Quite a Morning

It actually started around 11pm last night when I looked at my new Pocket PC and saw two appointments for today: 1) Brooke in San Antonio for PTA convention and 2) Hero's Welcome. Oops, I forgot about Hero's Welcome when our church was going to meet with another group at DFW airport and throw a big "Welcome Home" deal for the incoming troops. I thought the flight would be coming in around 9am, but I called the number to check the time. It said the flight would be arriving at 8am (ETA). Since we were supposed to arrive at the airport 30 minutes before that, it meant that I would have to get Amanda up at or before 7am to make it. After keeping her up late last night, I decided we probably would not make it.

Our phone rang at 7:15am this morning, and Amanda started stirring. I could tell she was probably not going to just turn over and go back to sleep, so I called the number one more time to see what time the troop plane would be arriving. It said 8:30am, so I asked Amanda if she wanted to go back to sleep or go greet the troops. She was out of bed in no time.

Most of our group met at the airport, but some wanted to ride the church bus, so Amanda and I got on. Her tummy started hurting a little before we started loading the bus, by the time we got on the bus she was laying down. Realizing we would be gone for at least 2 hours, I asked her if she could make it that long or if we should go home. She opted for coming home, so we hopped off just as the bus was pulling out.

We got home and she laid down crying. Then she told me it was her chest that hurt and not her tummy. I figured it was just gas and did not worry about it too much (she tends to have a flair for the dramatic). We prayed and she laid down. Thirty minutes later she was squirming and crying saying her chest still hurt. I was pretty sure it was just gas, but I could never live with myself it was something more serious and I did not take her to the hospital because I was to cheap to pay for an ER visit. I had her put her shoes on and was about ready to head to the hospital when I was able to think clearly long enough to call my mother who used to be an RN. I told her what was going on and she confirmed my suspicions about it being gas and recommended a drink of Coke and walk before worrying too much. Short version, half a glass of Coke and half a mile later everything was fine. Gotta tell ya, I'm sure glad I am not going to be making 2-and-a-half years worth of payments to the hospital/ER for gas pains!

To celebrate Amanda feeling better and to make us both feel better about getting up early and not getting to go greet the troops, we decided to run by Krispy Kreme (is that good for a gassy tummy?). On the way, we saw a lady with car trouble along the side of the highway. Thinking she had a flat and seeing that she was alone, we looped around at the next exit to see if we could help. She ended up being out of gas, so I pushed her car off onto the shoulder (she was on a bridge) and ran back home to grab some gas from the church mower shed. We gave her about 3 gallons and she was on her way. Got to witness to her a little bit and invite her to church before she left. So we then brought the empty gas container back and headed out to Krispy Kreme.

I would say we felt like the Marines getting more done by 10am than most people do all day, but I think we were more busy than actually getting stuff done. Nonetheless, it was quite a morning.