Saturday, May 11, 2024

On Saturday, Chase had an exciting adventure. Daddy taught him how to cut the grass. He cut the front yard grass with Daddy's direction and got an increase in his weekly allowance from $5.00 to $10.00. Then, Chase's baseball team had a game in the afternoon. After the baseball game, Chase, Daddy and Mama went to Red Lobster for Daddy's belated birthday dinner. Nanaw came over to visit about six-thirty. She wanted to help Chase with his math study guide for the math final exam and with the math extra credit packet but Chase didn't really want to do it. He just wanted to play. Nanaw tried to explain to him how important it is to take his math seriously but Chase wasn't in the mood to listen. He promised to study his science study packets tomorrow for the science test on Monday. Nanaw told him that she was going outside to talk to Mama and Daddy about the math, and Chase went out to play in the back yard. Nanaw told Mama and Daddy that Chase wasn't taking the math seriously and that she needed them to impress on him how important this was. They said they would, and Daddy said tomorrow he would have Chase study his science and work on his math packets. Chase does well in his other subjects; he has an A in all of the other subjects -- it's just math that he has trouble with. He started out the year with an A in math in the first quarter. The next two quarters he had a B. For the fourth quarter, he now has a C. Hopefully, he'll do well with the extra credit packet and the final exam. Over the summer, Nanaw is going to go easy on him about math and try to get him to enjoy it. She'll also encourage him next school year to go back and check his homework assignments. She'll also encourage him to check his answers on his tests when he can and when he has enough time.

Friday, May 10, 2024

On Friday afternoon, Chase did his usual thing of not doing any homework after school, except for Nanaw asking him about math problems. She was doing the problems in his study guide packet for the math final exam on Thursday, May 16. He also has an extra credit math packet that's due on Thursday, May 16. Nanaw will do those problems too, next week. Friday night was the awards ceremony and dance for the 6th, 7th and 8th graders. Chase was very vocal about not wanting to go to the dance. He was not happy about going to the awards ceremony but had agreed to go to that with Daddy. Mama couldn't go because she was going to the celebration of life for Auntie LaLa's brother-in-law Scott. Nanaw was going out to the little house so she couldn't go either. Daddy took a picture for Mama and Nanaw of Chase getting an award for playing soccer. Daddy had insisted that Chase go to the dance for an hour. Then if he wanted to leave, he could call or text Daddy to come get him, which is what he ended up doing. He told Daddy he was bored. Mama found a picture of the dance with Chase in it on the school Facebook page and sent it to Nanaw. 

Thursday, May 9, 2024

Today was an important, exciting day for Chase. It was the day of the spring band concert and art show. Chase missed the Christmas band concert in December because he was sick. So he was really looking forward to this concert. After school, he practiced the songs on the keyboard for Nanaw to hear and did a really good job. Mama invited Nanaw over for a special dinner of tacos. They left for school at about 6:05; Chase was supposed to be there in the band room by 6:15.  Mama drove and was able to park on the lower level, which is really convenient. On the way in to the gym, they saw Brady's mom, and she said there were seats available next to where they were sitting so that's where Chase's family sat. Nanaw and Mama went to look at the artwork and saw Chase's Medusa picture. It's very cool and cute, not scary. Chase's art teacher does a wonderful job teaching art to the kids. And the band teacher does a miraculous job teaching the kids to play various instruments and music. Chase is in the concert band, consisting of 6th, 7th and 8th graders. They played Clutch, the Mandalorian and Anyway You Want It. Chase is lucky to have the teachers he has. After a great, professional-sounding band concert, Chase, Brady and Hunter wanted to go to Dairy Queen for ice cream so everybody did. The boys rode in the far rear section of Mama's car -- very illegal. Brady and Emma's mom came too. 

Wednesday, May 8, 2024

On Wednesday morning, Nanaw asked Chase if he would like it if Nanaw bought a used version of his mathematics book for them to use in their summer school, and he said an excited yes, he would like that. He said there was a green section at the back of the book with extra practice work. So Nanaw ordered it from Thrift Books for $13.00. Nanaw had gotten his math book out of his backpack so she could order the right book, and unfortunately, Nanaw forgot to put the math book back in the backpack. She discovered it on the dining room table about 8:30 a.m. and quickly took it up to school for Chase. Fortunately, he didn't have math till later in the morning. Nanaw went to run some errands, and she got a text from Mama asking if she'd received Chase's email. Nanaw called Mama to find out what it was about. He had sent an email to both of them telling them about a severe thunderstorm warning.  So Mama was going to leave the office to go work at home, and Nanaw went home instead of finishing her errands. Mama got a parent alert text from Chase's school saying they were taking the students downstairs to the cafeteria because of the severe storm warnings. A little while later, they were notified that the alert was over. When Nanaw picked Chase up from school, she asked him if it was fun going to the cafeteria for the storm alert, and he said yes. He also said they did the rosary. At Nanaw's house, they studied for his religion test. After studying, Chase was on the sofa playing with his phone, and Nanaw was sitting  nearby in a chair. Chase turned to Nanaw, and said, Nanaw, I love you so very much." He hardly ever does anything like that, and it meant so much to Nanaw. On the way taking Chase home, it poured down rain so Nanaw didn't go inside Chase's house. Daddy came out and got the bags. Chase's baseball practice was cancelled because of the storm warnings.

Tuesday, May 7, 2024

Mama had to leave quickly when she dropped Chase off at Nanaw's house on Tuesday morning. She hadn't expected to drive to work and didn't have a lot of gas so she had to get gas on the way to work. Later in the day, ,Mama told Nanaw that Chase's math test grade was good enough to raise his overall math grade so Mama and Nanaw were happy about that. Mama also told Nanaw that Chase got a 100 on his War Stories book report, which is wonderful. Chase brought home a lot of the projects he's working on so Nanaw could look at them. He also brought home his math test paper. Nanaw got different answers on some of the problems so it was all very confusing. Nanaw read through the book report he wrote for Where the Red Fern Grows, and he did a really good job on it. He was supposed to have baseball practice tonight but it was cancelled. The coach gave the team an assignment to watch at least 45 minutes of tonight's Cardinals baseball game with their dads and to analyze the game and watch what the players are doing. The second picture below is of six-month old Sidney Crosby the Cat that popped up on Nanaw's phone.

Monday, May 6, 2024

When Mama brought Chase over to Nanaw's house on Monday morning, she told Nanaw that Chase was very tired from the weekend and from getting home so late last night, and he wouldn’t be talking much. And Mama was right. Chase hardly said a word before going into school. When Nanaw picked him up from school, he said he had a good day. They had chicken noodle soup for lunch. He had a math test today, and he said he thinks he did well. That would be good, if it could bring up his grade. He took one of the reading tests for AR and raised his grade to an A. He has several projects due this week -- and Nanaw doesn't know what the projects involve. She asked Mama to find out about them this evening if she can. According to Homework Central, the projects are: a Where the Red Fern Grows final project in reading; a moon phases packet in science; a Cinco de Mayo presentation in Spanish, and an Andrew Jackson poster in history. He's going to be a busy fellow this week.

Sunday, May 5, 2024 -- Cinco de Mayo -- Happy Birthday, Daddy and Cousin Joey

Mama reported to Nanaw that Chase's baseball team started playing their game in the early afternoon but the game had a delay. They had played part of an inning when it lightninged. That's a mandatory 30 minutes off the field. Then it started pouring down rain. They had lunch and had to be back on the field at 2. They lost their first game and then played their second game, which they lost also, 7 to 4. But they still won a medal. They headed home and hoped to be home by 10. Mama had Chase studying whenever he had a few minutes. He studied and English and math, Mama said he could study on the drive home. He has a math test tomorrow, and this is his last chance to improve his math grade. Mama said it rained all the rain home so hopefully Daddy was driving. Mama doesn't like driving in the rain. Mama told Daddy that she owes him a birthday dinner because of going to the baseball tournament  instead of celebrating Daddy's birthday.