stayed inside all day with her books. Eventually I made a bargain with her that for every hour of reading she had to go outside and play for at least 15 minutes. She hated it most of the time, but she needed fresh air and exercise too!

Ahhh, the Game Boy. My oldest son carried his Game Boy with him everywhere he went for several years. He has autism, and the lights and sounds, the tactile feeling of the buttons, and weight of the handheld game itself was always soothing for him when he became overstimulated. He is now and has always been a video game prodigy, always being better at every game than the rest of us. Patterns and repetition are comforting for many people who are neurodivergent, and video games provide both of those things – no wonder he was so exceptional at all those games – he kicked our butts whenever we played together!

It makes me smile to remember him as my cute little boy carrying his Game Boy like a security blanket everywhere he went. 😊

To infinity – and beyond! That was the rallying cry of my youngest son for quite some time, and boy were we ever sick of hearing it. He also has autism, and for quite a while only used quotes from movies to talk to us. When he was upset or angry he would say something someone from a movie said when they were upset or angry. *There was a TINY problem at school when he decided to quote The Princess Bride when he was upset. He screamed “I want my father back you son of a b*tch!” at the top of his lungs. Of course he would find the only cuss word in the whole movie. Yikes.*

We all had to be very up to date on which movies he was watching so that we could interpret what he was trying to communicate to us. Buzz Lightyear was a particular favorite of his, there were so many quotable moments. I heard a LOT of those quotes. Thank goodness he eventually starting using his own voice and thoughts to talk to us.

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This puzzle was an entertaining assembly from start to finish, if it looks like one you’d enjoy it is definitely recommended. 👍