No Riteing on the Wal

Carl and I thought you all might get a kick out of this picture. William wrote this note on the wall to discourage his siblings from...writing on the wall. It has now been painted over but Carl took a picture to save the moment.


Here is video of the fishing trip mentioned in the previous post.

Take A Child Outside Week

They have started this thing in NC. They actually have to have a week to encourage parents to take there children outside. It is pretty comical considering the Trautman family. Our boys are outside all the time getting dirty and gathering creeatures. We just recently put up four bird feeders in the back yard. We have a hummingbird feeder too. The hummingbirds will actually come fly around the window and stare at you when the feeder is empty. It is like he is saying "Hey you inside that house. Put more food in my feeder." The kids love to figure out the kinds of birds that come and feed. Anyway all this week has been Take a Child OUtside Week. Carl needed no encouragement. So far this week the boys have beeen fishing at a local pond that is owned by a friend at church. They each caught a bunch af fish and they loved it. I am still washing smelly clothes and shoes becasue Alex and Nathan decided to explore the pond fully clothed. I almost threw up when they came home. My pregnancy nose is still running full force. I told Carl no fish in the house. THey wanted to cut them up and eat them but I think it was too much for Carl. The kids were also at the park yesterday while I had my ob appointment. I arrived at the park and Carl pulls a tied up sock out of the van. You guessed it. The boys had found a lizard and wanted to take it home. I love life with boys. At least I have Esther although she was just as exited about the lizard as the boys were. The kids have had a good time outside this week and I am sure that Carl has something planned for Saturday, if I haven't had this baby yet. I just thought all of you would get a kick out of Take a Child OUtside Week. I thought it was a joke at first but it is real. Some guy has written a book even about how our children today have a "nature deficiency" or something like that. Thank you mom and dad Trautman for instilling a love of nature and outside in your boys. It is rare now a days. Pray for all of us women who love your boys as we step out of our comfort zones into the wonderful world of mud, fish, snakes, lizards, birds, bugs and the list goes on and on. I am getting used to the words "Mommy, look what I found outside. Can we keep it?"

Go Hurricanes

No not the weather phenomenon. The Carolina hockey team. Carl called me on Friday morning to say that someone at his work had given him four free tickets to the game. HE decided to have a boy's night out with the older three. I met him after work. I think the Lord planned it all perfectly because on the way there Daniel threw up in the car. It was comical seeing a pregnant woman with a very bad gag relfex trying to clean up a screaming two year old. I finally did it and then Carl showed up. I told him he would have to clean the car seat because I had done all I could do all ready. He just laughed. If we had all planned to go the whole evening would have been ruined. Carl took the boys and I headed home to put Daniel immediateyl to bed with just water. He did not even complain about not having dinner. Esther and I had a girl's night just eating our dinner in front of the t.v. She loved it because she got to eat on a television try that is just reserved for daddy. After I put her to bed I spent a relaxing evening by myself. I got the play by play of the game becasue the boys kept calling every time something happened. They had a great time and were so excited. The hurricanes actually wone 3-0. It was a great bonding time for the boys and Carl.

An Extra 3 Months

I figured it out last night. If I go two weeks late with Samuel that will be an extra 12 weeks of pregnancy for me all together. That is 3 months! I just thought that was an interesting fact. It is depressing when your midwife tells you that there is no reason to check for dialation since I always go late. I hope that Samuel comes soon so I can attend my own son's baptism. If I get induced on the 1st that means Samuel (with my history of LONG inductions) won't be born until Wednesday. I won't even be home a day or two before William's baptism. I am praying that Samuel is born soon so I have time to recover before the 7th. I am keeping myself busy doing housework. I am trying to get evrything ready so I have a clean house. I go grocery shopping tomorrow and Carl just called to make sure I buy easy to fix stuff. The kids luckily are not picky eaters. They are content with chicken and potates every night. I don't know what I would do without my older boys. They have been such a help this pregnacny. William can even get Daniel out of his crib and changed and dressed in the morning. What a blessing each of my children are including this stubborn little one who just likes it nice and warm where is for now.

Rain!!

A recent weather report down here said that we would need two feet of rain to get us out of the drought that we are in. We had gone 19 days without rainfall until last night. The remnants of Hurricane Humberto came through with force. It started raining around noon and continued on and off all last night. The only problem was that with the rain came wind, hail, and a few tornados. I sat and watched the news from 6-9 last night because the hardest hit areas were very close to us. One of the tornados was about a mile from our house. We never saw anyting or heard anything and from what I understand there wer no injuries or that much damage. Trees and fences mostly. One tree fell on a nursing home and praise the Lord there were no injuries. A camper was blown right off a truck in the parking lot of where I do my grocery shopping. There were several structure fires caussed by the awesome lightening. The major highway down here also turned into a skating rink. They said the road had goone so long without moisture that the oil on the road just made it so no one could stop. We ended up with a 17 car pile up that led to another 5 car pile up behind it going one way. Once they got that cleaned up there was another pile up on the other side of the highway involving a day care bus this time. Praise the Lord no one was seriously injured. I was glad to have Carl come home safely last night from work and to have a sturdy house. Thank goodness for the rain. We ended up getting over 2 inches. No where near 2 ft. but every little bit helps down here. I think as christians here on NC we need to be a little bit more specific in our prayers for rain. No tornados next time Lord.

Impatience

I have officially hit the "I am so tired of being pregnant" stage. I will be 39 weeks tomorrow and I am so ready to meet this baby. Last night I had contractions all night but they were the annoying kind that are just enough to keep you up but not enough to get anyhting started. With my history of going two weeks late (all five times) I am getting very edgy and depressed. It is still hot down here. Yesterday it was in the mid 90's. Carl got promoted to major yesterday and I went to Fort Bragg to pin his new rank on. First of all it is an hour and half drive with five kids in the car. When we got there we sat in the car for an hour waiting for Carl to get out of a meeting. Not fun. Then we had to drive to the rifle range where the ceremony was going to be. Weird place for a promotion ceremony! Then we had to wait another hour while they got everything ready. NOt fun. Then after the ceremnoy we had to wait another 45 mintues until Carl was released. Not fun. We got back to Garner just in time to go to choir practice at church at 4:30 only to find out that it was not to start until 5:00. We just let the kids run around the grass outside of church to expend some energy. By the time we got home from church at 8:00 i was cranky and my ankles were really swollen. I had no water to drink the whole day, only drinks with caffeine in them. Not a good idea on a hot day. Carl and I both ended up falling asleep before the kids. When I drifted off they were still talking in their rooms, quietly! I guess I just need prayer that I will stop snapping at the kids and Carl and just realize that Samuel will come in God's perfect timing. I told Carl that he is not allowed to touch me in the months of November and December ever again. Ha Ha! I want a winter pregnancy next time around. Or else move to Alsaka. Speaking of hot weather please pray for rain down here. It is really becoming a huge problem. All the lakes are drying up and people still are not cutting down on their water usage. There is even talk of putting people in variable rates where you get charged huge amounts if you go over the average daily allotment for your home. With a family of eight that could be a problem for us in laundry alone. There is also the rule now that if you get caught too many times breaking the water restriction they will turn off your water. We are not even in the part of the state where it is the worst. The mountains are hurting worse than we are. Pray for rain. Now that I got completely off topic. I always tend to write in a stream of conscienceness style anyway. Pray Samuel will come soon so I do not have to be induced, again. Thanks for letting me rant. It feels good to just talk about this all instead of letting it all build up and explode. Like I ever let that happen (HaHA).

The Ocean

I love the ocean. Always have and always will. It is a different story when you have kids at the ocean. Carl and I decided to go to the shore yesterday. We went to the NC Aquarium at Ft. Fisher. The kids had a blast. We ended up joining. They have a program where you can use your membership at other zoos and aquariums in the country. The Baltimore Zoo is included so the kids want to take a trip up there sometime. There was a beach access right next door to the aquarium and Carl wanted to take the kids. He first had all three boys out there together. I was a basket case. The kids kept going out further and further and Carl only has two hands. The waves were pretty rough and the current kept pushing them further away from me. I was trying to be calm but I was nervous. Finally I think it got to be too much for Carl. He decided that taking them out one at a time into the deeper part was better. I could calm down then. I watched the four others while each child got a turn riding the waves with Daddy. They had a blast. It was the first time in the ocean for Esther, Daniel, and Nathan (he was six months old when we were at the ocean last time.) They also had a good time just playing in the sand or should I say rolling around in it. We were there for a while and then enjoyed a nice leisurely dinner and came home. We had not done anything like this as a family in a long time. I think I did okay in regards to not freaking out about watchign five kids in the ocean. I was nervous but had a good time. Next time I think I am going to bring reinforcements so I can relax a little bit more. It was quite comical me jumping out of the beach chair everytime the boys got pushed over by a wave. My big nine month pregnant body was tired by the end of the day. I slept through the night and did not have to go to the bathroom one time. I guess my body just needed rest.