CarolMK

Joseph is only 20, his birthday was in January. I don't think it's a courtship imo. Maybe she's around to teach the younger kids while the Duggars are traveling or whatever else they're doing since Jessa isn't living at home anymore to do it.

Courtney is Scott Enlow's wife. I guess both of them are producers? Unless Scott is considered to be a director. One thing I found annoying about Courtney is that she acted so surprised about having her baby in China. Come on, lady, you're a grown adult and you had to have known that this was a possibility and yet you chose to go along to China with the rest of them instead of staying home. Her tone made it sound as if having the baby in China was a bad thing, like China is a third world country or something like that. It appears that Jill seemed annoyed when Courtney went into labor unless I'm just misreading that. But Jill didn't look very happy about it.

I could see a courtship between Josiah and Marjorie lasting about a year, or maybe even longer. Didn't Jessa and Ben court for nearly a year before their engagement? Besides, Jim Bob needs to come up with another house for Josiah and Marjorie to live in, that'll probably be an episode, getting some other rental fixed up to become livable. Also, for the remainder of 2015. we have both Anna and Jessa having babies, there might not be any in 2016 so a Josiah-Marjorie wedding will be a way to keep the show going. I swear the Duggars have all of these events perfectly timed....courtships, engagements, weddings and new babies. Jim Bob probably gathers the family around in his kitchen once a week and tells them what's going to be next on the schedule.

My church supports a local home for women and children. A lot of the women who live there are young, unmarried, and either had home situations in which they had to leave or they are young adults who have aged out of the foster care system. I believe the majority are ages 15-24. They live in efficiency apartments and we give donations of new clothes for the moms and babies along with new bedding, linens, toiletries, etc. Also money for bus passes, things like that. The home runs strictly on donations, no government funding and it is out of the larger cities around here so transportation can be a problem...luckily it is near a bus line. They do accept toys, but I don't know what the home would do with an enormous bear like the one we saw. It's almost too big for a toddler to even play with it and if several children were around, they'd probably fight over it. Better to give half a dozen smaller teddy bears. Hopefully Josh and Anna saw that there was a need for homes such as this one and made a contribution of their own.

Katy Mixon is pregnant with her first child but I guess the producers are trying to hide it since the character isn't pregnant on the show.

Also, for those wondering about the first producer, Sean Overbeeke, he's gone on to do other work since leaving the Duggars and is also now the executive producer of the Willis show, the musical family who now is on right after the Duggars on Tuesday night. Actually, I think 19 Kids and Counting has gone downhill since Sean left. We are definitely seeing the uglier side of the Duggars and thinks that we never saw before under Sean, like Josie's diaper explosion and Jason falling off the stage. For anyone curious about Frank Sun, he took left the Duggars show several years ago and is now producing his own films. Too bad he wasn't able to take Jana with him and marry her, those two would have been a good pair.

One thing I realized after watching this special, I sure hope Jim Bob pays his kids to participate in the show. All of them. Without all of those "19 special blessings" there would be no tv show, and I'm hopeful that the older kids realize this even if the younger ones have no idea. The kids are working as much as the parents are, doing interviews and scene re-enactments. I did laugh at Josh's interview when he talked about Jim the camera man eating a scorpion in China.He actually laughed out loud, something we rarely see unless it's Jim Bob doing his stupid yuk,yuk,yuk type of laugh. I know a lot of people aren't fond of him but overall I think Josh gives better interviews that Jim Bob does. He also seems smarter and more articulate. For that matter, actually, so does Josiah. Hmm, wonder if that's one reason Jim Bob was anxious to see these two boys married off at a young age? Something else I became aware of as well, the kids apparently do really think of the crew as family. That's sad. They don't realize that your family , ideally anyway, won't exploit you and will show up for important events in your life, not like these folks who are simply showing up to do their job. The nicest of all of them seems to be Jim. If the show is ever cancelled, will the crew continue to hang out with and keep in touch with the Duggars like their other friends? Not likely.

Someone mentioned cajun fries earlier. Here in the Philadelphia area, a local junk food item sold at all the sports games is Crab Fries. They aren't as well known as Philly cheesesteaks, hoagies or soft pretzels, but they're amazingly addictive. Crinkle cut fries season with Old Bay seasoning (plus salt and pepper, I think) served with a side of melted white cheese sauce to dip them in. Normally I'm able to resist french fries, but not these. They come in a huge cup and are enough for at least 2 people to share during a game and I think they're $9. As lifelong fans, we go see the Phillies at least once a year and that's when I indulge. They are sold at all the local Chickie and Pete's bars/restaurants and they have a Chickie and Pete's stand at the sports venues as well as the Philadelphia airport. My nieces were visiting from Dallas at Easter and they had the fries for lunch before takeoff.

Josiah might really be enjoying spending time not only with Marjorie, but the rest of her family as well. And I don't blame him one bit. Her parents seem more normal (then again, just about anybody seems more normal than the Duggars) and she has a lot less younger siblings. Maybe it's a relaxed and peaceful household to be in. Josiah could be the first Duggar to spend significant time with his wife's family, from what we have seen, Josh and Anna spend way more time with the Duggars than they do with her family. It's probably the same for Jessa and Ben though maybe Jill and Derrick can split their time equally because his parents are close by. We never see the Kellers at Jim Bob and Michelle's house, I wonder if in years to come whether or not we'll much of the other inlaws visiting.

Does anyone think that maybe Jim Bob encouraged Josiah to pursue a courtship with Marjorie because they wanted to have him leave home? Josiah wasn't home for a good 9 months and I've thought for quite awhile that his relationship with Jim Bob was strained. Also, I guess Jim Bob has realized that courtships and weddings are good for ratings and hopefully Josiah would be able to keep some of the earnings from the episodes on which he appears. I've never understood how that works but I assume the married couples should be getting some type of compensation separately from Jim Bob and Michelle. Otherwise, why bother being on the show anymore?

We don't have In and Out here in NJ, but my son has tried them in Utah and he feels that Five Guys burgers are actually better and have a greater choice of toppings over the In and Out chain. The hats don't bother me, but it makes me wonder how Jessa is holding up. When I was pregnant, I didn't want to eat hamburgers or Chinese food, something about the smell made me nauseous. If she had to hang around the restaurant all day with morning sickness, that wouldn't be any fun for her.

I finally watched this episode last night. It would have been a lot better condensed down to one hour and if it had a LOT less Michelle featured in it.

I have to root for Mike to win. He's playing the best game out there in my opinion. Wondering about voting for who is to be on S 31...my 17 year old son pointed out that Mike is one of the contestants to be chosen, so does this mean that he doesn't win the game? Also, I really have to wonder if people from the early seasons are at a disadvantage because many fans started watching the show a lot later than 2000. Do they even know who Kelly and Theresa are?

As soon as I saw that this episode was going to be 3 hours long, I deleted it from my DVR to record. Sounds like I didn't miss much either, it was just a rehash of previous episodes. I"m not surprised that the ratings were lower for this episode.

The photos of Derrick are pretty funny and I have to agree that the beard should go at some point. He doesn't pull it off as well as a lot of other guys his age. I really liked the pic of Izzy with Grandma Cathy. I'm still of the opinion one reason Jill was in such a hurry to conceive on her honeymoon was due to Cathy's health. That said, hopefully Jill is not now , nor ever will be as crazy as Michelle and won't try to have a baby every year. Jessa, Jinger, and Joseph are all 13 months apart and there were already 4 kids before them. I see Jill having babies the way Anna has, about every 2 years apart. Hopefully her doctor advised her to wait awhile before conceiving following her c-section, and she follows that advice.

The laundry room breakdown was discussed in their first book, not on the show ( I haven't read any of the other books). Michelle had 7 kids at the time and she was up at 1:30 am doing load after load of laundry and she broke down in tears. Then she began to pray and sang praises to the Lord. A day later, their piano teacher offered to help Michelle do the laundry. Since Grandma Mary was nearby, I wouldn't be surprised if she used to help Michelle at that time as well. Michelle talks a good game about how she had to do everything herself, but I've read accounts where she had a lot of people from their early church helping them a great deal with chores and donating clothing and food to the family. Back to Jana, at the time of this breakdown, the kids were 7, 5, 5, 4, 2 1/2, 1 1/2 and however many months old Joseph was then. I'm very certain Jana became a buddy at only 5 years old since she was the oldest girl. The following year all of the kids were a year older, but then Josiah was a newborn (going back in time approximately 19 years from today). Having that many children at home all the time with no break and trying to homeschool them would very likely drive the average person to a nervous breakdown..I think of the Andrea Yates case in regard to this. Also, when you think about how Jessa, Jinger and then Joseph were all born in the space of 26 months, that was a great deal of added stress to Michelle's body as well as her mind. Meanwhile, Jim Bob was out towing trucks, running a car lot and probably doing other wheeling and dealing so Michelle was likely on her own a lot more then. Jana had no choice but to become a buddy, as did Josh and John David for awhile, too.

I currently have 2 kids in college now, and I was a little surprised that Liza didn't have the option of charging the tuition on a credit card...that's how we pay for our kids, on a bi-monthly basis each semester. Thankfully we do have a college fund for each one that we started when they were babies, it's coming in handy now and covers about half the cost. One is in a state school and the other is in community college..when my husband and I married 25 years ago, we too both had college debt and wanted to spare our kids that if at all possible. I agree Josh is being a bit too intrusive with Liza. And that was a nice surprise , getting the check from her boss. I'm glad the character isn't being shown as 100% mean spirited, like the one Meryl Streep played in The Devil Wears Prada. I think she actually cares about Liza and it's nice to see she is asking her opinions. The underwear thing was very weird. I'd rather sell my jewelry and car if necessary before I'd resort to that.

According to what I remember from the very first 14 Kids special, Michelle stated that the older ones got a buddy at age 6 and that once any kid reached that age, they were assigned one. 6, I can't believe it. But anyway, I assume Josh, Jana and John all had buddies by the time Michelle had her laundry room breakdown (when Joseph was a baby, since she said it was after # 7 was born). All of the older girls of course went on to have 2 and 3 buddies as time passed. The narrator of that series also stated that Michelle was Jim Bob's buddy (which I found sort of creepy) and then Michelle said that her baby at the time was her buddy until it was 6 months old and weaned, and then it was passed on to a buddy. Her words exactly, referring to her infant as "it". From what we saw, it looked as if the girls were doing about 95% of the childcare for the younger ones. Michelle might have been doing some homeschooling but that's about it. Jana and Jill were already also cooking for the entire family at ages 12 and 14 as well as doing all the laundry, cooking, and cleaning, the kids one by one listed their jurisdictions. Michelle struck me then as unbelievably lazy and my opinion has not changed to this day. But being the oldest daughter, Jana has had the majority of the work, with Jill a very close second at doing all of the housekeeping and childcare.

I find Akalitus one of the most interesting characters this season. She and Jackie were friends for a very long time, and I have to think that she feels very personally let down by Jackie. While I think that Akalitus has always admired Jackie's nursing abilities, it seems like the final straw was last season when Jackie almost killed a patient and then stole Dr. Roman's ID so she could make a fake identity using the dead nun's driver's license. Now I'm wondering if the Diversion program was something that Akalitus chose to do, or was required to do..and why wasn't Jackie sent somewhere else to work in the hospital instead of still being around the emergency room?

I believe Jana said that it was James that spotted Josie having a seizure. I'd have to watch it again but I think he saw first. So Josie was playing in the house and probably her seizure wasn't immediately noticed, despite Grandma and Aunt Deanna being there as well if James "walked in" and saw her. The film crew was outside filming some of the other kids and the producer was there, which is why he rushed inside (Scott). I imagine that filming for this weekly show takes up quite a bit of time, probably 30 or more hours per week for the family that lives in the main house. It's like a full time job for those kids.

I've been wondering if anyone is going to suspect that Liza is older than 26. The makeup artists have done a pretty good job with making her look a lot less than 40, but there is something in a person's face and bone structure that gives it away..no matter who you are, a 25 year old and a 40 year old look different, sound different, and carry themselves differently from each other. The differences may be subtle but they're definitely there.

So does Josh's organization feel that my religion (Presbyterian Church USA) isn't a valid one because we do know acknowledge and approve of gay marriage and will perform the ceremonies in our church? I'd like to see him come face to face with a few ministers that I know. Actually, they might be able to convince him that his organization is nothing but one that exists merely to hate those who don't agree with their values.

Refresh my memory...what was the episode where Jana and Jill had to handle another medical emergency for Josie, and Jim Bob and Michelle were out of the country at that time, in El Salvador? I'm wondering how long ago that was. While I agree that parents of children with epilepsy are certainly allowed to leave the house, my humble opinion is that it's wrong for Jim Bob and Michelle to go away from home overnight many times throughout the year and expect your daughters and their grandmother to care for her in your absence. If she's your precious Miracle child, then take her with you on these trips so that you can be the one to handle the emergency..not Grandma, not your daughter, or the producer of the show.

Very boring overall. I stated in the Josh and Anna thread that unfortunately, these two are becoming very boring. Unless they start taking field trips around the DC area, beyond the farmer's market and grocery store, viewers are not going to tune in to see Anna play with her kids. Josh's job is off limits and he's not available for filming as much as he was in the past. It makes me wonder how much time Derrick has available for filming, DC isn't around the corner from Arkansas. Unless this was filmed on a weekend, Derrick was off work again. I hope this is the right episode, but Jessa mentioned that Ben was at work. Is he working someplace locally, or still doing odd jobs for Jim Bob?

At one point, the girl's room was shown with bunk beds...I think it was the type where it's the double bed on the bottom and the single on top. Can't remember which episode, but I remember seeing it along with a ladder attached to it. As for Jana, I wonder if she's thinking ahead to a scenerio where she agrees to marry a slightly older fundie guy that Jim Bob picks out, maybe a minister or missionary who lives halfway across the country, and then leaves home for good, to only visit on holidays.