Operation: Asa Joy

March 13, 2015 It has been quite a week for the Trautman’s. Here was the plan: Monday – Carl work half day and go to doctor’s appointments and Kimberly clean the camper Tuesday – drop things off in Garner at storage unit, get both vehicles services and oil changed, drop off car at the Gudzinas house, drive down to Concord to stay at Tom Johnson Campground drop things off in Garner at storage unit, get one vehicle serviced and oil changed, find put my Dad needs major heart surgery next month, drop off car at the Gudzinas house (very late), drive down to Concord to stay at Tom Johnson Campground (got in about 2:30am) Wednesday – appointment to have camper looked at and slide adjusted, family goes to Discovery Place while camper is being worked on Thursday – get camper fixed or if done, go to JAARS campground to spend a few days Friday - JAARS   Saturday – JAARS Open House Sunday – start heading south This is what the week has looked like so far: M...

Please bear with this honest post that I agonized over writing. March 5, 2015 Do you ever have someone say something to you that kind of upsets the balance of your life? I had someone tell me something the other day that I am struggling with. Hard. I keep playing what was said over and over again in my head. Now, what this person said was said in love. They meant no ill will or harm from what they said but it still threw the last few days into a tail spin for me. It has sent me into examining the way that I have been doing things and if what I have been doing has really been effective for the goals that I am trying to accomplish. Is my current path really pleasing to the Lord? Am I brining him glory and honor right now? I am constantly saying to the kids and having conversations with them about how others can know if you are walking with the Lord. I know that our personal walk with the Lord is just that – personal. With my children especially, I am trying to teach th...

We are back in North Carolina. Yesterday, when  we pulled out of the campgrounds to go to Williamsburg we noticed that the tongue jack had slipped a little. When we had pulled in last Friday we were met with snow and lots of ice. I guess as the snow and ice melted it shifted the tongue jack slightly. The camper had also become unleveled because of the snow melting. We were not too concerned as the leveling jacks were in place but we were not comfortable leaving the camper the way it was. We decided to hitch the camper up and fix the problem. While we had everything hooked up we decided that we did not feel like unhitching only to hitch up again in the morning. We decided to pack up and leave a day early instead of leaving Wednesday morning. The kids were okay with as we told them that we were still going to Williamsburg again. But before that we went to...IHOP for FREE PANCAKES. Anyone else go? We got 30 pancakes for free and the kids loved it. We also got some eggs a...

March 2, 2015 Very tiring day but a good one. After making the very hard decision to not travel up to Maryland to visit Carl’s family we were stuck with the dilemma of what to do next. Should we go back to North Carolina? Should we stay in town? The decision was kind of made for us as the camper is still stuck in a lot of snow and ice and the campground is still icy. We pulled into this campground at night so we did notice that this section of the campground is the most shaded. The sun does not get to this part enough to melt anything. While most of the campsites and roads are fine, the site we are on is still full of ice and the road where we need to pull the camper out is a sheet of ice still. We decided to stay until Wednesday to give the snow and ice ample time to melt. We have to leave on Wednesday because there is more bad weather coming Thursday and Carl has army duty this weekend. We decided that we would take the kids to Williamsburg for the next two days. They we...

March 1, 2015 The original plan for today was to pack up in the morning and drive up to Maryland to visit with Carl’s family. Apparently God wanted us to stay right where we are for now. We got a good dose of freezing rain this morning that covered everything in a coat of ice. Not conducive to traveling with a 36 ft. 8000lb. travel trailer. We made the decision to stay here for the day and to stay in communication with Carl’s parents and make a decision later on about what we would do for the rest of the week. We had planned on staying up in Maryland until Thursday but there is another storm with snow and ice coming in on Wednesday night and Thursday. Boy, I am so tired of snow. It took us until about 2 to decide what to do for today. We spent the morning watching a sermon video series we have been watching. Dr. S M Davis has a great series on anger and we finished watching the third in the series today. It was entitled “What Impatience Does”. All I can say is “Ouch.” Very co...