Thursday, July 2, 2026

Chase had his regular breakfast Thursday morning, but his lunch didn’t work out so well. He only ate part of the leftover cheese garlic bread he made yesterday. Then he decided that he didn’t like the 5 cheese Ziti frozen dinner and ate a Lunchable instead. Nanaw showed him the mood ring she bought at Walgreen’s yesterday, and he tried it on. It changed colors, and he liked that. Nanaw asked him if he wanted one, and he said yes. He said Walgreen’s also some candy that he liked and wanted to buy. They were going to go at 2 p.m. but Chase changed his mind, as usual, and said they’d go on Monday. They were late starting school, starting at 3:30 p.m. instead of 3 p.m.  Chase had trouble with the Python programming, and ChatGPT set up a different one for him. But something went wrong with that one too, so he quit and said he’d try again Monday. In the evening, Mama, Daddy, and Chase went to Arnold, MO to buy fireworks to take to Aunt Becca’s house on Saturday evening. Nanaw is going with them and is looking forward to seeing fireworks. It’s been two or three years since she’s seen live fireworks.

Tuesday, June 30, and Wednesday, July 1, 2026

Tuesday morning was a busy one for Nanaw. It was cleaning lady day, and she spent most of the morning getting the house straightened up. Her helper Chase took out the trashcan so she didn’t miss the garbage pickup like she did that other week. The cleaning lady’s company called to ask if Nanaw could leave her front door unlocked because the cleaning lady had left without a key. Chase was having a great time during the morning talking to Tucker and playing games on the computer. He planned to talk to Tucker when they got to Chase’s house but Tucker had to go somewhere so they couldn’t do that. Around noon, Chase and Nanaw went over to his house. He played VR for a long time downstairs, and then Nanaw heard him talking on the phone with Tucker, and there was a lot of laughing. Mama and Daddy came home from work a little early, and Nanaw visited with them for a while because the cleaning lady still wasn’t done. Finally, Nanaw got the text that the cleaning was done. But instead of going home she went grocery shopping at Walmart. One of the things she bought was a loaf of soft French bread because Chase wanted to make cheese garlic bread tomorrow, On Thursday, Chase had a workout in the morning. During the workout, Nanaw went back to Columbia to get her newspaper. Then she came back to the workout place and did a crossword puzzle until Chase was done. He was sweating a lot because it was so hot in the workout place, and he asked Nanaw if she would dry his clothes, which she did. A little while after they got home, Chase started working on his cheese garlic bread. Nanaw was his sous chef or helper and his clean-up person. He did a great job of slicing the loaf of bread in half longways. Then he put together the butter, minced garlic, seasonings, parsley flakes, and Parmesan cheese mixture that he spread on the bread. Then he placed slices of mozzarella cheese on the bread and sprinkled more parsley flakes on it. He baked it in the oven and then broiled it for a few minutes to brown the top. He ate one half of the loaf and said it was really good. Later in the afternoon, he said he thought he ate too much and his stomach hurt. Tomorrow, Nanaw will only let him have half of what’s left. They measured, and weighed him and he weighs 119.1 pounds and is 5 feet 6 inches tall. Mama said he’s catching up with her (she’s 5 feet 8 inches). She wanted to know what he weighed in January, and Nanaw told her 5 feet 4 ½ inches. 

Monday, June 29, 2026

Monday morning was a confusing time: Nanaw had to go to St. Clare for a bone density scan, Uncle Mike was installing a faucet and had to turn off the water so Nanaw had to take Chase over to his house. But it all worked out. It turned out that Chase’s friend Brady came over to visit in the morning and stayed till 3:30 so Chase was happy about that.  That was Brady’s third day in a row to come visit Chase. They had fun again today playing knee hockey, basketball and on their phones. After Brady went home, Nanaw came to pick up Chase. He didn’t want to do school and didn’t want to do the Python computer coding program either. Nanaw was a lesson behind him and he wanted to wait to do Lesson 11 until Nanaw was ready to do it also. Nanaw originally thought that they’d do the classes together but that hasn’t worked out. They haven’t done any of it together. Maybe Nanaw will try that tomorrow and see what it’s like. Tomorrow is cleaning lady day so Nanaw and Chase will have to go back to Chase’s house unless Daddy is working at home. Then they’ll go to the library. The only workout that Nanaw is taking Chase to is on Wednesday at 10 a.m. Daddy got Chase a foldable weight-lifting bench that came today. The next time they have it set up in the basement, Nanaw wants to go downstairs and see it.

Friday, June 26, Saturday, June 27, and Sunday, June 28, 2026

On Friday, Chase did his regular schoolwork except for the Python coding. The little fellow wanted to have Nanaw catch up with him – he’s two lessons ahead of her. Nanaw had to take him home at 4 p.m. instead of 5 p.m. because she and Mama were going out to St. Peters for cousin/great-niece Mila’s graduation from high school party. In the evening, Daddy and Chase went to the driving range.  Then Daddy saw Brady somewhere and told him Chase was at home and he should go see him, and Brady did. At Mila’s party, everything was decorated for Mizzou, which is where she’s gong to college. They had a big picture of Truman on the wall and Nanaw took a picture of it and sent it to Chase. Then she saw a stuffed Truman (different than Chase’s) on a chair, she took a picture of that and sent it to Chase.  Chase’s baseball games were rained out Saturday and Sunday, so on Saturday, Chase invited Brady to come over, and he stayed all day, till about 9 p.m. They played basketball outside in the driveway, knee hockey downstairs, and on their phones everywhere. Nanaw was there for Mama’s party with nephew/cousin Eric from Colorado, and Uncle Mike and Aunt Becky. They had Imo’s for dinner, plus frosted brownies and cupcakes with cherry chip frosting. Chase and Brady had toasted ravioli. Nanaw went downstairs to visit them one time, and Brady was having a great time playing with Chase’s keyboard. On Sunday, Daddy and Chase went to church and then they had a great adventure. They went out to Uncle Chris’s, and Chase got to play with Elias all afternoon. Nanaw didn’t get a report on what they did but she imagines they went swimming, played baseball and probably some kind of hockey. What Nanaw knows for sure is that Chase had a great time playing with Elias – he always does. Mama made mostaccioli and garlic bread for dinner, and she said it was really good. Nanaw also made mostaccioli (what a great coincidence) but Nanaw’s didn’t turn out very good. She used high protein pasta she bought on Amazon, and it was mushy and yucky. So Nanaw may take the mostaccioli out to the little house to feed the raccoons.

Thursday, June 25, 2026

Chase did some interesting things with his lunch today. He had Nanaw fix one of the Ramen noodle soups, and he fixed one of the little cartons of mac and cheese. Then he proceeded to add American cheese and shredded mozzarella to the Ramen, along with garlic powder and onion powder. He added shredded mozzarella, onion powder and garlic powder to the mac and cheese. He ate all of the mac and cheese and half of the Ramen and said he’d eat the rest of the Ramen tomorrow. Uncle Mike came over to cut the grass and talked to the neighbors two houses down about the survey the house between them had done. Evidently, the between neighbors are going to put up a fence because they have a dog. Next week, Uncle Mike is going to put in a water faucet at the front of the house so Nanaw doesn’t have to walk up and down the hill when she waters the plants, trees and bushes. Nanaw didn’t feel like having school today so the only school thing that Chase did was his Python Lesson 10 with ChatGPT. So he’s two lessons ahead of Nanaw. Nanaw will get to see Chase Saturday night because Mama is having Uncle Mike and Aunt Becky over to watch the Cardinals game. Cousin Eric from Colorado will be in town for cousin Mila’s graduation party tomorrow night, and he plans to stay for Mama’s party.

 

Wednesday, June 24, 2026

For lunch, Chase had one of the Michaelina’s frozen Chinese Rice dinners; Nanaw got out the soy sauce for him because he likes to add some. He had his workout at 1 p.m., and they left about 12:40 p.m. to be sure to get there on time. It was hot today so Chase was sweating when he got out of the workout. He turned the AC in the car as high and as cold as he could and soon got cooled off. At 3 p.m. Chase and Nanaw had school. First, Chase did the touch-typing course. Nanaw was excited to see that now the course was giving him words to type instead of just letters. At one point, he showed Nanaw that he was using all his fingers to type instead of slipping into his usual hunt and peck when he wants to go fast. Next, he did the Python computer coding class with ChatGPT and completed Lesson 10. He’s either two or three classes ahead of Nanaw no matter how much she tries to catch up. Nanaw is eagerly looking forward to finding out where they go when Lesson 12 is finished. Nanaw’s plan is for them to continue on with Python with ChatGPT as long as they can. Chase didn’t want to do any algebra today so they skipped it. They did “What Are Some Common Weather Phenomena?”for their Weather Academy lesson. Nanaw thinks they may go back over the lessons when they finish a couple of courses. They also did workbook pages, capitals, and memorizing the presidents’ names. Chase isn’t complaining as much about school and that makes Nanaw happy.

Tuesday, June 23, 2026

It’s working well to give ½ of the protein bar to Chase mid morning as a snack, and the protein drink in the afternoon. Today for lunch, Chase had the leftover chicken strip with his Raising Caine sauce and the French fries he likes. He gave the lunch a thumbs up. Once again, he quickly and easily did lesson 9 in Python. Nanaw is so proud of him. They did algebra, presidents, capitals, Weather Academy, workbook pages and touch-typing in addition to computer programming. That sounds like a lot but they only do school for an hour and only do a few minutes with each thing. Nanaw used to have Chase do two hours of school but cut back to an hour this year because he complained so much. He still complains but not as much. After they were done with that part of school, they went into Chase’s room and began listening to Gordon Korman’s book The Fort.  Nanaw bought the Kindle version from Amazon, and then they have Alexa read the Kindle book to them. Very cool. When they drive around in Nanaw’s car, they also listen to an audiobook of one of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books that Nanaw checked out of the library. Chase doesn’t really like to read books so the audiobook idea is a way to get him to somehow enjoy fiction. In the evening, Mama went out to dinner with Aunt Becca and Daddy and Chase went to the driving range and had Dairy Queen for dinner. The last two pictures are ones that Aunt Becca made on ChatGPT for Mama of Sylvester and Sam and the Rainbow Bridge.