Ingram the Conqueror: Tuesday and Wednesday January 8th and 9th, Back To Reality and Dominos Day!

It was so hard to set the alarms and get everyone up for school bright and early Tuesday morning! The kids were excited to see all their friends, but the excitement of going to school after being off for such a long time definitely played a role in our morning. The girls made it on the bus and then Ingram made it to his preschool class and was so very excited to see his friends. As we started seeing people, Ingram loved telling everyone that he had been on his trip and even took his signed Mickey Mouse to school to show his friends!

The washer and dryer ran non stop and the living room was covered with a weeks worth of clothes for 5 people. In the midst of the icky laundry job, the best vet in the world brought Beau home from his week long stay at The Pet Hospital's kennel in Collierville! Beau ran straight from the truck to the porch and just about knocked me down with kisses and jumping up and down all over me. Then he went straight to the door to run and find the kids; the only bad part was that they were all at school but that didn't stop him from running at full speed from room to room and jumping all over their beds!

After Ingram got out of school, we headed to Moe's for a late lunch date and then came home to see Beau Beau! If you've seen a dog fly in the air and jump on a person and knock them over, that was exactly what happened when Beau saw Ingram. Only better than that was when the girls got home and came running off the bus to have Beau leap into Lindsey's arms and then run around the yard like crazy chasing her. Madison tried to avoid Beau by running down the driveway to the front door, but Beau caught up with her and gave her kisses too. The clincher was when Craig got home and Beau was jumping up and down on his suit pants trying to give him his own kisses, especially since Craig is usually the one that has to deal with him when he eats part of the house and everything. Even Craig was surprised by his welcome, but he loved it too! We all missed our Beau Beau while we were gone, but know that the kennel played with him a ton based on how many times he's brought us the ball to play fetch.

It was so much fun to be back at St. Jude on Wednesday! We didn't have any appointments, but instead just went to visit our friends and to the "Grand Opening" of the Assessment/Triage/Registration area of the Patient Care Center. A while back, maybe during Ingram's third round of chemo, Domino's Pizza had a pizza day where they announced their new campaign to raise a crazy amount of money for St. Jude. Well today, the renovations to the A/T were complete including pictures and paintings from that day.

Ingram was invited to come to the ceremony because his picture, taken with one of the Domino's gals while he was painting, was one that was chosen to be on the wall! St. Jude Medical Director Dr. Lavor, ALSAC CEO Mr. Shadyac, and the Domino's Pizza CEO Patrick Doyle as well as employees from both St. Jude and Dominos were there along with patients and families in the Assessment/Triage area to unveil the new area with the plaques and pictures. Even better than that, Stacy Barrett (who was in the picture with Ingram on the wall) was also there today and we got to see her again as well as local owner Jason Shifflett and his sweet wife too. Ingram was his usual self and quite a ham once he saw Mr. Shadyac. Ingram also loved seeing his nurses from A/T since he hadn't been in regularly and got to tell them all about his trip. Everyone at SJ is pretty much like part of our family and it's so fun to catch up with them; that's part of what makes St. Jude such a special place!

Ingram was standing with some other patients whose pictures were on the wall so patiently while they were all talking; after all three of them were done speaking, Mr. Shadyac asked if anyone else had something to add and Ingram promptly yelled out "I do!" Of course Mr. Shadyac picked up Ingram and asked him what he had to say he shouted out "Get Your Move On!" to everyone in the room including the TV cameras that were rolling! Thankfully everyone started laughing and Mr. Shadyac agreed that the show needed to get going and they all pulled down the curtains unveiling the new plaque, sign, and pictures. It looked great and afterwards we got to talk to some of the Dominos members and explain where "Get Your Move On!" came from and they said they were tempted to use it back at their stores which is soooo exciting. When the girls got home, we told them all about it and we even ordered Domino's for dinner to continue celebrating the new Assessment/Triage area!