Erika Shupe *grim rictus* Large Families on Purpose Part 4

[clarinetpower]

I did not need to know the exact amount of dead skin she grated off her feet. 

*shudder*

Also, interesting to note that she stole all her photos and some of them have now stopped working. Of course. 

[iweartanktops]

Yeah, that entire post was a disaster. I'm pretty sick, so I was easy on her. She lacks punctuation, also. And I couldn't stomach the "feet" part, so I chose to ignore it. Disgusting. Like I said, she gives far too much information! 

I still can't get over her bitchy comment about make up. You see, Erika, my fiancé tells me I'm beautiful on the days I'm wearing not one drop of makeup. He also tells me I'm looking beautiful when we go out to a formal function and I'm wearing *gasp* features gawd didn't give me, like false lashes, blush, eye shadow, etc. I look hot, and he agrees! 

*CHUCKLEFUCK*

[DarkAnts]

10 hours ago, iweartanktops6 said:

I find it difficult to read her posts. She's incredibly long-winded. Prime example: the information about her haircuts. Who cares? Everyone knows how to schedule, budget, etc., for that. 

I find it hard to read her posts because her grammar sucks. 

[JillyO]

3 hours ago, mango_fandango said:

She also uses disappear wrongly, something like "it disappears the spots". No, no, no!! That's like how a little kid might use disappear!! 

Hahahaha. I didn't even notice. The post is so boring and trivial that I stopped reading at some point. But that is pure gold. Thanks for pointing it out.

[princessmahina]

12 hours ago, iweartanktops6 said:

 So she never updates her look? Okay... 

She really doesn't. Check out the pictures in this post:

http://www.largefamiliesonpurpose.com/2011/05/marriage-our-high-priority.html#more

[defraudingjezebel]

1 hour ago, princessmahina said:

She really doesn't. Check out the pictures in this post:

http://www.largefamiliesonpurpose.com/2011/05/marriage-our-high-priority.html#more

She also has an album on the LFoP facebook page featuring a bunch of their wedding pictures. 

In this one you can especially see how her look has hardly changed- whisps and all. Though her hair does look like she perhaps used to lighten it? 

(I'm sorry that the picture is super big- when I tried to copy/paste the photo URL, it automatically posts the picture itself rather than just the URL)

[nellautumngirl]

She looks like Melanie in that picture, very pretty, but that hair oO

[JillyO]

9 minutes ago, nellautumngirl said:

She looks like Melanie in that picture, very pretty, but that hair oO

Wow, you're right. I never noticed how much Melanie looks like Erika.

[ILoveJellybeans]

I feel sorry for those poor kids, being taught English by someone who cannot spell and has poor grammar. I think the average public schooled 12 year old can spell better than Erika.

[iweartanktops]

12 minutes ago, ILoveJellybeans said:

I feel sorry for those poor kids, being taught English by someone who cannot spell and has poor grammar. I think the average public schooled 12 year old can spell better than Erika.

I was able to spell better than Erika at far younger than 12. My Wrong Kind of Christian™ parents gave me unlimited access to books! 

[anjulibai]

Her hair is very 90s, both when she married and now. 

I have an aunt who has always worn her hair short but her style has changed considerable over the years (I think my aunt is about Erika's age). 

This remind - I need to go get a haircut!

BTW, I wonder why none of her girls have short hair. I can't imagine she allows them any control over how they style their hair. Is she just cheap and doesn't want to take them to a salon? 

[defraudingjezebel]

2 hours ago, anjulibai said:

Her hair is very 90s, both when she married and now. 

I have an aunt who has always worn her hair short but her style has changed considerable over the years (I think my aunt is about Erika's age). 

This remind - I need to go get a haircut!

BTW, I wonder why none of her girls have short hair. I can't imagine she allows them any control over how they style their hair. Is she just cheap and doesn't want to take them to a salon? 

I definitely think it has to do with money. Erika mentions that she gets her hair cut every 4 weeks and spends something like $30-35 each time (someone mentioned it upthread). That would get expensive to pay for multiple girls every 4 weeks. Maybe Erika is pushing Karen towards cosmetology for the free haircuts? 

[apandaaries]

9 minutes ago, defraudingjezebel said:

I definitely think it has to do with money. Erika mentions that she gets her hair cut every 4 weeks and spends something like $30-35 each time (someone mentioned it upthread). That would get expensive to pay for multiple girls every 4 weeks. Maybe Erika is pushing Karen towards cosmetology for the free haircuts? 

Maybe Bob prefers his daughters to have long hair.  It's definitely not just Gothard with a long hair obsession; maybe she allows him to be the headship for that.  Or perhaps the girls aren't yet capable (in Erika's eyes) of doing their own hair the Erika^TM way, so they have to look feminine with the more traditional, longer hair.

I mean, remember the oils Erika had to deal with!  Even she couldn't scrub the oil out.  Shiny, voluminous hair takes work, even when it's just the "whispy" style.

I'd also like to agree again with everyone about her atrocious spelling and grammar.  My eyes start to twitch after too much exposure to that crap.

[Rubaiyat]

I'm really wondering a couple things.

Erika is notoriously tight with a buck, but there are multiple things that she will advocate rather strongly for, such as the DVD classes she's pushing in her baby-scheduling posts, and several other programs from shady "christian" sources.  

She doesn't have ads on her blog.

So, is she getting kickbacks -or referral fees, whatever- from hawking some of this stuff?

- OR - 

Did she spend $ on them, and now feels compelled to believe they work, and thus were worth the original outlay of funds?

 

I frequently think that people who not only cling to their beliefs against all evidence to the contrary, or who desperately need for their answer to be the only answer, are terrified that they might be wrong.  Thus, all their suffering and sacrifice, and self denial were for naught; especially if someone else could either have a "right" answer or ALSO have a "right" answer.  

I'm not sure I'm making tons of sense, forgive me.  Sleep has been difficult to come by lately.  Guess I shoud've scheduled my kids better!  Ha!  :-)  

Everything about this poor woman screams anxiety, doubt, and fear.  She spends an heroic amount of time and energy insisting that her way is the only way, and that if she does everything perfectly, it will all be okay.  Even with something as small as "my husband prefers me with no makeup" cannot possibly be the right answer, because it's different from Erika's answer.   I mean, good heavens, "we believe the bible has one meaning, in all times and in all places, for all people"?!?!?  For reals?  That's just absolute lunacy!!  If we were created by God in "wondrous variety" to totally quote Morgan Freeman's character from Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves (I miss you, Alan Rickman!!!) then why on Earth would there be a one-size-fits-all...anything?!?  

 

I'm over-thinking this, aren't I?  Sigh...  Big E is my favorite fundie, especially when she gets all hot and bothered about something that, really and truly, cannot possibly matter to an omnipotent divinity, but geez louise!  I worry for both her sanity, and the lining of her stomach!  She's going to end up bald, ulcerated, and with a giant bastard of a twitch in at least one eye, if she keeps going at this rate.  I expect her to be rending her clothing and screaming at strangers from a street corner within the next decade.  

What do y'all think?

 

 

 

22 minutes ago, amandaaries said:

 

I'd also like to agree again with everyone about her atrocious spelling and grammar.  My eyes start to twitch after too much exposure to that crap.

Your just mad because your heals are cracked and rubbing on your merry janes, and your poors are clogged.  If you go strait to Erika's website, she has all the answers for you.  You can even get a great coco recipe!  If you make it in a stirophome cup, you won't even have to have your eleventy kids wash the dishes!  Her site has more answers then anywhere else!  

(sorry!  mostly.  sort of. )

[mango_fandango]

Melanie and Anna Marie used to have short hair. Look at some of the early photo albums on FB. AFAIK Karen's always had long hair.

Speaking of TMI, I will *never* forget, in the potty training post, Erika describing how Karen used to be scared of pooping in the toilet. How fucking embarrassing! Any future spouse could look up Erika's blog and find that post. So inappropriate.

 

[apandaaries]

20 minutes ago, Rubaiyat said:

Your just mad because your heals are cracked and rubbing on your merry janes, and your poors are clogged.  If you go strait to Erika's website, she has all the answers for you.  You can even get a great coco recipe!  If you make it in a stirophome cup, you won't even have to have your eleventy kids wash the dishes!  Her site has more answers then anywhere else!  

(sorry!  mostly.  sort of. )

OUCH! MY EYES! MY BRAIN!!    So much cruelty in one short paragraph.

 <<-- I'm now dead.

[defraudingjezebel]

@Rubaiyat She does use Amazon affiliate links meaning when she links to something from Amazon and someone buys something after clicking the link, she'll get a kickback. As far as kickbacks from shilling her fundie stuff, who knows. I wouldn't be surprised if she's been sent stuff with the assumption that she'll cover it in her blog. I do know that she does a few speaking engagements and gets some kind of payment for it, like the upcoming women's retreat outside of Olympia. I can't remember the name of it though. 

@amandaaries I think you're right- some of it might have to do with Erika's belief that her kids aren't capable of styling their hair properly. IIRC she uses a number of products to get her whisps just perfect. Maybe she feels like they aren't capable/responsible enough to use them? 

[Anonymousguest]

Erika is the product of public school. I firmly believe that there is a spelling gene, either you get it or you don't. Spelling just comes intuitively to some people, to others, not so much. Reading more, and practicing spelling lessons can help, but it's not going to cure it. 

The problem with Erika is that she doesn't seem to care. It's one thing to have funny spellings in a text, or a Facebook post. But if you are publishing a blog, you really should take that extra step and turn on spell check. And if spell check doesn't know what you are trying to say, look it up, or find another word.

[withaj]

1 hour ago, mango_fandango said:

Melanie and Anna Marie used to have short hair. Look at some of the early photo albums on FB. AFAIK Karen's always had long hair.

Speaking of TMI, I will *never* forget, in the potty training post, Erika describing how Karen used to be scared of pooping in the toilet. How fucking embarrassing! Any future spouse could look up Erika's blog and find that post. So inappropriate.

 

Honestly, on the list of relative disservices Erika has dealt them, I'm not particularly upset about a potty training story that might be embarrassing down the line. It's not like she filmed a blowout for distribution on national television or anything.

[inabauers]

I lost it when it got to her eyeshadow and she called it "M.A.C. "Veltet" type". Also what is with her calling it a type, it's a color? She did this more than once and IDK, it makes no sense to me. 

[grandmadugger]

Erica posts affiliate links all the time without disclosing them.  One of these days I'm going to take the time and file a FCC complaint.  You have to legally disclose those things.  It pisses me off she doesn't.

On the spelling issues, that's just flat out laziness. 

[Loveday]

1 hour ago, Rubaiyat said:

Your just mad because your heals are cracked and rubbing on your merry janes, and your poors are clogged.  If you go strait to Erika's website, she has all the answers for you.  You can even get a great coco recipe!  If you make it in a stirophome cup, you won't even have to have your eleventy kids wash the dishes!  Her site has more answers then anywhere else!  

(sorry!  mostly.  sort of. )

"Drinking coco from a stirophome cup" would make a great post count title.

[anjulibai]

1 hour ago, Rubaiyat said:

I'm really wondering a couple things.

Erika is notoriously tight with a buck, but there are multiple things that she will advocate rather strongly for, such as the DVD classes she's pushing in her baby-scheduling posts, and several other programs from shady "christian" sources.  

A lot of the products in her beauty post are pretty expensive. I was really surprised she uses MAC, Clinique and Paul Mitchell. Those can be pretty pricy, especially when you are a family on as tight a budget as she claims. 

I mean, I have a few pricy things that I buy because of their quality, but I am in a duel-income family (and both on salary at that!) with only one child and one on the way, and that second one will be our last. If I was a SAHM with a husband with a variable income and a ton of kids, I definitley wouldn't be springing for the expensive stuff. 

[pnwgypsy]

 So she never updates her look? Okay... 

She really doesn't. Check out the pictures in this post:

http://www.largefamiliesonpurpose.com/2011/05/marriage-our-high-priority.html#more

That post includes a blanket training reference:

"When we had just a couple of little ones in the beginning we would put out two blankets on the floor, one for each child, and they were taught to play independently on that blanket space while we visited. This skill with children takes some training and practice, which can be done during the morning once or twice a day, and then practiced also during that evening time. We did not allow the children to interrupt our conversation, and they were not being distracted by playing with each other. The children were consciously and subconsciously witnessing our marriage as taking top priority."

[princessmahina]

She definitely used to lighten her hair. I would guess it's out of cheapness (or legitimately not having the money) or time that she doesn't do so any longer. 

It's so weird to look back at pictures of them when they were first married. Erika has the same predatory, uptight grin, but Bob looks legitimately happy. He looks irritable and worn down in most (if not all) the pictures she posts now. Their lifestyle doesn't seem to agree with him.