Sunday, March 15, 2026

 Chase and Daddy went to 5 o’clock Mass on Saturday evening because of Chase’s sleepover. Mama said Chase and Tucker had a great time at their sleepover last night. Unfortunately Chase had an earache and went to bed at 12:30. Mama gave him ear drops and Tylenol so he was feeling better  Tucker stayed up till 3 a.m. Mama got donuts for their breakfast. In the afternoon, Nanaw texted Mama and Chase that she was working on The Hobbit chapter 8 worksheet and the vocabulary lesson 25. Nanaw asked Mama to see if Chase was working on them, too. Chase said vocab wasn’t due til Wednesday and he’d work on it tomorrow. He said they weren’t done with chapter 8 yet and he’d do the worksheet when they were done. All day, Columbia had a severe wind warning. Then at around 5 o’clock it started to pour down rain. Then there were tornado warnings and sirens. Mama, Daddy and Chase went downstairs. After the warnings were over, Chase and Mama worked together to fix dinner. They prepared one pot spaghetti with meatballs. That led Mama to find a song from her childhood — On Top of Spaghetti. Part of the lyrics said: “I lost my meatball “ Chase and Nanaw think Mama is funny.

on top of spaghetti share.google

Saturday, March 14, 2026

Mama texted Nanaw that she thinks Chase had a great time at Top Golf with Brady and other members of the crew last night. She also said that Chase and Tucker saw each other at their workout this morning and discovered that neither of them had anything to do tonight. So Chase asked Mama if they could have a sleepover, and she said yes. Of course, Chase was very excited about that. Tonight Mama was going to dinner with two friends who are in town from Oklahoma and who used to work with her, plus some other former work friends. They were going to Failoni's, an Italian restaurant on Manchester. Nanaw said Mama would of course have pizza, and Mama said yes, unless something else caught her eye. Mama sent Nanaw a picture of Chase playing knee hockey and a picture of Sly. In the afternoon, Nanaw was out running errands, and she stopped off at Chase's house to give Mama the Nancy Drew mystery The Secret of the Old Clock from ThriftBooks that arrived today. She also took along the Wimpy Kid books she bought for Chase. He kept one of them to start reading for AR. Nanaw was happy to see Chase when she dropped by with books. He was playing the keyboard downstairs, and Nanaw stayed with him for a little while to listen. Nanaw asked him about the No Brainer books -- the one from the County Library and the one she bought for Chase. She couldn’t find either of them but Chase said he didn't have them, and they looked in his backpack and on the kitchen table but didn't find them. Nanaw went to the library and asked her friends there if it was possible she'd turned the book in but that the system hadn't checked it in. But that wasn't the case so Nanaw said she'd keep looking. Her two friends are retired teachers who work part-time at the library, and they told her how wonderful the Wimpy Kids books are and that teachers say they accurately represent how crazy and mixed-up schools are and that Nanaw should read them. Chase likes them and that's a good thing. At home Nanaw thought of two places she hadn't looked in for the two missing No Brainer books, and she found both of them -- Yay! The one she bought for Chase was in the little bookcase next to her computer in the dining room The library book was in a stack of newspapers, magazines and books in the living room where Nanaw keeps the things she's going to read or is going to return to the library. So all is well, and Nanaw apologized to Mama and Chase for making them search. She'll also apologize to her library friends the next time she sees them. 

Friday, March 13, 2026

Chase had two quizzes on Friday: one in geography on the Persian Gulf and one in English on the DLR. When Nanaw picked him up from school, he said he thought he did well on both of them. The Friday afternoon rule is that even if Chase has homework he doesn’t have to do it until sometime over the weekend. So at first, Chase played on his phone in his room. Then he turned on the hockey channel on TV and played pencil hockey. Nanaw brought in The Hobbit and sat in Chase’s room reading chapter 8. Chase had an activity-free weekend to look forward to — no hockey, no baseball and no workouts - and hardly any homework. At five, Chase had an adventure for Friday evening. Brady was having his birthday celebration with his crew of friends. They were going to Top Golf, one of Chase’s favorites. Chase decided he wanted to take his golf clubs. So when he got home from Nanaw's, he and Daddy went outside to look at them and decide if he was going to take them. Nanaw hoped he had a great time with his friends.

Monday, March 9, Tuesday, March 10, Wednesday, March 11, and Thursday, March 12, 2026

On Monday, Nanaw ordered three more Wimpy Kid books for Chase from ThriftBooks for him to read for his AR requirements. Nanaw also ordered the Nancy Drew Mystery, The Secret of the Old Clock, for Mama, who requested it. For homework, Chase had the Hobbit Chapter 7 worksheet to do, plus an infinitives worksheet in English. His vocabulary test is Wednesday, and he has a history test on the 1920s on Thursday. Nanaw printed out information on No Brainer, one of the Wimpy books, for Chase to study. It was 18 pages of notes about the book, and Nanaw wasn't sure if Chase would have enough patience to read the whole thing. He wants to take the AR test on the book tomorrow. He's trying to get as close as possible to his goal for AR points. On Tuesday, Chase took the AR test on No Brainer and got three points, bringing him a little closer to his goal. He thinks his goal is 16 points. He has a North Africa geography quiz tomorrow and a verbal worksheet in English for homework. Nanaw had a doctor's appointment on Tuesday morning for the lump at the base of her right thumb. They took an X-ray and said it was a subchondral cyst, and Nanaw has to go see a hand specialist (who knew that such a doctor existed!). Nanaw made an appointment for March 23, and they asked her to get a copy of the X-ray. Chase and Nanaw studied for Wednesday's vocabulary test, and Chase seems to really know the words well. On Wednesday, Nanaw went to St. Clare hospital in the cold, rainy weather and picked up a copy of her hand X-ray. When Nanaw picked Chase up from school, he said he thought he did well on the vocabulary test. They studied for Thursday's history test on the 1920s using a cool online study guide called Kahoots that asks the multiple choice questions that might be on the test and gives the user four answers to choose from. Chase zipped through the questions several times, getting the answers right. On Thursday, Uncle Mike came over to take things to Goodwill and to work on installing an electrical outlet for the sump pump that's going to be installed in Nanaw's basement. After Goodwill, Uncle Mike said let's go to lunch so they went to Taco Bell. Uncle Mike wanted to pay but Nanaw got her credit card faster than he got out his debit card. So Nanaw said next time he could pay. After school, Chase told Nanaw he thought he did really well on the history test. He studied for Friday's DLR quiz, the Persian Gulf/Levant geography quiz and finished his English worksheet on phrases and clauses. Chase was very excited because he had a completely free evening tonight: no hockey, no baseball, no workout, and no homework -- just playing on his phone and other devices. 

Saturday, March 7 and Sunday, March 8, 2026

On Saturday, Chase had one of his last hockey tournaments with the Affton team. He'll have the very last one in a couple of weeks. Then he'll move on to the Columbia team but no one knows when that will start. Mama texted Nanaw that they lost Friday night's game in Wentzville 3-2. She said the game started badly but then the boys played better. Nanaw texted Mama that a semi-miracle had occurred because Chase actually likes reading the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books. There are about 20 of them so that's enough to get him through the rest of the year's Accelerated Reading (AR) requirements. He really hasn't liked reading books for AR so it's great that he's found books he likes to read. Chase's team lost the first Saturday game 5 to 2. They were going to meet some of the guys for dinner before the second game. They lost the second Saturday game 5 to 1. On Sunday, Chase set up the guys on the kitchen table in front of a bowl of strawberries and bananas -- very cute!! The pictures from seven years ago of Mama, Chase and Sylvester are appearing because they came up on Mama's Facebook page.  Mama got Sylvester from the APA on Nanaw's birthday seven years ago. Chase's team won the Sunday game 6 to 4. In the afternoon, the team had a celebration party at Affton. It was Nanaw's birthday, so in the evening Mama, Daddy, Chase, Uncle Mike, Aunt Becky and Nanaw met at Gianino's on Telegraph. Unfortunately, they had to wait for 45 minutes to get a table. But the food was delicious and perhaps almost worth the wait. Chase had spaghetti and meatballs and had lots leftover to take home. Nanaw got a mystery DVD set, a balsam cedar candle and an Amazon gift card from Mama, Daddy and Chase. From Uncle Mike and Aunt Becky, she got a clever gumball machine that they made themselves, filled with large gumballs, and an Amazon gift card. They had Bunny Tracks ice cream, vanilla ice cream, and cheesecake for Nanaw's birthday celebration. 

Friday, March 6, 2026

On Friday morning, Chase and Nanaw studied for his religion test. He seemed to know the material but it's hard to know what the teacher will put on the test. When Nanaw asked Chase after school how he did, he said he thought he got a 100 -- which would be wonderful. But as long as he did his best, that's all that matters. Mama took Nanaw to Joe Boccardi's for her birthday lunch. Mama had cheese pizza, and Nanaw had Caesar salad. When Mama brought Nanaw home, she came in to see the mess in the basement and to get something to put Nanaw's birthday present in. Nanaw told Mama that she had huge amounts of wrapping paper and gift bags downstairs, and Mama should come get some whenever she needs some. Mama and Nanaw went to pick up Chase after school, and as always, he was one of the last students out of the building. He and his friends gather together after school around Chase's desk and visit for a few minutes, which is really cute. Mama and Chase came into Nanaw's house to get Chase's stuff but they couldn't stay to visit. Chase has a hockey game out in Wentzville, and they have to leave at four to get there on time. So Nanaw didn't get much time with Chase. 

Thursday, March 5, 2026

On the way to school on Thursday morning, Chase announced to Nanaw that he may have forgotten about a Hobbit test in Reading for that day. He said he had a study sheet and he'd study it during the day before the test. Nanaw thought the test was next week but she got that wrong. When Nanaw picked Chase up from school on Thursday, he told her that he had taken care of his missing math assignments. His grade went from a 90 to a 96. Chase was very happy about that . He said most of the class had missing assignments from when they were out sick. But his history grade went down to a 90 based on a test last Friday where he got a C. Nanaw didn't know anything about a history test, and they certainly didn't study for it. Nanaw is going to go look at a copied version of Homework Central and see if it says anything about a history test on February 27. Chase figured out a neat way to look at back versions of Homework Central. You make a copy of the spreadsheet and you're able to look at previous weeks. Nanaw didn't find any mention of a history test on Homework Central but Facts says Chase got an 86 our of 100 on a WWI test on February 27. -- what a mystery. Nanaw is going to stop mentioning Chase's grades to Mama. After school, Chase did his English assignment and then they studied for Friday's religion test. He said he has a big history assignment but he's going to use one of his homework passes for it because he doesn't have time to do it. Evidently, with a homework pass you don't have to do the assignment and you get a 100%. Cool deal if it really works that way.