Friday, April 24, 2026

Nanaw hadn’t even thought about getting a Confirmation gift for Chase but when Mama and Daddy and Auntie LaLa gave him gifts, she ordered a gift for him from Amazon and bought a card for him at Schnuck’s. When she picked him up from school on Friday, she had the gift and the card with $20 in it waiting in the car for him. The gift was a Jesus Squishmallow like Mama bought for Auntie LaLa for being Chase’s Confirmation sponsor. He was delighted with his gifts and decided that Truman had bonded with Jesus Squishmallow. Nanaw took a picture of the three of them and sent it to Mama. She texted back that she hoped Jesus Squishmallow was coming home with Chase. Uncle Mike had come down to visit Mama today. They went to lunch and then Uncle Mike spent the evening and stayed overnight. Nanaw came to visit in the evening also, and they had delicious beef for dinner. After dinner they watched the baseball game but unfortunately the Cardinals lost to the Mariners 3 to 2. Daddy built a fire in the firepit and when it got dark, he put something in the fire that made the flames different colors. 

Thursday, April 23, 2026

On Thursday, Chase was in a good mood, which always makes Nanaw happy, When Nanaw picked him up from school, he told her that he’d finished reading his AR book, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Hot Mess, and took the test and only got one question wrong. He said he needed another AR book, and he wanted it to be The Zucchini Warriors by Gordon Korman from the AR books Nanaw bought. It’s 200 pages long and worth 8 points so it might be the last AR book he reads at ICS, He and Nanaw are hoping Gibault doesn’t have AR reading because it’s difficult to keep up with. Chase didn’t have any new homework assignments that were due on Friday so he got to play on his phone and his laptop and in his room. He said he’d turned in The Hobbit chapter 14 worksheet Thursday morning. His vocabulary chapter 30 packet was due Friday but he had already done it and would turn it in tomorrow. When Nanaw took Chase home, she had him look through his bookcase to see if he had any Wimpy Kid books that he hadn’t read for AR. He found one, The Long Haul, and Nanaw took it home with her in case he finished The Zucchini Warriors and needed another book. 

Wednesday, April 22, 2026

On Wednesday morning, Chase didn't have any tests to study for or homework to check. He had a big afternoon and evening coming up. Today was his class's Confirmation. Mama wanted him home by 4:30 for an early Domino's dinner with Auntie LaLa, Uncle Chris, Phoebe, Nanaw. It was so great to visit with them. They're definitely Mama's most interesting friends. Mama ordered a Domino's gluten free pizza for Nanaw, and it was really good. . Daddy took Chase up to church at about five because the class was getting pictures taken. Nanaw and Mama took the pictures below before Chase left for church. The second picture is Auntie LaLa and Chase with the Jesus Squishmallow that Mama gave Auntie LaLa in a gift basket with Veggie Straws, candy, and a People crossword puzzle book. Auntie LaLa was Chase's Confirmation sponsor and sat with him during the mass. Mama, Daddy, Uncle Chris, Phoebe, Auntie LaLa and Nanaw went up to church at about 6 p.m. The mass didn't start till 7 so they had a while to wait. The church was full, with spillover chairs in the lobby. Nanaw was surprised at how many people were there. Chase's friend Cole's Mama Tanya came over to talk to Mama and Nanaw -- it was nice to see her. Chase looked handsome in his dress shirt and tie. It was interesting to see all the students in Chase's class. Everybody looks so grown-up and so tall. There was a reception downstairs in the Garden Room after the Confirmation mass but Chase didn't want to go. 

Tuesday, April 21, 2026

On Tuesday morning before school, Chase and Nanaw had a negotiation. There were two things Nanaw wanted Chase to do, and he didn’t want to do either one. The two things were to study some more for Tuesday’s history test and to take out the garbage. Nanaw said she would take out the garbage if Chase agreed to study. And he did. Nanaw took out the garbage and then came back to study. First, they went through all the material in the study guide Mrs. H. provided. Then Chase went through the online Blookit Mrs. H. made. Chase seemed to know all the material. And when Nanaw picked him up from school he said he thought he got a 100. Nanaw bought a long loaf of soft French bread for Chase at Schnuck’s today. She brought some for him as his car snack and then cut up the rest for Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, then froze the rest for next week. Chase said he had a headache and asked for Tylenol so Nanaw gave him some. He also drank a lot of water. Instead of doing his math homework, he fell asleep and slept for over an hour. He threw up before his workout and then again when he got home. He thinks maybe the sloppy joe at lunch made him sick. He didn't have any dinner but said he felt better after throwing up the second time.

Monday, April 20, 2026

Chase was in a good mood on Monday morning. He was smiling and teasing Nanaw, which made her happy.  His only school homework assignment due today was a map for geography. He has two assignments due tomorrow, plus a history test on the Great Depression. The assignments are the Hobbit chapter 13 worksheet and the chapter 29 vocabulary packet. He said he would work on them at school today and then after school. He studied some for the history test at school and then after school. He said Mrs. H. made one of those study programs, a Blookit, for the test, plus giving the class a study guide. He and Nanaw went through the Blookit together, and Chase gave Nanaw the study guide to read. She'll use the study guide tomorrow morning to quiz Chase. He finished the Hobbit worksheet and the vocab packet. Chase was still in a good mood after he finished all his homework and the studying. He and Nanaw went to his room for him to play pencil hockey and Nanaw to read through his history study guide. Nanaw had a nice surprise visitor just before she was going to take Chase home: her former next-door neighbor Dan. He had some business here and he stopped to see another neighbor, Steve from up the street, and then came to see Nanaw. It was great to see him, and Nanaw misses him as a neighbor. 

Sunday, April 19, 2026

Chase and Daddy went to mass on Sunday morning. Then Mama, Daddy and Chase went on a shopping adventure to Dick's at South County Mall to spend some of Chase's many Dick's gift cards. He bought a fun baseball bat and a new, regulation size basketball. Chase has gotten more interested in basketball and the ball he had was smallish, and he wanted a regulation one. He said he plays basketball at school recess with Cole and Brady, who are both really good at the game. Nanaw remembers when the three of them played on the basketball court at the library park. They were just little guys having a lot of fun. After Dick's, they went to Buffalo Wild Wings for lunch, and everybody had leftovers. Mama sent Chase's home to Nanaw's for Chase's after-school snack on Monday. Daddy and Chase spent the afternoon doing baseball stuff out in the back yard. It must have tired Chase out because Mama said he slept for a long while after that, something je never does. When Nanaw came over for dinner at 5:30, he was still asleep, and Mama said she should wake him up. Dinner was good -- ham and party potatoes. Mama sent ham home with Nanaw. After dinner, Chase showed Nanaw his new basketball and shot some baskets for her. He's really getting good -- fun thing. Once Mama had cleaned up after dinner, she took Nanaw for a ride in Travis the Traverse. First, they went to Nanaw's house with Chase's groceries. Then they drove to the Columbia library to return a book of Nanaw's. Then they drove to Dupo to get on the highway  so they could go really fast. When they got home, Nanaw decided to try out the third row of seats in Travis. Unfortunately, she got trapped back there, and she had to do a phone call to Mama, asking her to come move one of the seats to rescue her. LOL

Saturday, April 18, 2026

Chase's baseball games on Saturday were rained out. So Chase, Daddy and Mama went to the Zoo with Daddy's family as a memorial to Grandma Pat. Mama sent Nanaw a picture of Chase and pictures of some of the animals they saw: a ring-tailed lemur, a black money that made noises at them, a beautiful tiger that's related to Truman, and a gorgeous elephant -- Mama's favorite. Nanaw asked Mama if Wesley was there with the group. Wesley is Chase's cousin who's a year or two younger than Chase. Mama said he was, and that made Nanaw happy because she knows Chase likes having other kids with him. Nanaw also asked Mama if any stuffed animals were purchased at the Zoo, and Mama sent a sad face and said there were no gift shop visits. Later, Mama texted Nanaw that Sunday's baseball games were also rained out, and she was going to fix ham and party potatoes for dinner tomorrow. She invited Nanaw to come and said that after dinner, she would take Nanaw for her first ride in Travis the Traverse. How exciting!

Friday, April 17, 2026

On Friday morning, Chase had Mama's lunch container with his sub sandwich for today's sack lunch at the Camp Wartburg field trip. It was really heavy because of the freezer packs inside. When Nanaw picked Chase up from school, he reported that the field trip had been a bit difficult because Chase's mass buddy wouldn't do what Chase told him to do. Nanaw found this so interesting and sort of funny that Chase was getting a little payback from his refusing to do what Mama, Daddy and Nanaw told him to do. He's happy that Gibault probably doesn't have any kind of buddy system. Chase had a couple of things he could do Friday evening. Gibault was having a mixer for 6th, 7th and 8th graders tonight from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Daddy was supposed to go out to the Lincoln County area for a family event in memory of Grandma Pat's birthday. Chase didn't want to go to either one, and he asked Nanaw if he could come to her house instead of doing either of those things. Mama was going to dinner with the hockey moms so she wasn't involved. Daddy decided to not go to the family thing tonight because it was so far and because of the severe weather warning (tornadoes, severe thunderstorms, etc.). Daddy told Chase he didn't have to go to the Gibault mixer, and he could stay home with him. Tomorrow morning. the whole family was going to the St. Louis Zoo in memory of Grandma Pat. The Zoo was one of her favorite things, and the family tried to do a yearly family trip there.

Thursday, April 16, 2026

On Thursday morning before school, Chase checked over his vocabulary chapter 28 packet homework assignment. When Nanaw picked him up, he said Mrs. H. hadn't collected it but he would turn it in on Friday. At Nanaw's house, Chase worked on his Hobbit assignment of Chapter 12. He said even though they were going on a field  trip on Friday to Camp Wartburg, they'd be back at school in time for Mrs. H. to collect the Hobbit worksheet and the vocab packet. When Chase took yesterday's dissecting the pig test in Mr. K.'s class on Thursday, the same thing happened to him that happened on another science test: all that he'd studied just flew out of his mind. Hopefully, enough stayed in his mind to get a halfway decent score on the test. Before his baseball practice, Chase went outside to shoot a few baskets, and Mama got a picture of him making a basket and sent it to Nanaw. Lately, he's bee n more interested in basketball than before. He's also more interested in golf and goes to the driving rage with Daddy and is thinking about joining the golf team at Gibault next year. His friend Brady plays golf so they might be able to do that together. Mama bought Chase a sub sandwich as his sack lunch for today's field trip, and he was happy about that. Nanaw weighed and measured Chase in the afternoon and he weighs 111.8 and he's 5 foot 6 inches so he grew an inch from last month and gained a little over a pound.

Wednesday, April 15, 2026

Chase didn't have anything to study before school on Wednesday morning.  He had two homework assignments to turn in on Wednesday: an Australia map in geography and the chapter 11 worksheet for The Hobbit. When Nanaw picked Chase up from school, he told her that his Great Depression test in history has been postponed to next Tuesday. His chapter 28 vocabulary packet is due on Thursday, and he's going to finish it up tonight. He wouldn't have time after school because he had to get his hair cut at 4 p.m. and then go home to get ready for his workout at 5 p.m. He has hitting after that but he'll have time in the evening to finish the vocabulary packet. He also got a worksheet for chapter 12 of The Hobbit but doesn't know yet when that's due. His class is taking a field trip on Friday to Camp Wartburg. The camp is Lutheran-sponsored and offers summer day camp, sleepover camp, family retreats, outdoor studies, and lots of other things. Nanaw is assuming that the field trip is to show the camp to the students in case they would like to go there. One of the coaches Chase will have on the Columbia hockey team gets his hair cut the same place Chase does. His name is Chuck and Brittany told him one of her customers is going to play on the Columbia team this year. She said she told Chuck that Chase is a good guy and will be a great addition to the team. 

Tuesday, April 14, 2026

Chase didn’t have to study anything Tuesday morning but he did have to get dressed in his fanciest church clothes. Mama sent along his black slacks, his black dress shoes, black socks, a tie, and a long-sleeved light blue oxford cloth shirt. All of this was for the graduation photos. Over their Sunday clothes, the 8th grade students were going to wear their graduation gowns and caps for the photos. When Nanaw picked Chase up from school, he told her all about how the photographer spent a long time trying to fix Chase’s tie and shirt so they looked good. Chase’s homework is a little up in the air. He’s not sure whether his Great Depression history test  is going to be Thursday or next week. He has a map due in geography on Friday but he said he has a field trip to some kind of camp on Friday so he doesn’t know if he has to turn in the map or not. Also, he doesn’t know if the science test on dissecting the pig is this week or next week. Hopefully things will be clarified tomorrow. At 4:15, Chase and Nanaw left to meet Mama at the orthodontist for Chase’s appointment. He has several related appointments in the next couple of months: a regular ortho appointment on  May 13; a teeth cleaning on June 9; and a special ortho appointment on June 10 where they're going to do a laser treatment on the tooth that's ontop of another one. The first picture below is Chase with Louis, his church buddy. Chase's school has a process where kindergartners partner with the older students to go to mass. Chase says his partner Louis is not as good and well-behaved as Henry, his partner before Louis. He says Louis is always getting into trouble. . In the second picture below of Chase and Mama on the parking lot of the orthodontist, for the first time, Nanaw thinks Chase and Mama look alike!

Monday, April 13, 2026

On Monday morning, Chase and Nanaw studied for today’s geography test on Iran. He had studied yesterday, which is a good thing because there was a lot of material to go over, and they only got through half of it. In addition to Iran, the test covered the rest of the Middle East and the Muslim religion. When Nanaw picked Chase up, he said he thought he did pretty well. At Nanaw’s house he did his only homework — The Hobbit chapter 11 worksheet and his AR reading so he’s done with homework for the evening. Mama and Daddy were at George Weber doing all the paperwork for. Mama’s new Traverse. Chase and Nanaw went to his house at 5, and he heated up spaghetti and garlic bread in the microwave for his dinner. Mama had texted him the directions, and he followed them and everything turned out perfectly. Daddy came home at 6 to take Chase to his Bears baseball practice. Nanaw stayed at Chase’s house to see Mama’s new car. They had planned to go to the library when she h g it home but the paperwork took forever so they didn’t go. Mama came home to get her W2 and a check so Nanaw got to see the car. It's very big and very impressive. Auntie LaLa said it looks like a SWAT car. It seats seven and still has some storage space in back. For the birthday dinners, everyone will be able to ride together. Nanaw tried to step in but didn't have any luck. Mama told her to sit on the seat and swing her legs in and that worked. One of the people at George Weber told her that trick for Nanaw. 

Sunday, April 12, 2026

Chase had an 11 o’clock baseball game in Fenton on Sunday morning. They lost, 9 to 3. Chase pitched today and gave up a few runs, and he had a good double. Mama texted the video below (the third image) to Nanaw showing Chase pitching -- very cool! After the game, he went to Wally’s with Tuck and his family. When he got home, he did his homework. He had to study for a geography test on Monday about the Middle East. He also had to do his AR reading and complete a Maui packet in English, which is due Monday. While Chase was doing his homework, Brady came over to see him. Chase had him come back a little while later. They decided they would go to see the new Mario movie. Nanaw is assuming they went the Waterloo Cinema. She’ll find out tomorrow. Brady’s mom took them to and from the show.

Saturday, April 11, 2026

In a text from Mama on Saturday morning, she told Nanaw that Chase had gone to the park last night by himself. Then she sent a corrected text saying Chase rode his bike, and Will went with him but didn't ride his bike. So Nanaw still has questions to ask Mama: Which park did they go to and did Will drive or walk? Mama texted back that they went to the library park and Will drove. She said Chase had just come into the living room when she got the text so he was able to answer the questions. Chase had a baseball tournament in Fenton today. Unfortunately, they lost both games but they played well. And Chase and Tucker got good hits in the first inning of the second game. They lost the first game 11 to 9 and the second game 12 to 6. They play at 11 tomorrow. Mama said Daddy and Chase went to 5 o'clock mass so she picked up Subway for dinner, which probably made Chase happy -- he likes Subway. Nanaw didn’t go out to the little house today like she'd planned. She woke up feeling tired and yucky so she slept a lot and felt much better. Today Mama bought a new car at George Weber: a Chevrolet black Traverse. It's black, and Nanaw thinks it's a 2026 (not a 2027 but who know) and that it has three rows of seats. She'll clarify that with Mama.

Friday, April 10, 2026

On Friday morning, Mama noticed that Chase had forgotten to pack his belt in the clothes bag. Mama volunteered to go home and get it because Chase said he needed to wear it. Nanaw would have volunteered to go get it but she wanted to quiz Chase on the vocabulary words one more time. He did pretty good on the vocabulary word run-through. When Nanaw picked Chase up from school, he said he thought he did a good job on today’s four tests. He didn’t work on any homework after school; he said he’d work on it over the weekend. He has a Middle East geography test on Monday and an English Maui assignment due Monday. He finished off his sour dough bread in the afternoon and had some root beer. He had texted Brady about playing basketball this evening but Brady was over at Cole’s house. So Daddy suggested Chase text and see if he could join them. Nanaw will find out tomorrow if he did. He’s sort of shy so he might not have done anyhting about it. The second picture below is Mama at the ball park. Her boss got tickets to the Wells Fargo box so a lot of the department went. And the Cardinals won! Mama must be so happy about that! What fun!! Uncle Mike dewinterized the little house today but Nanaw changed her mind about going out Friday night and postponed it to Saturday morning.

Thursday, April 9, 2026

On the way home from school, Chase and Nanaw talked about what tests Chase has on Friday. Chase said he has tests in religion, math, vocabulary and DLR. He said he thought he only needed to study vocabulary but Nanaw said they were going to study for all of them. She reminded him what happened when he told her they didn’t need to study for the English test in verbals, clauses and phrases because they’d studied so much in class. And Chase got an 84 on the test. So Nanaw told Chase the rule now was, they studied together for every test, no matter what. In the afternoon, they concentrated their studying most on vocabulary and then on religion. Next they looked at the math review of slopes. Chase explained how to do the problems, and he seems to understand it. Lastly, they studied the DLR paper from this week, and Chase went over all the sentences and their corrections. DLR stands for daily literature review, and it’s two pages of sentences with incorrect grammar and punctuation and misspelled words that the students have to correct. Chase also has a history homework assignment that he’s going to do tonight, along with his (AR) accelerated reading. He’s currently reading Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Hot Mess. He took the AR test the other day on Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Partypooper and got the three points assigned to the book. As he was studying Chase ate some of the sour dough baguette Nanaw got for him at the grocery store yesterday, along with some of the ham she bought. Earlier in the week, she had given Chase some of the ham Uncle Mike sent home with her on Easter, and Chase liked it a lot. So Nanaw got ham at the grocery store, and they're both eating lots of it.

Wednesday, April 8, 2026

On Wednesday morning, Nanaw made copies of the Hobbit chapter 10 worksheet and the chapter 27 vocabulary packet. Vocab is due tomorrow and there’s a test on Friday, along with the religion test. The Hobbit worksheet is due tomorrow, also. So Chase will have to work on both of them after school today. Uncle Mike came to visit today and he and Nanaw talked about him going to the little house on Friday to dewinterize it. Nanaw is probably going out there after dropping Chase off at home on Friday afternoon. After school, Chase wanted Nanaw to get another baguette so he could make garlic bread again but without as much garlic. They told Mama about this on the pick-up call, and she reminded them that Chase had to be home at 4:30 in order to go to a 5 p.m. workout session. He also has baseball practice tonight. Nanaw said she would get a baguette tonight when she went to the grocery store, and Chase could make garlic bread after school tomorrow while he was studying for his vocab test. In the afternoon, before going home, Chase worked on his vocab packet that’s due tomorrow and his Hobbit worksheet that’s also due tomorrow. Mama wasn’t home from work when Nanaw dropped Chase off so Nanaw didn’t get to talk to her.

Tuesday, April 7, 2026

When Nanaw picked Chase up from school on Tuesday afternoon, he told her that he'd submitted his Washington DC digital scrapbook and turned in the DC journal he kept on the trip. He was happy he didn't have any homework due tomorrow that he had to do after school. Later, Nanaw checked Homework Central and saw that he got the worksheet for chapter 10 of The Hobbit and the chapter 27 vocabulary packet; Nanaw will make copies of them tomorrow morning. He has a vocabulary test and a religion test on Friday. On the drive home, Chase told Nanaw he wanted to make cheese garlic bread again. So Nanaw went to the Columbia Schnuck's and bought a small baguette. Chase worked on putting things together and decided to make it garlic bread without the cheese. He ate half of it and then couldn't eat the rest because he said he put too much garlic in it. They talked about maybe this summer learning how to make dinner for Mama and Daddy. In the early evening, Mama, Daddy and Chase went to Gibault to register Chase for the fall semester. Mr. G, the former ICS principal who's now the Gibault president, was there, and Mama took some pictures of them doing the paperwork. Mr. G. offered to take Chase to school whenever Nanaw couldn't do it. Chase is registered in mostly advanced placement classes. He doesn't want to play in the band (Nanaw is so disappointed about that) so he's taking a drawing class instead. He signed up for baseball and potentially golf. He asked Daddy if they could go to the driving range this evening so he could try out his new golf clubs. Nanaw is interested in hearing if they went.

Monday, April 6, 2026

Chase was off from school on Monday for his Easter break, and he spent the day at Nanaw's house. He has two major school projects due tomorrow: a digital scrapbook of the Washington DC trip and the journal he kept during the trip that detailed all the things they did in DC. He worked on completing the projects in the morning and then Nanaw proofread them in the afternoon. She really enjoyed going through the projects and feeling like she was finding out the details of the trip and everything that happened. Chase did a good job on the projects, and they seemed to have him relive his trip to DC. Around lunchtime, Chase and Nanaw went on an adventure to the Des Peres Schnuck's, the fanciest Schnuck's store in the area. Nanaw wanted to spend some of her Rewards money on Chase. She thought maybe he might want a Frisbee or a bat or a Pickleball set but he didn't want any of those things. He wanted to buy the ingredients for cheese garlic bread and then make it when they got back to Nanaw's house. They bought a baguette, garlic cloves, parsley, and mozzarella cheese slices for the cheese garlic bread. Chase also wanted some Gouda cheese from Georgia ($10!!) and banana split Blue Bunny ice cream. On the drive home, Chase told Nanaw if he was rich when he grew up and still lived around here, he would shop at that Schnuck's. LOL! Nanaw had so much fun making the cheese garlic bread with Chase. It was as though she was his sous chef, taking directions from him. He said the bread turned out perfectly. Nanas put some of the topping on her gluten-free bread, and it was delicious. Chase ate one half of the baguette and saved the other half to take home to Mama, as shown in the second picture below. When Nanaw took Chase home, he took her downstairs to see his new set of golf clubs. They're absolutely awesome, and Nanaw was so impressed. She's assuming they were an Easter present from Daddy. She asked Chase to take a picture of them, and it's the third picture below. The first picture of Chase below has him holding the Washington DC spoon Mama got for him from Amazon. Chase saw it at one of the DC gift shops and wanted it but Mama didn't want to buy it because she didn't want to pay $10 for a spoon. Chase was disappointed but let it go. Later, Mama felt bad for not buying it in DC so she went on Amazon and found it and bought it. 

Happy Easter! Sunday, April 5, 2026

This morning, Truman and baby Truman helped Mama hide eggs from the Easter Bunny for Chase. The boy had a great time finding the eggs filled with candy. Mama said she bought pre-filled plastic eggs, which made things much easier. Nanaw doesn’t know if the Easter egg hunt was before or after Daddy and Chase went to church. At four, Mama, Daddy and Chase came to pick up Nanaw to go to Uncle Mike's house for Easter dinner. Mama brought Nanaw a great Easter basket with sugar-free assorted caramels, a bag of bubble gum balls for the gumball machine Uncle Mike and Aunt Becky made for Nanaw for her birthday,  and a $25 Amazon gift card. The Easter dinner food was delicious: three kinds of ham, grilled chicken with cheese and bacon, Nichole's rolls, Mama's party potatoes, fruit salad, pasta salad, corn, mac and cheese, and more. There were lots of desserts: Mama's pudding pie, Nichole's decorated Easter cookies, apple pie, Robbie's chocolate chip cookies, and lots of other things that Nanaw doesn't remember. Dinner guests included Lindsey and Dylan, Joey and Julia and Jeremy and Hudson, Kris, Robbie, Irina, Nyeal, Marcus and Beckham (Vika stayed home with the baby), and Nichole and JonJon. It was a great Easter dinner and great seeing everyone. Chase spent the evening sitting in the living room with the family and mostly playing on his phone -- which is probably his favorite thing to do.

Saturday, April 4, 2026

Mama texted Nanaw on Saturday morning that Chase's Bears baseball tournament was rained out. He was supposed to play in two games on Saturday. But it turned out that worked out well for Mama, Daddy and Chase. Usually, Aunt Becca has Easter dinner on Saturday each year but this year she decided not to have it because the weather forecast was for cool weather and rain, and she likes to have the celebration outside rather than inside. But with the dismal weather forecast she wouldn't be able to have it inside so she cancelled. Uncle Chris said they would have the Easter celebration, which made Chase very happy because he would get to see cousin Elias. It worked out well that the baseball tournament was rained out because that meant Mama, Daddy and Chase would go out to Silex.. Mama texted that Chase and Elias played video games for awhile and then went outside to play. Nanaw got a test from Chase with the selfie below. Mama texted Nanaw to see if Chase had texted a picture like she told him to, and Nanaw said he did. Tomorrow Uncle Mike and Aunt Becky are having the family Easter dinner celebration. To make up for not hosting the family holiday dinners anymore, Nanaw provides $200 to help pay for dinner. 

Good Friday, April 3, 2026

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

Thursday, April 2, 2026

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

Wednesday, April 1, 2026

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