A "little" background

This is an entry I had saved in early December and was going to add to before publishing it. More recent news to come...

Well, for starters, we here at Camp Chapman have been mourning the fate of the Texas Tech Red Raiders football team. I cannot tell you how exciting it was to see Maura celebrating just as much as Stewart, Emily and I were when they defeated UT. But when they played lamb to the slaughter to Oklahoma... oh, it was just painful to watch. Grayson & Crae were all too ready to go to bed. Stewart finally convinced Maura, although there was still time on the clock, the game was over. Off to bed she goes. She apparently heard us talking about the BEATING Tech took. Moments after the game was over, we hear sobbing - yes, loud sobbing coming from her room. I'm happy to report, though, Maura has rebounded. She doesn't understand that the Red Raiders will not be playing for a Championship title, but she was snoopy-dancing all over Dillard's in Lubbock as she listened to the score updates during the Tech/Baylor game over the loud speaker. I'm not sure what it says when the out-of-towners are literally jumping up and down more than the local yocals.

Grayson has lost yet ANOTHER tooth. This makes 5 missing teeth. And #6 is very, very loose. I joked about how if she lost many more teeth, she'd have to eat baby food. She laughed and said, no, she wanted old people food. I don't have a clue what she considers old people food but...

Crae has been a busy guy, too. Since our last post, he's had a Fall Frenzy (on 10/31) party at school - more stations with crafts, etc. And for this one, his class took a field trip to 2 banks and sang a couple of Halloween songs for all the employees and customers. He had a ball!

We went to Amarillo for Thanksgiving to see Oma & Opa, and Emily got to go with us. The kids always get so excited when they get to see Stewart's parents - and Fritz (the dog). While we were there, we took the kids to Kabuki with us. This is the BEST Japanese steak house. Now usually when we go to Amarillo, Stewart & I will go there to eat with his sister, Dana, and her husband, Kevin. Unfortunately the cousins didn't get to come this year, but we decided to go anyway. Not knowing what they're reaction would be to the 'lighting of the onions,' I thought I'd better stick the camera in my purse... just in case. lol!

They had so much fun getting to see them that the day before we left, Maura was already in tears because we had to come home.

Maura competed in her first UIL events this week. She competed in Poem Reading, Story Telling, and Creative Writing. She placed 4th overall in Story Telling, and we are just beaming! At first she was very distraught. She and 2 other girls in her class at school all made it to the finals. It was after the finals, it was announced the other 2 placed 1st & 3rd. Maura desparately wanted a medal - "a ribbon is nice, Mommy, but I WANTED that medal." (DANG! Why didn't I pay more attention to that "Happy Days" episode where Ritchie missed the would-be game-winning goal, Mr. C came in w/ the pep talk and offered him a Lifesaver?) Anyway, she and I had a nice, long talk about it all, and she seems to be more at peace w/ it all and even basking in the glow of a 4th-place win.

Now we're trying to get ready for Christmas parties and prepare ourselves for Santa's visit. Good luck to him! We've asked the kids what they'd like for Santa to bring them. Maura wants a hymnal, Grayson wants an iPod, and Crae wants Superman cards. Yes, good luck to you, Santa. Maura will be dancing in the Community Band's Christmas Concert again this year. I think this makes the 4th time. She's excited - they're doing a jazz number.