Friday, October 9, 2026

Friday was an Enrichment Friday for Chase so he was off from school. Mama had the day off also to have Special Day with Uncle Mike. Mama brought Chase over to Nanaw’s house around 11:30. Chase and Nanaw's plan was to go to Telegraph Road Schnuck’s to get pizza sauce and pepperoni for the pizza bread they were going to make. They already had hoagies and mozzarella cheese. They also bought Mama a cherry fruit pie. Unfortunately, the hoagies were the wrong choice for the bread. The crusts were hard and after they baked them, they were really hard. Chase said they were too hard to eat. So they’re going to try again on Monday with softer bread from Schnuck’s. Chase and Nanak ate the pepperoni and mozzarella and sauce from the pizza bread, and Chase threw the bread off the back deck for the birds. Nanaw will take the other hoagies out to the little house on Saturday for the animals out there. Mama and Uncle Mike went on the brewery tour today and got to see two Clydesdales, Cash and Travis. Mama put the brewery photos below on her Facebook page. Uncle Mike brought a special dinner: Pirrone’s pizza. It’s one of Mama’s favorites. The dance picture below has some friends of Chase on it: the couple on the left is Drew and Evie who went to ICS with Chase.

Thursday, October 8, 2026

This morning before they left for school, Nanaw logged on to Schoology with her iPad and went through Chase’s assignments with him. It only took a couple of minutes and both of them knew what was coming up in the next week. Nanaw thinks they will do it each morning. The deal that Chase and Nanaw made was that she would help him study for tests. Eventually, Nanaw will see if he’ll let her help him study for quizzes, which he still hasn’t agreed to yet. He got a 99 on his Algebra quiz and was happy about that. Nanaw read on the Gibault website that Chase’s friends Drew and Evie are on the math team. They had a match the other day and both did really well. Nanaw’s friend Darlene’s grandson is also on the team, and he also did well. After school, Nanaw took Chase home, and he changed clothes for hockey practice. Then Nanaw drove him there, and Daddy was going to pick him up. Mama was going out with some friends tonight to do the Witches’ Night in Columbia. Chase is looking forward to his four-day weekend. He’s probably going to have breakfast with Mama Friday morning and then come over to Nanaw’s house. Their plan is to make pizza bread. They have to go to Telegraph Road Schnuck’s to get pizza sauce and pepperoni; they already have the hoagies for the bread part, and Nanaw has a lot of mozzarella cheese.

Wednesday, October 7, 2026

Today was a white button-down Oxford cloth shirt day for Gibault students. They were having a mass for one of the priests who had been at Gibault. Chase and Nanaw didn’t look at the school menu this morning, and that’s just as well. The menu listed ravioli for lunch but when Nanaw picked him in the afternoon and asked what was for lunch, he said they changed it to bratwurst. Brady rode home with them, and they dropped him at the Columbia Library for his session with his tutor. Nanaw took Chase back to her house and then went to Telegraph Road Schnuck’s to get a newspaper. On her way to pick up Chase at school, she had stopped at Columbia Schnuck’s to get the newspaper but they were sold out. She got the newspaper and also bought a bag of hoagies because Chase had requested bread. They can use the rest of the hoagies for their pizza bread on Friday, if they do that. She looked for Bosco sticks or cheese-stuffed bread sticks but they didn’t have any. But she did find some pepperoni cheese-stuffed bread sticks, and bought them for Chase. During the day, Nanaw had looked at Schoology on her iPad (the only place she can access it. Her computers give her privacy warnings and won’t let her log in.) It looked like Chase hadn’t turned in one of his Biology worksheets that was due at 8 a.m. this morning so she asked him about it. He said he’d done the worksheet and turned it in. But when he looked it up on his laptop, he found out he had forgotten to turn it in so he did. So Nanaw decided she’ll look at the homework assignments on Schoology each day the way she used to look at the homework assignments on Homework Central at ICS. Chase said he had a drawing assignment in Drawing that he was going to work on tonight. When Nanaw took him home, he showed her the cute little ghost that he was going to draw. Nanaw will take a picture of the drawing and the ghost and include the pictures in Days.

Tuesday, October 6, 2026

On Tuesday morning, Chase and Nanaw went through the study guide for today’s phrases test in English. Nanaw thought he knew the material and would do well on the test. When Nanaw was talking to Debbie at pickup time, Debbie said Brady wasn’t going to the Homecoming Dance. Debbie said it was probably because Chase wasn’t going. When Chase got in the car, Nanaw’s first question was asking how the English test went. Chase said he thought he got a 100 on it. Nanaw told him that if he did, he should pay his tutor. Chase said if he got a 100, he would give Nanaw $5. Then he said, if he didn’t, he’d give her a hug. Then he followed up saying he’d give her a hug no matter what happened. His only homework today was in Drivers’ Ed, and he finished that up fairly quickly. He ate the last of the Bosco Sticks as his after school snack, and Nanaw said she would buy more tomorrow at Walmart. When Nanaw got home from taking Chase home, she checked her email and found a message from ChatGPT, saying her account showed her as being under 17. It gave her a link saying if you’re older than 18, you can verify your age. She spent the next two hours trying to do that with no success. The ChatGPT Bot she was working with finally had her contact the Support area, and they said they would give this to a support person – so I get to talk to a real person who works for ChatGPT – I think. I also think that this all came about because of the Python coding class Chase and I were doing this summer. I told them my 14 year old grand son and I were doing it and somehow they must have marked the account as being used by a 14 year old. So once they get me fixed, I think I’ll have Chase set up his own ChatGPT account and not use mine anymore. The second picture below is the pumpkin that Nanaw bought from Stuckmeyer’s on her way home from Chase’s. They have the pumpkin area set up on an honor system where you put your payment in a big mailbox. Hopefully, everybody does that. Nanaw had her eye on a really big pumpkin but it was too heavy for her to carry so she got a normal-sized one.

Monday, October 5, 2026

Nanaw was happy to see Chase on Monday morning – she misses seeing him on weekends when he has baseball tournaments. She told him they would study for his English test after school. Nanaw got to visit with Brady's Grandma Debbie while they waited for the boys because Brady is done with golf for the season. At Nanaw's house, Chase wanted to do his Math homework before studying for English but Nanaw was afraid they wouldn’t have enough time to study English if they did that. So she insisted that English studying came first, and that if he didn’t get his Math finished, he could finish it at home tonight. Chase said they weren’t having another English test on Thursday as originally planned. They were having students coming to shadow students at Gibault to see if they were interested in the school. The teachers try not to have tests on shadow days so they can give the visit students a classroom experience. Brady came over to Chase’s house again tonight, just as Nanaw was leaving. Chase and Brady have been practicing golf in the back yard and sort of tore up the yard. So Daddy put down some kind of mat to protect the grass. They also left the man cave door wide open twice so Nanaw is sure they’re going to have to shape up.

Saturday, October 3, and Sunday, October 4, 2026

On Saturday, Chase’s Bears team was winning their first game 6 to 1 but ended up losing10 to 7. But at least they were winning for a while. They also lost the second game. They all went to Raising Cane’s for dinner with Tucker and his parents, which made Chase very happy. Tucker’s mom sent out a message to the Bears baseball team, inviting them to a sleepover at his house on Halloween night so Mama told Chase about it. She’d known about it ahead of time but waited to tell Chase anything about it until the invitation actually went out. Hopefully Chase will be happy about the sleepover. For the past few years, he’s been spending Halloween with the crew. He had a 2:15 baseball game on Sunday, which gave Mama the chance to go to the grocery store on Sunday morning. Sometimes it’s hard for her to squeeze in shopping with Chase’s baseball game schedule. Mama said that Saturday night Chase fell asleep after they got home from Raising Cane’s so he must have been really tired. Mama also reported that they lost the game on Sunday, and that there was nothing exciting to report from Sunday. Chase had three assignments in Biology that are due Monday so Nanaw hopes he got them all done. Next week he has two English tests on phrases, one on Tuesday and one on Thursday. So Nanaw’s been looking at the material so she can help him study. He also has an Algebra test on Wednesday.

Friday, October 2, 2026

Today was Fall Festival Day at Chase’s school. Everyone was supposed to wear something neon. Mama got a bright green neon tee shirt for Chase. When Nanaw dropped Chase off at school, they saw three girls wearing neon safety vests. Nanaw asked Chase if he would have rather have had one of those, and he said, “Absolutely not!” When Mama and Nanaw picked Chase up from school at 1 p.m., he told them a few of the things they had done. It was an outside day. They played Jenga with a huge life-size Jenga. Many of the kids played volleyball, but not Chase. He does not like volleyball, will not play it, and says it’s a game only girls play (not true!). They had Chik Filet for lunch, and that was served to the kids outside. Chase said he didn’t need any more lunch but Mama and Nanaw were hungry so they went to Taco Bell, and took the food back to Nanaw’s house. Chase told Mama that he and Brady wanted to go to Top Golf at 4 or 5. At first, Drew wanted to go too but his mom said no. Mama and Chase texted Daddy and everybody decided that this afternoon wasn’t a good time to go to Top Golf. Chase, Mama and Daddy had to leave for St. Peter’s at 7 a.m. Saturday morning for Chase’s 9 a.m. baseball game. Mama said Chase could invite Brady to come over, and that’s what Chase did. Chase wanted Taco Bell for dinner, so Mama had Taco Bell again. But she loves it so that was all right. She had ordered the delicious little Cinnabons but they forget to include them. Mama went back to get them, and they gave her four instead of two so she shared them.

Thursday, October 1, 2026

Chase and Nanaw did more Civics studying on Thursday morning, in preparation for the make-up test. Uncle Mike came over on Thursday to visit and do more laundry. He says Whirlpool still hasn’t solved the mystery of the washer. Today was an early dismissal day – they were getting out at 2:20 instead of 2:55. Nanaw didn’t leave until the end of General Hospital and didn’t get there until 2:17. She got a text from Chase saying, “Where are you?” even though she wasn’t late. It turns out the school let them out a little early. Nanaw’s first question was about the Civics test. Chase was happy to announce he got a 96, which brought his overall grade up to 94. Nanaw used the opportunity to reinforce the idea that he needs to study more for tests and quizzes, Chase agreed and said he hadn‘t studied very much for the original Civics test. So he promised that he would study more with Nanaw in the future for tests and quizzes. He said he was happy he was an A student and would like some day to be an Honors student. Then he said maybe he could somehow get a college scholarship for one of the sports he plays. It may have been the first time that Chase voiced to Nanaw his opinion about his school performance or his future plans. On the pick-up call with Mama, she told Chase she was going to come along with Nanaw tomorrow to pick Chase up at 1 p.m. She said she was thinking maybe they would go to lunch. Chase said maybe. He said they were having Chik Filet for lunch at school and were supposed to eat outside. But then he said there was rain in the forecast so they might not eat outside. But they could go out to lunch if he was still hungry.

Wednesday, September 30, 2026

After Nanaw took Chase to school, she had breakfast at the Café Abbey with Brady’s grandma and Andrew’s grandma. Andrew’s grandma showed them pictures of Andrew at his high school homecoming dance with his date and two friends and their dates. Chase’s school homecoming dance is Friday, October 9. Chase isn’t sure whether he’s going or not, and Mama gave him until tomorrow (Thursday) to make up his mind so she can buy him a ticket and dress pants to wear. His friends are going but that doesn’t seem to influence him. Mama told him he would have to stay for the whole dance and that might be what’s convincing him not to go. Nanaw will be interested in seeing which way his decision goes. They gave Brady a ride home, and the boys had a laugh fest in the back seat. Nanaw loves to hear them having a good time. Chase had Math and Driver’s Ed homework. When he was done with it, they studied for tomorrow’s Civics make-up test. Chase seems like he might be learning the material and remembering it. They’re going to study again tomorrow morning before school. Today was the last of the month, which means it was Chase’s weighing and measuring day. He weighs 127.6 pounds (up from 125.5 pounds), and he’s still 5 feet seven inches tall. 

Tuesday, September 29, 2026

Gibault students are wearing special themed outfits each day this week because it's Spirit Week. The special dress-up days are part of the school's Spirit Week activities running through the week leading up to their fall events and celebrations. Students wear creative, themed attire each day to earn participation points and build school spirit. Yesterday was spirit wear, and Chase wore a Gibault tee shirt and a Gibault hoodie. Today was Easter, and Chase wore a bright green, Easter-looking Polo shirt. When Nanaw picked Chase up from school, one of the students, a tall boy, walked out wearing a full Easter Bunny outfit, with floppy ears, and full body suit in white and pink. Nanaw wonders if the costume was his idea or his mom’s. As for homework, Chase had Math and studying for the Civics make-up test on Thursday. After he got the Math done, Chase and Nanaw started working on Civics. They went through the items on the study guide with Chase reading the answers to Nanaw. Tomorrow, they’re going to go through the study guide twice – again with Chase reading the answers to Nanaw and then with him answering the questions without looking at his notes. 

Monday, September 28, 2026

On Monday morning, Nanaw and Chase looked at the Civics notes Nanaw printed out. They are  to prepare Chase for the Civics make-up test, which Chase thinks, will be on Thursday. Tomorrow Chase is going to print out the Civics notes from his laptop for Nanaw to look at. Chase said his grade on last week’s test was an 81, and he’s hoping if he studies enough, he can bring that up to an A. Nanaw got to see Brady’s grandma this afternoon after a week of not seeing her. She said their friend Anne was going to have breakfast with them on Wednesday at The Abbey. Nanaw told Mama about the breakfast, and Mama said she wanted to take Chase there for breakfast the morning of October 9; Chase has the day off from school, and Mama has the day off from work. Chase didn’t have any homework for tonight, which made him happy. He decided he wanted to have the cheese-stuffed garlic bread sticks for a snack. So Chase and Nanaw worked together to fix them. It’s always fun to cook with Chase. They might finally make their pizza bread on his October 9 day off. This week, Chase has a couple of early dismissals: 2:20 on Thursday and 1 p.m. on Friday.

Saturday, September 26, and Sunday, September 27, 2026

On Saturday, Chase had two baseball games, and unfortunately his team lost both of them. Because of the baseball games, Chase, Mama and Daddy couldn’t go to cousin Lindsey’s housewarming party. But Nanaw was able to go, and she got to see Lindsey and Dylan’s nice, little house and their orange tabby cat Butterscotch.  To see the cat, Nanaw looked in the front window at Butterscotch sitting on his cat tree. Either Uncle Mike or Aunt Becky went to see him (Nanaw can’t remember which one) and got hissed at. He’s very cute! The party was interesting, and Nanaw got to talk to one of the Duchesne teachers who had most or all of Uncle Mike’s five kids in her classes. She also got to see cousin Robbie, and the people whose company did the roof and siding at the little house and the Columbia siding and roof. She also met the family of Robbie’s friend who installed her water heater. Aunt Becky brought popcorn drizzled with white chocolate that was delicious. Sunday’s baseball game was not a good one for Chase or the team. Chase had an error and so did some of the other players. He struck out, and for the third strike, just stood there, didn’t swing or anything. The team lost the game, unfortunately. It’s so sad – they seem to lose all the time. After the game, Mama, Daddy and Chase went to Wally’s and Chase got some candy. In the afternoon, Nanaw asked Mama to drive her to the St. Clare ER because of chest pains, and Nanaw was afraid of a heart attack. But that wasn’t what it was so Nanaw is going to her primary doctor to figure it out. Dear, sweet Mama came and picked her up about four and took her home. Mama said she was making hamburger pasta for dinner. She also told Chase they were going for a walk in Creekside Park, the one behind their house, after dinner to see the bridge. Daddy said the workers had done more construction on it. Then Daddy might build a fire in the fire pit. The pictures below show Chase playing baseball, Tyler in the window and the house in Florissant.

Friday, September 25, 2026

Mama had the day off from work on Friday so she took Chase to school. When Nanaw picked Chase up from school, he told Nanaw about his tests and homework. He said the Drivers’ Ed and Biology tests were fairly easy, and he thought he did well on them. He said the Civics test was harder but the teacher said anyone who wanted to could take the test again, and Chase said that was what he was going to do. Nanaw looked at the Civics study guide and saw that the material looked difficult so she said she would help Chase study for the retake of the test. The best news of all was that Chase got a 98 on this week’s Math test. Second best news was that Chase was going to have dinner with Nanaw and stay for a little while after that with Nanaw. Mama was going to be out with Aunt Becca celebrating Aunt Becca’s birthday, and Daddy was playing golf. Chase and Nanaw went to Sonic to get dinner food, and once again, Nanaw hit the curb. She always does that at Sonic.  Chase got his regular pretzel twists and onion rings but no Sonic Blast. Nanaw had wanted to get a chicken nugget wrap but their Sonic doesn’t carry it so she got a chicken sandwich, which was good but not spectacular. She’s thinking that maybe next time she’ll try the pretzel twists that Chase always gets and mozzarella sticks. 

Thursday, September 24, 2026

Uncle Mike came to visit Nanaw on Thursday and brought more laundry with him. His washer still isn’t fixed but Whirlpool has said they’ll do it on Monday. Uncle Mike is not convinced it’s going to happen. He told Nanaw how to find cousin Lindsey and Dylan’s house for their housewarming party on Saturday. Then he also wrote out the instructions for her. He said they would have a special parking space for her so she wouldn’t have to walk too far. In the afternoon, Nanaw took down her winter table and put up the Halloween table, which Mama liked. Halloween is one of her most favorite holidays. Before Nanaw left to pick up Chase, she got a text from Mama saying Chase had texted Daddy saying he was slammed with homework and didn’t think he could go to hockey and baseball practice and still get all his homework done. Daddy told him he didn’t have to go to baseball practice but he did have to go to hockey practice. On the drive home, Chase told Nanaw he had three tests on Friday: Biology, Drivers’ Ed and Civics. Nanaw took him to hockey practice, as usual, and then later in the evening, she realized that she still had his favorite pencil and the clothes bag so she delivered them to him. He said he was almost finished with his homework assignments and studying for his tests.

Wednesday, September 23, 2026

Wednesday, September 23 was a special day for three reasons. It was Pawpaw’s birthday, and Nanaw had dinner with him at the cemetery. It was also Aunt Becca’s birthday, and Mama is going to spend the day with her celebrating on Friday. And ;ast but certainly not least, it was Mama’s 35th work anniversary. Mama’s work colleagues decorated her cube and her desk for the anniversary and brought her two cookie cakes. She got to take one of the cookie cakes home to share with her family, including Nanaw. Mama took pictures of everything and sent them to Nanaw – they’re all below. In the morning, Chase’s freshman class had a field trip to the Cathedral. They had to wear their white Oxford cloth shirts, and Chase wasn’t sure whether or not he should tuck it in. So they looked at the picture from the Grandparents Day Mass, and it looked like his shirt was tucked in so that’s what he did. Brady’s mom sent a picture of Chase and his classmates at the cathedral. When Nanaw picked Chase up from school, he told her he had a really terrible Math homework assignment. There were 30 problems and all of them were graph problems, which Chase doesn’t like at all. He worked on the problems after school but only got about seven of them done. Then, he worked on them in the evening and finally finished all of them.

Tuesday, September 22, 2026

On Tuesday morning, Chase did his studying for today’s Math test, just as he promised he would. When Nanaw picked Chase up from school, it turned out that they had a nice talk about a lot of different things, something very unusual for the noncommunicative Chase. Nanaw asked him how the Math test went, and he said he didn’t think anyone finished the test because it was a really long one. He said he started working on the last problem on the test but didn’t finish. Except for that, he said he thinks he did pretty well on the test. He doesn’t have any homework that’s due tomorrow. He just has a Civics assignment and that’s due on Thursday. The Civics assignment is a list of questions that they have to answer with six sentences each, which he complained about. Nanaw said maybe the teacher was trying to keep them from giving him or her one-word answers. Next, he told Nanaw that for dinner last night Mama made chicken nuggets that were really good. Then, Chase looked at the lunch menu that’s kept in the car, and Chase was happy to see they were having Bosco Sticks tomorrow.  Those are cheese-filled bread sticks. They had them on the day Chase shadowed at Gibault, and he liked them a lot so Nanaw thinks they may have influenced him to choose Gibault. Nanaw suggested Chase look them up online to see if Schnuck’s had them. He did and they did so Nanaw and Chase went to Schnuck’s and bought a package. Chase fixed three of them, with a bit of help from Nanaw. Chase had two, and Nanaw had one. Nanaw had a jar of spaghetti sauce so she opened it for them to dip their bread sticks in, and it was really yummy. As an additional after-school snack, Chase also had some of the small round pretzels Mama bought for him.

Monday, September 21, 2026

Nanaw didn’t get to see her friend Debbie when she picked Chase up from school because Debby’s grandson Brady had golf after school. Chase remembered to bring home the spirit wear Mama had bought; spirit wear means clothes with Gibault’s name on them. On the pick-up call with Mama, Chase asked her if she could check how much money was in his lunch account. Mama said she’d checked the other day, and they were down $4 so she put $200 in the account. Chase had been getting extra food at lunch and was worried that there wasn’t enough money in the account and was happy that Mama had put money in. Chase told Nanaw that his only homework was studying for a math test tomorrow. So because it’s a test not a quiz, Nanaw gets to study with him. On his own, he came up with the idea of doing one practice problem from each of the eight chapters they were going to be tested on. Nanaw wanted him to do the same thing tonight but he proposed a compromise: He would play a game with Mama tonight and then do the math problems in the morning before school. Nanaw agreed with the compromise as long as Chase promised to play a game with Mama tonight. But that didn’t go so well. Chase suggested to Mama that they go downstairs and play one of the games on the Wii. But Mama said her back hurt and she didn’t feel 100% so the game didn’t happen. Tomorrow, Nanaw will suggest that Chase play a card or board game with Mama!

Saturday, September 19, and Sunday, September 20, 2026

Chase had two baseball games on Saturday, and unfortunately, they lost both of them. But Mama said Chase had a nice double so that made up for it. After the game, Mama, Daddy and Chase went to Wally’s with Tucker and his parents, sort of a weekly tradition for them after baseball. They had Wally’s stuff for dinner – Chase and Mama had pizza, and Chase had some junk food snacks. On Sunday, the Bears lost again, (Mama said they lost pretty badly) and all Chase had was just a walk. Nanaw has a theory that they may be playing baseball teams who are a level above them because they lose so many of their games. But Chase doesn’t seem to mind and seems to still really enjoy playing baseball, and that’s really all that matters.) Mama said that after they got home from baseball, Chase hadn’t done much. She said they talked about playing a card game later but that didn’t happen. For some reason, Chase didn’t want to play a game after dinner. 

Thursday, September 17, and Friday, September 18, 2026

On Thursday, Chase had a special adventure at Gibault. His friend Hunter was going to shadow Chase at school. Shadowing is a program at Gibault where prospective students shadow existing students to get an idea of what the school is like. Last year when Chase was in 8th grade, he shadowed Dante, a Gibault student he’s known from ICS. From Chase’s shadowing experience, he decided he wanted to attend Gibault. Hunter is currently a student at Columbia High School, and no one seems to know if he’s interested in attending Gibault. Brady, Chase and Hunter’s friend from ICS, suggested that Hunter was doing the shadowing just to get out of a day at school, and chase and Brady laughed about that. Nanaw gave Hunter and Brady rides home from school Thursday with Chase. Hunter’s dad couldn’t come to pick him up, and Brady’s grandma wasn’t feeling well and couldn’t take him to the Columbia library. So Nanaw dropped Brady off at the library, then took Hunter and Chase to Chase’s house. Mama took Hunter home, then Nanaw took Chase to hockey practice. He also had baseball practice on Thursday. Nanaw dropped off his Minecraft clothes backpack just as he and Mama were leaving for baseball practice so Nanaw got to see him in his baseball uniform. Friday was an Enrichment Friday for Chase, and he didn’t have school. He and Daddy went golfing around 9:30 at River Lakes Golf Club. At about 11, Chase texted Nanaw asking her to come pick him up. She texted back that she wasn’t dressed yet and didn’t know where the golf course was. She said maybe Mama could come pick him up and then Nanaw would come to his house and get him. So that’s what they did. He told Nanaw that after 9 holes, he didn’t feel well, and that’s why he wanted to come home. On the the way back to Nanaw’s house, Chase showed her where River Lakes is so next time she’ll know where to go. It’s right across from Garden Place. Chase said he’d changed his mind about going to Taco Bell and then doing Pizza Bread because he still didn’t feel well. He just wanted to go back to Nanaw’s house and have something else for lunch. He had Ramen’s and then a snack later. He did his homework as Mama had instructed. He had a Math assignment where he had to turn formulas into equations. He also had to study an English assignment about nouns and also appositives; Nanaw learned about appositives, a new word and concept to her. Chase then helped Nanaw solve a set of algebra equations from his Math assignments. He played on the laptop and on his phone and did some pretend practice golf in his room with the plastic golf clubs from when he was little and his hockey net.

Wednesday, September 16, 2025

Today was Grandparents Day at Chase’s high school. Nanaw got a hug from Mr. G when she went into the gymnasium. Chase and his friend Brady came into the gym to find Brady’s grandparents and Chase’s Nanaw to sit with them during the mass. After the mass, Chase and Nanaw went out into the lobby for yummy donuts. Then they went back into the gym to have their picture taken. Gibault is going to mail the pictures to the grandparents as a special memento. Next, Chase took Nanaw on a tour of his classrooms, locker and also the library. Nanaw enjoyed seeing where Chase goes to class. On Nanaw’s way out of the school, she met up with Darlene, a friend she’d worked with at A. G Edwards. Darlene now volunteers as a math tutor at Gibault two days a week. Chase told Nanaw that his friend Hunter, who goes to Columbia High School, was coming to Gibault tomorrow to shadow Chase. That means that Hunter goes to class with Chase and learns how things work at Gibault. Chase doesn’t know if that means Hunter is interested in going to Gibault. Chase says he’s looking forward to seeing Hunter and doing the shadowing thing. After school, Chase studied for his Drivers’ Ed test by himself, and then he and Nanaw studied together for his Biology test. He promised to read over the Biology packet again in the evening. Chase and Nanaw’s plans for Enrichment Friday are changing because Chase and Daddy are going to play golf but they can do their lunch and pizza bread plans some other Enrichment Friday.

Tuesday, September 15, 2026

On Tuesday, students were to be dropped off at the gym parking lot rather than the front lot because work was being done there. Chase and Nanaw weren’t sure about where to go but it all worked out. When Nanaw picked Chase up, she had parked next to Brady’s grandma, and they visited a while. Chase had texted to see if Nanaw was there, and she texted back, giving him her location. Evidently Life360 said she was still at home. Mama said she thought that was because Nanaw had Life360 on her iPad in addition to her iPhone, and the iPad was showing her at home. So Nanaw closed Life360 on her iPad, and hopefully that will solve the problem. Chase also texted Nanaw that he would get to show her around his classrooms tomorrow at the grandparents day after the mass. So Nanaw will be a little late to tomorrow’s church meeting. After school, Chase had an ortho appointment at 3:15, and they made it in plenty of time. Chase and Nanaw asked about when Chase would have his braces off, and Chase thinks they said next March. Chase did his math homework at Nanaw’s and was going to do his civics homework tonight at home. On the way, Chase and Nanaw saw huge double rainbows, and Chase took a bunch of photos. He sent two of them to her so she could include them on Days. On 9/11, Mama posted the Clydesdale 9/11 tribute video on her Facebook page, and she helped Nanaw figure out how to post it here:  Clydesdale Video

Monday, September 14, 2026

When Chase and Mama got to Nanaw’s house Monday morning, Mama said she wasn’t feeling good at all and was going to take the afternoon off to try to sleep and feel better. Then they told her that Mama had set up an Instagram account for Chase last night. Nanaw was a bit concerned about it because she believes social media accounts are not good for kids. Mama said it would be all right and that she would monitor it. Nanaw decided to follow Chase on Instagram, and he said he would help her do that after school. He also promised to show her how to look at his Schoology account after school. On the way home from school in the afternoon, Chase said he had Italian chicken for lunch and that it was good. Nanaw was surprised; the other entrée option was hot dogs, and Nanaw assumed that’s what he would choose. Mama texted Nanaw about parking at Gibault for Tuesday and Wednesday. They’re going to be doing some work on the front lot and driveways so everyone has to do the drop-offs and pick-ups at the gym lot. After school, Chase showed her how to log on to his Schoology account and how to see his courses. Right now, the only one Nanaw is interested in is Math. She wants to try to keep up with his Math assignments, quizzes and tests. After Schoology, Chase showed her how to do Instagram and how to follow other users. Chase had a workout tonight at 6 p.m. so they had to have Chase home by 5 p.m. so he had enough time to eat dinner. 

Saturday, September 12, and Sunday, September 13, 2026

On Saturday, Mama reported that Chase was sad that because of his pulled muscle, he didn’t get to go to Songs for Soldiers on Friday night. He was especially sorry he missed seeing his friends Brady, Drew and Hunter. On Friday, Mama posted a 9/11 video on her Facebook page featuring the Clydesdales commercial that honored 9/11 and was shown during the Super Bowl. It was beautiful and sad. Mama said Chase’s Bears team lost both of their games on Saturday, and he said it was really hot. Mama went to a surprise birthday party for her friend Theresa, and Theresa was so surprised and happy to see her friends. On Sunday, Chase’s team lost 13 to 0. On the way home, they stopped at Wally’s – sort of a tradition when they play in Fenton. When they got home, Chase started working on his homework. In the evening, Chase sent Nanaw a text saying Happy Grandparents Day. Nanaw assumed that Mama reminded him to do that but that’s okay. Nanaw enjoys getting texts from Chase even when they aren’t his idea. On Wednesday, Gibault is having a Grandparents’ mass at 10 a.m., and Nanaw plans to go. Last week, when Nanaw asked Chase to print some things from Schoology, Chase said it would be easier just to give her access to it, and he promised to show her on Monday. So Nanaw is looking forward to that. She thought he might eventually give her permission, and he did!

Friday, September 11, 2026

On Friday morning, Nanaw asked Chase about hockey practice. He said it wasn’t as bad as he’d expected. He said the coaches were good and the team was good. He said there were about 20 boys and three of them were goalies. It turned out that number 95 was already taken so Chase’s number is 87. He’s going to check out the Illinois ice rinks to see if Nanaw would be able to come watch him play. Unfortunately, when Nanaw picked Chase up from school, he said that he’d somehow pulled a muscle in his leg, and he didn’t think he could go  to hockey practice. He looked it up online and texted Daddy that ice skating could be bad for a pulled muscle. However, when he got home, Mama and Daddy said he was going to hockey practice. If he couldn’t practice, he should tell the coach, and Mama was coming early so she could take him home, if necessary. He stayed for practice but was really sore when he got home, and he didn’t go to Songs for Soldiers with Mama. 

Thursday, September 10, 2026

Uncle Mike came to visit today and to do laundry. Their washer isn’t working so Uncle Mike and Aunt Becky are being creative about doing their laundry. So far, they’ve used cousin Nichole’s washer, the washer and dryer at the tutoring organization where Aunt Becky is the associate director, and Nanaw’s house. Mama said if she’d known about their problem, they could have done laundry at her house Sunday at her Labor Day party. When Nanaw picked Chase up from school, he told Nanaw he had a problem but he also had a solution. He said he had Math homework that’s due tomorrow but he has no time to do it. His solution is very involved but the bottom line is that the teacher doesn’t look at homework till a flex day, which in this case is next Wednesday. Both Mama and Nanaw tried to convince him to try to get it done for tomorrow but had no luck. He also had to do another drawing for Art class, and Mama said he got that done. Today was his first practice with his new hockey team. Daddy took him to practice as soon as Nanaw brought him home from school. Tomorrow Nanaw will take him to practice, and Daddy will pick him up. Today after hockey practice, Daddy took him home for dinner and then took him to baseball practice. He didn’t get home till ten so he had a really long day. Nanaw asked Mama if he said anything about hockey practice or his new coaches and team but she said he didn’t. nanaw will ask him about it tomorrow and see what he says. Mama sent Nanaw the first picture below from 10 years ago of Chase and Sam out at the little house.

Wednesday, September 9, 2026

For lunch on Wednesday, Chase chose the corn dog entrée; the other entrée was sloppy joes, which he also likes so Nanaw supposes it was a tough choice for him. After school, Chase had a haircut scheduled with Brittany for 3:30. Nanaw tried to drive slowly and even went around the block because they were really early; they got there at 3:15. Chase was all in favor of getting there early in case Brittany finished early, which she did, so he was right. Nanaw scheduled the next hair cut for 3:15. For homework, Chase had Math, Biology and Drivers’ Ed. He worked on the Math because Biology and Drivers’ Ed aren’t due till Friday. He did try to start on the Biology but got a message that submissions are blocked so he’ll have to find out tomorrow what to do about that. He finished his Math homework and left his notebook here, saying he was too lazy to put it in his backpack. Chase has his first hockey practice tomorrow, and Nanaw is supposed to take him home right after school to change clothes and get his hockey equipment so Daddy can take him to practice at the Meramec Skating Rink. Then on Friday, anaw will take him. They’ll do the same thing of going right to Chase’s house and then to the skating rink. From now on, Nanaw will take him to hockey practice on Thursday and Friday, and Mama or Daddy will pick him up when it’s over.

Tuesday, September 8, 2026

Tuesday was an exciting day for Nanaw because Chase was going to have a sleepover on Tuesday night. Mama and Daddy are going to the Foo Fighters/ACDC concert at the Dome tonight, and Chase was going to spend the night at Nanaw’s house. After school, Chase did his homework: studying for a Drivers’ Ed quiz and completing his Biology packet. Nanaw asked if she could see the packet, and to her surprise, he said yes. Chase has been saying he’s in high school and he’s independent, and he’s not been sharing his schoolwork with Mama or Nanaw. So this was a breakthrough! He did what Nanaw thought was a great job on the packet. His printing has improved enormously and is very readable. From what Nanaw knows about Biology, his answers seemed correct and well-written. Nanaw is looking forward to seeing what grade he gets on it. At five, Nanaw took Chase home to see Mama and Daddy before they left for the concert. At 5:40, Chase and Nanaw left to go to Chase’s workout. While Chase was in the workout, Nanaw went to Taco Bell to get her Crunch Wrap Supreme for dinner. After the workout, they went to the Columbia Sonic to get Chase’s dinner: two pretzel twists, an order of onion rings, and a strawberry lemonade. After dinner, Chase played video games on Nanaw’s laptop, and Nanaw watched TV. Nanaw forgot to take a picture of Chase so she used a past picture with Chase in his red shirt because he wore one of his red uniform shirts to school.