I was not around during the OG Howerton 1.0 days. Can someone explain why Plugs stopped being a pastor?

He is definitely not the smartest tool in the shed.

Well, Mark is trying out a solo gig on substack!

Oh Lord. I'm a teacher and I know a ChatGPT-written essay when I see one. Do these two really think we can't tell they are using AI to write their "expert advice"? I'm embarassed for them and for anyone who is going to them for help.

Well, Mark is trying out a solo gig on substack! He’s breaking free! Apparently Plugs discusses “mental health, relationships, and what it means to be fully human.”

Ummmm, no thank you.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

It seemed very low drama back then like two adults who were making it work and being mature with new partners so it is really sad to see how it all devolved

It had to have devolved because of Anna. I remember the happy family photos with Mark and Kristen with her boyfriend and all the kids at Christmas and that stopped when Mark married Anna. I remember Anna's with her ex, too. And now he has a fiance and there is obviously drama and no more happy photos and gee look who is the common denominator.

Well yeah, Anna’s happy family photos were very staged and one sided. She would take pictures of her and mark and the ex but never with his gf (now fiance). Actively excluded her from holidays, etc… total hypocrite and obviously very insecure and jealous. But she’s soooooo blissed out happy with plugs!

Is it so weird I’m dying to know what Tim’s fiance looks like?

Yes I think Jamie did something for a group, was it Noonday?
And Sarah and her family did some great work but she was appalled at her daughter being nicknamed “white girl” on her school soccer team, not bothering to realize that it’s part of Central and South American culture to nickname everyone.
They took frequent trips home and furloughs and didn’t seem like traditional missionaries.

Ah the poverty tours of the Christian mommy bloggers. They were such a thing back then. Remember all the Compassion and World Vision tours? Also didn't Jamie Wright go on one and have to fess up that it was bs?

Anonymous wrote:

It seemed very low drama back then like two adults who were making it work and being mature with new partners so it is really sad to see how it all devolved

It had to have devolved because of Anna. I remember the happy family photos with Mark and Kristen with her boyfriend and all the kids at Christmas and that stopped when Mark married Anna. I remember Anna's with her ex, too. And now he has a fiance and there is obviously drama and no more happy photos and gee look who is the common denominator.

Well yeah, Anna’s happy family photos were very staged and one sided. She would take pictures of her and mark and the ex but never with his gf (now fiance). Actively excluded her from holidays, etc… total hypocrite and obviously very insecure and jealous. But she’s soooooo blissed out happy with plugs!

Anonymous wrote:I really can’t stand how she thinks her new husband (formerly called “shirtless,” now I think we should call him “plugs”) is some kind of prize she has won. It’s like she’s competing with his kids in a “haha, I win” kind of way. Really sad for the kids and not very conducive to inviting them into a relationship with their new stepmommy.

I’ve thought this too. I think she gets off on knowing he chose her over them. Like I am just so amazing, I’m worth uprooting your life and leaving your kids for. Ha!

An attempt to hang on to notoriety and popularity so no one in her blogosphere would know what was going on.

The thing is, absolutely no one cared about what happened, so why keep it secret? People have actual lives and actual families to worry about.

I really can’t stand how she thinks her new husband (formerly called “shirtless,” now I think we should call him “plugs”) is some kind of prize she has won

Oh man the hashtag shirtless posts of yesteryear! With Glennon and her then-husband, of all people! The company Kristen kept, a lifetime ago.

Kristen actually went to visit Sarah Goodfellow in Peru with Dooce and I think Jamie Wright but everyone online roasted their "povvo tour" and they all had to write mea culpa posts to get in front of the metric crap ton of criticism they received. Dooce posted about the horrible gastrointestinal pain she had to deal with the whole flight home from Lima. Ah, the glory years of the mom bloggers.

Anonymous wrote:

It seemed very low drama back then like two adults who were making it work and being mature with new partners so it is really sad to see how it all devolved

It had to have devolved because of Anna. I remember the happy family photos with Mark and Kristen with her boyfriend and all the kids at Christmas and that stopped when Mark married Anna. I remember Anna's with her ex, too. And now he has a fiance and there is obviously drama and no more happy photos and gee look who is the common denominator.

Oh, those “happy family photos” were staged. An attempt to hang on to notoriety and popularity so no one in her blogosphere would know what was going on. She was just as complicit in the end. Anna brought HUGE complications, but Howertons 1.0 had been a hypocritical mess for a long time.

It seemed very low drama back then like two adults who were making it work and being mature with new partners so it is really sad to see how it all devolved

It had to have devolved because of Anna. I remember the happy family photos with Mark and Kristen with her boyfriend and all the kids at Christmas and that stopped when Mark married Anna. I remember Anna's with her ex, too. And now he has a fiance and there is obviously drama and no more happy photos and gee look who is the common denominator.

I really can’t stand how she thinks her new husband (formerly called “shirtless,” now I think we should call him “plugs”) is some kind of prize she has won. It’s like she’s competing with his kids in a “haha, I win” kind of way. Really sad for the kids and not very conducive to inviting them into a relationship with their new stepmommy.

Did Kristen and Mark divorce because of him sleeping with Dooce?

Their marriage was over so much earlier than she let on online. I don't think it was because of affairs. I think they were seperated and both started seeing other people a good year or two before she made the blog announcement which was really dumb on her part because then people who followed her online saw them with new partners and all the rumors started. A friend of mine saw Mark on dating sites way before she was public with the divorce and Kristen's new boyfriend was around at school events and even the gala and he and Mark seemed very chummy. So it was no secret at the school they were not together. It seemed very low drama back then like two adults who were making it work and being mature with new partners so it is really sad to see how it all devolved and I still can't believe Mark moved away because he was a really involved dad. But Kristens timing was so bad I don't know why she didn't just say she was getting a divorce on the blog much earlier. That was weird to watch knowing they were divorced but she wasn't saying it and it definitey changed my views on influencers and how fake all of it is.