Uzi Has Arrived!!

And here he is................
Uzi arrived Monday night about 4:30. Karen dropped him off on her way to training. He is the cutest thing! I love his big ears(Grijalva ears as someone put it at work..work joke). His paws are HUGE it is funny to watch him walk with those big things. For the first 24 hours at a new house is has done very well. He slept well in the crate next to my bed. He only barks if he can't see me. He follows me every where I go. I had to bring him to work tonight and leave him in my car since he can't go a whole 10 hours + in the crate with out taking care of business. I am hoping that after I get a pen/dog area set up in my garage that he will do ok in that so Thursday night I don't have to bring him to work. I feel bad for him being locked up in a crate for that long without being able to walk around. Luckly working nights it is slow that I can go out 2 or 3 times and let me walk around for a few mintues and take care of business. Of course Althea and Kalina are already bugging me to bring him to the house every day. I know once I move closer they will be over more but at least it will be easier since I will be closer. He is going to be a spoiled boy...

Uzi Comes Tomorrow!!!

Well, we made it down to my Uncle and Aunt's with no problem. It was COLD to say the least. My sister was her typical self as soon as she saw snow, and of course she wasn't driving. There was snow on the side of the road and it was very cold but it never snowed the whole time. It was VERY sunny during the day. It was nice to spend a couple days down south and see family.

Uzi moves in tomorrow! Karen finally decided I can have Uzi! I am very excited and so are the girls too. Of course once I move closer they will be over all the time just to see Uzi. I am working tonight until 5am and then I will go home and get the house ready for a puppy. Karen says he is into everything...so time to get things out of his reach!

I will post pictures in the next couple of days!

Christmas Pictures!!

Here are several pictures from Christmas..


Kalina's school did a Christmas presentation Kalina had fun she loved to sing the songs!!

Kids can't wait to open presents

Kalina got what she wanted..











Althea also got one!!

Merry Christmas!!

Christmas @ Bopmyspace.com

Merry Christmas!! I hope everyone has a great Christmas with your loved ones! Tuesday we went to my Dad's cousins house in Livermore. It was nice to spend a few hours with family we don't see very often. Christmas Eve was spent at Mom's house. I got up and went to the house while they were all at church and had dinner ready by the time they got home. After we ate of course it was present time. The girls got spoiled as usual. I will post photos tomorrow, I don't have my camera with me right now. I of course had to work work and work Christmas night as well. We will leave Friday morning to drive down to Quartz Hill to see my mom's side of the family. Hopefully, there will be no snow. They have been snowed in with in the last week where schools were cancelled for 3 days and Uncle Bruce almost didn't make it home from work because all three ways into Quartz Hill were closed due to the snow.

Tonight while at work I recieved an email from breeder regarding Uzi (the puppy). She asked if I would be willing to take Uzi for a few months. She is going to let me raise him while we wait to see if he will be breed quality. If he is then I will still keep him but she will use him to breed. If not she will sale him since she wont be able to breed him, however she will sale him to me for a low price so I will still be able to keep him! I am so excited!!! Was a nice Christmas present.

Now, I just need good news about the house! On Monday I talked to my realtor and it is still looking really good. The seller's will be able to pay off the 1st on the house, which is GREAT, and the bank that carries the 2nd will be gooding good money, they wont get 100% but they will get better than the average. They are still negotiating with that bank on the final sale price but by the sounds of it I could know next week if they approve the short sale. If they do then it will be just a matter of my loan going through and going through escrow. So hopefully my loan wont hold anything up! If all goes well looks like by late January 1st part of February I will be moving back to Tracy..

Needless to say this last week has had some good news! So hopefully it will contuine. Merry Christmas to all! And be SAFE on the roads if you are driving!!

Updates...

I know it has been awhile since I have done any updates. I was kind of waiting for some good news on a couple things first.

I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving! All of my mom's brothers made the journey to Tracy for Thanksgiving. Even the one that lives in Oregon, which was a nice change. Their daughter Alana had moved to Palm Springs area this last summer so they wanted to drive to Tracy and she drove up to Tracy so we could spend Thanksgiving together. Only three cousins couldn't make the trip because of work schedules or plans with boyfriends family. Kalina loved having her cousins over..she had sleep over two nights and just thought it was the best thing!

House...well where to start. First off buying a house now with all the short sales out there is stressfull. I have found several over the last couple of months that I have liked. I have even put about 5 offers on different houses just to find out that I didn't get it or that the seller is dragging their feet on signing the necessary paperwork. Well the week of Thanksgiving one listed that was just blocks from my sister. At first I wasn't too keen on the idea of living that close but I went and looked at it. The house is really cute and has pretty much everything I wanted..#1 being a single story..#2 - 3 car garage &/or RV access for the boat..and this has both once cememt would be poured for the boat. So we put an offer on it right away. Because it was a holiday weekend we were hoping not to many people would look at it and the fact that the current renters were not making it all that easy too see the house, I think the main reason is because they have a newborn. So we were one of two people to put an offer on it. We found out last week that we were in 2nd place because the other offer gave the bank a bigger net.. My realtor had typed up a nice letter to the seller and the other seller's realtor. The letter basically said why this house was prefect and why I was trying to move back to Tracy. Well, this morning the seller's realtor called my realtor and gave good news! He bascially put us in #1 spot and kicked the others out. They were very washy and not willing to put down a bigger deposit and a few other things. He kept telling them that he felt I deserved the house more. So all we had to do was sign a new offer to match their price and we would be in #1 spot. So needless to say we are the one and only offer on the house now. And he is no longer showing the house! Now the waiting game starts. Because it is a short sale it takes a bit longer, but we are hoping the bank doesn't take the 60 days they are saying it takes to approve it. I would love for it to only take a couple weeks so by the end of January I would be moving..just to get the whole process done... Well, I am sure everyone is wanting to see pictures. Unfortuantaly the agent selling the house only posted 4 pictures...2 of the front and 2 of the kitchen..so here is all I have for now...

Here is the front of the house. The house sits on a corner so it has a HUGE side yard...I am going to have more grass to mow than I do now.


Here is a picture of the kitchen. It has much more cabinet room than I do now plus a pantry!

Keep your fingers crossed. Hopefully by my birthday I will be all moved in!

As for the puppy. We went and looked at the puppies probably about 3 weeks ago now. The girls wanted me to bring one home then. However, they were not ready. She has since sold one leaving only one left. She hasn't said 100% yet, but it looks like I will be getting one. Kim told me yesterday that she (Karen the owner) has pretty much decided she wants to keep it so then she would give it to me to raise. By keeping it she would be able to bread it later. Her currently male is getting older so she needs another male soon to bread with. Kim did say that the puppy (Uzi - the name I had suggested) is not liking his crate right now and Karen is working on that. Karen is watching Kim's dog while we go south for Christmas, so maybe after Christmas I will get bring Uzi home !

Not much else going on...I don't even want to talk about Christmas shopping. I haven't started yet. Not that I have too many to buy for. Well I do have things for my Aunt's/Uncle's..my last PartyLite party I got several gifts. I have a few ideas for mom. Kalina of course wants EVERYTHING. Althea will probably get a couple games for her new video game (I think my mom got her DSP)... Hopefully next weekend I will be able to get things done. It normally only takes me a few hours because I go once I know what I am getting!

A Long Week

This last week has been a tough one. It has been a roller coaster of emotions to say the least.

When I put the 2nd offer on one of the houses I thought my realtor's email said my offer was the best they had received...well I miss understood the email. Needless to say my offer came n 2nd..this just added the emotional roller coaster.. For the last week I pretty much was thinking the house was mine just to find out I was wrong. The other people have until today (Tuesday) to accept the banks offer or reject it. Of course I hoping they reject it. Even if they accept it things could still happen, like the loan could fall through. I am keeping my fingers something will happen. I still haven't heard on the other house. My realtor hasn't been able to get much of an answer from other realtor but some of that can be just that the bank that has to approve the short sale is just dragging their feet. In the mean time I continue to look. I found another house last week, it just happens to be blocks from my sister. The only problem currently there are tenants in the house and they are being difficult about getting into to look at the inside. Maybe it is a sign that I will get an answer on one of the houses soon! I can only hope...

This past Thursday was one year since my dad passed away. It was a difficult day. All week I was working on no more than 5 hours of sleep. Thursday after I got off work I went by the cemetery and spent some time out there. Wednesday night I had gotten a hold of one of the Deputy's my dad worked with to find out where in Mtn House was the tree that was dedicated to him. So after the cemetery I took a drive out there. He warned me that the tree was dead but they had another tree waiting next to it to replace it. I still need to call and find out when they are going to do that. My mom wants to go out there and I want to try to postpone that until they get the tree planted so she doesn't have to see it. Plus I need to find out if they are still putting a plaque out there. There isn't one now and the Deputy thought there was going to be one but he hadn't heard any updates.

Saturday I went a retirement dinner for several people at work. There were quite a few people there that I hadn't seen in awhile so that was nice.

Sunday was a day of nothing. Well, I did go see a friend’s softball game but other than that I did nothing. I felt kind of guilty but it was nice not to have anything to do..

My ankle seems to be doing better. I haven't worn the brace in about a week. I haven't tried running or walking on tredmill yet but it sure feels better. Guess no more excuses..time to get back to the gym...

I hope this week brings some good news on one of the houses!!

Trick Or Treat

Trick or Treat Give Me Something Good To EAT!

Thankfully the rain held off during trick or treating this year. At one point it started to rain but it didn't last long. This year Kalina did a little better about going up to doors and not being scared. There were a few times she was afraid but she would still go. Near the end she was getting tired and wanted someone other than Althea to walk up with her. This year Althea did the haunted house by herself. Kim never will go and I had a headache and had no desire to walk through it. She said it wasn't bad that even when a couple people did jump out it didn't scare her bad. We found another house that went all out. They had the lights sync to music which was cool to watch. I think Kalina had more fun handing out candy then going door to door. Over all they had a good time.

On Thursday, I put a 2nd offer on a house. I was told Wednesday that the bank came back to the top three bids and gave us 24 hours to change our bids etc. So I went back to the house (since this is not the one I really wanted) and walked through it again. I took a good friend, Justine, with me for her opinion as well. She really liked this house over my 1st pick. After going through it and the other house again I agreed that over all I did like this one better and the only reason I really like the other one was for the 3rd car garage and the POOL/SPA. So, needless to say I put another offer on the house. Within two hours my agent told me I was the highest and best offer, so now I wait for the bank to approve it. If all goes well I could have the keys by Thanksgiving. However, I will not move in right away. I want to go through and paint several of the rooms before I start moving things in. However, I will be in by Christmas if all goes well!!

The doctor called me Tuesday and left me a message stating that the x-rays didn't show any broke bones. He said it showed swelling and bruising and of course all the work from my surgery. But the good news everything still showed intact. I wore the brace all week, even wore slippers to work since it was hard to wear shoes. For the last two days I haven't worn the brace and the ankle feels better. It did start to get sore out trick or treating, so guess I will just have to wear it still when I do a lot of walking, but all I care about is it is starting to get better.

It is 4 days away from being 1 year since my dad passed away. It is hard to believe that it has been a year. At times it seems longer and at times it seems like it was just the other day. I have to work that night, and I can tell you it is going to be hard to work that night since I was at work when I got the call.

I have decided to put off the academy for another year. It has been a tough decision but I need a break. These last couples of years have been tough, this last year even harder. So, I decided to take a year off, spend time with family and friends and to work on losing weight and that way when I go back in 2010 I will fly over that wall with no problem! Now the problem is what am I going to do with all the extra time am not use to having..LOL Funny thing is, since school ending this year I seem to stay pretty busy still. I have had a few days where I have just stayed home and in sweats all day but not too many of them. Hopefully, will get a few more this year. Maybe I will even make it out to see Christine in Colorado and Sarah in Texas at some point!

Update On Puppy & Ankle

On Saturday Kim, the girls and I went to go look at the puppies. The girls were so excited. They kept asking if I was going to bring one home. Needless to say I didn't. The puppies are only 4 weeks old so they have a few weeks to go still before I can even consider bringing one home. The breeder did say if a friend of hers does not take one that I for sure will get one of the two. Not, sure when that decision will be made. She did say at one point a month or so ago she would keep it until it was about 2 or 3 months old just so she could start working on the the house training so I didn't have to do that. So, if anything it is probably a good couple months out before I get to bring one home.


Kalina liked this one..she kept saying how adorable it was. Now of course the two are pretty much the same, just that Althea was holding the other one most of the time.
Althea can't wait for Electra to have puppies so she has puppies at home to carry around and spoil.


Well after two weeks of pain and it not getting better and in fact some ways getting worse I decided to go to the doctor today. He took some x-rays so now I have to wait for the results to come back. The not so good news was that once you injury an ankle it is not like other joints/bones, they don’t heal stronger. So, since I have already had one surgery on this ankle, it is easier to re-injure. If there is no bone damage and it is just soft tissue damage/injury it will take time to heal. For the time being he had me go buy an ankle brace to help support it and absorb some of the shock of walking etc. He said no running, jumping or anything similar for now. He said give it another week or so and then slowly start doing more and just let pain say how much I do etc. Hopefully, he will not call and say there is bone damage. However, this waiting for the soft tissue to heal is going to be long and painful too.

Well, I started looking at houses. Since my dad passed away my mom as been trying to get me to move back to Tracy. I found one I really like, and another one I like as well. The one I really like will probably take longer to hear anything since it is a short sale. The other one I might hear soon on. I just would prefer the 1st house. I hoping I will hear good news on the 1st house soon!

What A Week...

Well this week started off with a BANG. Monday night I go to John's softball game, like I usually do expect this week I decided to injury myself. One of my formar classmates wife and kid was there as well. After talking with her and playing with their son I decided to go sit back down. Well instead of walking around to my seat I decided to climb over the chairs. See there were people on both ends of the row and I didn't want to bother them yet again. So all is well, until I am not paying attention and move my right foot which is on the front part of the seat, that folds up, leaving only my left foot on the back part of the seat. Well, as you can imgaine my left foot flipped the seat up and went between the seat and the back of the seat. INSTANT pain. Of course this is the same foot I had surgery on back in 2005. I just sat down for the rest of the game in pain, and of course laughing. Not to mention John was too and even had to take a photo. After the game I came to work. I was in pain but at least able to walk on it. Of course if anything touched it I would go through the roof, even my shoe touching it hurt. I iced it and tried to keep it elevated while at work but that is not the easiest thing to do. By the time I got home and was able to get a good look at it I could see it was pretty swollen. I was amazed that that it wasn't bruised. As the week has gone on it is a little better but still hurts. Still very tender to the touch, even a sock. And you know how it goes when you hurt yourself, you tend to hit the "right" spot all the time, which it makes it very hard to sleep. Hopefully in the next couple days it will feel better.

Smith Family Pumpkin Patch:


Today was a fieldtrip day with Kalina's school. When I got to the class the teacher started dividing up the kids to parents. When she got to Kalina she said her and Lilly were going with Kalina's "mom". Kalina became very upset. She started crying and saying she wanted to go with her "Auntie". Kalina ran to me saying she wanted to go with me. The teacher looked at me and I told her I was her Aunt. The teacher felt bad but after it was explained to Kalina she was happy again. I haven't been on a school bus in YEARS. Those seats are not made for tall people. After a drive to Brentwood we finally made it to the pumpkin patch. It was not what I expected. I was expecting something like the one in Lathrop but that was far from it. At times Kalina was bored because she couldn't just "play" but I think by the end of the day she had fun. Of course once she got a hold of my camera she was happy..she loves to take pictures. I can say I was happy there wasn't more walking then there already was as my ankle wasn't having the walking on uneven ground.

Dad's Retirement

A couple weeks ago my mom was told by the retirement board that boards' doctor came back with his report and was not recommending that his death be ruled work related. Due to his heart attack mom can and should receive his full retirement because heart attacks are considered work related. My mom was really nervous about what the board would do. She felt they would side with the doctor which would mean she would have to hire an attorney in order to fight the decision. I made several phone calls over the past couple weeks. I contacted a couple people at the Sheriff's office and at my dept. After everything was said and done and a call to an attorney we were prepared for the board to deny the claim this morning. Well, after about an hour of hearing other things the board discussed, the board discussing my dad's case behind closed doors and finally my mom given the chance to speak the board voted to grant the service retirement which gives my mom my dad's full retirement. She was so surprised and thankful that now that part is over with. There is only one more thing to deal with and that is the workman's comp claim. We all know that can also be a long process. I am hoping with the decision today that in November when she goes in front of the workman's comp board that the claim will be settled just as fast and easy.

New Kids On The Block

Last night Allison and I went to a New Kids On The Block concert and had a BLAST. When she asked me months ago I wasn't too sure about it. I hadn't heard their new ablum but remembered I loved their music back in the days. As the days came closer I was really looking forward to going. I had been listening to their music on my iPhone and was really enjoying some of the new songs. Then I found out another friend from work was going and she was really excited about going as well. She kept talking about how she was going to run up on stage or at least through a pair of underware up on stage with her business card attached to it just for Donnie. So, last night finally came. I met Allison at her place in Lodi and we went out to dinner before heading to Sacramento. We get to Arco Arena early so we are just sitting in the car talking since it was so cold outside. As we sat in the car we started to people watch. It was amazing to see what some people were wearing, lets just say some people went back to the 80's for the concert. This included the crimped hair the bright belts, tightly rolled pants and the pigtails. Thankfully, Allison held back her desire to crimp her hair. It was funny to see some guys in the crowd as well. You know they were sucked into going with their girlfriends. So, we finally head inside. As we get to our section we see that it is closed and they are reassinging our seats. We were worried. Well, lets just say when we got to our new seats we were not crying at all.....

The view from our NEW seats......

We were now in the lower level and about 7 rows up from the floor..Yes SEVEN ROWS. Needless to say we were very happy with our new seats. We had a prefect view of the stage! Little did we know that half way through the concert we would be even closer...The stage went black and when the lights came back on we were 7 rows from the NEW stage.....

New stage.....

Now we had an AWESOME view of everyone..lets just say the years have done everyone good! HOT HOT HOT. This night was a great one and I owe it all to my friend Allison!!! Thank you Allison!!!

I Forgot......

In yesterday's post in passing on the blog award I didn't even think to pass it on to a good friend of mine, John. John doesn't blog so the thought didn't even cross my mind to pass it on to him and say what a great friend he is. Well, of course he had to remind me today when we talked. John is someone I met while in the academy this last year. We have become great friends and I know the he is a true friend. He was out there encouraging me and pushing me to get over that 6 foot wall. Even on days where I didn't want to look at the wall or even talk about it he was encouraging. I couldn't have gotten as far as I did this past year without him. Even after failing this year he has been there and continues to encourage me on not giving up. I think at times he took it harder than me that I was not going to be up on stage with him. With his help and friendship I know the day will come when I will be up on stage graduating and then putting on a dark blue uniform ready to hit the streets for the first time. Thank you John!

On Sept 27th (my dad's birthday) my mom and I took Kalina to Fairyland in Oakland. My sister had a wedding to go to and she didn't think Kalina would enjoy it so she had asked my mom to watch Kalina. Knowing that Kalina can be a handful sometimes and that it was my dad's birthday I told my mom we should go some where for the day. I suggested the Sacramento Zoo and Fairytale Town, however my mom suggested Fairyland instead. I guess I had been there when I was young but of course I didn't remember it. It wasn't what I expected at all. It was rundown to say the least. Kalina was really not interested in the stories, however she had fun putting her magic key in the boxes to start the stories. They did have a few rides. I didn't think Kalina would get on them at all, she is very chicken when it comes to rides. However, she got on several, even the ferris wheel. I thought for sure since I couldn't go on the feris wheel with her she wouldn't do it. But she did and then we couldn't get her off of it! While Fairyland is old and rundown, the important thing was that Kalina had a good time, even tho I pushed her down a few slides she didn't want to go down.

Finally I send the above Angel to my friends Cathy and Greg. They have been trying for three years to get pregnant. Unfortunately they have had several set backs. Why is that people who would be loving parents struggle sometimes to bring a child into this world and then you have others who use drugs, beat their kids, live on assistance who can have one child after another. It just is not fair! I know one day Cathy will be blessed and become pregnant and she and Greg will be the best parents and the child will be spoiled! Don't give up Cathy!

Honored!

I have been Honored!!

My best friend chose to honor me today with the "One Sweet Blog Award". I wish I had as much time to blog as she does but even with no school lately I still don't seem to have the time. You would think since I sit in front of a computer at work for at least 10 hours a day at work I would find the time. However, usually when I am work it is veg time if nothing is going on. I usually can't think enough to put things into words for a blog. I will do my best to contuine to blog as much as I can. I would like to pass on the award to my good friend Dave. He has been very supportive with the academy and has even written a paper on how can a 6 foot wall stop someone from becoming an officer (of course I haven't seen this paper yet!) Thank you Sarah and Dave!

Now for an update on the puppy. I now have a chainlink kennel for the backyard, of course it hasn't been put together yet, and a kennel for inside the house. Now I just need the puppy. Last week I talked to the breeder and she was considering giving me a male puppy from a litter that was due on 9/27 (my dad's birthday). However, I received and email from her on Monday stating that unfortunately only 2 of the puppies had survived and she didn't know if she would be able to keep any of them for herself or me. So now I wait to hear if she is going to keep one or if maybe I get the female puppy that is 19 weeks that she currently has or if I have to wait for the next litter. I really want one now but maybe it just isn't the right time still. When it is meant to happen I will get one, at least I have two big items already!

Work is work..somethings never change there.

Oh, on Monday I went up the ther Sheriff's office for a swearing in ceremony. While there I had made arrangements to pick up an award that the City of Mountain House had given for my dad. Little did I know that I was going to be called up during the ceremony and have the award presented to me. This is something the Sheriff's office has had since May and they just had never brought it to my mom, so I figured since I was up there I would pick it up.

Update on Dog

This morning I recieved a call from my sister telling that the breeder where she got her dog from has decided on which dog she is going to give me. I have call her tomorrow and talk with her more about it. But it looks like I will getting a female that is about 18 weeks old. She is mainly black with tan legs, I LOVE the black more than the usual tan with some black. She told my sister she is going to work on training her a little more for me so she will be more comfortable. Right now the puppy does good in a kennel for about 7 1/2 hours, and with my schedule there will be times where she is in there a good 10 hours and that is just if I go to work. So she is going to work on increasing her kennel time. My sister also told her that I will or can keep her outside in a dog run when I am gone. I guess the puppy is known to howl sometimes so she is going to work on that issue as well. It sounds like I can have my new puppy sometime next month. I am excited! Now I just need to get a few more things for the puppy and I will be set! She better be ready to run because we will be going on lots of runs! Stay tuned for updates and photos!

Grandparents Day With Kalina

On Friday was Grandparents day at Kalina's school. My mom had to work so my sister asked if I would go instead. Of course I did. Kalina was so happy that I went. We did a couple arts and crafts, song some songs and played in the playground. After school I asked what she wanted to do. At first we were going to go to Micke Grove Zoo but then she wanted to go to the mall and eat and play at the arcades. It was nice to spend a day with just Kalina.

Day 1

Well today I went to see a Dr that was refered to me by a friend for losing weight. She was able to lose about 60 lbs in about 3 or 4 months. Needless to say I am excited and can't wait to lose the weight so come next year I can fly over the wall and fly through the run next year. Two of the guys I met this year in the academy are going to help me workout at the gym and keep me on track, which will be a huge help in staying motived and making the workouts count.

As some of you know I have been wanting a german shepherd dog from some time. My sister was lucky to find a breeder about a month ago who gave her one of her older dogs. I now maybe just as lucky and get a dog. The breeder is concidering giving me one of her females that is about a year and half old. I can't wait. I am also thinking that this will get me out running/walking more at home vs always going to the gym. I am really hoping to get a dog. I have been putting it off for the last few years since I have not had the money to finish the dog run in the backyard. But I can't pass up a free one that is top of the line. She normally sells her dogs for $1800! The dog is also already house broken which is a huge plus. I will have to work on training it in the other areas but that is ok. So needless to say I have been checking online for a kennel that I can use in the backyard until I can get the dog run finished. Hopefully, by the end of this weekend I will have a cute german shepherd at home. I will keep everyone posted!

The Beginning

This is a first for me. I have never bloged before. I hoping by doing this it will help me stay motivied and share with friends my 3rd and final journey through the police academy. Starting this week I am going to be kicking it into high gear with a friend to lose weight and build the upper body strength I need to get over that 6 foot wall in record time. So stay tuned for updates. I also figured this would be a good way to share with everyone my progress through the academy this time. In the past I don't always have time to email and keep everyone updated so I figured this will be a great way to keep people updated..