Saturday, November 30, 2024

On Saturday morning, it snowed, the first snowfall of the year. Columbia got about two inches, and Chase was excited. Mama said he was watching the forecast on his phone all the way home from the morning's hockey practice. During the day, Chase worked on his science fair project, printing out the pages with the information and laying it out before pasting everything to the display boards. The project is due on December 9, and Mama is determined that Chase will have everything done before they leave for the hockey tournament in Omaha, Nebraska on Friday morning. In the evening, Mama created an adventure for everyone. First, she fixed absolutely delicious lasagna for dinner, along with herb flavored butter braids. The butter braids are part of the space camp fund raising project at Chase's school. For Thanksgiving breakfast, Mama fixed cherry butter braids. She bought one of each kind. Nanaw thinks Mama used Grandma Marge's lasagna recipe but left out the cottage cheese. Nanaw liked it that way and so did Mama. After dinner, they watched a movie -- Chevy Chase's Christmas Vacation. It's such a funny movie, and even Chase watched and laughed. Mama fixed yummy popcorn.

Friday, November 29, 2024

Mama, Chase and Nanaw had their annual day after Thanksgiving adventure on Friday. About 10:30, they went to the Train House . Transportation Museum to see the humongous Christmas train display. It was marvelous, as always. Nanaw got to see her train engineer friend, Dave. She and Mama made sure to find out his last name -- Barbichesley -- so they could stalk him online. One of the other engineers also talked to Nanaw and Chase, saying he remembered seeing them when Chase was little and then year after year. Someday, Chase and Nanaw should take Uncle Mike. He and Mama used to go there when they were little. Mama, Chase and Nanaw walked around the reindeer area and took pictures, then went back to the main building to get their usual popcorn, which was delicious as always. Lunch was at Arby's. Then it was on to HandyMan Hardware to see their Christmas decoration display. They had cuddle stuffed animals on sale for $6.00, and Nanaw bought a beige and brown soft dog she named Handy. Mama bought an extension cord because she feels guilty going to look at their decorations and not buying anything. Uncle Mike worked so hard on Friday putting up Nanaw's beautiful outdoor decorations.

 

 

Happy Thanksgiving!! Thursday, November 28, 2024

Mama, Daddy and Chase stopped by Nanaw's house on Thanksgiving morning on their way to Daddy's cousin Caroline's house for their first Thanksgiving dinner. They were there to put the turkey in the oven because it was pretty heavy for Nanaw to do. They also took a family picture, the one below. Mama put it on Facebook and shared it with Nanaw so that it showed up on Nanaw's Facebook page. This was Nanaw's last big family dinner. From now on, Uncle Mike and Mama are going to host the holiday dinners. Nanaw has done the dinners for 30 years and decided it was now a lot of work for just one person. There were 17 for dinner and that was pretty much the limit for the number that would fit around the table. Missing from dinner were cousin Kris and cousin Lindsey. Cousin Kris was having dinner with Jerome's family, and cousin Lindsey was working. She called to talk to everyone, from the back of the ambulance -- she's an EMT. Dinner was good, and dessert was even better. Aunt Becky brought over two games that some of the people played: one called Uzzle with little blocks, and one that used magnets inside a circle. It sounded like everybody who played had fun. Baby Beckham laid in Chase's bassinet for a while, and little Hudson had fun playing with Chase's toys from when Chase was a little boy. It was a great Thanksgiving.

Wednesday, November 27, 2024

Chase had the day off from school on Wednesday and spent it at Nanaw's house. He spent time playing Roblox and watching YouTube videos on the computer and also spent time on his phone. They did some studying for two big tests he has next week -- on chapter 4 in science and a midterm exam in math. Chase looked up answers to some study questions in the science book. They'll work more on science later in the weekend and next week when Chase gets a study guide for the test. For the math exam, the teacher gave the class a packet with 120 math problems like the ones that will be on the exam. Chase worked on the packet and now has 90 problems done. He accidentally picked up two copies of the packet and gave one to Nanaw for her to work on. The evening was an interesting one for Mama, Daddy, Chase and Nanaw. They had Chinese for dinner, sweet and sour chicken, fried rice and crab Rangoon. Next, they watched the Charlie Brown Thanksgiving video. Then Mama made popcorn, and they watched the new movie Twisters. Chase and Nanaw had already watched it but Nanaw had missed some of it so she enjoyed watching it again. Chase didn't want to watch but Mama had him stay in the living room and play on his phone there. 

Tuesday, November 26, 2024

Chase only had half a day of school Tuesday for the Thanksgiving holiday. When Nanaw picked Chase up from school, they took Cole home and didn’t forget him. Chase brought home the things he needed to study over the holidays. He has a science test over chapter 4 on Wednesday. Nanaw ordered a science book, and it's supposed to come Monday. He also has a math exam on December 4 and 5; Nanaw isn't sure what it covers but she'll find out from Chase. In the afternoon, they watched the Tom Cruise movie War of the Worlds. Well, Nanaw watched it. Chase only watched one or two scenes -- and it was Chase's idea. After the movie, Chase did his hockey stick bending project. He had Nanaw boil a big pot of water. Then they put water in a glass container, and Chase held Marc Andre's two little hockey sticks in the water for three minutes so Chase could bend them. He waned them a little more bent so he held them in the boiling water for another minute, and then he was satisfied, and he and Marc Andre played with the newly bent sticks. In the evening, Chase had hockey practice.

Monday, November 25, 2024

One month till Christmas! Chase only had one homework assignment and reading AR. Mama wanted him to do those at Nanaw's house after school because they were going to see the Christmas lights at Garden Glow at the Missouri Botanical Garden in the evening. Chase asked Nanaw to go through the papers in his agenda and accordion folder and separate them into piles of those with grades and those without grades. Nanaw did this and was once again amazed at the amount of paperwork that Chase does for school. After Nanaw separated the papers, Chase went through the ones without grades to determine which ones he should put back in the agenda and accordion folder, and which ones he could give to Nanaw. Nanaw took Chase home at five and then went back at there at six to go to Garden Glow. The light displays were gorgeous, and the whole experience was great, despite the cold temperatures and wind. It was Nanaw's second time there, and she loved it. She also loved seeing her friend Jackie that she worked with at Edward Jones and who now works at Wells Fargo.

Sunday, November 24, 2024

Sunday morning was Uncle Mike's birthday breakfast. First, Chase and Daddy went to the 7 a.m. mass. Chase's principal and his wife were there but none of Chase's friends -- it was probably too early for them. Mama, Daddy and Chase picked up Nanaw at about 8:30 a.m. to go to Uncle Mike's for the birthday breakfast. There ended up being 23 people there. Besides the usual six, guests included Nyeal, Irina, cousin Lindsey and Dylan, cousin Nichole and Jon Jon, cousin Kris, cousin Joe and Julia and Jeremy and Hudson, Aunt Becky's niece Vikka and her husband Marcus and their baby Beckham, Kathleen and her husband and baby Carson. Nanaw was very happy to see the baby and the two little boys -- she loves babies and children. The food was delicious and plentiful. Nanaw got to sit in the living room with Chase and Mama and Daddy to eat. They also sat with baby Beckham and his parents. He'll be a month old on November 26. There were cinnamon rolls, bacon, scrambled eggs, biscuits, baby cheesecakes, cherry turnovers, gravy, muffins, grapes and strawberries, and special things that Aunt Becky made with everything in them. Chase and Jeremy and Nyeal holding onto Hudson went outside to play kickball with Uncle Mike's four German Shepherds. The dogs loved the activity. Chase and Jeremy also threw a Frisbee around. It was a wonderful birthday breakfast for Uncle Mike. The last two pictures were random ones that showed up on Nanaw's computer: Mama and Nanaw at Mama and Daddy's wedding and precious Sam in a Santa hat.

Saturday, November 23, 2024

Chase had a sports-filled day on Saturday. In the morning, he had a hockey game. His team tied the game, 3 to 3. Then around noon, he had baseball practice with the Bears. In the afternoon, he had hockey practice. Daddy took him to practice, and Chase asked Mama if she wanted to go too because they were going to do a scrimmage. But Mama had all kinds of things she had to do. At 6:10, Nanaw came over to Chase's house so she and Mama could go to KFC to get dinner. Sadly, KFC got Chase's order wrong. He was supposed to get chicken tenders but they gave him several pieces of dark meat chicken. They gave the dark meat to Daddy, and Mama gave her chicken breast to Chase. But he didn't like it, and then neither did Mama. So Nanaw and Daddy had the perfect KFC dinner, and Mama and Chase not so much. They were supposed to watch the movie "Twisters" tonight but Mama was too tired and thought she'd fall asleep. So she said they'd find another time to watch the movie. Nanaw watched Chase play knee hockey for awhile, then she went to see the guys who showed up in Chase's room: Claude the Crab, two more Bananas in Pajamas, and Cutie Bertie. Mama arranged them on Chase's bed, and Nanaw took a picture of Chase with them. 

Friday, November 22, 2024

Sixty-one years ago, President Kennedy was assassinated. Pawpaw was in the Army at the time, and he and Nanaw were living in Columbus, Georgia. It was a Friday, just like it is today, and Pawpaw had the day off. They were watching As the World Turns, one of Nanaw's soap operas, when the announcement came that the president had been killed. For the next several days, that was all that was on television, and the whole country watched. Today Mama had the day off from work, and she took Chase to school. Nanaw forgot that Mama was taking Chase, and she got up at her regular time, 5:50 a.m. When she remembered, she wen back to bed and slept to 10 -- yay! When Nanaw picked Chase up, he told her about his homework: he had to finish his consumer math packet, do a geography worksheet, do his AR for Friday, Saturday and Sunday, do the vocabulary for chapters 1 to 6 of Mockingbird, and finish the Gospel of Mark questions that are due on Monday. He didn't want to do any homework at Nanaw's but Mama said it would be a good idea to do some of it because he was busy with sports all day on Saturday. On Sunday, he and Daddy were going to 7 a.m. mass so that they could go to Uncle Mike's birthday breakfast.

Thursday, November 21, 2024

Chase has been wearing his contacts to school every day for the past few weeks, and he's gotten really fast and good at putting them in. Mama and Nanaw were worried that he was wearing them because something happened to his glasses. Nanaw checked his glasses in his backpack and they were fine. After school, Chase played knee hockey in the hall for a few minutes, then he did his homework. On the way home from school, Chase told Mama and Nanaw how the science teacher used Chase's paper to show the class a good example of analysis for their science fair reports. Mama and Nanaw were so proud of Chase. He printed out a copy for Nanaw. His homework was the slavery packet for history. When he finished his homework, he sat at the computer to listen and look at a YouTube version of War of the Worlds. They listened to it in English class yesterday and today and worked on a packet. He was fascinated with the idea that it was a radio broadcast that made people think aliens had landed. For some reason, he wants to watch the Tom Cruise version of War of the Worlds during his Thanksgiving vacation.

Wednesday, November 20, 2024

Today was Uncle Mike's 59th birthday! He went out to the little house to winterize it. He called Nanaw to tell her he'd also blown all the leaves away, and he found the gift bag the people from the 60th anniversary group left. In the afternoon, Chase worked on his consumer math packet, and then Nanaw looked it over. It was finding sales percents off of all kinds of things and also sales tax. It was interesting to see the teacher giving the students practical reasons for studying percentages. Nanaw had saved a piece of Uncle Mike's birthday cake for Chase: chocolate cake with chocolate icing. Chase is usually not a big cake eater but he ate every bite and said it was good and he liked it. The doorbell rang and Nanaw saw the big package out on the porch. She knew what it was and called Chase to come and see. She told him it was Matt Murray, the Nova hockey player. He was so excited, and asked if they could open it, even if it was for his birthday. So Chase opened the box and put Matt Murray together, along with some cool-looking stickers. He played with Matt Murray and Marc Andre together and had a great time.

Tuesday, November 19, 2024

Chase had a 2:30 orthodontist appointment on Tuesday afternoon so Nanaw picked him up from school at 2:15. The appointment took about half an hour. They fixed some of the pieces of his braces that had broken off. At Nanaw's house, Chase played with the Playmobil for a little while and then played knee hockey. Then he was ready to do his homework. He worked on the history assignment about abolition; Nanaw looked it over, and he had all the right answers. He forgot his math packet but he said he only had a few more problems to do and that he could get it done at school tomorrow morning. He also worked on the conclusion to his science fair report that's due Friday. Nanaw didn't know that he and Daddy had done the Frisbee experiment a couple of Sundays ago when the weather was nice. Tonight was Uncle Mike's birthday celebration at Nanaw's house. First, they went to Joe Boccardi's for dinner, where Chase had spaghetti with meat sauce and cheese garlic bread. Then they had presents, followed by chocolate cake with chocolate icing and Blue Bell vanilla ice cream. The second picture below is Uncle Mike and Mama practicing wall pushups.

Monday, November 18, 2024

On Monday morning before school, Chase and Nanaw went over the Mockingbird material for today's quiz, and he did well. When Nanaw picked Chase up from school, he said he thought he did a good job on the quiz. He said the questions were multiple choice, fill in the blank and one true or false but he couldn't remember what the true or false question was. His only homework, besides AR, was to color a history paper on the Kansas / Nebraska Slavery Act that's due Wednesday. Nanaw suggested that he work on it today because he didn't have any other homework so he agreed. Mama and Nanaw decided to have Chase drink protein shakes so that he gains a little weight. He didn't like the chocolate peanut butter ones, so Nanaw suggested the birthday cake ones. He didn't like those either. So Nanaw is going to take the birthday cake ones and buy him some chocolate ones and hope that he likes those. Nanaw baked Uncle Mike's birthday cake, and Chase licked the bowl, which he really liked. Then he asked if Nanaw had any ice cream, and she said she had expensive ($8.32 at Walmart) vanilla ice cream for Uncle Mike's birthday. He ate some and liked it. Tonight he had baseball practice. The picture below is a selfie that Chase took of himself. 

Sunday, November 17, 2024

Chase and Daddy went to church on Sunday and then they had an adventure: They went out to Uncle Chris's house in Silex so Chase could play with Elias. Nanaw came over to visit after they got home, and Chase told her all about the visit. He said they played video games and had lots of fun. His cousin Elias is one of Chase's favorite people, and he always likes going to play with him. For dinner, Mama made potato soup with bacon bits, and she generously gave Nanaw the leftover bacon bits, which were really yummy. Mama had originally planned to make pot roast for dinner but changed the menu because she didn't know when Chase and Daddy would be back from Elias's house. After Chase finished dinner, he and Nanaw went downstairs. He told Nanaw his hockey team won its game on Saturday, 5 to 2. Chase was really happy about that. Chase showed Nanaw the new hockey stick he got. Its size is in between a regulation hockey stick and a knee hockey stick. Chase played with the new stick for a while. After Chase finished playing with his new stick, he and Nanaw studied for his Mockingbird quiz on Monday on chapters 1 through 4. This time, Nanaw had him give her the answers without Chase looking at the Mockingbird packet. He did a good job but they're still going to go over the material Monday morning before school. 

Saturday, November 16, 2024

Mama brought Chase over to Nanaw's house on Saturday morning while she went to the grocery store. Nanaw told Mama she didn’t have to get a newspaper for Nanaw at Schnuck's because Nanaw had to go there later to get strawberries, in addition to the newspaper. For a while after he got to Nanaw's, Chase and Nanaw finished watching the movie Twisters. Nanaw is happy that Chase likes the movie so much. For years now, Chase hasn't liked watching movies so this is quite a change. However, it's probably because the movie is about horrendous tornadoes with scenes of horrific destruction. Mama is going to have a family movie night soon with the movie because she and Daddy haven't watched it and really want to. Chase and Nanaw will be happy to watch it again. After the movie, Chase played with the cicadas and Marc Andre. Then they did some schoolwork. Chase had brought his school backpack with him. The only real homework he had to do was study for the Mockingbird quiz over chapters 1 to 4 on Monday. They went over the answers to the questions in the Mockingbird packet, and Chase did really well. Evidently, they went over the packets in class to make sure that everybody had the correct answers. After they finished the Mockingbird packet, Chase played Roblox on the computer and watched YouTube videos while Nanaw did Wordle. They also watched a haunted house scape on YouTube on Nanaw's iPad. Chase had a hockey game today, and he's excited about going out to visit Elias tomorrow. 

Friday, November 15, 2024

When Nanaw dropped Chase off at school on Friday morning, she told him good luck on his math quiz, his religion test, and his geography quiz. He also turned in a draft of his science fair project. When Nanaw picked him up from school, he said he thought he did well on his three tests. He said the chicken nuggets at lunch were good, and he had fun playing sharks and minnows at lunch recess with his crew of friends. Nanaw asked if he had a best friend, and he said the six guys in the crew are his best friends. At Nanaw's house, they talked a bit about the homework they were going to do over the weekend. Chase didn't have his phone with him so Nanaw asked if he would like to continue watching the Twisters movie that they started watching at Rockbridge. To Nanaw's surprise, Chase said yes. Usually, when Nanaw asks him if he wants to watch a movie, he says no. But Twisters is all about tornadoes, and Chase is really into tornadoes and severe storms and weather. Nanaw took a picture of Chase watching the movie and sent it to Mama. She was so happy to see him watching a movie. He also said he'd like to watch the first movie, Twister. They still have half an hour of the movie to watch, and they'll finish it tomorrow morning when Mama brings Chase over to Nanaw's house while she goes to the grocery store. 

Thursday, November 14, 2024

Chase had a 3:30 haircut appointment today, so when Nanaw picked him up, they went to his house instead of Nanaw's house. Nanaw was sad that she only got to see Chase for a few minutes. On the way to school in the morning, Nanaw had asked Chase if he was ever going to get a short haircut again. He said that when he didn't play hockey anymore, he'd get a short haircut. He said you had to have long hair for hockey. Nana laughed at that but she understood him wanting to fit in and feel a part of the hockey team. Chase said he had spaghetti for lunch, which is one of his favorites. At recess, they played Sharks and Minnows, and Chase was both a shark and a minnow. He turned in his history election packet and his English assignment. He said he had two tests tomorrow: geography and religion. Nanaw texted Mama today asking about the three sleepovers Chase had with her this year. The first one was Saturday, February 24 for the Dinner Auction. The second was Friday, July 12 for Brady's dad's birthday celebration. The third was Saturday, October 12 for the wedding of a friend of Mama. Nanaw plans to really enjoy her time with Chase after school on Friday.

Wednesday, November 13, 2024

When Nanaw picked Chase up from school on Wednesday afternoon at 2 p.m. for early dismissal, they both remembered they were giving Cole a ride home. Cole wasn't out of school yet, so Chase went back to get him. Hunter walked out with them and thought his dad wasn't there so Nanaw said she'd give him a ride home. But then Hunter's dad called him, and Hunter went to find him. At Nanaw's house, Chase worked on his homework. First, he did a geography assignment about maps. He had to look things up on the computer, which he enjoys doing. After the geography assignment, he got out his history election packet that's due tomorrow. It's a really big packet with lots of work. He's been working on it for a week now. He had two things left to do. The first one was write a paragraph telling his opinion about the electoral college -- he's against it and wants to have the popular vote be the way the president is elected. He also thinks the swing states have too much power in the election. The second one was to write a paragraph about Donald Trump. Chase was going to write about how he started the Space Force when he was president the first time. Nanaw was so proud of Chase for taking responsibility for his homework and working so diligently on it. Before Nanaw took Chase home, he remembered that he also had an English assignment to do. It hadn't been on Homework Central when Nanaw looked at it but was there later in the afternoon. Chase said he could do in the evening either before baseball practice or after. 

Tuesday, November 12, 2024

When Nanaw picked Chase up from school, he said he had good news and bad news. Nanaw asked for the bad news first. Chase said he found out that he had done his geography 3 D project wrong. Nanaw then asked Chase what the good news was. He said the good news was that he now knew hot to do his 3D project correctly, and he could do it at Nanaw's house. He said he needed card stock, construction paper, a ruler and pencils. Nanaw said she had all those things so everything was good. She said she'd also get the paper cutter from downstairs for him to use. One of the things he had to do for the project was to accordion fold the card stock. The creative little fellow found a YouTube video to watch telling how to accordion fold paper. Chase worked on the 3D project the whole time he was at Nanaw's so he didn't have time to study for tomorrow's math test or to work on the lengthy history election packet that's due Thursday. He has hockey practice tonight but he was going to skip the first part so that he could work on his homework. 

Monday, November 11, 2024

Mama had the day off from work on Monday for Veterans' Day so she took Chase to school, and Nanaw got to sleep late. Nanaw missed seeing Chase in the morning and was so glad to be able to pick him up from school. During the day, Nanaw worked on the math problems she doesn't know how to do but didn't make much progress. She'll try again when she has time. She read chapter 3 of Mockingbird and will work on the packet questions -- maybe tonight. When Nanaw picked Chase up, he had to go back into school because he forgot his religion book and he has something called a webquest due tomorrow. They talked about when everything is due this week. He has a math test on Wednesday. His history election packet is due Thursday. His geography 3D project is due Wednesday, November 13. Chase said the teacher wanted everybody to bring in their projects tomorrow. Chase said his isn't ready so he was going to email the teacher to tell her he couldn't bring his in tomorrow. She emailed back that was all right; she just wanted to make sure the students had all the materials they needed for the project. Chase had baseball practice tonight and didn't want to cancel even though he has so much homework. 

Sunday, November 10, 2024

Chase and Daddy went to church on Sunday morning. Then Chase worked on his history election packet that's due sometime next week. Evidently, it's really long and requires a lot of writing. Then he played knee hockey downstairs. Nanaw came over to visit and do homework while he was playing knee hockey. She watched him for a while, and then they went upstairs to the kitchen to work at the kitchen table. Chase showed Nanaw the election packet, and she thought it looked really hard. She looked over some of his answers and gave him suggestions on how to change them. Nanaw worked on math problems while Chase worked on the election packet. Nanaw doesn't know how to do some problems about slope and charting time with distance. She still hasn't figured it out and decided she'd have to keep on trying till she understands it. Chase says he sort of understands how to do it so maybe he'll be able to show her how to do it. He has a math test on Wednesday so he needs to know everything by then.

Saturday, November 8, 2024

Chase's hockey game last night didn't go too well for Chase's team: They lost 11 to 2 but Chase said he had fun, and that's what's important. This morning, he had hockey practice, and he said it went well. In the afternoon, he had a different kind of baseball practice. He said it's called weight training, and it involved lots of pulling and pushing. Nanaw wondered if there would be weight lifting eventually like cousin Elias does. Nanaw came over at 4 p.m. to work with Chase on his schoolwork. They have a list of work to do. One of the items Chase put on the list was to work on all his schoolwork he did this past week. That was exactly what Nanaw had in mind. First, they worked on the To Kill a Mockingbird packet. Nanaw made a copy of the packet for herself yesterday at the library. They did the answers up to the chapter 3 section. After the packet, they looked at his math, but Nanaw decided she needed to go over the chapter 5 material in the math book before she and Chase could do practice problems together. Then Chase read through his geography materials, and Nanaw starting quizzing him on it. They'll work on it again tomorrow when Nanaw comes to visit Chase. For the first time, Mama went to Waterloo to get Pizza Hut for dinner. The Columbia Pizza Hut closed so they had to find another one because Pizza Hut is Chase's very favorite. 

Friday, November 8, 2024

Before school on Friday morning, Chase and Nanaw studied for his English and religion tests. Chase and Mama went over everything last night also. Mama said he did well with the studying, and Nanaw thought he did also. Nanaw had lunch with Uncle Doug and Aunt Rita and told them about the Rockbridge trip and how Chase went fishing with Daddy for a while. Nanaw had fried walleye for lunch, and it was delicious. When she went to get on highway 44 at the 141 entrance, she couldn't because the entrance was flooded. So she had to go west on 44 and get off at the first exit and then get back on the highway going east. It was sort of fun and exciting. When Nanaw picked Chase up from school, he told her he got a 100 on his religion test. He also got a 17 out of 18 on his science vocabulary quiz. Chase and Nanaw worked on a list of what schoolwork they wanted to do this weekend, and it went well. Then Chase played on the computer and didn't have to do any homework. Nanaw went to the library to make a copy of the To Kill a Mockingbird packer for Nanaw so she could do it with Chase. Chase didn't want to go so Nanaw brought him a bag of Lays potato chips from the vending machine. Chase had a hockey game tonight, and Mama got Subway for dinner. Tomorrow, Chase has hockey practice in the morning and baseball practice in the afternoon. Nanaw will go over sometime for them to do schoolwork, either between the two practices or after baseball practice. 

Thursday, November 7, 2024

Nanaw asked Mama to bring Chase over at 6:45 a.m. even though she wasn't going into the office so that Chase and Nanaw could do more studying for his history test. He did fairly well with the answers. When Nanaw picked him up from school and asked about the history test, he said it was good, and he thought he did well on it. He said he had a verbs test in English and a religion test tomorrow. Nanaw had brought her iPad along and had it playing a Halloween Dish Scape for Chase to watch. At Nanaw's house, they studied the verbs packet first. There were a lot of pages to the study packet, maybe 10 or 12. Nanaw was surprised at how much there was to study. Chase seemed to know the material they were able to get through; there were several pages the didn't have time for. This meant there wasn't any time to study for the religion test. Chase has hockey practice tonight, and he'll study for religion and the rest of the verb packet for English for the two tests tomorrow. Because of all the studying Chase has during the week and the lack of time during the week because of hockey and baseball in the evenings, Nanaw came up with an idea to try. She was Chase to spend more time on Saturday and Sunday studying what he learned the week before and looking ahead to the coming week. This might help him get ready for tests and get homework done ahead of time. So, fingers crossed that it helps.

Wednesday, November 6, 2024

On Wednesday morning before school, Chase and Nanaw studied his science vocabulary words for Wednesday's test. Mama helped him last night, and Nanaw went over the words with him twice in the morning. She did it both ways: giving him the definition and him giving her the word and then giving him the word and him giving the definition. Mama bought Chase some Nutri Grain bars for his breakfast, and he really likes them. He asked to have one for his afternoon snack, so Nanaw gave it to him - she'll have Mama get more at the grocery store this weekend. On the way home from school, Chase said today was a good day. Nanaw asked why, and he said because it wasn’t raining so they could have outdoor recess. Nanaw asked what they played today at recess, and Chase said Sharks and Minnows. Chase also said he knew all the answers to the science vocabulary words on the science test, and he was happy about that. Once again, Chase had a huge amount of homework. He had to do a long English packet about Robert Frost and his poem The Road Not Taken. He also had to complete the study guide for Thursday's Constitution test and study for the test. He only had time at Nanaw's house to do the English Robert Frost packet and to finish the history Constitution study guide. After his baseball practice in the evening, he and Daddy were going to study for the history test. On Thursday morning before school, Chase and Nanaw will study for the history test also. From now on, Chase won't only  study for tests on his own. Either Nanaw and/or his parents will quiz him on the test material. This is because of the D he got on last week's science test where he studied on his own and wouldn't let anyone quiz him. Once again, Nanaw was looking for Dish Scapes. She found a super Halloween Haunted House Scape. The second picture below is of the two stuffed cicadas, Charles and Charlie, watching the Haunted House Scape.

Tuesday, November 5, 2024

Chase has a science test on Wednesday and a history test on Thursday -- lots of studying to do. On Tuesday, Mama went in to the office to work so she brought Chase over at 6:45 a.m. It was raining again, and it rained a lot during the day. It was election day, and once again Nanaw couldn't go to the library because it was so crowded and there was no place to park. Chase has been good about using his umbrella before and after school. He hasn't been happy about the rain because it means no outdoor recess. They have to stay in their classrooms for recess. After school, Chase worked on his vocabulary words for the science test tomorrow. In the evening, Mama went over them again with him. Evidently, the class did the vocabulary words in class on Friday when Chase wasn't there so he didn't know about them and hadn't done them. It was a lot of work for him to get done Tuesday afternoon but he did it. Nanaw  was looking on YouTube for the Dish Scapes, like Mama and Chase suggested. She found the Thanksgiving one they saw in Rockbridge, and she sent a link with conga turkeys to Mama. She was happy about it and said it made her day. Uncle Mike sent the second photo below, showing the flooding at Rockbridge. Rockbridge seems to get flooded a lot, unfortunately. 

Happy Rockbridge 2024 -- Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, November 1 to 4, 2024

It was a wonderful, fun Rockbridge trip. As usual, they stopped in Rolla at Bread company for delicious treats. They got to Rockbridge around 1 p.m. and got to check in early. Also as usual, the food at the restaurant was delicious. Everybody tried new things so that was fun. Nanaw had a grilled cheese sandwich with bacon that was really good. For one breakfast, Chase had hot cakes and toast. He made a sandwich out of toast and syrup and really liked it. On Saturday night, everybody had brownie sundaes that were really yummy. Chase brought Marc Andre and Hot Wheels to play with. He also brought a couple of large hockey sticks with him and played outside with them. Once again, everybody enjoyed watching Dish's Dish Scapes on the TV. This year it was a country Thanksgiving. Last year, it was a lot of trains. They liked the trains better. Chase was obsessed  with Dish Scapes and watched them all the time. Daddy, Uncle Mike and Aunt Becky caught a total of 20 trout. Mama went for lots of walks, some with Sylvester and some by herself. She also went by herself on the dangerous walk in the woods to the cave, just like Nanaw used to do. On Saturday evening, they all played several games of Weather Bingo. Mama had brought along Scratcher Lotto tickets for prizes. Aunt Becky won the most. After the Weather Bingo games, Chase and Nanaw started watching the new Twisters movie Mama bought. Everybody else was tired and went to bed. Chase and Nanaw only watched the movie for about half an hour; Chase was tired and wanted to go to sleep. But first, he had Nanaw turn on Dish Scapes so he could watch it. Chase fished on Saturday afternoon and got a couple of bites but didn't catch anything. Nanaw bought a little stuffed turkey and a little stuffed yellow bird for Chase. They brought along Charlie and Charles, the stuffed cicadas and 16 of Chase's stuffed animals. Monday: Mama had the day off on Monday so she took Chase to school. It was raining but he didn't use his umbrella. It was raining again when Nanaw picked Chase up from school, and this time he used his umbrella. He had a lot of homework because of missing school on Friday: math, history and English.