Good Friday, April 3, 2026

Yesterday, Nanaw asked Chase who were the girls who hang around with the crew. There are three L’s, an A and an E.  Lorelei, Lizzie and Lily. Amelie. Evie. Nanaw told Mama about this and she said all five were nice girls. This afternoon, one of them (Lorelei) came with her mom to deliver two beautifully decorated Easter cookies to Chase. On the DC trip, Lorelei’s mom provided delicious cookies for the kids. Chase told everyone he couldn’t have one because he gave up cookies for Lent. So Lorelei and her mom wanted him to have cookies — on Easter, when Lent is over so they brought the cookies over to Chase's house. Unfortunately he was still at Nanaw's house so he didn't get to see them. Today, Chase had a workout around noon and then Daddy brought him over to Nanaw’s house to spend the afternoon there. Mama sent Nanaw a picture of the guys Chase set up in her office this morning. She called them her co-workers. At Nanaw’s house, Chase played on his phone and the laptop. He also played pencil hockey in his room. He didn’t work on his DC projects but he promised Nanaw he’d work on them tomorrow. On the ride home, Nanaw asked if he had baseball tonight. Chase said no, but he was going to find some baseball stuff to do. Nanaw asked Mama about it, and she said he practiced hitting and pitching. Then he played with the wiffle ball.

Thursday, April 2, 2026

The 8th grade did a very special presentation to the younger students and some parents on Thursday morning. It was in the gym and was called the Stations of the Cross. It was about the crucifixion of Jesus and followed his path to his death on the cross. Owen played Jesus and Sami played Mary. Brady was a guard and wore a helmet (with his baseball hat underneath it) and carried a spear. Chase was one of the 14 students who read the 14 Stations of the Cross. He was number 10, and he did a good job, speaking clearly and reading well. After it was over, Chase came over to say hello to Nanaw, which was nice and sort of surprising. Chase had only a half day of school on Thursday, and Nanaw picked him up at noon, and they went to Taco Bell to get lunch. Chase had two cheese quesadillas and nachos with cheese. Nanaw had three crunchy tacos supreme. In the afternoon, Chase played on his phone and the laptop. Then he worked on his DC project. He‘s making an online digital scrapbook from the trip to DC. He also has to do the journal he wrote during the trip; he still has to finish it. The two assignments are due next Tuesday, and he still has a lot of work to do on them. Chase has the day off tomorrow so he’s coming over to Nanaw’s house in the afternoon after his workout.

Wednesday, April 1, 2026

Nanaw tried the "It's snowing!" April Fool's thing on Chase this morning but he's too smart for Nanaw -- he responded with a resounding "April Fool!" Nanaw tried that one on Uncle Mike and Mama when they were little, and it didn't work then either. Uncle Mike came over again today for a little while to finish up a couple of things he didn't have time enough to do yesterday. One thing he did Mama will really like: taking down the black tarp in front of Nanaw's house. Mama considered it very white trash. When Nanaw picked Chase up from school, she asked him how he felt, and he said he would answer her when he was in the car. He said his stomach didn't feel well again. Nanaw is worried about him. He hasn't had any after school snacks the past few days, and he hasn't been drinking milk at breakfast or eating much then. He has a science terms quiz tomorrow, and when Nanaw quizzed him on the words, he didn't know most of the words. Nanaw asked Mama to have him study the science terms again a couple of times that night and then to quiz him on them again. He did okay but not great on them. Mama said it would be good for him to go over them again with Nanaw in the morning before school. 

Tuesday, March 31, 2026

Chase was still having stomach problems Tuesday morning but Mama said he had to go to school. When Nanaw picked him up after school, he said he almost threw up during the Chrism Mass field trip today but he managed to not do it. Nanaw told him she was proud of him for that. He said he still didn't feel too good, and he didn't want any after-school snacks, just water. During the pick-up phone call with Mama, he told her he couldn't go to baseball practice, and Mama said he had to send a text to Coach Bernie saying he couldn't come to practice. When they got to Nanaw's house, Chase worked on his homework -- The Hobbit worksheet for chapter 9 and a Middle East Atlas geography worksheet. Nanaw should have had him do his AR reading when he was done with the worksheets but she always forgets to have him do that. He still didn't get his science and English tests back. He didn't do too well on the tests, especially the English one, and Nanaw wants to see what went wrong. She didn't study with him on the English one because he said they had studied a lot in class. But Nanaw is not going to let that happen in the future. No matter how much he says he already studied, Nanaw will insist that they study together. For the science test, Nanaw wants to see what questions he got wrong and try to figure out if there was something they should have studied that they didn't. Uncle Mike came over to Nanaw's again today to do several different things. The one he worked on most was the drain pipe in the front yard. Hopefully, he can get it working the way it should.

Monday, March 30, 2026

Chase stayed home from school today with an upset stomach and diarrhea. Even with all that, Nanaw’s sweet boy was in a good mood . He was happy and entertaining and didn’t mind too much that Nanaw limited him to an hour and a half of phone time. He used some of that time to play on the laptop. Uncle Mike spent most of the day at Nanaw’s, watching over the guys from Helitech who were here to fix the leak in Nanaw’s basement. Uncle Mike said the guys worked hard and did a great job. Helitech had said it would take two days to do the job but they finished up in one day. Uncle Mike and Nanaw had Taco Bell for lunch, and Chase had chicken noodle soup. A little after three, Chase took a nap and Nanaw went up to school to get Chase’s homework. He was up from his nap when Nanaw got home. He worked on the homework till it was time to go home. In the evening, he had 20 minutes of hitting fast-pitched underhand baseball. Mama was going to stop at the library on the way home from baseball to pick up a book, and Nanaw asked her to pick up a book for her, too. Chase and his class are going on a field trip tomorrow to a church in Belleville for a Chrism mass. The Chrism Mass is a major Holy Week liturgy, usually celebrated by the bishop in the cathedral on Holy Thursday morning or shortly before, where the sacred oils (Chrism, Catechumens, Sick) are consecrated/blessed for use throughout the year. It highlights the church's unity, the priesthood, and the diocesan community.

Sunday, March 29, 2026

Chase had a confirmation retreat on Sunday, starting with mass at 11. When Nanaw went to visit Chase after he got home, Chase told Nanaw that various people spoke to the group. IDaddy spent the afternoon at the retreat with Chase. He sat at a table with Brady’s uncle and found out he works for a computer company that deals with finding fraud. Originally, they said the retreat would last till 5:30 or 6 but it turned out that it ended around 4. Chase was still tired from the DC trip so he took a nap when he got home from the retreat. Mama made stir fry for dinner, and Nanaw had some without Ramen noodles and it was really good. After dinner, Mama and Nanaw sat on the sofa and looked at Mama’s DC pictures on her phone. They also looked at videos and pictures on Chase’s phone. Nanaw is looking forward to looking at more of Chase’s photos on his DC project.

Saturday, March 28, 2026

Today was Chase's first baseball game of the season with the Bears. He had two games on Saturday morning at the field in Fenton. Unfortunately, his team lost both games. He pitched in both games but didn't do a good job. That was understandable and forgivable because the DC trip was exhausting for everybody, and Chase was really tired. On Saturday afternoon, Mama and Nanaw went to a birthday party for Brady's grandma Debbie at her son's beautiful house in Swansea, Illinois.(There's a picture of it below that Nanaw took yesterday when she made a reconnaissance trip to make sure she knew how to get there in case Mama couldn't go.) It was a great party with all kinds of interesting people, delicious food and super birthday decorations that Debbie's son Ryan created. Brady was there, having lots of fun. He had on a history-related tie that he probably bought in DC. Chase would have had fun with him but Chase probably preferred staying home to take a nap. Ryan has a swimming pool, and last summer Chase went swimming there with Brady and Emma and their cousins. Mama and Nanaw were talking about the cherry blossom trees in DC as they left the party, and later in the afternoon Mama sent Nanaw a random photo of the trees to show her that the blossoms are white not pink, like Nanaw thought they were. On the drive home, they listened to the Cardinals baseball game on the radio and were dismayed when the Cards lost their four-run lead in the 9th inning. But everything worked out beautifully, thanks to bubble-gum-chewing JJ Wetherholt and his walk-off hit, and the Cardinals won 6 to 5. Tomorrow Chase has a confirmation retreat at church from 11 to 6 and then Nanaw is going to go visit her boy. Also, on this coming Thursday, the 8th grade is having a Stations of the Cross and Chase is one of the readers so Nanaw is going to go see it.