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!