Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes...

*Nina is married. Her last name is McConnell, which is very syllabically pleasing to the ear. Her inlaws are wonderful.

*She and her cute husband, Levi, used Target gift cards to buy groceries. Yes! She's learned to be practical.

*Anna has moved into Nina's "suite" of rooms. Posters of Jersey Shore and Men in Black have replaced Michael Jackson and Heath Ledger's frightening Joker face.

*Gunder wants to know when he can move into Anna's old room. And he's getting tall and I could swear I smelled B.O. on him the other day. *sob*

*My mom has dementia and I have eaten my weight in chocolate in the past six months.

*Which now makes me weigh a lot more.

*I look like Marie Osmond before Nutri System.

*I adore books but also love my Kindle. That makes me fickle.

*I read Soule Mama's blog and get teary. I want to restore a little old farm in Maine. With sheep I can shear and use the wool to knit my family sweaters. And possibly pants.

*I regret not keeping a better journal when my girls were little. I blinked and they grew up.

*Kitty is likely on her way to the executioner soon. She's old, and the smell of cat urine on Mark's clothes was the last straw. I told him he's not allowed to pay Levi to cap her in the head, quick and painless though it might be. I also told him he's not allowed to take her up to Huntsville and just let her loose. I called the Humane Society... Drat. She's my first real pet.

*Moving into life's next season...grown kids (well, minus the 7 year old), picking the writing career back up and fully dusting it off, taking on editing clients and loving my career. The day after the wedding, Mark wrote on my white board, "Round 2."

*Round 2 indeed. Pulling up my bootstraps. (Whatever the hell those are.)