Thursday, May 28, 2026

Chase and Nanaw had two exciting adventures today. The first one was at noon when Chase decided to cook buttered noodles for his lunch. He looked up a recipe on the Internet and began gathering the things he needed. First, he filled a saucepan with water, then put it on the stove to boil.  Then, he got out spices – garlic powder, Italian seasoning, salt, and pepper. Then he put together a small bowl with shredded Mozzarella cheese and Parmesan cheese. He put the noodles in the boiling water and when they were cooked, he put melted butter, the cheese and the seasonings on them. He gave Nanaw a taste, then ate half of what he’d fixed. Later in the afternoon, he ate the rest as a snack. It was a very successful cooking session for him, and Nanaw was so proud. Plus, the noodles were delicious. The second adventure was that they started studying weather through the online, free Weather Academy. Today they studied the atmosphere, clouds and precipitation. Nanaw printed out the courses so she and Chase can read them aloud to each other to reinforce what they’re learning. Nanaw started sorting through Chase’s school papers she’d saved. Some of them she saved to go through during summer school, and the rest she threw away. Chase did an incredible amount of written work this school year. When Nanaw took Chase home, she and Mama went on a reconnaissance drive to the place where Chase does his workouts. Nanaw has to take him at 11 tomorrow morning. It’s very easy to find. Mama texted Nanaw at about 10:30, asking if Tee Tee was there. Chase had put him with the backup Tee Tees and forgot about him. Nanaw took a picture of Tee Tee with the backups and sent it to them, saying he was enjoying a delightful sleepover with his family. Today was Grandma Marge’s birthday.

Wednesday, May 27, 2026

On Wednesday morning, Chase brought over a $20 bill. He said he wanted to buy a game on Steam, which is a gaming site that he plays on on Nanaw’s laptop. The name of the game is Tape to Tape, and he spent some time today playing it. He really likes Nanaw’s laptop, which is just like Mama’s. Maybe some day Mama will get a new laptop and give her old one to Chase. Mama is still dealing with Chase’s school, trying to get them to deprovision his Chromebook from the school’s management sysem. There doesn’t seem to be anybody there who knows what to do to get the school’s material and control off the Chromebook. Chase would like to be able to play on the Chromebook at home and put games on it, which he couldn’t do when it was connected to the school’s system. In the afternoon, Nanaw asked Chase if he wanted to hang out with Amelie and he said he hadn’t heard from her. Nanaw said why didn’t he text her and he said, “Oh no, I couldn’t do that!” When Nanaw asked why, he just said, “I couldn’t do that!” Later, Mama and Nanaw laughed together about that. Nanaw suggested they do some school today but Chase said maybe tomorrow. Nanaw also tried the sports visioning thing she’d read about where, as an example, the person closes their eyes and envisions themselves holding a bat at home plate, the pitcher does a wind-up and pitches the ball, and they hit a home run. But Chase said he couldn’t do it because it takes him 30 minutes to envision anything and fall asleep. Nanaw doesn’t think he understood at all what she was talking about. She’ll have to try again.

Tuesday, May 26, 2026

Chase made arrangements to hang out with Amelie on Tuesday. They agreed to meet in the park between 11:30 and noon. Nanaw took Chase over to his house a little after 11:30. He rode his bike over to the park and met Amelie there. Eventually, they came over to Chase’s house and played basketball for a while. They played hockey in the garage and then went downstairs and played knee hockey. They finally ended up sitting on the sofa downstairs playing Roblox on their phones and then just playing on their phones. Nanaw went downstairs to get the cord to the Chromebook so she could charge it, and she said hello to Amelie and asked her if she wanted anything to eat or drink. Amelie said she’d like a glass of water so they went upstairs and got that for her. She’s a nice girl, friendly and talkative. She gave Chase a wonderful pocketknife with his name on it. She and her family went to Gatlinburg and that’s where the knife came from. Chase gave her a purple bead bracelet. Amelie had to go home at four and then Chase and Nanaw went back to Nanaw’s house for a while. Nanaw asked Mama if Chase could stay an extra half-hour at Nanaw’s and Mama said yes. 

Sunday, May 24, and Monday, May 25, 2026

Nanaw texted Mama asking for an update on what Chase did on Sunday, and Mama texted back that he didn’t do much. It sounded to Nanaw like a lazy day for everybody, resting up from vacation. Chase and Daddy went to church in the morning, and then Chase did some hitting in the back yard. For dinner, Daddy grilled hamburgers, Nanaw assumes Chase also did a lot of playing on his phone, as usual. On Monday, Memorial Day, Chase spent time with three of his friends: Cole, Hunter and Brady, at his house and at Cole’s house. Nanaw came over for a rib dinner and brought red-skin potato salad, Hawaiian rolls and cookie dough ice cream. The ribs were delicious and so was everything else. Before dinner, Chase played floor hockey with the stuffed animals and talked to Nanaw. He said he bought Amelie a present in Florida and later he showed Nanaw the purple bracelet he bought for her. He said she had also bought something for him on her family trip to Tennessee. Chase said he wanted to hang out with Amelie tomorrow, and Nanaw said they would figure that out. Nanaw brought her laptop along with her and told Chase it was going to have a sleepover with him, and he was happy about that – he likes playing on Nanaw’s laptop. Mama told Nanaw that Chase is going to the Savannah Bananas baseball game in August with his friend Tucker, and Nanaw knows he will enjoy that. Before dinner, Mama and Chase stood back to back in the kitchen to see if Chase had grown any in Florida, and it looked like he had so Mama measured him again. He was 5 feet 5 ½ inches, an inch taller than at the doctor’s office.

Saturday, May 23, 2026

Mama, Daddy and Chase got up early on Saturday morning and left Santa Rosa around 5:40, which Nanaw thinks might be 4:40 a.m. Columbia time. Nanaw keeps forgetting to ask Mama if Santa Rosa is on Central or Eastern Time. Nanaw will look it up right now. Santa Rosa is in northwestern Florida on the Gulf of Mexico and is on Central Time so they left at 5:40 Columbia time. Mama sent Nanaw a picture of Chase sound asleep in the back seat. She said he fell asleep right after they left and slept for a long time. It’s the picture below, and Chase is wearing a Truman shirt. Nanaw liked it a lot and asked Mama where she got it, and Mama said she thought she got it at Rally House. Mama thought they would be home by six but they actually got home around five. About five-thirty, Mama and Chase came over to Nanaw’s to get the pets. It made Nanaw so happy that he came along with Mama. Nanaw has missed him so much. They brought Nanaw a little bottle of small shells and sand – very cute. Chase asked Mama if he could stay at Nanaw’s for a while, and Mama said he could stay for an hour, which made Nanaw even happier. He played games on the laptop for a while, using the new little device Nanaw bought him for his graduation. Then he went into his room to play pencil hockey as they call it although pencils are not longer involved; he now uses much bigger things to shoot balls into the hockey net. He also watched the Stanley Cup game. Sylvester and Tyler sent Nanaw a $50 Amazon gifr card for taking care of them, and Nanaw sent them a thank you note, saying she was surprised they have an Amazon account. Nanaw took him home a little before seven.

Wednesday, May 20, Thursday, May 21, and Friday, May 22, 2026

So far on Wednesday, Mama had sent only a brief update, saying “Playing X-Box again” with the first picture below. The second photo is one that Nanaw took of the three Trumans and sent to Chase, telling him they missed his Truman. Then on Thursday, Mama gave this update on Wednesday:  “Xbox, swimming (we played pool volleyball), more Xbox.   Kristen and Kelly made seafood and then chicken for Chase and me.  Daddy, Chase and I took a golf cart ride to get ice cream last night.  Nothing planned for today except more pool time and I think we’re getting pizza for dinner.”  In the update for Thursday, Mama said Elias and Chase had dinner with her and Will. Then the boys and Daddy went to the beach but Mama stayed at the house. She said they went to get ice cream and then swam for a few minutes. Chase showered, and she wasn’t sure what he and Elias would be doing next but that the old people were going to bed! LOL. On Friday, Mama said they would be leaving Saturday morning sometime before 7 and would arrive home sometime in the evening and that it’s a 12-hour drive. Her Friday report was that the boys played XBox and then Elias went to lunch with his family, and Mama, Daddy and Chase swam for a bit. Then they went to Stinky’s so Chase could get a shirt, and they got soft pretzels.  They came back and waited for the rain to end so they could go to the beach. Mama said the only time it rained this week was at 5 p.m. Friday. Later, they went to the beach, then they got ice cream. Back at the house Chase played on his phone, and Mama and Daddy packed up most of their stuff. Mama said they would finish packing in the morning.  Mama said they miss Nanaw, which made Nanaw feel good! Mama sent lots of pictures, shown below.

Tuesday, May 19, 2026

Mama texted the following update: Today (that would be Tuesday) Chase and Elias played on the X-Box and stayed inside for a while. Mama went to breakfast at a beach bar with a lot of the group. The boys finally came outside to swim. In the evening, Daddy went to Stinky’s to get dinner, and Mama stayed back at the house with Chase and Elias. Monica (Elias’s mom’s sister, his aunt) and her friend Melissa stayed back with them, too. Monica and Melissa have two little dogs they brought with them. Nanaw thinks that Mama is probably happy to have dogs on vacation with them so she doesn’t miss Sly too much. The cleaning lady came to Nanaw’s house today, and a miracle happened, with all four cats going downstairs. Nanaw took Sylvester to his house until the cleaning lady was done. He had to ride in the back seat because Nanaw had too much stuff in the front seat. When Nanaw got Sly back home, she finally mixed some canned dog food with his dry food, and he gobbled it down. Mama had said Nanaw should do that if he didn’t eat the dry food, which he didn’t. For the second picture, Mama said she made Elias and Chase pose for her. The third picture came at 10:13 p.m. Tuesday night, which Nanaw thinks is 11:13 Florida time – she’ll have to check with Mama.