My Beautiful Days

This is something I came across that my step-daughter, Claire, was going to post on my blog, but lost it before she posted. I recovered it today and decided it was something that needed to be posted. She wrote this on November 2, 2008 - before Monte and I were married. Here it is: 10 random facts about Kami 1. Her nose moves when she talks. 2. Her favorite season is Autumn, because of all the pretty colors and perfect weather. 3. As a child, her nickname was Goose. 4. When she was young, her dog Muffin got lethally bitten. 5. She is at Tanya Thom's home right now. 6. She likes to cook spaghetti. 7. She has a pair of pajamas with squirrels printed on them. 8. At a youth group she led, there was a disrespectful boy called Jeff. He never listened to anything she said; he also had an annoying habit of belching whenever she asked a question. One day, when he did the aforementioned sin, she bought a soda (the room they were meeting in had a vending machine residing in it), chugged it, an...

He loves unconditionally. He is steadfast in life. He loves his family to the fullest and is always striving for new ways to bond with them and new things to play. He believes in me and thus gives me the confidence to fully believe in myself. He supports me and encourages me. He laughs with me and holds me when I cry. He prays with me and seeks God with me. He travels with me. He is the hardest and most ambitious worker I know. He makes me smile. He makes me laugh. He is the most amazing man I have ever met in my life. He is my blessing, the best gift I've ever received. My wonderful husband ... I love you, Monte!

This is something that I feel God is trying to drill into my heart - and something that I am really struggling with. In so many ways in the last two weeks I have felt Him telling me to have faith, to truly believe. Where am I lacking faith? Ever since my miscarriage, I am truly doubting my body's ability to carry a baby to full term. Ridiculous, I know, but it's a fear that is haunting me and almost making me scared to be pregnant again. That being said, in the last couple of weeks, I have heard many sermons about the need to prepare myself for the baby and to expect the baby. Like the man who was praying for rain - God said he would bring it and so one man prepared his fields for it, while the other did not. I need to prepare my fields. I truly believe that part of that is really making my body ready - no more occasional glasses of wine, cutting down to caffeine free coffee in the morning, that sort of thing. The other is truly believing. God had spoken to me through somethin...

It's completely true. For as long as I can remember, the only thing I ever really wanted to be was a wife and a mom. Sure, I can go to college and get a degree and waste my time (not saying that I think college is a bad idea, I'm just saying that it was never where I saw myself going) ... but why do that when I know I'm going to be a stay-at-home mom forever. It was the desire of my heart and I knew that it was going to be true. This is why, when I was 21, single and working a job that hardly paid anything, I was baffled at how my plan had gone wrong! Why would my heart so strongly desire to be a homemaker when the reality of it seemed so far away that there was no chance I was going to reach it? The one thing I continually leaned on was the verse in the Bible that says God will give you the desires of your heart. I heard a sermon right around age 21 that really stuck with me - that God gives you the desires of your heart because He has placed those desires within you. Gran...

I'm sitting in sunny Arizona visiting my in-laws (along with my step-son, Colin) and am having the time of my life! So why am I asking for your prayers? Because, just a few days ago, I had a miscarriage and we lost our baby. It's a really difficult thing to try to get through, especially when I'm so far away from my Monte. Please keep our family in your prayers, it's much appreciated! Rejoice in the Lord always, my soul, and again I say REJOICE ....... This is the day that the Lord has made, let us REJOICE and be glad in it! -- I'm not sure why it happened, but I do know that God is in control and He knows why. Because of that, I know that someday soon, I will rejoice!!

Some of you may have caught my blog from yesterday stating that I was stuck in a funk. I must admit that it was all the result of an overly emotional day. I think this might have something to do with it! :)

Alright, I thought it would be no problem to sell my dining set, several rugs (ranging from runner rugs to big 5x8 rugs) and other misc. items on Craigslist - but thus far, the only people I've heard back from are SCAM artists! AGH! So, I'm utilizing my blog to announce that my husband and I are redecorating and have a LOT of stuff to sell in the process! If any of you know of ANYONE who may need household items, please please please please please send them to the link below to check out everything we have listed. Those of you who don't know of anyone - please please please please please please PLEASE offer up your prayers that this stuff will go quickly! http://minneapolis.craigslist.org/search/sss?query=Rude%20Clan

For those of you who don't see me with my family on a very regular basis, that sentence is one that may sound completely crazy - but at the Rude household, it's an everyday phrase. I hear it from my three-year-old. When he wants to cuddle and rest, he also wants to put my hair in his ear. It may be a comfort thing ... ... or it might just be a really great way to pass the time - I really don't know! Sometimes I can convince him to use something else to put in his ear - the fringe of my scarf or his fuzzy blanket - just to keep going during the day (let's face it, with a family of six, there's a lot to be done!). But by the end of the day I hear it again, "I want to put your hair in my ear!" What can I say? I love the boy and thus we snuggle up and one of his thumbs goes into his mouth and my hair goes into his ear. It's an odd way to bond, but in the Rude home it's a very regular occurrance :) My dear, sweet Colin .. how I love you!!

Where you have SO MUCH you planned to do, and somehow the day slips away and you miss out on many of those things? Or how about one where you know you should be making dinner, but you're glued to facebook instead? Or maybe one where you should be dealing with the crazy child spinning in circles at your feet, but instead you write a new blog entry? Or maybe, just maybe, you had a day where you took your child to lunch and he told you that HE was the parent and HE was going to spank YOU if YOU were naughty?! Or maybe you visited your husband at work and stayed so long that you had to ask your neighbors to see your daughter off the bus and you didn't get to ANY of the grocery shopping you had planned? Was that you? Or was it me?! I'll never tell .... :)

And I feel darn right guilty about it! I woke from a VERY restless night of sleep, and got up in time to see Claire off to the bus. As she's walking out the door, the phone rings - my Monte is calling to inform me that school has been cancelled today due to the extreme cold. So I yell outside for Claire to come back, she does so, changes into her jammies, and we both crawl back in bed. Perfect morning, right? WRONG. My boys were fighting over a video game this morning and one of them decided to resolve the fight by punching the other in the head. Nice. My youngest was just completely out of sorts and throwing fits from the get-go, which left me more than irritated! So I dealt with them as I felt was necessary, then the phone rang again! Once again - it was my Monte, just calling to see how my morning had gone. After telling him how completely ANGRY I was about everything that happened, I know he was sitting on the other end of the line, searching desperately for something t...