Wellfleet

I can't get too excited about sibling issues, because I'm always remembering a line from a developmental psych course in college. It's part of our evolution. The sibling relationship is - by nature - an adversial one. Competition for resources, competition for parental care and affection. It certainly helped me many times in my own sibling relationships, and I have 5 of them - all younger. Obviously it varies from family to family, and child to child. Some of us will loathe our sibs most of our lives, some will love them to bits - and most of us are in between. And there's not much that's funnier than seeing two 60-year olds still vying for the praise of an 80-year old parent. My Dad's little brother is in his 80s now and still "performed" - Dad's term - at family events as long as their mother was alive. She's gone now, and it's made a definite change in Uncle Chuck.

Have to agree. Derick is with the Jill - all the Duggars really - because he likes getting attention without having to do anything - on his own - to earn it. Just as he got attention to being Pistol Pete without anyone knowing that he, Derick, was really in there. If I had to guess, I'd say he's not much of a risk-taker and/or has some self-confidence issues as well. And like most fundies, generally afraid of the Big Bad Real World.

Yes, I did this too and it worked very well. For me, the whole thing was nowhere near as awful as most people describe it. For 3-4 days before I was scheduled to drink my little gastro-intestinal cocktail, I basically ate baby food - Ensure, jello, soup, Greek yogurt, pudding etc. Consequently, there wasn't much left by the time the drink kicked in. IOW, not much to go-go-go. I was super-cleaned out and experienced NO discomfort at all. In fact the procedure was boring enough to put me to sleep several times. Maybe I was just lucky but I feel like being very VERY empty helped a lot.

Yes, clearly just a promo for Counting On. Guess Good Morning America/ABC is now taking over for NBC/Today Show in that department - good grief. I'd have given a lot to hear any off-air comments from Robin or George S however.

Bolding in above quote is mine. Some Duggar theories are decidedly Freudian, and IMO, that has to be seen as a reasonable assumption because with them, everything seems to boil down to reproduction and "related issues." At the very least, it does with Me-chelle. She is clearly loving herself some Joshie, and now she could be competitive with her own daughter as well. Hmmm - if the Duggars will be needing another whack job weird name for the next grandchild, maybe they should consider Sigmund. Of course, the likelihood that any of them have ever heard the name falls squarely in the "Slim to None" range.

Very true. But then Derick will have to look as though he has a manly job. I guess this is when he gets added to Boob's payroll, I suppose. If he's not already there.

A baby manatee, you say? Hmmmmm, does anyone know if Josh has ever been in Cincinnati? I bet he has spent some FRC time there. Just setting the locals straight, of course... LOL.

Oh, I'm going to have to check these out! I loved connect-the-dots books when I was little. I can completely zone out while coloring, doing cross-stitch or embroidery, etc. And there's a lot to be said about zoning-out time. When it's over, the whole vibe is recuperative - as though I've plugged myself in to be re-charged for however long. Like sleeping while you're awake...

Priciest for me - $125 to see Phantom of the Opera in the early 90s in Toronto. Went with my Mom to a Saturday matinee, had dinner afterward in a marvelous Toronto restaurant. Wish I could remember its name. Afterward we said we should have stayed over in a big hotel and made a weekend of it. Hair, facial, nails, massage, Sunday brunch - the whole nine yards. But we drove back home to the southern shore of Lake Ontario that night - just 2 hours. My Dad was beginning to have his COPD problems and Mom didn't like leaving him overnight without someone else in the house.

Wow - that's amazing. I wonder if very young kids are getting these offers now because babies get Social Security numbers. Is it required for all babies to get one or is there still an option to wait until later? In my day you generally didn't get one until you were in your teens and needed it for a part-time job.

Good luck, Jen - may the Force be with you. Julia had great seats - forget how she got 'em, I think one of her friends won something - they ended up very close and it was a theater-in-the-round setup. She was close enough to see what color socks Billy was wearing - LOL. The video she got was great too.

OMG, I bet this is so true...

My niece, who's 36 years younger than me, just saw Billy in New York in October, for her 23rd birthday. I hadn't known she was a big fan, and when I told her Billy was just becoming huge in the mid/late 70s when I was in college, she was blown away. Mostly blown-away though, I think, that we BOTH had the same music idol! LOL...

I can relate about newborn looks, Happy. We had both a Spock and a Yoda in our family, and the 3 doting aunts were frightened. But it's been 20 years plus and I'm happy to tell you that Spock is now a dead ringer for Reese Witherspoon, with the same elegant taste in clothes too. And Yoda looks like Han Solo, so all is well. Thank God!

Perfect description of Kenna' name - "unusual but not off the chain." Love that. And bonus - not spelled in a quirky way either. This sweet little pudder [our family's word for baby, rhymes with "gooder"] will not spend the rest of her days getting mail and documents with her name misspelled, needing to make PITA corrections etc. Parents, the name you give your child is important! NOT an excuse for a vanity project...

OMG, Happy! I absolutely love the bow on Kenna's little baby girl cap! It certainly took long enough for someone to come up with that idea. Much better than those goofy big rubber flowers the Duggars stick on their girls. Kenna has a precious face too, and just LOOK at how her Poppa loves her! Best photo I've seen in a while. That is one heckuva mooshy-face picture. Be sure you keep it handy. Before you know it, you'll need it for her wedding video. Or her wedding laser-brain track or whatever 21st century invention we have when her wedding rolls around...

While I agree that TLC will definitely try to bring the Duggars back, I do NOT think they'll be successful. Not remotely. And I have 4 reasons. Jill, Jessa, Derick and Ben. Not one of them has the personality or intelligence, IMO, to carry a show. Which is exactly what they'll have to do in order to keep it going. Add in the fact that the Duggars have pretty much sung their whole song by now, the ONLY song they know. There probably won't be anything new to see. It's possible that one or two more courtships/weddings might be able to interest the leg-humping public, but beyond that? Would TLC broadcast the continuing saga of Josh, Anna and the Ms? Whatever that turns out to be? I honestly don't know. Six months ago, I would confidently have said No Way. Now I'm not sure - at all. I guess I really wouldn't be too surprised if they did, because they've already made some fantastically-unintelligent decisions regarding this "program."

I agree with most of this post. It really is going to take something massively-catastrophic to get the Duggar kids to wake up. The two revelations earlier this year are clearly not enough for that. But I still don't know whether Josh is in control of Josh. I really doubt it. He has been indoctrinated since birth to listen to and obey his father who - I don't imagine - is being very warm and fuzzy about supporting Josh at this time. If looks could kill, I bet Boob would have offed his firstborn son by now. I'd pay some serious $$ to hear playbacks of any Boob-Josh conversations that have taken place since May too. I just don't see Josh turning away from Daddy as the supreme ruler anytime soon, especially if Boob still holds all the financial reins. Which I think he does. I don't really think Josh will do exactly what Josh wants to do until Boob is permanently out of the picture.

Congrats, Happy! Wonderful, wonderful news. Amid all the bad news, there is Something Good. And that she was sent to you on your Dad's birthday, and her Great Grandpa's birthday, is best of all. Here's to a long, happy and very healthy life for your new little peanut...

I think there's no question that Anna will buckle. No question at all - she will do exactly as she's instructed. There's no evidence in her past of any other kind of response on her part. All she knows is towing the company line.

Yes please! Anyone who knows anything, please post. Of the whole motley cast of characters in the Duggar saga, I think the most interesting of the entire bunch might well end up being JR and Mary. I get theories of my own about everyone else, but I just can't peg these two. They have ole Wellfleet well and truly-stumped...

I still think there's a strong possibility that Me-chelle got pregnant during her last semester in high school and that's when their own plans changed and they suddenly and desperately wanted to get married. Even though the Ruarks were moving away. That wedding happened so quickly Me-chelle had to use Grandma Duggar's dress. And the first baby was lost for whatever reason at some point after that. And they're now stuck together and times were tough. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that the financial guy - ??? and his "no debt" seminars were at least part of the catalyst that sent Boob into Gothardism. But I'm not clear on the timeline for all that and I could be completely off kilter in that regard. I thought Boob got into the No Debt way of living fairly early in the marriage.

Completely agree. I know people who were really living life in the Fast Lane in their 20s - we're talking people who did not eat healthy, did not exercise, drank regularly, smoked, did minor & major drugs, clubbed weekends and sometimes weeknights etc. And on a good day, all cleaned up and in the sunlight, they STILL looked better than Josh does now. Whom I doubt was smoking, drinking or doing drugs. Though sometimes I think he MIGHT have been drinking. Probably not clubbing til all hours though. I think his looking like a 40-year old - and an unhealthy one at that - by the age of 25 is a result of massively-poor diet, inactivity and toxic amounts of stress.

Wow, that sounds dee-lish. For everyday, I just steam B sprouts at home, maybe a little lemon juice and a pat of butter but that's about it. But when there's an event with the whole family, we always do a whole big old recipe. Our favorite is to steam the teeniest little sprouts you can find, then mix in lots of oogey caramelized onions and very crisp peppered bacon and drizzle however much Balsamic vinegar you like over the dish. When ready to eat, pop into oven for about 15 minutes, and serve piping hot.

LOVE chopped liver - no judgment here!