Ingram the Conqueror: Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday February 13th, 14th, and 15th, "I Love You!"

Wednesday Ingram decided that he wanted to stay in his pajamas to get ready for wearing them on Thursday to his letter "P" day at school. Personally, I think he wanted to stay in them so he could talk me into snuggling in the chair with him and to watch movies. I mean, really, who can resist snuggle time on a cold day? Ingram even asked me to start the fire so we could be extra warm; I guess he's learned that from me since we keep the house relatively cool even in the winter time! So we watched movies and ate lunch in our PJ's, but then had to run a few errands for Valentine goodies before he went down for his nap. Ingram decided after watching a valentine cartoon that we'd have " I love you" days at home. I never realized how much he knew about Valentines Day, but he's a quick learner from his girls and his favorite cartoons too.

Thursday was a wild day!! Not only was it Valentine's Day filled with parties at school for all three of the kids, but it was also field trip day for Lindsey at the Orpheum. Beau helped me do a 5-minute sweep through the house as he finished eating the kids' breakfast while I got started the laundry and made beds before I headed to the field trip. Some days, he's really beneficial to still have around! Even though the play was a little on the weird side, the Orpheum was fun because I was sitting with Peanut; I think Lindsey was loving the special attention from Mommy PLUS the M&M's that she found in my purse.

When I got back to Germantown and picked up Ingram from school, he was talking non-stop and hadn't even had any candy! He had a complete "P" Day with pizza for lunch, popcorn for a snack, and dinosaur pajamas, plus their party for Valentines Day. He continued to play and talk non stop until the girls got home and joined his craziness; the only difference between them was that the girls had already loaded up on candy on the way home from school. They probably knew I wasn't going to let them have any candy once they got home so they were taking advantage of the situation; they're not exactly excited about our "food overhaul" that's taking place with the more information we've been learning from all sorts of cancer research relating to nutrition. Unfortunately, the girls had soccer practice until 7:30pm so we didn't exactly have a sit down dinner at home to celebrate "I Love You!" day at our house. Since we love sports so much, Ingram wanted to practice too while the girls were at soccer. We spent about an hour outfront hitting baseballs from his tee. The crazy thing is that for the most part, they all wound up in the same spot! If we want him to ever make it to first base, we may need some help redirecting his swing since he hits straight up the first base line every time!! Instead of a fancy dinner out for the two of us, we headed to Huey's as a family to have a quick dinner after all the practices before we headed home for Valentine goodies! Since the girls had been at soccer for two hours and it was so late when we got our dinner, they pretty much ate two whole meals of macaroni, chicken fingers, and corn dogs each. Even Ingram asked for more food after he was done with his meal; he's packing on the pounds!!

Friday afternoon, we had a call from Doc Jarnagin (a Memphian that now lives in Colorado) to do a phone interview for part of the Country Cares campaign that his radio station and 5 others are doing next weekend. He's a friend of the Rooker family here in town and also heard us speak at the Country Cares Kick-Off at the Peabody a few weeks ago. Craig and I had fun talking with him but Ingram was quickly fading and ready for his nap so he didn't get to talk to him. It also made us miss our short time that we lived in Colorado and at the same time, our conversation made Doc miss living in Memphis based on my Southern accent, talking about sweet tea and other "Southern" traditions, and of course laughing about the panic that sets in when there's a mention of snow or ice here in town! Doc's goal for his radio station is to pay for as many "No Mo Chemo!" parties and we know the generous folks out in Colorado will supply tons of memories through those parties just like we had for Ingram.

Friday night we split up and made it a Boys Night and a Girls Night! Craig and Ingram had tickets to the Monster Truck Rally at the Fed Ex Forum. Ingram was sooooo excited about it and couldn't wait till it was time to go. Ingram got his own Iron Man monster truck and a pair of earphones that looked like tires. Ingram said it was so loud but that he and Daddy had so much fun watching the truck run over cars and ride on their back wheels. Even though they got home super late, Ingram assured me he wasn't the least bit tired and was just talking on and on and on about the trucks until he fell asleep while he was talking; that's when you know he had fun! For our girls night, Madison and Lindsey finally agreed on a restaurant so we headed for a girls dinner at O'Charley's specifically on the hunt for cheese sticks for Madison. We had a great dinner together and Lindsey even decided to see what ice cold lemonade felt like after our waitress spilled a whole cup on Lindsey's lap! Luckily, it also spilled in her macaroni and she was very excited to get a whole new bowl even though she had already eaten almost her whole bowl. Have I mentioned that Lindsey could survive on macaroni before?? Once we got back home, the girls actually continued their Girls Night and they slept in Madison's room together. I just love it when they love each other like that!!