For the past few months I’ve been playing women’s basketball with some ladies from my church. We’ve been practicing every Wednesday night and just recently participated in our local regional tournament.

The evenings that I’ve gone to play ball I have often felt similar to when I’m going to visit the elderly at a Nursing Home… I never really want to go, and maybe even dread it but once it’s over and I’m on my way home I realize how good I feel.

Should I be admitting that?

Even though I’m not a basketball player and have very little experience,  I’ve defiantly improved in some of my ball handling and defensive skills. I use to be terrified of playing b-ball because I’m not a naturally aggressive person nor do I like pushing or scrambling after a ball which is often the case in women’s church ball. But the more I’ve played the more I have enjoyed the exercise I’ve gotten from it. It’s a lot of running and sprinting which is suppose to be a really good exercise.

Any sprinting that I’ve done for the past few years usually involves a toddler running away from me.

So our team made it to the regional semi-finals. It was a double elimination bracket and we had already lost to last years champs. (yikes, they were a scary team) The team we were going to play had already lost a game and so I thought that we perhaps had a shot at beating them. Well, I was terribly wrong and it didn’t help that our best player didn’t show up that night.

When we were 15 points down at the first quarter, I decided that I was going to play as hard and as aggressive as I could in hopes that it wouldn’t be a terrible blowout. When the other team had a fast break and had tossed the ball to their best shooter, I was the closest one to her. I ran as quick as I could to get in between her and the hoop. I had the hope that maybe I could interfere with the easy lay-up she was about to have.

And then it happened. As I came thrashing down the court in a desperate sprint to meet up with the opposing girl, I collided with her and some how stepped on her foot as I tried to change my course.  My right foot rolled and gave way underweight my sprinting body weight.  A shooting pain shot through my foot and I knew immediately that I wouldn’t be playing any more basketball that night.

I hobbled over to my bench and grasped at my burning foot. While a teammate ran to get me some ice, another came over and looked down at my foot. She declared loudly in a disgusted voice, “Oooh, it’s already swelling!”  I looked down at my foot. It wasn’t. But I didn’t tell her that. It was the way my ankles always look.

Puffy.

My little team was in even worse shape without me. Not because I was a valuable player but because there was no one left to sub in. They quickly tired. Fell terribly behind and lost the game by 30.

Depressing.

Jeremy carried me home. I cried and cried. Not because of the game but because I was afraid of the worse case scenario.

I went to bed with ice that night and borrowed crutches in the morning. I hobbled around all weekend sac about how hard it was to get around and how crutches are so hard on the hands and armpits.

It’s been 5 days since that awful game and I’m happy to report each day my ankle as improved greatly. So much that today I’m walking!

It turned out to be a very typical sprain. I pulled the anterior talofibular ligament which is one of the most commonly involved ligaments in this type of sprain.

Pretty,  eh? You can hardly see my ankle bone. It was hard to get a good picture. This was taken yesterday and today it looks even more green across the top of my foot.

I also have two funny swollen bumps.

Needless to say that I was quite upset about the sprain but now that I can walk on it I’m feeling much better about things. Good enough to even blog about it. I won’t have to worry about how to keep up with the house, how to entertain the kids with something other than tv and how to stand long enough in the kitchen to cook dinner… because you know that the babying doesn’t last more that a day or two.

I dare say that I’m hopeful to be back to normal-ish in a couple weeks. I certainly am grateful that it wasn’t worse and I’m going to have to think long a hard about playing basketball next year.

Hello March.

Today was warm and sunny. I tried to spend most of my time outdoors soaking up all the vitamin D that I could on my wee round face because the weather forecast declares that the blue skies wont last too long. The sun did a mighty fine job melting all the snow we had accumulated from last weeks storms. I had a lovely background noise of water running down the downspouts on the house. It made it feel so cheerful.

Every year I have the need to snap a photo of my tulips coming up. They are always such a surprise. Dear Tulips, do you really pop up so early? They simply seem to declare to me hope. Hope of new life, hope of beautiful things, hope of pleasant days.

Hope of keeping the neighbor boys outside.

While sitting on the front porch, I tried to keep my nose tucked in my book, Robinson Crusoe ( ever read it?) but Little Leah wouldn’t leave me alone. Fancy that, I’m her Mother and only willing play mate. Check out the little rag-a-muffin. Pigtails askew, belly hanging out, and on her 3rd pair of pants for the day. I’m sure she dropped that apple a number of times in the snow melted dirt. Nevertheless, we had a nice afternoon that passed pleasantly enough.

Last week, the aforementioned snow storms brought me great pleasure. I was able to hit the slopes a couple times in one week and that is reason to rejoice enough.

Once with my darling little sister… talk about a girls night out. We enjoyed the fresh powder immensely not to mention the hot coco and cheese fries.

We had to laugh at this ridiculous photo of our half frozen faces. Who looks good in goggles?

Not me.

We also went on Presidents Day with Jeremy, Emma and Isaac… and the rest of the Salt Lake Valley.

We met up with a friend and his kids (man in the yellow coat and blond girl with the blue hat)  so it turned out the be a great trip despite the lines at the lifts. Experiencing adventure with others is the best way to go.

That’s it for now. With the kids tuck into bed it’s time to find out how Robinson Crusoe gets off his lonely island.