Monday, October 14. 2024

On Monday, Mama was off from work and Chase was off from school for what we still call Columbus Day but what other people call Indigenous Peoples Day. Mama went to the grocery store in the morning, then brought Chase, his groceries, and Nanaw's newspaper over to Nanaw's house. They were going to have a shopping adventure. Mama had volunteered to be a room mother this year and one of their jobs is to provide the snacks for the monthly faculty meeting on early dismissal day, which is this Wednesday. They went to Waterloo Walmart, Sam's and then Arby's. Chase wasn't feeling good, and he had a headache -- Mama thought it might be allergies, and she gave him some medicine. After Sam's. Mama took Nanaw home and then took Chase and his backpack home. Mama wanted him to rest and then do some work on his science fair project while she went out shopping again. Later, Mama told Nanaw that he took a nap and felt better, which made both Mama and Nanaw happiy. At Walmart and Sam's, Nanaw looked for a new toilet seat for the hall bathroom but couldn't find one with metal screws and connectors instead of plastic. So she went to Home Depot and found on. She was going to try to install it herself but unfortunately, it turned out to be different than regular ones. So dear, wonderful Uncle Mike is going to make a special quick trip to Nanaw's after work tomorrow to install it. Yay for Uncle Mike!

Saturday and Sunday, October 12 and 13, 2024

Chase had a Bears baseball game on Saturday morning, and he got to pitch, which made him very happy. In the afternoon, he had a hockey game at the All American hockey arena off Lindbergh. Nanaw had a high school reunion in the afternoon and after the reunion was picking Chase up after his hockey game. Unfortunately, Nanaw fell when she tripped over a raised sidewalk as she and Chase were walking to her car. Some very nice people helped her up, and Chase said they were the family of one of the players on his hockey team. Chase was very kind to Nanaw and told her he hoped she was okay, and she was happy to tell him she was. On the way home, they stopped at Chase's house to get his clothes and stuff, and he hit a few baseballs in the back yard before they left. On the way to Nanaw's house, they went to Sonic to get Chase's supper. Nanaw ordered two orders of onion rings so she could have one but they only sent one. Sweet little Chase divided up his dinner (as shown in the first picture below) to give to Nanaw. Nanaw thanked him but told him he should eat all of it, Nanaw atejust ate one onion ring and fixed shrimp for her dinner. He's such a good boy. After dinner, they worked on Chase's math and history homework. Chase got all the math finished but Nana still has a few problems to do. They had fun with the history homework about the President's Cabinet. They kept asking Alex and ChatGPT questions; Alexa failed most of them but ChatGPT did well. Mama and Daddy picked Chase up at 8:30 on Sunday morning for his Bears baseball game out in O'Fallon, Missouri, close to where Nanaw's high school reunion was. Before his parents got there to pick him up, Chase texted Mama that she'd forgotten to pack his baseball shorts so she texted back that she'd bring them. Then when they got to Nanaw's, Chase said they'd forgotten the belt he wears with his baseball pants to keep them up. So Daddy went back home to get it. Mama said next time, they'd ask Nanaw to bring Chase home after a sleepover so nothing would be forgotten. Mama reported to Nanaw that after Chase's morning baseball game, they went to Burger Kind for lunch. Chase played out in the back yard in the afternoon, and they had Mama's homemade tacos for dinner.

Friday, October 11, 2024

Nanaw got up at the early time on Friday morning because she forgot that Mama had the day off and was going to take Chase to school. So Nanaw went back to bed. When she got up she saw Chase's math notebook on the counter. She quickly got dressed so she could take it to school for him. But it turned out that she was a few minutes late for his math class. She thought it was after lunch but it was before lunch. It was all Nanaw's fault that he didn't have the notebook, and she felt badly about it. After dropping the notebook off at school, Nanaw did a recon drive to find the hockey arena where she's supposed to pick Chase up at 4:30 tomorrow afternoon. Mama sent Nanaw a picture that the principal sent Mama of Chase with the microphone in the office where he read the morning prayer, the Pledge of Allegiance and the Mission Statement. After school, Chase played hockey in the hall and also played on his computer in the computer lab. Mama and Uncle Mike spent the day together today. Today's big adventure was a visit to the Clydesdales at the brewery. Mama has pictures of them petting the Clydesdales. Tomorrow morning, Chase has a baseball game; Nanaw has her reunion tomorrow afternoon; Mama and Daddy are going to a wedding tomorrow evening; and Chase has a hockey game in the afternoon. Then Chase and Nanaw are having a sleepover.

Thursday, October 10, 2024

On the way to school, Chase said he might be having a sleepover with Nanaw on Saturday night. Mama and Daddy are going to a wedding, and Nanaw is going to pick Chase up from hockey in the afternoon and take him to her house. He wants to have Sonic for dinner. Nanaw said maybe they'd have a fire in the firepit in Nanaw's front yard on Saturday evening. When Nanaw picked Chase up from school, he told Nanaw he had chicken fajitas for lunch, and they were good. He said the crew played Infection at lunch recess; Infection is a version of Tag, just like Sharks and Minnows is. Then, they talked about his homework. He had three things to do: he had part of the math assignment to finish; he had to write a globalization paragraph of 3 to 5 sentences for the geography worksheet; and he had to edit the draft of his science fair project, based on the teacher's comments / notes. Nanaw did the math assignment also. She likes to do math and hopes that someday Chase will like math as much as she does. Mama did a post on Facebook about Sam going to heaven, with wonderful pictures of Sam. 

Wednesday, October 9, 2024

On Wednesday morning, Chase and Nanaw were surprised that Thursday's science vocabulary test had been moved to Wednesday, according to Homework Central. Chase studied the study guide and then Nanaw quizzed him on the vocabulary words. They decided that from now on, they would check Homework Central when they got home in case one of the teachers added something new or made changes. Nanaw looked through Facts before she picked Chase up and saw that he has four A's and four B's. She looked at his homework grades and saw that many of them were not very good. When Chase and Nanaw were back at Nanaw's house, Nanaw told him she wanted to have a conversation about homework. She explained that he needed to take more care with doing his homework to make sure his answers were as correct as he could make them. She had noticed that sometimes he guessed at the answers rather than going back through the materials and finding the correct answers, especially in the reading packet and the history packet. She also suggested that if there were answers he wasn't sure about and couldn't find in the packet materials, he could check online. His quiz and test scores have been better because he's been studying a lot more. So maybe the same thing can happen with his homework grades. 

Tuesday, October 8, 2024

On Tuesday morning, Chase and Nanaw went over the material for Chase's history and religion tests on Tuesday. Chase knew the answers to the questions, and Nanaw told him she hoped the teachers only asked questions from the material. She said that sometimes they included other questions, outside the study guides. On the way to school, they listened to the Kindle version of Public Enemies, the book that Chase is reading for AR. When Nanaw picked Chase up from school, they couldn't get Alexa to read Public Enemies, and they didn't know why. Chase said he thinks he did well on the history and religion tests. He said the history test came completely from the study guide. But the religion test had some questions that weren't in the study guide, and he's not sure if he had the right answers. Nanaw hadn't heard whether the cleaning lady was finished at her house so the they went there to see. Her car was still there so they headed to Chase's house. By the time they got there, Nanaw got a text saying she was gone. Chase went inside to go to the bathroom and get a snack and then they went to Nanaw's house. Chase has two tests on Wednesday and so they studied for the DLR test and the math test on chapter 3. Chase studied the LR material by himself; Nanaw will go over it with him on Wednesday morning. Nanaw picked out eight math problems from the extra practice section of the math textbook. Chase did really well on the problems; he got all eight of them right. So Nanaw has great hopes for him on tomorrow's test. She created one more problem for him to do tomorrow morning; the problem includes negative numbers, fractions and decimals, all the things he studied in chapter 3. In the evening, he had hockey practice.

Monday, October 7, 2024

On Monday morning, Chase and Nanaw went over his vocabulary words for the quiz today. He seemed to know all of them but Mama said she briefly saw an email saying he missed two of them. Nanaw can't find the vocabulary quiz scores in FACTS, the place where Chase's grades are kept. Nanaw texted Mama to see if she knows what's going on with Facts and the vocabulary and Outsiders grades. Mama sent Nanaw an email telling her that she and Brady's mom are going on a Haunted History Walking Tour in Alton on October 25. Hopefully, they'll be really scared. When Nanaw picked Chase up from school, he said he had a good day. He said the vocabulary test was okay, and he had lasagna for lunch, which he liked. At lunch recess, he and his crew played sharks and minnows again and this time Chase was a minnow. After school, Chase finished his math homework assignment, and then he and Nanaw studied for tomorrow's history test and religion test. He had study guides for both tests, and if the teachers just ask questions from the study guides, he knows all the material. But if they ask additional questions that aren't on the study guides, he may not know the answers. There wasn't enough time to study all the history and religion material. After Nanaw took Chase home, he had a baseball catching lesson.

Sunday, October 6, 2024

On Sunday, Nanaw went over to Chase's house about 1 in the afternoon to study with him for his homework assignments, his vocabulary test on Monday, and his history test on Tuesday. He also has a religion test on Tuesday on chapter 4 of the religion text book. He had so much homework and so much studying to do. First, they worked on his history. He had to work on the blue US government booklet to complete the questions and study them for the test on Tuesday. He also had to do worksheets on the Constitution preamble and the 27 amendments to the Constitution. After he finished answering the blue packet questions, Nanaw tested him on them. He still has a long way to go in knowing the answers. Next, he studied the Outsiders vocabulary for chapters 8 through 12 for the vocabulary test on Monday. They had tried quizzing him but he didn't know them at all so he that's why he went back and studied them. They went through the vocabulary words twice and he did better  but he still has to work on them tomorrow morning before school with Nanaw. Before she left, Nanaw took lots of pictures of Chase in the front yard with all their Halloween blow-ups. After leaving Chase's house, Nanaw went to Sherry's house for a birthday dinner for Uncle Doug. It was great, as always. 

Saturday, October 5, 2024

On Saturday morning, Mama texted Nanaw that Chase wanted to come visit Nanaw sometime that morning. Nanaw texted back for them to come about 10:30 and to please have Chase bring his backpack so they could work on the boatload of homework and test studying that Chase has to do over the weekend. Nanaw tested Chase for the history exam for the legislative branch on Tuesday. He did semi-okay so they still have a lot of studying to do. He finished his math homework assignment. He also has a vocabulary test on Monday so they'll study that tomorrow when Nanaw comes to visit. They got the new weather bingo game ready to play. Chase was the caller and Nanaw and Charlie the Cicada were the players. Charlie and Nanaw tied on the first bingo, and then Chase said he wanted to do a sudden-death round. Charlie won that one. After bingo, Chase played knee hockey in the hall with the guys while Nanaw watched. Then Nanaw bought some more bingo games for Chase: Planet Earth and Sports Bingo from Amazon for his birthday and Geography Bingo for Christmas. He's also getting another Marc Andre for his birthday. They still have to think of lots more birthday and Christmas presents. Mama picked Chase up at 12:30, and they were going to Red Roof because they hadn't been there for a while. At 4:30, Chase, Daddy and Mama had to be at the baseball field for Chase's game. 

Friday, October 4, 2024

On Friday morning, Chase and Nanaw did some studying for today's science test. First, Chase read over the science study guide, then Nanaw asked him a series of questions from the science book. He said he thought he knew the material. When Nanaw picked Chase up from school, he told her he thought he did well on the science test. He said they had his favorite for lunch -- toasted ravioli or T Ravs as everybody calls them. Homework Central says Chase has a lot of homework to do over the weekend -- history assignments plus studying for a legislative branch quiz on Tuesday; studying for a religion test on Tuesday; studying for an Outsiders vocab test on Monday; and a math assignment. Mama and Daddy took Sam to the vet in the afternoon for his procedure. Every body was crying. Uncle Mike came to Nanaw's house in the afternoon, and he  brought two presents for Mama: a blow-up for the front yard of a pirate skeleton riding on a shark, and a ghost skeleton king ring and bottle opener. mama was excited and happy about the pirate and shark blow-up.

Thursday, October 3, 2024

Today was picture day at Chase's school, and he wore a medium blue Polo shirt and his contacts. He looked good, even with his long hair. Nanaw had hoped he'd get a haircut that was short on the sides but it was not to be. Maybe next year. Mama called Nanaw during the day and told her they were going to take Sam to the vet to have him put to sleep on Friday afternoon because of the cancer. Mama and Nanaw cried on the phone and talked about what a wonderful part of the family Sam was and how much they loved him. Nanaw decided that she would have some pictures of Sam printed out for Mama. For homework, Chase had two extensive pieces of work. He has a science test tomorrow, and his history assignment  was a full page of questions about the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. He just barely managed to get everything done at Nanaw's, which was a good thing because he had hockey practice in the evening. He promised to study science when he got home from practice and said they could study science again Friday morning. After Nanaw dropped Chase off, she went to Waterloo Walmart and printed out some 8 x 10 and 4 x 6 photos of Sam for Mama and herself. She also bought picture frames to put them in. One of the frames was especially cute -- it held three 4 x 6 photos. Nanaw hopes Mama will like the photos. It's heartbreaking to lose Sam, the best dog in the world.

Wednesday, October 2, 2024

On Wednesday morning, Chase told Nanaw he was okay for today's DLR and religion tests so they didn't do any morning studying. On the drive to school, Chase looked at the car copy of the menu to see what was for lunch -- it was chicken nuggets but he didn't want to hear the chicken nuggets song. In the afternoon when Nanaw made notes on the work on Homework Central, there were several tests and lots of homework assignments. On the way to Nanaw's house from school, Chase said he thought he did well on today's DLR and religion tests. At Nanaw's house, Chase did his history assignment and studied for tomorrow's math quiz. In English, the final version of his weather paragraph is due tomorrow, and they're going to print them out in class. He has a science test on Friday so they'll study for it on Thursday. Daddy picked Chase up at 4 to take him to his baseball hitting lesson. In the evening, Daddy and Chase went to the Bears baseball practice. Mama stayed home and put up Halloween decorations.

Tuesday, October 1, 2024

It's the first day of October, which is the day that Mama and Nanaw consider the start of the holiday season. Nanaw put out some Halloween decorations on the front porch last night.  She also brought some of the decorations upstairs, especially the ones for the Halloween train. She's going to work on the train Tuesday evening, maybe during the VP debate and definitely during Yellowstone. Chase said he had a good day and liked his Mexican Haystack lunch. He said he had a Builders Club meeting today but he couldn't seem to tell Nanaw much about what the group is or what they talked about. He thinks it's a group that does good things for the school. The only one of his friends who was at the meeting was Hunter. So maybe Mama or Nanaw can get more information about the group from Hunter. Chase has a DLR test and a religion test tomorrow. He studied for the DLR test by himself, and Nanaw quizzed him on the religion test. He said he thinks he did pretty well on the geography test. He hasn't gotten his sentence structure test back yet, nor his Outsiders vocabulary test. Tonight Chase has hockey practice and won't be home till 9 so he's done studying for the day.