Ranger moved into our home on Wednesday night and by Friday afternoon Shannon had packed her bags and announced she was moving out. Apparently, center stage is not for sharing in her book. To be fair, she wasn't the only one adjusting and by Saturday morning the 6:00 am response to the wimpering and crying turned into the following brief conversation:

"Do you think we should take him out?"
"I think we should sleep."
"I think you should take him out."

Let's just say my husband's a saint. He's acutely aware of how dysfunctional I am in the morning and bailed me out of the first early morning wake up. Since then, however, Ranger and I are enjoying some quality bonding time in the wee hours of the morning and I'm happily carrying a set of luggage under my eyes. I'm not sure what's worse though - the lack of sleep, or the three kids constantly arguing over who gets to play with the dog more, and who stole his attention from who. I think it was just last night when I asked Joel "can you and I and Ranger just go somewhere and relax?"

Big day tomorrow . . . first day of school! Shannon's first day of kindergarten and Emma's last year of elementary school. Shannon has chosen big brother Joel to walk her to her classroom when they get off the bus and I think secretly he's swollen with pride at the appointment. Although he'd never admit it.

We had a great last weekend of the summer together - topped off with a Tiger game this afternoon. It was a great day for baseball - although the Yankees apparently agreed. Still, the peanuts, sno cones, hot dogs, elephant ears and slushies kept the blues away. So all is good. Look out teachers - here they come!!