Sunday, January 7, 2024

Mama sent Nanaw a super text for Days of Chase giving Nanaw details on Chase's hockey game on Sunday morning and his shots at Walgreen's. Here's what Mama said: "Chase's hockey team played against a Lady Liberty team (for fun) because a player on our team has a sister on that team. Affton won 3-0 and our #95 (that would be our Chase) scored the 2nd goal. Later, we went to Walgreen's for his Covid and flu shots, and he did well getting the shots -- a miracle considering how scared he is of shots. He fussed for about 30 seconds and then the lady told him to look at his Mama so he did and she got them done! As a reward, Daddy got him some knee hockey things -- something for the net and something that shoots the ball to him." Nanaw went over to Chase's house for dinner -- Mama's delicious chili. No cornbread, though. Mama had crescent rolls that were about to expire so she fixed those. While they were waiting for dinner to be ready, Chase and Nanaw sat in Chase's room watching the Kansas City Chiefs win their football game on Chase's TV. After dinner, everybody played one game of Kids Against Maturity (a hilarious game) and one game of Uno where all the cards were wild cards. Both games were really fun, and it was a great evening.

Saturday, January 6, 2024

Nanaw was very excited that Mama brought Chase over to Nanaw's house while Mama went to the grocery store. They used to do this all the time but Chase's baseball and hockey schedules have interfered with the Saturday morning visits. It snowed all night long in Columbia and St. Louis, and Columbia got about two inches of snow, and Uncle Mike got about the same. Uncle Mike said he helped with the snow removal at UMSL on his recliner at home, directing the contractors who were doing the snow removal. He said in two years, when he retires, it can snow as much as it wants. Chase was excited about the snow, and about the possibility of making snow cones. He went outside and gathered up some snow in a red Solo cup. Then he put a Tropical Punch Kool-Aid Jammer in it -- it was blue. Then he found another flavor that was red and went outside and got another cup of snow. He liked the taste of both the red and blue snow cones. Then he decided to mix them together to see if he got purple, and he did! When Mama came to pick him up, she had exciting news for him. Hunter's brother Mason had called Mama to see if Chase could go sledding with him and Hunter on the hill in the cemetery by their school. So Chase and Mama went. Mama said Chase had a great time, and she sent pictures to Nanaw. 

Friday, January 5, 2024

Chase's good mood continues, much to the delight of Mama and Nanaw, even though Mama still worries about potential jinxing by talking about the good mood. Chase and Nanaw both forgot about Chase's vocabulary assignment due today but they went over it together before Chase went to school. He quickly finished one of the pages he hadn't done completely because he wasn't sure of what the words meant. When Nanaw picked Chase up from school, he and Nanaw went over his list of assignments from Homework Central. Some were Tuesday but he said he already had them done. He has both baseball and hockey practice on Monday night so won't have much if any time to do homework. Chase and Nanaw played with his hockey Playmobil in his room again, and it was grand fun. He had hockey practice at 7:30 tonight, and Mama was going to take him at 6:40. It snowed a little in the evening, and the snow was very pretty. Nanaw took a picture of the Christmas lights in the snow; it's picture number three. If there isn't too much snow tomorrow morning, Mama will bring Chase over at 9:30 to see Nanaw. Mama sent picture number one to Nanaw and Uncle Mike today, saying it was one of her favorites.

Thursday, January 4, 2024

Chase has been in the best mood the past few days and that makes Mama and Nanaw so happy. Mama does like to talk about Chase being in a good mood because she thinks that jinxes it. But Nanaw just wants to enjoy the boy's happiness. When she dropped Chase off on Thursday morning, she wished him good luck on his math exam and told him if he does well on it, it might raise his grade from a B to an A. When Nanaw picked Chase up from school, he said he thought he did a good job on the match exam. He was very happy that he didn't have any homework. He said he and Nanaw could play with his hockey Playmobil and his hockey guys. And that's what they did. For all the time after school that Chase stayed at Nanaw's house, they played in his room with his hockey stuff, and it was great fun. Chase had to go to get his hair trimmed after he got home from Nanaw's. He goes to the same lady who does his friend Joey's hair. She put a warm towel on Chase, just for fun, but Chase didn't much like it. He said it was too hot. Mama took a picture of him with the hot towel and also one of him at home with his new haircut. Mama also made an appointment for him on Sunday to get his flu and Covid shots, and he definitely did not like that. 

Wednesday, January 3, 2024

Mama dropped Chase off at 6:45, on her way to her second day in the office. Her locker got messed up yesterday, and someone came to fix it today so that made her happy. Yesterday, she and Becky had to sit waiting for a train to pass for 25 minutes, but today there was no train. Chase was in a really good this morning and after school, which made Nanaw very happy. He hasn't been very cheerful lately so maybe things will be better with him back in school. His class had a bonus recess today, in place of band, because they don't have any music to practice yet, and he was happy about that. Usually, they only have one recess a day, at lunchtime. When the students were younger, they had three recesses a day -- oh, the good old days. After school, Chase and Nanaw studied for his math exam tomorrow. It's an exam, he said, not a quiz or a test. Evidently, it goes quiz, test, and exam, with exam being the most difficult. The exam was over all the math they studied in the second quarter. Nanaw went over the math problems, and Chase got all of them right. The math didn't seem very hard. It seemed more like 5th grade math than sixth grade so hopefully, Chase will do well on it. Chase and Nanaw had wanted to play with his Hockey Playmobil when the homework was done but there wasn't enough time left so Chase played on the computer for a few minutes. He said maybe they could play on the Playmobil tomorrow. The first picture is a selfie that Chase took of himself for Nanaw because she forgot to take a picture of him. The second picture is one that showed up in Nanaw's messages from November 2021 at Rockbridge.

Tuesday, January 2, 2024

On Tuesday, Daddy had the day off to take Chase down by SLU hospital for a test. They had Chase drink strawberry-flavored barium. Then they did x-rays. The test turned out fine with no blockages or obstructions. On the 16th, Mama will take Chase for another test at the same place. This one is an endoscopy where they sedate Chase, and then put a camera down his throat. Poor little fellow. After the test, Daddy took Chase to McDonald’s for lunch. In the afternoon, they went skating at the ice rink in Kennedy Park, by Suson Park. Uncle Mike came to visit Nanaw in the afternoon, and he brought Chase’s hockey guys toy that was in one of the boxes Uncle Mike took to get rid of. After Uncle Mike left, Nanaw went to visit Chase. He got out his Playmobil toy, and Nanaw watched him play with it. Mama was back at the office today, and she told Mama that their desks could be raised up so they could work standing up if they wanted to. She took a picture of her friend Becky standing at her raised desk and sent it to Nanaw to demonstrate.

Happy New Year! Monday, January 1, 2024

Chase and Daddy were going to ice skating on New Year's Day, but somehow the times got mixed up and they didn't get to skate and had to come home. After they got home, Nanaw came over to visit and help Chase with his match and extra credit project. He selected five items on the extra credit list to do: playing solitaire with a deck of cards; playing a board game with family or friends; go ice skating; go to mass with family; and writing a thank you note to Mama for the Floor Ball game that he loves. After finishing the five extra credit things, Chase worked on his math. It was a review preparing for a math test next week. Nanaw checked his work when he was finished. And he missed two out of the 36 problems. The funny thing is that both of the problems he missed had the same error. He said 12 times 11 was 121 but it's 132. Tomorrow, Mama goes back into the office three days a week, for the first time since the pandemic. She and her friend Becky are going to carpool together when they can. Mama will be bringing Chase over to Nanaw's house at 6:45 instead of 7 so Nanaw will have to get ready faster. Daddy has the day off tomorrow, and he's going to take Chase for a test where he drinks barium, and they they do X-rays, trying to see why Chase is having trouble with throwing up.