Thursday, March 17, 2011

spring break recap

Nate and I were in Nazareth, PA over spring break watching his younger siblings while his parents are out of town. Nate got the kids up for school every morning, and then we would sleep in a few more hours. He'd play computer games with Kevin until the afternoon when the other kids start getting home. We played baseball, watched movies, baked cookies, played games, went out to eat, did chores, made smoothies, played more games...

Thursday we went into the woods to have a St. Patties Day boat race. Our boats had pretty random names like Barbadus (Kevin), Beware the Pirate (Logan), The Flower Boat of Peace (Maddie), and The Nate Hammer (guess). I called mine the St. Patties Day Destroyer.






Once in the woods, we picked a spot on the stream to start the race. Despite carefully folding and coloring our boats, they floated mere seconds before going under. Logan and Maddie were pretty upset, so we tried to encourage them to enjoy the woods.

We found rock walls and bridges, patches of moss covered rocks and logs near the waters edge, knobby trees, and forest creatures.











We each threw a penny into the stream while making a wish.


Logan "found" two pennies near a hole in a tree and figured they must have been dropped by the Leprechan that lived in the hole.


Friday was our last day in Nazareth, so Nate, Kevin, and I went to the Martin Guitar Factory and took their free tour. It was pretty amazing seeing how meticulously each person works on their one small part in the process.





I know this is the longest post ever, but I need to tell you about the plane ride home. We flew Southwest and were the last to board, so we didn't get to sit next to each other. Instead, I was in a window seat next to an older couple. I started dozing off when I felt the man's arm rest on mine. I awoke to see his wife offering him a piece of hard candy. She put it in his mouth for him, and then her eyes went wide. I then realized that the reason the man's arm was on mine was because he was unresponsive, staring straight ahead of him with his mouth slightly open. The wife frantically threw her tray table up and went to the front of the plane for a coke. I assumed the man was diabetic at this point, and when the wife poured some coke into his mouth that dribbled right back out, she began to panic. She called his name, but he didn't respond. He started making strange noises with his throat. At this point, I was trying to open wide his mouth to make sure he was choking on his tongue or something. I put my hand on his chest and his heart was beating hard, but not too fast or slow. The wife had a flight attendant ask for a nurse or doctor over the intercom. While she was up at the front, I was stuck in my seat by this man, wondering if I was going to witness a death. The flight attendant came and put an oxygen mask over the man's mouth that he started trying to take off. That was a good sign. At least he was coming back to himself. A young doctor came and took the man's pulse. Normal. About this time, after a minute and a half of the man being totally out of it, he started responding normally. In fact, he was annoyed at all the fuss and kept saying, "I'm fine." The doctor tried to explain what was going on and why he was taking his vitals, but the man kept saying, "I'm fine!" And it was true, the man seemed fine. He was a doctor himself, he explained, which made me realize he had good reason to be annoyed at the oxygen mask - oxygen wouldn't help his blood pressure. Finally, he took off the mask and drank his coke which convinced everyone he was alright. The doctor went back to his seat, but the flight attendant would come back every few minutes to ask how he was doing. She had me fill out my info on the "witness" portion of a form. During the rest of the flight, the wife and I were a little jittery every time the man moved an inch or dozed off or coughed... He would check his own pulse every half hour which made me feel both at ease and nervous. When we landed, the man apologized for "ruining my flight" while the wife thanked me for "being so calm!" Anyway, craziest experience on a flight yet.

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