You know the feeling you get when you log onto Facebook and you see a new album posted by a friend’s younger sibling, and it’s their wedding pictures. Or when there’s a status update from an ex saying that he’s taking his girlfriend to Cabo. Or there are someone’s engagement party pictures or baby shower pictures. How does it make you feel?

I’m always happy when I see that people are happy and doing well, but secretly, I’m actually a jealous crazy person. But it’s not that I’m not happy with my life right now, because I am, but I guess it really gets to me when people younger than me already have everything together. Every girl has done the “backwards life math” that makes guys think that we actually are backwards! I remember I rattled this off to my current boyfriend not long after we met and he looked at me like I had been taking some serious mind altering drugs. He thought I was a crazy person. To think that we’re still dating!! Ok lets do some girl math. For example take the following scenario: you want to be pregnant or have a baby by the time you’re 30

Ok, so no one wants to have a baby the second that they are married – we’re not the Duggers over here! So, say that we allow 2 years of married life before baby – which would put us at being married by 28.

But you want to be engaged for a year, so you have time to plan everything and throw a sufficient amount of Bridezilla hissy fits before your big day, so that means you have to be engaged by the time you’re 27.

But you don’t bump into some guy on the bus or at the grocery store and have him propose over coffee the following day.. Again, we’re not the Duggers here! You need to date for 2-3 years before you get engaged. I mean, he needs to know your style in order to know what kind of diamond to buy you.. Hello!

So that puts us at having to know the guy (or at least know of him) when you’re 24-25 in order for the backwards math list to work. What that tells me is that I’m behind schedule!!!

Christ, maybe I should become a Dugger..! It would take all of the stress out of everything! They don’t  lark about; they just pick their mate and stick with it.. Kinda like penguins or swans or something.. I don’t remember which animal it is that mates for life. Regardless, I’m secretly jealous of their lives too. Yeah, I said it!

Like they’re so pure and un-jaded by TV and society. They don’t seem to worry about waiting in line at H&M to buy the newest pair of Jimmy Choos. Yet they do have the sickest cameras and they all have iPhones… ?! But they don’t spend time fretting over Facebook or picking apart a text message or voicemail from a boy. And they’re pretty much guaranteed life as a housewife – which would be great. I mean come on, what woman wants to juggle a career with babies and housework etc? I certainly don’t.. I guess I’ll have to start buying lotto tickets and buying scratchies..

18 Kids And Counting

Michelle Dugger, fertile mum of the TLC reality show “18 Kids And Counting”, has given birth to her 19^th child – a baby girl in an emergency c-section. Her baby was born 3 months prematurely and weighed only 1 lb 6oz. According to reports, both mummy and baby are doing well. In keeping with their “J” themed names, the newest edition to their family is named Josie Brooklyn – coincidently the same initials as daddy Jim Bob.

I saw a few episodes of the show recently, and I was surprised at how “normal” the Dugger family is. I’m not exactly sure what I was expecting; maybe more chaos, tantrums and such.. But I guess since the children in the family are all different ages. Unlike reality TV shows like “Table for 12” or “Jon & Kate Plus 8” where the parents have had twins + sextuplets, so all of the kids are little at the same time. But with the Duggers, their children range in age from 21 downwards, so as the kids get older, they assume more responsibilities around the home and can help their parents out – which must be much needed! And their kids are REALLY cute. I mean look at that picture and tell me those kids aren’t adorable! Just on a side note, how many violins can you see in that picture. 12 Violins and Counting…???

So Jim-Bob and Michelle have now had 19 children. They had their first child in 1988, Joshua James who is now 21 and married to Anna, and they have a baby girl – Mackenzie. Their family now has 21 members… I’m sure a lot of you are thinking “it’s not healthy”, “it’s wrong”, etc. But in my opinion, when I watch their show, all I can see is a big happy family with a LOT of love. Yes, when Jim-Bob is addressing all of his children, he does sound a bit like a football coach, but they do seem like a normal family, who do normal things. I thought they might have been crazy religious nuts or Mormon or Amish or something, but it turns out they are just really God loving people, who figured they would let the Lord decide how many babies they would have – so maybe they are crazy with some kind of weird pregnancy addiction?! But, I think the main thing is that they love their kids.. And it’s clear that they really really do.

Anyway, Congratulations Duggers on the birth of Josie Brooklyn. Hopefully both mummy and baby will be able to spend Christmas at home with the rest of the family.