everyday trauma

Bella came home Monday night talking about health and fitness. Apparently in school they had a class about the food pyramid, how to eat right and keep your body healthy through exercise. After telling us all she learned she asked if she could use the treadmill sometimes to exercise. I chuckled at the thought, but told her she could whenever she wanted to.



Surprisingly the next night after dinner she wanted to exercise. It was funny the way the girls made a game of it. They all dressed up in tank tops, shorts, and tennis shoes and wrote out on the dry erase board activities like push-ups, sit-ups, etc. that they had to do. I spied on them and it cracked me up to see them "exercising". They were actually doing it and trying hard too. Bella was running on the treadmill while watching everyday Italian on TV and the other two were on the ground attempting push-ups.

I figured that would be it, but last night they were all excited to do it again. This time I went down with my camera thinking surely this will be my last opportunity and again got a good laugh that they were actually exercising. After I left, right around bed time, I heard the girls screaming as they walked up the stairs. Megan was crying about "not doing it" in a voice that started to alarm me. Turns out Bella was on the treadmill, tried to reach for something that was in her way and fell so that the belt on the treadmill basically rub the skin off her thigh (aka a really bad rug burn). Turns out Megan was crying because of what it looked like and despite the fact that she kept saying "I didn't do it", she was the one who actually turned off the treadmill and freed Bella. She keeps going around saying, "I saved Bella's life".



Lucky for Bella there was no school today so she had a lazy day on the couch. She can get around just fine, but at one point she did say, "Mom, will I need crutches?" I expected to hear nothing less from my sweet Bella...she's pretty dramatic. It wasn't until about 1/2 through the day that I realized her injury could have been much worse and it probably wasn't so smart of me to let her use the treadmill without some safety tips like putting the safety cord around her wrist so if she fell it would shut of automatically. I guess I still need to get use to have a almost 10 year old.

I got to wondered when everything's healed up will the excitement about exercising go away? I don't know, but I do know one thing for sure that Megan said and hope she'll soon forget, "exercise hurts".

summer of amy

I pulled a George Costanza and proclaimed, this was going to be the summer of Amy. I guess it ended the same way...me in bed. Of course I know the summer is just beginning, but starting off with my back messed up and not being able to run my race or do anything comfortably is depressing. I'm trying really hard not to let it get me down, there are other races and heaven knows there are a million things I am grateful not to be inflicted with, but it's really disappointing and I'm having a hard time letting go.

Thursday at Tess' birthday party my brother in law, Randy, asked why I haven't been blogging. Good question. I actually had to think about it because to be honest I didn't know. I guess, I told him, I've had nothing to say, other than what I just said and it could be so much worse I'm ashamed to express it.

So today I'm trying to make my way back, to think and talk about something else other than my injury like



...how I was able to pull off Tess' birthday party at the park.
...how I spent yesterday afternoon filling up water balloons for activity days, but didn't get to play with them.
...how Megan spent almost the entire day at her friends house.



...how I spent Thursday with Tess at her field trip (we went to see the play Johnny Appleseed and lunch at spaghetti factory).
...how Megan's teacher teared up when she said her final goodbyes telling me how much she's going to miss her.



...how Bella's teacher brought the classroom guinea pig to our house because I wasn't able to go to the school and carry it to my car.
...how independent Bella has become.
...how I watched food network all last week while in bed and think I'll move my creative ambitions into the kitchen.



...how I finished To Kill A Mockingbird.
...how the girls had an Memorial day sale.
...how much I've been enjoying my music after I finally learned how to use itunes genius thanks to Jill.
...how enjoyable it was for me to look through old photographs while searching for oldies of Tess.



...how much the girls have played outside and the multiple injuries they've had.
...how I watched the sun go down almost every night grateful that another day would lead to more healing.
...how every day for two weeks Megan has asked me how many days until her friends party.
...how we only have 5 school days left.
...how intimidated I am about school ending.
...how incredibly sweet Adam has been to me.
...how lucky I feel.
...how grateful I am it's the weekend.

down for the count

How come it is that on Saturday after a long busy week I would give anything to lay in bed and read, but this morning when I am faced with the entire day in bed on my back I want nothing more than to get up and be productive? I am beginning to believe you always want the one thing you don't have.

This morning at boot camp everything was great, meaning I didn't have pains I was ignoring or anything, not that it wasn't hard because it was. Anyway, after the stretching when I bent down to pick up my things my back gave way and I almost collapsed. I have never in my life felt that kind of pain and I wasn't sure I would be able to get up or get myself to the car. I tried walking it out thinking, I simply could not have injured my back, but indeed I am injured.



Adam, who is well versed in injuring his back, gave me his advice that I have to rest it. If I try to do too much I will only prolong the healing. So I'm taking his advice and staying off my back as much as I can. It is definitely putting a wrench in my day/week, but I guess I don't really have a choice. I really need to get better.

I thought this would give me time to catch up on some blogs, but using my laptop is hurting my back, I can't get the right position so I picked up To Kill A Mockingbird instead. I haven't read it since High School and am quite enjoying it. I keep finding my mind wandering and going through all the things I would much rather be doing. My list does have a limit, but I would almost rather be doing anything else. I guess I'm fearful because I've never had an injury like this and have no idea how long I'll be down.

I hope your Monday is going better than mine.