Friday, August 21, Saturday, August 22, and Sunday, August 23

On Friday, Gibault had the lunch Chase was looking forward to. Last year, when Chase went there for his Shadow Day, for lunch they had something called Bosco Sticks. Those were breadsticks stuffed with cheese, and Chase told Nanaw they were delicious. Nanaw thinks they may have had a role to play in Chase’s decision that he wanted to go to Gibault. This year, Chase said the Bosco Sticks were really good again, so success! When Chase came out of school, he was not happy. He told Nanaw his House played volleyball at the end of the day, and Chase does not like volleyball. It may be the only sport he doesn’t like. He just doesn’t see the point of it. Fortunately, he had something really special to look forward to on Friday evening, so that helped with his mood. His friend Tucker and Tucker’s parents had invited Chase to a Savannah Bananas baseball game. They took pictures of the boys, and Mama forwarded them to Nanaw. On Saturday, Chase had two Bears baseball games. Unfortunately, the team lost both games, and Mama said they didn’t play well at all. Mama sent the baseball picture below to Nanaw. Then on Sunday, the team played much better and won one of their two games. Mama again sent a baseball picture. When they got home from baseball, Amazon had made a delivery to them. First, Daddy ordered another toy for Tyler, and this one Tyler seems to like. Then Mama had ordered note paper entitled Catitude, which is what she and Chase say Truman has. She also ordered note paper for Nanaw that’s entitled Life Is Better with Cats. But the most important arrival was a skeleton holding the leash of a skeleton dog – picture below. Nanaw can’t wait to see it! On Sunday Uncle Mike and cousing Robbie went fishing out at the little house, and Robbie posted pictures of their catch – lots of huge fish!

Thursday, August 20, 2026

Thursday, August 20, 2026

Thursday was a much quieter, less complicated day than Wednesday for Nanaw. Things are going well with getting Chase to school on time. They leave the house at 7:25 a.m. and get to Gibault by 7:45. That gives Chase a few minutes before he has to be in Home Room at 7:55 a.m. Funnily enough, the biggest thing about school to Chase so far is lunch. He’s very interested in what they have for lunch each day, and he’s very happy with the meals. Today they had chicken strips, and Chase said they were good. He said he ate the fruit for a change, and it was a pear, and it was good. On the drive home from school, Nanaw asked again if Chase would agree to let her view his Schoology dashboard. Nanaw would like to see what he’s learning and learn along with him. There was a silence before Chase answered Nanaw. Then he said, “I would prefer not.” Maybe Nanaw will try again, and she’ll tell him she wants to learn along with him, and she won’t bug him or nag him about anything. When he got home from school, he put the finishing touches on his drawing of a container for art class. He drew a picture of his Blues water bottle, and Nanaw thinks he did an excellent job. He’s not an artist but he did his best, and Nanaw thinks it’s great. Nanaw took a picture of Chase’s drawing, and it’s the second picture below. Chase also studied for a Driver’s Ed quiz that’s tomorrow. When Nanaw took Chase home, Daddy showed her the squiggly, animated mouse he bought for Tyler. Unfortunately Tyler didn’t like the mouse and left the room whenever Daddy tried to get him to play with it. So Daddy gave it to Nanaw for her cats. Mamaw’s cats really liked the mouse toy and play with it whenever Nanaw puts it out for them. In the evening, Chase had hitting practice and then baseball practice. He didn’t get home until after 10 p.m. so he was late getting to bed. But it’s only one night a week. 

Wednesday, August 19, 2026

The sleepover worked out very well, and both Chase and Nanaw had a good time. Chase woke up all on his own at 6:45. He got himself dressed in his purple House shirt, then ate his breakfast. Nanaw had a jam-packed date today. First, she took Chase to school, then she picked Mama up from St. Clare, where Mama had her procedure. Nanaw brought a Pepsi and a bag of marshmallows for Mama to snack on. Next, Nanaw had a teeth cleaning appointment with Teresa at the dentist’s office and then she had the church meeting. Next, she went to pick Chase up from school. They were supposed to take Brady to the Columbia library for a tutoring session but it turned out that he had to play golf with the golf team. So they didn’t take Brady to the library. On the drive home and at Nanaw’s house, Chase told Nanaw about his day. For lunch, Chase had a bratwurst. The other choice was ribs but Chase doesn’t like barbecue. For homework, he had a sketchbook assignment for Art and a biology assignment. He finished the biology assignment at Nanaw’s house. His sketchbook assignment isn’t due till Friday so he’s going to work on it at school tomorrow and then if it isn’t done, he’ll work on it after school. The assignment is to draw a container, and he’s going to draw his Blues water bottle. Chase had a workout session at 6 p.m. today, and he’s happy that Tucker and Connor will be there. Nanaw isn’t sure who Connor is so she’ll ask Chase tomorrow and report back.

Tuesday, August 18, 2026

Chase’s second day of high school went well. He had chicken crispito for lunch and said it was good. Interestingly enough, they list two entrees on the menu but Chase says they usually have three, so you have a bigger choice. Mama sent an email about a mass tomorrow when everybody is going to wear their House shirts. Chase’s House is named Justice and his shirt is purple – lavender actually. The Houses are groups of students who gather together for various things. Chase will provide additional information when he has it. So far, the thing Chase is most interested in is lunch. LOL Nanaw asked him about the popular kids at Gibault, and he said there aren’t any. He said everybody gets along with everybody else. Tonight is Chase’s sleepover at Nanaw’s. Chase had Sonic, and Nanaw had a Crunch Wrap Surpreme from Taco Bell. After that, they went to Chase’s house to pick up his clothes for tomorrow (the purple shirt and uniform pants) and have Mama sign a paper about a syllabus. Then they came home and built a fire in the fire pit to toast marshmallows. Nanaw put up chairs and a table for them to sit and look at the fire in the firepit and at the fireworks solar lights in Nanaw’s front yard. It was fun! Then Chase took his shower and went to bed, followed soon by Nanaw. 

 

Monday, August 17, 2026

Today was Chase’s first official day of high school. He seemed ready for it and not nervous or anxious. He didn’t show any anxiety about the two orientation days or the first official day, which made Nanaw happy. When Nanaw went to pick Chase up from school, she had a nice chat about soap operas with Brady’s grandma, Debbie. They’re both driving Broncos, and they park them together in the waiting area while they chat and wait. On the ride home, Nanaw learned a little about Chase’s first day of high school. He said the day was all right. He ate lunch with Joey and Brady, plus a guy named Oliver that he didn’t know but who was in some of his classes. He said Joey is in all of his classes except Art because Joey is in Band. His math teacher is also his homeroom teacher and the baseball coach, and Chase says he likes him. For some reason, Chase said he liked that Gibault gives them plastic utensils, napkins, and salt and pepper. He said the toasted ravioli for lunch was good. Chase had some homework – a Spanish assignment and about 20 math problems about the order of operations. Both assignments were pencil and paper homework, and Nanaw asked Chase about that. He said Gibault was digital but they also did pencil and paper assignments. Mama said to have Chase home by five so he could have dinner before his workout at 6 p.m. Mama, Daddy and Nanaw all talKed with Chase about his day when Nanaw brought him home. That was fun!

Saturday, August 15, and Sunday, August 16. 2026

Bears baseball started up again with practice on Thursday evening and a tournament on the weekend, Saturday and Sunday. Mama texted that unfortunately, the tournament didn’t go well for Chase and Tucker’s Bears team. They lost two games on Saturday and one game on Sunday. But the boys had fun, and that’s what’s important. On Saturday, Mama, Daddy and Chase had Dairy Queen for dinner. Then Daddy and Chase went to the driving range. Nanaw sent a text to Mama asking what she thought of Chase’s interest in golf. Mama had an interesting take on it, saying she thinks he enjoys it because there’s no practice and no pressure to be good on a team. Nanaw replied that she hadn’t thought of that, and she thought Mama was right. On Sunday afternoon, when they were finished with baseball, Tucker, his dad Brent, Chase and Daddy went golfing. Mama texted Nanaw a photo of Tucker and Chase that Brent took. Mama says Brent is good with photos. For dinner, Chase, Mama and Daddy had Mama’s chicken pasta, at Chase’s request, which Nanaw thought was cool.

Friday, August 14, 2026

Friday was Chase’s second day of orientation at Gibault. For lunch, he had chili crispitos, which he said were sort of like taquitos. Chase said they went over many of the same things they did yesterday – the classes and the location of the classrooms. He brought home a copy of the school map, which will be helpful in finding his classes. They worked on the Schoology dashboard to learn how to use it. That’s the way they’ll get their homework assignments and turn in their assignments. They’ll also get reminders and messages through the dashboard. Chase said they’d still have some pencil and paper homework assignments and that Gibault isn’t totally digital. Chase said both days were decent and that seemed to mean he liked the school. Nanaw asked Chase to tell her who from ICS was going to Gibault, and they counted 16 students. In the evening, there was a pot luck dinner in the school cafeteria for the families of the students new to Gibault. Daddy didn’t go so it was just Mama, Chase and Nanaw. Chase went to sit at the table of students and not with Mama and Nanaw. Mama and Nanaw sat at a table with Brady’s mom and dad but at a different end. They sat with one of the Gibault staff and learned a lot of interesting things about the school. The food was delicious, with so many different choices. The meat was pulled pork that was yummy. For dessert, there was cake from a bakery in Columbia, and Nanaw loved the white cake with white icing. After dinner, the students disappeared. Chase went off with Brady, Joey and Drew – the three friends from the crew who now go to Gibault. The other two, Cole and Hunter, are going to Columbia High School. When it was time to leave, Mama and Nanaw went searching for Chase. When they found him, he reluctantly agreed to give them a tour and show them where his classes were, which was a great ending to a great evening.

Thursday, August 13, 2026

Today was Chase’s first day of orientation at Gibault, and he was supposed to be there at 7:55 a.m. Chase and Nanaw left home in plenty of time to get there by then. Nanaw took pictures of Chase before they left and sent two to Mama. Then the Gibault principal took pictures of the Gibault freshman with the Gibault mascot, including the picture of Chase below. Then Chase showed up in a photo on Gibault’s Facebook page with several other students. For lunch, they had chicken patties, green beans, and a fruit drink.  Chase now has a map of the Gibault classrooms and common rooms so he knows where to go for classes – always important! He promised to show Nanaw all the things he’ll be doing and learning, starting Monday. They have a digital classroom called Schoology where they do all their class work. They have e-books for text books and all assignments and work are done online. It’s a whole new world for Chase, and Nanaw is excited to learn about it. Uncle Mike came over today to visit, cut the grass, and put a new taillight in Nanaw’s Bronco. He’s the best! It’s unbearably hot outside, and poor Uncle Mike got really hot so he took a cool shower. 

Wednesday, August 12, 2026

For lunch on Wednesday, Chase had his second Lunchable. He had a workout in the afternoon from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m.  It was really hot outside again, and he was sweating a lot when he came out from the workout. Nanaw had to put his shirt in the dryer when they got home. He’s been sporadic about doing his Python lessons. Nanaw said maybe when he’s back in school, he could do one after school on Fridays when he doesn’t have to get his homework done. He said he could also do a lesson or two on his Enrichment Fridays. When it was time to take Chase home, Nanaw had him pack up Tyler to return home. The steps were done and could be walked on so the cat was going home. Nanaw was happy to discover when they got to Chase’s house that Chase had packed Tyler’s dangling toy in the pet taxi with Tyler. So Nanaw didn’t have to go back home to get it. The excitement for the evening was Chase’s back to school ice cream treat at Marie’s. Mama and Nanaw had hot fudge sundaes (and Nanaw pronounced it like it’s pronounced these days but the man at Marie’s pronounced it Nanaw’s way – Yay!)  Daddy had chocolate ice cream and Chase had his favorite that he always gets -- Superman ice cream in a waffle cone. His cone was a dark blue – very interesting. There’s a new store next to Marie’s that has sports cards and other memorabilia. Nobody except Nanaw wanted to go in and check it out, so Nanaw will have to do it some other time.

Tuesday, August 11, 2026

Chase was really helpful to Nanaw on Tuesday. He took the garbage can out to the curb in the morning, and then in the afternoon brought it back to the garage after the garbage company emptied it. He took a really heavy bag filled with books out to the trunk of Nanaw’s Bronco and put it with the rest of the things there intended for Goodwill. At noon, Chase and Nanaw went to Goodwill. Chase took the bags and boxes out of the trunk and put them in the wheeled bin one of the Goodwill workers brought out. The workers can no longer take things out of donors’ vehicles. The donors have to take them out and put them in the bins. Nanaw thinks that maybe sometimes the workers accidentally removed items that the donors didn’t intend to donate so that might be why they changed the process. Nanaw was glad she had Chase there to remove the items from her trunk. After Goodwill, Chase and Nanaw went to the Cliff Cave Library to wait there till the cleaning lady was finished at Nanaw’s house. Later in the afternoon, Mama texted Nanaw to tell her the steps were done but they couldn’t walk on them for 24 hours. So to get into the house everybody had to use the back steps. Mama also asked if Tyler could spend another night, and Nanaw said definitely. 

Monday, August 10, 2026

For lunch on Monday, Chase had his leftover homemade pizza from last night’s dinner. Nanaw heated it up in her little toaster oven that’s also an air fryer that Mama gave her for her birthday. It works better than the microwave for pizza and other things that are better crispy. Chase had a workout in the afternoon scheduled for 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. Daddy called Chase as he and Nanaw were driving to the workout to tell them that Zach (the man who leads the workouts) would be about 20 minutes late. Later Daddy told Chase and Nanaw that Zach works at the Catholic high school in Belleville and had a meeting there so that’s why he was late. Tucker wasn’t at the workout so that was a bit disappointing to Chase. Tucker starts school this Thursday at Columbia High School. When Nanaw took Chase home, Mama said the floor people were coming Tuesday to do the steps. She asked if Tyler could come spend another night. Nanaw said yes, of course. She asked Chase and Mama if Chase could carry Tyler out to her car and ride home with her to get him into Nanaw’s house. Tyler’s really heavy, and Nanaw would have had trouble carrying him. Mama said she’d give Chae $10.00 if he would do it, and that sealed the deal. 

Sunday, August 9, 2026

Chase and Daddy were having a big golf get-together on Sunday. Their tee time was 10 a.m. at the Columbia Golf Club. Joining them were Elias, Uncle Chris, Uncle Will-Bill, Uncle Chuck, Uncle George, and Uncle Stan. Mama and Nanaw think that Chase was especially happy to play golf with cousin Elias. After church, Nanaw went out to Wentzville to have lunch with her friends Joyce and Betty. Nanaw invited Mama to join them for lunch but she declined because she had a lot of work to do. She has to get the house back in order after the mess of the floor laying. Nanaw has known Joyce and Betty for many years but hasn’t seen them since last October. On Sunday evening, Mama sent Nanaw the photo below of Chase in the kitchen looking like he’s cooking. Nanaw texted Mama to find out exactly what he’s doing, and Mama said they had homemade pizza for dinner. Chase was putting his together. Mama said Daddy and Chase seemed to have fun golfing today. Mama said she was really tired from all the work she did today.

Saturday, August 8, 2026

On Saturday morning, Nanaw discovered that Easter Sam had had an unexpected sleepover at Nanaw’s house so she sent a picture of him to Chase and Mama. Also on Saturday morning, Mama, Daddy and Chase went to Gibault to do some community service. Mr. G. wanted some dirt moved to the patio so people came with shovels, wheelbarrows, and one guy brought a tractor. They were there for three hours in the heat, and Mama said it was really hot. Chase will get three hours of community service toward his Gibault requirement of ten hours. Daddy and Chase went to five o’clock mass because they have a big golf game tomorrow. While they were at church, Mama took Travis the Traverse to the car wash and then came over to Nanaw’s house to pick up Tyler. Nanaw had told her she thought Tyler was depressed, and Mama should bring him home for a while. They still have to have the steps done but the man who does them is on vacation so they don’t know when he’ll be back to do their steps. Tyler will come back to Nanaw’s when the man does the steps. Mama texted Nanaw photos of Chase working at Gibault and of Tyler. Nanaw pointed out to Mama that from the pictures, it looks like their new floor goes well with their fireplace brick. For dinner, Mama went to McDonald’s.

Friday, August 7, 2026

Chase had a workout Friday morning from 10 to 11. He was happy about the fact that his friend Tucker would be in this workout also. Chase is always happy when that happens. On the way home from the workout, Chase told Nanaw that cousin Elias and his dad were coming to Columbia on Sunday to play golf. Chase said their tee time was 11 a.m. Chase sounded really happy about getting to golf with Elias. For lunch he had noodles left over from last night’s dinner at home. They looked kind of dry so Nanaw asked if she could put butter on them, and Chase finally agreed. It didn’t seem like much for lunch so Nanaw also fixed one of the Michaelina’s frozen fettuccine al fredo dinners. Uncle Mike came over in the afternoon to cut the grass. Nanaw gave Uncle Mike the candied orange slices Mama had bought for him. She bought them because last week Uncle Mike was reminiscing about candy from when he was little. One of the candies he talked about was the candied slices that looked like oranges. Mama knew which ones he meant and bought some for him. Uncle Mike shared them with Nanaw and Chase. When Nanaw took Chase home, she got to see the new floor in the hall and living room. It really looks beautiful. The only thing left to do are the steps. Nanaw didn’t get to see Mama because she stopped at Walmart and the library on her way home from work. She texted Nanaw that after she got home they all went to Play It Again in O’Fallon, Illinois and Chase bought a sand wedge golf club, and they had Chik Filet for dinner. Nanaw texted back that Chase was going to be the best equipped golfer ever. 

Thursday, August 6, 2026

Chase had a haircut appointment with Brittany today. They had their usual nice chat and at the end of the appointment, Brittany showed Chase how to style his hair with the Gorilla hairstyling spray. Mama had asked that they ask Brittany to do that. After the appointment, they went to Gibault to pick up Chase’s school schedule. At first, they just stood in the lobby, looking around, not knowing where to go to get the schedule. Then the school secretary came out into the lobby and asked if she could help. They told her they were there to pick up Chase’s school schedule, and she took them into the office and found Chase’s schedule on the counter. Mr. G. came out while they were there and said hello to Nanaw and Chase. The school secretary explained that Chase would find out more about his schedule and how things work during the orientation days next week. She said the two classes are made up of splitting the alphabet in half and that they don’t have any class lists like ICS did. Nanaw asked if her friend that she had worked with at A.G. Edwards still tutored in math there, and the secretary said yes so maybe Nanaw will see her sometime. When Nanaw took Chase home at the end of the day, they saw that the floor was done in the kitchen but nothing had been done in the living room, hall or the steps. So Mama and Daddy aren’t sure if the work will be done tomorrow. So maybe Tyler will have more sleepovers at Nanaw’s house. He certainly does like the baby food that the kitties get as their evening snack.

Wednesday, August 5, 2026

Mama brought leftovers for Chase’s lunch today: two potato cakes from Arby’s (where they had dinner from on Tuesday night) and mac and cheese from Burger King (where they had dinner from on Monday night). Chase liked his lunch but only had half of the mac and cheese; he’ll have the rest of the mac and cheese on Thursday, plus something else. Chase had a workout in the afternoon. Tucker was there, which made Chase happy. He likes when Tucker is in his workouts. He got to see Tucker again in the evening. Tucker and his family and Chase and his family went to a Grizzlies game. They had dinner there; Nanaw will ask Mama tomorrow what they had. Nanaw wanted Chase to do a Python lesson this afternoon but he said he didn’t feel like it and didn’t want to do it. Nanaw asked if he would promise to do a lesson tomorrow afternoon, and he said he would. Nanaw took the second picture below to show Mama Tyler stretched out on the kitchen floor with Charlie in Tyler’s pet taxi and a red toy on the floor between them. Mama and Daddy’s new floor is still not done so Tyler is still doing his sleepover. The floor guys have been working on the floor for two days and still have none of it laid down. Tomorrow Chase has a haircut appointment with Brittany, and then Chase and Nanaw are going to Gibault to pick up a copy of Chase’s schedule. 

Tuesday, August 4, 2026

On Tuesday morning, all on his own with no reminder, Chase told Nanaw he would take out the recycling and the trash. Nanaw was very impressed, and she told Mama what the boy had done, and Mama said she was so impressed. For lunch, Chase requested the chicken nugget frozen TV dinner so that’s what Nanaw fixed for him. Mama forwarded another email from Gibault, this one from the principal. Among the things it said were: Students will wear their full uniforms to orientation next Thursday and Friday. They can pick up their school schedules this week on Wednesday, Thursday or Friday. Chase wants to go pick his up on Thursday after his 12:30 haircut appointment with Brittany. They’re having a New Family Pot Luck next Friday evening, August 14, and Nanaw asked Mama if she could go with them. Mama said she had to ask Chase; Nanaw did, and he said, yes, she could go. In the afternoon, Nanaw asked Chase if he could help her get the suitcases and boxes up on the shelves downstairs, and he did. He also helped her move some tables around. He’s very strong because of the workouts, and Nanaw was grateful for his help and for his strength. When Nanaw took Chase home, Mama talked about ice cream before school starts, and she thinks they can go next Wednesday, August 12, the night before Chase’s first orientation day. The last picture is a basket of cat toys from the little house that Nanaw is giving to Tyler. 

Monday, August 3, 2026

On Monday, Chase had his usual healthy breakfast and snack, with a lot of protein and calcium – including cashews, almonds and sunflower and pumpkin seeds. His Lunchable wasn’t quite as healthy. He had his workout in the afternoon, from 2 to 3. It wasn’t as hot outside as it’s been but he came out very sweaty. On the way home, Chase and Nanaw had a really nice chat/conversation about Gibault and what high school is going to be like. It isn’t often that nice talks happen so Nanaw was very happy about it. They talked about how much bigger ICS is than Gibault. Nanaw looked up the numbers online and found that ICS has an enrollment of between 345 and 393 students, depending on the year, which makes sense because it covers 11 years, from preschool to 8th grade. Gibault has an enrollment of 170 to 192 students, depending on the year. Gibault has a teacher to student ratio of of 12 to 1. Nanaw will share those numbers with Chase. He talked about the day last school year when he shadowed Dante at Gibault, one of the students he knew from ICS. He said he thought the class length was shorter at Gibault than at ICS. He was very firm about not wanting to be in band anymore. He enrolled in a drawing class instead. He also was happy to be done with ICS and was looking forward to Gibault. Mr. G. sent out an email with information about the coming school year that Nanaw posted in the laundry room and gave a copy to Chase to read. They have early dismissal on the first Thursday of every month at 2:20 p.m. to make time for faculty meetings so Nanaw will have to make a lot of reminders so she picks Chase up on time. Nanaw printed out a lunch menu, and Chase looked at and said he thought the food sounded better than ICS. When Nanaw took Chase home, Mama wasn’t there because she was having a birthday dinner with Auntie LaLa. The picture of Chase at the laptop is him playing a golf game that’s on Roblox. The second to last picture is a little bowl that Mama used to eat out of when she was a little girl that Nanaw found downstairs. Mama said she wanted it if Nanaw didn’t want to keep it so Nanaw said she would give it to Mama. 

Saturday, August 1, and Sunday, August 2, 2026

Chase told Mama and she told Nanaw that Amelie never responded to Chase’s text. Mama said, oh, well, at least he tried. On Saturday morning, Daddy and Chase were going to go play golf at their regular place but it got flooded so it needs to dry out. They had to go to another golf course – Mama thinks it’s called the Bridges, and it’s off Mule Road, so it’s not too far. Of course, they had a good time. Mama said they said they had fun, even though they got rained on a little. They had Burger King for dinner. Chase is getting more and more interested in golf. It’s a shame that he can’t fit Gibault golf into his schedule this year because of hockey and baseball. On Saturday night, Nanaw went to a concert at her church and took the picture below. It was great and next time, she’ll take Mama and Chase. On Sunday morning, Daddy and Chase went to church. Then in the afternoon, Daddy, Mama and Chase went to a BBQ with the parents and kids from Chase’s new Columbia hockey team. The team is sponsored by Columbia High School but is open to anyone who lives in Columbia. They met the coaches and a lot of the parents. Chase knows a couple of the boys from years ago when they all played on the Khoury League baseball teams. After the BBQ, Mama and Chase brought Tyler over to Nanaw’s house for his sleepover while the new floor gets installed at the house. Nanaw was happy to see him – he’s such a sweet kitty. The last picture is Chase's first semester high school schedule.