Thursday, August 13, 2026

Today was Chase’s first day of orientation at Gibault, and he was supposed to be there at 7:55 a.m. Chase and Nanaw left home in plenty of time to get there by then. Nanaw took pictures of Chase before they left and sent two to Mama. Then the Gibault principal took pictures of the Gibault freshman with the Gibault mascot, including the picture of Chase below. Then Chase showed up in a photo on Gibault’s Facebook page with several other students. For lunch, they had chicken patties, green beans, and a fruit drink.  Chase now has a map of the Gibault classrooms and common rooms so he knows where to go for classes – always important! He promised to show Nanaw all the things he’ll be doing and learning, starting Monday. They have a digital classroom called Schoology where they do all their class work. They have e-books for text books and all assignments and work are done online. It’s a whole new world for Chase, and Nanaw is excited to learn about it. Uncle Mike came over today to visit, cut the grass, and put a new taillight in Nanaw’s Bronco. He’s the best! It’s unbearably hot outside, and poor Uncle Mike got really hot so he took a cool shower. 

Wednesday, August 12, 2026

For lunch on Wednesday, Chase had his second Lunchable. He had a workout in the afternoon from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m.  It was really hot outside again, and he was sweating a lot when he came out from the workout. Nanaw had to put his shirt in the dryer when they got home. He’s been sporadic about doing his Python lessons. Nanaw said maybe when he’s back in school, he could do one after school on Fridays when he doesn’t have to get his homework done. He said he could also do a lesson or two on his Enrichment Fridays. When it was time to take Chase home, Nanaw had him pack up Tyler to return home. The steps were done and could be walked on so the cat was going home. Nanaw was happy to discover when they got to Chase’s house that Chase had packed Tyler’s dangling toy in the pet taxi with Tyler. So Nanaw didn’t have to go back home to get it. The excitement for the evening was Chase’s back to school ice cream treat at Marie’s. Mama and Nanaw had hot fudge sundaes (and Nanaw pronounced it like it’s pronounced these days but the man at Marie’s pronounced it Nanaw’s way – Yay!)  Daddy had chocolate ice cream and Chase had his favorite that he always gets -- Superman ice cream in a waffle cone. His cone was a dark blue – very interesting. There’s a new store next to Marie’s that has sports cards and other memorabilia. Nobody except Nanaw wanted to go in and check it out, so Nanaw will have to do it some other time.

Tuesday, August 11, 2026

Chase was really helpful to Nanaw on Tuesday. He took the garbage can out to the curb in the morning, and then in the afternoon brought it back to the garage after the garbage company emptied it. He took a really heavy bag filled with books out to the trunk of Nanaw’s Bronco and put it with the rest of the things there intended for Goodwill. At noon, Chase and Nanaw went to Goodwill. Chase took the bags and boxes out of the trunk and put them in the wheeled bin one of the Goodwill workers brought out. The workers can no longer take things out of donors’ vehicles. The donors have to take them out and put them in the bins. Nanaw thinks that maybe sometimes the workers accidentally removed items that the donors didn’t intend to donate so that might be why they changed the process. Nanaw was glad she had Chase there to remove the items from her trunk. After Goodwill, Chase and Nanaw went to the Cliff Cave Library to wait there till the cleaning lady was finished at Nanaw’s house. Later in the afternoon, Mama texted Nanaw to tell her the steps were done but they couldn’t walk on them for 24 hours. So to get into the house everybody had to use the back steps. Mama also asked if Tyler could spend another night, and Nanaw said definitely. 

Monday, August 10, 2026

For lunch on Monday, Chase had his leftover homemade pizza from last night’s dinner. Nanaw heated it up in her little toaster oven that’s also an air fryer that Mama gave her for her birthday. It works better than the microwave for pizza and other things that are better crispy. Chase had a workout in the afternoon scheduled for 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. Daddy called Chase as he and Nanaw were driving to the workout to tell them that Zach (the man who leads the workouts) would be about 20 minutes late. Later Daddy told Chase and Nanaw that Zach works at the Catholic high school in Belleville and had a meeting there so that’s why he was late. Tucker wasn’t at the workout so that was a bit disappointing to Chase. Tucker starts school this Thursday at Columbia High School. When Nanaw took Chase home, Mama said the floor people were coming Tuesday to do the steps. She asked if Tyler could come spend another night. Nanaw said yes, of course. She asked Chase and Mama if Chase could carry Tyler out to her car and ride home with her to get him into Nanaw’s house. Tyler’s really heavy, and Nanaw would have had trouble carrying him. Mama said she’d give Chae $10.00 if he would do it, and that sealed the deal. 

Sunday, August 9, 2026

Chase and Daddy were having a big golf get-together on Sunday. Their tee time was 10 a.m. at the Columbia Golf Club. Joining them were Elias, Uncle Chris, Uncle Will-Bill, Uncle Chuck, Uncle George, and Uncle Stan. Mama and Nanaw think that Chase was especially happy to play golf with cousin Elias. After church, Nanaw went out to Wentzville to have lunch with her friends Joyce and Betty. Nanaw invited Mama to join them for lunch but she declined because she had a lot of work to do. She has to get the house back in order after the mess of the floor laying. Nanaw has known Joyce and Betty for many years but hasn’t seen them since last October. On Sunday evening, Mama sent Nanaw the photo below of Chase in the kitchen looking like he’s cooking. Nanaw texted Mama to find out exactly what he’s doing, and Mama said they had homemade pizza for dinner. Chase was putting his together. Mama said Daddy and Chase seemed to have fun golfing today. Mama said she was really tired from all the work she did today.

Saturday, August 8, 2026

On Saturday morning, Nanaw discovered that Easter Sam had had an unexpected sleepover at Nanaw’s house so she sent a picture of him to Chase and Mama. Also on Saturday morning, Mama, Daddy and Chase went to Gibault to do some community service. Mr. G. wanted some dirt moved to the patio so people came with shovels, wheelbarrows, and one guy brought a tractor. They were there for three hours in the heat, and Mama said it was really hot. Chase will get three hours of community service toward his Gibault requirement of ten hours. Daddy and Chase went to five o’clock mass because they have a big golf game tomorrow. While they were at church, Mama took Travis the Traverse to the car wash and then came over to Nanaw’s house to pick up Tyler. Nanaw had told her she thought Tyler was depressed, and Mama should bring him home for a while. They still have to have the steps done but the man who does them is on vacation so they don’t know when he’ll be back to do their steps. Tyler will come back to Nanaw’s when the man does the steps. Mama texted Nanaw photos of Chase working at Gibault and of Tyler. Nanaw pointed out to Mama that from the pictures, it looks like their new floor goes well with their fireplace brick. For dinner, Mama went to McDonald’s.

Friday, August 7, 2026

Chase had a workout Friday morning from 10 to 11. He was happy about the fact that his friend Tucker would be in this workout also. Chase is always happy when that happens. On the way home from the workout, Chase told Nanaw that cousin Elias and his dad were coming to Columbia on Sunday to play golf. Chase said their tee time was 11 a.m. Chase sounded really happy about getting to golf with Elias. For lunch he had noodles left over from last night’s dinner at home. They looked kind of dry so Nanaw asked if she could put butter on them, and Chase finally agreed. It didn’t seem like much for lunch so Nanaw also fixed one of the Michaelina’s frozen fettuccine al fredo dinners. Uncle Mike came over in the afternoon to cut the grass. Nanaw gave Uncle Mike the candied orange slices Mama had bought for him. She bought them because last week Uncle Mike was reminiscing about candy from when he was little. One of the candies he talked about was the candied slices that looked like oranges. Mama knew which ones he meant and bought some for him. Uncle Mike shared them with Nanaw and Chase. When Nanaw took Chase home, she got to see the new floor in the hall and living room. It really looks beautiful. The only thing left to do are the steps. Nanaw didn’t get to see Mama because she stopped at Walmart and the library on her way home from work. She texted Nanaw that after she got home they all went to Play It Again in O’Fallon, Illinois and Chase bought a sand wedge golf club, and they had Chik Filet for dinner. Nanaw texted back that Chase was going to be the best equipped golfer ever.