The End

Well, it was a good run. But Blogger is clunky, won't post photos correctly, won't let my mom post comments, and today it pushed me too far when it wouldn't let me TYPE A NEW POST.

It's a little sad. I've been here for eight and a half years, with Darren popping in occasionally too. But I've been thinking of shutting down for a while. Now I have an excuse to get mad at Blogger, break up, and announce that we are never, ever getting back together. Like, ever.

I'll find another source for my postings, I'm sure. The drive to write daily updates is like water: block it off one way, and it'll seep through somewhere else. But I'm closing down Keeping Up.

Thanks to all of you who made this blog a place of friendship and fun for so long. You got me through the early toddler and little kid years, and for that my family thanks you.

-- SJ

I'm Not That Kind of Girl

I was talking with a young teen recently about her deep, passionate love for all five of the members of the boy band One Direction. She was making up a story, she said, based on one of the boys. Apparently he is in love with another famous singer, but he dies, and she has to carry on. She forces herself to perform despite her pain, and one night at a concert, she sees his ghost.

Teen girls throughout the ages swoon.

It got me thinking. I never went in for celebrity crushes, but I certainly had a sizable roster of imaginary boyfriends, mostly from the stories I wrote. They were all good-looking, considerate, and witty. Oh, and alive.

Love stories that involve death simply don't thrill me. I don't listen to sad songs, I don't read sad stories. When a friend told me that she thought it was tragic and romantic to fling herself off a cliff into the ocean for the sake of lost love, I laughed.When I read about a girl caught in a love triangle between an undead vampire and a virile werewolf, I thought, "Honey, go for the warm body!" When it comes to tragic love, I'm all Elinor Dashwood, not Marianne.

I don't mean to say I didn't have laughable ideas about romance. I was into the idea of understated romantic tension. Lifelong love and passion? Absolutely! But I preferred my heroes to declare themselves with a grin and an offhand comment rather than an impassioned monologue in a rainstorm. I took the idea to the point that, at about age nineteen, I thought it would be the essence of understated passion for me to exchange vows with a man who would then kiss my hand. Four years later, when my father-in-law pronounced us man and wife, Darren had already informed me that he was not settling for my fingers.

All this to say... I'm not really sure what. Just that romances that involve death or ghosts don't make me puddle up into beautiful, satisfied tears. If he's going to kiss her hand, she had darn well better be able to feel it.

-- SJ

Annual Reveiw for S M Jones

Name: Stuart

Hair:  Blond, preferably in a mohawk style
Eyes: Gray, with a touch of green; they look absolutely radiant with olive green
 
Interests:
Books

Computer

Games

Computer Games

That pretty much sums it up.
 
Notes:Very creative, to the point that he can create an entire D&D scenario with backstory, characters, and a choreographed battle without using a guide. Is a loyal and enthusiastic Cub Scout, although has managed to skip every hike so far. Admires his older sister's writing, is nice(r) to his younger sister, and thinks his little brother is very cute except when said brother erases all his progress on a PlayStation game.

Recommendation: Outgrew current age level long ago. Upgrade recommended.

Happy birthday, Stuart! You keep things lively and geeky!

We love you -- SJ, DJ, AMJ, DMJ, PGJ

Screenshot by Stuart

Choose One

1. Aliens kidnapped me.

2. I'm secretly a superhero, and crime has been soaring in my neighborhood for the past several months.

3. I've been too busy growing my own wheat and milking my own cow so my children can have naturally-sourced, organic toast and butter every morning.

4. Sewing your own bedsheets, curtains, and bath towels takes time and energy.

5. Just taking a little break from here to teach my kids advanced chemical diagramming!

6. I've been writing a novel and have no interest in doing anything else, including breathing.


One of these statements is true, and that's why the blog has been neglected for so long. However, those dear and close to me are lovingly compelling me to return to the world where everybody else lives. Unforutnately, this will mean a lot of re-runs on the blog: I plan to go through Facebook and pull out a lot of my bloggy status updates and add them here for archiving purposes. But that's better than a dead blog, right? Right.

So. *blink blink* This is what y'all's world looks like, huh? I vaguely remember it. Sure is good to be back! As soon as I finish harvesting this wheat/sewing this seam/defending the innocent/writing this dialogue.

-- SJ

Birthday Interview

On this most glorious day the eleventh of October twenty-twelve, when the most glorious Darren Jones enjoys a birthday, we've stopped a few ordinary kids on the street... living room, rather... and asked their opinion of this most glorious daddy of theirs.

Why do you love Daddy?
A: Because he's my daddy and he's nice.
S: He likes to do things with me, he plays computer often.
D: He's a very good daddy.
P: Yes

What is something Daddy does that you like?
 A: He plays D&D and lets me read Harry Potter.
S: Plays D&D with us.
D: He lets me play one of my favorite games on his smartphone.
P: Reads to me

What is something that makes Daddy happy?
A: Having healthy, obedient kids.
S: A good book from one of his favorite authors.
D: Having us kids.
P: Monster trucks

What would Daddy most like for his birthday?
 A: A crucifix made of sapphires.
S: He'd probably like a new Civilizations computer game. Or some more books.
D: I think he'd really love another really nice carrot cake.
P: Spice

An ordinary wife married to Darren Jones... no, wait, that's an oxymoron, because only a very special woman would be the person who got to be married to Darren Jones... also agreed to be interviewed.

Why do you love Darren?
SJ: His blue eyes, his beard, his kindness, his kisses, and the fantastic stir-fry he makes nearly every weekend. For starters. Want me to go on?

What does Darren do that you like?
SJ: Not everything, of course. I actually could make a list of things I don't like. It would be a lot shorter than the list of things I do like. Let's do this. Let's answer this question with: Everything, except a few things not worth mentioning.

What is something that makes Darren happy?
Spreadsheets.


What would Darren really like for his birthday?
A trip to England. Failing that, a good book and a cuddly wife.


Happy birthday, oh most glorious Darren! We love you!

-- SJ, AMJ, SMJ, DMJ, PGJ

Romance by the Dozen

I've been keeping up on this blog since 2004, which means I've written a special post for our anniversary for the past eight years. This year The Day -- yesterday -- went by without my posting anything. I wondered, what more is there to say? We met, we fell in love, we got married, we have kids, we're still madly in love...

Tonight, however, I had a captive audience: I was driving our babysitter Vanessa home. And I spent nearly the entire trip telling her about the sweet romantic events of my and Darren's courtship. Then I thought, Hey! Not all our friends have heard all these! I mean, I've posted our entire courtship story before, but these are like bonus tracks. Deleted scenes. Special director's cut.

So here you go. This year's Special Anniversary Post. In honor of our 12th year, I'm going to try for a dozen stories. If it seems like a bit much, Vanessa probably can offer sympathy and counseling.

1. Darren first thought of me as wife material the day that I walked into his office, slapped a trivia card on his desk, announced, "Thought you'd like this," and walked back out. The card had all the answers on the back whited-out. (My sister had sent it to me. Logically, he ought to have thought of her as wife material, not me, but I was the lucky one.)

2. I first thought of Darren as husband material when I found out that he'd read Pride and Prejudice and had seen the A&E adaptation of it. Six hours of Jane Austen. You don't take that lightly.

3. I didn't want Darren to be interested in me. I certainly wasn't interested in him. But after I left Virginia and moved home to Mississippi, I couldn't escape reminders of him. The postman who delivered mail at the newspaper office where I worked sounded like Darren. Somebody else drove a battered silver hatchback like Darren. I kept coming across references to Canadians, and finding bits of information and trivia that I knew he'd like. I found that I knew a lot about him, and he kept coming up in my conversation. It was all extremely annoying.

4. He sent me a book for Christmas the year we met. I was not happy. I wrote back and thanked him, then added that if he sent along any "intentions" with the gift, then I was going to send it back. He assured me that there were "no intentions expressed or implied." He'd seen it and thought I'd like it. (I didn't send it back.)

5. It certainly wasn't as if he'd made a special trip to a bookstore forty minutes away to buy the book for me.

6. I'll assume that my forthrightness was part of my charm. I know my dimples were.

7. Darren ran the HSLDA table at two Mississippi homeschool conferences. "Oh!" I wrote him. "What a nice coincidence. I'll stop by your table." What I found out later was that both years, Darren cornered the conference coordinator at the office and told her, "I want the Mississippi conference."

8. My mom met Darren at one of these conferences. They shook hands and made small talk for a few minutes. She marked him down as "one to watch" after that. I asked her later, "Why did you even suspect him? Y'all didn't talk about anything important." She replied, "He was nervous meeting me."

9. He prayed for me every night for two years. He prayed that if I was the one God intended for him to marry, that He would keep other guys away from me until Darren could make a move.

10. I was extremely frustrated during those two years that no one, not even scoundrels and cads, expressed any romantic interest in me.

11. During a long, meandering conversation about romance and marriage and husbands, I said to my friend Dana, "Isn't it strange to think that there's this one person is going to be the most important person in my life, and I haven't even met him yet!" And a name floated to the top of my mind. I was puzzled. Why was he stuck in my head like that?

12. Skipping ahead, Darren proposed to me on my front porch in Mississippi on June 2. He originally intended to propose to me in Harper's Ferry, West Virginia a month later. In a cemetery. There's a story behind this, of course.

A year previously, I'd gone back to Virginia to visit my friends Leah and Rose. We were taking a trip to Harper's Ferry and invited any friends to join us. Darren took us up on it -- what a good friend! (Said I. I spent a long time during this trip explaining to Leah and Rose why Darren and I were very good friends but certainly nothing more than that, despite any appearances to the contrary. Like coming on a day trip with us.) At Harper's Ferry, we all walked up to the cemetery. This is the part of the story where Sara comes out and acts like an idiot.

My maiden name is Roberts. A good name, granted, but not exciting. I figured I had one shot at improving my signature, and that was marriage. So I was always picking out last names I liked. This afternoon in Harper's Ferry, in the cemetery, I announced that I was in the market for an interesting last name, and proceeded to find some for myself off the tombstones.

Darren helped me. He found several promising candidates.

Four months later when he wrote to ask to court me, I remembered that afternoon. And just about died of embarrassment. He confessed that he thought it was funny. He enjoyed picking out names for me, even though he had a very definite opinion as to what a suitable new name for me would be.

This, by the way, is where the audience realizes the name I married into, and laughs at me.

That's a dozen stories about the sweet romance that became our marriage. I'd write more, but why write when I could be snuggling with Darren Jones? (Myself of thirteen years ago say, "Whoa, what? No, we're just good friends! No snuggling!" But deep down, I think she really wouldn't have minded too much.)

Happy 12th anniversary, my wonderful love!

-- SJ

Annual Review for D M Jones

Name: Daphne (known as Daph or Daffodil)

Hair: Short, blondish-brown, adorable

Eyes: Sparkly light blue, like her Aunt Lindsay
 

Interests: 
Playing: A magical unicorn named Horn Attack, a ninja, a kitty, or a puppy named Morning Daisy (companion to Pip's puppy named Patches-Spot).

Conversing: She's got a lot to say on every subject, and prefers an active, engaged audience. None of this passive, "Hm, that's nice, dear."

Reading - like any typical young girl, she devours science books

Visiting: The more friends, the better. The longer, the better. The more activity, the better. When bedtime comes and she's alone in her room, she's bored.

Taylor Swift: She's up for a visit and a conversation about her favorite Taylor Swift songs.


Busyness: This fall, she's starting piano, 4H, a one-day enrichment class, AWANA, and school. The prospect delights her.
 
Notes: Is ready to be a friend to everyone, with the possible exception of her older brother. Thinks that Taylor Swift has a knack for choosing really bad boyfriends, based on all the songs she writes about broken hearts. Talks a lot. Reads a lot.

Recommendation: Way too much personality to stay at current age level. Immediate upgrade recommended.

Happy sixth birthday to Daphne! We love you!

(I'm going to try to upload this picture again later, giving Blogger a second chance)

-- DJ, SJ, AMJ, SMJ, PGJ