Wellfleet

My Apple dictionary says countenances. Easy-peasy...

Coming from a former teacher - I know, I know, there's really no such thing - THIS - POST - IS - AWESOME.

Needing a month to "take care of a few things" does sound excessive. My theory is that Jill is pregnant again, they're not raking in nearly what they need to make the whole deal profitable, and Derick is using the month to job-hunt. If he gets lucky and finds employment, they'll announce that, AND that the Muffin is with child, AND they won't be returning to Central America just now. If he doesn't get a job, of course they'll just announce that they're staying put until Baby 2 arrives. Over the years their stories will need to become more and more creative, until they figure out that just shutting up entirely is the best course of action. If they ever do. Of course, they'll have to stop holding their paws out for donations in that case.

Didn't care for the cake either, but it really was the smartest choice to make under those circumstances. Anything else would have pooled onto the floor before the ceremony was over. If Amy had her heart set on a gleaming white buttercream or cream cheese cake, she needed to find herself an air-conditioned venue. And I think the arrangements, overall, seem to have been too hurried for that.

Completely agree. "The flame-out before the show died..." - 100% accurate and spot-on. There is no way 19 Kids could have sustained the same interest level with 7 more weddings - of the girls. Even less interest for the boys weddings too. I think they could have kept going for several more years, but it would have required changes to which Boob would never agree.

Just like her Momma. Must be a "youngest" kind of thing...

No, of course it hasn't. Ben is still way too young, confident, naive & inexperienced with the ways of the world. [begin sarcasm font] - "Everything - and more - is going to happen exactly as I have it planned, guys. Isn't our first baby on the way, right on schedule? Relax, it's all good...."

Fully-agree. But my guess is that it's Gothardism that's limiting Jill to maternity care. If she was any other kind of a nurse or practitioner, there's always a chance she would have to provide care to men who were neither her husband or sons. I bet Gothard even has rules forbidding women from providing certain levels of health care for their own fathers or brothers.

Clear something up for me, guys. Don't you have to work FIRST - in order to have something to get a vacation FROM??

Cute story. I'm sure that at that moment you were thinking "OK, unless I take credit for this, I guess I'm not going to be able to take credit for everything wonderful she does from this point out either..." LOL.

Plus the Duggars can refer to Jill as a certified midwife - without all that pesky additional training and study that would be required in the US. Not the whole truth, but a truth nonetheless - their specialty. Suddenly, I'm starting to picture a lot more Duggars in the missionary business as time goes on. Goes right along what with I believe Boob's credo must be. "Sure beats working for a living..."

100% agree. Derick's posts are headache-inducing for me too. I have to say, I'd love a peek at his high school & college transcripts. I don't think we're talking Dean's List here, people. At this point, I'm just hoping his math grades are significantly better than his English/verbal/language grades are. If not, I'm signing up for the theory submitted by another poster - that he was "let go" by WalMart because he's just not very skilled in accounting either.

Gee, I'm beginning to think that aversion therapy may be one method that could actually be effective for him. Never a first choice, but when the others don't pan out...

This teacher thinks THIS sounds terrific. But it also sounds like far more than Me-chelle Duggar could hope to handle on her own. Not to mention far more than Boob would want his kids exposed to. Consequently, it would never be considered by the Duggars.

From the I-Want-It-So-Badly-I-Can-Taste-It department, I'd give anything to have the Duggar children tested by qualified professionals, all 19 of them. IQ tests first, and then standardized achievement tests. After years of observation, I want to see how close I came to guessing who's the brightest, and who's been cheated the most because of the pitifully half-baked "homeschooling" they've been receiving. Obviously it would never happen, but I bet there would even be a few surprises in the data at the end.

This was my impression too. I think Amy never got any type of "real" job - or trained for one - because she expected to be married much sooner than actually ended up being the case. And she apparently wasn't serious enough about her music career until recently - that might have worked out better than it did if she had [though I doubt it]. But it is the stretch of all time for Amy to refer to herself as a nanny. Nannies are individuals with actual earned credentials, who've been trained by qualified & accredited organizations for a minimum of six months, and preferably for a year or two, in health care & first aid, domestic skills and most importantly, ALL areas of child care and development, from newborns through school-age children. The 17-year old [or the 28-year old] from down the block who watches kids after school until their parents get home is not a nanny. She's a babysitter, plain and simple.

I'm very curious as to how well Grandma Duggar is fixed - because something tells me there's a really strong likelihood of Boob needing her $$ in his old age. Just like when he was a kid. Boob is close to becoming the middle-aged equivalent of a jobless Trekkie nerd who lives in his parents' basement. But he comes with a bonus - a wife, 19 kids, 3 in-laws and at current count, 5 and a half grandchildren.

Absolutely. From both what we know and what we can reasonably piece together, it seems abundantly clear that Me-chelle's parents had checked out as parents by the time she made her appearance. I doubt she even made her own bed as a kid or teen - or got any instructions regarding domestic skills. This must be a factor in why Me-chelle herself has never seemed to be interested in her own children. For all her TV blather, she has never seemed genuinely interested in her kids. To me, at least. It's all surface stuff, but nothing sincere.

We should do a pool on how soon Amy becomes pregnant, if she isn't currently that is. She's coming up on 30 soon. If she wants kids, she should start soon. I do wonder whether she wants them though. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if she didn't.

[bolding in quote is mine] Oh, the Duggars have definitely been to formal occasions in the past. They've never been appropriately-dressed for any of them, however...

I think they'll be home soon too, Happy. I have the feeling it won't take very long for your genius SIL to start missing the heathen comforts of the good old USA. In no time at all he'll conjure up a whole NEW Grand Dream for the family. Right now he really has absolutely zero concept of what he's facing down there. But he will, very soon. May the Force be with you until then, when you can happily collapse with joy... ❤️

Don't, Joe. I think black isn't nearly as critical as white. People shouldn't be upstaging the bride, but a black cocktail-type dress at an evening wedding in the city. Perfectly normal these days, I think...

Yes, but your 12-year old is more mature than Me-chelle - seriously...

Yes, I think the rule about black has been lifted in the last 20-30 years. I've seen lots of people here in upstate New York wearing black to weddings, especially evening weddings. Not an issue for me, because I haven't any black outfits. It's "not in my color wheel" - as Sandra Bullock said in The Blind Side. LOL. But when I was little, I definitely remember hearing the women in my family discussing no white and no black for weddings at different times.

I'm 59 and I was raised that guests did not wear white or black to a wedding. White was competing with the bride - and black because it implied mourning.