It's a therapy called AIRROSTI (Applied Integration for the Rapid Recovery of Soft Tissue Injuries). He diagnosed me with a foot strain and used basically deep tissue massage techniques on my foot and calf. It hurt TREMENDOUSLY. I could describe it as a cross between deep tissue massage and chiropractic adjustments. But they also did some physical therapy too and gave me PT homework to do each day.
After the treatment, they do what is called "strapping" - they put this weird tape on the treated areas and I guess it's supposed to increase blood flow to the area. You keep the tape on for 3-4 days until your next treatment. Below is an example of the weird formations of tape that you can have. Mine looks similar....
I just finished my 2nd treatment (of 3) and it's starting to feel a lot better! So to make a long story short, I'm thankful this week for Dr. Bertrand and AIRROSTI!! It's very painful during the procedure, but it seems to be working to reduce my intense foot pain! It was either that or buying a "Little Rascal" to ride around in!
I am trying to be diligent and watering it regularly (but I'm horrible about remembering to water!). I would really love it if Mother Nature would rain down on us more so I won't have to pay my huge water bill during this process!
I had a huge area under one of the trees that I covered (see above pics) and then I had a few open spots on the rest of the yard that I put smaller pieces of sod over. The sod was green, but super vibrant and alive green. I hope it's not crappy sod!
This is the separator between my neighbor's driveway and mine. He said that the whole strip was once those bushes that you see at the top of this next picture, but that they just didn't survive with all of our tree cover, but I thought I would try a little sod on an especially barren part. We'll see!
This ranch had a LOT going on. You could do the ATV tours, horseback riding, a "Cowboy Experience," which involved herding cattle, and they even had a spa on-site! They have an old 'ghost town' type area set up with bed and breakfast rooms you can stay in. Our friends on the ATV tour were staying there, so afterwards they let us look at the room. VERY pretty!
We got instructions at the spa on how to get out to the ATV 'barn' - and here they are - all ready for our ride! We went out with a really nice couple and then our British instructor (who was cute, BTW).
Because I had never ridden on an ATV by myself before (Paul and I rode one in Mexico on our honeymoon, but he was driving and I never 'took the wheel'), the instructor put me in line right behind him....which meant that I was the first of us to have to attempt all the obstacles - YIKES!
Cindy and I in our cute (errrr.....) helmets! I was TERRIFIED at that point.
After our instructor told me how to do everything and had me practice shifting gears, hitting the gas and break, etc......he moved on to Cindy and showed her the ropes. (PS - his accent was awesome...I wanted to play dumb so he would keep talking!)
And she's ready to go!!!
For the first few difficult maneuvers, our guide would go through it himself and then come back and walk each of us through it. After the first few, though, we were just following him through some crazy stuff! This is after I made it through the first one alive and was waiting for the others to navigate through the fallen tree/ditch!
Ready to hit the next challenge?????
Here's the group behind me - Cindy and our new friends, Taffinay and Jason.
Self portrait after we went through a HUGE ravine and I thought I was going to die. Do I look relieved?!
Cindy made it too!
This is the ravine filled with water that we had to go down into.....and then immediately stand up on our ATV's and gun it up the hill. I was petrified! This picture can't even do it justice in the least! SCARY!!!!!
Here's Jason coming up the hill after the ravine......
As we got more comfortable with our ATV's and our driving skills, the challenges kept coming. We were turning sharp corners, going up hills, down hills, in between trees, etc. By the end, I was feeling much more confident and didn't want it to end......
This is another challenge that we had to face - a log bridge. It was very uneven and bumpy and we had to kind of gun it to get over all of the logs. Freaky!
Apparently Cindy really liked the log bridge! That's Taffinay going over it in the background...
And she made it!
The ATV ride was a blast, even though I was so scared - it feels really good to face your fears!
This horse was hanging out in the barn when we got back - and he was taking a nap standing up. He didn't want to be bothered, but we pet his nose anyway. He didn't even open his eyes!
Such a pretty horse, but he didn't want to be woken up AT ALL.
On our drive out of the ranch, we came across these cows taking naps and relaxing - so cute! So I stopped the car in the street and jumped out to take pictures. There's almost nothing I wouldn't do for a photo op!
And here are the folks doing the "Cowboy Experience" - a cattle drive on the ranch!
Me and the cows!
We had absolutely positively perfect weather - 70's and sunny, breezy with no humidity. There were no bugs either. I'm so glad we picked that day to go - oh, and since it was April, there were parts of the ranch that were covered in bluebonnets too. Absolutely amazing day!
They basically block off all of the exits and make it one huge dog park - such a great idea! All dogs are allowed to be off-leash once inside the stadium. I took Maggie and April took one of her three dogs, Taylor (a boxer). Here's Maggie checking out the action!
And subsequent 'getting-to-know-you' ritual.....
I left Owen at home because I thought it would be IMPOSSIBLE to keep track of both dogs in that big of an area and also because Owen is a spaz in areas with a ton of stimulus like this. I didn't know how he would react. And the final reason is that ever since I introduced Owen to our family, he has demanded a lot of attention and I wanted to give Maggie a break where we could hang out just 'us girls' like we used to do. :)
Maggie got a cute new doggie scarf when we were there - she looked so cute!
Here we are - playing and having fun!
It was kind of weird how MANY wiener dogs were there - I swear, we saw one every couple seconds! So of course, I was in doggie heaven.
Here is April's boxer, Taylor. This lady was filling up one of the kiddie pools and he apparently was thirsty, so he took it upon himself to get a drink! So cute! They had a whole bunch of the kiddie pools all over the place and the dogs were playing in the water - I even saw a HUGE MASSIVE great dane trying to fit in one. :)
Maggie has a 'thing' about drinking out of strange water dishes.....she doesn't like to do it. So I always get concerned that she will get dehydrated. At the dog park, she won't drink out of their fountains, so I have to pay attention to how long we've been there and how hard she's playing.
She had a blast being off-leash and there were so many other dogs and people to explore! She even behaved so nicely - exploring, but still staying somewhat close to me. She liked to hide under the vendor's booths. :)
Her scarf was light green with different colored paws on it - adorable. And I also picked out one for Owen - it was blue with a design on it.
We had a fun girls day out and I was happy to let her get away from her brother for a while and get spoiled with lots of attention and love. By the end, she was exhausted and passed out as soon as we got in the car (and slept all the way back to Arlington). Success!
I have heard for years about all of the wonderful health benefits of drinking green tea, but I just never liked tea. I have never been an iced tea drinker and I thought hot tea was bland and disgusting. But for some reason, I decided to give it a whirl recently and it is really growing on me.
I add honey to sweeten it and it is REALLY good! My friend Cindy is drinking tea with me and we have now declared 3pm to be "Tea Time" and we go in the kitchen at work and make our tea.
A lot of them looked like they are probably from other countries, but I just couldn't get over how tiny they were!
We stood by the fence as the jockeys mounted their horses and headed back to the track for the next race....
I wonder what the little bump on the top of their helmets is for?? A camera?
I was wondering who all of the 'plain clothes' people were out there with the jockeys...maybe the owners?? I think Big Tex is headed to talk to the jockey in red!
And here they are, deep in conversation......
For whatever reason, I felt like taking a ton of pictures of these mysterious little people!
I'm going to have to say 'nix' on this jockey's purple/teal outfit.....
I dubbed this one the 'bumble bee' jockey - he did NOT do well on the track, though.
Jockeys have to stretch out those legs!
This guy looks READY TO GO!
And after the horse racing, the Randy Rogers Band played. I love their music.....
This was the opener band on a smaller stage. Good stuff.
This guy had a pretty sweet bass. That's a bass, right??
This was the lead singer in the band - and his guitar is a big state of Texas!
I freaking love the guitar! I want one - just to hang on my wall, even though I don't even play!
And here's the main stage - it got SO PACKED later. It was kind of claustrophobic if you ask me, but good music all around. :)
