Monday, February 2, 2026

On Monday morning before school, Chase didn’t feel well so Mama said he should stay home from school — at Nanaw’s. When Chase announced that he could spend the day with her, he gave her a big grin. Later in the morning, he took a short nap, then ate some crackers. Nanaw had to go to a meeting with her broker at Edward Jones and was sorry to leave Chase. When she got home, she fixed chicken noodle soup and saltines for his lunch and then he did his AR reading. Chase and Nanaw had fun playing Wordle together on the two desktop computers in the room Chase calls the computer lab. Chase showed Nanaw how to find the Wordle archive site and then they played that for a while. After 3 p.m., Nanaw drove up to Chase’s school to pick up his class work and homework from the box in front of school. Chase looked it over and said there wasn’t too much and started working on it. There was a math assignment that he couldn’t do because his math book wasn’t included in the materials they sent home. He was going to read the assigned chapter in the religion book in the evening after baseball practice. Hopefully, Chase will feel fine tomorrow and be able to go to school.

Saturday, January 31, and Sunday, February 1, 2026

Saturday was an exciting day for Nanaw. She drove Mama to Chase’s 1 p.m. hockey game at the Fenton rink. This was because Mama and Daddy were going to a surprise birthday party after the game, and Chase was going home with Nanaw. Uncle George and Aunt Sharon came to the game. Mama was in the score keeping box so she didn’t get to sit with the family. Nanaw sat next to Sharon and shared her blanket for sitting on the cold bleacher seats, and they had a nice conversation. It was an exciting, attention-grabbing hockey game, and Chase’s team beat the St. Peter’s team 3 to 1. After Nanaw took Chase to her house, she went to Taco Bell to get lunch for them. Chase had a chicken quesadilla and nachos with cheese. Nanaw had three crunchy tacos supreme. Very yummy. All on his own, Chase asked if he could text Mama to see if he could have a sleepover, and Nanaw said yes. So did Mama! After the party, Mama and Daddy brought Chase’s clothes over plus his trashed chicken wings from Bar Down for his dinner. Trashed means fried twice, according to Mama. I\On Saturday morning, Nanaw had done some rearranging for Chase. She moved a chair into his room and cleared things away from the piano keyboard in the computer lab. On Sunday morning, Daddy picked Chase up for church. Chase had to do double AR reading time on Sunday because Mama didn’t send his AR book to Nanaw’s Saturday night. But that was his only homework. Nanaw thinks Chase’s teachers are giving out less homework to the classes, which us a good thing. They had been buried in homework so less is a good thing. Chase’s team had a 5 p.m. game, which they won 5 to 0. Yay! Mama had Chase send Nanaw a picture. Chase and Mama made garlic bread together, and Mama sent picture. He’s really getting interested in cooking, which is a great thing.

Friday, January 30, 2026

Mama took Chase to school again on Friday morning because he had to be there early for Catholic Schools Week. When Nanaw picked Chase up from school, she parked in the far section and saw that they hadn't cleared the snow off that walkway so she had to walk to the end of the parking lot. Fortunately, she was able to find Chase before he started off in the parking lot looking for her car. He told Nanaw how they played volleyball as one of the Catholic Schools activities and that it was fun and he played well. He said because Cole is so tall, he can touch the top of the net without jumping. Nanaw asked him about the talent show and whether any of the crew performed. He said Drew performed in the talent show, playing the piano. Mama came over to Nanaw's house at 4:30 to take Nanaw to Dobbs to pick up the Escape. Dobbs fixed an oil leak for $800.00. Mama brought along Truman and Tee Tee wrapped in a blanket for Chase because he hadn't brought any of the guys to Nanaw's house. Nanaw is going to Chase's hockey game at 12:30 tomorrow, then taking Chase home with her. Mama and Daddy are going to a surprise birthday party at a winery.

Thursday, January 29, 2026

Mama took Chase to school today because he had to be there early to collect money for one of the Catholic Schools Week fundraising projects. She's going to take him to school again on Friday morning. Mama sent Nanaw some pictures of Chase from a visit by some of the Gibault students for Catholic Schools Week. One of the pictures had Chase front and center in the picture -- very cool. Nanaw decided to post it on Facebook. Mr. G. was there and took a picture of Chase with the huge Gibault Hawks mascot and another student. Because Chase told Nanaw that the snow on the walkways on the school parking lot had been cleaned off, she told him she'd be up at the front of the school to meet him. After school, Chase studied for tomorrow's religion test. He used a Quizlet to study, and it seemed really helpful. Then Nanaw quizzed him from the review questions in the religion textbook. He said he was okay for Friday's geography test on China but that he would go over it again. 

Tuesday, January 27, and Wednesday, January 28, 2026

On Tuesday morning, Chase was disappointed that his school didn't have a snow day and was open, especially when he found out that the Columbia schools were closed for another snow day. Almost always, when the Columbia schools are closed Chase's school is closed also because his school uses the Columbia buses. Brady's grandma texted Nanaw to say that Brady's sister Emma didn’t want to go to school but that Brady was okay with it. Nanaw texted back that Chase didn't want to go to school either. Debbie didn't have to pick up the kids because their Dad was home and would pick them up. Nanaw picked Chase up but stayed in the car like Mama and Chase told her to do. Nanaw texted Chase to tell him where he could find her car. According to Homework Central Chase didn't have any homework Tuesday but he has lots of tests and homework due on Friday. He has the Financial Literacy packet due Friday, a geography test on China, and a religion test on chapter 8. Chase forgot his backpack in the backseat of Nanaw's car, and Nanaw took it over to his house. On Wednesday, Chase was glad Columbia didn't have another snow day. Nanaw went grocery shopping at Waterloo Walmart and got more of the Jolly Rancher Gummies Chase likes so much. Unfortunately, they don't carry the 2 in 1 Gummies he likes best of all. Those Nanaw has to get at Telegraph Road Walmart. Nanaw also stopped at the Vet's office to check on what she should be doing about Taylor. She has to call a pharmacy about transdermal steroids to give her for her asthma and to keep up her appetite. Nanaw waited in the car again for Chase and texted him how to find her. When he got there, he told her that they'd cleaned the snow off the walkways so now Nanaw g so now Nanaw can go up to meet him. Mama sent Nanaw two pictures from the school Facebook page with Chase in them. In one of them, Nanaw and Mama thought it was Chase sitting at the front table but it was someone else and Chase was toward the back of the picture. Chase told Nanaw they played Trivia, and that his team came in third but should have been higher. He said he did well and answered lots of questions correctly.

Sunday, January 25 and Monday, January 26, 2026

On Sunday morning, Daddy went out into the cold and shoveled their driveway. He didn't want Chase to help because it was so cold. He planned to come over to Nanaw's on Monday to shovel her driveway. But Nanaw had two boys from down the street shovel her driveway and sidewalk. They did a really good job, and Nanaw paid them lots of money. Mama reported that Daddy went sledding on the other side of the hill in the park behind their house. Later, Chase went out into the park and went sledding with Daddy. They both said they had fun. Mama and Daddy got an exciting announcement from Chase's school saying he was having a snow day on Monday. And Mama and Daddy got a message from work that said they should work at home on Monday. Mama and Chase worked together to fix dinner for Sunday night. A friend of Mama had given her a new beef stroganoff recipe using hamburger, and Mama wanted to try it out. Mama sent Nanaw a picture of Chase at the stove, stirring. He really seems to enjoy cooking. Nanaw found the long lost Gnome decoration in the Christmas decorations and sent Mama a picture of it with a dog paw and a snowflake. On Monday morning, Daddy brought Chase over to Nanaw's house to spend the day with her. Mama sent the watermelon she bought for Nanaw from Walmart and leftover beef stroganoff for Chase's lunch. Mama told Nanaw she should have had a bite of it but Nanaw didn't. Chase carried about eight  boxes of Christmas decorations downstairs for Nanaw as part of his service work for his confirmation. Nanaw planned for him to take stuff out of a kitchen cabinet that she couldn't reach at 4 p.m., also for his service work. Chase played on the computer in the dining room and on his phone. Nanaw stuck by him while he played, in the living room and dining room. For a while, they went into Chase's room. There, Nanaw did crossword puzzles and read a Kindle book. Chase played on his phone, watched hockey on DirecTV and ate snacks, lots of snacks. He was waiting anxiously to hear whether he would have another snow day tomorrow. It all depends on what the Columbia schools do. Chase's school uses the Columbia buses so if Columbia has a snow day, so does Chase's school. All on his own, without prompting, Chase did his AR reading. In the evening, he was still going to have his regular practices -- they weren't cancelled. Chase's cousin Lindsey had her 28th birthday today, and Nanaw texted her Happy Birthday!

Friday, January 23, and Saturday, January 24, 2026

Chase didn't hear back from the email he sent to Mrs. H, about not having vocabulary lesson 16 to use to study for Friday's vocabulary test. The whole mystery was solved in AR class when Mrs. H. explained that somehow the graded vocab packets weren't returned to the class after they were graded. She passed them out and gave the class time to study the ten vocabulary words from lesson 16. Chase told Nanaw all about this when she picked him up from school on Friday afternoon. He said he thought he did okay on the vocabulary test. At Nanaw's house, he finally had his leftover pizza for his after school snack. He was happy that he had very little homework over the weekend. Nanaw was sort of surprised about that; she thought maybe the teachers would assign lots of homework in case they had a snow day on Monday. The forecasts were for lots of snow on Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday, Columbia had an inch or an inch and a half of snow, not as much as predicted but it’s supposed to snow overnight and on Sunday. Mama said Chase's workout session was cancelled because of the snow, and he stayed home all of the day except when he and Daddy went to 5 p.m. mass. In the morning, Mama had gone to Red Roof around 9 and she said the roads were getting covered. At 11, Nanaw was tempted to go to Schnuck's to get a newspaper but decided it was better to stay home and not take any chances and to read the paper online, even thought she doesn't like to do it that way. Mama said that during the day, Chase played video games and floor hockey with pencils and the miniature plastic hands that Nanaw doesn't like. They had potato soup for dinner. Mama, Uncle Mike and Nanaw exchanged the photos of their fires below.