Y'all, I'm not playin'

I have had the worst stomach virus for the last 24 hours. Never have I ever in my life had anything like this before. I've tried all kinds of medicine and nothing helps. Last night I was doubled over in pain from stomach cramps that occurred every 2 minutes which was followed my my stomach muscles throbbing. I told Chris it literally felt like when I was having contractions when I was in labor with Martha. It was that bad.

I feel as though the end MUST be near, as I have been suffering for a full 24 hours now. Please, God.

In other news...

Martha and I went to TN this past weekend through Tuesday. She stayed up there with my Mom the next 2 days, and she should be back home this evening. Chris hasn't seen her for almost an entire week. He's about to go nuts missing her.

We had a good time seeing a lot of the family that's up there. I wish Nick would have made it over to Noni and Paw Paw's, but I'm sure we'll see him at Christmas time. And of course Heather and her family were coming in town a week after I left. That always happens! We always just barely miss each other. Dangit.

I shot some video and am in the process of editing it into a short highlights video of the weekend. It's nice to have things like that to keep for memories. I hope Martha likes watching herself as a toddler on video when she grows up.

Ok, so I know most of you don't follow the Casey Anthony trial, but I do. So I must mention that the defense will most likely rest their case today. Which means Judge Perry (The Velvet Hammer) will ask Casey Anthony if she's sure she doesn't want to testify (if she hasn't already) and then I suppose the jury will go into deliberations. That is, as long as The Velvet Hammer denies the motion for mistrial that he had previously held off on and said he'd give ruling prior to getting a verdict. I'm pretty excited to see how this all turns out.

An open letter

Dear blog readers,

Quit lurking and comment on all these super awesome, wonderful and important things I have to say! I get discouraged when several posts in a row get 0 comments. You could even just let me know that you're still here.

Sincerely,
:(

Technology. What did you grow up with?

Remember Prodigy? I don't remember exactly what it was, but as far as I know, it was some sort of internet-ish type of thing. I just remember dialing up to it from our house in Hermitage. I couldn't have been more than 7 years old.

I get so frustrated at work with particular *ahem* "older" people and their lack of technology understanding. I'm no tech geek by any means, which makes it even more annoying that the things I find to be so simple, are so not simple for them. "Them" being people that didn't grow up being able to use the internet for school project research. Encyclopedia? What's that?

Clicking on a link in an email shouldn't be a task that requires explaining. Yet, sometimes it has to be explained...and in great detail...and explained again because they couldn't hear what you said the first two times. All the while I'm sitting at my desk with steam coming out of my ears because, really, how can you not know what to do with a link in an email? Come on!

Anyway, I am proud of the people from older generations that make an effort to at least know the basics of what to do on the computer. I find that if they would just sit down and figure out a few things, everything else will fall into place. Honestly, it's really not confusing. Even iPhones aren't confusing. I promise. Then again, I come from a generation that has had technology at our fingertips for the majority of our lives.

Hey, you guys...

Hey, you guys...

This whole phase Martha is going through right now SUCKS. Anyone that has ever had a 1 year old can relate, I'm sure.

This weekend Chris spent a few nights at his friends cabin, doing things that boys do at cabins....drinking, buying matching America t-shirts, getting in the hot tub, etc. I spent the weekend trying not to lose my mind dealing with a child that was whining about 95% of the time and didn't herself even know what she wanted. She'd point to the snacks and whine, so I'd give her some snacks. But then she would push them away and whine some more. This went on allllllll weekend in various forms.

I tried having dinner out at O'Charleys with my mom Friday night. Keeping Martha up past her bed time was a bad idea. We didn't even finish half our meal. I took Martha outside while my mom paid the check. She went right to bed as soon as we got home.

I wanted to meet up with Kelli, The Gordons, and the Ducketts for lunch on Sunday, but I knew better than to attempt to take her out in a public restaurant at 1:00, when she would normally be napping. Sure enough, she was a monster all day on Sunday and was promptly napping at the time that my friends were enjoying their delicious meal at La Parilla. I was sitting in the living room trying to recollect myself in preparation for the rest of the day.

Where did my sweet baby girl go? Oh, that's right...she's on the verge of the terrible twos. I imagine the "terrible twos" are really the "terrible one to threes." Am I right, parents with toddlers? Bada bing!

Anyway, Martha woke up this Monday morning in THE BEST mood I've ever seen her in. Laughing, smiling, talking, hugging her blanket and saying "awwwwwww." I can only hope that she stays that good all day for my mom. God bless her soul if she has to deal with cranky Martha plus Cohen all day.

In conclusion, dear friends, please understand that I cannot leave the house with Martha between the hours of 8-11 AM and 1-3 PM. It's just not going to be a good experience for anyone. Also, please understand these nap times may vary about an hour earlier or later than the times I listed and may be shorter or longer. Babies love to be unpredictable like that. In addition, I CANNOT WAIT until other people that I know have kids and understand this. Unfortunately, I am a little bit ahead of most of my friends in the "kid" area and have to wait for them to catch up. I try to be understanding in their lack of knowledge. For I have been the ignorant one in the past....never understanding why Cohen had to be home at particular times for his naps. I totally get it now. Totally.

Martha in the Summertime

New video camera means fun with shooting and editing. I have only ever used a real video camera one other time in my life that I can remember. It was huge and required a full size VHS, if I recall. Now, I'm using an HD camera that has 16 GB of built in memory, plus room for more with additional memory card, of course. Fancy stuff. After I shot about 28 minutes of Martha doing random stuff throughout the day yesterday, I sat down last night and learned iMovie. The basics, really. There's much more to it that I'll learn as time goes by and I have more material to work with. And after watching the raw video I took, I definitely need to learn some tricks for preventing a shaky camera, for sure.

So, this is what 28 minutes of video, and an hour and a half of beginners editing makes:

Martha in the Summertime

I know a girl who knows a girl.

I know a girl who knows a girl that is part of a radio show in Texas. I don't know much about what was said about this topic because I didn't hear the audio. I only saw the poll that the radio station put up on their website. The question was "Jaime rips these pictures out of magazines before her husband sees them. What are your thoughts?" And below were pics of some girls in bikinis. Just regular ol' girls in bikinis. Like ones you would see in a Victoria's Secret catalog for swimwear.

The girl I know that knows this radio talk show girl posted on Facebook....and I quote..."Jamie - I am so glad that you and Aaron have decided together that this is a good thing to help protect your marriage. I wish more couples would talk about this stuff and consider each other before they do themselves. Its not like you are tearing these out behind his back. Thank you for being willing to talk about this when you know so many would disagree. You for sure trust each other but we are all capable of making bad decision and you are just doing your part in making sure you both don't make those mistakes!"

Now....how can I put this delicately? I think a simple "I disagree" will suffice, but I'll explain more because I think it will eat at my soul if I don't speak my mind.

So...
Seriously?
For real?

Ok, let me back up...like I said before...I didn't hear the audio, so it's very possible that her explaining herself makes more sense than me just guessing her reasons for tearing out those pictures. But let's just get real here.

Obviously she cannot shield her husband from seeing all women. Obviously she cannot shield her husband from the posters that hang in the mall, the billboards that are up on the highways, the commercials on tv, the movies they watch, that all have women in bikinis in/on them. What in the world is the point of tearing out the magazine pictures? One could argue that even though she cannot shield his eyes from ALL of these images, blocking out just a few of them at least will lessen the load. But then a different One would argue logic. Is this husband going to go have an affair because he sees images of women other than his wife in bikinis? How exactly is taking 10% of these images away from his eyes "protecting his marriage?" And exactly what "mistake" would be be making?

13 year old Youth Group Shaunna would gasp at the thought of someone's husband feasting their eyes on another woman's body! 13 year old Youth Group Shaunna would also gasp at the thought of listening to "secular music."

Modern Day, I Live In The Real World Shaunna is realistic. And not an idiot. Is Chris going to cheat on me because he sees random bikini ads out in the real world? No. If Chris cheated on me it would be for a much larger reason....something along the lines of he's a bad guy, a creep, and he didn't deserve to be married to me. And Modern Day, I Live In The Real World Shaunna isn't going to go out and do bad things because I like to listen to Ke$ha songs on the radio.

So what if the girl I know was just trying to prevent her husband from lusting? Can we talk about Charlie Hunnam, AKA Jax Teller from Sons of Anarchy? HOTT. Yeah, with two T's. Chris and I watch Sons of Anarchy together. We love the show. And Jax is a sexy man. It's just a fact. Does me saying that make me a bad person? No. Does that mean I'm going to hell? No. Does that mean I'm going to go out and try to get with someone other than Chris? No. If Charlie Hunnam himself, in the flesh, offered himself to me...would I take him up on that offer? (Insert obvious "eh.....maybe" joke here), but really.....No. Because Chris is my husband. I made vows in front of God and everybody. I love him and I would not do anything to compromise our marriage. And no, I don't think me seeing Jax with his shirt off is compromising our marriage.

So, I will not be attempting to shield Chris's precious eyes from these horrible, secular, worldly girls in bikinis. I don't feel the need, because I'm not a naive person.

I'm fully prepared to hear feedback about Jesus and the bible and thing similar to what I would have heard from JB Kitts in 1997, but honestly, I don't know that there's anything that could change my opinion about this. I'm open for a devil's advocate though because I feel like my Dad will be popping up in the comments section.

Also, here is Charlie Hunnam. Shield your eyes!