Arndt Man Boys & Mary-Elizabeth living out their own unique stories

[JenniferJuniper]

28 minutes ago, nokidsmom said:

Just wanted to alway reply to this:

I remember back in my single days, there were guys that I stayed away from because while the guy was nice, the family was crazy or strange or just too plain overinvolved in their son's business, such as Mama's Boys.   I wrote them off immediately.

Possible that this is also a  factor why there has been not a gf or wife for any of them by now.    People look at guys in their 30's living like this and say WTF.  In addition, I can't believe that word has not gotten around about this family's weirdness and this has scared some potential partners off.   There may have been women interested in them who got brushed off or run off, and it gets around.     

I don't think there's much hope for the older manboys.   They are probably too enmeshed with their parents and too well trained to do everything for them (including giving up the right to have your own life) but there might be some hope for the younger ones when they see that their older brothers are not getting anywhere.   In addition to shaking off the brainwashing, they will probably have to leave and go somewhere far from where people associate them with that "nice but weird" family.  

All true.

Maybe more sisters would have helped balanced things out for them a little.   Mary came along pretty late, and they treat her as though she's an alien princess.   So on top of being sheltered and brainwashed, recalling Luke and Mark's descriptions of their ideal gals, they don't seem to see women in a realistic light as human beings and have bizarrely high expectations for anyone they'd consider dating.  So there's probably limited interest in either direction for the Arndt men.  

I'm not sure about the younger ones having better shots of getting out.   The older kids were raised in a normal neighborhood setting.   They played with other kids on the street, went to other kids' homes and the oldest four even attended Catholic school for a year or so.  They moved to Isolation Boulevard around the time the youngest was born, so the kids in their mid 20's and under spent their formative years almost exclusively with their siblings and parents. This is probably why it's much harder to understand the speech patterns of the younger Arndts.  It's also not clear to me what the younger men actually do for work, aside from odd jobs and Vine Valley.  So they may not even get to have the types of opportunities to interact with other people that their older brothers have had.

[Suz8710]

Wrong family expression but Jude's got some nike going on  

[gustava]

On 9/8/2016 at 9:44 PM, Suz8710 said:

Wrong family expression but Jude's got some nike going on  

Those dudes are hunky!!

 

[JesusPony]

Dorky-hunky. Dorunky.

 

Did the bride and groom jump in a pool and they photographed it underwater? Were there ducks?

[Elegant Mess]

On June 19, 2016 at 8:57 PM, Suz8710 said:

 

2 hours ago, JesusPony said:

Did the bride and groom jump in a pool and they photographed it underwater? Were there ducks?

I think the photo provided by Suz8710 that I've copied here is the one the Arndt's were shooting for that couple that appears in their group photo above.  

[amendgitan]

On May 4, 2016 at 4:12 PM, libriatrix said:

What a cruel statement. He knows perfectly well that if any of his offspring were going to live out their own unique story, some of them would have started by now!!

What do you mean? Isn't a 40 year old man serenading mommy and daddy in their bedroom  on the morning of a celebration (can't remember what it was), and gleefully writing about the wild "festivities" they had with their parents that day,  living their own unique story to you? 

What is it about middle-aged, sexless men in drab uniforms of khaki pants and Mormonesque button down shirts in various shades, who still cling to mommy's teats and stay safely at home with woman and daddy, that doesn't scream independence and autonomy to you?

[Sobeknofret]

7 hours ago, Elegant Mess said:

 

I think the photo provided by Suz8710 that I've copied here is the one the Arndt's were shooting for that couple that appears in their group photo above.  

I really like this photo, actually. It's unique and memorable, very different than the usual run of mill wedding photos. I wonder if the bride and groom suggested this shot, or if the Arndts did. 

[MarblesMom]

There should be at least one penguin in that wedding shot.  Placed in the background....

[MatthewDuggar]

8 hours ago, Sobeknofret said:

I really like this photo, actually. It's unique and memorable, very different than the usual run of mill wedding photos. I wonder if the bride and groom suggested this shot, or if the Arndts did. 

It's definitely unique!  I wonder how hard it was to get this shot.   I recall watching various ANTM episodes where they did underwater shoots and how hard this can be.  Sometimes the "best shot" looked really bad.

[JenniferJuniper]

A very happy birthday to Paul!   36 years young today.  I'm sure his "day before my birthday song" was unique and fun (lots of practice!) and I hope he enjoys his master bedroom cake today.

In his honor I will quote a little from a Clash song (a band Paul has sadly never heard) called "Stay Free"

 "go easy...step lightly...stay free  safe.."

[Black Aliss]

18 hours ago, Sobeknofret said:

I really like this photo, actually. It's unique and memorable, very different than the usual run of mill wedding photos.

Yet another reason why Steve Maxwell will never allow one of his daughters to marry an Arndt--their wedding photography makes Christopher's look even more terrible than it is on its own.

Okay, I guess I've not spent enough time on the famteam website because I hadn't seen this before and I'm still trying to understand the last sentence:

Quote

The Safe At Home cable television show. This hour-long program, hosted by Rick Arndt, has been on the air since the spring of 1998. It is a not-for-profit production that is filmed, edited, and distributed by the Arndt family. The show, which features such diverse topics as family trips and interviews with Cardinal players, airs on cable television in the St. Louis, Missouri, and Belleville, Illinois, areas. Each edition of the show is available to Family Room members with Rob explains portable plasma cutters.

Yes, that is an actual link to a review of the "best plasma cutter of 2016". How it relates to Family Room members, I can't explain.

[0 kids n not countin]

As per Dad's Diary,  Paul had an "adventurous" 36th b-day meal at Cheddar's with Mommy and Daddy.  Not likely, but I hope he at least got to order a real drink and not a fountain soda to help "celebrate ".  

[Emme]

7 minutes ago, 0 kids n not countin said:

As per Dad's Diary,  Paul had an "adventurous" 36th b-day meal at Cheddar's with Mommy and Daddy.  Not likely, but I hope he at least got to order a real drink and not a fountain soda to help "celebrate ".  

Holy shit. Paul is 36? Sometimes I forget how absurd and fucked up the Arndts are. This is unhealthy. 

[JenniferJuniper]

5 hours ago, 0 kids n not countin said:

As per Dad's Diary,  Paul had an "adventurous" 36th b-day meal at Cheddar's with Mommy and Daddy.  Not likely, but I hope he at least got to order a real drink and not a fountain soda to help "celebrate ".  

Note it was a "light lunch".  Middle-aged folks need to watch those calories. 

[AmazonGrace]

Nothing wrong with a birthday lunch but what was adventurous about it? He got to eat without a bib?

[Red Hair, Black Dress]

For the first time ever Paul was allowed to order from the adult menu and choose his own entree

Daddy was so overcome with emotion that his little boy is growing up that he had to go for a drive to pull himself together.

 

[JenniferJuniper]

35 minutes ago, Red Hair, Black Dress said:

Daddy was so overcome with emotion that his little boy is growing up that he had to go for a drive to pull himself together.

A drive that took him past his old family homestead, where he spent many happy years playing stickball in the street with his old pals  and where he remembers pressing his face against his frosty bedroom window, marveling at the wonders of a snowy Christmas Eve, Bing Crosby singing softly in the background.

And then past his old school, where he would gather with his chums at lunch recess, happily playing marbles and trading baseball cards.

Paul, captive in the passenger seat and desperate to avoid more of the tour he's had a thousand times, suggests they head to the nearest Quik Stop for a fountain drink.  Roused from his trance, and remembering it is Paul's birthday after all, Daddy reluctantly agrees...

[Red Hair, Black Dress]

I can easily see a slightly fictionalized version of the Arndts as an episode on a show like Criminal MInds.  The parents are murdered, and the BAU team is called in to find who done it.

The investigation looks into this seemingly "normal' but quirky family but  turns up all the weirdness of the family, including why the parents kept the adult children at home,

The BAU team realizes that one of the children is the unsub, but which one?  There are a plethora of suspects, all of them with motives.

Finally is is revealed that the killer is ..........

[Pianokeeper]

3 hours ago, Red Hair, Black Dress said:

I can easily see a slightly fictionalized version of the Arndts as an episode on a show like Criminal MInds.  The parents are murdered, and the BAU team is called in to find who done it.

The investigation looks into this seemingly "normal' but quirky family but  turns up all the weirdness of the family, including why the parents kept the adult children at home,

The BAU team realizes that one of the children is the unsub, but which one?  There are a plethora of suspects, all of them with motives.

Finally is is revealed that the killer is ..........

A neighbor or family friend, thinking they're doing the children a favor and desperate to understand why the offspring aren't grateful. The kidults, brainwashed to here and back, finally finish Vine Valley, and it's a really creepy, disjointed ode to their parents.

[Red Hair, Black Dress]

Perfect idea, Pianokeeper --

They then continue living together in the family home, all unmarried, just as Mommy and Daddy wanted and planned.  Because after all it's better to be "safe at home" rather than out in the dangerous world.

 

[Black Aliss]

10 hours ago, AmazonGrace said:

Nothing wrong with a birthday lunch but what was adventurous about it? He got to eat without a bib?

anchovies on his caesar salad

[usmcmom]

I recently began following Arndt Photography on Facebook. Today they shared photos from the wedding of Jim and Megan King Edmonds. That was probably a huge booking for them; Jim played for the St. Louis Cardinals and now is a commentator, I think. Megan is on the Real Housewives of Orange County. 

 

They shared the photos as a "Happy Second Anniversary" wish. Very smart advertising, in my opinion, to show they have worked with a couple that might be considered famous in pop culture and athletics. 

Strange family, but they seem to take some very nice photos. 

[Carm_88]

I recently began following Arndt Photography on Facebook. Today they shared photos from the wedding of Jim and Megan King Edmonds. That was probably a huge booking for them; Jim played for the St. Louis Cardinals and now is a commentator, I think. Megan is on the Real Housewives of Orange County. 

 

They shared the photos as a "Happy Second Anniversary" wish. Very smart advertising, in my opinion, to show they have worked with a couple that might be considered famous in pop culture and athletics. 

Strange family, but they seem to take some very nice photos. 

I think that's the strangest thing about them! They are completely talented. They have jobs that work well in the real world and they could live on their own. They just don't...

Megan is on the real housewives of OC by the way! And very smart advertising!

[acheronbeach]

What boggles my mind is that we FJites have been talking about the Arndts since even before I joined (and I've been on Fj for about a decade).

Those early posts are pretty much identical.  it's as if nothing has happened in their lives for ten years - time's just stopped. 

[Carm_88]

11 hours ago, acheronbeach said:

What boggles my mind is that we FJites have been talking about the Arndts since even before I joined (and I've been on Fj for about a decade).

Those early posts are pretty much identical.  it's as if nothing has happened in their lives for ten years - time's just stopped. 

I keep waiting to hear that at least one of them has a special someone but it neverrrrr happens. Makes me sad for them.