Friday, January 30, 2026

Mama took Chase to school again on Friday morning because he had to be there early for Catholic Schools Week. When Nanaw picked Chase up from school, she parked in the far section and saw that they hadn't cleared the snow off that walkway so she had to walk to the end of the parking lot. Fortunately, she was able to find Chase before he started off in the parking lot looking for her car. He told Nanaw how they played volleyball as one of the Catholic Schools activities and that it was fun and he played well. He said because Cole is so tall, he can touch the top of the net without jumping. Nanaw asked him about the talent show and whether any of the crew performed. He said Drew performed in the talent show, playing the piano. Mama came over to Nanaw's house at 4:30 to take Nanaw to Dobbs to pick up the Escape. Dobbs fixed an oil leak for $800.00. Mama brought along Truman and Tee Tee wrapped in a blanket for Chase because he hadn't brought any of the guys to Nanaw's house. Nanaw is going to Chase's hockey game at 12:30 tomorrow, then taking Chase home with her. Mama and Daddy are going to a surprise birthday party at a winery.

Thursday, January 29, 2026

Mama took Chase to school today because he had to be there early to collect money for one of the Catholic Schools Week fundraising projects. She's going to take him to school again on Friday morning. Mama sent Nanaw some pictures of Chase from a visit by some of the Gibault students for Catholic Schools Week. One of the pictures had Chase front and center in the picture -- very cool. Nanaw decided to post it on Facebook. Mr. G. was there and took a picture of Chase with the huge Gibault Hawks mascot and another student. Because Chase told Nanaw that the snow on the walkways on the school parking lot had been cleaned off, she told him she'd be up at the front of the school to meet him. After school, Chase studied for tomorrow's religion test. He used a Quizlet to study, and it seemed really helpful. Then Nanaw quizzed him from the review questions in the religion textbook. He said he was okay for Friday's geography test on China but that he would go over it again. 

Tuesday, January 27, and Wednesday, January 28, 2026

On Tuesday morning, Chase was disappointed that his school didn't have a snow day and was open, especially when he found out that the Columbia schools were closed for another snow day. Almost always, when the Columbia schools are closed Chase's school is closed also because his school uses the Columbia buses. Brady's grandma texted Nanaw to say that Brady's sister Emma didn’t want to go to school but that Brady was okay with it. Nanaw texted back that Chase didn't want to go to school either. Debbie didn't have to pick up the kids because their Dad was home and would pick them up. Nanaw picked Chase up but stayed in the car like Mama and Chase told her to do. Nanaw texted Chase to tell him where he could find her car. According to Homework Central Chase didn't have any homework Tuesday but he has lots of tests and homework due on Friday. He has the Financial Literacy packet due Friday, a geography test on China, and a religion test on chapter 8. Chase forgot his backpack in the backseat of Nanaw's car, and Nanaw took it over to his house. On Wednesday, Chase was glad Columbia didn't have another snow day. Nanaw went grocery shopping at Waterloo Walmart and got more of the Jolly Rancher Gummies Chase likes so much. Unfortunately, they don't carry the 2 in 1 Gummies he likes best of all. Those Nanaw has to get at Telegraph Road Walmart. Nanaw also stopped at the Vet's office to check on what she should be doing about Taylor. She has to call a pharmacy about transdermal steroids to give her for her asthma and to keep up her appetite. Nanaw waited in the car again for Chase and texted him how to find her. When he got there, he told her that they'd cleaned the snow off the walkways so now Nanaw g so now Nanaw can go up to meet him. Mama sent Nanaw two pictures from the school Facebook page with Chase in them. In one of them, Nanaw and Mama thought it was Chase sitting at the front table but it was someone else and Chase was toward the back of the picture. Chase told Nanaw they played Trivia, and that his team came in third but should have been higher. He said he did well and answered lots of questions correctly.

Sunday, January 25 and Monday, January 26, 2026

On Sunday morning, Daddy went out into the cold and shoveled their driveway. He didn't want Chase to help because it was so cold. He planned to come over to Nanaw's on Monday to shovel her driveway. But Nanaw had two boys from down the street shovel her driveway and sidewalk. They did a really good job, and Nanaw paid them lots of money. Mama reported that Daddy went sledding on the other side of the hill in the park behind their house. Later, Chase went out into the park and went sledding with Daddy. They both said they had fun. Mama and Daddy got an exciting announcement from Chase's school saying he was having a snow day on Monday. And Mama and Daddy got a message from work that said they should work at home on Monday. Mama and Chase worked together to fix dinner for Sunday night. A friend of Mama had given her a new beef stroganoff recipe using hamburger, and Mama wanted to try it out. Mama sent Nanaw a picture of Chase at the stove, stirring. He really seems to enjoy cooking. Nanaw found the long lost Gnome decoration in the Christmas decorations and sent Mama a picture of it with a dog paw and a snowflake. On Monday morning, Daddy brought Chase over to Nanaw's house to spend the day with her. Mama sent the watermelon she bought for Nanaw from Walmart and leftover beef stroganoff for Chase's lunch. Mama told Nanaw she should have had a bite of it but Nanaw didn't. Chase carried about eight  boxes of Christmas decorations downstairs for Nanaw as part of his service work for his confirmation. Nanaw planned for him to take stuff out of a kitchen cabinet that she couldn't reach at 4 p.m., also for his service work. Chase played on the computer in the dining room and on his phone. Nanaw stuck by him while he played, in the living room and dining room. For a while, they went into Chase's room. There, Nanaw did crossword puzzles and read a Kindle book. Chase played on his phone, watched hockey on DirecTV and ate snacks, lots of snacks. He was waiting anxiously to hear whether he would have another snow day tomorrow. It all depends on what the Columbia schools do. Chase's school uses the Columbia buses so if Columbia has a snow day, so does Chase's school. All on his own, without prompting, Chase did his AR reading. In the evening, he was still going to have his regular practices -- they weren't cancelled. Chase's cousin Lindsey had her 28th birthday today, and Nanaw texted her Happy Birthday!

Friday, January 23, and Saturday, January 24, 2026

Chase didn't hear back from the email he sent to Mrs. H, about not having vocabulary lesson 16 to use to study for Friday's vocabulary test. The whole mystery was solved in AR class when Mrs. H. explained that somehow the graded vocab packets weren't returned to the class after they were graded. She passed them out and gave the class time to study the ten vocabulary words from lesson 16. Chase told Nanaw all about this when she picked him up from school on Friday afternoon. He said he thought he did okay on the vocabulary test. At Nanaw's house, he finally had his leftover pizza for his after school snack. He was happy that he had very little homework over the weekend. Nanaw was sort of surprised about that; she thought maybe the teachers would assign lots of homework in case they had a snow day on Monday. The forecasts were for lots of snow on Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday, Columbia had an inch or an inch and a half of snow, not as much as predicted but it’s supposed to snow overnight and on Sunday. Mama said Chase's workout session was cancelled because of the snow, and he stayed home all of the day except when he and Daddy went to 5 p.m. mass. In the morning, Mama had gone to Red Roof around 9 and she said the roads were getting covered. At 11, Nanaw was tempted to go to Schnuck's to get a newspaper but decided it was better to stay home and not take any chances and to read the paper online, even thought she doesn't like to do it that way. Mama said that during the day, Chase played video games and floor hockey with pencils and the miniature plastic hands that Nanaw doesn't like. They had potato soup for dinner. Mama, Uncle Mike and Nanaw exchanged the photos of their fires below.

Thursday, January 22, 2026

Nanaw went grocery shopping at Telegraph Road Walmart after taking Chase to school. They're (the infamous they) predicting a major snow storm this weekend. Chase is hoping for a snowstorm that gives him a snow day on Monday. Nanaw's church is considering closing on Sunday. Everybody at Walmart was stocking up on groceries, etc. Nanaw went to Schnuck's for her newspaper, and Schnuck's was crowded also. When Nanaw picked Chase up from school, they talked about studying for tomorrow's vocabulary test. But when they got home and started looking for vocabulary lessons 16, 17 and 18, they couldn't find lesson 16. Nanaw texted Cole's mom but Cole didn't have it either. Mama contacted other moms and their boys didn't have it either. Chase thought maybe Mrs. H did return lesson 16 to the class. Nanaw suggested that he email her, and he said he would. Mama said he said he did but Nanaw never heard if the teacher answered. Chase and Nanaw studied vocabulary lessons 17 and 18 until it was time to take Chase home. Mama said she would go through the lessons this evening, and Nana told Chase they would study the words again in the morning before school.

Wednesday, January 21, 2026

Daddy had the day off from work today so he took Chase to school. Nanaw had her church meetings today so Daddy also picked Chase up from school because it was early dismissal. Nanaw came to pick Chase up from his house on her way home from her meetings and found him in bed with a headache. After a few minutes, he got up to do his homework. He had to finish his research paper on Spanish Christmas traditions and do his English worksheet on "the" and "a, an." After he finished his homework, he went back to bed. Daddy said when he picked Chase up from school, Chase had told him he had a headache, and he was also tired from being out so late for last night's hockey game so that's why he was in bed. Nanaw proofread the research paper and inserted some commas and fixed an incomplete sentence. She asked Chase if it was okay to make the changes to the actual paper on the Chromebook, and he said it was okay. Nanaw printed out the paper, then asked Chase if he still wanted to go Nanaw's house. He said yes and he felt better. Daddy said he could stay till 5:30. Chase played on the computer, and there was a lot of laughing involved so the YouTube videos he was watching must have been funny, Mama was going out to dinner at Miller's on Main with Aunt Becca and Uncle Stan because it was a fund raiser for Helping Strays. She texted that Aunt Becca gave her a cute dog hoodie as a late birthday present. Mama was ordering takeout for Daddy to pick up for him and Chase. Chase was going to have boneless parmesan garlic wings with ranch.