Meredith's new baby

[NurseNell]

Aaw... I don't think her wedding dress looked cheap so much as outdated. It looks a lot like my aunt's dress from her huge fancy Italian Catholic wedding in 1990.

I liked the dress. I would have thought Meredith would have done something special with her hair, it wasn't attractive at all.

[WonderingInWA]

I liked the dress. I would have thought Meredith would have done something special with her hair, it wasn't attractive at all.

I always figured she had unfortunate hair after that wedding day disaster hairdo, but since she's been married, she seems to have found a good hairdresser/routine to keep those forehead hairs at bay.

I thought her dress was outdated and screamed "cheap wedding". But I think someone else said she'd had the dress for a long time and kept it in her hope chest.

[MissBitters]

I don't think the dress was too bad either. The hair is what made everything look unpolished. I'm thinking either her family didn't want to splurge on having her hair professionally done or her hairdresser had to cancel at the last minute. I lean strongly towards the latter. Her hair is nice in her bridal portraits taken in the fall right before her wedding (the closeup of her face & the one where she is hanging from the fence for example). Those pictures lead me to believe she planned to have it done but something fell through. I think a little better makeup would've helped too.

[alaeangelorum]

In one of the comments someone congratulates them on 'John's baptism', so I guess that is the name.

(Also, she is friends with Lina? Did we know that??)

[NellieBell]

Oh my eyes! I went and dug up pics of that wedding. It was like someone with multiple personalities planned it - all over the place. The dated, fancy, princess wedding dress (nothing against the dress per say, just didn't fit with the non theme), the tribe of girls in white dresses, the flower girl, the formal church and then the country barn. Yeah and the flower girl's dress was creepy. I guess they didn't get the memo about not upstaging the bride. Having said that, I think Meredith looked relatively nice and happy. I liked the pic of her hanging onto the iron fence with her dress draping down for some reason.

Oh Dear God the circumcision question she threw out on FB...shuddering. I had to watch one in nursing school and I snaked my way to the back of the group and looked down the entire time. I still have nightmares over it and who in their right freaking mind would advertise for that on FB? It should be done by someone known and trusted. :angry-banghead:

[Rosie]

Aaw... I don't think her wedding dress looked cheap so much as outdated. It looks a lot like my aunt's dress from her huge fancy Italian Catholic wedding in 1990.

I think it was both outdated-looking and cheap-looking. Outdated in that it looked, as you say, very 90's, and cheap-looking in that the shiny fabric and embellishment (the lace, etc.) were very low-end/low-grade-looking.

IMO.

RE her hair, the flyaways may have been related to her hair being too clean that day. When I got married, I had an updo done at the hairdresser's the morning of the wedding, and was instructed *not* to wash my hair because it would be harder to work with and flyaways would be an issue.

RE the new baby, I must say that I love Meredith's taste in names. Margaret and John are great names, IMO. I'm surprised, though, that they had the baby baptized - I thought fundies were all about decision theology and not infant baptism? Am I wrong about that vis-a-vis fundie Presbyterians?

[Rosie]

In one of the comments someone congratulates them on 'John's baptism', so I guess that is the name.

(Also, she is friends with Lina? Did we know that??)

I noticed that. What's up with that?

And it seems that Lina is back with TTony?

[wtylcf]

I think it was both outdated-looking and cheap-looking. Outdated in that it looked, as you say, very 90's, and cheap-looking in that the shiny fabric and cheap-looking embellishment (the lace) were very cheap-looking.

IMO.

WORD. I stand by my complete contempt for that dress, and you've expressed exactly why. I'm not really a lace and frou-frou person, but I think it can be done in a way that looks far less shiny and cheap than Mere's dress looked. Of course, as this style opinion is coming from someone who owns multiple pairs of Birkenstocks, I can hardly claim the high ground of fashion opinion ;).

[GenerationCedarchip]

I think it was both outdated-looking and cheap-looking. Outdated in that it looked, as you say, very 90's, and cheap-looking in that the shiny fabric and embellishment (the lace, etc.) were very low-end/low-grade-looking.

IMO.

RE her hair, the flyaways may have been related to her hair being too clean that day. When I got married, I had an updo done at the hairdresser's the morning of the wedding, and was instructed *not* to wash my hair because it would be harder to work with and flyaways would be an issue.

RE the new baby, I must say that I love Meredith's taste in names. Margaret and John are great names, IMO. I'm surprised, though, that they had the baby baptized - I thought fundies were all about decision theology and not infant baptism? Am I wrong about that vis-a-vis fundie Presbyterians?

In reformed fundie, that's not unheard of. Some of the fundie denominations (incl. PCA, RPC and OPC, among others) believe in infant baptism. In a nutshell, the justification is that baptism is the sign of membership in the body of believers which replaced circumcision and since children of believers were circumcised under the old covenant with God the Father, the children of believers should be baptised under Christ's new covenant.

There are more long-winded version of that here: http://www.opc.org/cce/tracts/WhyInfantBaptism.html and here: http://equip.pcacep.org/why-baptize-infants.html

[OnceModestTwiceShy]

Sheridan was the flower girl, right? Her little sister? I seem to remember that they basically got her a mini-wedding dress because she wanted to be included - she and Meredith were really close.

And I'm pretty sure the hair disaster had something to do with the fact that she wanted to use an antique hairpiece that had belonged to Stephen's grandmother or great-grandmother.

WHY DO I REMEMBER THIS SHIT

[WonderingInWA]

Meredith and her 3yo sister were a little too close, in my opinion. Mer's mom blogged later that Sheridan (the sister) was completely distraught watching Meredith walk away from her wedding with her new husband.

[Hane]

And didn't Meredith's mom look a lot better put-together at the wedding than the bride did?

Meredith basically raised Sheridan. Yet another case of a sister-mom with a mother who was quite comfortable stepping aside and letting her oldest daughter do all the heavy lifting. Meredith was always a hard-working gal, and I wish her well. Her husband, the UU-turned-fundie with a military career and political ambitions, creeps me out, though, the way he hand-selected the perfect wife (as in "Caesar's wife must be above reproach").

[wtylcf]

I noticed that. What's up with that?

And it seems that Lina is back with TTony?

I didn't know Meredith was friends with Lina! Worlds collide. And oh yes, the Lina/TT dramz are summarized in the "Lina and TT's crisis of faith/marriage" thread. I just can't quit that pair, although obviously their internet presence is on extreme lockdown and Lina's quit blogging. What's the name for the feeling of simultaneously rooting for someone (well, someone whose fundamental beliefs you strongly disagree with) and waiting for the inevitable trainwreck/implosion you know is coming? German-speakers, help me out here ;)!

[VodouDoll]

Meredith basically raised Sheridan. Yet another case of a sister-mom with a mother who was quite comfortable stepping aside and letting her oldest daughter do all the heavy lifting.

Yes. And until the night Meredith left with Stephen, she and Sheridan had also shared a bed. So not only was Sheridan having to say goodbye to her default mother, but that was also the first night she had to sleep in her bed alone. I remember when Mer went home for a visit either she or her mom blogged about how happy Sheridan was to have Meredith back in bed with her again. (Uh, Stephen wasn't there. Needless to say.)

[NurseNell]

Meredith and her 3yo sister were a little too close, in my opinion. Mer's mom blogged later that Sheridan (the sister) was completely distraught watching Meredith walk away from her wedding with her new husband.

My sister and I were 12 years apart, with 2 boys in between. We were very close. I had wanted a sister so bad for so many years. We shared a bedroom, I took her lots of places with me, and it was very difficult for both of us when I went away to college. There were even more years between Meredith and Sheridan so I can understand how upset Sheridan was. She wasn't old enough to understand.

[Hane]

My sister and I were 12 years apart, with 2 boys in between. We were very close. I had wanted a sister so bad for so many years. We shared a bedroom, I took her lots of places with me, and it was very difficult for both of us when I went away to college. There were even more years between Meredith and Sheridan so I can understand how upset Sheridan was. She wasn't old enough to understand.

Like you, I'm 12 years older than my youngest sister. Mom was ill after giving birth to her, so I took care of my baby sister in ways that most 12-year-olds wouldn't: changing her every morning, taking her out in her stroller with me when I ran errands. Even though she was eight years old at the time, she cried when my fiance and I discussed getting an apartment near our college--twelve whole miles away from our parents' home. We're still very close today.

[NurseNell]

Like you, I'm 12 years older than my youngest sister. Mom was ill after giving birth to her, so I took care of my baby sister in ways that most 12-year-olds wouldn't: changing her every morning, taking her out in her stroller with me when I ran errands. Even though she was eight years old at the time, she cried when my fiance and I discussed getting an apartment near our college--twelve whole miles away from our parents' home. We're still very close today.

My sister and I are still very close too.

[Janes Heir]

I noticed that. What's up with that?

And it seems that Lina is back with TTony?

I don't see these people in the who's who and my search results seem to indicate a long story. Short version, please?

[wtylcf]

I don't see these people in the who's who and my search results seem to indicate a long story. Short version, please?

http://freejinger.org/forums/viewtopic. ... &start=220

The thread is linked above. I'll copy my own summary over here. It's still current, but now I think a couple of months have passed since their reconciliation. And they're still together, and probably working on conceiving little Cardinal Darwin Ratzinger Dawkins.

Short story: Lina and TT are former "messianic jews," a self-assigned label to which many of our posters took umbrage (and they were not alone in their sentiments). She used to have a blog called "a set apart life," in which she discussed her faith. Lina and TT had a whirlwind courtship which sort of began with TT online-stalking Lina through facebook. They were married in someone's backyard in what seemed to be a hurry and 10 months later, had a baby. It was widely speculated that they fooled around before marriage, but it seems like she just got insta-pregnant after their wedding. At some point (I forget when), Lina locked down her blog, presumably because she couldn't deal with getting flak from FJ posters and Jewish bloggers for her religious beliefs. After the baby was a few months old, TT began posting on his facebook and twitter talking about atheism. They separated a few months later. Then after a few months, they were back together again (as of last week or so), but TT doesn't appear to have backed down from his interest in atheist authors. Lina has become Catholic. Their poor baby is too young to understand what's going on, but I still feel bad for him.

TT's nickname comes from a post he made (I think on Lina's former blog?) to the effect of, "when men act like the Taliban, it's because women are disobedient." I paraphrase, but as I recall, that was the general sentiment. Hence, he became nicknamed "Taliban Tony" or TT for short. Lina now goes by her full name, Paulina.

And now, back to your regularly scheduled Meredith snarking!

[Janes Heir]

Thanks, wtylcf. Wow! And, yes, back to Mere. She was one of my gateway bloggers and I'm always interested in her saga.

[Rosie]

Thanks, wtylcf. Wow! And, yes, back to Mere. She was one of my gateway bloggers and I'm always interested in her saga.

I am oddly fascinated by Meredith.

I noticed today that she is FB friends with Kelly Bradrick. I'm dying to know how that came about; any thoughts?

[hoipolloi]

I am oddly fascinated by Meredith.

I noticed today that she is FB friends with Kelly Bradrick. I'm dying to know how that came about; any thoughts?

They could have actually met at some point although Meredith's family, the Alexanders, are big VF leghumpers. For example, they & Meredith (with Stephen in tow) attended the VF bay-bee conference the summer before Meredith's wedding: alexanderadventuresfamilyblog.blogspot.com/2010/07/family-vacation.html

[MissBitters]

I've always been under the impression that Meredith and her family (or at least Joy) would love be part of the VF royalty. I wouldn't be surprised if Meredith was encouraged by her mother to befriend Kelly Bradrick, Jasmine Baucham, etc. in an attempt to social climb. Unfortunately for the Alexanders, they don't really fit in with the "educated" Philips & Botkin families nor can they bring in the crowds like the Duggar's TV fame. They more than likely can't contribute a lot of money to Doug's empire either (although the farm seems to be doing well now). Stephen may change that if he rises in the military/political ranks but they appear to be on the fringes at the moment.