Monday July 29th, Not Your Ordinary Birthday!

Guess who's turning 39 today???  Daddy is!!!  No sleeping in on his birthday though because he had to go to work while we played at home.  Well, most of us played at home; Lindsey had to go to soccer camp for 3 hours but then came back home to play with us for the rest of the day.  We did all sorts of fun stuff at home, including sorting school supplies and swimming, but we had a different birthday celebration in mind!

Normally we either go to the birthday person's favorite restaurant or cook their favorite dinner at home, but not this time!  ALSAC, the fundraising arm of St. Jude, was having their annual meeting in downtown Memphis; it's the one time of year where they have every ALSAC employee under one roof and celebrate their year with awards and everything.  And guess what patient family they asked to speak at it?  That's right...our family!!  We had so much fun and got to see all of our favorite ALSAC folks and meet tons of new ones.  We even had a real family picture with everyone dressed up taken by Ann Margaret, our favorite SJ photographer with the coolest camera stuff ever!  I can't wait to see it!!!

While Mr. Shadyac was introducing us to the whole ALSAC crew (over 1000 people), he had the camera zoom in on his phone with a picture of Ingram skiing!  He also needed a little help from Lindsey to explain what all Ingram had been doing on the water the previous week with skiing, knee boarding, wake boarding, and tubing and she absolutely loved running up to the podium to help him out.  Craig spoke first and told our story for all of ALSAC and somehow managed to switch our story around to having me like Justin Timberlake instead of Lindsey liking Justin Bieber; he got in trouble for that, but at least he did admit his "Man Crush" on Tebow so I think we're even!

The clincher, though, of the night was when he turned the microphone over to Madison, his 11 year old sister!  She amazes me every time she speaks in front of people and tonight was no different.  Instead of telling our story, she talked directly to the thousand plus ALSAC employees and told them what we think of them...they're our Heroes.  Please take an two minutes and twenty five seconds to click on the link below to hear her speak because we sure are proud of her!  All three of them are amazing, but Madison literally rocked the house...again!


Here is the link to the video of Madison speaking at the ALSAC National Meeting...
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0Bxy3pdaAI9JvSkF2TjhsODM3b28/edit?usp=drive_web

Mr. Shadyac At The Podium On The Far Right Introcuding Us. 
It Was Pretty Cool To Have All The Screens Above Playing Pictures While We Spoke.

The Camera Zooming In On Mr. Shadyac's Phone With A Picture Of Ingram Waterskiing!

Lindsey Correcting Mr. Shadyac's Water Sport Terminology!
She (And The Whole Audience) Couldn't Keep From Laughing While She
Was Explaining All The Ingram Could Do!