Safe at Home 2: The Continuing Adventures of The Arndts

[choralcrusader8613]

Previous thread here:

Title is a reference to the Arndt parents thinking that being 30 and living at home with your parents is being "safe". From what I can tell, the Arndts still like filming and softball, and there's now some added weight-lifting. I'm not a Arndt devotee, so I trust that others can add what I've missed.

Carry on, folks!

[Carm_88]

Jude got his birthday cake and it's not in Mama and Papa's room.  

[nokidsmom]

38 minutes ago, Carm_88 said:

Jude got his birthday cake and it's not in Mama and Papa's room.  

And no Mommy's hand on the stomach either.   

[Showtunesgirl]

What does this mean?? Are these tiny steps toward loosening of the reins?!

[Red Hair, Black Dress]

Jude had his cake in the living room, not in Mummy & Daddy's room -- because they celebrated his birthday after the actual day.

Only birthdays celebrated on the actual birthday day get to be in Mummy & Daddy's room and have a 'Mummy hand on the Tummy' commemorative photo.

Jude, therefore, had an inferior 2nd class birthday celebration.

We now have the sadz for Jude (for soooo many reasons)

[GeoBQn]

The first post of every new Arndt thread can just say, "Absolutely nothing has changed."

[Naga Viper]

And the thread title really should be "The Continuing Non-Adventures of."

[Amapola]

This family interests me so much. Their weird dynamic is the most fascinating of all the big families IMO. They seem like nice people but I'm baffled at their kids choice to stay home. I know it's already been asked, but not one of them wants to have a partner in life? Or to live on their own and live their own life? Not one? 

[JenniferJuniper]

I am on FJ hiatus, but I had to come and post this.   There really are no words.  Except maybe, oh, James.   I had hope for you.

 

 

[Tangy Bee]

They actually get to go out of state solo and while alone they can't seem to figure out what the heck to do with themselves.

[themothership]

That livestream was special. How can they be so normal but so very obviously strange? A giant penguin flown in by a drone. And they were excited about it. How... special.

[GeoBQn]

Rachel Maddow talked on her show about how Russian protestors are using rubber ducks as a symbol of corruption after a government official's opulent home included a duck pond with a home for his ducks.  I thought about how the Arndt would feel about this.

[Suz8710]

10 hours ago, JenniferJuniper said:

I am on FJ hiatus, but I had to come and post this.   There really are no words.  Except maybe, oh, James.   I had hope for you.

That video...I'm embarrassed to say I watched the whole thing. Some nice close ups of James at least lol. The way they titled the video on fb you would think it was them flying the penguin in on their little siblings, sub ten years old. That would have been very cute. Not as much for siblings who are almost all older than twenty years old.

The strangest part to me? They all seemed to enjoy it. I didn't really notice any Arndt with a little bit of wtf? on their faces. 

[church_of_dog]

I'm not embarrassed at all to have watched/enjoyed that video.  I feel like most of what we see about the Arndts are running inside/family jokes and I completely love those.  The WTF to me is that they don't seem to have anything OTHER than inside jokes going on -- aside from the religious blog posts of course.  The whole "kids are adults now, with adult lives" part is missing.  And their earnestness is endearing although it extends to the point of silliness.  But the inside/family jokes I think are great...

PS -- I think the perennial and never-ending Vine Valley filming IS one of those family jokes!

PPS -- I once declined to date a very nice fellow who was from the midwestern US and had what I called a midwest sense of humor -- not because there was anything inherently wrong with it or him, but simply because I DIDN'T GET IT or him and felt like he didn't get me or my sense of humor, so there wasn't much feeling of connection with him.  I was constantly puzzled by what he said, constantly explaining myself or asking for explanations from him.  I find the bafflement I feel about the Arndts to be very similar.  

[VanillaBean]

I am from the Midwest. I haven't lived there I  20 years, but I still find other Midwesterners to be the funniest people I know. If I meet someone and think they have a good sense of humor,  95% of the time they are from the Midwest. I really don't know if they're objectively funny or if it judt feels confortable to me.

But a penguin delivered by drone?

[JenniferJuniper]

This isn't about humor.  The Arndts are deadly serious about their love for their fake penguins and their real ducks. When the young ones were tweens the older ones played a prank on them, pretending their favorite penguin had been killed in the washing machine.  It ended badly, with a couple of the kids weeping over the terrible loss.  Tweens.  Not 4/5 year olds.

As for Vine Valley, alas, global warming may keep them in perpetual edit mode, with not enough footage to ever complete Dad's Jesus-inspired vision.   Their yearly trek to upstate NY was canceled due to there being no snow for Rick to stumble around in this past season, so further winter filming is on hold until NEXT YEAR.  The large and ever growing "special effects" team will just keep playing around with old footage for now.

I think they started filming about 7 years ago.

[Carm_88]

19 minutes ago, JenniferJuniper said:

I think they started filming about 7 years ago.

At least, they're re-filming scenes now because people are older and the equipment is better. "This is the movie that never ends, it just goes on and on my friends. The Arndts started filming it not knowing what it was and they'll continue filming it forever just because..." 

[GreyhoundFan]

Okay, I get having family in-jokes and such, which is great, but they take it to another level. The manboys all seem quite personable, so it's amazing that in their travels outside the Safe-at-Home compound, no woman has managed to lure even one of them away. Also, Mary-Elizabeth is cute, but she looks 14, way younger than her real age. The level of enmeshment in this family is just incredible.

[JesusPony]

Well... Their property is really nice. Imagine how many grandkids they could have running around by now. What a waste. Frickin penguins!

[GeoBQn]

According to their Facebook page, they are studying Hebrew.  I'm sure THAT'S going well.

And for your information, duck in Hebrew is "barvaz."  Penguin is "pingvin."

[livinginthelight]

The drone delivery was a cute idea. But they were way too excited about the penguin, and how it was bigger than they were expecting based on the pictures. This family apparently gets very happy about very mundane things. Very odd.

[Black Aliss]

Still, too much levity for the Maxwells.

[Indigo]

Two single, personable, attractive 30-something men, out on their own with free time to kill.  What do they do?  Go in search of a new penguin toy & figure out a way to deliver it by drone to surprise their adult family members.  

 

[Red Hair, Black Dress]

I had this wild thought the other day that perhaps 1 or more of the oldest kidults had secretly married and have been waiting for the right time to introduce the wife to the family and then move out.

Since the "boys" go out all the time by themselves for work, they could easily have a second home somewhere which they visit as often as possible. You know a place where they could have a "normal" life.

But then sadly I realized that Rick probably controls all the finances by making them give him their earnings and only Rick has access to the account(s).  The kidults probably receive traveling expenses for work, but have to account for every penny with receipts.  Rick probably checks the mileage on the vehicles before they leave and when they return, Thus he'd know if they went anywhere unscheduled.

Sooooo ..... Unless these fantasy secret wives I've dreamed up support themselves entirely and have figured a way around Rick's control issues -- my wild thought is just that.

And... is it weird that I'm inexplicably saddened by the waste of these kidults lives and furious at Rick and Cathy for their brainwashing and what i see as emotional abuse?

Just me? 

 

 

[MamaJunebug]

40 minutes ago, Red Hair, Black Dress said:

Since the "boys" go out all the time by themselves for work, they could easily have a second home somewhere which they visit as often as possible. You know a place where they could have a "normal" life.

.......

Just me? 

 

 

No...one of the sons with his own FB account locates his home in the Soulard neighborhood of St. Louis.