Sparkling Lauren, a super special sparkling surrogacy and a "gayby"

[August]

Alba, 100% yes regarding central heating vs not. I'll take -20 with central heating over 5 without central heating any day of the week. I was freezing in Edinburgh, but I blamed the wind.

I don't think your experience in the unclad stone house is necessarily the damp, because in general even if air is saturated, once you heat it up the relative humidity drops a lot. But stone doesn't insulate at all and is a big thermal mass. If there's nothing between it and you and it hasn't been heated it's going to suck the warmth right out of you. Our house has an old brick chimney up the middle, surrounded by plaster and wood and with the furnace exhaust vented up through it. It makes an amazing heat sink to catch that wasted exhaust heat and radiate it out to the room. There's also the comfort factor in heating the air vs radiant heat (love radiant, hate forced air)

Apparently because it's so volcanically active Iceland has unlimited free hydronic heat and they use it well. But you can't keep kids inside if it snows.

[Idolatry]

That poopinmymouth guy (gross and unprofessional btw!) sure looks like the guy Lauren posted. He doesn't have an Icelandic name, and from his blogs, he went to school in the southern US and he has pictures of family members' houses in the southern US. This leads me to think he's American, or maybe was.

Maybe this baby can have Iceland, Australia, and US passports and/or custody issues? Fun!

[alba]

Alba, 100% yes regarding central heating vs not. I'll take -20 with central heating over 5 without central heating any day of the week. I was freezing in Edinburgh, but I blamed the wind.

I don't think your experience in the unclad stone house is necessarily the damp, because in general even if air is saturated, once you heat it up the relative humidity drops a lot. But stone doesn't insulate at all and is a big thermal mass. If there's nothing between it and you and it hasn't been heated it's going to suck the warmth right out of you. Our house has an old brick chimney up the middle, surrounded by plaster and wood and with the furnace exhaust vented up through it. It makes an amazing heat sink to catch that wasted exhaust heat and radiate it out to the room. There's also the comfort factor in heating the air vs radiant heat (love radiant, hate forced air)

Apparently because it's so volcanically active Iceland has unlimited free hydronic heat and they use it well. But you can't keep kids inside if it snows.

Oh, yeah, we have lots of fun wind here, too.

Well, the stone house does have plasterboard on the inside, it's not like a mediaeval castle :lol: But, yes, no insulation.

Oh, that's awesome about the heating in Iceland, though of course those girls are going to have a field day if they see any snow. I still get excited when it snows, and I've seen it (almost) every winter of my life.

[nausicaa]

I hope this doesn't happen, and I can't believe anyone who knows about lauren's lifestyle would take such a misguided step as notifying immigration. Regardless of what you think about the appropriateness of what Lauren is doing, and its potential effect on her mental health, the best thing for the child is to be raised in a stable home, and it appears the two men are able to do that. If Lauren is kept from entering Iceland to give birth she would have to go back to Australia and she'd probably end up keeping the baby.

I didn't mean to imply that I wanted this to happen, just that I suspect it's likely. I agree that the baby is better off with these two men, despite any questionable resume titles and feelings about female genitalia (see my rant pages earlier).

I guess my mind just can't process that someone can openly break a country's laws (perhaps two, since she is still receiving Centrelink payments in Australia), blog and facebook about it publicly, and then fly into a small, homogenous country far along in pregnancy with four kids in tow with no one questioning anything. I mean, I guess it's possible. It's just so far out of my wheelhouse.

[Juniper]

I can chime in about the Icelandic weather. I went over for a week a couple of years ago. It was in May and the weather was actually pretty cold. My friends and I did a Golden Circle tour and I brought my 2nd warmest (full wool, extra lining, all that jazz) coat and wore tights under my jeans. I'm also from NYC and we had just finished a pretty intense winter so I was fairly prepared for the weather. The worst part about the weather was the wind. It was so unbelievably intense that we couldn't walk too close to a waterfall because it could have pushed us in. It was pretty indescribable.

I also have friends who went in there in January. They also came from NYC and bought special clothing and shoes to make sure they'd be warm enough.

The other thing that really messed me up while there was the sun. I learned I really orient myself with the sun's position as to what time of day it is. Full sun at 10pm really screws up your head. My friends had the same issue in reverse, with the night really messing with their heads. I can't imagine how it'll feel to little girls.

[keen23]

I can chime in about the Icelandic weather. I went over for a week a couple of years ago. It was in May and the weather was actually pretty cold. My friends and I did a Golden Circle tour and I brought my 2nd warmest (full wool, extra lining, all that jazz) coat and wore tights under my jeans. I'm also from NYC and we had just finished a pretty intense winter so I was fairly prepared for the weather. The worst part about the weather was the wind. It was so unbelievably intense that we couldn't walk too close to a waterfall because it could have pushed us in. It was pretty indescribable.

I also have friends who went in there in January. They also came from NYC and bought special clothing and shoes to make sure they'd be warm enough.

The other thing that really messed me up while there was the sun. I learned I really orient myself with the sun's position as to what time of day it is. Full sun at 10pm really screws up your head. My friends had the same issue in reverse, with the night really messing with their heads. I can't imagine how it'll feel to little girls.

The same thing happened to me when we went to Seattle two summers ago. I was so messed up by the much later sunsets (and Seattle isn't even as dramatic as Iceland, I'd imagine). I live in Phoenix. I'm in a sweatshirt when it's below 70. 50 degrees calls for a jacket.

[antwan]

Some more crazy for you... Elijah would have turned 3 on November 26th this year, and this baby is due somewhere between Nov 22nd and Nov 28th, as far as I recall... :o

Oh my, that's waaaaay scary. And she'll prolly post all, "Happiness reigns from the land of rainbows and kitty cats."

[So Many Lies]

I can't believe anyone thinks these two immature men will be good parents. The poopinmymouth moniker (srsly, I have a juvenile sense of humor but a grown man using that as his internet username?), the offensive "gayby", the one father who isn't entirely sold on fatherhood...they come across as a hot mess too.

The only thing they have going for them is that they are the better of the two evils.

I think i agree. Although I wish this had never happened!

"Gayby" is a person not a puppy. I'm actually disgusted to the point where I don't even enjoy the snark. I'm devastated for the girls. I'm annoyed at how this pair make gay couples look shallow. I can't believe what a showy, manipulative, heartless woman Lauren is. And her stupid followers. My God. Reading their posts is nauseating. I'm going to try to take a break from this. Actually who am I kidding. I can't look away. It's terrible.

[chaotic life]

FYI, a little bit of snow and dreds can freeze like icicles. One New England winter experience taught me that. Makes pretty cool looking pictures, but a very, VERY cold dred wearer, or so my son tells me who was freezing like crazy and learned to always wear a tam or risk icicles next to his head.

[Saffy]

Looks like someone got in trouble for sending a child to the park solo...

From her Red Gypsy FB page...

"Thoughtful parents can make an individual assessment of their child's readiness for a particular responsibility. Not others. Not the state."

.... and when a few followers questioned the ability of "non thoughtful parents" to make decisions about their children we got...

"yes, hence my proviso "thoughtful parents". Some parents aren't thoughtful. But many are. And if one decides to equip their child with a mobile phone and let them play at a well-attended park, that's evidence of thought and individual assessment."

[Saffy]

Or not... just read the article she posted after... perhaps not about her but something she found online. I'm glad she isn't sending her kids out solo (too young) but it did sound like something she would do.

[antwan]

Have y'all checked out her videos on You Tube? Train wreck to the sparkles degree. I especially was captivated :roll: by the video where David shared that he and the girls were sitting in their broken down van because super sparkly Lauren took the baby and left, leaving him with an encrypting message about finding his rightousness or some sparkly lingo like that. David also shared that they were no longer welcome to freeload (er, "harmoniously dwell") on someone's property or some garbage along those lines. WHO is protecting their girls from all the craziness (albeit decorated with glitter)???

[ViolaSebastian]

The short, sad answer is: no one. I imagine social workers tried their damndest after Elijah died, and at last got them to get a vehicle with proper seats and restraints for the girls. I'm hoping (and this may just be my mind trying to comfort me about all this) that social services is trying to keep an eye on them through the blog, but I don't know how realistic that is. Whenever Lauren is confronted about how the lifestyle is hurting the girls, she deflects that criticism and says we're not sparkly enough to understand. And hey, Hellena says the girls are fine, so...

At least youtube took down the video they had up of the girls playing naked.

[antwan]

At least youtube took down the video they had up of the girls playing naked.

Oh, dear GAWD! Is there no end to her sparkly "great ideas"??? How awful. Here in the states, I do believe Social Services would be more likely to step in (we adopted from foster care.) But if they can post nude video, turn her kid loose, completely unsupervised, in a park, wish for more pube exposure for them, feel self assured that her children "understand" that the baby she's carrying is not "theirs" after their father killed their baby brother....yeah, I'd guess CPS isn't intensely monitoring her spakle trails at all. :angry-banghead: And shame on them for that.

[lilith]

Oh, dear GAWD! Is there no end to her sparkly "great ideas"??? How awful. Here in the states, I do believe Social Services would be more likely to step in (we adopted from foster care.) But if they can post nude video, turn her kid loose, completely unsupervised, in a park, wish for more pube exposure for them, feel self assured that her children "understand" that the baby she's carrying is not "theirs" after their father killed their baby brother....yeah, I'd guess CPS isn't intensely monitoring her spakle trails at all. :angry-banghead: And shame on them for that.

The kids were all very young in the video of them playing naked - under five. I'm not saying that posting it was a great parenting move, but compared to most of Lauren's fuckery it doesn't concern me too much.

[So Many Lies]

Have y'all checked out her videos on You Tube? Train wreck to the sparkles degree. I especially was captivated :roll: by the video where David shared that he and the girls were sitting in their broken down van because super sparkly Lauren took the baby and left, leaving him with an encrypting message about finding his rightousness or some sparkly lingo like that. David also shared that they were no longer welcome to freeload (er, "harmoniously dwell") on someone's property or some garbage along those lines. WHO is protecting their girls from all the craziness (albeit decorated with glitter)???

I think she "wears out the welcome mat" quite a lot. People don't like to be exhausted by demanding guests. I don't believe she gives as much as she gets from lobbing in on people that's for sure. There's been a few situations like that now and in the past. I did see that video and I was surprised by the fact you'd broadcast that! They had a lot of marital oneupmanship I think.

[So Many Lies]

Oh and I did think that video was quite telling about what a selfish cow Lauren is.

I don't see any particular evidence of David's mental illness at this point. He sounds pretty calm and rational.

I don't think I'd be as calm and rational.

[chaotic life]

Obviously you missed his theological rantings that pre-dated their trip to New Zealand and got him kicked out of their church AND physically escorted out when he came back to rant again.

It's been two years since I listened to those rantings but they were some obscure theological detail that he declared his entire church was heretics for believing.

They were not in any church when Elijah was killed but both professed to be Christian at that point two years ago. Although their concept was Christian was already well beyond what most would consider Christian.

They were also that same timeframe having public rows about his wanting an open marriage due to her frigidity.

Since that point, she's become a polyamorous bisexual who makes no claim to Christianity and become a professional mooch.

[thoughtful]

Have y'all checked out her videos on You Tube? Train wreck to the sparkles degree. I especially was captivated :roll: by the video where David shared that he and the girls were sitting in their broken down van because super sparkly Lauren took the baby and left, leaving him with an encrypting message about finding his rightousness or some sparkly lingo like that. David also shared that they were no longer welcome to freeload (er, "harmoniously dwell") on someone's property or some garbage along those lines. WHO is protecting their girls from all the craziness (albeit decorated with glitter)???

Have you seen the infamous sharp objects, gap, heights and riding on a forklift combo video, while pregnant Mom eats food that is 3 years past its expiration date?

Or the dangerous quad riding one?

Or the one where the girls are being cooked -- er, bathed -- over a fire (can't find it at the moment)?

Oh, and at least one video of them playing naked still seems to be there.

[DaffyDill]

Oh, dear GAWD! Is there no end to her sparkly "great ideas"??? How awful. Here in the states, I do believe Social Services would be more likely to step in (we adopted from foster care.) But if they can post nude video, turn her kid loose, completely unsupervised, in a park, wish for more pube exposure for them, feel self assured that her children "understand" that the baby she's carrying is not "theirs" after their father killed their baby brother....yeah, I'd guess CPS isn't intensely monitoring her spakle trails at all. :angry-banghead: And shame on them for that.

I wish they would step in, too. Not sure how CPS is structured in the states, but AFAIK over here DOCS (Department of Community Services) operates separately state to state. So, if she is reported to DOCS in New South Wales, and she then vanishes to Queensland, she moves both herself and her children out of DOCS NSWs jurisdiction, and into Queenslands, who probably wouldn't have a record of the original complaint. Additionally, they are notoriously underfunded and underresourced, with caseworkers forced to deal with caseloads way higher than is recommended.

Combine all that, and it becomes too easy for her to escape them when/if she needs to. Don't forget, she is an intelligent and resourceful woman, quite capable of leading any govermnent department a merry dance. as lilith has correctly pointed out many times, Lauren is white, middle class and educated capable of talking the talk - she knows what people want to hear, and can spout the phrases social workers need/want to hear.

I'm fairy sure reports have been made, and more than once, even by family members and DOCS have tried to pin her down at least after Elijah's death when she had a list of requirements to meet before she could move on, such as proper carseats/restraints (I forget what else). Until the government coughs up some decent funding, and the communication between state departments of DOCS improves, or perhaps is handled at a Federal level to enable close monitoring of state to state travellers, Lauren will continue to trundle around more or less unhindered.

Unfortunately too, there are children in worse immediate situations than Laurens girls, in cases of devastating domestic violence for example, and I would really hesitate to criticise any of the overloaded DOCS caseworkers their unenviable job of having to prioritise, as it would be heartwrenching.

Edit: fixed a bit of rambling

[Peas n carrots]

HOLY SH*T THE KIDS WERE PLAYING WITH SAW BLADES!!!!

OMG what a death trap! I think I'm probably a bit more laissez-faire than the average FJ'er when it comes to kids but even I'm floored.

David and Lauren have always had a few screws loose. I wonder if their families knew something awful would happen...like not a matter of if, but when?

[August]

HOLY SH*T THE KIDS WERE PLAYING WITH SAW BLADES!!!!

OMG what a death trap! I think I'm probably a bit more laissez-faire than the average FJ'er when it comes to kids but even I'm floored.

David and Lauren have always had a few screws loose. I wonder if their families knew something awful would happen...like not a matter of if, but when?

...on a pallet on a moving forklift at full height extension. The saw blades are only going to cut them. A 8+ feet fall from an unstable moving surface only cement could have killed them. And it's not like they were climbing or looking down from that height or anythying, those forks bump and judder around like crazy when the forklift moves. Shit falls off all. the. time. That's why Home Depot has a guy with a flag making sure you keep away from a forklift.

Did you see the time they let 3 1/2 year old Briony climb an unsecured ladder to the roof while both parents were on the roof and 20 feet from the top of the ladder?

LOL, this is from that post

Which normally isn’t a big deal. But David’s air compressor had committed suicide in a spectacular fashion — leaping from the top of the forklift as it was raised to roof-height — and David buried it in the wheelie bin.

Oh, and the horse truck they drove in New Zealand? It only had seats for three people, up in the cab, so while they drove around the other four children would just lie on beds and stuff in the back. There weren't as clear pictures of their Australian truck, but no evidence of seats outside that front bench seat, either. Can you imagine the poor emergency worker opening up that truck after a bad accident? After CPS made her grift a new van with seats for everyone, and child restraints for the kids, she didn't make the kids buckle them up, just perch there (yes, she posted pics on the web of them with the straps around their waists).

[August]

FYI, a little bit of snow and dreds can freeze like icicles. One New England winter experience taught me that. Makes pretty cool looking pictures, but a very, VERY cold dred wearer, or so my son tells me who was freezing like crazy and learned to always wear a tam or risk icicles next to his head.

Happens with normal hair, too. If it's snowing it catches and freezes in a ponytail or lock of hair poking out of a hat.

[Grimalkin]

It is so gross how her dirty children are barefoot in a public playground in the new post. A minor problem in the bigger, sparkling picture, obviously, but still nasty.

I live in the Midwest and my kids take thier shoes off at playgrounds all the time.

Not sure why it's disgusting. Maybe that's why that mom was giving me the stink eye last week. LOL

[formergothardite]

Have you seen the infamous sharp objects, gap, heights and riding on a forklift combo video, while pregnant Mom eats food that is 3 years past its expiration date?

Or the dangerous quad riding one?

Or the one where the girls are being cooked -- er, bathed -- over a fire (can't find it at the moment)?

Oh, and at least one video of them playing naked still seems to be there.

That first one was just. :shock: I cringed every time they handled razor sharp blades and kept waiting for one to slide down and cut one of them. And sure, kids would think riding on a fork lift like that would be fun but it is so dangerous. These children have survived in spite of their parents not because of them.

The sad thing is, they look cleaner and better taken care of back then.