We all got dressed and left to grab some breakfast before we headed off to get a tour of the CNBC studio. Before we headed out, we ran into three other St. Jude families and the kids were all so excited to see each other - the adults were just as excited too! Seriously, they're like family now and since we aren't at St. Jude every day, when we do see them it's just great! Even after finding out what they were going to do (Empire State Building and the Natural History Museum), the girls still decided to go with us over to CNBC. It was amazing too. I thought Craig's trading floor was impressive, but walking into the CNBC building then onto their floor was way beyond cool. Of course, poor Craig was so nervous that the kids were going to act crazy or distract people from their work and that he wouldn't ever get called to be back on any CNBC shows in the future. I'm happy to say that all three of the kids did great and I honestly think the people they met liked them too (maybe even more!). Each one of kids held their own conversations with the different producers, anchors, and the executive producer at CNBC. We even got to go into the Control Room as they were producing one of the shows and watched another show from the floor while they were on the set. It was so intimidating to see them putting together a live show and all the things that go on every second. We all were very much impressed with how easy they make it look!
Next up, a trip to the M & Ms store with all three of the kids... and Craig! Craig had never been in the M & Ms store and he had no idea what he was in for since all four of us could live on M & Ms. I am pretty sure Craig knew he was in trouble when Ingram, Lindsey, AND Madison started jumping and down when they saw all the M & M possibilities once we were 10 feet in the store!! We ended up at the self-serve M & M station (by the way, this is way more dangerous than letting them loose at Gracie Bleu getting their own yogurt and toppings) and each one grabbed a bag to make their own special mix. Craig helped Ingram and of course he wanted to make a rainbow bag of M & Ms (Craig tried to teach Ingram who Roy G. Biv is!). The girls went a little crazy and got more than we told them and they both had a different excuse; one of them said "the handle got stuck!" and the other said "at least I didn't get as much as her!" I, on the other hand, got much less than they did and got some super fun colors that I had never seen before. I don't think I have to say that we all got more M & Ms than we needed and definitely paid more than we should have! Oh well, this is a one-time deal and we will gladly share with anyone that comes to our house as long as our stockpile lasts!
We came back to the hotel and dropped off our loot and then went to meet one of Craig's friends from work, Kevin Warsh, at his office. We tried to catch a taxi, but after about 15 minutes of getting passed up, we decided to head out on foot... about a mile-and-a-half... with three kids! The girls walked the whole time and Ingram was able to catch a ride on my hip, on my back, and on Craig's back along the way; did I mention it was about a mile and a half? This was another one of those nervous moments for Craig because it's work-related as well. Kevin is a former Federal Reserve Board Governor and came to Memphis to speak at the Vining Sparks Bank Summit this past Spring at the same time Ingram was starting radiation and Craig spent time with him when he was in town for work. Even though Craig had been to his office before, this was the first time that the whole crazy crew had been into his office... and they gave the kids candy!! Even though three Dismuke kids in a conference room with candy is a very bad combination, they were as well-behaved as they could be cosidering how much sugar they had running through their veins as we got to spend over an hour with Kevin. Just like other places we've been in town, the "Black and Gold" conference room will never be the same again!
As a reward for having to do "business," we took the kids to F.A.O Schwarz a few blocks away and entered mass toy chaos! Toys of all kinds were everywhere, three floors worth of toys and snacks. But once again, we managed to make it out without purchasing anything! I know it's crazy that we were at F.A.O Schwarz, the most famous toy store in the world and we didn't get anything; it was almost too much to take in and we had been out all day already. To avoid the inevitable meltdown, we left while we were ahead (barely ahead)! We were so excited when we found Bill's Bar and Burgers for dinner; this was Craig and the girls' favorite spot to eat last year when they were on their daddy/daughter trip during the holidays. The food was great and we all came away in such good moods once we ate and were able to just sit down for a bit.
We came back to the hotel at the end of the night and were surprised to get tickets to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade from some friends that live here in the city. Craig's friend Elizabeth, from CNBC, had arranged tickets to the parade through one of her friends, Marie Griffin, who has her own public relations firm in town. She came over with her sister Bunky to bring the tickets and they even brought the kids a special gift too. They brought the girls a Hello Kitty Carry-On Case for the plane and brought Ingram a Nerf Gun that he won't take into the plane or else someone's going to be in trouble! Hopefully, the people that walked into the target zone of the lobby tonight weren't too upset with having to rearrange their route to get through the lobby. Of course, I'm very happy that Ingram decided not to shoot the people that held the elevator door open for me; I think they were relieved that they didn't have to ride up 38 floors with my three kids without adult supervision!!
http://www.viningsparks.com/ext_vs/video/cnbc_video112112.htm
This is the link to Craig's segment on World Wide Exchange from this morning!
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| So Proud Of Craig... On CNBC's WorldWide Exchange! |
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| As If Being A TV Star Isn't Enough, He's A RockStar Dad! He Was Ironing The Kids Clothes For Me In One Room While I Was In The Other Room! Since He Did That, We Were Actually On Time! |
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| Ingram And All His Girls! Lucy, Madison, Helen, Ingram, Lindsey, Winn, Mae, And Bailey! |
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| The Whole Crew On The CNBC Set...While A Show Was Going On Behind Us! |
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| Madison And Lindsey With Amanda Drury From "Street Signs!" I Won't Name Any Names, But You Can Probably Tell From The Picture Who Was Extra Excited Since She Had Just Said How Pretty She Was In The Hallway! |
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| Ingram Got Included In Today's Street Sign's Show...At Least On The Dry Erase Line-Up! |
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| Can We Say Chocolate Overload?? |
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| The Total Is So Embarassing, But Since The Girls Already Have It Memorized And Have Told Everyone We've Met, We Figured We Might As Well Be Honest! Plus, Three Of Them Are Gifts So At Least It's Not All Staying At Our House! |
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| This Is Pure Happiness; No Chocolate Involved! |
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| Schwarz! Schwarz! Schwarz! |
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| Really? How Do I End Up The One With Them All Over Me All The Time? I Don't Mind One Bit!! They're My Babies! |
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| "Seriously Mommy! How Many Pictures Are You Going To Take??" |
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| Every Time Ingram Says."Hey Horsey! Look At Me!" |
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| And Saying "Hey Horsey" Magically Turns Him Into A Horse! |
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| And Then He Tried Holding On To Daddy's Mane, But It Didn't Work Too Well! |
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