Ingram the Conqueror: Friday, Saturday, and Sunday April 12th, 13th, and 14th, A Great Weekend!

Friday was such a beautiful day filled with sunshine and it continued all weekend long! Ingram had a great day at home and was so excited to not have to go anywhere for once. We played with Play-Doh and made all kinds of creations then he got out the Candyland game again. That little stinker started arranging the cards so that he got to the final row of the game while I was still on the first row. I'm not quite sure who's teaching him to cheat, but he's got it down pretty well. He did decide to play the correct way and we played another round before he was ready to move on.

Daddy and G-Daddy went to the Master's in Augusta so it was an all girl (plus Ingram) weekend and we added another set of sisters (Abby and Sarah Acuff) into the mix for the night. Ingram was in girl heaven and went back and forth between the older two and the younger two all night except for bedtime; all four of the girls slept in Madison's room while Ingram got to sleep with me since Daddy was gone! The craziest part of the night was when I agreed with Madison that they could have a Coke. I'm not sure why I agreed because they were "real sugar Cokes from Mexico" and they made my two girls nuts!!! The Acuff girls weren't affected that much because they only drank a little of them while my rascals almost finished their whole bottle. Oh those crazy girls...or really I guess crazy me for letting it happen.

After soccer practice Saturday morning, we made a stop at the library before heading to Ingram's ballgame. They were so excited and had so much fun picking out books. Madison had I think 9 books, Lindsey picked out 3, and if course Ingram had to pick out one like his girls too! The sunshine continued at the ball fields and the girls were so excited to see Ingram play. He was the lead off batter for the game and nailed the second pitch. He ran as fast as he could to first base and then made it around to home plate as each of his teammates hit the ball. Madison was the dugout girl for the game and helped keep the kids in their batting order and made sure no one misplaced their hats, bats, or gloves while Lindsey got to sit with me and of course mags a trip to the Concession stand for a snack!

After the game was over, we played at home with Gabby and Isabelle while Mr. Jay took our pool from icky green to sparkly clean. Apparently all the instructions he gave Craig about the pool weren't passed along to me (unofficial caretaker of the pool) and our water was turning green; so obviously we're blaming Craig for the ickyness! Next the girls got on their bikes and I put Ingram in his seat on my bike and we headed to the park. We had a blast at the park and worked up our appetites for a chocolate ice cream cone dinner from TCBY followed by dessert of chicken and noodles at home. We may have eaten out of order but I'm pretty sure there were no complaints from my crew.

Daddy made it back home from Augusta Sunday just in time to have fun. I took Ingram to his T-Ball practice while Daddy took the girls to soccer practice then once we got back to the house, the real fun started! Since the pool was no longer green and the heater got it up to about 85 degrees, it was time to kick off the pool season; last summer we didn't get to swim until August so all of us have been watching the weather hoping for several days of sunshine. Ingram was the first one in the pool and the first one off the board and the first one to jump off the wall. With his floatie on and his ear plugs in, he was good to go and had no fears of going under water when he jumped off the board. We all spent the rest of the afternoon in the water and even had the Wests come down and swim and cookout too to prolong the weekend a little more before we had to go back to reality with work and school Monday morning.

The great thing about all of the chaos of our fun weekend was that I didn't get all emotional about April 12th 2012 anniversary; it was Ingram's first day at St. Jude. Now on this day last year, I was an emotional wreck because we were coming to grips that Ingram officially had cancer. But this weekend, my emotions were that of thankfulness because of all that our doctors, nurses, and specialist had done to bring us to this point. I honestly don't know what we would have done if LeBonheur and St. Jude weren't both in Memphis. With both hospitals being in our hometown, allowing us to do all of Ingram 's treatment here and involving the girls in his care, and being surrounded by our friends and family while we're fighting for Ingram's life, a very difficult journey was made a little easier. I still am amazed at where we were a year ago compared to where we are now. So many things have changed for us, yet thankfully the most important things stayed the same and even got better...our family, our friends, and our faith in God.