Friday to Monday December 6th to 9th, A Long And Special Weekend!

Friday started out pretty crazy with the kids being out of school due to the weather; anytime there's a chance of anything other than rain, it's utter chaos in Memphis!  G-Mommy and G-Daddy even made it in from Texas early because of the weather and brought friends with them for race weekend and we got to spend a lot of time with them over the weekend as well. With a snow day and a full house, you can imagine how loud our house got!!  We also were delivered a copy of the Memphis Parent Magazine that had our family's story in it from our October interviews.  It's always so fun to see how our story is written and we love the opportunity to share with so many others the good and the bad of Cancer.  Despite the crazy rain and ice combo, we managed to have a pretty fun day at the house getting ready for the race. 

By the time we made it downtown for the SJMMW Hero's Pasta Dinner, we had already passed several wrecks on the interstate and slid a few times on the overpasses ourselves.  We were so sad to hear that the race was cancelled because of the weather, but we tried to make the best of the night anyway.  The fact that the race was cancelled didn't change how much money everyone raised for the kids of St. Jude and it was even the biggest total yet...at $8.2 million dollars!!!  Madison and Lindsey both ended up at the top of the Individual Fundraiser List with Madison coming in First Place with $41,495 and Lindsey coming in Third Place with $29,400.  We also were so excited to hear that Team Ingram was the First Place Fundraising Team this year with $115,000 thanks to the help of tons of donors.  The girls and Ingram went up on the stage with Mr. Shadyac to say a few words and of course Ingram ran around like a crazy boy...again!  I'm not sure he will ever be in slow motion, but at least he's happy and healthy so I'm not going to try to worry too much with his Energizer Bunny attitude! 

We saw several of our SJ friends and of course all of our ALSAC folks! One of our friends with her own amazing cancer story was the Patient speaker at the Pasta Dinner.  We met Hillary while we were in treatment while she was battling her second cancer.  She and Ingram were fast friends and Madison and Lindsey were very impressed that she did her own marathon while she was inpatient during a transplant.  The kids also had fun chatting with Mr. Joe Birch from Action News 5 and with Mr. Shadyac; for some reason they aren't shy at all and don't seem to meet any strangers anymore!  We met tons of new friends that were raising money for St. Jude and saw some familiar faces from the year before.  Make sure you check out the "Team O" pictures below that show last year's group and this year's group; these are some pretty amazing kids and they work hard to raise money for St. Jude!       



December Issue Of Memphis Parent

The Pictures Along Bring Up Lots Of Memories!
The Top Family Picture Was Taken The Day Before Ingram Started Radiation.
The Bottom "Bald" Picture Was Taken During Ingram's Second Inpatient Stay For Round Two Of Chemo AND Right After He Lost All His Hair.

"Team O" From The 2012 SJMMW Hero's Pasta Dinner



"Team O" At The 2013 SJMMW Hero Pasta Dinner!
And Yes, Ingram Is Wearing The Same Green Shirt And The Same Boots!

Ingram And Hillary
Kicking Cancer's Hiney Together!!



Madison And Hillary
Two Girls On A Mission For St. Jude Children's Research Hospital!
Nothing Is Going To Stop Them!!



The Kids Just Found All Of The Dismuke Family Names Registered For The Race!!

Madison And Mr. Shadyac!
I'm Not So Sure She Won't Try To Take His Job In About 20 Years And Run ALSAC!
She's Always Trying To Learn More About Fundraising For SJ!!



Yeah, I'm Not Quite Sure What To Say About This One Other Than Lindsey
Has Definitely Entered The Building!

G-Mommy, G-Daddy, Missy, and Mrs. Debbie
They Came Up From Texas To Do The 5K In Honor Of Ingram!

Saturday morning (very early I must add), Fox and Friends aired the segment that they filmed with us in early November.  We were actually still asleep, but had set the DVR to record it since we stayed up so late the night before.  The kids got so excited when the segment and even Lindsey was in it; granted it was on in the form of pictures since she had the stomach bug while we were filming.  The link is below!!

http://video.foxnews.com/v/2906706543001/a-survival-story-from-st-judes-hospital/

This Is The Link For The Segment From Fox And Friends' Anna Kooiman   

Saturday started out great with the Fox and Friends segment and continued to get better even though the official SJ race was cancelled.  One of Lindsey's teammates decided that she was going to run anyway and it sort of snowballed into our own Lady Lobos SJ 5K!  Olivia may have started the idea of the running even though the race was called off, but we ended up having about 40 folks out in the 25 degree weather to show their support for St. Jude and the Dismuke crew.  It was a pretty special day and we couldn't be more proud to call all of these girls and their families our friends!  To celebrate, we surprised Lindsey with a trip to see Frozen at the movie theater with all her teammates as an early birthday present and she loved it!  I mean, we were already numb everywhere, why not include Frozen into the mix too!




Trying To Stay Warm Before These Girls Run Their Own SJ 5K!



Ingram Starting The Race With His Infamous Vuvuzela!



Most Starters Don't Also Start, But Ingram Didn't Want To Miss The Action!



3.1 Miles Despite The 25 Degree Weather!

Sunday was Lindsey's actual birthday and now she is 10 year old...Double Digits!!  Since the race weekend was supposed to be happening and we had lots to do with Team Ingram, we didn't plan anything for her birthday.  Once the race was cancelled, we (with the help of Madison and Ingram) started planning the craftiest party ever...literally!  We had a bunch of different crafts set up and the girls spent hours making snowflakes, cookies, snowmen, reindeer and it was just perfect for Lindsey the Artisan.  Even Ingram and Madison had a fun time with all the crafts and especially decorating and eating the sugar cookies!




Ready.....Set.....



SNOW!!!!
The First Of Many Indoor Snowball Fights At The Dismuke House!



Yeah Baby...It's Craft Time!
 

Final Creation About 45 Minutes Later...Giant Snowflakes Made Out Of 6 Pieces Of Paper!

 

Lindsey's Birthday Sugar Cookie Creations
Thankfully, She Did Not Eat All Of Them!

After the sugar high and the sugar crash, everyone headed off to bed and we didn't even have family birthday dinner for Lindsey!  Not to worry though, we made up for it with special lunch at school and Monday night with Lindsey's special request of spaghetti and S'mores!  Oh I hope that her list of favorites is always this simple when it comes to celebrations, especially S'mores made in the den because it's just wayyyyy to cold outside to mess with the fireplace.  Happy 10th Birthday Peanut!!