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.

Monday, October 19, 2026

 When Chase and Nanaw got to Gibault Monday morning, Nanaw was happy to see the redone parking lot and driveway — they looked great. However, they didn’t redo the driveway where Nanaw and Brady’s grandma park — it still looks bad. For lunch, Chase had a chicken sandwich instead of the other choice, a pork fritter sandwich, which Mama said sounded yucky. After school, Nanaw took Chase to his house so he and Mama could go to the picture company on Manchester to get his photo taken for the hockey team photo. He took along his hockey uniform and changed there. Mama managed to sneak some photos and sent them to Nanaw. Mama said the whole thing was easy peasy. Nanaw can’t wait to see the final team photo with Chase PhotoShopped in. Back at home, Chase and Mama had an adventure together: They fixed French toast sticks for dinner. Mama said they were a little messy because the bread wasn’t stale but they were really good. They had cinnamon on them instead of powdered sugar. They also had syrup on them. Mama said maybe the bacon accompaniment got a little done but was still good. Mama said it was a good dinner and the best part was making it with Chase. She did also say that the hard part was the clean-up. Nanaw suggested that Mama teaches him how to do the clean-up, and Mama said he wouldn’t like that. So Nanaw said then, she guessed the clean-up was up to Mama. Nanaw suggested that cooking together could be Mama and Chase’s mother-son adventure.

Saturday, October 17 and Sunday, October 18, 2026

Chase’s Bears tournament games were rained out on Saturday, and the coaches were working on the schedule for the games on Sunday. Brady came over about 11:30, and they played outside and inside until about 6:30 Then Chase and Brady and the rest of the crew had an exciting adventure on Saturday night. They all went to a Haunted House in Fenton. Cole’s parents drove both of their cars to take the boys. Cole and Joey rode in Cole’s mom’s car and Hunter, Brady, Drew and Chase rode in Cole’s dad’s car. Chase told Nanaw on Sunday night that he had a really good time. He laughed when he told her about Joey shrieking whenever he saw or heard a chain saw. Chase said he was really scared by them. Chase also said the only other shrieking he heard was from some girls who were going through the Haunted House at the same time the crew was. Nanaw was happy that Chase got to have an adventure with the crew – it’s been a while and the four boys at Gibault must miss seeing Cole and Hunter, who now go to Columbia High School. On Sunday, Chase and Daddy went to the 9 a.m. mass; usually, they go to 5 p.m. mass on Saturday night but Chase’s baseball games didn’t start till 3 p.m. on Sunday so they could go to church in the morning. Chase’s Bears team lost both of their Sunday games. Their second game was a late one, and Mama, Daddy and Chase didn’t get home till about 6:30. Mama had fixed chili in the crockpot and invited Nanaw for dinner because she knows how much Nanaw loves chili. Mama also fixed corn bread, which Nanaw also loves. Mama asked Nanaw if she could get oyster crackers to go with the chili because she had forgotten to get them, and Nanaw went to Schnuck’s for the oyster crackers. She also got red licorice for Daddy and Chase and a cherry fruit pie for Mama. Mama said she would like to have some red licorice if Daddy would share, and he said he would.

Friday, October 16, 2026

On Friday, Nanaw took Chase to school in the Bronco, and it really rained hard on the way but they were fine. Drop-off and pick-up were still on the gym lot because the parking lot and the driveways aren’t done yet. They’re supposed to be done Monday. Mama came over to Nanaw’s house after work to take her to Dave Sinclair because the Bronco was done. It got a new water pump that was covered by the warranty so there was no charge (Yay!). Mama told them a wonderful resolution to yesterday’s hockey non-picture story. Mama talked to one of her cool hockey mom-friends who called Chase’s team manager who is a good friend of hers and told him how upset Mama was for making Chase miss the picture. The team manger called the picture company to come back Monday, and they will take Chase’s picture, then PhotoShop him into the team picture. So all is well, and everybody is happy. Mama said for dinner, they had Burger King. Mama said yesterday they had dogs come to visit at work, and she had a wonderful time with them. Pictures are included below.

Thursday, October 15, 2026

Yesterday was breakfast for lunch, and it was French toast, which Chase said was good. He said he got lots of syrup. Today is chicken strips. Chase turned in his drawing of a fish in a net on Thursday because he had class and it wasn’t due till Friday when he had no class. He forgot to turn in his last drawing, of a ghost, because it was due on a day he didn’t have Drawing class, and he got a zero. The teacher will not accept late submissions. It took his grade down to an 84 from an 88, which is still a B so he’s not too upset about it. After school, Nanaw took Chase to his house so he could pick up his hockey gear for hockey practice. After dropping him off for practice, Nanaw went home to get the Bronco to take it to Dave Sinclair. There, she worked with a really helpful guy named Sam. He said they were caught up with their work and might be able to look at her car on Friday, which is unheard of, so fast. Nanaw was very happy about that. Mama and Nanaw picked Chase up from practice and got some sad news from Chase. Today was picture day for the hockey game, and neither he nor Mama packed his hockey jersey so he couldn’t be in the picture. Mama felt really badly because she had forgotten to put in on their shared calendar and she forgot to tell Chase about it and forgot to pack it for him. So Chase just had to sit on a bench while they did all the pictures. On their way home, they had a great adventure. They went to Jack in the Box on Tesson Ferry. Chase and Nanaw got Tiny Tacos, of course, Chase also got an order of onion rings. Mama sent some cute stuffed animal photos, shown below.