I survived the pumpkin patch...barely.

I chaperoned Robbie's class trip to the pumpkin patch on Tuesday. I was worried about being freezing, so in preparation for the trip I bought new gloves and pulled out my snow boots. In hindsight, I should have bought Depends and scheduled a post-patch appointment with a massage therapist or chiropractor -- or both.

The day turned out to be pretty nice. A little chilly, but the bright sun kept us warm enough. We -- 17 kindergarteners, 2 teachers and about 5 parents -- breezed our way through the "easy" corn maze. Unchallenged, we opted to try the "intermediate" maze. I headed up the group and let each kid have a turn at deciding which path we should choose. I didn't bother to tell the rest of the adults that my husband might argue that putting me in charge of directions might be criminally negligent. But the kids were making the decisions, anyway, so I figured we'd be ok and we were, although somehow, even though we entered the "intermediate" maze, we came out at the "hard" maze. Guess we were just overachievers.

From there, it was on to the haystack and the inflatables, where the kids jumped up and off and on, wearing themselves out to their little hearts content. Not much learning going on, but a great activity for kindergarteners nonetheless.

It was at the second inflatable -- the caterpillar -- that my initial injury occured. Inside the caterpillar was a slide. To go down the slide, you had to be able to climb up the slide, which was tough for several little girls who were creating a back up. Now, why I decided I would go in and hoist those girls up and over is not quite clear to me. In hindsight, I should've said "if you can't climb up, you can't slide down." But really, who would say that to adorable kindergarten girls with little orange and black ribbons in their hair and winter coats in 100 shades of pink?

So I crawled in through the caterpillar's mouth -- a lovely sight from the rear, I'm sure, made my way to the slide and started lifting, pushing and tossing those cuties to the top of the slide. On about the 5th and final girl, I felt something snap in the muscle between my left shoulder and my neck. Game over. Got to get out of here now.

Of course, any sane woman would have turned around and gone out the entrance. But not me...no, I had to try the slide. I'm praying that video does not exist that shows what looks like the caterpillar having a seizure as I struggled to climb the slide, heaving and rolling the sides of the inflatable as I tried to force my not so slender self over. Finally, I tumbled down the slide and landed in the soft mud at the end of the caterpillar's butt.

It was almost time for the hayride and the pumpkin picking. After a short detour to watch a T-rex chomp and spit out a few pumpkins (which was pretty cool, I have to admit), we loaded on to the hay wagon. The trip out to the pumpkin patch was short and enjoyable.

The trip back, however, had me wishing that I'd gone to the bathroom before we left and adding "call the chiropractor" to my to do list. Let's just say the shock-less ride in a tractor over enormous ruts on a path around multiple fields made my bladder loose and my already aching shoulder tight.

I'm happy to report that the repercussions on my bladder were short-lived and unnoticeable. My shoulder however is still leaving me wincing in pain and as of this morning has made my left arm somewhat numb.

Would I do it again? If it means spending time with my little guy, you betcha. As long as I can spend time with the massage therapist right after.