Friday, January 31, 2025

On Friday morning around 9 a.m., Mama and Chase brought Sylvester and Tyler over to Nanaw's house for their weekend with Nanaw while their family goes to Kansas City for Chase's hockey tournament. Nanaw was so happy that Chase came along with Mama so Nanaw could see him. She's going to miss him this weekend. While Mama was bringing things in and getting the pets settled, for some reason, Chase went downstairs and started playing the keyboard down there. Sometimes we don't know why Chase does what he does but it's always interesting. Mama texted Nanaw throughout the day about their actions and activities, which was very helpful for Days of Chase. They left for Kansas City about 11. Daddy had been feeling sick the past few days but he felt better on Friday so that was a good thing for Daddy and a good thing for the trip. They got to Kansas City at about 3 p.m.,  and checked into the Hilton hotel. Then they went next door to Old Chicago Pizza and had pizza and cheesy bread for a late lunch. Chase's first hockey game was at 7:55 p.m. and Mama says unfortunately they lost  After the game, Mama hung out with some of the parents, Chase hung out with some friends, and Daddy went to bed because he still didn't feel 100%. Mama says she and Chase stayed up till about midnight. The first picture is Chase at Nanaw's house coming upstairs after having played the keyboard downstairs. The second picture is Chase at Old Chicago Pizza eating pizza.

Thursday, January 30, 2025

On Thursday morning, Mama brought Chase to Nanaw's house early, at 6:45, so he could get to school by 7:40 to update the Penny Pincher poster. He asked a friend to do it for him on Friday because he won't be there to do it. Chase, Mama and Daddy are going to Kansas City for a hockey tournament this weekend. It was pajama day at Chase's school for Catholic Schools Week, and Chase wore his Mizzou pajamas with Truman's face on the shirt and Mizzou stuff on the pants. When Nanaw picked Chase up from school, he said that for homework, he has a Pacific map review on Monday in geography and a Pacific map test on Tuesday. In AR, he's supposed to read to the end of chapter 21 in Mockingbird. He still hasn't gotten his Mockingbird packet back so he can’t work on it. The writing tricks document was due in English tomorrow. Chase had an accident with his Chromebook where it fell out of his locker and broke the screen. He didn't think it was usable but at Nanaw's house she plugged it in and turned it on, and he was able to do the writing tricks assignment and turn it in online. The screen of the Chromebook was all pink and green, and Chase thought that was sort of cool. Mama is going to get him a new Chromebook. Until it comes, Chase is going to borrow one from the office. Nanaw took Chase home early because Nanaw was going to Kate's retirement party at Rosalita's. Nanaw was really looking forward to seeing the friends she worked with before retiring to take care of Chase.

Wednesday, January 29, 2025

Today's dress down garb was to be red, white and blue so Chase wore lots of his Affton American hockey stuff. He didn't quite make it to school by 7:40 to update the Penny Pincher poster; it was 7:45 when he got there. He took the pennies and silver Nanaw gave him and donated it to the charity fund. He wants some $1 bills from Mama, Daddy and Nanaw for tomorrow. When Nanaw picked him up from school, he said they had sausage links and eggs for lunch but he didn't get any eggs because he doesn't like them. He said he got a 91 on the California map quiz, and a 94 on today's Alaska/Hawaii map quiz. On the way home from school, Chase played chess on his Chromebook, using Nanaw's hotspot on her phone. Nanaw said she wanted to give him a few ideas about his memoir narrative. Then when they got home, Nanaw read his new version, and he had already done most of her ideas. He made it longer; he explained that he said the opposing team reminded him of the Blackhawks because their uniforms were the same color; and that it was a funny thing that Mama was in the penalty box when he scored his game-winning goal. He didn't want to say that it was his third trip to Chicago as Nanaw suggested because he said the teacher said not to get off topic. After Chase and Nanaw talked about his memoir essay, he worked some more on it and also on a Valley worksheet for geography. Then he went back to playing chess on his Chromebook. Tonight, he has baseball practice.

Tuesday, January 28, 2025

Tuesday's dress down assignment was to wear their favorite jersey, and Chase wore his Notre Dame jersey. Chase got to school at 7:43 instead of 7:40 but he said that was all right, that it didn't take long to update the poster for Penny Pincher. In the afternoon when Nanaw picked Chase up, he asked her for some pennies to take to school tomorrow. Nanaw got out her can of pennies and got out some pennies and silver. She told Chase the story of the penny can, saying that when Mama and Uncle Mike were little, all year they saved their pennies for Christmas Eve dinner. Then they put the pennies in penny rolls and took them to the bank to get dollars. Then they used the dollars to get Kentucky Fried Chicken (now called KFC) for Christmas Eve dinner. Nanaw told Chase it was a wonderful tradition and that maybe Chase could think of a tradition he'd like to start. He has a geography test on Wednesday on the Alaska and Hawaii maps. He did a test on Nanaw and told her she did fairly well. After studying, Chase got his chess game out of his room and set it up so he could teach Truman the Mizzou Tiger how to play chess. He told Nanaw she could watch if she wanted, and she did. It was very cute watching Chase trying to teach a stuffed animal how to play chess. Of course, Chase won. When Nanaw took Chase home, she told Mama she was going to Schnuck's to get her newspaper, and Mama said she was going to Schnuck's to get snacks for their Kansas City trip this weekend, so they decided to go together, and Nanaw said she would drive. So they had a mother-daughter shopping adventure!

Monday, January 27, 2025

For Catholic Schools Week, the ICS students got to wear various dress down outfits or colors. Monday's dress down was for neon colors. Chase wore an orange neon tee shirt and an orange neon hoodie that belongs to Mama.. Every day this week, he's supposed to be at school by 7:40 so he can update the poster for Penny Pincher, one of the fund raising projects this week. He didn't have to be there at 7:40 today because there wasn't anything to update. Chase and Nanaw studied the Mockingbird vocabulary words again before school, thinking there was a test today. But when Nanaw picked Chase up from school, he said they didn't have the vocabulary test. He said his DLR and geography California map tests were good. Mr. K., the science teacher, posted a late item to Homework Central, saying the chemical formula test would be Tuesday instead of Wednesday or Thursday because of the talent show. Chase said he knew how to do the formulas and there really wasn't any way to study for it. Tonight, Chase has a baseball workout session and then a catchers' lesson. Mama and Nanaw went to the awesome new library on Lindbergh to see mystery writer, Alafair Burke. 

Sunday, January 26, 2025

Chase and Daddy went to church on Sunday morning, and then after church, Chase had a special assignment. This is Catholic Schools Week, and prospective parents and children are visiting ICS to see if the children want to go to school there. So Chase was an ambassador who accompanied one of the teachers, Mrs. C., and the parents and children on a tour of the school. One of the things Chase said to the family was that almost all of the school lunches were good. LOL In the afternoon, Chase went to a Learn to Play hockey session at the Affton ice rink. The idea was to help the little kids as they learned how to play hockey. So Sunday was definitely Chase's volunteer day. In the early evening, after Chase got home from Learn to Play, Nanaw came over for chili and corn bread and to help Chase study. The chili and corn bread were delicious. Chase took a few bites of each but didn't much like them and didn't want to eat any more. After dinner, Chase and Nanaw studied the Mockingbird vocabulary words for the test on Monday. Surprisingly enough, Chase still didn't know the words very well even though they'd studied a lot. This is the first time that's happened. The words are really hard, complicated and difficult. On his own, Chase studied for Monday's DLR test and the California map test in geography. Next week, Chase is the ambassador for the Penny Pincher event at school, where they're collecting money for charity. Mama, Nanaw and Daddy have speculated that Chase probably hasn't volunteered for these volunteer events. Probably the teachers are wanting to Chase to reach out more and not be so shy.

Saturday, January 25, 2025

Mama brought Chase over to Nanaw's house on Saturday morning while she went grocery shopping at Schnuck's. Nanaw gave Mama $3.00 to buy a newspaper for her at Schnuck's. While Mama was there, she talked to Nanaw's friend, the check-out lady named Liz, and told her she was getting a newspaper for her mom, Carol. And Liz said, "I love Carol!" Chase worked on his religion homework assignment for most of the time at Nanaw's house. He has to do research on saints for his confirmation next year. He showed Nanaw the information for his memoir paper; it's very interesting. There are eight writing tricks he's learned about, and he's supposed to use five of them in the paper. Nanaw thought the writing tricks looked like fun so she asked ChatGPT for info on them. After Chase finished with his religion research, he asked Nanaw if he could play knee hockey instead of more studying, and Nanaw said yes. Mama came to pick Chase up at 11:30. He had a baseball workout session after lunch. When that was over, he was going to do volunteer work with a Learn to Play junior hockey team. Mama said there was a possibility that night be cancelled if the other volunteers or the junior hockey players were sick. 

Friday, January 24, 2025

On Friday morning, Chase and Nanaw went over the Mockingbird vocabulary words for today's test. Chase didn't know them very well because he really hadn't had enough time to study them. But, fortunately, for some unknown reason, when Nanaw picked Chase up from school, he told Nanaw that the teacher didn't give the class the vocabulary test. Chase is assuming the test will be Monday so he and Nanaw will study the words over the weekend. On the way home, Chase announced to Nanaw that Cam was now his friend. Nanaw is not in favor of this because of how Cam treated Chase in the past. She warned Chase to be careful and to not let Cam get him into trouble. Chase was going to do a video call with Cam when they got to Nanaw's house and play chess. But it didn't work out. To use his school email to play chess online, Chase has to have his teacher's permission, and he doesn't have that. Nanaw fixed popcorn for her and Chase and saved some for Uncle Mike who was coming to visit Nanaw just for a visit, not to do any work, which made Nanaw very happy. Chase has three tests on Monday -- vocabulary, geography California map, and English DLR 12 -- that he'll study for this weekend. All of Chase's hockey practices have been cancelled this week because now 12 of the team have the flu. On Friday evening, Chase had a hitting lesson with Hunter and Hunter's dad.

Thursday, January 23, 2025

Nanaw always has difficulty getting Chase to drink his protein drink and his chocolate milk. So this morning at breakfast, she tried a new tactic. She gave Chase his protein drink and said he had to drink it before she gave him his breakfast. And it worked! He drank it in a reasonable amount of time. Then in the afternoon after school, Nanaw gave Chase his chocolate milk and told him she'd give him his snack after he drank the milk. And it worked again! So that's a good thing. On the way home from school, Chase and Nanaw talked about his latest English assignment to write a narrative paper. Chase said the paper was to be something personal, and he was going to write about scoring the game-winning goal in the hockey game in Chicago. Nanaw knew he would choose a hockey topic. Chase has two tests tomorrow -- a math test on calculating percents and a Mockingbird vocabulary test in AR. He worked on the math chapter review test at Nanaw's but didn't have time to study the vocabulary. Nanaw asked him to study the vocabulary tonight after baseball practice, and they would go over the words tomorrow morning before school. His hockey practice tonight was cancelled because 10 of the team members have the flu. Thankfully, Chase is feeling fine.

Wednesday, January 22, 2025

Nanaw had electrical problems starting on Tuesday night; she recognized the problems around midnight. It was as though half the house had no electricity but half did. Daddy brought Chase to Nanaw's on his way to  work so he could take a look at the electricity and see if he could find what was wrong but he couldn't. Nanaw talked to Uncle Mike who talked with Jim, someone he works with at UMSL who knows all about electricity. Jim said it sounded like Nanaw's house was only getting one phase of electricity instead of two, and Nanaw should call Ameren., which she did. They came out and did a wonderful job of fixing the problem and getting Nanaw's electricity back to her. A really nice young man who lives right across the lake from Nanaw was the project manager, and he did a great job. Fortunately, Nanaw had heat and most of her lights. It was mainly the fridge and a lot of the outlets that didn’t have electricity. In the morning, before school, Chase and Nanaw studied Chase's science vocabulary terms for today's test.  It was early dismissal today, and when Nanaw picked Chase up, she told him the electricity was all fixed, and she was very happy about it. She asked about the science vocabulary test, and Chase said he thought he did okay, even though the teacher  changed the words all around again. At Nanaw's house, Chase studied math, and the Mockingbird vocabulary words for the test on Friday. He was going to finish his geography Pacific map tonight after tonight's baseball practice. 

Tuesday, January 21, 2025

On Tuesday morning, Mama reminded Chase he had two late religion assignments to turn in, according to a Facts-generated email she received in the middle of the night. One was a religion worksheet he forgot to turn in because he left religion class early last Wednesday for his ortho appointment. At first, he couldn't remember what the other homework assignment was. Then he remembered that the class was supposed to put together lists of questions for Father Steve. Chase and Nanaw checked Homework Central to make sure about the assignment and that's what it was. When Nanaw picked Chase up from school, Chase told her about his day. He said they had indoor recess at lunch again today because there was sill a lot of snow outside and the weather was really cold, far under the 20 degrees limit for playing outside at recess. After school, they were worked on homework. First Chase worked on his English homework, which involved discovering what writing tricks were used in example sentences. They spent most of their time going through the 32 words that Chase will be tested on tomorrow. Nanaw worked on having ChatGPT check the words for the Mockingbird vocab test on Friday. Chase's hockey practice was cancelled for Tuesday evening so he had lots of time to work on his homework. He told Mama he was going to work on his Pacific states geography assignment, which is due Thursday.

Monday, January 20, 2025

This morning, Chase told Mama he wanted some kind of griddle sandwich without the  eggs from McDonald's for breakfast. Then he went to his room and got a bunch of McDonald's gift cards so he could pay for breakfast for the family. How cute is that! In the early afternoon, Chase and Daddy went to the Kennedy park in South County for open skating. Nanaw didn't know there was an ice rink there. What a surprise that was. Nanaw came over at 4 p.m. to visit Chase and to stay for pot roast dinner. Nanaw brought her study materials because she wanted to ask Chase about his math worksheet that had multiple step percentage problems. Nanaw had never done problems like that, and she asked Chase to explain how the teacher taught them to do the problems. He explained the problems, and Nanaw saw that she'd done them correctly. She also ran through the material she'd gotten from ChatGPT about the AR book Chase just finished. Some of the answers they'd gotten from an online quiz were wrong, and Nanaw got the correct answers from ChatGPT. Chase is going to take the AR quiz about The Fugitive Factor early this week. Chase played with one of his miniature hockey rinks while Nanaw went over the math and the AR questions with him. The pot roast was delicious, and Mama sent home lots for Nanaw.

Sunday, January 19, 2025

Chase had another hockey game in the Fenton tournament this morning so he and Daddy didn't go to church. Nanaw came to visit in the late afternoon and brought her study materials to work with Chase. Chase and Nanaw decided that whenever possible they would do extra studying on weekends, even if homework wasn't due on Monday. Chase usually has sports activities Monday through Thursday evenings every week, which limits the amount of time he has for homework and studying for tests. So whenever possible and necessary, Chase and Nanaw will make sure to work on projects and study for tests during their weekend visits. They didn't do it yesterday because Chase had a long day at the hockey tournament. But he only had one game this morning so they could do some work. Chase has a science vocabulary quiz in the new science book on Wednesday so he worked on writing out definitions of 32 science words. Nanaw was amazed at how much his handwriting has improved. She can read it easily. He also worked on getting up-to-date on his Mockingbird packet. Nanaw wanted him to work on his history Civil War packet but he said they hadn't started studying it yet. Nanaw and Chase were happy with all they accomplished. Tomorrow they will study for the AR test Chase is going to take on the book he just finished -- The Fugitive Factor by Gordon Korman. 

Saturday, January 18, 2025

Chase had two more hockey games on Saturday for his hockey tournament. His teams lost the games but Chase said they were fun. Nanaw came over to visit and study with Chase in the late afternoon. She brought along her laptop so she could work on answering the questions on her Mockingbird packet. She couldn't find it at home and remembered that she had loaned it to Chase. When she got to Chase's house, she asked Chase if he had her Mockingbird packet, and he said yes. He got it out of his backpack and gave it to her.  When Nanaw told Chase they would work on his Mockingbird packet together, Chase asked if they could wait till tomorrow to do any studying. Mama said she'd rather they didn't do any homework today and she'd rather they'd do it tomorrow. Nanaw was disappointed but she worked on the Mockingbird packet herself on her computer in the living room while Chase played knee hockey with Truman and Sylvester's collection of dog toys. Chase showed Nanaw Truman's candy cane that had been lost for a while, which Chase found in Daddy's truck. 

Friday, January 17, 2025

Mama had the day off from work on Friday so she took Chase to school but Nanaw picked him up in the afternoon. When Nanaw picked him up, she asked him about his Mockingbird and pronoun tests, and he said they were good. Nanaw is going to make a list of his tests as he takes them and then watch for the test grades to show up in Facts. She's done the lists before but always forgets to go back and check for the grades. So this time she'll remember (maybe!). Nanaw made the list of recent tests in her Nanaw book, looked up grades where they were available, and will check back later for the rest of them. Chase did well on all the tests where there are grades (he got all As) except the science semester exam, where he got a 79. But the important thing about science is that he's learning the material. He has trouble with the way the teacher presents the problems and questions on the tests. When Nanaw picked Chase up on Friday afternoon, they went to his house instead of Nanaw's because of his hockey game tonight. It was in Wentzville, and they had to leave at 4 p.m. Mama texted that they lost badly -- 9 to 0 -- but had fun playing. Elias and his mom and dad came to the game, and then they all had dinner at Syberg's after the hockey game. Mama also sent the second and third pictures below from the ICS Facebook page of Chase and some of the crew either at PE or having indoor recess because of the snow still on the playground. They have more hockey games tomorrow, and Nanaw is going to let Sylvester out at noon tomorrow because his family will be gone all day.

Thursday, January 16, 2025

Chase and Nanaw studied chapter five in Chase's science book for today's test. Later in the day, when Nanaw asked Chase how the test went, he said okay. Nanaw asked if there were weird questions, and Chase said yes, but not too many of them. Nanaw hopes that Chase is doing well on all the tests he's had this week. Tomorrow he has a reading comprehension test on To Kill a Mockingbird and an English test over a humongous pronouns packet. Chase and Nanaw studied for both those tests on Thursday afternoon, and Nanaw asked him to go over things in the evening. In the evening, Chase texted Nanaw asking if he'd left some of his English pages at her house. He needed them to study for the test tomorrow. Nanaw found them on a chair and took them over to Chase's house. He came out to get them from her and said thanks. She told him how much she loves him and texted Mama the same thing. Mama has the day off from work tomorrow so she's going to take Chase to school. In the afternoon, they all have to go to Wentzville for a hockey game so Chase and Nanaw are going to Chase's house right after school; they may have to leave at 4 p.m. The second photo below is a fun one, where Chase put Truman the Mizzou mascot tiger in the clothes backpack.

Wednesday, January 15, 2025

On Wednesday morning before school, Chase and Nanaw studied the list of Mockingbird vocabulary words for today's quiz three times and by the third time, Chase knew the words. On the way home from the afternoon's ortho appointment, Chase told Nanaw there was some problem with the quiz and there were no answers to four of the questions so he wasn't sure what his score would be. Nanaw picked Chase up from school at 2:15 to take him to his ortho appointment. The technician told Chase he had to brush his teeth five to seven minutes, not just the two minutes of his timer. After the ortho appointment, Chase and Nanaw went on their cemetery adventure. Chase wore his boots and walked through the snow to get the Christmas flowers off Pawpaw's grave. At Nanaw's house, Chase did his math homework. Then they studied for Chase's science test tomorrow on chapter 5 in the science book. Chase did semi-well, and Nanaw asked him to study tonight and told him they would study again tomorrow morning before school. 

Tuesday, January 14, 2025

On Tuesday morning, Nanaw asked Mama to bring Chase's boots along when she brought Chase to Nanaw's house. Nanaw wanted Chase to help gathering up Pawpaw's Christmas flowers at the cemetery after school. But when Nanaw picked Chase up from school, he asked if they could wait till after school on Wednesday because he had so much homework. So Nanaw said yes, that would work, and they might even have extra time because Chase has an ortho appointment tomorrow afternoon. Chase worked on his math problems in a worksheet packet on figuring out percentage changes. He also worked on a history worksheet about the start of the Civil War. His geography test continues tomorrow; Chase said there are 100 questions on the test. Chase and Nanaw did some studying of the Mockingbird vocabulary words for the test tomorrow. Unfortunately, they ran out of time, and Chase didn't get enough studying done at Nanaw's house. He has hockey practice tonight, and he was going to try to study the vocabulary words before and after practice.

Monday, January 13, 2025

During the past couple of months, Chase has been his most delightful self. He's loving and talkative and friendly and fun to be around. On this morning's drop-off call to Mama, Nanaw told her how sweet and wonderful Chase has been lately, and Mama agreed. Nanaw is crossing her fingers that Chase's good mood and great outlook last a long time. He had his science and math tests today but the geography test was postponed till Tuesday. He said he also had a Mockingbird quiz with open sources today. On Wednesday, they're going to have a quiz without open sources so he'll be studying the Mockingbird materials tomorrow after school. After school today, Chase studied his geography materials for the test tomorrow. He also has a DLR quiz in English tomorrow. On Friday, he'll have a test on pronouns in English. Toward the end of his time with Nanaw, he said his stomach didn't feel good, and she gave him some Tums. He texted Mama and Daddy about his stomach but didn't hear back from them. He ended up not going to baseball practice tonight because of his stomach. Practice was called 500 reps, which is a workout session. 

Sunday, January 12, 2025

On Sunday morning, Daddy and Chase didn't go to mass because Chase had a morning hockey game. Chase and Daddy both said the team played well even though they didn't win. Mama went to a visitation for the mother of her friend Terry in Florissant in the afternoon. Nanaw came over to help Chase study for tomorrow's science test at about 4:30. After going through the papers he was going to study, they discovered that he was missing the vocabulary quizzes for chapters 1 and 2 of his science book. So they had to recreate the vocabulary lists and definitions so Chase could study them. Unfortunately, that took more than an hour so it really cut into the study time. He did well on the vocabulary quizzes when he took them, and he did well on studying them. Unfortunately, from looking at the four tests he was studying for the test, there weren't many vocabulary questions on them. Most of the questions on the tests were problems that the students had to solve, using the formulas and processes that they'd learned. The problems weren't impossibly hard but you had to really think about them. Because time for studying was getting short, on the four tests, Chase mainly studied the questions he'd gotten wrong on the tests. Sometimes the teacher had given Chase the correct answer to the questions but sometimes he hadn't, and Chase had to figure those out, which was good practice for him. Nanaw left about 6:45 so Chase could do his math IXL, which is due tomorrow.

Saturday, January 11, 2025

Chase had a hockey game today and said that his team played well. He told Nanaw they lost the game but that was understandable because they were playing against the best team. Nanaw came over about 4:30 to help Chase study for his major science test over four chapters in the science textbook on Monday. Yesterday during Chase's snow day, they studied the material in chapters 1 and 2. Today at Chase's house, they studied the material in chapters 3 and 4. Tomorrow at Chase's house, they'll study the four tests and 4 vocabulary quizzes that the class has taken. Nanaw looked them over and saw what a lot of material there is to study. Chase did well on the four vocabulary quizzes, making As on all of them. On the tests he made Bs and Cs. Mama made French onion soup for dinner, and Nanaw wasn't going to eat any because of all the fattening (but delicious) food she ate over the holidays. Then Mama suggested that Nanaw have some without cheese and bread, and Nanaw thought that was a great idea. The soup was wonderful. Daddy made a fire in the fireplace, and Tyler (the beautiful black cat) laid on the sofa enjoying the ambience. Nanaw sat next to him, petting him and liking the fire. Chase walked out to Nanaw's car with her to make sure she didn't slip on the icy sidewalk and driveway. He's such a great guy.

Friday, January 10, 2025

Mama and Daddy were going to take Chase to school on Friday morning because of the snow forecast. But at 5 a.m., they got an email or text saying that school was cancelled. So Mama texted Nanaw that Daddy would bring Chase over about 10. There was about two inches of snow. When Chase and Daddy got there, Chase had brought his sled, and he went down Nanaw's hill a couple of times. After Daddy left, Chase wanted to go to the big hill -- he said nobody was there. Nanaw was afraid Mama and Daddy wouldn't want Nanaw to take Chase out in the snow but he texted them and they said it was okay. Chase went down the big hill several time but he said the snow wasn't as good as it was the other day. For lunch, Chase had a ramen noodle thing Mama sent with him. He ate every bite of it so he must have really liked it. He also had oyster crackers and whales crackers. In the afternoon, Chase and Nanaw studied two chapters of the four chapters in his science book that they have to study this weekend for the test on Monday. They'll study the second two chapters this weekend, plus going over the tests and vocabulary quizzes on the four chapters. This science material is really difficult, and Nanaw hopes Chase absorbs enough of it to get a decent grade. He currently has a B in science. Part of his hockey practice for tonight was cancelled, but the other part is still on. Nanaw discovered that Chase left his sled in her trunk but Mama says he doesn't need it, and he has another one.

Thursday, January 9, 2025

Chase was in a good mood on Thursday morning and was having a great time with Truman. He loves that tiger! When Nanaw picked Chase up from school, she asked him if he'd heard they were going to have  more snow. He said yes and that he hoped he had another snow day tomorrow. He told Nanaw that his geography test had been moved to Monday but that he has a math quiz in place of it. He said the quiz will have something to do with the protractor and that it would be easy. When they got to Nanaw's house, she warmed up his mozzarella sticks from Joe Boccardi's, He said they were really good and ate all three of them. Chase worked on finishing his English homework assignment  on relative clauses. He also has to write an essay for history on a current event. He thinks he'll have time to do it in class tomorrow. Hi main home work is studying for tomorrow's science test over chapters 1 to 4. It's a lot of material to study and he only spent a few minutes on it at Nanaw's house. When Nanaw took Chase home, she and Chase reported to Mama about the status of all his homework assignments and studying for tests. Mama said he could study before he goes to baseball practice and after he gets home. Hopefully that will be enough time for Chase to study his science.

Wednesday, January 8, 2025

Mama had the day off for her birthday so she took Chase to school for his back to school venture after 16 days of Christmas vacation and two snow days. Mama and Nanaw had a birthday lunch at Tequila's, with a fried ice cream for Mama's birthday. Then they visited Hallmark where Mama bought three ornaments: a Sidney Crosby, a Zero and a little bluebird. Nanaw picked Chase up from school, and they had to walk a long way around the cars to get to Nanaw's car because of the piled up snow. Chase had lots of homework, and they worked on it till 5 p.m. He has two tests on Friday, one in science and one in geography. For Mama's birthday dinner, Uncle Mike, Aunt Becky, Mama, Daddy, Chase and Nanaw went to Joe Boccardi's and had a wonderful meal. Chase had bread and butter, mozzarella sticks as an appetizer, a salad with ranch dressing, and ravioli in meat sauce. At Nanaw's house, they had cherry chip cake and cherry fudge ice cream. It was a great evening. 

Tuesday, January 7, 2025

Nanaw was excited that Chase had another snow day, and she got to have him all day. Daddy drove him and Mama to work, and both of them dropped Chase off. Nanaw had asked him to bring his backpack so they could work on his To Kill a Mockingbird packet so they could get caught up on it, and he did. He also brought his boots and snow pants so he could play outside. In the morning, he played snow hockey in the front yard. He got his clothes wet again so Nanaw dried them in the dryer. For lunch, he had Stouffer's spaghetti, Cheetos Mac and Cheese, and sliced strawberries in whipped cream. When Nanaw went to Schnuck's to get her newspaper (there weren't any because the delivery didn't show up), she saw sleds and wanted to buy one for Chase but wasn't sure which one. Back at Nanaw's house, Nanaw told Chase they were going to Schnuck's for him to pick out a sled and then they would go to the big hill and he could sled down. But Chase said no. He didn't want Nanaw to buy him a sled for her house or take him sledding. Nanaw was not happy about this and told Chase it was not a good thing for him to say No to things all the time. Eventually, they were friends again, and Chase told Nanaw he would try to say yes more. Nanaw will try to enforce that. At 2 p.m. they started doing some schoolwork. Chase did an IXL math session on his Chromebook, and then they worked on the packet for To Kill a Mockingbird. They were both four chapters behind in answering the questions. Chase made snow cones again and made one for Nanaw. When Mama and Daddy picked Chase up, they took him to the big hill and he went down it five or six times. 

Monday, January 6, 2025

Nanaw was so excited that Chase had a snow day on Monday and was going to spend part of the day with her. Daddy brought him over at about 10:30. Chase had his sled, his  boots and his snow pants -- he was ready to play in the snow. For the first time ever, he used the steep hill at the side of Nanaw's house to go sledding, and it worked out really well. He had lots of fun and went down the hill many times. He also went down the hill on the other side of the house once but didn't like it as much because he was afraid he'd crash into the trees at the bottom of the hill. He also used the snowball maker to make snowballs and throw them at Daddy as Daddy was doing more snow shoveling. He made some ice blocks with the ice block maker, then laid down in the snow to make snow angels. The thing Nanaw liked best was watching him play snow hockey in the middle of the snow with his hockey net, hockey stick and a ball. He had great fun doing that. Before he and Nanaw went in the house, Chase scooped up a big container of snow so he could make snow cones. He used a strawberry drink packet to flavor a snow cone and really liked it. For lunch, Chase had Stouffer's spaghetti and liked it so Nanaw will get some more, Later in the day, Chase went back outside to play snow hockey again. Chase had wanted to go sledding down the hill at the entrance to Nanaw's subdivision but Daddy said it was crowded so he didn't go.

Sunday, January 5, 2025

Nanaw's church was closed on Sunday due to the snowstorm so she stayed home where it was warm and safe. But Chase's church was open so he and Daddy went and Chase served today. In the afternoon, Mama, Daddy and Chase came over to Nanaw's house so Daddy could use the snowblower to clear off Nanaw's driveway and sidewalk. The snowblower has had a long life. Uncle Mike gave it to Nanaw a while ago when he no longer used it. It's been very helpful. Nanaw took a picture of Daddy and sent it to Uncle Mike, thanking him for the snowblower. Nanaw had promised Mama popcorn if she came along with Chase and Daddy, and Mama said yes, she would come if there was popcorn. Nanaw made her special homemade popcorn, and it was delicious. Chase helped Daddy with snow removal for a little while. Then he decided to stand in front of the snowblower and got covered with snow and very wet. He told Daddy he had to go inside and that was the end of his snow removal gig. Nanaw set up the TV in the living room with Roku so Chase can watch hockey, and he was happy about that. He brought the cicadas into the living room, put them in the recliner, and covered them with his hoodie so they could watch the football game. It was very funny. Chase doesn't have school tomorrow because of the snow, and Mama said if the streets were clear enough, Daddy would bring Chase over to Nanaw's house. 

Saturday, January 4, 2025

Mama texted Nanaw that she could come over about 12:30 to see Chase. She said he had to leave for hockey practice about 3:30. She said Chase and Daddy were going to Play It Again Sports around 10 but Nanaw never did find out what they bought there. She'll ask the next time she sees Chase. She probably won't see him tomorrow unless Daddy brings him along when he comes to do Nanaw's driveway. There's supposed to be a major snow storm this weekend, starting late Saturday night. Nanaw took along the Sports Bingo game to Chase's house so they could play it. First, Chase had to eat lunch. Mama fixed some of the taquitos she bought at Sam's for Chase's sleepover. She offered some ot Nanaw, and at first Nanaw refused. Then she said if no one was going to eat them, she'd have two of the four left. Then she ate the last two. Unfortunately, Daddy decided he wanted more but they were all gone. Nanaw felt really bad. After lunch, Mama took Sylvester for a walk in his new plaid coat -- very cute. When Mama returned, Chase and Nanaw were going to play Sports Bingo. Chase invited Mama to play and at first she refused, then said she wanted to play one game. There are many more sports than Nanaw ever thought. Mama won the game in just a few minutes and a few card calls -- amazing. Chase, Nanaw and Truman played another game, which Chase won. Then he didn't want to play bingo anymore. He wanted to go play snowstorm with the guys in his room, so that's what they did. Great fun!

Friday, January 3, 2025

Friday was Nanaw's last day with Chase on his Christmas vacation, and it was a great one. Chase brought his new friend Truman with him. Truman is a Mizzou stuffed tiger that belongs to Mama. Nanaw thinks maybe Daddy gave it to Mama because he's a fan of Mizzou. Mama said Truman was hanging out in her closet, and she thought Chase might enjoy hanging with him. At 11 in the morning, Chase helped Nanaw take Taylor to the vet for her annual check-up. Chase carried the pet taxi and then sat in the back seat of the car to keep Taylor from being scared, He talked to her in the car and in the vet's waiting room. It was very cute and made Nanaw happy. Later in the day, Nanaw, Chase and Truman went to visit Nanaw's Santa display in front of the fireplace hearth. The display has Santa, Mrs. Claus, and several moose. They listened to the 'Twas the Night Before Christmas display recite the poem. Chase had a cheese, turkey and cracker Lunchable for lunch, along with his sliced strawberries in whipped cream. He asked Nanaw to ask Mama to get pizza Lunchables and sub sandwiches Lunchables if she could. Nanaw asked Mama but Mama said Schnuck's didn't always have them. For his early afternoon snack, Chase had microwave popcorn with butter. That boy really likes his popcorn. Later in the afternoon, Chase had a hockey playoff game with Marc Andre and Matt Murray. In their tournament, they were tied 1 to 1. Nanaw sat in the kitchen and watched the tournament. Chase has so much fun with the Nova hockey sets, and he really likes having two of them so they can compete. He also played knee hockey in the afternoon. The strawberry hard candy Nanaw bought from Amazon for Chase came on Friday, and he was very happy about that. Nanaw put it in one of the Nanaw candy jars Mama bought for her and put it in the computer lab. Nanaw took Chase home at 4:45 so he could get ready to leave at five for his baseball hitting lesson. 

Thursday, January 2, 2025

Well, the holidays are over but that's okay because they'll come again next year, and once again, there will be lots of fun! Chase came over to Nanaw's house on Thursday, which made Nanaw very happy. For various reasons, they didn't do all they'd planned to do. But they have another day together tomorrow on Friday, and they can do everything then. Chase played on the computer and his phone and watched a lot of YouTube. He also watched a bunch of hockey games, including one between the U.S. and Switzerland. He played knee hockey and used the new padded hockey and ball that Nanaw bought for him at Rally House for Christmas. He had a Lunchable for lunch, along with sliced strawberries in Cool Whip. Chase was going to play with Matt Murray and Marc Andre, with Nanaw watching the excitement, but  he never got around to it. Uncle Mike came over to take down the outside Christmas lights because of the impending snow and ice storm this weekend. Nanaw made buttered popcorn for them. Chase finished the AR book he'd been reading and started the final one they bought from Thrift Books. Tomorrow, Nanaw will find out if Chase wants to get more books from Thrift Books or get books from school.

Happy New Year! Wednesday, January 1, 2025

On New Year's Day, Chase, Mama and Daddy went to Pure Hockey so Chase could use some of the Pure Hockey gift cards he got for Christmas. He picked out a visor to wear with his hockey helmet that he had been wanting and talking about. Oliver, one of his hockey teammates, has a visor like the one Chase got, and Chase said Oliver is very happy with it. After the shopping trip to Pure Hockey, they went to Buffalo Wild Wings for a very late lunch/early dinner. Chase had parmesan wings that he said were a little too spicy for him. Nanaw cam over to visit about quarter to six. Chase had just finished doing his AR reading, He said he only had a few more pages to go, and he would finish the book tomorrow at Nanaw's house. Then he'll read the last of the books they bought at Thrift Books. Nanaw isn't sure yet whether he wants her to buy more books or whether he wants to get books from school. She asked him but he didn’t really answer so she'll try again. Nanaw sat in the living room with Chase while he played with Sylvester's dog toys -- silly boy. Then they went into Chase's room and Nanaw asked him about the podcasts he listens to on Alexa. One of them was about silly restaurant reviews. As Nanaw was leaving for home, Chase and Daddy went out to the garage so Chase could skate on his rolller blades and wear the visor with his helmet to test it out.