Since you've been gone. Or, how do you like me now.

See, long hair.

Or maybe,

The more things change...

I have spent the last half an hour or so brainstorming a title for a blog post that I am not even sure I am going to write. Okay, I am writing it right NOW, but I don't know if I will actually publish this one.

Why not? Well, it has been close to five years since I last wrote a blog for The Viscosity of Me. And a whole HELL OF A LOT has happened. I have been writing blogs for my vacation rental agency, and hold on to your hat, for USA Today's 10Best. (Three 10Best lists, to be exact. Too many to be called a gimmie - not sure why I need to qualify that, except to myself.) But that writing is less personal. Less about me stretching - no, not like yoga - but in stretching as a human being.

After the last few years in particular, do I have it in me to be as honest as I once was?

Looking back at the posts about Ella and Holden I can't help but laugh - at them, at me, at everything. At my bend towards drama, at their wonderful silliness, at my tenuous hold on my sanity.

Well, I held on.

The same players are still in this game.

Shawn, husband extraordinaire. Remains the funniest person I have ever met, yet very serious in pictures.

Ella, now a ten year old. (Ten, as I am learning, is very close to tween. It is like a toe in the world of tween. The world where they say things like: "Really, mom?" And "You are so annoying you have ruined my day.") And, as extraordinary as you would expect her to be - after reading about her at five.

Holden, eight years old and when he is not running, jumping, wrestling, doing pull ups, climbing ropes, doing gymnastics, riding his skateboard, playing mine craft or riding his bike, he is telling me how much he loves me. This kid is all heart. In related news, I still say "Holden, where are your clothes?" about as often as I did when he was three. I am not even kidding.


So what's different?

To start, me.  Okay I am still angsty, still have a flare for drama, but now my hair is really long.

I am five years older, and potentially wiser - at least I hope so. Maybe a bit weathered - more on that to come. Forgetful - or more ditzy than I used to be. I like to attribute it to being so busy...I mean I hope that is the reason, but I secretly fear I am losing my marbles.

And then there is King. He is our large, very lovable, perpetually starving, mutt of a dog. I challenge you to find a nicer dog. You won't. And, that said, he personally makes me crazy and rarely does a day go by that I don't fantasize about dropping him off at his new family's house.

Aaah, there's that girl we used to know.