Wednesday, January 31, 2024

Today was red, white and blue dress code for Catholic Schools Week. Chase wore his red, white and blue hockey jersey with his name and number (95) on the back. When Nanaw picked Chase up from school, he told her had good news. He said Joey from his class had won the school spelling bee -- a sixth grader won for the whole school. Chase says Joey is his best friend. Joey is the grandson of the previous principal of ICS, who was principal for 50 years. Then Chase said he had bad news. He thinks he left his water bottle in his math teacher's room. He was very happy to not have any homework again. He brought his math assignment home for Nanaw to look at, which is exactly what Mama and Nanaw want him to do. He had his snack and played on the computer and on his phone. Nanaw had to have him home by 4 p.m. because he had hockey practice. Mama was going to take him; she and Daddy take turns taking him to his practices. Both of them go to all his games with him. Tomorrow is the book fair at school, and Mama set up an E-Wallet for him with $35 in it to spend on books. Nanaw told him to buy Gordon Korman books, especially the new one, Slugfest, that they started reading but didn't finish.

Tuesday, January 30, 2024

Today, for Catholic Schools Week, everybody was supposed to wear pink. Mama bought a pink shirt for Chase to wear, and he looked really good in it. Nanaw was very excited to get an email from Chase in the afternoon telling her they didn't have math today because they had a trivia contest so he wasn't going to bring his math book home. When Nanaw picked Chase up from school in the afternoon, he was happy to tell her he didn't have any homework. He told her about the trivia game the school played. He said there were seventeen teams, and he correctly answered several sports questions, and Nanaw was very proud of him. Nanaw worked in the computer lab on her computer while Chase played Roblox and watched YouTube videos on his computer. Nanaw was working on her old/new book The Way Home but kept having trouble with the computer closing out her Word file. She would lose some of her writing so she's going to have to use the computer in the dining room. She wanted to use the computer by Chase's so she could spend lots of time with him. She'll just have to find other things to do on the computer so she can still be in there with him. When Chase and Nanaw got to Chase's house in the evening, they realized they'd left Chase's phone at Nanaw's house. So Nanaw went back home and got it and brought it to Chase. Chase sent her a text saying "Thanks." Two communications from the boy in the same day!

Monday, January 29, 2024

Nanaw was excited to see what Chase was wearing to school on Monday. It's Catholic Schools Week, with dress suggestions for each day, plus all kinds of special events. On Monday, the students are wearing pajamas. Chase wore Nanaw's favorite: black watch tartan plaid. This pair of pajamas also had a red stripe in them. Chase had fun with the whole thing. He also had to take coins (pennies and silver) to school for one of the fundraising projects. Nanaw asked Chase if he'd chosen his book for the third quarter book report. He said he was going to do the third book in the Island series: Escape. The county library only has an online version and it's checked out. The Columbia library has it so Nanaw was going to check it out. But she changed her mind, and bought it from Amazon; it only cost $7.00. When Nanaw went to Schnuck's to buy her newspaper, she also bought a box of cheese bread sticks so Chase can have one with his lasagna dinner this afternoon before baseball practice. The tree guys came today to cut down one tree and trim another one in Nanaw's backyard. When Nanaw picked from school, he told her he had two pieces of bad news; he would tell her one on the walk to the car and the other one in the car. On the walk, he said, he tore his pajama pants when he fell roller skating in PE. In the car, he showed her the cut on his leg that he said really hurt, and he didn't think he could go to baseball practice. After school, Chase and Nanaw studied again for Chase's history test tomorrow. When Daddy came to pick Chase up for baseball and hockey practice, he looked at Chase's injury and said he could stay home from practice.

Sunday, January 28, 2024

Chase was the only server at church yesterday, and Daddy said he did a great job. Sometime, Nanaw will go to mass when Chase is serving so she can see him do it. In the afternoon, Chase had a hockey game but unfortunately, his team lost the game 3 to 1. Nanaw came over for dinner and to help Chase study for his religion and science tests on Monday and his history test on Tuesday. They studied for a while before dinner in the kitchen. Mama made delicious lasagna for dinner. It was so good that Nanaw had a second helping. Mama sent home leftover lasagna for Chase and Nanaw's dinner tomorrow. Mama said Hunter stayed for six hours on Saturday to play with Chase. One of the video games they played was Call of Duty, a game that Chase just got. After dinner, Chase and Nanaw studied some more. He did really well on the science material and on the history also. He did well on the religion material but he didn't want to study the essay part with Nanaw; he said he would do it on his own. On Monday, Chase has baseball and hockey practice so Daddy is going to come pick him up at 4:30; Mama told Nanaw to be sure and have Chase dressed for baseball practice and ready to go. The second picture below is Mama "Samming" and trying to get in the picture of Chase.

Saturday, January 27, 2024

Nanaw came over to see Chase on Saturday morning and brought him a box of Whales and a box of Reese's Pieces she bought for him at Dollar Tree. Uncle Mike and Aunt Becky came over to Chase's house with their two new German Shepherd puppies, Mika and Millie, so Mama could see them. Mama loves dogs, and she was so happy to see the new members of the family, her new nieces. To tell them apart, Mika had a purple collar, and Millie had a blue collar. Chase was in the Gascar chair watching the two puppies very closely. Sam, Sylvester and Tyler were really good, although Sylvester did do a lot of barking if someone wasn't petting him, and Tyler's hair got all puffed up. But they didn't do anything bad. The puppies were on the couch between Mama and Uncle Mike, being petted by both of them. After a while, Chase and Nanaw went into the kitchen for Chase to do his last three math problems for the corrections he was going to turn in to get his grade higher. He got a 77 on the test. The other day he turned in corrections for one of his worksheets and raised his grade to 84 from 73. After the math was done, Chase and Nanaw went into Mama's office and studied the 46 note cards for the Revolutionary War test on Tuesday. Chase did well on the note cards. Tomorrow, Nanaw is coming over for a lasagna dinner, and she and Chase will study for his religion and science tests on Monday. In the afternoon, Chase's friend Hunter came over to play. They played Nerf shooting downstairs with Daddy, and they also played video games. Hunter stayed for dinner, and they had Chase's favorite, Pizza Hut. So Chase was one happy little fellow.

Friday, January 26, 2024

Friday morning before school, Chase and Nanaw went over the words for today's vocabulary test. Chase decided he would do more studying for the DLR test when he got to school. When Nanaw picked Chase up from school, the first thing he said is "I've got everything!" Andrew's grandmother was standing nearby and laughed and said, "No need for the checklist!" This was very funny because Nanaw always takes a list of Chase's homework to make sure he has everything he needs. He didn't really have any homework but he did one of the math problems for the corrections to a math test that he's going to turn in Monday. Uncle Mike was there taking down Nanaw's outdoor Christmas lights and her Christmas tree. Chase is always happy to see his Uncle Mike. Chase played on the computer and with his phone and had a variety of snacks including milk, Gogurt, string cheese, blueberries, pretzel Goldfish and M&Ms -- but only small amounts. Nanaw had to have Chase home by 4:30 so he could go to baseball practice. Uncle Mike is bringing his German Shepherd puppies Mika and Millie down to Chase's house tomorrow morning so Mama can meet them. Nanaw is going over to see them also and to visit with Chase. They'll do two more of the math problems.

Thursday, January 25, 2024

On Thursday morning, Nanaw gave Chase an assignment regarding Creeper. Last night, Creeper got left behind. This has happened several times before because Chase carries Creeper in separately and props him up against pillows on the bed. Then Nanaw forgets to put him in the bag of guys when it's time for Chase to go home. So Nanaw gave Chase the assignment of making sure that Creeper gets home. The first picture below is Creeper. On the way to school, Chase and Nanaw had a real conversation. Nanaw asked Chase if he was excited about roller skating in PE today. He said yes, and then Nanaw asked if the other sixth-grade class would skate with his class -- did they ever combine PE classes? Chase said it would just be separate sixth-grade classes roller skating. But then he said in the eighth grade, they combine the boys from the two classes and the girls from the two classes. He said they do that so that the girls don't have to put up with competition from the boys because the boys are stronger. Then he said the girls are more flexible. He said girls make good hockey goalies because they're more flexible. He said he watched Poppy, one of his classmates, in her hockey game last night while he was at hockey practice. He said she plays defense and is a good player. The conversation ended when Chase had to get out of the car to go to school. Nanaw was so happy that they had a real conversation and hopes it happens again. Chase didn't bring his math home today, and Mama and Nanaw told him he must bring his math home. However, he did have the test he got a low score on, and the teacher said he could do corrections for a better grade. So he did two problems today, and he'll do the other four problems tomorrow and over the weekend and turn it in to the teacher on Monday. He did his science homework assignment and then studied for tomorrow's DLR test and the vocabulary test in AR.

Wednesday, January 24, 2024

On Wednesday morning, before Chase went to school, he asked Nanaw if she would make a snack for him to have at school. So Nanaw put the Goldfish with pretzels in a little bag for him in his backpack. On the drop-off call with Mama, Nanaw told Mama about the snack and that Chase said there was a new Goldfish snack but he didn't know the name of it. Nanaw asked him who had been eating it at school, and he said Brooke. But he didn't want to ask Brooke what the name of it was. When Nanaw picked Chase up from school in the afternoon, she asked him if he had his math homework and his history homework, and he did. At Nanaw's house, Chase did another 23 vocabulary cards for history. The 46 vocabulary note cards covering the American Revolution are due tomorrow. The vocabulary note cards cover people (like Benjamin Franklin) and events (like battles in the war.).Then next Tuesday, they have a test on the American Revolution itself. Chase went over his math worksheet to make sure he had everything right. The worksheet was printed darkly and was hard to read. Chase darkened some of his answers so they were more legible, and he circled all of the answers so the teacher could see them easily. Chase had hockey practice late in the afternoon, and Daddy picked him up at 4 p.m.

Tuesday, January 23, 2024

The ice, sleet and freezing rain were gone on Tuesday so Chase was back in school. Nanaw reminded Chase to bring his math homework and math textbook home with him so they could do some studying. It was a good reminder because Nanaw saw that Chase got a 77 on his math test last week. Nanaw took some Mike & Ike's candy along with her to pick up Chase from school. She told Chase about his math test score, and he said at least I didn't fail, which was not a good response. Chase had lots of history homework; he had to write out 23 note cards with history vocabulary words and definitions. He has another 23 note cards to do in the next few days. After he was done with history, he worked on writing out corrected answers to the math worksheet he got a 73 on a week or so ago. Nanaw is pretty sure he's not going to get credit for the corrections because he didn't write out his work, just the corrected answers. But maybe he learn a lesson from that. Chase and Nanaw are going to be studying a boatload of math until he pulls his grade up. Currently, he has a B-.

Monday, January 22, 2024

Chase and Nanaw had a wonderful time on Monday's "Ice Day," with ICS being closed for sleet, frozen rain and ice. Chase spent a lot of time outside with his hockey nets, hockey stick and ball, playing hockey in the driveway, which was covered with ice. Chase fell down several times but didn't hurt himself, thank heavens. He and Nanaw also had a good time crushing the frozen leaves with hockey sticks. After the ice festivities, Nanaw and Chase played their favorite thing to play together: Restaurant. They especially had fun with the new basket of toy food that Nanaw bought at Walmart the other day. Chase played on the computer and also on his phone. He played a game with his hockey chat group on the phone and had fun with that. He got out a bunch of Hot Wheels and played with them on the bed. He played knee hockey and regular hockey in the hall. He also did his twenty minutes of AR reading. It was a really busy day for the little fellow. He was supposed to have baseball practice at 4:30 and hockey practice at 6 but both were cancelled because of the icy roads. Nanaw fixed leftover pot roast that Mama sent over for their dinner. Neither of them could eat all of their dinner; Chase gave Nanaw his leftover pot roast that she could put with her leftover pot roast for dinner tomorrow night.

Sunday, January 21, 2024

Chase and Daddy went to church on Sunday morning, with Chase layered in clothes to keep him warm. This cold weather is yucky. Chase had a hockey game at 4 p.m. and unfortunately, his team lost 7 to 0. But it was against a top-level team. Daddy said that at first, Chase's team wasn't playing too well. But then they got back on track and played better. Mama texted Nanaw that ICS was canceled for tomorrow because there was supposed to be ice and sleet and freezing rain tomorrow. The Columbia schools closed before ICS, which means IC closes too because ICS uses Columbia buses. Mama fixed pot roast for dinner and invited Nanaw for dinner. In addition to pot roast, Mama made cheese bread sticks. Mama packed up the leftover pot roast for Nanaw and Chase -- for Chase's lunch and Nanaw's dinner. After dinner, Chase and Nanaw played with the toy food that Nanaw bought at Waterloo Walmart yesterday. It was great fun, and they enjoyed going through it all. They're going to play restaurant tomorrow with the guys, and it will be wonderful to have so much new food. Chase has baseball practice tomorrow afternoon, and Daddy will pick him up at about four p.m.

Saturday, January 20, 2024

Mama brought Chase over to Nanaw's house on Saturday morning while she went to the grocery store. Chase and Nanaw did some math from the test Chase took on Friday. Mama and Nanaw have told Chase he has to bring his math home so Nanaw can make sure he understands how to do it. He got a 73 on a worksheet the other day, which means he doesn't know how to do the problems. Nanaw recommended that he slow down with his math and always go back and check his answers. For a while, Chase and Nanaw were in the computer lab on their computers. Nanaw likes to do that. Chase was very excited about the plans for the day. Mama, Daddy and Chase were going out to visit Uncle Chris and his family. First, they were going to Louisiana, Missouri to watch Elias in a basketball game. Then they were going back to Elias's house. Mama said they had pizza, and then Elias and Chase played knee hockey and NHL 24 and had lots of fun. Chase's friend from school, Hunter, had wanted Chase to come over to his house tonight but Chase had had a big day and was very tired so he didn't go. Brady was over at Hunter's so at least Hunter had someone to play with. The second picture below is one that Mama took of Elias's three dogs.

Friday, January 19, 2024

Before school on Friday morning, Chase and Nanaw went over his vocabulary words for the test today. He thinks he did well on the vocabulary test. When Nanaw picked Chase up from school, she saw Brady and Emma's dad who was there picking them up. They laughed about Brady still and always wearing sorts, even when it was bitterly cold. Chase said he didn't have any homework and wanted to play on the phone and the computer. Nanaw said that would be all right but that they were going to do some math in the morning. Nanaw said things were changing again about math because Chase got a 73 on one of his worksheets. From now on, Chase has to bring his math home, and Nanaw will tell him if he has anything wrong. She won't tell him which problem or problems are wrong, just that something is wrong, and he has to find it and fix it. Nanaw is going to make sure he knows how to do his math. Math is only going to get harder from now on so he needs to develop good math study habits. On the pickup call, Mama reinforced what Nanaw said, and Chase seemed okay with it. Tomorrow morning, they'll go over a practice copy (not the real one) of the open-book test he took today, and Nanaw will see how he does. He said he thinks he did well on the test but we'll see. Nanaw will have him teach her how he does the problems so she knows how that is. Nanaw has her own way of doing the problems and that's not necessarily the way Chase is supposed to do them. Mama wanted to know what Chase wanted for dinner, and he enthusiastically said Dairy Queen! The doctor told Mama Chase could go back to eating everything to see how that goes. So Nanaw was happy to give him some M&Ms.

Thursday, January 18, 2024

On Thursday morning before school, Chase and Nanaw went over the study materials for his test on gods and goddesses. Nanaw wanted to know which god Chase wanted to be, and he said Zeus because was Zeus was the god of gods. The FACTS database reports that Chase got 100 on the test. Yay! When Nanaw picked Chase up from school, he wasn't happy about the fact that they still aren't roller skating in  PE. When he got home, Daddy told him they'd received a waiver to be signed about roller skating. After school, Chase studied for his tests tomorrow -- his DLR test, an open book math test and a vocabulary test. He hadn't brought his math book home with him so Mama told Nanaw to make him go back into school to get it. They passed the principal on their way out, and Nanaw shrugged her shoulders at him, and he shrugged his back. Very funny. He also had to write a paragraph about a modern day prophet, and he wrote about Nanaw, which is very nice, but might not have been the correct choice, according to Mama. She thought maybe he should have chosen the school principal or one of the priests. Mama is bringing Chase over to Nanaw's house Saturday morning at 9 while she goes to the grocery store. Then Mama, Daddy and Chase are going out to Uncle Chris's house in Silex to go to cousin Elias's basketball game and then to visit.

Wednesday, January 17, 2024

On Wednesday morning, Chase used his two-minute timer at Nanaw's house to brush his teeth for the first time. His dental hygienist says he must brush his teeth for two minutes every day, and he must brush all his teeth, not just the front of the front ones. He must also use his little floss thingies. The first picture is Chase holding the timer and brushing his teeth. Unfortunately, after breakfast, Chase threw up and had to stay home from school. Mama and Daddy think it was from the anesthetic. Chase played with his Playmobil in the morning. For lunch, he had one of his favorites, Cheetos Mac and Cheese. The second picture shows the Mac and Cheese with pretzel Goldfish mixed in -- Chase's great idea. While Chase was eating lunch, Nanaw went up to school to pick up Chase's homework. Mama said Chase's teacher emailed her that it was a huge stack of homework, and it was. The third picture is the stack of homework in the back of Nanaw's car. Chase worked all afternoon but only got about half of the work done so he had to do lots of work in the evening. He has a test tomorrow on gods and goddesses and doesn’t know it, so Mama was going to test him again later, and she wants Nanaw to go through it again with him in the morning. Poor baby.

Tuesday, January 16, 2024

Mama had the day off from work on Tuesday to take Chase for an endoscopy procedure at Cardinal Glennon Children's Hospital on Kingshighway. Mama texted Nanaw that Chase was really scared about the need for the IV they were going to put in for the anaesthetic for the procedure. So, fortunately, the doctors came up with another way to do the anaesthetic. They put a mask over his face with something that smelled like pink bubble gum; this knocked him out. (Chase later told Nanaw it was something like laughing gas.)Then they were able to use the needle to insert the IV for the regular anaesthetic. Chase told Nanaw that when he woke up, he had no idea they'd already done the procedure, and he thought that was rather funny. In the afternoon, Nanaw went over to visit Chase. They watched the hockey league channel on the TV in his room and played with his stuffed animals. On the way home from the procedure, Mama got a Chik Filet sandwich for Chase but waited until later in the day to eat it. Mama had emailed Chase's teacher about getting his homework for today but the teacher said he could just make it up tomorrow. Mama and Nanaw thought that was really nice of the teacher. The first picture below is Chase at the hospital in dog and cat scrubs, playing on his phone. The second picture is Chase at home with Lars the Lemur. The third picture is one that Nanaw posted on Facebook with the following caption: "I usually can't get photos of my three cats together so I was delighted to get this one of, left to right, Charlie (the Tuxedo cat); Sidney Crosby the cat (named by Chase the hockey fan); and Taylor (the only girl in the bunch.)"

Monday, January 15, 2023

Everybody was off Monday for Martin Luther King Day. In the morning, Mama, Daddy and Chase went on a shopping adventure at Home Depot. But unfortunately, they didn't find what they were looking for. After the Home Depot adventure, they went to the nearby La Fiesta for lunch. Mama had tacos, Daddy had tostadas, and Chase had two quesadillas -- one for his lunch at La Fiesta and one for dinner before baseball and hockey practice. Nanaw came over in the afternoon to visit Chase. He was downstairs playing with all of his hockey paraphernalia. Mama was up and down the stairs, doing the laundry and bringing Christmas decoration things into the blue room to put them away. Once again, Nanaw had fun watching Chase play knee hockey. They did shoot-offs and other contests with the pucks and balls. Tyler the cat came down to visit Nanaw and to get petted. At four o'clock, Chase had to stop playing knee hockey and go upstairs to get ready for hockey and baseball practice in the evening. First, he had to put his contacts in, and then he had to eat his quesadilla. Then he had to get dressed for practice. Chase is having an endoscopy tomorrow at 11 a.m. at Children's Hospital on Kingshighway so he isn't going to school. Mama took the whole day off to take him to the procedure.

Sunday, January 14, 2024

On Sunday morning, Chase’s hockey team played in the championship game against the best team in the tournament. Unfortunately, they lost 5 to 2 but Mama says Chase’s team is getting better all the time. On the way home from the tournament in St. Peter’s, they stopped at McDonald’s for lunch. At home, Mama and Chase talked about a new cherry flavor of the hydration drink Prime, whose bottle is also color-changing. Chase looked online to see where it could be found. He told Mama that the Vitamin Shop next to Best Buy across from the mall had the new flavor. Mama called them to make sure they had it in stock and to find out how late they were open the answers were yes and seven p.m. Mama texted Nanaw to see if she wanted to go along, and Nanaw said yes. They got the Prime and some gummies for immunity. They went to a couple places for a Sunday newspaper but no one had one. Back at Chase’s house, he tried out the Prime and really liked it. Chase and Nanaw went downstairs for Chase to play knee hockey with Nanaw watching. The first photo below is Chase's official hockey photo; the second one is Chase's hockey card, like a baseball card. 

Saturday, January 13, 2024

Chase's hockey team had a game on Saturday morning. They won 4 to 2. Yay! Mama texted Nanaw that they would be home a little after noon for her to come visit. She said they would have to leave at about 1:45 to go back out to St. Peter's, They were meeting some of the parents and boys on the team for an early dinner before the next game at 5. They were going to eat at Mascot, a restaurant that Mama really likes. At Chase's house, Nanaw was sorry that she forgot to bring her bag that has treats in it for Tyler and the dogs. But she promised to bring her bag tomorrow and give them treats when she visits. Chase was playing with his new hockey net covers downstairs, and Nanaw sat down on the couch with Tyler to watch. Then he played a Wii Mariocart game with Ethan, who plays on his hockey team, and Nanaw watched that. When he and Ethan were done playing, Chase went back to playing with his knee hockey nets, and Nanaw watched. Chase likes it when she watches and when she cheers for his goals. For their early dinner at Mascot, Mama reported that she had a crunchy chicken wrap, Chase had a cheese quesadilla, and Will had a burger and tots. Mama said dinner was good, and they played music bingo. Nanaw doesn't know what that is so she'll ask Mama tomorrow. Nanaw is going to start keeping a list of things to ask or tell Mama so she doesn't forget. Chase's team won their second game of the day, which means they'll get to play in the championship tomorrow. Unfortunately, the team they play is the one who beat them 7 to 2 Friday night. Mama says the team they're playing beat everybody by 5 goals. So we'll see what happens. 

Friday, January 12, 2024

Mama took Chase to his 7 a.m. teeth cleaning appointment this morning, and it didn't go well. It took longer than expected because Chase's teeth were in bad shape. He was almost late to school. He got to the classroom just as the teacher was calling his name for lunch. The dental hygienist said Chase wasn’t brushing his teeth correctly, and she gave him specific directions on what he has to do every morning and every evening. Nanaw will make sure his morning brushings are correct and that he also flosses. When Nanaw picked Chase up from school, he was very excited that he had no homework and that he was off from school on Monday for Martin Luther King Day. He told Nanaw that meant no roller skating in PE on Monday because they wouldn't be there. He said it would probably be Thursday. He told Nanaw that he got a 100 on his science test, and he thought he did well on the vocab test and the DLR test. Chase was really excited when he got home and found that the knee hockey add-on, the Tooter Shooter, that Daddy bought for him, had arrived. It was a cover for the net that helped you make goals, and a shooter that shoots balls at the player for them to try to hit into the goal. For dinner, Chase had the leftover toasted ravioli from Joe Boccardi's. He has a hockey tournament this weekend, with a game tonight, two games tomorrow, and a game Sunday They lost tonight's game, 7 to 2. Mama said Chase played well, and she thought he was going to score a goal but he didn't. There was a pretzel stand at the game, and they all had pretzel bites after the game. Mama said they tasted like Auntie Anne's. Uncle Mike got two new German Shepherd puppies, both girls, who are 8 weeks old. No names yet.

Thursday, January 11, 2024

When Nanaw picked Chase up from school, she found out that he still hadn't brought home one of the things she asked him to -- the book they're reading in class for the third quarter -- Refugee. But Nanaw now has it from the library so he won't need to bring it home. He studied for his science quiz and his DLR quiz by himself, at his request -- he said it would be to his benefit to study alone. Nanaw had no idea what he meant by that. Nanaw quizzed him on the vocabulary words for his test tomorrow, and Nanaw will ask Mama to go over them again with Chase in the morning. He was still having trouble with catatonic, languish and indignant. Tomorrow Chase has a 7 a.m. dentist appointment so Mama is taking him to that and then to school. Daddy picked Chase up at 4:40 to take him to a baseball lesson. Then they were going over to Aunt Becca's house for dinner. Mama had told Aunt Becca all the things Chase couldn't eat so Aunt Becca, Mama and Chase came up with beef stroganoff for dinner. Mama, Daddy and Chase were also going to Aunt Becca's to see their new puppy, Broagan. Mama was very excited about that because she loves dogs so much.

Wednesday, January 10, 2024

When Nanaw picked Chase up from school, he hadn't brought home the study materials she'd asked him to bring home. She wanted him to go back in the school and get them but he said he couldn't. He said they were in his desk and the room would be locked. So Nanaw said he had to be sure to bring them home on Thursday because he had to study for the quizzes on Friday. Mama and Nanaw had wanted him to study for the quizzes on Wednesday and Thursday because he wouldn't have much time to study either evening because of dinner plans. On Wednesday they were going out for Mama's birthday dinner, and on Thursday they were going to Aunt Becca's house for dinner. Nanaw had baked Mama's birthday cake during the day and saved the batter bowl for Chase to lick and also the icing container. He raved about both of them and said he'd eat some cake with his ice cream. Because Chase didn't bring home anything to study, he asked if he could paint, and Nanaw said yes. Chase got out his paints and then got paper. He asked Nanaw to give him little bowls of water to rinse his brushes. He had a grand time and then helped put things away. In the evening, Mama, Chase, Nanaw, Uncle Mike and Aunt Becky went to Joe Boccardi's for Mama's birthday dinner. Daddy wasn't feeling well so he stayed home. For dinner, Chase had toasted ravioli, and Mama had pizza. Nanaw had Fettuccini Alfredo. Chase was full from dinner (he also had bread and butter and cheese garlic bread) so he didn't have any cake and ice cream.

Tuesday, January 9, 2024

When Nanaw picked Chase up from school on Tuesday, he said he didn't have any homework, He'd either gotten it all done at school or it wasn't due until Friday so he still had time to do it. Mama was concerned that he was forgetting some of his homework because his friend Hunter told his mom he had lots of homework and had to go back in to school to get things to make sure he had everything he needed. Nanaw told Mama she and Chase would look at Homework Central and make sure Chase was up-to-date with all of his homework. They did that, and Chase was in good shape, sort of. The only problem was that he wouldn't have much time to do homework on Wednesday and Thursday. Mama's birthday dinner has been postponed to Wednesday evening because of the weather, and Mama, Daddy and Chase were going over to Aunt Becca's house for dinner on Thursday evening. So Chase and Nanaw only have an hour and a half on Wednesday afternoon and an hour and a half on Thursday afternoon to get everything done. On Friday he has two quizzes -- one on the new book, Refugee, that they're reading in class; and a quiz in science, plus a poster. He also has a religion test but doesn't know when it is. He's somehow going to study with Daddy for the religion test. Nanaw got the new TV set up in Chase's room, and he really likes it. It's set up just like his one at home. Th only difference is that it has a larger screen. Nanaw told him he could take it home if he wanted but he said the one he has is just the perfect size for where it is in his room.

Monday, January 8, 2024

Today was Mama's birthday, and she had the day off from work so she took Chase to school. Mama and Nanaw spent half of the day together, having lots of fun. First, they took things to Goodwill, and Mama bought Chase a blazer to wear to hockey games, and a shirt and pants to leave at Nanaw's house. The reason for the blazer is that the hockey coach likes to have the team wear blazers to games -- who knows why. Then they went to Yankee Candle at the mall so Nanaw could buy more Balsam and Cedar candles because she likes them so much even though they were very expensive. Next, they went to Old Navy where Mama bought two pairs of jeans; she's losing weight and her other jeans were getting too big. Next, Mama got money at the bank and gas at her favorite gas station. She also bought three packs of bubble gum for Nanaw. They went to Handyman to see what was left of the Christmas decorations and to get keys made for Mama's and Nanaw's front doors. Next, they went to Bread Company for Mama's birthday lunch. Mama got onion soup in a bread bowl; she saved her roll for Chase. Nanaw got a delicious Caesar salad. Their final errand was dropping Mama's books off at the library. Mama felt very accomplished by all she got done. Nanaw picked Chase up from school, and he was very excited that he didn't have any homework. He had baseball and hockey practice in the evening so Mama sent Cheetos Mac and Cheese for him to have for an early dinner. Chase the chef fixed the Mac and Cheese, as shown in the photos below.

Sunday, January 7, 2024

Mama sent Nanaw a super text for Days of Chase giving Nanaw details on Chase's hockey game on Sunday morning and his shots at Walgreen's. Here's what Mama said: "Chase's hockey team played against a Lady Liberty team (for fun) because a player on our team has a sister on that team. Affton won 3-0 and our #95 (that would be our Chase) scored the 2nd goal. Later, we went to Walgreen's for his Covid and flu shots, and he did well getting the shots -- a miracle considering how scared he is of shots. He fussed for about 30 seconds and then the lady told him to look at his Mama so he did and she got them done! As a reward, Daddy got him some knee hockey things -- something for the net and something that shoots the ball to him." Nanaw went over to Chase's house for dinner -- Mama's delicious chili. No cornbread, though. Mama had crescent rolls that were about to expire so she fixed those. While they were waiting for dinner to be ready, Chase and Nanaw sat in Chase's room watching the Kansas City Chiefs win their football game on Chase's TV. After dinner, everybody played one game of Kids Against Maturity (a hilarious game) and one game of Uno where all the cards were wild cards. Both games were really fun, and it was a great evening.

Saturday, January 6, 2024

Nanaw was very excited that Mama brought Chase over to Nanaw's house while Mama went to the grocery store. They used to do this all the time but Chase's baseball and hockey schedules have interfered with the Saturday morning visits. It snowed all night long in Columbia and St. Louis, and Columbia got about two inches of snow, and Uncle Mike got about the same. Uncle Mike said he helped with the snow removal at UMSL on his recliner at home, directing the contractors who were doing the snow removal. He said in two years, when he retires, it can snow as much as it wants. Chase was excited about the snow, and about the possibility of making snow cones. He went outside and gathered up some snow in a red Solo cup. Then he put a Tropical Punch Kool-Aid Jammer in it -- it was blue. Then he found another flavor that was red and went outside and got another cup of snow. He liked the taste of both the red and blue snow cones. Then he decided to mix them together to see if he got purple, and he did! When Mama came to pick him up, she had exciting news for him. Hunter's brother Mason had called Mama to see if Chase could go sledding with him and Hunter on the hill in the cemetery by their school. So Chase and Mama went. Mama said Chase had a great time, and she sent pictures to Nanaw.