Friday, April 17, 2026

On Friday morning, Chase had Mama's lunch container with his sub sandwich for today's sack lunch at the Camp Wartburg field trip. It was really heavy because of the freezer packs inside. When Nanaw picked Chase up from school, he reported that the field trip had been a bit difficult because Chase's mass buddy wouldn't do what Chase told him to do. Nanaw found this so interesting and sort of funny that Chase was getting a little payback from his refusing to do what Mama, Daddy and Nanaw told him to do. He's happy that Gibault probably doesn't have any kind of buddy system. Chase had a couple of things he could do Friday evening. Gibault was having a mixer for 6th, 7th and 8th graders tonight from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Daddy was supposed to go out to the Lincoln County area for a family event in memory of Grandma Pat's birthday. Chase didn't want to go to either one, and he asked Nanaw if he could come to her house instead of doing either of those things. Mama was going to dinner with the hockey moms so she wasn't involved. Daddy decided to not go to the family thing tonight because it was so far and because of the severe weather warning (tornadoes, severe thunderstorms, etc.). Daddy told Chase he didn't have to go to the Gibault mixer, and he could stay home with him. Tomorrow morning. the whole family was going to the St. Louis Zoo in memory of Grandma Pat. The Zoo was one of her favorite things, and the family tried to do a yearly family trip there.

Thursday, April 16, 2026

On Thursday morning before school, Chase checked over his vocabulary chapter 28 packet homework assignment. When Nanaw picked him up, he said Mrs. H. hadn't collected it but he would turn it in on Friday. At Nanaw's house, Chase worked on his Hobbit assignment of Chapter 12. He said even though they were going on a field  trip on Friday to Camp Wartburg, they'd be back at school in time for Mrs. H. to collect the Hobbit worksheet and the vocab packet. When Chase took yesterday's dissecting the pig test in Mr. K.'s class on Thursday, the same thing happened to him that happened on another science test: all that he'd studied just flew out of his mind. Hopefully, enough stayed in his mind to get a halfway decent score on the test. Before his baseball practice, Chase went outside to shoot a few baskets, and Mama got a picture of him making a basket and sent it to Nanaw. Lately, he's bee n more interested in basketball than before. He's also more interested in golf and goes to the driving rage with Daddy and is thinking about joining the golf team at Gibault next year. His friend Brady plays golf so they might be able to do that together. Mama bought Chase a sub sandwich as his sack lunch for today's field trip, and he was happy about that. Nanaw weighed and measured Chase in the afternoon and he weighs 111.8 and he's 5 foot 6 inches so he grew an inch from last month and gained a little over a pound.

Wednesday, April 15, 2026

Chase didn't have anything to study before school on Wednesday morning.  He had two homework assignments to turn in on Wednesday: an Australia map in geography and the chapter 11 worksheet for The Hobbit. When Nanaw picked Chase up from school, he told her that his Great Depression test in history has been postponed to next Tuesday. His chapter 28 vocabulary packet is due on Thursday, and he's going to finish it up tonight. He wouldn't have time after school because he had to get his hair cut at 4 p.m. and then go home to get ready for his workout at 5 p.m. He has hitting after that but he'll have time in the evening to finish the vocabulary packet. He also got a worksheet for chapter 12 of The Hobbit but doesn't know yet when that's due. His class is taking a field trip on Friday to Camp Wartburg. The camp is Lutheran-sponsored and offers summer day camp, sleepover camp, family retreats, outdoor studies, and lots of other things. Nanaw is assuming that the field trip is to show the camp to the students in case they would like to go there. One of the coaches Chase will have on the Columbia hockey team gets his hair cut the same place Chase does. His name is Chuck and Brittany told him one of her customers is going to play on the Columbia team this year. She said she told Chuck that Chase is a good guy and will be a great addition to the team. 

Tuesday, April 14, 2026

Chase didn’t have to study anything Tuesday morning but he did have to get dressed in his fanciest church clothes. Mama sent along his black slacks, his black dress shoes, black socks, a tie, and a long-sleeved light blue oxford cloth shirt. All of this was for the graduation photos. Over their Sunday clothes, the 8th grade students were going to wear their graduation gowns and caps for the photos. When Nanaw picked Chase up from school, he told her all about how the photographer spent a long time trying to fix Chase’s tie and shirt so they looked good. Chase’s homework is a little up in the air. He’s not sure whether his Great Depression history test  is going to be Thursday or next week. He has a map due in geography on Friday but he said he has a field trip to some kind of camp on Friday so he doesn’t know if he has to turn in the map or not. Also, he doesn’t know if the science test on dissecting the pig is this week or next week. Hopefully things will be clarified tomorrow. At 4:15, Chase and Nanaw left to meet Mama at the orthodontist for Chase’s appointment. He has several related appointments in the next couple of months: a regular ortho appointment on  May 13; a teeth cleaning on June 9; and a special ortho appointment on June 10 where they're going to do a laser treatment on the tooth that's ontop of another one. The first picture below is Chase with Louis, his church buddy. Chase's school has a process where kindergartners partner with the older students to go to mass. Chase says his partner Louis is not as good and well-behaved as Henry, his partner before Louis. He says Louis is always getting into trouble. . In the second picture below of Chase and Mama on the parking lot of the orthodontist, for the first time, Nanaw thinks Chase and Mama look alike!

Monday, April 13, 2026

On Monday morning, Chase and Nanaw studied for today’s geography test on Iran. He had studied yesterday, which is a good thing because there was a lot of material to go over, and they only got through half of it. In addition to Iran, the test covered the rest of the Middle East and the Muslim religion. When Nanaw picked Chase up, he said he thought he did pretty well. At Nanaw’s house he did his only homework — The Hobbit chapter 11 worksheet and his AR reading so he’s done with homework for the evening. Mama and Daddy were at George Weber doing all the paperwork for. Mama’s new Traverse. Chase and Nanaw went to his house at 5, and he heated up spaghetti and garlic bread in the microwave for his dinner. Mama had texted him the directions, and he followed them and everything turned out perfectly. Daddy came home at 6 to take Chase to his Bears baseball practice. Nanaw stayed at Chase’s house to see Mama’s new car. They had planned to go to the library when she h g it home but the paperwork took forever so they didn’t go. Mama came home to get her W2 and a check so Nanaw got to see the car. It's very big and very impressive. Auntie LaLa said it looks like a SWAT car. It seats seven and still has some storage space in back. For the birthday dinners, everyone will be able to ride together. Nanaw tried to step in but didn't have any luck. Mama told her to sit on the seat and swing her legs in and that worked. One of the people at George Weber told her that trick for Nanaw. 

Sunday, April 12, 2026

Chase had an 11 o’clock baseball game in Fenton on Sunday morning. They lost, 9 to 3. Chase pitched today and gave up a few runs, and he had a good double. Mama texted the video below (the third image) to Nanaw showing Chase pitching -- very cool! After the game, he went to Wally’s with Tuck and his family. When he got home, he did his homework. He had to study for a geography test on Monday about the Middle East. He also had to do his AR reading and complete a Maui packet in English, which is due Monday. While Chase was doing his homework, Brady came over to see him. Chase had him come back a little while later. They decided they would go to see the new Mario movie. Nanaw is assuming they went the Waterloo Cinema. She’ll find out tomorrow. Brady’s mom took them to and from the show.

Saturday, April 11, 2026

In a text from Mama on Saturday morning, she told Nanaw that Chase had gone to the park last night by himself. Then she sent a corrected text saying Chase rode his bike, and Will went with him but didn't ride his bike. So Nanaw still has questions to ask Mama: Which park did they go to and did Will drive or walk? Mama texted back that they went to the library park and Will drove. She said Chase had just come into the living room when she got the text so he was able to answer the questions. Chase had a baseball tournament in Fenton today. Unfortunately, they lost both games but they played well. And Chase and Tucker got good hits in the first inning of the second game. They lost the first game 11 to 9 and the second game 12 to 6. They play at 11 tomorrow. Mama said Daddy and Chase went to 5 o'clock mass so she picked up Subway for dinner, which probably made Chase happy -- he likes Subway. Nanaw didn’t go out to the little house today like she'd planned. She woke up feeling tired and yucky so she slept a lot and felt much better. Today Mama bought a new car at George Weber: a Chevrolet black Traverse. It's black, and Nanaw thinks it's a 2026 (not a 2027 but who know) and that it has three rows of seats. She'll clarify that with Mama.