Madison's Saturday morning started early with Goalie practice and then regular team practice. She and Craig were gone for a few hours and brought Emily home with them after getting donuts. And yes, they brought home some donut holes for Ingram too! A couple hours later, Craig, Madison, and Emily were headed to the indoor soccer game while the three of us headed to the Peabody for a super fun St. Jude event. The crazy thing with soccer all morning and the event during an indoor game was that Madison had to shower before her game at 2pm because she had to be at the Peabody by 3:30pm. She played goalie for the first half then left with Craig to meet us and looked like she hadn't played soccer at all!
Randy Owen, from the group Alabama, started Country Cares 24 years ago and has raised $440 million throughout the country music community. Ingram was asked to join 3 other patients on stage at the kick off conference for the Radio-a-thon and broadcasters from all around the country were in one place. We were asked to tell a little about Ingram and about our experience at St. Jude. Since we never know what Ingram will say, Craig and I were on the stage with him and we all took turns talking to a packed room and an overflow room on a video feed. I'm not a good judge of numbers of people, but I'm pretty sure I've never spoken to that many people in my life! The only problem with an hour long time limit for the whole panel, is that all of us could go on for several hours about how great St. Jude is and how they've changed our lives in the middle of hard times. Mr. Shadyac led the panel and also brought the girls up from their front row seats (right next to Mr. Owen!!) and asked them questions for the audience about their fundraising. Once again, he told them they had a job at ALSAC whenever they're ready; Madison is counting down the days till she can work already!
Ingram also was all decked out in his cowboy apparel too and completely fit in with the crowd. He was wearing his super cool authentic Cowboy hat from our good friends Collin and Megan Sewell of Sewell Cars in Texas; what better place to get a real hat right? He was also wearing his cowboy hat and boots that we got in Houston last year on a Thanksgiving trip to G-Daddy and G-Mommy's house. He was a wild man though and couldn't sit still for long; he kept going back and forth between the stage and the front row. I felt bad for Mr. Owen because every time Ingram jumped back up in the girls lap, his feet were not always underneath him. A few minutes later he decided to change his hat to his blue crocheted hat from the Blank family and Mr. Shadyac even made a comment about it. Craig covered for Ingram and said that he was now wearing his "Rock and Roll" hat and everyone laughed. We had a great time and were able to talk to some amazing people from all over the country. We're really looking forward to see how much money they raise this year for St. Jude!!
Another exciting thing happened once we were home with the kids...we had a babysitter which rarely happens! Before we were asked to speak at the Country Cares event, we had our sitter set so we could go to the movies together and then to dinner with friends. I should clarify we never ever go to the movies but were really excited about heading out on a date. The funniest part of the whole night was that once the kids left with Rebecca and Katie Caroline (they're sisters and if you know our kids, you'd see how it can be beneficial to have both of them), we actually fell asleep! Crazy right?? Craig was sitting in our big chair and I was on the couch talking to him one minute then the next thing we know it's been 30 minutes and we're about to be late for dinner with our friends. We made it to dinner and had a great time as did the kids on their ventures for the night. Now we're thinking that another time, we should get them back during the day to take the kids out for a few hours and we could take a really long nap...that sure is something we never thought we'd say, but we both agree!
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| I'm Pretty Sure These Two Had More On Their Faces Than In Their Bellies! |
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| Ingram's Top Choice For Breakfast Made These Two Very Happy!! |
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| He Was Happy Too! |
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| So Happy Especially That He Ordered An Ice Cream Cone AND Had It In HIs Hand Before I Even Knew It! |
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| Madison And Emily Refueling After Soccer Practice! |
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| All Of Us Before We Went In To The Conference. The Girls Also Had On Their Cute Cowgirl Boots From Texas! |
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| Madison And Lindsey With Randy Owen! |
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| So This Picture Doesn't Even Show Half Of The People There!! See What I'm Talking About?? It Was A HUGE Turnout! |
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| Craig Telling About The Day We Found Out Ingram Had Cancer. Hayley (Sitting Next To Me) Became A Patient At Age 10 (Madison's Age Right Now!!) And Is Now 21 Years Old And Doing Great! |
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| The Kids With Mr. Shadyac! |
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