some guard dog!

sometimes I'm surprised our neighbors haven't ever talked to us about how annoying our dog Rocky can be... everytime he sees another dog he starts barking (no matter how many times we try to "socialize" him by letting him play with dogs on walks and taking him to the dog park) and even though he never crosses the line on the invisible fence, we have a corner lot and he will walk/run/chase/bark/follow every single person/car/biker from one end of our yard all the way around the coner to the other end. he insists on escorting everyone, and he's kind of a celebrity in the neighborhood - I can guarantee that 95% of the people in our big neighborhood couldn't give you our names, but seriously everyone seems to know our dog. One time I heard this young boy on a walk with his mom get excited when he saw our dog and exclaim "see mom, this is Rocky, the dog I was telling you about!" I have no idea at all how people know his name, other than remembering it from when Justin or I yell at him to come in or stop barking. -or on our walks we certainly over use his name trying to remind him how to simply walk beside us.

I was up in Bella's room today finally trying to clean it (so much harder to maintain the house now that I'm working full time again) when I saw a mom and her little boy walking and she had to pick him up because even though Rocky was actually behaving *shock* and not barking or running, the little boy was afraid. I brought pup in the house to give them a chance to get out of sight so he wouldn't be tempted to follow along the property. I let him back out as soon as I didn't see anyone along the sidewalk. I guess they decided to cut through our backyard back to their house - which wasn't a big deal, I didn't care - but I think the fact that they were on our property made me laugh instead of get mad when I saw Rocky get excited and run toward them. This kid just screamed, threw his head back (not even kidding his chin was pointed straight to the sky) and ran across our yard and the next. It happened so quick his mom couldn't even react, she just stood there and I was laughing from the kitchen. Not sure if this is a sign I'm going to be a bad mom - but it was frickin hilarious!

if you give a mouse a cookie

If my forte for comedy of errors had to follow me at work...
Did I have to drop my water down the stairs?
Did they have to be glass stairs that absorb nothing?
Did it have to be a gallon bucket instead of an unassuming glass?
Did it have to run all the way down to the very last step?
Did it have to defy gravity and splatter on the wall as well?
Did it have to go between the steps leaving puddles on the walkway below?
Did it have to be THAT loud?
Did it have to be on a Monday?
And finally, did it have to at noon when everyone was nearby having their lunch and ran to see what happened?
Seriously?!

Bella's Cribbs

I really need to post more often. I thought I'd have more time to at work, but I guess playing catch up from being out for 12 weeks has been a little more time consuming than I thought. haha! In the mean time... when I had about four weeks left before Bella was due, I was working at a Cavs game escorting Joshua Cribbs (the pro-bowl kick returner for the Cleveland Browns) around for meet and greets and appearances. He was helping me think of names for Baby Bail and even signed an autographed picture for Justin, who of course, is a big fan. On my first day back at work my friend gave me a present that she'd been holding on to since May. Josh Cribbs had mailed a jersey onesie to the office for Bella and even signed it for her! It was completely unexpected and absolutely restored my faith in professional athletes! haha! I took it home and slipped Bella into it (I think we're going to eventually frame it becaues she can't really wear it since we can't wash it!) and brought it down to Justin as a surprise - to say he was elated was an understatement. He text pictures to his friends and family immediately! what a dork, I love it!

SO... who wears it better?!

Beautiful Surprise

Today was my first day back at work - it was actually easier than I thought it was going to be, but that was solely because Bella was still getting over a cold so Justin stayed home with her and I didn't have to take her to day care yet - and when I got home Justin had a surprise for me to keep my spirits up.

He took a bunch of videos we've taken since Father's Day and put it to the song I had in a previous post... my wonder boy makes my heart happy! It's too good not to share:

Family Fun

We had our first family outing on Saturday, and best of all, Justin planned the whole thing! We started the daytrip by jumping on a train... there's a scenic train that goes through the metroparks (little known fact about Ohio - there's a beautiful metroparks system here, a little bit of Colorado I get with me here) from Cleveland to Akron. At the end of the train ride we hopped on a bus and spent a few hours at the local zoo. All in all, it was a pretty perfect day!

what our family looks like at the zoo:

she lights up my life, I love her lots

We had to kick a couple kids out for our photo op

Our little turtle doesn't like the water so much!

J's wingspan isn't quite as impressive as the eagle

Apparently Bella and I weigh nearly as much as a lion
Pretty sure the scale was broke, but sometimes it feels like it. frick.