Taking it Easy....HA!

A few days ago, I nearly broke my ankle. I was walking down the stairs, thought I was on the last step, but had one more to go. I met the ground with a "snapping" sound from my ankle, combined with such extreme pain, I was sure I would throw up (and after more than 12 kidney stones, and 8 kids----3 of which were c-sections, I have a pretty high pain tolerance!). As I lay on the floor, evaluating my situation, my foot hanging at an unsightly and irregular angle from my leg, I was sure beyond a doubt that I had broken the thing.

My mom had thankfully arrived about 10 minutes earlier, just to hang out and spend the day with us before the boys' high school band concert in the evening(---which was very very good, by the way! I am so proud of my boys!!! Michael's 9th grade band sounded better than the upper class bands, and Alex's Wind Ensemble played so well that they rival Alex's college band). My creative children found a "joke" cane (honking horn removed) in the basement, which ended up working quite well as I somehow managed to limp to the clinic, feeling the intense sloshing of fluid build up in my non-functioning ankle. Yuck. But things turned out ok......there was thankfully no break, but instead, a third degree sprain, including the rupture of tendons. Apparently, this takes longer to heal and causes more pain than an actual bone break. Great. Well, at least I no longer was feeling like a wimp.....I had good cause!

So, I have been walking around in this gigantic boot. I call it my "robot foot" though it has no electrical or moving parts to speak of. It is however, silver/gray, gigantic, tough as steel, and heavy enough that it may as well be made of metal. But oh.my.goodness. I am so thankful I have it, because without it, I can't even walk. Or even hobble. Not to mention the pain and swelling are greatly decreased in this ugly thing as well. Me likey my robot foot very much!

The first two days were terrible.....there is no rest for me in this house, and the pain was pretty bad.....even with the robot foot on. Then surprisingly, 48 hours after the incident, I found myself in relatively little pain (as long as the robot foot was secured tightly), and managed a 10 hour excursion at MOA, roaming around Nickelodeon Universe with Grandma and Grandpa C and the kids. Perhaps the great degree of swelling helped to hold my ankle in a more stable position, leaving less pain to be had?

Despite the very large, no, insanely large crowd that day, the kids had a great time (notice how I said "kids" there). Us adults? Hmmmmmm......yes, and no. Yes, it was fun to actually ride a few rides, and it was super fun to see the kids so excited. But standing in line for 40 minutes for every stinking ride? Not so fun. We averaged about one ride per hour. Thus, we needed to stay for 10 hours just to make back the money we spent on our all day wristbands. Someone made A LOT of money that day.

The kids all loved the Log Ride best. Even Grandpa and Tubby rode it with us each time(until he fell asleep----Tubby, that is). Grandpa actually got the best deal of the day. He did not have to purchase a wristband, but instead, got to ride many of the rides for free as a chaperone for one of the younger kids. Honestly, he beat me with the amount of rides he was on by a long shot! The kids enjoyed spending the day with their grandparents, who get the Troopers of the Year Award. It was seriously a crazy long day. Thank you so much, Grandma and Grandpa!!!

Oh....we did get to meet some pretty special characters as well.
Dora and Diego at first.
Then SpongeBob and Patrick.
Laura's life is now complete.

And today? Well I fell down the stairs while holding the baby. I threw my back out, and my whole right side is scratched up and bruised. Why? Because my robot foot was downstairs, and I can't walk without it. Obviously.
Yep. So far, being 40 really, really stinks.