Sanctuary

I miss some of those quiet moments from my youth...

...like sitting at the top of the jungle gym, high above all the other kids, just silently watching the clouds slowly drift by. 😊

Bike

I may not have thought riding my bicycle was as cool as a biker on a Harley, but back then it felt pretty close. 😎🚲

Belts

 Remembering those days when nobody thought twice about riding in the back seat without a seat belt, and my sister and I would take turns leaning forward, poking our heads between the front seats while Mom and Dad drove. It felt perfectly normal then. Hard to imagine now, when that kind of thing is most certainly frowned upon! 😅

Worry

After a weekend packed with fun, my Sunday always drifted into the same familiar feeling… pure, stomach‑churning worry. As the day came to an end, my brain suddenly remembered every homework page I hadn’t touched, every test I definitely hadn’t studied for, and every project I’d been pretending didn’t exist.

Looking back, I have no clue why I put myself through that emotional roller coaster! 🤯😮‍💨

Pizza Night

Whenever Mom and Dad announced ‘date night,’ we heard something completely different: PIZZA NIGHT. 

Back then, there were a number of pizza joints to choose from—Domino’s, Little Caesars, Godfather's—but once Pizza Hut released pan pizza, it was all over. That became the classic choice in our house.

A hot pizza, a rented VHS, and absolutely no parents… that was our version of living large! 😎🍕

Sunday Cartoons

The Sunday morning cartoon lineup always felt a little different from Saturday’s big‑name heavy hitters. Those shows weren’t the marquee stars of the era, but they had their own quiet charm — and Sunday was the only day you could catch them. 

Of course, in our family, Sunday mornings were meant for Sunday School, so I only ever saw fragments of those cartoons while getting ready for church.

I squeezed in as much as I could, right up until we had to head out the door. 😅📺

Slide

 I only tried sliding into base a few times growing up, but my timing was always hilariously off. I’d over anticipate the moment, and start my slide way too early, skidding across the dirt while the ball sailed safely into the baseman’s glove. 😅⚾️

Batter Up!

 I noticed The Sandlot was on TV over the weekend, and it inspired me to draw a baseball cartoon.

I was a terrible batter growing up… unless I swung one‑handed. Then I had weirdly remarkable aim — zero power, but I could sneak a grounder past a few fielders. 😅⚾️

Drawing

Sunday afternoons were usually pretty quiet — everyone trying to recharge before Monday rolled in. For me, it was a great time to be creative — I’d plop down at the desk in my room, channeling my inner Bob Ross like I was filming a masterpiece! 😎 ✏️

Lunch Games

Back in the day, lunchtime wasn’t just lunch—it was our own personal Olympics!

One popular game was coin basketball, which was basically a ‘precision flick’ event… except sometimes the precision was aimed directly at your face. One heroic (or totally reckless) flick and a quarter could go flying with an an intensity you were unprepared for. And when we wanted to raise the difficulty level, we switched to a half dollar.

Nothing says ‘childhood’ like risking mild facial injury for bragging rights. 😅

Big Gulp

 The day my best friend and I realized we could run all the way to the 7‑11 at the end of the neighborhood, our world basically expanded exponentially! Getting a Big Gulp felt like holding a trophy the size of our heads. It took us the entire day to finish one—and honestly, I’m not sure we ever fully recovered from that much soda. 🥤😵‍💫

Hangin Out

 My best friend was athletic… I was more ‘enthusiastically uncoordinated.’ Watching me try to keep up with him was quite the spectacle! 😅

Roll Out

Most Saturdays were set aside for family outings, the kind that began with long, winding car rides toward someplace special. The time in the car could feel like forever, but there was a quiet coziness to it—me in the backseat with a favorite toy, a small piece of home I could hold onto while the scenery drifted by. 😁🤖

That Tracks

 Radio‑controlled cars were the thing when I was a kid. I never had a TurboHopper, but my neighbor did—and the empty volleyball courts at the park behind our house instantly became our homemade off‑road track. I might not have owned the car, but designing the course was just as thrilling! 😎

Lab Partner

Talk about a recipe for disaster…the teacher pairs me with the cute girl in class, and suddenly I’m conducting a science experiment with the attention span of a goldfish. Forget balancing equations—I was just trying to remember how to breathe. Honestly, the real miracle wasn’t the passing grade…it’s that I didn’t accidentally set the lab on fire. 😍😅

Stop!

One night a black cat ran in front of our station wagon, so my dad hit the brakes. The truck behind us didn’t react in time and plowed into us. The car was totaled, we were shaken, but everyone walked away — even the cat. ❤️

Run

 My last cartoon reminded me of a family incident.

On a mountain trail we ran into what we thought was a cat. It was a skunk. We ran. FAST! 😅

Encounter

I often walk my neighborhood before the sun rises, which is apparently prime time to bump into my "pal"...a skunk. I’ve wandered as close as six feet of him before my brain catches up—luckily he’s never felt inspired to…"say hello" to me.🤢

Temp Swings

It's the time of year we get those wide temperature swings! Bundle up in the morning, and walk around in a short sleeve shirt by the afternoon! 😁☀️

Rock Paper Scissors

It was amazing how fixated we'd be over a simple game as a child. Once we figured out how the game was played, we'd play it for HOURS! 😅🪨📃✂️

Quiet Morning

When my mother had a long commute to work, she'd drop me off early at school...earlier than most of the teaching staff!

I would often settle myself by one of the school's doors and  enjoy the peace and quiet while watching the sun rise. 😊☀️

Cereal

I miss when the major networks had morning cartoons...which of course were peppered with breaks featuring numerous cereal commercials!

We watched cartoon leprechauns, birds, rabbits, tigers, bees, frogs, ship captains, cavemen, and robbers convince us to beg our parents to buy us their cereal.

Notice how I tried to capture the near catatonic state on Zack's face, which is how my face looked as I concentrated on watching my favorite cartoons! 😵‍💫😂

Broken

A devastating moment for sure...

When I was younger, I accompanied my father as he ran into the grocery store to get a jar of raisin sauce. I wanted to help, so I asked if I could carry it to the register. My Dad handed me the jar, but I didn't know how heavy it would be! I struggled as we walked down the aisle...until the jar slipped completely out of my hands and burst on the store floor.

Despite the assurances from both my father and the store clerk, I was mortified! Not just because I broke store merchandise before we even paid for it, but because I felt like I let my Dad down. 😢

Blunt Nose Trauma

You can tell I’ve broken my nose a few times. One was during a soccer game, when I tried to head a ball that ended up smacking me square in the face instead. My eyes watered, I stumbled around as the coach yelled for me to get back in the game. I finished the play, got pulled out, and told him I was ‘fine’—even though I was pretty sure I’d just added a brand‑new bump to my nose. 😵⚽️

Soccer

It's that time of year...spring sports are starting up!

For me, it was soccer. I remember starting practices in February before the soccer season began. It was still winter, and bitterly cold on that practice field, but being outside every day after school, I got to experience the weather change firsthand as spring swept in. 😎☀️