laurakaye

I have questions. What makes Usha Vance think she can visit a country - any country - given how despicable her husband, his boss and his other boss have been treating the rest of the world? Especially uninvited? What level of delusional narcissistic self-importance must one have to visit a place where you are not needed nor wanted? And why is Mike Waltz going anywhere except maybe to his own house because he shouldn't still have a government job? If the visit was canceled, I hope they were already in the air when it happened.

Between her bi-weekly vacations, shilling donated clothes on the Cream of Wheat Boutique, running not one but two MLM's, crashing attending church services, bilking people out of retreat money, filming herself for the socials, farming out her spinster unmarried daughters, and keeping her Hunk fed with uncooked chicken and bird juice, it's a wonder she has time to cook and homeschool her kids! hahaha j/k lol

Did anyone see Paedon's - um, "problematic" - birthday wish for the podcaster Amanda from "We Love to Hate Everything?" Amanda's co-host bought her a $10 Cameo from Paedon for her birthday, as a joke. I saw the clip on Youtube. The person who bought the Cameo asked Paedon to just tell some jokes. Paedon rambles on and on, in a very fast tempo, about how the jokes he wanted to tell would get him in trouble for being racist and misogynistic. If this is Paedon, I can understand why some of his siblings aren't interested in a relationship with him. And listening to him babble on and on, he sounded just like Kody.

I hope this isn't why Jill keeps her kids so skinny and dresses them like she's just purged the Goodwill trash bin - because she knows their appearance might translate into bigger donations - which she will then turn around and use to buy herself something nice like a trip with Hunk to Epcot, or another shiny espresso machine for one of her coffee bars, etc. To be clear, I think this is exactly what she's doing but the ramifications make me sick. She's got at least two waifs whose skin coloring looks like that of a consumptive Victorian child.

I do appreciate a giggle now and again regarding the sh!tshow that is the US. But at the same time, making light of things feels like we are trying to downplay the very real danger these incompetent bozos are putting us in. It's like we have to laugh to keep from crying because the dumpster fire is coming from inside the house, while the fireman are chuckling about whose turn it is to turn on the water. As for comfort watches, Kevin in the Countryside popped up on my YouTube homepage. Kevin - who we never see, nor hear unless he says "Morning" to a passerby - takes long walks through various quaint English villages and shows us the beautiful old cottages, the churches, fields of sheep, overlooked trails, etc. And if he's walking in the rain, I can practically hear my blood pressure falling.

This is exactly what we'd better not see from her. Despite all of her proclamations to the contrary, she was NOT there from Day One.

Regarding Garrison's passing...I would've been upset, as someone who has watched this show from Day One, if they had glossed over their family tragedy. We aren't owed anything from the Browns but at the same time, they're the ones who decided to air their family's business for the last decade. But I am also pre-emptively nervous wondering if we will be treated to watching Kody and Robyn talk about what happened. Kody is his father and no matter what I think of him as a person, he was also dealt an unfathomable blow. But Kody and Robyn are so completely performative and that is the last thing I want to see on this show - Kody and Robyn on the couch trying to re-write history in any way, shape or form. We all heard Kody say what he said about Garrison and Gabe. Part of me just wants a small but heart-felt tribute to Garrison and leave it at that. What I definitely do not want are over-emotional tributes from the people who knew him the least. In other words - Robyn, please sit this one out. And Kody - be careful.

So it was a nautical theme and Jill served tacos? A seafood buffet would've been more appropriate. Jill serving shrimp, clams, etc. - I don't see any possible way that could be a giant disastrous fail, do you? You have my dream job. :)

Another book rec - 🙂 I started The House of My Mother by Shari Franke, daughter of Ruby Franke. I am getting very strong Jill Rod vibes from how Shari describes Ruby. I have thought several times while reading that this could have been written by Nurie, Renee or Kaylee, if they'd had a proper education and had been able to truly escape and deprogram from their mother. If you've seen the recent documentary on Hulu (I think), Shari Franke is remarkably composed and eloquent when talking about her life. The book is likewise very readable. And she's only 22 years old, I believe.

Why am I so excited that this show is coming back? What does that say about me? Can I write a recap even though no one asked?

Oh, I agree! It's just that we have seen Janelle talk about how she had nothing to her name, was afraid that Kody was going to screw her over Coyote Pass, and has banked on a dream with a large land purchase that as far as I know can't be farmed into what they wanted it for. Maybe her Plexus career is bringing in enough cash for the land and if so, if she's comfortable with the risk, then good for her. EDIT: I just took a peek at Maddie's blog. She has a notice on the top of the page that says, "I plan my life out a day at a time so my posting schedule can be erratic." Again, I get it, she has four children. She also had a podcast that she abandoned. She and Janelle keep trying things, see if they stick, then move on when they find out it's more work than they thought it would be - even once they've gained an audience.

I'm not sure if there will ever be another character on tv that makes me laugh and cringe as hard as Judy Gemstone. Edi Patterson does that amazing thing when she's trying to talk as raunchy as her brothers but her voice kind of fades out at the end because she knows she's talking tougher than she really is. The prayer pods? Oh, man...keeping my eyes open for those things to become real. Of course, you must swipe your credit card and choose your donation to enter. Can't be praying for free out in the wild and all!

I cannot imagine the noise, mess and smell of that many bodies crammed into an RV for that length of time. There would be nowhere to go to escape someone else's very close presence. No one except Dave probably got a decent night's sleep. It's no wonder the Rod kids are so deeply entrenched with their mother - she set it up that way. No room for privacy, personal expression, doing something other than what Jill wants to do...that's a nightmare scenario. Those kids probably just went catatonic or disassociated to get through the day.

Death in the Downline went down like a frosty cold beer on a hot summer night, lol. It was a fun read (would have been a perfect beach read if it wasn't still March) with parts that made me laugh out loud but also cringe pretty hard, given what we know of Lularoe, Plexus, etc., and how these women are supposed to post pictures of themselves all the time, filter the hell out of them, and them tell us it's all #BecauseofLuLaRoe or whatever...not to mention the money they have to put into it themselves to have any chance of success. Also of note, it talks about the kind of women targeted by MLM's and how they end up under water quickly. And the name of this fictional MLM cracked me up. The way our main character brings down the murderer is one of the funniest things I have ever read in a murder mystery. :) Has anyone else read it? Should I send a copy to Lizzie's Heritage Inn, do you think? 😇

Janelle posted an IG story about how something got into the chicken coop at Maddie's house and basically destroyed all of the chickens. While I know this happens to a lot of people who own chickens, it just seems like one more thing that perhaps Janelle, Maddie and Caleb weren't prepared for - like purchasing all of that land and not being able to farm it how they wanted because they were unaware of the permits, etc. Maddie now has four children. While I am sure this dream of owning a huge plot of land for growing flowers and hosting events belongs to both Maddie and Janelle, I feel like both women are biting off far more than they can chew right now. What is wrong with Janelle just taking a job where she can earn a steady paycheck like before? Not to squash anyone's dreams but they really don't seem to know what they're doing. Is Taeda Farms still even a thing? Does she still own the land? This is becoming Coyote Pass Part Deux.

The bolded part is me, every night. I related so hard to Kate in that scene. What I can't figure out about the siblings....the first episode, one of the first scenes showed Saxon grabbing Piper around the waist "playfully," but her tone of voice asking him to stop made it clear that she was not amused, while their parents stood there doing nothing. That was the first red flag. Then (unsure of what episode), Piper told Locky that she planned to stay in Thailand and Locky said, "what about me?" And this episode, while we see Locky and Saxon partying, there is one shot of Piper meditating alone, where she is simply staring into space. I have a million theories and they are probably all wrong about what is going on with these three but whatever it is, their parents are clueless - mom is drugged and dad has been too busy working to see it. Similarly, dad is having a complete nervous breakdown and if anyone in the Ratliff family has clocked it, they're ignoring it. Could be the same with whatever is going on between the kids.

I wonder how Janessa's first night of non-nursery sleep went, given that Jill probably forgot to put Janessa to bed after their post-midnight shared sob-fest (those photos aren't going to filter and post themselves), and that Janessa probably thought she'd done something wrong by growing up enough to be evicted from her special room. I think Jill gets a disturbing thrill from scaring her kids so that they cling to her, and then feels powerful when she withholds her love and attention - Janessa might get the worst of that by virtue of her birth order.

We might need to start a book club!

I feel this way about every room in their house. I have never seen someone cram more "decor" in such tiny spaces as Jill, not to mention the 367 electrical cords plugged into 17 outlets. But I'm sure it's fine, Dave is surely on top of the situation - I think Jill said that he's a master electrician in addition to being a hunk. I LOVE that so many people are reading Death in the Downline! I enjoyed it far more than I thought I would. :)

And to think one simple Google search to see the room prices on the hotel's website could bring down Jill's one consistent source of income....

You work for a library? I'm jealous. I should've gone to school for library science but it would have meant moving far from home for college and I was a chicken, lol. When I retire from my full time job, I fully intend to get a job shelving books part time. :) As for the yellow spectacle in the photos above, you sure can see that Jill thinks she's the just cat's meow in those photos. All eyes might be on her, but not for the reasons she thinks.

I picked up a new fiction book at my library called "Death in the Downline" by Maria Abrams. The fictional MLM in the book strongly resembles Plexus and LuLaRoe. In fact, one of the MLM leaders in the story owns a Victorian fainting couch, making me wonder if one Ms. Abrams is a watcher of Sister Wives. 😄

Slightly off topic, but I picked up a new fiction book at the library called "Death in the Downline" by Maria Abrams. It's pretty entertaining, a fun read. I see definite similarities from the fictional MLM in the book to Plexus (and LuLaRoe), for sure.

From what I can recall of Jill's zoom screenshots with her downline, she's only got about 7 or 8 people under her, so hopefully Joan from Akron sees the writing on the wall and bails along with the others when Jill does her 180 on Plexus because Plexus was mean to her. But Jill flouncing off in a huff of Aquanet probably isn't going to garner her the dramatic outcome she's going to be looking for. Here's hoping Plexus will ask, "Jill who?"

"People are saying that this is the Greatest Depression we've ever had. They have never seen anything like it. This will be the biggest, best one that anyone has ever seen. Everyone is saying it. No one has had a bigger Depression than me."