Tuesday, October 27, 2026

There’s still no Gibault lunch menu on the school website so lunch continues to be a mystery. When Nanaw picked Chase up from school on Tuesday afternoon, he told her he should have chosen a soft taco instead of a burrito for lunch. Mama had texted that she had a meeting at 3 p.m. but would call them when she was done. Chase says he didn’t have homework due tomorrow. He said it was due Thursday and he would work on it tomorrow afternoon. He has early dismissal on Wednesday, getting out at 12:30, so he should have plenty of time to do his homework. Nanaw has to have him home by 3:45 because he has a 4:15 eye appointment. Then Chase, Mama and Daddy are going to a place called 9Mile for a client appreciation event put on by Mama and Daddy’s brokers. Chase had a workout tonight so Nanaw tried to get him home by five. Mama was fixing Lazy Lasagna for dinner, one of Chase’s favorites. On her way home from taking Chase to school tomorrow, Nanaw is going to go to Waterloo Walmart to get her flu and Covid vaccinations. She’ll do her grocery shopping first because they don’t open for vaccinations till 9 a.m. She talked to Brady’s grandma Debbie at pickup today and found out that Debbie also gets her vaccinations at Waterloo Walmart and thinks the people there are the nicest, just like Nanaw and Uncle Mike do. Tonight Nanaw drove around her subdivision to see the lit up Halloween decorations. The best one is by one of Chase’s former teachers from ICS and is the second picture below. Her husband is a high tech person at the place where Mama and Daddy work, and he does super computer outdoor decorations. For lunch tomorrow, Chase said he might have turkey soup from Nanaw’s freezer; he’ll decided tomorrow. He said he’ll definitely have some Bosco sticks. The third picture below is Tyler snuggling up to his favorite toy.

Monday, October 26, 2026

Daddy had the day off on Monday so he took Chase to school. Nanaw was happy to see Chase after school when she picked him up. He said he didn’t have any homework and that he got some credit for the Drivers’ Ed homework he didn’t turn in last week instead of a zero. He didn’t say what credit he got so Nanaw will look it up before she publishes Days tonight. [Chase got an 80 on the Drivers’ Ed worksheet instead of a zero.] Mama texted that she had a meeting and wouldn’t be available for the regular pick-up call but would call later. When she called, she said Daddy was grilling sirloin steak, Nanaw was invited, dinner would be at 5:30, and Chase was going to eat steak like everybody else. While Mama was getting ready for dinner, she told Nanaw about the things she and Daddy bought at Elias’s dinner auction Saturday night. One of them was a bag of dark-chocolate covered pomegranates (which are a delicious type of berries). Chase tasted one, decided he really liked them and took a bowl in his room. Nanaw brought Halloween cards and oversized Reese’s peanut butter cups for everybody. Even Tyler got a card but no Reese’s. On her way out, Nanaw took pictures of E and Will’s outdoor front yard Halloween decorations. Nanaw’s favorite was the shark in the third picture. Mama says the shark was a present from Uncle Mike and Aunt Becky.

Saturday, October 24, and Sunday, October 25, 2026

The headline for the weekend is that it was a winning weekend! Chase’s Bears baseball team won one game and lost one on Saturday and won one baseball game on Sunday. They lost the second game on Sunday but still got medals. Unfortunately, Chase didn’t get to play in Sunday’s second game because he had to leave to go to his hockey game in O’Fallon, Illinois, which his Eagles team won, 8 to 6. And Chase got to play a bit in the hockey game. Yay! Now for more details. On Saturday, the Bears lost their first game 11 to 0 but won the second game 6 to 4 – very exciting! On Sunday, the Bears won their first game and then played the Bears A team and lost, but are getting medals. Then Mama, Daddy and Chase left for the hockey before the last baseball game so Chase didn't get to play in the second game. Mama said Chase told her he pulled a muscle in his leg in the first Sunday baseball game but Mama said he seemed to be walking all right. McKendree University has a recreation complex in O’Fallon, Illinois that has the ice rink where the Columbia Eagles hockey team played and won 8 to 6. Mama said Chase got to play a little, which must have made him happy. Also, Mama said she and Chase are friends again! Daddy took the day off tomorrow because they had such a busy weekend so he’s going to take Chase to school. Mama bought steak because it was on sale so Daddy is grilling tomorrow night, and Nanaw is coming for dinner!

Friday, October 23, 2026

The school menu has been a bit messed up for the past week. Chase says they’ve been switching things around so you never know what you’re having. Hopefully, they get it straightened out. On the pick-up call on the drive home, Mama asked about homework and Chase said he has an English short story assignment. Mama said he wasn’t going to have much time this weekend to do homework because of the Bears tournament baseball games and spending the evening with Elias out in Silex. Mama and Daddy are going to the dinner auction at Elias’s school with Aunt Kristen and Uncle Chris. Mama said he should do his homework at Nanaw’s house or at home tonight. But Chase said it was Friday and he didn’t do homework on Fridays. They hassled a bit, and Nanaw found out later that Mama won and Chase did his homework Friday night at home. She asked him if he would feel good Sunday night when he knew he’d done his homework Friday night. Chase said no. Mama texted Nanaw that Chase hadn’t turned in his Drivers’ Ed homework and got a zero. He had all kinds of excuses for failing to turn the homework in and he didn’t take responsibility for what he’d done. Mamma was not happy this and told Chase if it happened again, he would have to give up his phone for 24 hours. And double that if it happened again after that. Mama said she had talked to friends who have boys Chase’s age, and they say their boys are just the same, and Mama shouldn’t worry. That makes Nanaw happy, too. Later, Nanaw saw a message on Schoology from Chase’s English teacher saying their short story homework was due Tuesday instead of Monday because shadow students were coming on Monday.

Thursday, October 22, 2026

Mama had the day off on Thursday so she took Chase to school, and Nanaw got to sleep late. Later in the morning, Nanaw went to Walmart to return some things and to buy some more things. Uncle Mike came over to visit and work. He put the first coat of blue paint on the front door to match the new shutters. He’ll put another coat on next week when he visits. He also did some grass cutting. He has a one-day substitute job tomorrow, driving to deliver parts for a friend of his. Mama had a dentist appointment so she wasn’t at there when Nanaw took Chase home to get his hockey gear for practice. Nanaw wanted a gooey butter cookie, and Daddy said to take as many as she wanted and gave her a container to put them in. Daddy said that would help him not to eat so many. Nanaw was very excited because she loves the gooey butter cookies. She’s going to ask Mama to make some for her as presents at Christmas and her birthday. On the drive to hockey practice, Chase told Nanaw he had a little Drivers’ Ed homework but he had time between hockey practice and hitting practice to get it done. When they got to the ice rink, they were surprised that only one or two other cars were there. For the past two weeks, the lot was full. Next week, Nanaw gets to stay and watch Chase’s hockey practice because Mama and Daddy have a conference with Chase’s teacher or teachers. 

Wednesday, October 21, 2026

On Wednesday morning, Nanaw told Chase that the menu said they were having brats or pulled pork. She asked which he would choose, and he said the brats weren’t too bad. After Nanaw dropped Chase off, she went to do her regular shopping at Walmart and to pick up some of the ingredients Mama needed to make M&M bars for Chase’s House pot lunch tomorrow. She got the butter and chocolate chips but Walmart didn’t have the mini baking M&Ms. So Nanaw stopped at Schnuck’s and got the last two bags of mini baking M&Ms. Yay for good luck! Nanaw had a church meeting from 12 to 2 but the meeting was still going on at 2:15 so Nanaw had to leave in order to get to Gibault to pick up Chase and Brady and take Brady to the library. Nanaw asked what they had for lunch, and Brady said toasted cheese and Chase said chicken strips so evidently brats and pulled pork didn’t make it there. On the way home, Nanaw forgot to make the correct turn to go to the library so they had to go a roundabout way but it all worked out fine. When Nanaw took Chase home, she wasn’t going to come in because Mama was at the happy hour. But Chase said he wanted her to come in, so she did. She put the butter in the fridge, the chocolate chips and the M&M’s by Mama’s dinner place. She had bought a special present for Mama – Bosco mozzarella cheese sticks -- and she put those in the freezer. 

Tuesday, October 20, 2026

Tuesday morning before school, Chase asked Nanaw for the box of colored pencils for school. On the drop-off call, Nanaw told Mama about the colored pencils. Mama said she’d bought a box before school started. She wondered what happened to the pencils. After school, on the pick-up call, Chase said he’d taken them out of his backpack and put them in his room but he didn’t know where. So Mama bought some from Amazon, and they’ll be here tomorrow. Chase told Mama that the potluck meal his House had scheduled for Friday has been rescheduled for Thursday. Mama is baking M&M cookie bars for the potluck so she’ll bake the cookies Wednesday night after she gets home from the happy hour with her department’s new boss instead of Thursday night. Tonight, Mama and her co-workers all went to Top Golf in Midtown with the new boss. This afternoon, Chase sent Nanaw two of his papers Nanaw had wanted to read. She’d been asking for them but they both forgot about them till now. Chase did his civics homework about the U.S. Constitution after school today. He said he also had Math homework but he was going to do that at school tomorrow because he has some free study time then. Tomorrow after school, Brady is going to ride with Chase and Nanaw and get dropped off at the Columbia library for his tutoring session. His grandma has to pick Emma up at ICS for early dismissal.