Friday, March 31, 2023

Something exciting happened this afternoon about dismissal at Chase's school. Severe weather forecasts and announcements were happening all day, and the school decided to dismiss the students at 1 p.m. instead of 2 p.m. The school emailed the parents to come to pick up their children, and Mama texted Nanaw to tell her about it and to pick up Chase. But Nanaw was taking a nap and had her phone on silent. So Mama went to pick up Chase and take him to Nanaw's house. At Nanaw's house, Chase said he thought it would be Nanaw who came to pick him up. Mama told Nanaw a funny thing Chase said,  and Nanaw loved it. Mama asked Chase to tell her all about how it happened, and Chase said, "Let me take you back to 1 o'clock." It was so funny. He told how his teacher came out to where the class was at lunch recess and called them inside and told them they would be going home early. When Mama got to school, someone was standing out on the sidewalk, asking for the students' names. Mama gave her Chase's name and they radioed inside the school with Chase's name, and in a few minutes, he came out. At Nanaw's house, he played on the computer, played on the piano and learned from the computer how to play Kill Bill on the piano with little pieces of post-it notes with numbers on them on the keyboard. He also played knee hockey with some of Nanaw's stuffed animals. Chase's baseball practice was canceled, and Mama picked him up at 4:30. The first picture below is a selfie that Chase offered to take of himself and a tiny stuffed puppy named Dobie.

Thursday, March 30, 2023

When Nanaw picked Chase up from school, she didn't have anything to ask Chase about because there wasn't anything on Homework Central. However, Chase said he has a math test tomorrow that he needed to study for. He also brought his DARE essay, which is due tomorrow, for Nana to look at and proofread. Chase and Nanaw went over his math problems in his math book, and then he asked Nanaw to make up some problems for him, which she did. She created 12 problems, and he only missed one, which is good. His DARE essay was pretty good, although he did a lot of repetition. Nanaw made a few punctuation corrections but that was all. Mama was having a Cardinals' home opener event with Uncle Mike so Chase and Nanaw went over to Chase's house at about 4:30. Chase played on the trampoline for a long while. Uncle Mike brought delicious popcorn from their new popcorn machine and delicious peanuts in the shell, and Nanaw ate some of both. Chase had Daddy move the vehicles out of the garage so he could play rollerblade hockey. Nanaw came out to watch him, and then she played with him for a while.

Wednesday, March 29, 2023

When Nanaw picked Chase up from school, she had a long list of homework to ask him about. Nanaw was impressed that he had remembered everything he needed for homework. At Nanaw’s, he was going to do his history and weekly writing. At home with Daddy, he was going to do AR reading and the religion assignment about family life. For his weekly writing topic, Chase chose to write about the one thing he looks forward to daily: playing on Nanaw’s computer. He and Nanaw made a list of notes about the topic, and then Chase wrote his paragraph. Nanaw proofread it and tried to get Chase to proofread it too to find and correct his errors. But he wouldn’t do it. So that’s another thing for Nanaw to work on with him. The first one is for reading comprehension. He needs to refer back to the book to find the answers. He’s been guessing about the answers rather than looking them up. 

Tuesday, March 28, 2023

When Nanaw picked Chase up from school on Tuesday, they went to his house instead of Nanaw's house. Chase had his appointment at 4 p.m. so Nanaw was going to help him with his homework a little before he left. He had to draw a picture of his family for the family life assignment in religion. He did a really good job. He's not really an artist at all but his drawings are improving.  He gave Daddy an orange shirt and Mama a red shirt. The best thing of all to Nanaw was that he included her in his family drawing, and he gave her a purple dress. He had other homework to do that he'd work on later in the evening. He told Nanaw that the class reads their second book, Savvy, only on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Nanaw thinks she might be able to pick the book Savvy up from the library, along with other DVDs and books, tomorrow. In the evening, Mama, Daddy and Chase were going to a Missouri-Illinois Bragging Rights Game at Grizzly Stadium with Chase's baseball team. Mama texted Nanaw that she and Daddy were sitting with Cole's parents, and Chase and Cole were sitting with the rest of the team.

Monday, March 27, 2023

Chase brought his new bear Wally over to Nanaw's house on Monday morning. Wally rode to school with Chase and Nanaw, along with Tee Tee and Lars. They also went along to pick Chase up from school. When Nanaw asked Chase about the homework, etc. he brought home from school to do, he had his history. The class had started reading their new book, The One and Only Ivan, today, and Nanaw asked him if he had brought home the questions and the vocabulary, and he said no. Nanaw asked him to go back in to get the questions and vocabulary, and he very willingly and nicely did so. Nanaw was very proud. While Chase did his history notes, Nanaw read the first 10 pages of Ivan. She made copies of the questions and vocabulary so she could do them after Chase left. He told Nanaw they'd also started their second book, Savvy. So Nanaw put that on request from the library. Nanaw is going to answer the questions for the books. She's also going to teach Chase to refer back to the book when he's answering the questions. Unfortunately, he's not doing that -- he's sort of making up his answers. Mama came over at 4:15 to get Chase for baseball practice, followed by "dry land," which is hockey practice not on the ice.

Sunday, March 26, 2023

Mama said they got home from South Bend at about 3:30. She came over to Nanaw's house to get her precious dogs even though Nanaw wasn't home yet from her lunch with Betty and Joyce in Wentzville. (A good thing happened at lunch: A very nice man paid for their lunch, telling the waitress that the ladies reminded him of his mother, who had passed away recently.) Nanaw got home at about 4:30 and then went over to visit Chase. Mama said Chase had his last hockey game at about 9 this morning. After the game, they left for home. They had already checked out of their hotel. They stopped at Wally's again, and Mama bought Chase a Wally bear. Yesterday, Mama bought Chase a $120 Notre Dame jersey, making Chase very happy. She also bought him a Notre Dame hat and a 95 hat. Mandy, the coach's wife, gave everybody an Affton Americans flag -- very cool. Nanaw helped Chase study for the history test he has to take tomorrow. First, Chase read his study notes out loud to Nanaw; then Nanaw read the notes out loud to Chase -- with some help from Chase when Nanaw couldn't read his writing. Then they played hockey on Chase's bed with the guys. There was a hat trick during the game, which Chase explained to Nanaw; Nanaw didn't know what a hat trick is. (The fourth picture is a pile-up with the guys after the hockey game.) Chase had his favorite for dinner: hand-tossed sausage and pepperoni pizza from Pizza Hut. He had also wanted bacon on the pizza but Mama forgot about it. 

Saturday, March 25, 2023

Mama sent Nanaw all kinds of notes for Days of Chase, and Nanaw really appreciates that. Mama said they got to the hotel at about four yesterday afternoon. Last night, they had Mexican for dinner and the team played their first tournament hockey game; they lost 7-3. After the game, Mama and Daddy hung out in the lobby with the other parents, and Chase hung out with his teammates in the lobby and enjoyed that. They discovered that Dick's carries skates so that solved Chase's missing skates problem. After breakfast on Sunday morning, Daddy and Chase went to Dick's to get the skates. Chase had a game at 1 p.m., and they lost 5-0. They have another game Saturday night, and then a consolation game on Sunday morning. For dinner on Saturday night, they went to an Irish pub. The kids all sat together. Nanaw took the dogs for a walk and then went over to Chase's house to visit Tyler and give him some treats.

Friday, March 24, 2023

Mama and Chase brought Sam and Sylvester over to Nanaw's house at 8 a.m. on Friday morning. They were going to leave for South Bend around 9. The fourth picture below is Sam and Sylvester lying at the front door waiting for dogs to walk by. When they see someone out walking their dog, they start their riotous barking, making Nanaw think the house is falling down. The fifth picture is Nanaw's cats waiting on the steps until Sam and Sylvester go outside, and they can safely come upstairs. The sixth picture is Chase on the drive to South Bed, with Tee Tee on his head. The seventh picture is Chase, a.k.a number 95, on the ice. Mama reported that they forgot to bring Chase's skates but were able to borrow a pair from a nearby skate shop. They'll be able to do that for Saturday's games also. But Sunday's game is at a different rink so they'll have to go skate shopping tomorrow. 

Thursday, March 23, 2023

When Nanaw picked Chase up from school, she had her little notebook with her, and she and Chase went over the items to make sure he had brought home all the things he needed to study for tests, complete projects and complete homework. And he had everything! Nanaw was so proud. First, they did his vocabulary. He had part of it done, and everything was correct. He finished the rest of the vocabulary and got it all right. Next, he worked on his Spanish assignment about utensils. He had to give the Spanish words for things like spoon and napkin, and then draw pictures of the items and label them on the drawing. Next, he worked on his poem project. He chose hockey (of course!) as the topic of his poem project. He wrote several poems and drew lots of pictures. (He was supposed to color them, and he did that Thursday evening after his baseball practice.) The last thing they did was study for the history test he'll have to take Monday; the rest of the class will take the test on Friday but Chase will be at his hockey tournament in South Bend, Indiana on Friday. Nanaw sent a note home to Mama to let her know Chase should read the history study guide again to her out loud Sunday night. 

Wednesday, March 22, 2023

Chase didn't bring his phone today so he and Nanaw couldn't do texts in the morning, and he couldn't do the pickup call to Mama after school. Chase had lots of homework today. He brought home math, a worksheet about the first day of spring, and his weekly writing. He did really well on his math, only missing the first problem, and that was because he listened to someone else about the answer. He wouldn't tell Nanaw who he listened to. He did a good job on the spring worksheet; he just left the first u out of beautiful. He really excelled at his weekly writing. His topic was what subject is difficult for him. He wrote eight sentences about how math was his most difficult subject. He said the decimals test "toppled" his grades and was the "cherry on top." Nanaw was impressed, and so was Mama. He said if he saw Mrs. S. laughing, he'd know she was reading his weekly writing.

Tuesday, March 21, 2023

 Chase brought his phone that now has phone service over to Nanaw's house on Tuesday morning. He and Nanaw spent some time setting up ringtones for phone calls and text tones for texts. Nanaw set up boing for phone calls and tweet for texts. It was great fun, and they enjoyed doing it. Chase doesn't get to take his phone to school yet. He can take it if he has an after-school activity that he doesn't know how long it will last. Nanaw took it along with her when she went to pick up Chase. She was going to have Chase call Mama for the pickup call but Mama had a work call from 3 to 4. Maybe they'll do it next week. After school Chase and Nanaw did his homework. Chase worked on his math homework, and Nanaw checked his vocabulary work that's due on Wednesday. He had everything correct on both pieces of homework. Nanaw told Chase that the plan was to store his phone in the front pocket of the clothes bag so they would know where it was when it was time to go home. Mama went to a Blues game tonight with Joey's mom, Brady's mom, and Andrew's mom. They all wanted to see David Perron, a former much beloved Blues player who now plays for the Detroit Redwings. The first picture below is the rocking chair from Chase's house that's now going to live in Chase's room at Nanaw's house, much to the delight of Taylor and the other kitties, who like laying in it. 

Monday, March 20, 2023

On Monday morning, Mama and Nanaw both noticed how tired Chase still was from his weekend and staying up till 2:30 on Saturday night/Sunday morning. When Nanaw picked Chase up from school, she asked him if he had the study materials for his two quizzes tomorrow. He said he forgot one of them so he went back in to get it. When he came back out, he was grinning, and he said it was already in his backpack. He also said he'd lost his math paper so he got another copy from the teacher. When he got home, he found the math paper in his backpack. Chase and Nanaw studied the materials for his prefix, suffix and root word quiz and for his poem quiz. Chase was very grown-up while discussing the quizzes and the material -- Nanaw was very impressed. It was a lot of material, and he's going to have to go through the material again. When Daddy picked Chase up for baseball at 4:30, she was supposed to tell him that Chase had to go through the study material again, but she forgot. So she's going to text him at 7 to tell him that and also that Chase has to do his AR reading. Daddy brought over the rocker from their basement, and I had him put it in Chase's room. Chase's baseball team was going to have a scrimmage game tonight, and Chase was excited about that.

Sunday, March 19, 2023

Mama says that Hunter's mom told her the boys didn't go to sleep until 2:30 a.m. Sunday morning. In the morning, they had donuts for breakfast. Chase told Nanaw he had a donut with white frosting and sprinkles. Later in the morning, the boys played more soccer with a yoga ball in Hunter's basement. In the afternoon, Mama took Chase to Joey's Nerf birthday party at Powerhouse. Chase gave Joey a huge Nerf gun from Target, and Joey loved it. Mama says she should get one for Chase. Mama, Hunter's mom and Brady's mom left the birthday party and went to Reifschneider's for appetizers. Nanaw came to visit Chase after the birthday party. He wanted to go outside and play basketball with Mama, but she didn't want to go. Daddy said he would go. Chase wanted to play with the new little basketball Mama bought at Pizza Hut after she picked Chase up from Joey's party. Nanaw said she would take a blanket and go outside to watch them shoot baskets. Chase was really tired from his busy weekend so a little before eight, he told Mama he was ready to go to bed. Nanaw gave him a big hug and kiss and went home.

Saturday, March 18, 2023

Mama brought Chase over to Nanaw's house on Saturday morning while she went to the grocery store. Chase had left his backpack here so that he could work on his Spanish project on Saturday morning. The project was to write his daily schedule in Spanish, including his classes at school. He got it all done, and it looked good to Nanaw. He was going to ask the teacher a question or two about the project before turning it in. When they left Nanaw's house, Chase and Mama went to Target to buy Joey's birthday present; his birthday party is on Sunday afternoon at Powerhouse. Chase had a major adventure on Saturday evening. He went over to Hunter's house for a sleepover. Brady and Cole were also there. Mama sent Nanaw pictures that Hunter's mom sent of the boys sitting around a table playing poker, of all things! LOL Mama said Chase took his sleeping bag and a pillow. Hunter's mom told Mama that she heard Chase laughing a lot, so that's a good thing.

Friday, March 17, 2023

Chase wore a green tee shirt to school for St. Patrick's Day. One of the things they did in English was to read about leprechauns and whether they were myths. Chase told Nanaw that they weren't myths. The PE teacher dressed up in a wonderful leprechaun outfit. When Nanaw picked Chase up from school, he said he only had math for her to check. It was another assignment on GCFs -- Greatest Common Factors in numbers. Nanaw checked it over and had Chase fix two problems. Mama had told him they were going to the fish fry at Turner Hall that evening. Chase said he didn't want to go, and Mama said he would go and he would have a good time. Mama reported back during the evening that he was having a wonderful time with his friends Will, Cole, Brady and Hunter. Mama also reported that Hunter might be having a sleepover Saturday night for Brady, Cole and Chase. Somehow Hunter had a sleepover for Cole and Brady last week. Hunter wanted Chase to come and called Mama but she didn't call him back so she didn't know he wanted to invite Chase to the sleepover. So now he wants to have another one so Chase can come. Mama says Chase would love it. When Nanaw said goodbye to Chase in the afternoon, all on his own, he reached out to give her a big hug and kiss, something he doesn't usually initiate -- Nanaw is always the one hugging him. So that made Nanaw very happy. 

Thursday, March 16, 2023

Chase had some homework to bring home to be checked. But first, surprisingly enough, he wanted to take some time to show Nanaw two of the projects he's working on for Spanish and English. Will wonders never cease? He seldom if ever volunteers to show his schoolwork to Nanaw. First, he showed her some haikus, which they're studying in English. He also showed Nanaw a lemur limerick. Then he told Nanaw the English word for haikus and showed her some of those. Next, he showed her his Spanish project, which is due next Thursday, the end of the quarter. The students have to write their daily schedule in Spanish. Then, Nanaw checked over his math, which was GCFs -- or Greatest Common Factors of numbers. Nanaw also checked over his prefixes and suffixes worksheet. Finally, she checked over his vocabulary word pages that are due on Friday. Another wonderful thing happened: Chase thanked Nanaw for checking his homework. Nanaw had to have Chase home at 5 p.m. because she was taking Mama to get her car at Dobb's. Chase had baseball practice at 5:30 so he couldn't ride along with them.

Wednesday, March 15, 2023

When Nanaw picked Chase up from school, he said he'd finished all his homework at school. Nanaw asked if he'd brought it home to be checked, and he said no. Mama wasn't happy about that and asked him to please bring his homework home to be checked until further notice. Chase did his gratitude journal and so did Nanaw, as did Lars and Tee Tee. Nanaw turned on PBS kids on the TV for Chase while he played on the computer. His first snack was ice cream; he asked for more but Nanaw said there was only one helping left, and he was going to have that tomorrow. He also had healthy snacks: broccoli, cauliflower, Swiss cheese, yogurt and chocolate milk. There was also some candy and Goldfish. Mama took her car to Dobb's for an oil change in case they have to take her car on the trip to South Bend. Daddy's truck is having a problem and George Weber might not be able to fix it in time. Every time Daddy starts the engine, the windshield wipers go on, so he doesn't want to drive it to South Bend. Nanaw is going to go pick up Chase at his house tomorrow morning.

Tuesday, March 14, 2023

On Tuesday morning, Nanaw asked Chase if he wanted to choose his cereal for breakfast or if he wanted it to be a surprise. He chose surprise so Nanaw gave him Honey Nut Cheerios. Today was cleaning lady day so Nanaw got everything picked up and put away. At about 11, Chase and Nanaw went downstairs. At noon, Chase had his lunch: a Lunchable. It was a sub sandwich, chips, a strawberry drink and three Hershey Kisses. He really liked his lunch, and he thanked Nanaw for putting together the sandwich. Chase brought the red tablet with him downstairs so he would have something to play with. He showed Nanaw a picture of a lemur that he drew and told her about a card game called Trash Can. Nanaw asked Chase if he was glad to go back to school tomorrow, and he said obviously no. In the evening, Chase, Mama and Daddy went to Jackson C.'s birthday party at Dogwood Social House in O'Fallon, Illinois. Uncle Mike went to the one in O'Fallon, Missouri last week with Becky's family, and he said it was really cool, with lots of games to play. Uncle Mike played shuffleboard. 

Monday, March 13, 2023

Mama had the day off from work on Monday, and she spent most of the day with Chase and Nanaw. Mama had a doctor’s appointment in the morning.  Chase had brought along a lot of his Play Mobil hockey players so he could play with the hockey locker room that Nanaw bought for him for either his birthday or Christmas. He seemed to have a lot of fun playing. When Mama was finished with her doctor's appointment, she came over to Nanaw’s house. They all went off on some shopping and eating adventures. First, they went to Target. Mama bought lots of candy for Chase to keep at Nanaw’s house. Next, they went to Chik Fil A for lunch. Mama and Chase had chicken sandwiches, and Nanaw had a delicious Cobb salad. Back at Nanaw’s house, they played a game called Trouble, which Chase won. Next, they played Uno. Mama, Chase and Nanaw each won a game. Mama and Chase went home at about 3:30. Mama was going to walk the dogs, and Chase was going to do his AR reading. In the evening, Chase had baseball practice and then dry land practice for hockey.

Sunday, March 12, 2023

Chase had an exciting adventure on Sunday afternoon. After he and Daddy went to church on Sunday morning, Uncle Mike came to their house to go to the Battle Hawks game with Mama, Daddy, and Chase. Nanaw watched the game on TV, and the crowd was amazingly loud. Evidently, they were very excited about the football game. Mama sent the photos below to Nanaw. Chase sent Nanaw a message on Messenger and an action video of the football game. It made Nanaw very happy that Chase was thinking of her. The Battle Hawks won 24 to 11. Their record is now 3 - 1. Chase had a pretzel and Dr. Pepper at the game, which he said was good. Chase said he had a good time at the game. Nanaw came over to visit shortly after they arrived home from the game. She got to see Uncle Mike for a little while before he went home. Chase asked Nanaw if she wanted to go downstairs to watch Daddy and him play knee hockey, and Nanaw said yes. Taylor sat on Nanaw's lap for a long time and got a lot of petting. After the knee hockey game, Nanaw showed Chase the video clip she took at church this morning of the guest musician who played the clarinet beautifully. Chase said Wow. Mama ordered Imo's pizza but Chase had cheese things because he doesn't like Imo's. When Nanaw said she had to go home, Chase gave her a sad face and a hug. Nanaw was sorry to go but she had to go home and watch the Oscars.