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. 

Saturday, September 5, Sunday, September 6, and Monday, September 7 (Labor Day!)

Saturday was a quiet day at Chase’s house, with Mama and Daddy getting ready for their Labor Day party on Sunday. Mama did the grocery shopping at Schnuck’s in the morning and said she saw one lonely can of cherry chip icing on the shelf, and she bought it! Chase worked for a long time on his homework (Yay for Chase!), hit some baseballs, helped Mama move the games and toys back upstairs from downstairs. They’d moved them downstairs when the new floor was installed. After that, he had some screen time. He also sorted through some toys downstairs. Later, he and Mama played some Wii, and Mama said she didn’t play too well. Sunday was Mama and Daddy’s Labor Day party. Chase was so excited and happy that cousin Elias was coming. They ended up spending almost six hours together -- the whole party they were stuck to one another like glue. They spent most of their time together downstairs playing video games on the big screen TV. Most of the games were golf, a game that both of them play a lot. For awhile, they went up to the garage because Daddy had set up ping pong and other games out there. Nanaw went downstairs to visit Chase and Elias and took pictures of them. Guests included lots of Daddy’s cousins and his Uncle Will-Bill, plus Uncle Mike and Aunt Becky, cousins Nichole, Jon Jon, Kris, Rob, Joey and Julia, Hudson and Nyeal. It was fun talking to everyone. Unfortunately, Lindsey and Dylan couldn’t come. They have a new kitty named Butterscotch. Butter for short. Rob told his family about a first date he recently went on. Mama and cousin Kris went for a walk over in the park to see the new bridge they built. On Monday, Labor Day, Mama and Chase went to the ICS picnic around noon, even though Chase said he didn’t want to go. But he heard that his good friend Hunter was going to be there so he agreed to go. Mama wanted to stay for Bingo with Michelle, and Daddy was going to come pick Chase up. He discovered that Hunter wasn’t there, and Chase was crabby about that. So Mama stayed with him instead of playing Bingo. But then Hunter came, and Mama spent time with Becky and Michelle, and Chase went around with Hunter. Mama and the girls went to play Bingo but Chase wanted to go home so they left. Mama was really hot so she was fine with that. 

Friday, September 4, 2026

Chase and Mama both had the day off on Friday. Mama took the day off to clean the house for the Labor Day party and to have an adventure with Chase. For Chase, it was his first Enrichment Friday at Gibault, which means a day off to do whatever you think is best. The first thing Mama and Chase did was to deliver the blankets and comforters Mama is donating to Helping Strays. Mama was careful to not visit with any dogs. Next, they picked up Nanaw for their planned shopping trip and lunch. They decided to go to lunch first because it was almost 11:30 a.m. So their first stop was Arby’s. Chase and Mama had roast beef and cheddar cheese sandwiches on onion buns, along with potato cakes. Nanaw had a chicken sandwich with potato cakes. Next, they went to Costco. Mama had just renewed their membership, and Chase and Mama wanted to look around. Chase wanted to see if Costco had any golf equipment but they were never able to find the sports equipment area. At Target, Chase found the exact large red notebook he wanted for Math class. He also found some yellow golf balls he wanted to buy. Mama dropped Chase off at Nanaw’s house and said she’d pick him up at 3:30. He was going golfing with Brady and Drew at the River Lakes golf course at 4:30., and Mama was going to drop him off. 

Thursday, September 3, 2026

Everybody reminded Nanaw that Chase had an early dismissal of 2:20 p.m. today (Mama, Chase and Brady’s grandma were the everybody). It was really hot (101 degrees) so Brady’s grandma and Nanaw walked over to the shade while they waited for the boys. Tomorrow is the first Enrichment Friday. Chase has quite a full day planned. The first thing is that at 10 a.m. he and Mama are going to Helping Strays to drop off some blankets and comforters for the dogs. Then they’re picking up Nanaw and going to Target to get at least one large notebook for Chase – a red one for math. He said that’s probably the only notebook he needs because he’s going to try typing notes in his other classes on the laptop. They might go to Costco because Chase wants to. Then they’ll go to lunch at Arby’s. Nanaw is going to get a chicken sandwich and potato cakes. She’ll report tomorrow what Chase and Mama ordered. After lunch, Mama will take Chase and Nanaw back to Nanaw’s house, and she’ll go home to work on cleaning the house for the picnic on Sunday. Chase and Nanaw will then go to Telegraph Road Schnuck’s to get the ingredients to make pizza bread. They’ll need bread, pizza sauce and pepperoni. Nana has lots of shredded mozzarella that they can use. Chase is excited about making the pizza bread, and he’s going to make sure to make some for Mama. At 4:30 on Friday, Chase is going to the River Lakes golf course with Brady and Drew. After school today, Chase emailed Nanaw his two Math homework assignments, and she printed them so she can work on them, too. Chase told  Nanaw that he got his Math test score: he said he got an 89, a high B and just one point away from an A. But he was happy about it because his previous score was 84, a low B. He also promised Nanaw (with a pinky swear) that he would do a Python lesson tomorrow -- he hasn't done one since school started.

Wednesday, September 2, 2026

On the way to school Wednesday morning, Chase told Nanaw he would have time to study more for the Math test during one of his open mods today (a mod is what they call class time). Nanaw had lunch with Uncle Doug and Aunt Rita today at The Public House restaurant in Ballwin and updated him on all the grandkids. She had a yummy quesadilla. When Nanaw picked Chase up from school, he said he liked the cheeseburger he had for lunch. He thought he did a good job on the Math test and that all the things he’d studied had been on the test. His only homework was to draw a picture in the sketchbook for his Drawing class. This time he was supposed to draw an object, and he chose the rock he got at the retreat yesterday. He said it was really hard to draw the rock. He had told Nanaw it was a geode with crystals inside. It was really hot outside today – the thermometer in the Bronco said it was 101. Chase had a workout at five p.m. today, and Nanaw hoped that they got to do it in the air-conditioned part of the building instead of the part with just fans. 

Tuesday, September 1, 2026

On Tuesday morning, Nanaw reminded Chase about his pinky-swear promise yesterday that they would study for Wednesday’s Math test after school on Tuesday, and he agreed. When Mama brought Chase over to Nanaw’s house, she told Nanaw that she and Daddy were going to the AC/DC concert at the Dome next Tuesday. She said she had wanted to invite Nanaw to go because Nanaw likes AC/DC so much but knew Nanaw would have trouble managing the long walk and climbing up to the seats. Nanaw was sad about that but knew that Mama was right. So Nanaw got out her AC/DC CDs and played one of them on the ride to school, much to Chase’s dislike. She also did the following post on Facebook:

“Ellen and Will are going to the AC/DC concert next week at the Dome. So Nanaw dug out her AC/DC CDs to play on the drive to Gibault, much to Chase's dismay. He also disapproved of Nanaw dancing in the driver's seat. Best drive to school ever!” 

Today was the daylong retreat at Valmeyer for the Gibault freshman class. When Nanaw picked Chase up from school, she asked how the retreat was, and Chase said it was good. He said they played games, heard speakers (teachers and students from Gibault), went outside for recess where he played wiffle ball, and ended up going to church in Valmeyer. When they got to Nanaw’s house, Chase did his Civics homework. Then he and Nanaw studied for Wednesday’s Math test, as he promised they would do. When they started studying, Nanaw reminded Chase to go back over the test and make sure he had done all the problems. (On the quiz two weeks ago, he forgot to do one of the problems.) She also reminded him about going back to check his work if he had time. They studied his notes from class on evaluating expressions and equations, writing word problems algebraically, and naming the set or sets to which a group of numbers belonged. He seemed to understand most of the material and promised to go over his notes again tonight and during his free time tomorrow.