Josh, Anna, and the M&Ms: Part 17

[Someone Out There]

I found Chocolate M&M's and Smarties are good for when it is too hot so chocolate generally melts too easily but you feel like chocolate.  The coating on them help keep the chocolate in place and touchable (therefore edible).

I also find M&M minis have too much of a coating and not enough chocolate.

[Gillyweed]

7 hours ago, Someone Out There said:

I also find M&M minis have too much of a coating and not enough chocolate.

I love the tube M&M minis come in. When I was younger my friends and I used to bike to 7-11 in the summer.  We'd put our slurpees in water bottle holders on our bikes, and eat our M&Ms out of the tube while we rode to the pool. 

[Alisamer]

23 minutes ago, Gillyweed said:

I love the tube M&M minis come in. When I was younger my friends and I used to bike to 7-11 in the summer.  We'd put our slurpees in water bottle holders on our bikes, and eat our M&Ms out of the tube while we rode to the pool. 

Those tubes are also perfect for carrying change around... my mom likes pressed pennies and is known to use those tubes to carry the quarters and new shiny pennies around.

[QuiverFullofBooks]

I saw a commercial for espresso M&Ms yesterday.

[Jellybean]

A friend of mine used smarties tubes (old style) for fundraising. She gave a tube of smarties to each of her friends and asked them to give it back filled with £1 coins - they hold about £12, which is about $15 US as sponsorship for her to run her first marathon. She told me that people filled them by using them as swear jars, adding coins every time they emptied their pockets, and some people gave them back to her with notes, rather than coins. I thought it was a great way to get people to sponsor her in a more active way than just clicking a number on a screen, plus they got chocolate from the deal. #winning

[TatiFish9]

I wonder what the rest of the family especially Michelle truly thinks of Anna having another child so soon after the Josh scandal. I remember Jana looking at her with a mixture of disbelief and disgust that first season of Counting On when it was tagged under Jill and Jessa.

Also I wonder if Josh is truly healed or there is only a matter of time before he's back to his vices.

Is Ana crazy or brilliant? I feel she is one of these etremes but half the time I struggle to figure out which one fits her correctly.

 

[Jana814]

19 minutes ago, TatiFish9 said:

 

Is Ana crazy or brilliant? I feel she is one of these etremes but half the time I struggle to figure out which one fits her correctly.

 

Not sure. Maybe a little bit of both. 

[kiwi]

Oh in NZ we have such a limited variety of m&ms - my absolute fav!

 

milk duds are few and far between, but chuck a box in a box of movie theatre popcorn... yummmo! Salty and sweet

[Pecansforeveryone]

So help me, I think the "kool-aid chugging" never really took with Josh. I think he is one of the Duggars least suited to fundie life. Someone once speculated that if Josh weren't fundie, he would be the douchey frat boy at every wet tee-shirt contest. I can see that for sure. I do think that if he hadn't been reeled into an early marriage and breeding for Jesus he just might maybe have drifted slowly out of fundamentalism. I think the job in DC also gave him motivation to keep up the drumbeat of fundamentalism. He just couldn't keep up the facade because hadn't truly internalized it's message. 

[VelociRapture]

21 hours ago, TatiFish9 said:

I wonder what the rest of the family especially Michelle truly thinks of Anna having another child so soon after the Josh scandal. I remember Jana looking at her with a mixture of disbelief and disgust that first season of Counting On when it was tagged under Jill and Jessa.

Also I wonder if Josh is truly healed or there is only a matter of time before he's back to his vices.

Is Ana crazy or brilliant? I feel she is one of these etremes but half the time I struggle to figure out which one fits her correctly.

 

I’m a bit confused. This is the timeline of events:

- May 2015: Molestation scandal goes public and 19 Kids is pulled off air.

- July 2015: Anna gives birth to Meredith Grace Duggar.

- Summer 2015: At some point 19 Kids is canceled. Can’t remember when exactly.

- August 2015: Ashley Madison scandal goes public and Josh is shipped to Prayhab.

- Late October 2015: Counting On begins filming.

- November 2015: Spurgeon Elliot Seewald is born.

- Spring 2016: Josh is released from Prayhab.

- March 2017: Anna announces she’s pregnant.

- September 2017: Anna gives birth to Mason Garrett Duggar.

It’s 19 months from the first scandal breaking - which Anna claims to have known about - to when she likely got pregnant with Mason (December 2016.) That might seem quick to us, but it’s pretty standard for the Smuggars - their kids are all roughly two years apart. Quick for them would have been if Anna conceived right after Josh came home.

As for what the Duggars think, I doubt they were shocked or anything other than relieved. Even Jana, who I personally think is more deeply entrenched in IBLP than we realize. To the Duggars another pregnancy would have been cause for joy because it would indicate things were back to normal within the marriage. 

And I don’t think Anna is crazy or brilliant. I think she’s been brainwashed her entire life and she’s simply acting the way she was raised to act.

[TatiFish9]

@Jana814 Ha! You know I think the two go hand in hand! I still don't know how she was able to keep her family intact and allow it to grow so soon after scandal. 

@VelociRapture

I see what you're saying, but she had Mason on schedule with her roughly 2 years between each child pattern. It was almost as if nothing happened at all between she and Josh. That is quick!

She seemed to recover before the rest of the family did. Her pregnancy was barely mentioned and quietly announced (not sure there were any congrats videos). Josh was not fully welcomed back into the fold before  s with child again. I dunno. Not sure if I can say that is normal for even fundies.  I would need to compare with at least two more fundy families post major sex scandal.

 

[VelociRapture]

Just now, TatiFish9 said:

@Jana814 Ha! You know I think the two go hand in hand! I still don't know how she was able to keep her family intact and allow it to grow so soon after scandal. 

@VelociRapture

I see what you're saying, but she had Mason on schedule with her roughly 2 years between each child pattern. It was almost as if nothing happened at all between she and Josh. That is quick!

She seemed to recover before the rest of the family did. Her pregnancy was barely mentioned and quietly announced (not sure there were any congrats videos). Josh was not fully welcomed back into the fold before  s with child again. I dunno. Not sure if I can say that is normal for even fundies.  I would need to compare with at least two more fundy families post major sex scandal.

 

I think you’re underestimating the Duggars ability to forgive and forget just about anything Josh does.  

He wasn’t publicly welcomed back at that time, likely because the Duggars were still attempting to salvage their own reputations first - and that’s likely why there are no congratulatory videos. That doesn’t mean he wasn’t privately accepted back into the family though. I truly doubt the pregnancy was unexpected or not greeted with joy by the family in private. 

[RainbowSky]

Crispy M&Ms have been my favorite since they appeared a long time ago. I was very sad when they weren't available! Peanut Butter are nezt. Yum! Then Coffee Nut are pretty good!

Peeps Oreos are my favorite by a long shot. They're the bestest! <3

 

Josh is a douche and that's the best thing I can say. Well...he makes cute babies but It's not a conscious choice so pfft.

People keep saying he attempted to cheat because he wanted something that he didn't want to ask Anna? He wanted a damn bubble bath, not fucking S&M.

Fuck him. Just not literally, he doesn't deserve it.

[Shadoewolf]

I don't like the new crispy M&M's at all. They come in Espresso (taste like the last dregs left burnt in the bottom of the coffee pot) Raspberry (ugh cough syrup!) And mint (strong toothpaste). It was more like Bertie Bott's AnyFlavour beans from HP. 

Now normal mint and peanut M's are okay. I will fight for Milk Duds and Whoppers at Halloween but my go-to is Reese Pieces.

[Pecansforeveryone]

For me, Anna staying with Josh opens the door to a broader question. Is it crazy to stay with significant other who has committed infidelity? I don't think it necessarily is, though I certainly understand the case of no 2nd chances. 

[Jellybean]

I don’t know how I would feel about infidelity. I always thought I’d be a ‘zero tolerance’ type, but having been with my husband for almost 15 years, I might think differently. I think it would depend on the nature of it, and how prepared we both were to work hard to try to fix things. 

[Briefly]

I like peanut M & M's the best. They were my dad's favorite candy so we always eat them on his birthday.

I feel like Anna really had no choice, or at least doesn't think she has a choice. She was born into that life and probably sees no other alternative. She probably blames herself, after all it's always the wife's fault if the husband strays or does anything bad.  So I don't think she would see his actions as anything other than a reflection on her.  Sad, but that is how so many of them seem to think. I do think that there will be another baby, and probably another, etc.

[Meggo]

On 5/15/2018 at 5:48 PM, Nargus said:

Amen. 

Nothing makes me more angry than watching ‘American tries Canadian candy’ videos and hearing them say ‘oh it’s just like M&Ms!’  No. No they definitely aren’t.  They are superior in every way. 

Disagree!! There is something perfume-y about chocolate smarties. Give me m&ms any day.

(full disclaimer- I am an American living in Canada probably permanently but definitely the last 16 years)

[VelociRapture]

1 hour ago, Pecansforeveryone said:

For me, Anna staying with Josh opens the door to a broader question. Is it crazy to stay with significant other who has committed infidelity? I don't think it necessarily is, though I certainly understand the case of no 2nd chances. 

I don’t think it necessarily is. Every couple is different and every person has different things they consider dealbreakers. What might be survivable for one couple may be a relationship ender for another. It depends a lot on personality, the nature of the offense, the other person/people involved, how the cheating spouse reacts afterwards, and how strong the relationship is. Personally, I’m not sure how I’d react because I’ve (fortunately) never been in that position. I don’t feel it’s fair or right for me to judge someone for choosing to stay or leave for that reason. 

[Don'tlikekoolaid]

I buy smarties as a treat for kids. Every kid so far groups them in colours. The brown ones I think are best!  Little girls wet the red ones for lipstick.

I think Anna truly loves that fathead and won't leave him although she should. I hope his dick falls off cause if your eye offends you aren't you supposed to pluck it out. 

[Jana814]

I don’t think Anna will ever leave Josh. 

[Pecansforeveryone]

People have said Derrick and Jill could be the 1st ones to divorce. I think that might be the case. I used to think Josh would leave Anna a couple of years down the road. Now,I tend to think he might know how desperate his financial situation would be if Jim Bob cut off financial support. 

[Dandruff]

I wonder what would have happened if Anna had cheated on Josh (not that I think ever), especially if it was highly publicized.

[Someone Out There]

For cheating I'm not sure how I would personally react, however I do think it depends on what the expectations are going in to the marriage.  In the American Evangelical Christian context expectations are of fidelity.

For some cultures it is not as much of issue e.g. a workmate lived in Japan at one point and his friends there didn't really understand the concept of being with only one sexual partner for the rest of your life though being married for the rest of your life is not an odd concept, my understanding is that mistresses are more tolerated and in some positions expected in France.

[Gillyweed]

8 hours ago, Don'tlikekoolaid said:

 

I buy smarties as a treat for kids. Every kid so far groups them in colours. The brown ones I think are best!  Little girls wet the red ones for lipstick.

 

What do your smarties look/taste like? The smarties I'm thinking of look kind of like vitamins but are completely sugar. They're like pixie sticks, but it tablet form.  They'd never be used for lipstick, and I don't think I've ever seen a brown one. (I'm from the US)