Carnival!

The past week has been both difficult and exhausting. As much as I've tried to keep everything in perspective, the stress has been getting the better of both me and my moods. Tired of letting my anxiety have a clutch on my emotions, yesterday I declared "Chenoweth Family Fun" day.

It wasn't difficult to decide what to do because the county fair is running this week. We haven't been to the fair since Robby was two, and, to make the event more enticing, I found a coupon for free ride wrist bands! We grabbed some water, lathered on the sunscreen and headed to the fairgrounds.

Robby's excitement was contagious. By the time we pulled into the parking lot, the three of us were singing and laughing about the adventures that lay ahead. Robby practically flew out of his booster seat when he saw the Ferris wheel, and we could barely keep up with him as he ran to the ticket booth.

After getting our wrist bands, we took off to conquer the fair rides. Robby wanted to go on the swings first. I have such fond memories of riding the swings when I was a little girl. I remember feeling like I was weightless and fluttering through the air, so I was eager to share this experience with my little buddy.

The swings, I learned, are not nearly as much fun after age 30. Robby was screaming "whee" and giggled the entire ride. I kept my eyes closed and tried to concentrate on breathing in an attempt to refrain from vomiting. Scott brought me my leg at the end of the ride and had to help me out of the ride because I was so dizzy. Robby, in the meantime, had already looped around and was in line for another turn.

Scott and I took turns in what we dubbed "ride purgatory" for the rest of the night. We tried to allow enough time to recover before the other parent took a turn on a ride. I realized it takes me a lot longer to recover than it did when I was younger!

Seeing Scott's face after riding what I can only describe as a spin-around-backwards-while-moving-up-and-down ride, I knew that I had to step up and take my turn. Against my better judgment I followed Robby onto the Starship. I reasoned that there were rocket ships and happy astronauts on the spaceship shaped ride, so it couldn't be that bad!

Again, I was wrong. Once inside the happy looking space ship, we stood against the side of a padded wall. Within seconds the door closed, the music began to blare, and the walls started spinning. We were held in place by centrifugal forces. I could tell by his constant giggling that Robby thought this ride was the best!

Then, quite by surprise, the walls began to rise. Before I knew it, I was stuck to the side of a spinning wall with my head a few feet from the ceiling. I had no idea that the walls of this ride would move.

Had I known about the movement I would have been more diligent about my prosthetic placement. My body was raised when the wall moved, but my foot stayed in place. The heel of my prosthetic was wedged between the padding against the wall and the metal. The g-forces broke my suspension seal, and I was raised completely out of my prosthetic. I would have loved to see the looks on the faces of my fellow riders when I came out of my leg. Unfortunately the sheer terror I was experiencing caused me to keep my eyes closed tightly throughout the ride.

After the attendant helped me unwedge my prosthetic, I wobbled out of the Spaceship from Hell. I sat on the bench and put my head down. It took about five minutes for spinning to subside, but Robby remained oblivious to the effects of the g-forces, pausing just long enough to eat ice cream, french fries and a funnel cake--and, of course, to play games.

It turns out that my son has quite the knack for games on the Midway. He managed to pop four balloons with just three darts and won a plush turtle. He begged both his Daddy and me for the chance to win a fish. We finally conceded to let him try, fairly confident that he wouldn't succeed getting the ping pong ball into the small bowl.

I'd like to introduce the newest member of our family, Carny Fish. Robby won him with his first attempt. He threw the ping pong ball, which ricocheted off three bowls and the wall before bouncing into a fish bowl.

When we came home from the fair, we cleaned out the aquarium and introduced Carny to his new home. (Hopefully he will not meet the same fate as his finned predecessors.) Robby gave both Scott and me numerous hugs and kisses as we were tucking him into bed. He kept repeating that he had the "best night of his whole life." Hearing that almost made all the dizzying nausea worth it!