On the other hand I think I finally figured out how she is changing. She is actually slowly becoming the person she was 5 or 6 years ago. This is a good thing. She is laughing at the jokes that she use to find funny rather than trying to be straight faced and cool. She is becoming light hearted again. She is showing more interest in the kids again.
I have said as long as I have been here that our communication has been good but I can see how it is much better now that it has been in almost 2 years.
This sounds positive. I hope her job loss makes her do some serious thinking about your M.