What's the haps?

I'm hurt.

So don't expect much today.

I didn't do anything stupid, in fact I was stretching gently and thoroughly when it happened. My quads and hamstrings had been feeling tight and sore since running Jingle Bell Hell on Saturday. Foam-rolling, Sticking, stretching, and butterknifing with regularity was helping. On Monday night I took my foot in hand to stretch my quad and *ping* ... I knew instantly I had done something unfortunate.

My right leg went dead except for the shooting pain sensation running from my iliac crest to the sole of my foot :( The fact that I had zero strength in the leg and a ton of pain led me to the conclusion that it was an alignment issue and not a muscular one. I tried to rectify the situation on my own, following directions I had at one time gotten from my physical therapist. I could feel it trying to go back to where it needed to be, but it could quite get there.

I tried to get my husband to bungle his way through performing some half-assed, untrained ART (don't try this at home!) which was successful on a micro-scale. Then I was afraid we might hurt me more, so we stopped.

I was on my hands and knees for the rest of the night. Tuesday, I could walk by dragging my leg behind me. I started having serious fears about returning to my life of limping...that less-than-a-life I was living for 8 years. Before I vaulted into full-on freak-out mode, I put the call into my PT at SOLPT, who is always booked seriously months in advance. She crammed me in. I love my PT. Love her. To pieces.

It was alignment. She did a bunch of stuff and then threw her entire body weight into the point of her elbow which was placed into my gluteus medius and surrounding tissues. I screamed. I writhed. I contorted. I almost passed out. But she got it. Everything is still pained and inflamed... but it moves! Ice, heat, rest, rolling, massage... and keep doing my glute strengthening exercises. No running for a few days.

Lesson to take away from this: Don't screw around with injury. For me, that means get seen right away. Be the squeaky wheel. Be dramatic if necessary.

To celebrate my return to semi-mobility, I took the kids to Children's Fairyland to see the Fairy Winterland lights display...

When I was a kid, the Old Lady in the Shoe house was also the box office...

the opening is about 4 feet high and adults had to super duck.

Now it's just a feature at the entrance, and they jacked it up so you don't have to crouch so low.

The big Winter Wonderland deal is that all the fairytale features are covered in Christmas lights.

They have a brown Santa, 

which seems to cause more 'concern' amongst some kids than one would hope :( 

He hangs out in the chapel above where kids queue up to sit in his lap.

He wished my friend's son a "Happy Hanukkah"...which kind of tripped the boy out. 

I wish they'd repaint Snow White's face.

She looks so unhappy surrounded by those dwarves.

The Crooked Man's Crooked House is Miss C's favorite...always.

Interestingly, it was my favorite as a child, too.

See?

Christmas lights everywhere.

I'm thinking 12 is getting a little old to enjoy Fairyland in the manner to which it aspires.

All the kids and adults really had a great time, though. 

XL and family *hearts* Fairyland :)

Lesson to take away from this: Children need to experience more diversity. A brown Santa is super cool and shouldn't be viewed as anything else. Christmas lights all over fairytale things is pretty cool, even to a 12-year old... for a while anyway.

Happy Holidays to all :)