Saturday September 29th, DONE!!!

Today was a huge day!  We finished chemo last night and all spent the night together in the hospital for what we hope is our last inpatient stay.  There's always the chance of having to go inpatient in case Ingram gets a fever or has anything abnormal happen, but for the most part, we're done with having to spend the night in the hospital.  We played around the hospital all morning, painted the windows of our room, and had people keep signing our smiley face flower and Ingram was loving it.  The kids were even playing with the "flushers" after we were all packed up and ready to go.  Ingram was hiding behind the door waiting on Craig to come out and shoot him with a syringe full of water; he was so proud of himself since he was able to get Daddy all wet!!  We still have to finish out our round with regular lab visits, clinic appointments, transfusions, and such, but today was the last of the drugs!!

We chose to postpone our "No Mo Chemo!" party until we were in our Clinic with all of our nurses and doctors; but not having the hospital party didn't stop us from partying it up at home.  We celebrated the occasion by...getting our flu shots!  I know, terrible huh?  That's what Madison was saying over and over again as we were forcing her to get her flu shot.  Ingram got his today before we left the hospital and they wanted us to get ours as soon as we could, so we went ahead and did it.  The sweet girl that gave us our shots was so excited about Ingram finishing chemo that she took him out into the store and let him pick out a toy that she could buy him.  Even though we kept telling her she didn't need to do that, she insisted and he picked out a suction cup dart gun that he has been playing with all day.  

We spent the rest of the day getting ready for Ingram's birthday party and even ate a quick dinner out while we were picking up some cookies and cupcakes.  Well, most of us ate dinner; Ingram fell asleep instead of eating his dinner.  The poor little guy was so tired that even a waffle, eggs, and lemonade couldn't keep him awake to eat.  He did at least drink some lemonade, calorie packed apple juice, and Gatorade. We don't expect him to be super hungry right now, but hope his appetite will pick up in a couple days.  

We head down to SJ first thing in the morning for his Peg shot to help his counts recover faster then hopefully by the time we're home, a giant Scooby Doo bouncy house will be in the front yard for Ingram's birthday party.  He's so excited about being 4, but I think he's going to keep saying that he's 3 and a half for a little longer!  Hopefully he'll have a fun birthday party and that will help him to have fun even if he's not feeling 100%; he loves playing with his friends and can't wait for 3:00 to get here!

Craig, Lindsey, And Madison Slept In Our "Parent" Room While I Stayed In With Ingram.
Craig Had The Couch And The Girls Made Pallets On The Floor.
They Loved Being Up There, Even With Sleeping On The Floor!!

Our Fabulous Window Art!
All Five Of Us Took Turns Being A Kid And Painting!

Daddy And Ingram Watching TV In The Bed Together.
Notice Any Similarities??

Fire!!!!!
Ingram Was Hiding Behind The Dresser And Soaked Craig And The Pillow.

Ingram Heading Out Of St. Jude After He Finished His Last Round Of Chemo!!
He's Such A Stud!!!!!

Friday September 29th, "Yucky" All The Way To "Yeah!"

Last night wasn't quite as uneventful as we would have liked to put it mildly! Ingram was finally alseep around 11:30pm and had to get checked and changed around 2am; then around 4am I noticed that he was stirring around and making noise.  When I checked on him, his bed and all of his clothes were soaked and he was sooo not a happy camper!  While his bed was getting changed, I changed his clothes and put him on my couch and snuggled him up in my blanket then put him back in his bed. By then it was time for labs to be drawn and so he ended up being wide awake from 4-5 this morning; talk about some serious baggy eyes! 

Once he fell back asleep, he ended up getting up every half hour to use the restroom and then around 8am he decided Mommy needed a jumpstart to the day as he threw up for the first time in the hospital out of all four rounds.  One of the reasons I love SJ is all the wonderful nurses we have; they quickly came in with the needed medicines and then even gave him a second nausea medicine an hour later when he was still complaining about his belly.  Not only do they spend lots of time chatting and having fun with us, they know how to help an exhausted mommy feel better when her baby isn't feeling so hot.  We love this place!

Veronica and Ann Claire brightened our day by coming up for a visit!  Ingram and Ann Claire made glitter glue pictures on the couch since he didn't feel like going to the playroom.  Then G-Mommy came back up and gave her report for last night/this morning with the girls;  I'm proud of them since they were up till around 9:45pm and didn't get grouchy at all when they had to get up for school.  While G-mommy was in the room, Ingram managed to have both her and our Child Life Gal Heather get him paint AND let him use regular glitter!  My exhausted little painter ended up not eating his lunch at all, but instead fell alseep "for a long winters' nap" all snuggled up in his blanket in a nice cold room!

Ingram woke up with an appetite and decided to finally eat for the day!  He had a whole bag of Chex Mix and had some orange Gatorade while he chilled out in Mommy's spot waiting on the second part of his chemo to start.  He went back to painting and talking to all his "ladies" up here; no surprises here, he's got our sweet nurses wrapped around his little pinky!  Tonights drugs of choice were Carboplatin and Etopiside and we had two nurses who were "fighting" over handling his last round.  Luckily, they came to a solution and they both shared him; Jodi started him out and then Katie finished him up.  Katie is kinda special to us because she hung our very first round of chemo and has been a part of each round since; it was only fitting that she was there for the final "beep beep" of the pump and took down Ingram's chemo for the last time.

After we were done with changing over to fluids, we walked around the floor shooting an airplane and playing while we waited for some special visitors to come up and celebrate being done with chemo.  Daddy and the girls made it up to the hospital after 9pm and we went walking around the floor after they played and ate ice cream in our room.  It's good to be all together tonight, but it's a little difficult to control the noise level...we're just all a little too excited!!!  Next for us, "No Mo Chemo" party in the morning then heading to the house; we've got to get ready for a special birthday!!

Ann Claire Making Ingram Smile And Feel Better All At The Same Time!

 

Ingram Chilling Out Finally Feeling Better And Eating For The First Time Today...At 4:30pm!!!



Last Dose Of Carboplatin...Still Eating His Chex Mix!!



Last Dose Of Etopiside...With A Side Of Paint!

Getting Unhooked From Chemo!!  Woohoo!!



Ingram And Our Nurse Katie!

Ingram's Girls!!!
He Loves Them Sooooo Much!

Thursday September 27th, Beginning The Final Round!

We had soooo much fun at GBC this morning!!  Ingram got to see most of his friends from class last year and even painted and played on the playground with them for a while.  My heart melted though when he asked if he could spend the night there (which meant be there all day and take a nap in the afternoon); I just didn't think he would even go into his room on his own.  That comment alone helped me to realize how great our God is and how much He cares even in the little stuff like going to Preschool.  With all the fits Ingram throws at being separated from me since we've been together just about every minute since April 3rd, the fact that he wants to go back to "school" is a huge deal! 

Once we got to St. Jude, we had some free time between our appointments and getting our room for our inpatient stay and we were just meandering around talking to friends and hanging out in the cafeteria.  We did manage to walk away from the gift shop with some super cool huge smiley face flowers and decided that we would start having everyone sign one to celebrate his last inpatient chemo stay.  So we started having people sign it and it's just so much fun because everyone gets so excited about the end of chemo; it's kind of the beginning of the end of this part of our journey and the flower is another tangible memory we can show him when he's older about everything he went through as a 3 and a half year old.

G-Mommy arrived at SJ after we got the flower and we were sitting and talking and Rick Shadyac, the CEO of ALSAC which is the fundraising arm of St. Jude, walked over and started talking to us about all the fundraising the girls are doing because he had seen their video.  He had last heard that they were in the $80,000 range, but was blown away with their new total of around $130,000!  During the course of the conversation we (both me and G-mommy) commented on his tie and then G-mommy started telling about G-Daddy's "St. Jude Tie Collection."   She told him that he is always wearing his St. Jude ties and how last round when he was here, he came home with 3 new ones...  AND HE STARTS TAKING HIS TIE OFF TO GIVE HER!!!  She kept telling him that she couldn't take his tie, but he wouldn't have it any other way.  The funny part is that since G-Mommy had only been here to SJ once during Radiation, she didn't recognize Mr. Shadyac and when I told her who he was, she just about fell out of her seat!! 

So I guess you could say between a fun time at preschool, a new iphone cover with the SJ logo all over it for me, a big smiley flower for Ingram, and a new tie for G-Daddy from the CEO's neck, we had a pretty good day despite having to get chemo!  Ingram was exhausted from all our fun and conked out as soon as he was snuggled up in his bed for another late day nap.  He's already talking about seeing his girls tomorrow after school and can't wait; they all gave each other the best hugs this morning before they left for school since they wouldn't see him tonight.  I'm such a lucky mother! 

Ingram And Jake Painting Together! 
Jake Was Funny And Asked Ingram Where All His Hair Went As He Was Rubbing His Head!

Climbing Around On The Green Turtle Has Never Been So Fun As It Was Today With Lola, Nolan, And Harrison!



Ingram's Smiley Face Flower With His Smile Peeking From Behind The Glass!
And G-Mommy's I-Can't-Believe-I-Have-Rick-Shadyac's-Tie-On Smile!
I Wish Craig's Dad Had Been Here For This Moment; He Would Have Loved It!!

Ingram Eating His Dinner While He Gets His Last Dose Of Cyclophosamide!!
 



Look Who Surprised Ingram At Bedtime!!!

Wednesday September 26th, Rushing Around

How many things do you thing you can do in a day?  Today, I think I maxed out my to do list with Ingram right by my side the whole time.  On top of watching the "Hey St. Jude" video a thousand times again and watching the girls St. Jude/Team Ingram video a hundred times, Ingram went with me to do a million things before we go inpatient.  So after toting him around all day running errands to Chick Fil A, Target, Home Depot, and more, that little stinker told me he wasn't tired as he was yawning; he was sound asleep in less than a minute after Beau put him down for a nap. 

Tomorrow, we go inpatient (after we visit our favorite buddies at Germantown Baptist Church Weekday Preschool) for what we believe is out FOURTH AND FINAL ROUND OF CHEMO!!!!  We are so excited that we were able to squeeze this round in before Craig has to head out of town on business.  We will be inpatient for Thursday, Friday and then home on Saturday if all goes according to our plan.  We did call in for reinforcements this time and have G-Mommy coming up from Texas to help out with the girls since we have soccer, school projects, and school tests; who knows what else will pop up before we get out of the hospital!  But the best part is...LAST ROUND!!!

Not only is this huge to be finishing chemo, but we also trying to get ready for Ingram's birthday on Monday!   He's so excited about turning 4 and I think is even more excited that Beau will turn 1 since they have the same birthday; we also have two other friends that will also turn 5 (Jeb) and 9 (Wade) on Monday as well!  He was so excited when we were talking about his birthday that he actually planned out the whole thing in a matter of minutes in the Home Depot parking lot!  We even found a Scooby Doo Bounce House for him and all his pals to jump around in and got candy for a Pinata!  When we were talking about who he wanted to invite, he started rattling off names of his friends from preschool, church, then went on to his girls' friends, then he finally said that he wanted everyone to come...so EVERYONE is invited and we hope to see you at our house Sunday at 3pm for a bouncing good time!  Who knows, the pool may even be warmed up a touch in case anyone wants to go swimming!

We forgot to post these pictures from yesterday at St. Jude due to all the excitement with the "#heystjude" video being released!  The video is all over Facebook being posted and reposted and reposted and reposted!

This is Jake and Ingram loves him!  He also saw us at Lebonheur before surgery.
He was literally putting him to sleep while he rubed his belly for about 10 minutes!

This Is Spooky! 
She's Always So Still...Unless You Have A Balloon Around...Which We Did!

We Ate Lunch With Our Friends Josiah and Miss Emily! 
Miss Emily Works In Patient Affairs And Is One Of The Keepers Of The Important "Snack Bag" Tickets!
Josiah Has A Post-Treatment Scan Coming Up Monday So Keep Him And His Family In Your Prayers!

Tuesday September 25th, Hey St. Jude!!

Okay, so I've been holding this in all day and chomping at the bit to post it, but I wanted to wait and show the girls when they got home from school.  When Ingram was inpatient gettting his second round of chemo, I posted that he was filmed for a very fun hospital video.  St. Jude had just bought the rights to the song "Hey Jude" and they were using it to celebrate St. Jude's 50th Anniversary.  Well this morning they released the video on You Tube and on the St. Jude website and guess who's beautiful bald head they used??  You guessed it...Ingram!!

We even had his "I Love St. Jude" shirt with us and he changed into it just for the filming.  We saw so many of our friends on the video and couldn't believe all the celebrities they had singing too!  It's a great video and shows so many different aspects of the hospital from the staff to kids to the lab to the musicians and celebrities that support St. Jude.  Every time I watch it I just cry and laugh all at the same time.  They even have it on the main frame of the hospital website and then that directs you to a website that is solely for the video and their new fundraising campaign which is www.heystjude.org. 

The best thing is that I can look at Ingram's beautiful smile all day long as they used his face for the cover!  You better believe that all of the Dismuke crew will be sporting new black tshirts that say "#heystjude" pretty soon! 

September 24th, Another Big Day!!!

The coolest thing about today was that Madison and Lindsey hit their first goal of $100,000 to St. Jude!  With the help of thousands of donations, several business meetings, matching gifts, and several high-dollar haircuts, the "number" on Madison's fundraising page currently says $101,572.36 and it also says "Goal Met!"  The best thing about this is that even though it's on Madison's page, it's from a combined effort of Madison and Lindsey and they both are super excited!  The very next thing they said was that they've got to get Lindsey's page up there too; Lindsey's fundraising page says $25,872.18 and I'm not going to be shocked when they get that other $74, 127.90 to make both of their pages say "Goal Met!"  My daughters are amazing and they've got one thing on their mind...Helping their little brother beat Cancer the only way they know how other than praying!

Ingram made another trip up to Craig's office for another haircut; this seems to be a weekly event and we're loving it!  Today, though, there was a first; Ingram actually shaved Dave Garson's head on the trading floor.  All of the other haircuts had been cut in a "standing room only" kind of room with around 20ish people lingering around to watch.  I'm not sure how many people were actually on the trading floor, but Ingram didn't at all get shy about having such an audience.  At one point, Ingram wasn't even looking at Dave's head as he was shaving it; he's such a pro!

The big event of the evening was Chili's Create-A-Pepper Night for St. Jude!  We went in shifts because Madison had soccer practice and Lindsey couldn't "wait another minute to eat!"  Ingram was just happy that I didn't make him take his nap and I was doing everything I could to keep him awake and happy.  At one point it was a losing battle, but in the end he made it all the way till 8:30pm from waking up at 7am.  Just like Thursday night with our school's Chili's night, it was packed!!  We saw several people we knew and enjoyed coloring Peppers while we waited for our food.  We also ordered for Craig and Madison so that once soccer was over, their food would be ready.  We all had fun taking pictures of our Peppers and posting them on Facebook while we were still there.  We also had a surprise visit from Pops (who was in town) and he ate with us too.  G-Mommy went to Chili's for lunch in Katy, Texas and Aunt Leigh went in for dinner also in Katy.  My sister even chose to have her birthday dinner at Chili's in Jackson Tennessee and another family we've grown to love, the Zubiller's from California, went to Chili's also in Ingram's honor.  We couldn't be more excited about all the funds that St. Jude will receive from just one day of business!  Once we find out a total, I'll be sure to share it.  Also, I'd love to post as many pictures of folks at Chili's from Create-A-Pepper Night so email them and I'll show them off!



"You Look A Little Nervous Mr. Dave;
Are You Sure You Want To Do This?"

Ingram and Dave!

Craig's Sister Showing Off Her Coloring Abilities!
Looking Good Aunt Leigh!

Speaking Of Showing Off...
These Kids Are Crazy!
I Don't Know What Got In To Them; They Had Lemonade To Drink!!

I Think We Still Look Good Even Though Our Eyes Decided Not To Show Up!
Red-Eye Fix-It Thingie NEVER Works On Madison, Ingram, and My Own Blue Eyes.
I'm Not Quite Sure Why Our Little Brown-Eyed Girl And Daddy Didn't Show Up.

I Just Can't Get Enough Of My Guys!!

Sunday September 23rd, Breakfast Treats, More Soccer, More Swimming, And More Treats!

Craig headed out early and brought breakfast home from the bakery and let Mommy sleep in this morning.  He tried and tried to get Ingram to go with him, but that little stinker didn't want to go without Mommy.  Lindsey ended up getting up and played with Ingram while Mommy got a few more minutes of sleep.  Craig came home with Panera Bread-baked goodies and a couple McDonald's hash browns for Ingram and Lindsey.  I was pretty upset with Beau though because when I turned my back, he jumped up on the counter and ate the last few bites of my muffin; like I've said before when he's been mischievous, if he wasn't so important to the kids...

I'm not quite sure what happened, but the super nice day we had at the soccer fields yesterday with the sunshine and the breeze was sooo not happening today!  It was so cold and the clouds were out during the game; we were so bummed too because the whole team was going to come swimming after the tournament ended.  We figured swimming in a heated pool wouldn't really be a good idea when the outside temperature was only 69 degrees and breezy.  No need having a whole team of sniffly kiddos running around town and spreading the ickies to their families and friends!

Madison added more soccer to the mix with her "goalie" practice this afternoon, but by then it was sunny and 72 degrees.  Lindsey and Craig played around while Madison had practice and it took them a little longer than I thought to come home.  When they pulled in, I knew where they had been; the suburban was full of Arborvitaes for the backyard around the pool, which has been on Craig's to-do list for a while.  We had dinner outside on the porch with a barricade so Beau couldn't get in and eat our food then it was swimming time for the kids again!  With such a good day, we figured the only way to end it properly was with another trip to the ice cream store to round out the weekend!

Check Out Peanut's Power Kick Down The Field!

Ingram Keeping Warm With Madison And Anna!

Whew!  We Survived Our First Tournament!
I'm Pretty Sure We Were The Smallest And The Youngest Team;
But They Weren't Afraid To Mix It Up With Girls Twice Their Size!




One Second They Were All Looking And Smiling.
Not Quite Sure What Happened Next??

It Makes My Heart Happy To Look At These Smiling Faces!
Who Could Not Smile Eating Ice Cream As Much As We Do...
Especially In Pajamas!?!?!
 

Saturday September 22nd, Soccer and Swimming!!

We started at what seemed like the crack of dawn this morning after a late night!  Ingram decided at 6:55am that he had gotten all his sleepy out and was ready to start his day; Mommy on the other hand was still tired so off to the den we go with our blankets in tow and crawled up in the chair together.  I had high hopes of getting a few more minutes of sleep then figured out quickly it wasn't going to happen with Mr. Chatty next to me!

I took Lindsey and Ingram back to the soccer field for her tournament and Daddy, Madison, and Abby came soon after with donuts in their hands.  Ingram was so excited to see that Daddy had donuts for him and said "I don't believe you got donuts for me Daddy!"  The little stinker was getting tons of attention from everyone at the field and was loving it, especially when his girls (including Abby) played with him.  After the game, the whole team headed to Moe's Southwest Grill to eat and it was soooo much fun.  Ingram sat at the table with the team and was smack dab in the middle of them.  He was making them all laugh and talking to everyone in the store. The little dude just doesn't stop talking!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Saturday afternoon and evening, we had a few families over for dinner that we hadn't seen in a long time; the kids ranged all the way from 20 months to 8th grade!  They all had the best time swimming, playing, watching part of a movie before deciding they wanted to swim again, then eating dinner and swimming some more.  We all got to catch up with each other while the kids were playing and even managed to shave another head at the end of the evening.  The best part though was dinner and making S'mores in the fireplace!

Awww, My Two Favorite Guys!!
They Almost Look Like Angels With The Sun Shining Behind Them!

These Little Girls Played Super Hard This Morning!
Ingram Was Happy As Could Be Sitting With The Team!

7 Out Of 13 Of The Kids Jumping Over And Over From The Wall!
And I'm Not Counting the Big Kid In The Middle; He Was The Ring Leader!!



Ingram And Kevin Herzske!
He Lost A Bet On The Tennessee Game The Week Before!
The Cost...Losing His Hair!
Secretly, Though, We Think He Wanted To For Ingram!!

 

Ingram, Kevin, And The Frog From Preschool!

Does Anyone Else Think This Is Crazy?
The Guy With The Broken Collar Bone AND The Broken Arm AND Three Broken Vertebrae
AND He's Wearing Sunglasses At Night
Is The One Roasting The Marshmallows For The S'mores??

Well My Disposal Finally Blew Up Saturday Night After The Sink Has Been Leaking All Week.
Thanks To Jobe Madison (The Big Kid In The Middle Of The Wall Jumpers),
My Sink Is No Longer Full Of Dirty Nasty Disposal Water!!
Now To Find A New Disposal This Week!

Friday September 21st, Yeah!

We got to St. Jude right before the rain started this morning and were planning to be there all day for appointments and a platelet transfusion.  But...we didn't need the transfusion and were out by noon!  Ingram's butterfly came out today also and we made it home just in time to play in the bathtub for a while before naptime.  Since it had rained a lot this morning, Beau was all nasty and he jumped in the tub when Ingram got out for his own bath.  Now he smell's like strawberries instead of a dirty stinky wet dog!

Afterschool, friends came over and played until we had to head to Lindsey's first soccer tournament.  We took dinner to the field and ate while her team was playing and they all ran around like crazy chasing each other and cheering for Lindsey at the same time.  Once we were home from the game, Madison and her friend Abby "helped" put Ingram in bed, but it didn't exactly go as planned.  About 45 minutes later, I was still trying to get Ingram to go to sleep; he knew he was missing out on part of the fun since Lindsey was home then too.  Madison, Lindsey, and Abby hit the pool at about 9:30pm while the fire was roaring in the porch waiting on them to make some S'mores.  So I guess, Ingram really was right about missing out on the party!!


Breakfast Of Champions While We Wait On Lab Results!
 

Can You See Why Ingram Was Still Awake??

One Tired Soccer Playing, Late-Night Swimming, S'more Eating Girl! 

Thursday September 20th, A Lot Of Money and A Little Bit Of Platelets

Ingram just keeps eating and growing every day.  Today at his lab appointment, he weighed 15.1 kg!  He also helped with his labs again then took off to go play.  He made a paper sack owl and it was really cute.  He was showing everyone and pretending to "hoot" like an owl.  We saw our friend Mae too for the first time in a week and were so excited that they got to leave Memphis and St. Jude for a few days and spend some fun time with her family. 

After playing we walked over to the ALSAC building to turn in over $30,000 that had been raised for St. Jude.  Once that money hits the accounts, the girls will be right at Madison's $100,000 goal and this is more than exciting for us.  They're still out raising money and will start helping Lindsey's total head towards the $100,000 mark as well.  The great thing is that they aren't even done raising money; they already have plans for more fundraising after the St. Jude Marathon Weekend is over that we'll share at a later day.  While we were walking to ALSAC, Ingram decided that he wanted to eat lunch outisde since it was such a pretty day.  We ended up eating with a table of nurses that were oh so sweet; when they left, another set of staff sat down to eat.  I can't remember the technical name for their job, but they're in the Research Tower and work all day at finding drugs that will cure cancer.  We loved sitting and talking with them and are so lucky that we get to meet people that work at St. Jude all the time other than just our own doctors, nurses, and therapists. 

In our lab check appointment, we found out that Ingram's platelets had dropped another 10,000 points so we're headed back in tomorrow for another lab check followed by a platelet transfusion.  I'm pretty positive this means that Ingram's next round won't start until Tuesday October 2nd instead of Tuesday September 25th; I've been wrong before about the dates so who knows when it'll happen for sure.  After a quick trip to Costco on the way home, I spent the rest of the day and night trying to protect him (a little too much Daddy says) from falling, running, jumping, and everything else because we don't want any new boo-boo's before tomorrow. 

Trust me, this was hard to do and made my neck all sore from being tense from 6:45pm till about 9:00pm when we were at Chili's.  You see, Monday September 24th is National St. Jude Create-A-Pepper Day at Chili's, but tonight was our elementary school's St. Jude's Chili's Create-A-Pepper night and it was packed!!!  The kids were running all around outside the restaurant and of course Ingram wanted to be right in the middle of it.  Oh he made me so nervous the whole time he wasn't right next to me, but thankfully Daddy was there to save the day and make me let Ingram play.  Sometimes I guess Momma Bear turns into overdrive, but he's a kid and wanted to play with his girls' friends and I didn't want to let him.  Watching him run around though was great for him because he never quit smiling and calling their names to play with him!  I, on the other hand, was so glad when I finally buckled him in his car seat and headed home for bed!!



Whoo! Whoo!

Woohoo!! Still Gaining Weight!!

We Stopped By Costco For A Few Things And Ingram Picked Out His Halloween Costume!
Power Rangers Go!!

Ingram With A Whole Table Of Girls At Chili's Tonight!!

Wednesday September 19th, And Again...

Okay. I've decided that to make our lives even more interesting, something of some sort out of the ordinary has to happen EVERY day!  Well today follows that pattern and why should I be surprised?  My mom is here in town since Craig was on a trip and our schedule was nutty yesterday; plus we thought he was going to be out of town all week and we definitely would've needed the help.  It turns out that Craig's trip got changed and he got in at midnight last night and then had to leave again at 3am for the office to be on tv at 4am.  Needless to say, he's exhausted but so very glad to be back in town. 

Since Mom was here, I ran a few errands today all by myself; I went early birthday shopping then went to get a few groceries at Walmart.  I loaded the car and then hopped in to go to the next stop, but nothing happened.  I tried again and still nothing.  At that point, I just started laughing and called Craig hoping to make him laugh too.  After he offered to come help me (I have such a stud of a husband, offering to save his damsel in distress), he said that I "picked the right place to have it not start" so off to the car counter I go.  They were so sweet and even sent Jimmy with me to jump the battery which was 100% dead so we could bring it around back to get replaced.  The battery we needed wasn't there so they went looking around and found it in a delivery that had just gotten there this morning and hadn't been unloaded.  While I was waiting for it to be serviced and still at the counter talking to the people that worked there, a dear friend came through the door that I hadn't seen since before all this started with Ingram.  We used to live across the cove from each other about 4 years ago and saw each other every single day.  The funny thing was that both of us had been thinking about each other and we spent the whole time catching up and talking and everything.  It was truly like God made my car not work and made her car not work either just so we could see each other.  I have no idea how long we talked, but my heart was happy afterwards and I think hers was too.

I know Craig's also happy tonight not only because he'll see the kids for the first time since Sunday night, but also because we have cold air flowing from our new air conditioner!  B and W Air installed our air conditioner today and also solved our mildew/mold issue too.  But before we sleep in our 65 degree bedroom, we went swimming in poolwater that's 91 degrees!  Apparently, the pool heater that we thought was turned off the other day was actually still running.  The water was warm  and it felt great compared to the 64 degree air, but once they got out it was freezing cold and the only way to solve that was to sit by the fireplace make S'mores.  We love this weather!!!


Brrrrr...First Cold School Morning At The Bustop!
All Decked Out In Hoodies From Daddy's Business Trips!

Striking A Pose In The New Team Vining/Team Ingram Running Shirts And Hat

Daddy And His Girls
Right Before This Picture, Craig Snuck Around The Garage And Got In The Deep End Without Them Noticing.
Then He Swam Underwater And Grabbed Their Feet...I'm Sure The Whole Neighborhood Heard The Screams!!!

Little Man Played Basketball Since His Butterfly Wouldn't Let Him Swim! 
I'm Pretty Sure He Was 100% Fine With Shooting Hoops!!