Saturday, August 31, 2024

Mama brought Chase over to Nanaw's house on Saturday morning while she went to the grocery store. They got there about 10 a.m., and Chase told Mama he wanted her to pick him up at 11:30. He brought along the guys and his phone, and he wanted to go downstairs and play on the keyboard. So Nanaw brought the guys downstairs, and they all listened to Chase play "Sleigh Ride." They've been practicing that in Band for the Christmas concert. Chase is going to try to bring home the music to it this week so he can play the rest of it for Nanaw. After the keyboard playing, Chase and the guys got in the playpen, and Nanaw made a tent out it for them. Chase played on his phone till Mama got there to pick him up. Chase and Nanaw packed up the guys and went upstairs. Mama had bought some special things for Chase to eat at breakfast or for snacks because of his braces. She bought frozen waffles and frozen pancakes, along with syrup. She also got some Nature Valley Soft-Baked Muffin Bars. In the afternoon, Mama texted Nanaw asking if she knew where Chase's AR book, "Into the Clouds" was. Nanaw found it in Chase's room where he left it Thursday when he was home from school. Nanaw took it over to Chase's house and saw the ping pong table in the garage. Chase and Daddy had been playing ping pong. Tomorrow is the Labor Day party, and Chase is looking forward to seeing cousin Elias. 

Friday, August 30, 2024

Mama and Daddy had the day off from work on Friday so Mama took Chase to school, and Nanaw missed her little morning buddy. When Nanaw picked Chase up from school, he told her all about Field Day and how much fun it was. He said first thing in the morning, they had religion class and the religion test, then Field Day. Chase's Field Day shirt was lime green. The teachers and the administrators wore yellow shirts. Brady's sister Emma wore a cool, very sophisticated-looking black and white shirt. Chase was disappointed that they didn't have the kickball tournament this year, and he didn't know why. He said they still played kickball, which he was happy about. Nanaw was excited to hear that Chase's church buddy Henry was in Chase's Field Day group. Last week, Mama saw a picture on the school Facebook page of Chase and Henry and some other kids in one of the kindergarten rooms reading books. Nanaw had asked Chase what Henry looked like and Chase said, "A mini-me" And the picture (the second one below) certainly shows that Henry looks like a mini Chase. Nanaw likes the idea of Chase watching over a kindergartner and taking care of him during mass. Chase didn't do any homework after school; he played on the computer and on his Chromebook. He has a lot of homework but he has all weekend plus a day off from school on Tuesday to get it done.

Thursday, August 29, 2024

On Thursday morning, Chase's mouth hurt because of the braces and because one of the bands had broken off. Mama had given him Tylenol at home before coming to Nanaw's. After eating breakfast at Nanaw's, he threw up a couple of times, and Mama thought it was because of the Tylenol on an empty stomach. Mama and Nanaw tried to convince Chase to go to school because they were afraid that what happened last year with the stomach problems was happening again. But Chase refused to go. Nanaw asked Chase if his refusal was because he was afraid he would throw up at school, and he said yes. Mama finally said he could stay home, and she would call the school. She also contacted the ortho office and got a 10:50 appointment to get his braces fixed. It was really cute that Chase helped Nanaw find the right parking lot and building of the ortho office. After the ortho appointment, they got Nanaw's newspaper at Schnuck's, then went to Chase's school to pick up his schoolwork. In the afternoon, they worked on the questions for chapter 2 of the outsiders, and Chase did the English worksheet assignment. They also studied for Chase's religion test on Friday morning before Field Day started. Daddy and Chase were going to study for the religion test again in the evening. Chase and Mama went to Oberweis for ice cream for dinner, after they went to the library to get more books for Mama. Mama had a hot fudge brownie sundae, and Chase had two scoops of cookies and cream ice cream. Before he left for his Fathers' Club meeting where they were going to start setting things up for Monday's picnic, Daddy turned on the movie Miracle about the 1980 USA Olympic hockey team and Chase watched it and liked it, which was a miracle. Chase usually doesn't like to watch movies. Mama and Daddy are off work Friday to get things ready for their Labor Day party on Sunday. 

Wednesday, August 28, 2024

On Wednesday morning, Mama took Chase to the orthodontist to get his braces put on. Mama sent pictures to Nanaw of Chase at the ortho and of the braces. Mama says he has blue rubber bands, his favorite color, and that it took longer than she expected for them to put the braces on. They also got to see dental Theresa, who was there getting braces for her son Max. During the day, Chase texted Mama to tell her that something had broken off the braces and that they really hurt. Mama had given him Tylenol in the morning, and she told Nanaw to give him more when she picked him up from school. A disappointing thing happened when Nanaw looked at FACTS and saw that Chase had gotten a 51 on a geography pop quiz. Chase hadn't known his score and didn't know why his grade was so bad. Mama and Nanaw both made the decision not to be upset about Chase's grades and not to worry about them. He has a science test tomorrow that he studied for; he also did a history assignment about the Articles of Confederation, and a geography review paper. In the evening, Mama, Daddy, Chase and Nanaw went to Marie's for ice cream -- Chase's back-to-school ice cream, two weeks after school started. Chase had Superman ice cream, Mama and Daddy had some kind of chocolate ice cream, and Nanaw had a hot fudge sundae.

Tuesday, August 27, 2024

Chase was supposed to have an ICS baseball game this afternoon but when Mama dropped Chase off on Tuesday morning, she said it might be cancelled because of the hot weather. In the afternoon, when Nanaw picked Chase up from school, he asked if she'd heard anything from Mama about the game. Nanaw said no, but that the weather was unbearable so hopefully it would be cancelled. When they called Mama for the pickup call, she said the game was cancelled and that she was so busy she didn't have time to text but knew she'd be talking to them on the pickup call. Chase has a math test tomorrow, and it's a big deal. He did the assignments for the test but when Nanaw looked at his work, it was not readable. His writing was too light to read and he hadn't done his best writing. He only missed one problem out of 26 problems so he knows the work. But the teacher will take off points again because of his writing and what she calls ordered writing.. So Nanaw had him do half a page of the problems, and it was really well-done. His printing was dark and easily read; he did a better job forming his letters; he showed his work, and things seemed ordered and organized. Nanaw told Chase to do the practice Chapter test tonight and to do his absolute best writing. Nanaw won't see Chase in the morning  because he has an orthodontist appointment, and Mama is taking him to school.

Monday, August 26, 2024

On Monday morning, Chase and Nanaw did some final studying for today's English quiz and geography quiz. When Nanaw picked Chase up from school, he told her that he had gotten an 83 on Friday's math quiz. Nanaw was surprised because from the studying they did, Chase had known the math well, and he said he thought he had done well on the quiz. He said that he got such a low grade because he hadn't shown his work, and the teacher took off for that. Chase and Nanaw went through the quiz. The teacher gave two examples of how Chase should have shown his work. She also said his work was sloppy (the first teacher to do so) and that he tried to squeeze his work into the small spaces by the problems. It turned out that Chase only missed one problem on the quiz so if he'd shown all of his work and not been so sloppy, he would have gotten a 97 on the quiz. (He also missed the bonus problem but that didn’t affect his grade.) Nanaw told Chase that from now on, he should use a piece of loose-leaf to do the problems and show his work. She said he had to do his best writing and make sure he pressed down hard enough on the pencil to make the writing readable. Chase has a math test Thursday (Homework Central says Wednesday but Chase says that's wrong.), and Nanaw is going to have him practice showing his work and writing legibly on the study guide and the chapter test and not being sloppy. Mama, Daddy and Nanaw have been telling him about his sloppy work for years without it doing any good. From now on, he'll have to redo any homework that's sloppy. He and Daddy went through the math quiz tonight. Mama said Chase's friends came by in the early evening and hung out at Chase's house for a bit.

Sunday, August 25, 2024

Chase had a busy baseball day today, and he and Daddy didn't go to church Sunday morning. He had a baseball tournament with the Bears on Sunday. Mama says the Bears only play tournaments, and they're almost always on weekends. They left the house at 9 on Sunday morning to go to the tournament in Fenton. Mama says most of the tournaments will be in Fenton. They took along their tent-like thing to keep out the sun, and Mama said it really worked well with the heat. Nanaw asked her if she'd used her cooler yet in her wonderful chair she got for Mothers' Day but she said no, not yet. Mama reported to Nanaw about yesterday's baseball results. They lost both games yesterday, and Chase pitched the second game. Mama wasn't there but Daddy told her Chase pitched well and was happy about it. Today, the B team lost the first game (Chase played on the B team), then the A team won (Chase played on the A team), and they played again at 5:45 (Chase played on the A team). They won and got trophies. Mama sent Nanaw a picture of Chase in his pinstripe uniform, one of the team and one of Chase with a trophy. In the evening, Nanaw came to visit just as they got home about 7:30, with Dairy Queen blizzards for dinner. Chase has two quizzes tomorrow, one in geography and one in English. Chase and Nanaw sat at the kitchen table and studied.