Roslyn

I think this was a bit of real from Meri. Christine brought up that she and Kody just kept plugging away to improve things (I honestly think the "plugging away" was 99% Christine after what he told her in Galveston) and kept working at it until it improved, Meri broke down because she knows Kody isn't willing to even try with her. This feisty shit from Janelle is interesting. The only time she has woken up and come out of her fog has been talking about Kody wearing tight pants, Kody wearing a pony tail and cake.

lol No, I haven't watched that show. I actually watch very little television, but I can't give up Top Chef, Project Runway, any British murder mystery I can find, British documentaries, the great British baking shows and for some crazy ass reason many years ago I became fascinated by the whole Mormon and polygamy subject. I have watched a few early seasons of some of the Real Housewives shows (I gave up satellite in 2010 and only watch select things online now) and a few seasons of the Teen Mom ones (because my mother watched them and talked endlessly about them...so I watched in horror) What little I have seen has left me with enough knowledge that this stuff is just too bizarre to be fully real. Yea...I know, truth is stranger than fiction and the best lie is always seeded with truth. There is something there underlying, and it is developed and nurtured by experts in the field...called producers. The Brown family is an interesting subject and as you watch there are tells that open up a little here and there. I also think that they should have hired a Public Relations expert early on to help them navigate the "outside" world of all of us monogamist apostates!! Especially when they all jumped onto Twitter. They all needed help there, still do. I also remember years back when reality shows took a HUGE leap on television after a big strike by Hollywood writers. If a show is scripted there are rules to be followed and unions to be appeased. That costs money for writers etc. Reality shows are cheap to make, the "talent" is cheaper because they aren't real actors, no scripts are official because they are written as scene and filmed on site, no official scripts are used, so no real writers are paid or used...just producers. I have always wondered if the Browns can write off some of the cost of their houses because they are used on the show, or if they receive money for their roles plus money for the use of the "sets" of the houses. Robyn, Meri and Janelle all have in home businesses, so that would be in with their taxes etc. But...the one thing I have noticed over the years is that this family is worse off because of this show. Their worlds were not changed for the good when 1.) Robyn came calling and 2.) cameras showed them what goes on with their husband and his other women. They all lived their little apartment sharing lives as neighbors, wearing their blinders and trudging through. That damn man has zero talent for structuring his family and dumps all the tough shit onto the wives backs because he just worries about the big picture. Woe is Kody and his four nagging wives. Asshat is too nice a word. Douche Canoe would be my choice.

This was a good read! I suspect the first season we saw the Browns. The second season we saw the beginning of the producers reshaping their characters that they would eventually play. By the third season it was mostly characters with little bits here and there. Meri has alluded to the fact that "you only see what is on tv" and "I can't remember the storylines" because it all happened too long ago, several times on her twitter posts. No one else has really broken character in their social media posts like Meri has. Kody is an ass and I think the producers don't have to direct him to act that way....they just catch it on camera. I also think something that has stood out has been the fact that Robyn was really up front and center for a long time. Lots of talk for a long time in the forum etc has been on her need to talk over the other wives, answer all the questions about the proper way that the polygamists do things and put herself at the resident expert on all things Brown. Then...there was her friendship with that nutter Kendra that I think really taught her a hard lesson about the nutters that are out there online. I remember reading about some meltdowns she had on facebook and late night twitter activity that really sounded bizarre to me. After that Robyn went real quiet. You didn't see her on social media much and she wasn't front and center (or her kids) on the show as much. It used to be her daughter Aurora (the older one) was right there flinging her arms around everyone and running to be first to scream and jump and stand out...then that kind of tapered off. I also think Robyn more than any other of the wives is online reading everything. She even made reference to her old nickname "Sobbin Robyn" on one of those "tell nothing" shows. Robyn's wacko behavior online was about the same time that Meri was flirting online as well. I think Robyn and Meri both learned an important lesson about wackos in the real world. Meri's details came out publicly, but only because of the level of wacko that was her Batman Girl where Robyn's wacko was more behind the scenes until Kendra started playing a front role with Meri's nutter. When the Big Love storylines ran out they had to come up with their own. Weddings and babies are a given, I think the whole Meri and Janelle therapy crap is most likely a small amount of real with a whole lot of fabricated machinations. They had issues, they admit to that, and it's obvious here and there that those issues are under the surface. I suspect that is why Nancy is such a poor therapist on camera because her role is just that...sit there, look like a therapist and...well.....look like a therapist. I also have a feeling that Kody spends a lot of time coming up with ideas for things for the show. I have always thought that Meri's humiliation on camera with what she developed into her fake storyline about the catfish was her punishment for her role in the whole fiasco. I don't think they were going to talk about it at all until Catfish lady started putting everything online for the world to see. I also have always wondered if before things went online if there wasn't some kind of monetary demand from JO and that is why everything went public. Every story about JO from other people has always been about conning money in the end, but Meri's story never had a money demand attached to it, but I have always wondered if there wasn't something like that that was kept hush hush. Except for being a sicko...the ONLY reason to keep the texts and voicemails etc is to hold onto sensitive information for blackmail. JO's story is that she is a long time sicko doing the same thing to a lot of people the same way for many years. I think what we see on the show is only small seeds of actuality with a whole lot of bullshit. Janelle could grow some great tomatoes with all that bullshit...

But But But!!! What about sneaking back INTO Utah under the cover of darkness and living underground as felon plygs. Kody dragging Christine back to Utah kicking and screaming and everyone only leaving their new houses in disguise. Meri will hire a contractor to rip up and pack the wet bar...cause...you know...she's takin it with her!!

The cold hard cynic in me thinks that Meri misses the one on one attention from Kody. Christine was on the outs for a long time...but she followed orders from her "love" after Galveston and sucked up to Robyn to "show her love for the family" so that she would get the promised love from Kody. Now she and Kody seem closer and Christine must be doing things right. I have a feeling that Meri is jealous that Christine is now in favor when she is so obviously not. Meri wants Kody's attention on her, but only the good attention. As for her issues with the whole family, she wants them to beg her and call her up and say "oh Meri!! You HAVE to come, the family gathering just isn't the same without you!!" But she has burned them and they aren't doing it. SHE has to want it, not wait for it.

I vote more therapy sessions!!!!! :D Lets hope that they bring in an ALL NEW therapist who specializes in Polygamist Sexual Therapy!! Let Kody and Meri get all that dirty laundry out there. :D ....yes...sarcasm...

No. Not just snark. I'm sure its a couple of pages back now, but I was just able to capture a screen cap and crop it out. It's not real clear, but since the words "Marriage Certificate" are so large across the top it's obvious what it is. It was many seasons ago when Meri was laid up after hurting her knee skiing with Kody. Christine came to her (Meri was in her bed resting her knee) to talk about how to deal with Kody and Meri gave her the classic "only have fun with him, don't bother him with anything deep" kind of thing. Keep sweet and all that. The camera panned over some framed things on her wall next to her bed and the words "Marriage Certificate" were there.

Yep. I think this is why the legal "paper only" marriage was truly such a big deal to Meri. She had proof hanging on her wall that he was HERS and the other wives were just there because Meri had agreed to it, no matter how reluctant it was for her. When the divorce happened and she no longer had that proof that he was legally >>HERS<< she pulled back and disconnected...then looked elsewhere. I don't believe that she believes the faith one iota. Sure, she was mostly raised in it, when confronted she will hide behind her faith, but she isn't feeling it deep down (where true faith comes from). Christine is fully indoctrinated and Janelle thought long and hard and left her family and friends and LDS life behind to follow Kody and I believe that she has deep faith. Robyn...I'm just not sure of. I think Robyn wants the fantasy perks in some fantasy world bestowed upon her, but she certainly doesn't want to reciprocate those great gifts of the sister wife sisterhood.

Meri had a large yellow labrador type dog in the very first season of the show, there was an episode where the whole family was working outside in the yard and Kody made a crack about Meri's clueless, stupid dog because it wasn't brilliant like the ranch dogs he grew up with. It was a lovable family pet and if I remember it clearly it was Janelle who got the dog and gave it to Meri. Jump forward to Las Vegas days and there was an episode where Meri said the dog was aging and had trouble with its joints and was having trouble with holding its bladder, but didn't go into exact medical details. There was a big family ta do tho where she and Kody had made up their minds to euthanize the dog, but Mariah was having a lot of trouble and didn't think it was right. They basically told all the little kids and everyone is bawling and gathering around the dog and taking turns taking their photo with the dog before Meri and Kody headed out to take him back to Utah to have a vet euthanize him and then they buried him at the Lehi house. It may have been editing, it was a bit macabre but there was a scene with Kody digging the grave and Meri watching and then they showed them gathered in the backyard with the Vet and an assistant examining the dog. It DID look like Kody dug the grave before the vet came and made final decisions, but who really knows with how they edit the actual timelines. From the point of view of the viewer it didn't look like the dog was anything but an aging dog, there could have been a lot more going on that we weren't told. I have an elderly Pug and caring for him is a round the clock full time job. He is 14 years old and I know he won't be with me much longer, but I do all I can for him. Choosing to euthanize is never an easy decision. There was just something about how Meri discussed it on camera, she did come off as cold and as though she wasn't willing to care for the dog and just put it down for her convenience. Whether it was that way or not we don't know, but she gave that impression and it never settled well with viewers and the subject does come back up on occasion.

Yes, I think she did

That is pretty much it. When Meri started babbling about "I've always wanted to bring the house back into the family" no one really jumped in to say anything like yes, they understood this life long dream of hers...no one.... I think she may have thought it would be nice and all at some points in her life, but I don't think in any way that she has been pining for this house the way she is playing it up on camera. Again...storyline... It's like an old thing that was passed down in your family. No one really wants it, but it's been in the family for generations and no one wants to be the one to get rid of it either, so it sits in someones house and is just this thing that has sat in the homes of your family members. It might have sentimental meaning, it might not. Meri has connected herself to a house that people she was related to owned. A house her mother remembers visiting when she was young, but like others have mentioned, it was the house her Grandmother was raised in and was built by relations etc. It's not a grand house, and I agree with others, it is very cramped and short of space. I have some kitchen things of my Grandmothers, many people wouldn't give them a second glance at a second hand flea market, but they have deep meaning to me. A cutting board that my Grandfather cut from one of the trees their house was built with. A slicer that I helped my grandmother make pickles and cut corn from the cob for most of my childhood every year. I have her canning funnels, old cookie and biscuit cutters and a stock pot that is older than I am. Nothing worth real money, but these things I used standing by her side my entire childhood and I don't put them up on a shelf, but I use them every day. It's a little piece of my Grandmother still by my side cooking with me. They are real memories and cherished things, and they will go to my children because they are things they remember me always using. Meri covets a house, a house with few memories and none of her own...just a desire to possess. Like an insolent child who isn't interested in playing with the toy, just wants in in THEIR possession so no one else can say it's theirs. Grabbing it first and yelling ""MINE"" and then running around reminding everyone that they have it and no one else can get it. Come ON, when she says she "wants it back in the family"...um...WHAT family!!?? She has all but turned her back on her real life family, her daughter has zero interest, so WHO is she trying to impress with the house?? Sisters? Brothers? Half siblings? Cousins? WHO cares besides Meri??

Just to add so we don't all forget that Janelle had the first child, the first male child and then continued to produce four male children, two of them being obvious favorites of Kody's. AND...then Meri...who had "just a girl..." Yes...sarcasm...lots of it. But hearing Meri describe her daughter as "just a girl" on camera to. this. day...frosts my cookies!!!

My thinking is along the lines of a homesteader line of thought. While a separate tank for heating would be normal in a town house, this house was built early in the area. I believe somewhere along the way Meri may have mentioned one of the first houses built in the town. My first thought with the size of that brick pad was wood stove. I doubt a homesteader would have both a stove and a heating tank. In my area of Appalachia a wood stove would be indoors and a giant kettle would be outdoors for everything else. What you say makes sense that the room is way too small. I think that dividing island was added at a later point to separate and give a little more work space. A period homesteading woman wouldn't have the counter tops and storage we are accustomed to, but a giant table to work on, and being a farm house the work table and eating table were often one and the same. I too would love to see a floor plan, especially an older one...but houses like that were built long before planning was done. Looking at the photo some more I'm also inclined to think that brick pad is the surround for a well. That would make sense too. You have the well right there, build over it and the bricks allow a separation with probably a wooden lid of some kind. Looking at the outside of the house it looks like it may have had a smaller part built first and then added on to later, that happened a lot as a family grew. Just speculation.

Never give up!! I am great at my outdoor gardens, but not so much with indoor plants. Although my lucky bamboos are beautiful, I think my low light house is good for them. I have read enough of what you write here on the forum to get a sense of how you think and approach subjects. Good gardening is all about good preparation, after that regular maintenance. Read up on no till or no dig styles and know your location and how water and light effect the area before gardening. I can highly recommend the youtube channel "One Yard Revolution". I think that your way of thinking would mesh very well with the high yield/low work style of Patrick's garden. What he does in his garden is truly amazing! You can do a LOT in containers!! Many breeders of vegetables are breeding varieties just for the confinement of container gardening. If you are creative and don't mind getting dirty, making your own hypertufa containers is a great way to choose your own shapes and sizes. You don't have to ever wield a shovel to have a beautiful garden. :) I was thinking just that!! lolol If she is used to buying grocery store tomatoes year round she might just think the texture is normal. Gaggg.....

The bricks once housed one of two things. The boiler for doing laundry OR a wood burning stove. Since the house was built in the 1800's it would have started its life with a cast iron wood fired stove.

...not roasting ;) Just clarifying... Kody was with Christine when she was giving birth to Truley. He was right there as her coach. Their first date (Kody/Robyn) wasn't shown on camera, by the time they were filming Robyn was a big part of their lives...in that first season the timeline was very sketchy, the date shown between Robyn and Kody was the one where he asked her to marry him officially over hot chocolate with the string ring. The big "kiss on camera" with Robyn was when he was at Robyn's new apartment when he got the call about Christine in the hospital and was heading out to be with Christine. Robyn popped out the door and was barely caught on camera when she was running after Kody to kiss him. It was an extra extra big deal because Christine was the one who refused to even consider kissing Kody until they were married because she didn't believe it was right for her to kiss a married man. It looked pretty natural for her to be throwing her arms around him and kissing him...I have always thought they were kissy feely before the ceremony, but the looks on their faces during the honeymoon special did verify that they saved the full consummation for after the vows. Kody then made a big Kody-style blunder in the hospital with Christine. She was in the early stages of labor and was checked on by her doctor when he started asking the doctor all kinds of fertility treatment questions. The doctor was confused because "why would you ask this when your wife is having child #6...) and then Kody had to inform him the question was for another wife (you know he has three...working on four right!!??) But...yea...the giddiness that Kody showed to Robyn, the obvious lust could NOT have been easy on any of the wives after they had settled into their family for so long. They had the house rule for no affection for one wife with the others present and then had that front and center on their screens slapping them in the face. Even Janelle showed her emotions when she got pissed at Kody for a 10 day honeymoon with Robyn. It was most likely what seeded a lot of future family issues.

Experienced Gardener here... Tomatoes that are found on the ground during garden clean up are called compost...no matter what they look like. Those little circles that look like craters are rotten spots, they just get bigger inside the tomato. A tomato that has sat on the ground, through a frost is going to be mealy and gross inside, even if it looks somewhat firm on the outside it will be gnarly inside. Eww. If she "didn't see them" during the growing season to pick them up and is just now "finding" them in her garden, then she has some really good weed cover under the tomatoes to not see red orbs sitting there.

I have a suspicion that Meri urges therapy because Nancy doesn't call her out on her role in the issues. Then...there is a third person there to "protect" her from when everyone is "mean" to her. I see Nancy as more of a mediator. She sits, listens, doodles, and occasionally directs the conversations. Nothing meaningful has ever happened. It seems like her office is just a place for them to bring up topics with another person there to possibly keep things fair between them. Like the person who runs a debate who asks questions of topic and keeps the conversation on the subject and gives equal response time.

With my first pregnancy I was NOT prepared one little bit. I was especially not mentally prepared. Because of insurance reasons I had to switch doctors at what was supposed to be my 6/7th month. The original doctor who determined I was pregnant had estimated my due date very very wrong and put it at mid October. I was studious and was reading a book on what was going on inside me week by week etc and I was up to around month 8, at the end of July I started having a "I can't stop peeing" issue. We call the doctor and after describing all that was going on with me (and then listening to the laughter from the nurse over the phone) she told me "oh hunny...you are in LABOR!" Well...I knew I wasn't due for a long while so we ended up at the ER. I insisted I wasn't due, but the nurse wasn't having it. After a emergency sonogram to determine that yes, I had a full term pregnancy and the due date was obviously wrong, the nurse (who had zero sense of humor) informed us that I was having the baby...now. The only thing that popped into my head as I looked at my husband in horror....was....I haven't read that chapter in my book yet!!! I had had zero giving birth prep. Lots of experience growing up on a farm and all, but nothing human. The nurse that took over gave me the best giving birth training. Breath in through your nose, breath out through your mouth and scream if you need to. Well. That's exactly what I did and in the middle of that night I had me a baby boy. :)

It's the local dialect. You hear it with a lot of the Utah people on the polygamist shows that are popping up. With Christine its very obvious with her "ing" she puts an "ink" at the end of a ing word. Going becomes go-inkkk etc Meri emphasizes her "yes". When someone would just say "yea" to respond she uses a harsh "ja" which sounds to me like when the local Amish say yes in their German dialect. Robyn has a very lazy pronunciation. She drops the center out of words, Dayton becomes Da-uun and its really obvious when she says "have to" it's a haffun. I have to go the hospital becomes "I'm haff-un ta go to the hospital". People have picked up on the very obvious "eal" sounds. Meri and Kody, Christine and Robyn are really deep with "deal" becomes dill. It sounds like Dill pickle when they are say "deal". And the "ee" sounds like in "feeling". Meri saying "my feelings are a really big deal to me" comes out as "my fillins are a rully big dill to me. Also "sale" becomes "sell" and it really irritating to hear. I remember the first episode when Kody was saying he was in "marketing sells" when he means "SALES". It's dialect...

Well, Kody did talk about Robyn giving birth and liking the fact that "she was a lady" and didn't make all of those disturbing screams and such. It was her mother who taught her that a "lady" doesn't upset or disturb others during her giving birth...

Oh my. In the third photo on the right if you just look at her facial features she looks exactly like Janelle. Janelle usually has that "I've just exhausted myself" look on her face and Maddie looks exactly like Mum. ...oh...THREE days of labor is just bloody insane. I'm usually not the most popular in the room when women are talking about their labors. My first was from the first contraction that I felt to "it's a boy" was 2 hours on the nose. My second beat that with first contraction to "it's a girl" was 1 hour and 50 minutes. THREE days!!?? WTF...

Yes, Handfasting is a Pagan commitment or wedding ceremony. It's origins goes back to the Celts and it was originally what we might call an engagement period. Traditionally performed during the Beltane festivals (also known as May Day) which is one of the Goddess fertility celebrations (...young women dancing around the May Pole). It was a Year and a Day commitment where a couple would dedicate themselves to each other for that time period, deciding to split up or move forward with their relationship after the passing of one year and one day. One of the parts of the ceremony is wrapping joined hands in a cord or sash of some kind. I believe Anglicans also use joined hands wrapped in a sash in their marriage ceremonies as well, most likely from this much older tradition. Today many Pagan weddings include the handfasting, but are also legal ceremonies, but anyone can perform the ceremony as they see fit. At the end of the day a marriage is only the true commitment that the people involved make it. In our society we have legal paperwork and hoops to jump through, but that doesn't make a legal marriage any more powerful to the people involved than the actual commitment they make to each other. As for the topic of the legalization of multiple wives. I agree with the legal nightmares that could ensue. Sure, there is always the contracts that could be made, but who is going to enforce that? You can't marry three wives/husbands etc because you haven't sat down with a lawyer to eek out your marital stuff. Plenty of monogamous marriages don't do wills and trusts and things, but the law is there for the spouse. Goodness, if a man just had three wives and each wife decided to have two husbands each...well...that contract would look a whole lot more like setting up a corporation with a board of directors than a marriage. I agree with the legal nightmare of it. I have no problem with adults making adult decisions. If you want to support a huge family with three women then that is your right. My issues come into the fact that women don't always have the full ability to really make that decision for themselves. If they have been raised from birth to believe their only worth is being a part time concubine and a full time broodmare, that they deserve to only produce children and don't even deserve attention from their husbands. That they agree or "are to be destroyed"...well...THAT is the part that I have a problem with. Being indoctrinated by a religion designed to suppress womens rights by training them to not believe they have any...that's the bigger issue. But...how on earth do you do that when we have a freedom of religion and they push hard that this is their religion...and so is their right.

Ysabel looks amazing!

Keeping in mind that NO ONE ever believed this was filmed as it actually happened because they kept mum on the divorce and TLC/film production didn't know. There was a social media post by the editors about last minute scramble to edit the show just prior to this airing and most likely this was a reenactment of the "signing". Meri wasn't walking well and talked of an upset stomach and dizzy spells and her body language is pulled in. While the camera zooms in on a "emotional" Robyn it all has that put on tearless/screwed up chin act that she has perfected. As the scene ends Robyn spews the show's branded mantra of "no other woman will know how I feel because of this, because of this life I live..." (stick to the back of your head eyeroll....) When "it's time to sign" Meri tries hard to hide her face from the cameras, but it's apparent what her feelings are. This "meaningless piece of paper" had a whole lot of meaning to her, even during a reenactment months later.