Saturday, September 27, Sunday, September 28, Monday, September 29, and Tuesday, September 30, 2025

On Saturday morning, Chase worked on his homework. Mama and Chase both said he had a lot of homework but he got it done. He had two Bears baseball games on Saturday. One around 5 p.m. and one at 7:30 p.m. He played on the B team, and Mama said they got badly beaten. After they got home, and Chase changed into his pajamas, Mama took a picture of Chase with Truman and sent t to Nanaw. On Sunday, Chase had a confirmation Mass followed by a confirmation pot luck with his classmates and with the PSR students in his confirmation class. Mama made a strawberry cake for the pot luck, and she said it was really good. Chase has chosen Auntie LaLa as his confirmation sponsor. Next spring, they have to participate in a six-hour confirmation retreat, and Mama wonders what they're going to do for six hours. On Sunday evening, Nanaw went over to Chase's house for a delicious steak dinner. For dessert, Mama bought gooey butter cookies from Schnucks, and they were delicious also. After dinner, Chase and Nanaw had a great time playing baseball with the stuffed animals and laughing a lot. Nanaw always has fun with Chase. On Monday, Chase brought home a lot of homework -- several worksheets to turn in and three tests to study for on Tuesday. He forgot the material for the preposition test, and Nanaw made him go back into school to get it -- which Chase didn't like, of course, but he did it. He had Nanaw go through the cell questions with him for his science test -- which Nanaw loved. He's been very independent with his studying recently so Nanaw enjoys it when she gets to go through the material with him. His three tests are in science, math and English (the aforementioned prepositions). He had hockey practice in the evening so it's good he was able to do so much studying after school. The third and fourth pictures below are ones Uncle Mike sent of the little house getting its new blue siding. On Tuesday, Nanaw asked Mama to please take her to the ER to check her shortness of breath checked out. She also asked Mama to pick Chase up from school and to the orthodontist tomorrow and to cancel Nanaw's teeth cleaning appointment tomorrow with Teresa.

Thursday, September 25, and Friday, September 26, 2025

Chase's ICS baseball team had one of their last games of the season on Thursday afternoon in O'Fallon, Illinois. Chase's friend Hunter, who's on the ICS team and whose Dad is one of the ICS baseball coaches, needed a ride home from school so Chase and Nanaw gave him a ride. Chase is so funny when they give one of his friends a ride home -- he goes a little wild and really enjoys himself. Hunter said thank you for the ride a couple of times -- he's so nice and polite and also talkative. Nanaw and Mama like being around him because he always tells them interesting things. The ICS team lost the game 11 to 1 so they're done for the year. Mama said even if they lost, the boys had fun playing. Chase took the first picture below -- a selfie of him and Hunter and sent it to Nanaw. Here's the Facebook post Nanaw did on Friday about Chase shadowing a student at Gibault Catholic High School in Waterloo, Illinois. "Chase had an exciting adventure today: In preparation for high school next year, he shadowed Dante, one of the Gibault Catholic High School students and a former ICS student. Chase said it was a great day, much more laid back than he thought a high school day would be. Brady, one of Chase's best friends, was also shadowing a Gibault student, and the  two of them got to go to several classes together. Of course, lunch was a high point of the day: bread sticks stuffed with cheese -- Yum! Also, Chase talked to the golf coach and thinks he wants to sign up for golf. All in all, a super successful day of shadowing!" On their way to Chase's house, they stopped at ICS to get Chase's homework out of the black box in front of school. For the first time, Chase went along with Nanaw to the box to get the homework. Usually, Chase is at home sick when Nanaw picks up the homework.

Tuesday, September 23 and Wednesday, September 24, 2025

On Tuesday morning, Mama texted Nanaw about a service project commitment Chase has to make for his confirmation, wanting to know if Nanaw has any projects Chase could work on. The requirement is 15 hours of service to someone or something. He got three hours for work at the ICS picnic so still has 12 hours to do. Nanaw's suggestions were: vacuuming Nanaw's house every few days, taking out and bringing back the garbage cans, and tossing out unused things from his room and closet at Nanaw's house. Nanaw will keep thinking to see if she can find a better project. Mama is going to check with Daddy to see if those things would work as a service project for confirmation. In the afternoon, Mama texted Chase and Nanaw that Tuesday's baseball game in Edwardsville, Illinois that was cancelled because of rain has been rescheduled to Thursday evening in O'Fallon, Illinois. Later in the day, Mama told Nanaw that Chase had gotten a 41 out of 100 on his leaf project in science. Mama and Nanaw couldn't understand why his grade was so low because he worked very hard identifying 20 leaves from Illinois trees and mounting them on special paper. Nanaw asked him about it after school, and he said a lot of the kids misunderstood the directions the teacher gave for the project. They thought the teacher said he would fill out a paper that went along with the project. But the students were supposed to fill out the paper. So that's why Chase's grade was so low. When Chase came out of school on Wednesday, he told Nanaw he thought he got a 100 on his science test and that might help with his science grade. Nanaw took Chase home early because he had an appointment for a haircut. Nanaw would like his hair shorter on the sides and back but he doesn't want to do that. Mama says it's his hair and he gets to do what he wants.

Sunday, September 21, 2025, and Monday, September 22, 2025

Chase and Daddy went to Mass on Sunday morning, then Chase had a Bears baseball tournament. His team lost Sunday's game but were in third place so they received championship rings. A proud Chase posed for pictures with the rings. Mama said he played really well like he's been doing so for the past couple of months. Daddy found a hitting course called Camwood for him that lasted a month and took an hour a day. It really improved his hitting. After the baseball game, Mama decided it was time to do the shoe rack project in Chase's closet to handle the stack of shoes against his wall. Mama reported that Chase helped with the project, and she was so proud of him. Mama and Nanaw have noticed he's taking more responsibility for things, which makes them very happy. Chase's shoe project inspired Nanaw to switch out the shoes she doesn't wear with the ones she does in the shoe rack hanging on the bedroom door. On Monday morning on the way to school, Chase told Nanaw they were starting the Iowa Standardized tests that morning so there probably wouldn't be much homework. Last year, Chase's scores were a little above average except for one in math computation where he was in the 99th percentile -- an amazing thing. After dropping Chase off at school in the morning, Nanaw ran some errands -- getting a newspaper, picking up books she had on request at the County Library and the Columbia Library, buying Halloween shirts for Mama and Uncle Mike, and dropping off artificial flowers at Pawpaw's grave. Tomorrow is his birthday so Nanaw is having dinner with him at the cemetery -- her usual Taco Bell Crunch Wrap Supreme. Monday night, Mama took Chase to hockey practice -- she and Daddy are still trading off taking him to baseball and hockey practice sessions. They usually both go to the baseball and hockey games.

Friday, September 19 and Saturday, September 20, 2025

Fridays are dress down days for students at ICS if they make a donation to a charity so when Nanaw saw a $20 bill in Chase's backpack, she knew what that was for -- he likes dress down/no uniform days. After dropping Chase off at school, Nanaw went to Waterloo Walmart to get a local newspaper with the photo of Chase's baseball team in it. She got two copies -- one for Mama and one for Nanaw. Chase had a Builders Club meeting before lunch today. That's an ICS student group that Mrs. T. wanted Chase to join. He really likes Mrs. T. so he agreed to join the group. He had lunch with his friends, then they played Whiffle ball out on the playground. Nanaw had to take him home right after school because ICS had a baseball game in Millstadt. They lost the game 9 to 6 and play at 9 Saturday morning. They won the Saturday game 18 to 3 and scored 3rd place in the Diocesan tournament. Mama sent the baseball pictures below. Nanaw came home in the afternoon from the little house because Mama had invited Uncle Mike and Aunt Becky over for pizza -- Papa Murphy's! Yum! Chase had one of the kids' make-it -yourself pizza. Plus, Aunt Becky made a delicious blueberry cheesecake dessert. Nanaw consulted with Uncle Mike and Aunt Becky about a revised staircase she wants to have put in at the little house. The current stairs are too steep and narrow. So this will be an exciting project. Nanaw also wants to get new carpet, a larger TV and a new sectional couch. Nanaw thinks it's time she spent a little money on herself. 

Thursday, September 18, 2025

The roofing guys cane today so Nanaw had to drive Chase to school in the Escape. The roof turned out wonderfully, and they also did a great job cleaning up. Mama reported to Nanaw that Chase got a 100 on his science vocab test and a 94 on his photosynthesis test. But then it turned out he only got an 87 on that test but he still has a 93 in class so Mama is okay with that. He's doing really well in all his classes and doesn't seem to need our help in going over things. Nanaw took Chase home after school for the baseball game, and she got to meet Elvis Pretzely, the stuffed pretzel Mama bought for him at yesterday's Cardinals' game. Later, Mama texted Nanaw that Chase threw up twice so he didn't get to go play in the ICS game. The boys won 14 -0. It was the party game, and there were cookies with the boys' names on them. Coach Tim came by to deliver the cookie that said Chase. Yay!

Wednesday, September 17, 2025

On Wednesday morning, Nanaw reminded Chase that today was early dismissal, and he was going to go home with Brady for a few minutes. Nanaw had a meeting at church and wouldn't be able to pick him up until 2:30. Unfortunately, this was going to happen every early dismissal day for the rest of the school year. Fortunately, Gibault doesn't have early dismissal. Nanaw was a little early and got there at 2:15. Chase was happy that once again he didn't have any homework. Nanaw had noticed at the end of last year that he was starting to have less homework, which was a good thing because of all the time that his sports activities take up. That trend has continued into this year. Nanaw has a theory that some of the parents complained about the about of homework that ICS teachers gave to the students, especially since the rumor is that the Columbia schools assign little or no homework. What ICS seems to have started doing is to give the students more advance notice about when tests are scheduled for and when homework assignments are due. This is give them more time to study and prepare and also more time to do their homework and studying in their two study halls. The school instituted a second study hall this year, which is a good thing. Chase played on his phone and computer after school, then had Nanaw get his ping pong balls so he could hit them around the house. The bag of guys got left in Nanaw's back seat. Nanaw thought Chase took him in and Nanaw thought Chase had taken them in. Mama wouldn't let Nanaw bring them over -- she said Chase was already in bed. She asked Nanaw to give the guys lots of love!

Tuesday, September 16. 2025

Tuesday was picture day, so Chase wore a royal blue Polo shirt and khaki shorts, and looked very handsome. After school, Mama wanted Nanaw to send her a picture of him so Nanaw did, and that's the one below. Chase's ICS baseball activities were postponed to Thursday so Nanaw had Chase with her till a little after five, the first time in a long time when he had time to do homework with Nanaw. For tomorrow, he has a science test where he wanted to use a white board to do his answers and study for the test. When he was done with that, he drew a Roblox Robot named JOB for Nanaw on the whiteboard. Nanaw took a picture, and that's the second one below. Next, he read the summary for the 2nd act of Our Town; they have a quiz tomorrow. Then, he finished up with studying for a science vocabulary quiz. Nanaw saw in Homework Central that he has a Young Author's submission due 9/29 so she asked him about that. He said he had a rough draft of his story about another perspective on the Jack and Beanstalk story. Neither Mama nor Nanaw knew anything about that so they were very surprised. Mama said she had just found out that it was required of the 8th graders that they submit a story. It seems that every other year, students are required to submit stories rather than doing it voluntarily. Chase said Mama and Nanaw could read his story when he has a final draft. It was a great afternoon for Nanaw, spending so much time with Chase and watching him do his homework. His grades are good, all A's except for one B in reading because of his problem with the AR reading score of 0.

Monday, September 15, 2025

Chase was quiet on Monday morning, and Mama said it was because he was so tired from all the baseball and hockey he played yesterday. When Nanaw picked him and Hunter up after school, Chase was his old self. He talked constantly with Hunter, and they had a great time. Nanaw had forgotten her phone so she asked Chase to take a selfie of him and Hunter. And of course, Hunter made a funny face in one of the selfies. The ICS team won their game in Maryville this afternoon. Mama had Chase text me the score -- 10 to 7, and Chase went 3 out of 5. Nanaw congratulated the hitting machine. The team they were going to play tomorrow cancelled so Mama thinks the team may have a scrimmage, which means the team will split into two teams and play each other. Mama asked Nanaw to take Chase home after school, have him change into his uniform and then take him to the Legion field. Nanaw said she'd be happy to do that. Mama said the team had planned to have a pizza party after tomorrow's game but they'll probably postpone it till Thursday's game in Millstadt. It's supposed to be cooler on Thursday so Nanaw will go to that game. Nanaw had her first physical therapy appointment this morning, and it went well -- she thinks this will help her back.

Friday, September 12, Saturday, September 13, and Sunday, September 14, 2025

On Friday, the 8th graders received their 8th grade hoodies. It's a tradition at ICS that 8th graders can wear their special ICS hoodies all day, every day. This is totally different from the rule for the rest of the students where you can't wear a hoodie during the day. This is a very special thing for the 8th graders, and they're very happy about it. Mama ordered two hoodies and one T-shirt for Chase, which is the same as most of the parents did for their kids because if they only had one hoodie it would be tattered by the end of the school year.. Chase was wearing his when Nanaw picked him up from school, and he looked very cool. On Saturday, Mama told Nanaw that Chase had fallen asleep in his bean bag chair again on Friday night. Nanaw thinks he likes being close to all the "guys" who are living in the bean bag chair. Mama didn't take a picture so Nanaw used the one from two weeks ago when he did the same thing. Saturday was a slow day for Chase; the only thing he had on his usually crowded schedule was hockey practice in the afternoon. On Sunday, Chase had a Blues baseball tournament. Mama sent a text to Nanaw saying "I have breaking news! Chase's team won the first game of the Bears tournament 17-2. Then they were down 5 to 1 in the championship game, and you guessed it! They won 6-5." Mama sent a photo of the team and one of Chase holding out his tournament championship ring. Yay Chase! On Sunday evening, Chase had a scrimmage hockey game at 7 in Fenton.

Tuesday, September 9, Wednesday, September 10, and Thursday, September 11, 2025

So most of the rest of the week was very different with no devices. Nanaw liked it, of course!! On Tuesday, Chase got out his back-up entertainment materials and set them up in the dining room/new computer lab. The creative little fellow's back-up materials include one of his his hockey nets; lots of ping pong balls and paddles; rubber knives, hatchets and other weapons; small pillows; water guns (without the water); and miscellaneous junk. He'll sit there for an hour or so, batting things around and completely entertaining himself with absolutely no devices. Very funny?! On Wednesday, the ICS baseball team had its special celebration for the 8th grade ball players, and Nanaw was excited to go. Each player had a poster of their photo -- very cool. The moms all got roses given to them by their sons. Lots of pictures were taken -- it was a great celebration, and Nanaw was so hppy to be there. Mama and Nanaw both missed Mr. G. He was a great contribution to ICS, and they hope he's happy in his new job. Thursday was another super celebration day -- Grandparents Day at ICS. First, there was a Mass; Nanaw sat with Chase, Brady, Emma, and both of Brady and Emma's grandmas and one grandpa, just like every year. Then they got to visit Chase's classroom, Nanaw's favorite part of the day. She hung out with Chase and most of the crew members, and she got to meet Mrs. H., Chase's homeroom teacher. Mrs. H is exceedingly nice, and she told Nanaw that she absolutely loves Chase. Mama says she probably says that about every but Nanaw prefers to think Chase is special. In some of the photos below, mama is showing off her new iPhone abilities paired with her new photo cropping / manipulation skills! LOL

Saturday, September 6, Sunday September 7, and Monday, September 8, 2025

At the Saturday, September 6 tournament, Chase's team lost both games. He and Daddy went to 5 o'clock Mass, and then they all went to Songs for Soldiers. All of Chase's crew, except for Joey were there. Mama says the boys hung out at the parking lot and probably didn't pay much attention to the music. On Sunday, Nanaw went for a brief visit to Chase. He wanted to finish his AR book so he could take the test. He had told Nanaw that he had a new way of reading. Rather than reading each word, he was reading down the center of the page, one whole line at a time. Nanaw told him that was called speed reading and that she'd taken a course on it in downtown St. Louis with her boss when she was at A.G. Edwards. She told him that the problem with it is that sometimes you don't retain what you've read. And that's what happened to Chase. He took the test on the book on Monday and only got four questions right. That means he didn't pass the test and didn't get any points, after spending all that time reading a 400 page book. So Daddy took his new phone away from him for a week, plus the computer at Nanaw's house. So everybody talked to Chase and told him no more speed reading; read each work carefully. Plus no more difficult 400 page books -- read the shorter, less adult books. 

Wednesday, September 3, Thursday, September 4, and Friday, September 5, 2025

On Wednesday, Chase was back in school, after his long Labor Day break. Nanaw still hasn't seen any of the papers he's done for school; she especially wants to see his math papers to make sure she ordered the correct math book from Thriftbooks. Nanaw had to take Chase home right after school so he could get ready for the ICS baseball game and be up at the field by 3:15 p.m. The game starts at 4:15 butNanaw didn't get there till 4:30. Chase was catching, and Nanaw was very excited about that. He did a really good job, even though the Waterloo team defeated ICS. On Thursday, Nanaw asked Mama if she could take Chase home right after school because she was going to go to the Emergency Room for her back pain. She was there for about 4 hours because her potassium was high, and they wanted to get it down. Hopefully, the medicine they gave her will help with the back pain. On Friday, still no papers from Chase. He promised to bring some home Monday; we'll see if that happens. Nanaw showed him the math  book she bought, and he said it was the right one. On Friday evening, Chase, Mama and Daddy had a hockey dinner with the other hockey parents and team members. Daddy is going to be the hockey manager, and Mama says he has a lot of work ahead of him. After the hockey dinner, Chase, Mama and Daddy went to the Bears baseball practice. They're all so busy with sports!