Thursday, September 19, 2024

This morning as Nanaw was seeing Mama out, Chase came to the front door and did a funny thing: He was standing there with his school shorts and belt. Mama pointed it out and they both realized that Chase was waiting for Nanaw to put the belt through the belt loops of the shorts. They both decided he's slightly spoiled but that's okay because he's Mama's only baby. When Nanaw picked Chase up from school, he had a wonderful story for her. She had asked him why Homework Central said there was a geography retake of the quiz tomorrow. He said the teacher gave back the quiz today and said most everybody did badly. Chase was the last one to get his quiz back, and he was afraid he'd gotten a zero. It turned out he got a 97 on the quiz; the closest score to his was a 88. He was so excited and so were Nanaw and Mama. The geography class is difficult, and when Chase studied for the quiz, Nanaw was surprised at how hard the material was and how much of it there was. But evidently Chase's studying paid off. This will help his C+ in geography. He had gotten a 51 out of a 100 on a pop quiz, which really pulled his grade down. After school, Chase worked on his Chicago photo journal assignment and did a really good job. He said he's already done the Yelp review but he still has to write his essay. The second picture below is from his homeroom teacher who sent an email to parents about next week's Iowa State testing and issues with the students not conforming to uniform requirements.

Wednesday, September 18, 2024

Yesterday and today, Chase was too full to eat his pancake or waffle at breakfast. So he suggested that Nanaw give him a pancake or waffle and a yogurt or a muffin, not both a yogurt and muffin. So they'll try that tomorrow. Chase was really happy that he didn't have any homework today except for AR reading. In math, they had a magical math mystery packet, and Chase got it done in class. He brought it home for Nanaw to see; It looked like a fun activity. Chase's class has a weekly grammar quiz, and on today's quiz, Chase got a 100. The teacher wrote Woot! Woot! on his paper, and Nanaw explained what that meant. Chase had a hitting lesson this afternoon, and Daddy picked him up a little after 4 p.m. to go to the lesson. He did some practice swings before Daddy got there. He told Nanaw they were called loads, and he showed her what that meant. Mama volunteered for the mum pickup project today, and she said she saw Chase's class out on the playground at lunch recess. Nanaw bought two mums, and Uncle Mike bought four. They're all on Nanaw's front porch. Uncle Mike is coming tomorrow to cut Nanaw's grass, and he'll pick up his mums then. 

Tuesday, September 17, 2024

When Chase got to Nanaw's house on Tuesday morning, he sat at the kitchen bar to have breakfast and study for his math test. He had selected eight problems for him and Nanaw to work on. He had done the first 38 problems last night. He wrote out the problems for Nanaw, which was very cute and very kind of him. He had forgotten his math book, and they only had one math book, Nanaw's, which is the one Chase was using. When Nanaw picked Chase up from school, he said he thought he had done a good job on the test. He said he only had trouble with one problem. Nanaw will be interested to see what the problem was. Chase said he had a sloppy joe for lunch, and he and his friends played sharks and minnows at recess. He said that game is sort of like tag and that he was a minnow. At Nanaw's house, Chase finished his math assignment, and then he and Nanaw studied for his geography quiz tomorrow. The quiz covers a lot of difficult material, and they were only able to study some of it, not all of it. Nanaw asked Chase to read over the study guide again this evening before hockey practice, and then in the morning, they would go over the material they didn't have time to cover this afternoon. Hopefully, Chase will get a decent grade on the test. Right now, he has a C+ in the class. It's a really hard class, and Chase is going to have to study a lot to do okay in the class.

Sunday and Monday, September 15 and 16, 2024

Nanaw didn't get to see Chase on Sunday. He spent the afternoon and evening at the baseball field in Fenton, for a Bears tournament. The games were delayed by rain so Chase didn't get finished playing or getting home till late in the evening. On Monday at school, the lunch was spaghetti, one of Chase's favorites. He said he had a good day, and he didn't have much homework except for studying for Tuesday's math test. On Sunday, Nanaw had wanted Chase to do the extra practice pages in his math book yesterday in order to study for the test but he said he forgot. On Monday, Nanaw finally convinced him to do some of the problems in the evening after he got home from his ICS baseball game. They played in Smithton and lost at least 13 to 1 = Nanaw didn't hear the final score. He texted Nanaw and asked if he could do problems 1 to 38 and then the rest on Tuesday morning before school. There are 65 problems so Nanaw said he wouldn't be able to get the rest of them done on Tuesday morning but they could try doing one of each kind of problem. 

Friday and Saturday, September 13 and 14, 2024

Chase sent lots of texts and photos on Friday to Mama and Nanaw while he was on his Chicago field trip. He said he had a great time and lots of fun. His biggest news was that he bought a trip souvenir for himself at the Shedd Museum. He bought a stuffed frog that he named Fredd (notice the double d after John Shedd who created the museum) His second biggest news, which he reported. to Nanaw when she went to visit Chase on Saturday evening, was that somehow he lost his wallet. He thought he had given it to his chaperone but she didn't have it so he thought maybe he lost it when he went into the bathroom. He visited all the places they did worksheets about (Shedd Aquarium, the Field Museum, Navy Pier, the Science and Industry Museum,  Millennium Park and Water Tower Place. They also did shoreline sightseeing and walked the Magnificent Mile. And spent a lot of time learning about Chicago history. On Saturday, Chase said Daddy had him do the chapter test for his math. He has a math test on Tuesday. Nanaw came over Saturday night to visit Chase. He was really tired from the trip and from the baseball tournament on Saturday so he and Nanaw didn't do much together. Nanaw compared her math chapter test to Chase's and tomorrow when she visits, she'll figure out a few of the answers. They're also going to do the extra credit problems in the back of the book. 

Thursday, September 12, 2024

Today was Grandparents' Day at Chase's school. There was a lot of traffic on the way to school because so many grandparents were going to mass and then to visit their grandkids' classrooms. Chase told Nanaw to sit in one of the middle sections of the church so he'd know where to look for her. Nanaw sat with Brady and Emma's two grandmas. Brady went to look for Chase but Chase found Nanaw before Brady found Chase. Nanaw told Chase she wanted to see his locker before they went into his classroom because he has a double locker this year -- actually, two lockers, one above the other. Nanaw also looked at Brady's locker, which is next to Chase's. Brady has shelves in both lockers; Chase only has shelves in his bottom locker. So Nanaw asked Mama if she could get more shelves for Chase, and she said Daddy thought they had more shelves there at their house. Nanaw thought it would be good for him to have shelves to stack his textbooks and notebooks on. Chase's teacher is very nice. She's very much into math, and Nanaw told her how much she loves math. Brady took a picture of Chase and Nanaw, and Nanaw took a picture of Chase and some of his buddies sitting at the tall table where Chase sits. Nanaw did a Facebook post with the photos, and said, "Today was Grandparents' Day at Chase's school. It was great fun meeting his teacher (who loves math like I do), seeing his classroom, and visiting with his buddies." Tomorrow is the seventh grade field trip to Chicago, and Chase is very excited. He's pleased with the group he's assigned to. They leave at 1 a.m. Friday morning and return at 1 a.m. Saturday morning. They're going to visit the Shedd Aquarium, the Field Museum, Navy Pier, the Science and Industry Museum,  Millennium Park and Water Tower Place. They'll also do shoreline sightseeing and walk the Magnificent Mile. 

Wednesday, September 11, 2024

Chase and Nanaw went over his Outsiders vocabulary words again on Wednesday morning, in preparation for the quiz in English today. They managed to go through them three times in half an hour and by the time they finished, Chase seemed to know them well enough. When Nanaw picked him up from school in the afternoon and asked him about the vocabulary quiz, Chase said he thought he'd done a good job on it. They were supposed to go from school to Chase's house because he had an appointment to get his hair cut but they had to go to Nanaw's house to get Chase's phone first. At Chase's house, Nanaw worked on her version of Chase's math assignments. She does this in order to give him help on his math if he needs it, and also because she likes math and doing the assignments is fun for her (silly Nanaw!). Nanaw thought Chase was going to get a short haircut because that's what he said he wanted. But Mama sent a picture of the haircut to Nanaw, and it wasn't short. Mama's text with the picture said the hair-cutting lady didn't want to cut Chase's hair short. When Nanaw dropped off the clothes bag she'd forgotten to bring, Mama said the lady said if Chase wanted it shorter next time she would do that. Nanaw was disappointed in the haircut because the pictures of Chase with shorter hair at the end of 2022 and in the spring of 2023 were so cute, and Chase said he liked it that way and was going to ask for that. The first picture below is from this morning -- a before picture. The second picture is the after picture. The third picture is the short haircut Nanaw likes -- it's on his birthday in 2022 when he was making a school announcement over the intercom.

Tuesday, September 10, 2024

On Tuesday morning, Chase and Nanaw went through the science vocabulary for today's quiz. Chase reported when Nanaw picked him up from school that he thought maybe he missed two questions. He said that somehow the definitions were in different words and that made the test more difficult. After school, Chase had a lot of homework. First, he finished his math problems, Then he worked on two worksheets for history. The worksheets were part of the preparation for the Chicago trip on Friday. Already, they've done worksheets on the creator of the Shedd aquarium and the Field Museum in Chicago. The worksheets Chase worked on today were for, for the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry, and for Chicago History. Chase got the worksheets done except for one last question about what he was most interested in seeing in Chicago. He wants to see the Cloud Gate again (also known as The Bean), which he saw on his vacation to Chicago two years ago. Part of the answer to the question includes computer research about what the student is most interested in seeing in Chicago. After Chase worked on the worksheets, he and Nanaw studied The Outsiders vocabulary for the test tomorrow. Chase and Nanaw will go over the vocabulary again tomorrow morning. 

Monday, September 9. 2024

My cheerful, happy, smiling Chase is back -- I don't know why or what happened but it's wonderful to have him back. Mama gave him three assignments on Monday morning: 1. Turn in the mums orders. 2. Remember to bring his Cirkul bottle home. And 3. Turn in his missing history paper. When Nanaw picked Chase up from school and they had the pick-up phone call with Mama, Chase reported that he had accomplished all of his assignments. At Nanaw's house, Chase had a snack of vanilla pudding and a Kool-Aid Jammer. Then Chase and Nanaw studied for tomorrow's science quiz. It was on science vocabulary words. They went through the list three times. Twice they did it with Nanaw reading the definition and Chase giving her the word. The third time, Nanaw gave him the word and he gave her the definition. They're going to go through the vocabulary words again tomorrow morning before school. Chase's other homework was a worksheet on the Field Museum in Chicago. There several paragraphs about the museum on one side of the paper. On the other side, were some questions about the museum that students were to answer. 

Sunday, September 8, 2024

On Sunday morning, Chase had a Bears tournament baseball game. His team lost but he had fun and that's what matters. Nanaw came to visit after she got back from Aunt Karen's art show in Wentzville. At the show, Nanaw bought the beautiful drawing of Uncle Mike's German Shepherd Cheyenne that Aunt Karen drew. Cousin Lindsey had sent Aunt Karen a photo of Cheyenne. Nanaw asked Aunt Karen to draw a picture of Mama's best dog Sam. Aunt Karen said she would, and she needed Mama to send her pictures of Sam from different views. Chase had done his science vocabulary but he did it in his notebook rather than on note cards. He had forgotten that Nanaw gave him 22 note cards to do his vocabulary words on; she told him that she was putting them in his backpack Mama had invited Nanaw to come over for make-it-yourself pizzas. Mama made the Stromboli dough recipe that Aunt Becky gave her. Aunt Becky uses it to make Stromboli beef pockets,  pizza, dinner rolls and garlic cheese bread. Everybody make their own personal pizza. Mama had sausage, pepperoni, sauce, cheese, green pepper, black olives and mushrooms. The pizza was absolutely excellent. For the first time eve, Chase said he liked the crust of the make-it-yourself pizza. Mama had tried all kinds of pizza and Chase never liked any of them. So Mama is happy about this. 

Saturday, September 7, 2024

Chase came over to Nanaw's house on Saturday morning while Mama went to the  grocery store. They arranged for Nanaw to take Chase home at 11:30 when it was time for her to leave for the 100th anniversary reception at her church. For a little while, Chase and Nanaw were in the computer lab where Chase played with his phone while Nanaw looked at the Roblox games she'd created. The games are Cicada Cabin and School! Next, they went outside, and Nanaw set up the strike zone for Chase. First, he hit some wiffle balls. Then he practiced his pitching. He did really well; he pitched four perfect strikes, and Nanaw was so proud of him. Then they put away the bat and balls and the strike zone chair and box. At 11:30, Nanaw took Chase home and went to her church. In the afternoon, Chase played in two baseball games in the Bears tournament. Unfortunately, they lost both of the games. Fortunately, Chase got to pitch, and Daddy said he did well. They lost the games because the fielding and the defense let the other teams score too many runs. 

Friday, September 6, 2024

On Friday morning, Chase had a pancake for breakfast, and once again the syrup and the pancake smelled delicious to Chase and Nanaw. Chase was happy that the school was having Papa John's cheese pizza for lunch. He was sad that Pizza Hut had left Columbia. They used to provide the pizza for Fridays at ICS but they closed a few weeks ago. Pizza Hut was Chase's favorite pizza, and Mama always got it for him on special occasions like his birthday. Chase walked out of school again today with the boy who used to be so mean to him. The boy isn't so mean anymore and Chase seems to have forgiven him. But Mama and Nanaw wish that Chase wouldn't have anything to do with him. For the Chicago trip, Chase chose Joey as the first person he's like to sit with on the bus, then the rest of the crew. He put the formerly mean boy's name last but that's probably who he'll get. Today's history assignment was about the man the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago is named after, who donated the money for it. Chase told Nanaw that unfortunately he died before he got to see it finished. After school, Chase played wiffle ball outside for a while, then practiced his pitching with the pitching zone. He said he got a few strikes. He's playing two baseball games with the Bears tomorrow, and he says he might get to pitch. He's on the B team tomorrow, and he says he's the best player on the team. His only homework was to make 22 note cards for science. Nanaw forgot to ask him what the note cards were supposed to be about but on Homework Central it looks like it might be about their Science Fair proposal.

Thursday, September 5, 2024

This morning, Chase had a waffle for breakfast, and he and Nanaw both notice how good it smelled. Nanaw said that maybe someday, Chase could have a waffle and a pancake for breakfast but Chase said that would be too much. Mama gave Chase the envelope with the permission slip and check for next Friday's bus trip to Chicago for the seventh graders. He's really looking forward to it. When Nanaw picked Chase up from school, he said they had to go to his house to get his Atlas so he could use it for his geography homework. He had three major homework assignments: geography, history questions about the Constitution and math problems. Plus he had his 20 minutes of AR reading. At Nanaw's house, he did the geography homework and the history homework. When he got home, Daddy had him start on his math and AR reading. He has hockey practice tonight, plus there's a hockey parents meeting, they wouldn't get home till about 9:30. So Chase wouldn't have time to do any homework after hockey and would have to do it before hockey.

Wednesday, September 4, 2024

Chase studied for today's geography test last night with Daddy and again this morning with Nanaw. There's a lot of difficult material, and Nanaw isn't sure how well Chase knows it. When Nanaw picked him up from school, he said he thinks he did okay on the test. He also said he did his math homework in class, and they checked their papers in class so he didn't bring it home. For some unknown reason, Nanaw mistakenly thought Daddy was picking Chase up from school. Fortunately, Mama sent Nanaw a text about the pick-up call, and Nanaw realized she was supposed to pick Chase up. So when Nanaw picked Chase, she took him home so he could get ready for his baseball game in Belleville. Daddy said it would take about half an hour to get to Belleville. He also said there were only going to be 10 players there today so that means Chase will get to play, maybe the whole game. Mama and Aunt Becca are going to get pedicures and then to dinner. Chase doesn't have any homework tonight except for his AR reading so he'll have some time to himself for VR and his phone and whatever. He's reading an action adventure book about mountain climbers entitled "Into the Clouds." Nanaw put it on request at the library, and it's ready for her to pick so she'll do that tomorrow.

Tuesday, September 3, 2024

Chase had the day off school on Tuesday. The 8th graders were cleaning up the school from the picnic on Labor Day but the rest of the students had the day off. Chase still had a fair amount of homework to do. He had a long math assignment that he hadn't started, and he had to study for a geography test on Wednesday. After he finished the math assignment, Chase and Nanaw worked on studying for the geography test. Nanaw was surprised at how difficult the material was. She was also surprised at the study guide. It wasn't like the stud guides that Chase has used in other classes for years. It was more of an outline or list of the topics and questions that were going to be on the test, rather than an overview of the material. Chase had a couple of other papers that had some but not all of the answers to the topics on the study outline. Chase read through all the study material and then he and Nanaw went over the outline twice. Nanaw didn't feel that Chase knew all the answers but they ran out of time. Hopefully, Chase was able to work with Daddy after the baseball game to reinforce what he'd learned and perhaps learn the rest that he didn’t know well. The ICS baseball team played a good game, and Chase got to play right field at the end of the game, but unfortunately, the team lost.

Monday, September 2, 2024

Chase's sleepover last night was at Cole's house -- with Cole, Hunter and Chase. Evidently at Cole's house, he can only have two friends at a time. They played Roblox, and Chase went to bed at 1 a.m. They had donuts for breakfast. Chase and Daddy had an assignment at the church / school picnic on Monday. From 11 to 1:30, they were in charge of the pitching booth. Mama's assignment, with her friend Michelle and Becky, was from noon to 3 at the bookstore. Nanaw came up to the picnic about 1:30. It took a while to find Chase and Daddy but eventually she did. Unfortunately, Chase didn't feel well. His stomach was bothering him again. Daddy got him some lemonade and a hot dog, hoping that would help his stomach. Daddy asked if he wanted fries and Chase said yes so Daddy got those too, and they seemed to help. Chase said he wanted to go home, and Nanaw said she would take him. But first, they went to Nanaw's house to get Charlie the cicada, so he could have a sleepover tonight at Chase's house. Chase got into bed, under his covers, and stayed the whole time Nanaw was there, except for getting up to go to the bathroom and to get pudding and a cupcake to eat. Mama brought Nanaw yummy funnel cake fries when she got home from the picnic. The second picture below is Chase standing at the pitching booth. The third picture is Elias and Chase yesterday at Mama's Labor Day party.

Sunday, September 1, 2024

Sunday was Mama and Daddy's annual Labor Day party. Chase was so excited that he would get to see his cousin Elias. Nanaw go to the party about 2-30; Chase and Elias were downstairs playing hockey. They'd been playing on the X-box on the TV. Joe, Julia and Hudson came downstairs also. Hudson is such a cute little boy. He's 2 1/2 years old and is smart  and energetic. Nanaw told cousin Joe that he and Julia and Hudson need to move back to St. Louis so Nanaw could take care of Hudson for free. They're paying $316.00 a week for Hudson's daycare cost. Hudson was playing hockey by himself; then he gave hockey sticks to Chase and Elias to get them to play with him. It was really cute, and Chase and Elias were kind enough to play with Hudson. After a while, Chase and Elias went outside to play. Nanaw stayed downstairs with Uncle Mike, cousin Joe, Julia, Hudson, cousin Lindsey and her boyfriend Dylan. Hudson got out Chase's container of marbles and dumped them out so he could play hockey with them. His mom eventually had him pick them up, and it was cute to watch him counting as he put them back into the container. Chase came back in, and it turned out that Elias had gone home. Chase left at 6:30 for hockey practice, and then when he got home, he was going to Cole's house to spend the night.