truebluesmoky

The lying thing is so frustrating to me, because if it's really a deal breaker for Jane, she never should have gotten back together with Michael after all the crap he pulled when she was first pregnant. He may do sweet things and be there for her in swoon-worthy ways, but he's consistently been sneaky and dishonest.

But wasn't it "Did you eat Edgar Allan Poe?"?

Spurgeon --> Sturgeon --> Baby Fish Mouth* The Seewalds: Jessa, Ben, and Baby Fish Mouth *as in "And Baby Fish Mouth is sweeping the nation?" from When Harry Met Sally

I actually feel traumatized. I can't even wrap my head around the horror of Hayden having to film this wretched storyline while suffering with real postpartum depression. I feel sick.

Jessa and Ben are, of course, pro-life. They spend a ton of time blathering about it on Instagram and weaving it into speaking engagements. With all the time Jessa has on her hands, wouldn't it be more godly to actually put her money where her mouth is and volunteer to help pregnant women or young, poor, single moms? There are women who are counseled by their church or Christian pregnancy crisis center to go through with unwanted pregnancies. In these situations, many communities have Christian pregnancy resource centers that go on to actually provide free parenting classes, breastfeeding classes, etc. and often have a consignment store where these moms have access to very cheap or even free baby supplies. Jessa should be involved in that. She should solicit donations, work at a store like that, assist with the parenting classes, provide childcare for these pregnant women who already have other children... I am as pro-choice as they come, but for people who are pro-life, I feel like they should be assisting the real live women whose pregnancies they have so much supposed interest in. It's one thing to preach about it through social media... Jessa has the time to actually help real women in a real way and chooses to photograph herself eating fast food and highlight Bible passages to shame us with instead.

This article contains a longer conversation Jacob had with an Instagram commenter: http://starcasm.net/archives/328581 He explains the "medium" thing a little more. It also mentions that Amy left the following comment on his post: "You're an awesome son, Jacob. You, like your brothers and sister, keep blessing me every day. I'm sorry it was so tough on you."

I forgot to mention that I love how Tori is with kids. She's a kindergarten teacher, and you can tell she really loves them. In many shots from the rehearsal dinner, she's spending time with kids and helping them get food, and there's a scene from the wedding where a little girl runs to her and she scoops her right up, not worrying about dirty sneakers on her wedding dress.

No, YOU'RE bawling your eyes out.

My friend saw Michelle at the airport in NYC today... wait for it... holding Israel and bouncing him on her knee!

According to her Instagram, Tori was a kindergarten teacher in Vancouver, Washington. She resigned at the end of the school year to move in with Zach and hopefully get a teaching job in Oregon.

If you want to die of pretentious hipster manic pixie dream girl syndrome, check out Audrey's blog. In particular, check out this unbearable video she made.

My guess is that Tracey wrote that "Member me" message to Falesha specifically to make her catfishing story relevant when she herself applied to the show.

I watched the episode last night with Zach and Tori's engagement party. There is no way to be Team Matt or Team Amy, is there? Every time Matt annoyed me enough to sympathize with Amy, she would then do something mean to him for no apparent reason. I know the reason for both their behavior is their complicated history, but they both come across as so unpleasant. I will say that I adore Tori. Seeing her reaction to the doghouse made me grin ear to ear. That was a genuine reaction from someone I'm confident is a really sweet, genuine person.

This article provides links to Tracey's social media accounts and notes her obsession with the Teen Mom franchise, particularly Amber and Farrah. She seems very enamored of the idea of young women behaving badly, making no apology for it, and still being famous and beloved. I'm telling you, there is a thesis to be written on these MTV shows and their effect on teenagers' perceptions of what makes a role model.

I'm pretty sure Aisha said that the guy she's dating now is her youngest daughter's father - the father of the little girl who played with Journi at to indoor playground. She said Trez was her SON'S father, so I don't think she was ever implying that they were an item and if maybe makes it slightly more believable that Tiana wouldn't know him.

At one point, Zoey was captioned as calling Bill "Babby", a hybrid of Baba and Daddy!

I have young children, and gift opening at parties has become a lot less frequent than it was when I was a child. Sometimes that's due to time... it's best to keep parties at two hours or so max, especially for napping aged kids. By the time the kids have whatever structured activity might be involved, plus some free play, food, and cake, the time is up. Sometimes the party is officially over by then, and sometimes the kids are just too tired, and extending the party for gift opening would lead to meltdowns and a grumpy end to what was otherwise a fun time. At our own parties and parties we've attended where the gifts were saved for later, the birthday child typically thanks the gift giver when the wrapped present is brought in and also sends a thank you note. With the under 6 crowd, I'm actually better able to keep track of who gave what and make sure my kid is aware of it than I would be in the chaos of doing it at the actual party. Now that my first son is older, he and his friends are more likely to open the gifts at the actual party. They're old enough to do it more calmly and read the cards themselves. The friends have had a larger role in picking the gifts out, so they're excited to see their friend open it, and both sides are old enough to be cool about the whole thing... the friends understand the the gifts belong to the birthday child, and the birthday child understands that even though the friends are touching the gifts, he's the one who gets to take them home. As long as there is appreciation shown, I don't think there's a right or wrong way.

I noticed a bigger speech improvement in the season premiere, which other posters pointed out was likely filmed in February. If I think of the Halloween episode, then this one from probably early December, then the space center trip in February, I can hear the progression in their speech.

I know this has been discussed before, but watching the girls' room redo after Jill and Jessa moved out got me thinking... do we know anything about the bed situation? I remember years ago seeing that all the littlest girls were still stuck in pack and plays or actually shared beds with the older girls. Was it just Jana, Jill, Jessa, and Jinger who had the real beds with their names on the headboards? At this point, Jana, Jinger, Joy, Hannie, Jenny, Jordyn, and Josie are all in that room, right? So are they all sharing the 4 beds??? In the boys' room, I just assume it's a free for all with everyone sleeping everywhere... floors, dressers, drawers, etc. LOL

I think it's that Samantha normally shortens to Sam, not Samm.

It looks like Blaire is friends with/living with the baby's actual mother. There is a friend on her Facebook page named Desaree who also posts a ton of pictures of the baby, and various comments make me think she's his mom.

Blaire to family court judge: "See, I have this ginormous tattoo of his weird name on my arm."

I think maybe the baby's bio family was really messed up. They mentioned him not having his own mom around which is why his aunt had him. But then in one of the scenes at the hotel, the aunt said that she and the baby would go to her mom's to give Blaire time alone with Nev and Max. So apparently this girl's mom, who would then also be the baby's grandmother, lives in the same city but is A) letting her daughter and grandson live in a hotel instead of with her and B) not wanting custody of the baby herself. This all makes me think that the entire family is shady. If no one else wanted custody of the baby and Blaire could show she had an established parental-type relationship with him and could provide for him, maybe she could get custody? I have no idea. I agree that this side story is more interesting that pathological liar wannabe goth girl.

I was not disputing any of this. She absolutely didn't need to take the trip, and both women were absolutely at fault for scamming the show. I was by no means using her poverty as a justification for being dishonest and scamming the show. I was speaking to another poster's question about Tara's observation in her recap that Max's seeming disbelief that the scamming a TV show into sending her to California seemed like a more fathomable way to get there than saving up for a plane ticket was showing a bit of unconscious privilege on Max's part.

Who says anyone had cable TV? Also, basic internet service can be pretty damn cheap and benefits the entire family, especially if any of her brothers is school aged and needs it for homework. In this day and age, you more or less need internet for school, job searches, bill pay, banking, etc. I do think there is some privilege in assuming that someone could save money for an expensive, round trip cross country plane ticket while being the sole provider for an entire household on a fast food salary. It sounds like her money goes first to household bills and expensive that benefit everyone she lives with, not to personal desires. It's never fair to judge someone living in poverty based on one's perceptions of what they're spending money on vs what you think they should be spending money on.