Ingram the Conqueror: Wednesday October 24th, A Swashbbuckling Good Time!

We were back at St. Jude today and it was really nice to be there. We hadn't been back since last Tuesday and it's definitely been hard getting adjusted to our new schedule. We know it's good to not have to be there every day, but at the same time, it's "safe" to be there every day if you know what I mean? I know, I'm starting out kinda shady, but you go from one drastic of being at SJ everyday to being there only once a week to only being there once a month to once every three months and it's just a difficult adjustment. I guess now we also have more time for the emotional side of things to kick in as well; the crazy thing is that some members of family can cry at the drop of a hat now and I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing!

Our first appointment was in the lab this morning and we were early and they were running behind so we made the cafeteria our first real stop. Mommy needed some caffeine after staying up till after 1 in the morning and Ingram was more than happy to run through and pick up some chips for a snack too. Of course since he was in "run" mode, he wanted to race to the lab once they called us to say it was our turn. Then in true Dismuke style, he got distracted by his friend Mae and then by the Pharmacy table where he go to count out pills and pretend to dispense medicine. Surprisingly, he counted to 10 without help and most days, we consider that a victory!

After crying in the lab getting poked, he headed off to speech with Mrs. Angela and then to the Audiologist to have his third hearing test. They do these in two month intervals to make sure that the chemotherapy drugs don't have any ill effects on his hearing. The good news is that his hearing is great (so now there's no reason for him not to do what he's told right?) but the bad news is that he had a ton of wax that he wouldn't let our Audiologist get out and now it's just all I can see when I look in his ears! Oh well, it'll come out at some point right?

Target sponsored another quarterly party today and it was a "Yo Ho Pirate Party!" and it was soooo much fun! Ingram had a blast and made a pirate hat and sword, got tattoos for his arms and a pumpkin and a bat on his cheeks. He even got pirate earrings and made a pirate telescope to spy on everyone so that he's always in the "know." He had to walk the plank and then also went pirate bowling and scored some serious goodies by the time we left. I decided that we didn't need our normal backpack and took my purse instead today; that was a big mistake that won't happen again! I was toting around 3 different bags of stuff all day long.

We didn't have soccer today and I was so excited about going home and getting into my pajamas after a long day at SJ. I should have known that wouldn't happen; the school called on our way home and we stopped on our way home to pick up the girls, yes, that's correct, both of them! Madison pulled her wire out of her braces and had to go to the Orthodontist, but we wouldn't be back before Lindsey got home from the bus so we had to take her too. On the way out of the school, we stopped on the side of the road at two huge tables of lemonade and cookies that some of our GFL cheerleaders and football players were putting on to raise money for Team Ingram and St. Jude. They were so cute and raised $465.44 in just 3 hours of standing on the side of the road selling lemonade and cookies! After we got a snack and took some pictures, we headed off to get Madison's wire fixed. The best thing that came out of our orthodontist visit, and trust me it was not pretty since Ingram really needed a nap, was that both girls got adjusted and now we don't have to go back for another month.

After leaving at 8:15 this morning, we finally got home around 5pm and were so exhausted! We had to do homework and then the girls went running with Craig to get ready for the 5k. I'm happy to say that even though they started out kind of crazy (the girls were trying to knock each other down I think when they took off), they made it home in one piece and ran a 3 mile loop and were still smiling. The Murphys, one of our neighbors came to the house the same time they did and had their dog Harper with them. Beau has always been a friendly dog and talks (barks obnoxiously really) to everyone who goes down our sidewalk, but tonight we learned he really doesn't like it when other dogs come into our yard. For a small little dog, he can sound absolutely crazy and it seems that he also needs to learn to play better with others!