Monday, August 17, 2026

Today was Chase’s first official day of high school. He seemed ready for it and not nervous or anxious. He didn’t show any anxiety about the two orientation days or the first official day, which made Nanaw happy. When Nanaw went to pick Chase up from school, she had a nice chat about soap operas with Brady’s grandma, Debbie. They’re both driving Broncos, and they park them together in the waiting area while they chat and wait. On the ride home, Nanaw learned a little about Chase’s first day of high school. He said the day was all right. He ate lunch with Joey and Brady, plus a guy named Oliver that he didn’t know but who was in some of his classes. He said Joey is in all of his classes except Art because Joey is in Band. His math teacher is also his homeroom teacher and the baseball coach, and Chase says he likes him. For some reason, Chase said he liked that Gibault gives them plastic utensils, napkins, and salt and pepper. He said the toasted ravioli for lunch was good. Chase had some homework – a Spanish assignment and about 20 math problems about the order of operations. Both assignments were pencil and paper homework, and Nanaw asked Chase about that. He said Gibault was digital but they also did pencil and paper assignments. Mama said to have Chase home by five so he could have dinner before his workout at 6 p.m. Mama, Daddy and Nanaw all talKed with Chase about his day when Nanaw brought him home. That was fun!

Saturday, August 15, and Sunday, August 16. 2026

Bears baseball started up again with practice on Thursday evening and a tournament on the weekend, Saturday and Sunday. Mama texted that unfortunately, the tournament didn’t go well for Chase and Tucker’s Bears team. They lost two games on Saturday and one game on Sunday. But the boys had fun, and that’s what’s important. On Saturday, Mama, Daddy and Chase had Dairy Queen for dinner. Then Daddy and Chase went to the driving range. Nanaw sent a text to Mama asking what she thought of Chase’s interest in golf. Mama had an interesting take on it, saying she thinks he enjoys it because there’s no practice and no pressure to be good on a team. Nanaw replied that she hadn’t thought of that, and she thought Mama was right. On Sunday afternoon, when they were finished with baseball, Tucker, his dad Brent, Chase and Daddy went golfing. Mama texted Nanaw a photo of Tucker and Chase that Brent took. Mama says Brent is good with photos. For dinner, Chase, Mama and Daddy had Mama’s chicken pasta, at Chase’s request, which Nanaw thought was cool.

Friday, August 14, 2026

Friday was Chase’s second day of orientation at Gibault. For lunch, he had chili crispitos, which he said were sort of like taquitos. Chase said they went over many of the same things they did yesterday – the classes and the location of the classrooms. He brought home a copy of the school map, which will be helpful in finding his classes. They worked on the Schoology dashboard to learn how to use it. That’s the way they’ll get their homework assignments and turn in their assignments. They’ll also get reminders and messages through the dashboard. Chase said they’d still have some pencil and paper homework assignments and that Gibault isn’t totally digital. Chase said both days were decent and that seemed to mean he liked the school. Nanaw asked Chase to tell her who from ICS was going to Gibault, and they counted 16 students. In the evening, there was a pot luck dinner in the school cafeteria for the families of the students new to Gibault. Daddy didn’t go so it was just Mama, Chase and Nanaw. Chase went to sit at the table of students and not with Mama and Nanaw. Mama and Nanaw sat at a table with Brady’s mom and dad but at a different end. They sat with one of the Gibault staff and learned a lot of interesting things about the school. The food was delicious, with so many different choices. The meat was pulled pork that was yummy. For dessert, there was cake from a bakery in Columbia, and Nanaw loved the white cake with white icing. After dinner, the students disappeared. Chase went off with Brady, Joey and Drew – the three friends from the crew who now go to Gibault. The other two, Cole and Hunter, are going to Columbia High School. When it was time to leave, Mama and Nanaw went searching for Chase. When they found him, he reluctantly agreed to give them a tour and show them where his classes were, which was a great ending to a great evening.

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.