The Suttons

Health and Fitness

2012-01-26T19:32:00.000-08:00

I have so soon realized that this has almost turned into a health and fitness blog for Tyson and me. It's like this new big thing happening in our lives right after the wedding. Everyday I'm told by family, friends, and co-workers that it is so awesome that Tyson and I have found something that we can do TOGETHER, and I'd have to agree. We motivate eacher other. We hold each other accountable. There are days I don't want to get into the gym, but I know Tyson is going and EXPECTING me to be there, so I go....And, it's vice versa for Tyson as well. There are days that I just want to eat out or eat something off of our nutrition plans.....we hold each other accountable for that. I'm glad we can create this new LIFESTYLE together.

Speaking of nutrition plans, I FINALLY got put on my very own besides doing half of Tyson's. It's been interesting so far. I will tell you that my body is having to adjust to the particular diet for me (LOTS of food, water, etc), but I'm determined to achieve the look I want.

I got my health report and was very happy to hear that my metabolism is on the "high side of high." <----- Words right out of our nutritionists mouth. I burn 1,855 calories AT REST (HALLELUJAH!) and my metabolism is about 50% higher than the average person, so I'd say I'm starting off on the right foot. I was quite shocked because I thought Tyson's would be higher than mine, but turns out, I whooped his butt on the metabolism "high-ness." Now, this just leaves me wondering why the fat wants to stay glued to my behind... *SIGHHH*

I can't wait to see more changes. I have this goal, and I don't know where it's going to take me, but I hope good things come out of this. I found this girl's blog on Pinterest (http://muffintop-less.tumblr.com/), and it is interesting. At the top of the blog she states:

I sat up out of bed one morning, the rolls of my beer gut smushing together. With my head pounding against my skull and my skin tingling from dehydration, I realized.. I can't do this anymore. So I decided to ditch the booze and the crazy, college, party-girl lifestyle and get fit!... and I haven't looked back since! I'm new to this whole "blog" thing, so bear with me! But I hope to use my journey and my knowledge to educate and motivate all you girls out there who are looking to do the same! Feel free to ask me anything!

This spoke to me because, for me, it hit me like it hit her but mine was more from eating like crap, not exercising, that leftover college drinking binge gut, and just not giving a care for my health. It hit me one day when I looked at my engagement photos (like I've mentioned in a previous blog post). I look at her blog and get reminded that it is VERY possible. It just takes work.

Overall, Tyson's looking great. Gaining weight (good, muscle weight that is!) I wish he didn't feel so silly of me taking results pictures of him. We need a good picture to show a before and after. Otherwise, Tyson keeps growing and will continue to grow. I'm so excited to see what fitness possibilities are in store for him. I'm just so excited for the fitness possibilities in store for US! :)

Christmas Is Near!

2011-12-11T15:27:00.000-08:00

I don't know if you all remember last year me posting a funny JibJab Christmas e-Card. Well, I've created another one! Below is a JibJab e-card from Tyson, Rosco, Precious, and me! Click on the link to see it.

http://sendables.jibjab.com/view/pMqHnGIPNMo11WOvZCJN

This week is my last week of work before I'm on Christmas vacation. I'll be spending Christmas day with my family. Tyson unfortunately has to work. The day after Christmas, Tyson and I will be heading up to Austin, Georgetown to be specific, to spend an after Christmas celebration with his family. Be on the lookout for a blog about our Christmas visits and adventures soon!

Merry Christmas everyone! Hope everyone is keeping warm and getting all of their shopping done!

Thanksgiving 2011

2011-11-28T18:24:00.000-08:00

So, this year, it was the Manger-Sutton Thanksgiving. Tyson and I have taken on the Thanksgiving tradition, and this year, we were lucky enough to get part of my family and part of Tyson's family together to celebrate this Thanksgiving. We celebrated a day early because Tyson had to work on Thanksgiving day, as well as my stepmom and Dad. We had a blast! Luckily, we had gotten in our NEW dining room furniture just in time for our Thanksgiving dinner....YAYYY!!!......so we got to sit and eat in our dining room altogether. And guess what?!!? Everyone had a chair to sit in! YAYYY!!! Previous years, we've had to pull up my exercise ball for me to sit on, our computer rolling chair, the barstools....you name it!

Our new dining room furniture!

So our day started out with a LSRF (Crossfit) workout. Tyson and I thought we better get in a good one before we pigged out! Once we got home, I remained in my workout clothes, hair all disheveled, and began helping out with the day long process of cooking. Thanks to Lululemon Athletic wear (LOVE THIS BRAND!) it kept me nice, dry, and comfy! By 4 o'clock, Tyson was carving the turkey! Sorry the picture is sideways. It's right side up on my computer, but turns sideways for blogger. :(

Tyson carving the turkey!

After all of the eating, we took family photos like we did a couple of summer's ago. We set up the camera, and then everyone ran to a spot to get inside the frame of the camera!

On the floor have my dad and stepmom. On the couch starting to the left we have my younger brother, Brandon, me, PRECIOUS!, Nancy, and Emmy! And of course, in the back we have Hugh and Tyson.

After eating and photo fun, we all played a few rounds of the game Apples to Apples, drank wine, and ate pie. Nothing better than that right there! The next morning, we began to set up our Christmas tree. It's become a thing that after every Thanksgiving meal or day, we set up our tree. Also, it's nice to have extra hands to help us get the darn thing put together! Another sideways photo....sorry... :(

Look! They're so HAPPY putting this tree together. Their smiles scream, "I wish I could do this every day!" (insert sarcasm here)

Move over boys, let the decorator take over!.......me :)

Overall, Thanksgiving was a huge success, and it was wonderful to have both families get together. I hope everyone had a GREAT Thanksgiving! Hopefully everyone has come out of their "turkey comas!" :)

Oh! One more thing, for your viewing pleasure, below are just some extra pictures Hugh and Nancy caught with the puppies when they got in on Tuesday and we were at the gym! Love my in-laws! They're so funny! We don't have any children yet, so for now, I say that my children are furry..... :D

Just Hugh and "the girls," hanging out!

Nancy and the girls!

Ooooo......sneaky, sneaky Rosco. You see, Rosco isn't allowed on the couch. But! He'll creep up on your lap everrrrr...soooo...sloooowly to see if he can get away with it. Which, he usually does because he's too cute and it's hard to say no.

And there you have it! Feeling like a lap dog and happy!

Our Hobby Together

2011-11-06T19:08:00.000-08:00

Below is a commercial/video Lift Strong Run Fast created. This pretty much sums up our new hobby and what we do. Click to watch!

Lift Strong | Run Fast from 31Films on Vimeo.

So, this new lifestyle Tyson and I have decided to tackle together has become quite a hobby/passion. As
you all know, almost a year ago Tyson and I joined this Lift Strong Run Fast program, which is a crossfit affiliated program. Tyson started it to get his butt back in shape, as well as getting him in more shape for his job. A month later, Tyson recommended that I'd give it a try since I was into keeping in shape. He knew that this would take me to the next level that I wanted, as seen in video above.

Since then, Tyson has slowly become this health and fitness nut, and recently, he wanted to take it to the next level. A lot of LSRF members see a sports medicine guy for aches, pains, injuries, etc. At the beginning of the summer, Tyson was really worried about his flexibility and how his hips seemed misaligned, so he went to this guy that LSRF recommends. He found out that this guy ALSO deals with nutrition. Yay to that! Over the past couple of months, Tyson has been toying with going and getting a nutritional plan mapped out for him in order for him to get bigger and stronger. Tyson has definitely built up more muscle, but he's still skinny minny. His pants are practically dropping off of him now. I had made many suggestions that I knew about ( **cough, cough**) EAT MORE CALORIES (the good ones of course). Personally, I knew Tyson wasn't eating enough, and I think in the back of his mind, he knew it too. However, Tyson is not one to just dive into a nutritional plan unless he has a professional right up on his rear telling him he needs to do this. Sure enough, he went to the nutrtionist/sports medicine guy and he recommended he take in 3600 calories a day! "HO-LY COW!" was my response. So, when all was said and done, the nutritionist put Tyson on a plan, and we hope to see some results in his strength and digestion in a couple of weeks.

Tyson mentioned to the nutritionist that I would like to come in and have a body analysis and be on a plan. Apparently, he said that I can be on the same plan, I just have to cut everything in half. For now, I will do this, but I still want to go in and get that body analysis as well as a plan tailored to my specific needs. I'm not too concerned with what I'm going to eat with Tyson for right now because it's pretty much all of the same stuff I've been eating, just mixed and portioned out differently. But, I'll give this a shot, see if I feel anything different, and if I feel that there might be something missing to the plan that I need, I'll go and see Tyson's guy.

So now, here I am, after hours and hours of food prepping on my Sunday, FINALLY just getting to sit and relax a little. This plan requires us to food prep, and let me tell you that it's an overwhelming task. We had to buy SO MUCH in bulk yesterday. I couldn't help but laugh and wonder what the check out guy and bagger were thinking when the saw us with a giant family pack of eggs, cartons of spinach, and turkey, chicken, and sirloin stacked high in our cart! This plan has us eating SEVENTY eggs in this ONE WEEK between the both of us. We were egg boiling machines this morning, let me tell ya.

Overall, Tyson and I kind of reflected a little yesterday, and we both agree that it is nice that we have a hobby we enjoy doing together. I really like working out with my hubs, and I'm really liking that Tyson was to eat healthier and just BE healthier.

Welcome Braxton Talley Bean

2011-10-08T11:28:00.000-07:00

Braxton Talley Bean

Born September 23, 2011 at 6:15 p.m.

7 lbs. 6 oz. 19 in. long

Braxton Talley Bean.....little love of my life! A couple of weeks ago, I was up in Dallas to be there for my sister during the birth of her first baby. This was all a VERY exciting time for the whole family, especially ours since this was the first grandbaby. On the Friday morning of September 23rd, we arrived at the hospital at 5 o'clock to get my sister signed in and ready to go. She was scheduled for an induction that morning. Once signed in, my sister, her husband, Shane, and I were guided to Rebecca's room. There, she got poked, prodded, and hooked up to every machine imaginable. After multiple tries on trying to get my sister's IV in, they FINALLY got it. I don't think I breathed for about 30 minutes while that was all happening. It looked like a whole lot of not so fun.

Once everything was all squared away, they started Rebecca's pitocin at about 6:30. Within two minutes, the machine showed my sister was having contractions. She couldn't feel them, but the nurses were very happy to see it all happening so quickly. They explained how some women take a few hours to start contracting. So, at this point, I took this all as a good sign.

Then, the waiting began. Rebecca's contractions kept coming, and she wasn't feeling so bad at all. Around 8 they broke Rebecca's water, warning her that contractions would start coming on stronger. An hour passed and my sister wasn't looking like she was in much pain. The nurse even came in and said, "You don't look like you're in pain. We need to get you in pain," and she uped her pitocin. Rebecca was contracting beautifully and baby Braxton was looking like he wasn't in any distress at all with each contraction. Within another hour, I could tell Rebecca's contractions were a little more painful, but she was handling them like a champ. Just closed her eyes, rocked side to side, and breathed. At this stage of the game, I officially announced in my head that my sister was my hero. With all of the poking, prodding, contractions, and with all of the "sexiness" of having a baby out the window, she stayed pretty peaceful and handled everything beautifully.

Throughout the day, the nurse would check my sister. Braxton was not dropping. He was still pretty high up. They would put my sister in all kinds of positions to get him to drop. Around 1 o'clock, Rebecca's doctor came in to do another check. At this point, my sister was about 2-3 cm. dialiated and 75% effaced, but Braxton was still high up. After holding off as long as she could, Rebecca decided to get her epidural. The doctor talked to her about how it would help relax her which in turn will relax her pelvic floor so Braxton could drop. As the day moved on, contractions were still beautiful, Rebecca was still beautiful, Braxton was doing great, and Rebecca moved to 6 cm., but, still.....Braxton wasn't dropping. At about 5:30, her doctor came in to have a talk to Rebecca about a cesarean. She was concerned that Braxton wasn't dropping at this point, she couldn't explain why to my sister, so she though a C-section might be best. My sister was pretty upset at that point. She had endured a long, hard day of labor, she was tired, and she was sad that in the end of all of her hard work, she was possibly going to have to end up having a C-section. Seeing her cry and upset about it made me hurt inside so much because I knew this was not what she wanted, but she had to do what she had to do. She wanted to make sure Braxton was safe and took the advice of her doctor. Rebecca agreed to have a C-section after her talk with her doctor.

We all had to head out, because they were immediately heading into the O.R. We all said our goodbyes and waited. I was pretty emotional at that point because, not only was it a long day and I was tired, but my heart was completely broken to see my sister so upset. After about 30 minutes, the doctor came out to say Braxton was born, that he was beautiful, long eyelashes, and then she said she wouldn't tell us more so it could be a surprise. But, we all simultaneously asked her, "Does he have hair!? We all want to know if he has a lot of hair." She hesitated to tell us, but she said yes. As soon as she said this, all of us started screaming, "Yay!" or "I knew it!" <------That was me. Or, there was just a bunch of happy laughs. But, she kept saying that she wanted everything to be a surprise, and then ended with, "Congratulations on a big, beautiful girl." At that moment, I felt my heart sink into my stomach and I could tell all of us stopped breathing at that moment. "Big, beautiful GIRL!??" we all kept repeating. You see, all along we knew it was a boy, and a few of us had fears was that the doctor would be wrong and it would be a girl. So, when the doctor kept telling us she wanted it to be a surprise, and then she said GIRL.....a state of panic ran through all of us.

About an hour and a half later, Shane came out (confirmed it was all boy by the way) and just said his hellos and shared his excitement. He showed us pictures of Braxton and Rebecca that he took while in the O.R., and we all were just so excited. Braxton looked great, and Rebecca looked absolutely beautiful. After about another hour, Shane came out to tell me to come on back to help with gathering their stuff to move into a different room. As I followed him, my heart began to pound and I started to choke up. Once we walked into the labor and delivery room, I saw him. My sister was lying in her bed and to the right of her was Braxton bundled up in all of his "perfect-ness." I heard his little baby squeaks and that was what took the cake. As I approached Braxton to have a look at him, I cupped my hands over my mouth, took one look at his beautiful face, and just bawled my eyes out saying, "He's so beautiful." Rebecca then replied in a soft, calm voice, "Isn't he perfect?" I responded with, "Absolutely," while barely being able to articulate a word. Within a few minutes, he was in my arms, and I was rocking him. I just sat there staring at him with my heart overflowing with love for that little boy. He was so tiny in my arms, and his face was like that of a little porceline doll's.

Braxton has a great mix of my sister and Shane. He has such long, little fingers and toes. His hair is dark in the back, but rimmed with blonde. He has almond shaped eyes, but at times, you can't tell. There were times where I would say he looked like a mini Shane. It is crazy. Different angles of him produce different looks. I am so in love with my little nephew. My sister is coming down in the next couple of weeks with him. I can't wait to see and hold that beautiful, perfect boy again. It's killing me that he lives in Dallas and I'm down here in Houston. But, I will see him soon. Below is a link to Tyson and my Picasa photo albums where you can see pictures of baby Braxton. Enjoy!

https://picasaweb.google.com/reannins/WelcomeBraxtonTalleyBean#

Goals

2011-09-08T21:06:00.000-07:00

Please know that before you read this, by no means am I an expert, nor am I claiming to be an expert at any of this. I'm only sharing information that I have been taught by trainers either by asking, getting caught up in conversation about it, or reading articles, blogs, etc. from people who are well respected out there in fitness. Overall, I have learned a lot and am going to continue to learn more.

Goals. At least everyone, somewhere has one. Lately, Tyson and my goal has been to look like a lean, strong, and buff looking couple. Tyson and I have set many goals with this Lift Strong Run Fast crossfit program we've been doing. Tyson's been going at it for 8 months now, while I've been doing it for 7. In this short amount of time, we've accomplished a lot! The trainers at Lift Strong Run Fast set the bar high and have high expectations for you. When I first walked into crossfit, I was totally intimidated. All of the women looked lean and strong. The guys as well. I looked like a skinny-fat weak-ling compared to all of the other clients. Let me fill you in from the beginning...

I started running about 2 1/2 to 3 years ago to lose my "college pudge." I had gained at least 15 lbs. since high school. I know...real "shocker," but you have to remember I'm 5'1, so every pound shows.

After looking at my engagment photos and seeing how much weight I had gained, it was a huge wake up call for me. I knew it was time for a change.

One day, I looked in the mirror and told myself it was time for a change. I changed my eating habits and started running........A LOT! I had a certain body image in my mind. I wanted to look athletic and fit. I ran 5-6 days a week, and lifted weights for 3. Knowing what I know now, what I was doing was NOT going to give me the body image I had in mind. Running that much EATS at your muscle, so when I was slimming down, what was REALLY happening was muscle wasting. I was burning more muscle than fat, which is BAD for your metabolism. To save your time reading, I'm not going to go into the science of that. With weight lifting, the heaviest I EVER lifted was 10 pounds on almost everything I did, which I now know was a complete joke of a workout!

I can tell you right now that this women did not get those muscles and that shapely look from lifting those size of weights. Some magazines show images like this which causes women to think they'll look like that if they lift only that much.

I was skinny, but I was a "skinny-fat" person, and that was NOT what I wanted; I looked skinny, lost sizes, but still complained to Tyson all of the time how pudgy I still looked and how some things were still digging into my fat and "muffin topping." Here's an article from my Oxygen fitness magazine which is a PERFECT example of this. Only cardio and not incorporating weight training:

To the left is the woman's before picture when she was putting in miles per week just running.

Here's part of her article.

After. A product of mixing in weight training with her cardio and a clean diet.

Walking into crossfit for the first time, I looked really weak and I was quickly, but kindly schooled by the trainer how ineffective JUST running and baby weights were for my body. He was talking in some fitness jargon I was having a hard time understanding, but I seemed to have gotten the jist that he was politely telling me I have no muscle, I'm weak, and I'm skinny-fat. To top it off, I thought I was in great endurance shape, but then was sorely mistaken when I tried my first crossfit workout. ALSO! I thought I had cleaned up my diet and was eating "healthy," but I wasn't. I wasn't fueling my body right.

So, walking into crossfit, I saw the women's bodies and told myself, "Now THAT is what I've been trying to achieve!" When I finally saw and heard stories of what got them there, I was completely shocked. You mean to tell me I need to lift as heavy as I can go!?! I thought that bulks you!?!?! You mean to tell me incorporating plyometrics and intervals help get me there??! What are those???!! You mean to tell me that I have to eat MORE! Who knew?!?!? Now when I say eat more, I mean eat 5-6 small, CLEAN foods everyday as well as loading up on protein. 1-2 grams per one pound of body weight a day to be specific. I thought only body builders did this. If I don't fuel my body like this with the amount of working out I do, guess what???......MUSCLE WASTING!....not, and I mean NOT fat burning. I overheard the most ABSURD conversation at work back in May. A teacher friend of mine said, "I'm going to eat less so my body eats at my fat for energy." HA!!!!!!!!!!!! I thought I was going to DIE when I heard that. Not only is your body going to take the muscle FIRST for energy, your body will store fat for survival! Now, if you're overweight, OBVIOUSLY lowering your caloric intake would make sense, because usually the overweight are taking in TWICE the amount of their daily alotted calories....sometimes more! And usually, there's not clean diet happening there.

Well, I listened to what my trainers and fellow crossfitters were teaching me, and guess what?! It works! Not only have I become stronger, I've become a little leaner and more shapely. Pretty much the direction I was trying to go my first go around at this whole working out, healthy eating thing.

I take progress pictures as much as I can in order to see the changes.

Also, I am being pushed beyond my limits. When you work out with some strong and fast people, it makes you push yourself just to keep up! Also, I stopped obsessing about what the scale said and did the "clothes test." The scale tells you NOTHING about your body composition. You could weigh 110 lbs. and still be fat. I have actually GAINED weight since starting crossfit, but I know it is muscle because I'm still fitting into my clothes that I fit into when I was 5 lbs. lighter. In some stuff, I'm actually fitting into them even better than 5 lbs. ago. Muscle is more dense than fat.....and NO.....muscle DOES NOT weigh more than fat. A pound is a pound. Muscle just takes up less space, but the beauty of muscle is that the more muscle mass you have, the more your metabolism is sped up and has the capabilities to rip into your calories even up to 36 hours after a strength training workout, thus causing you to lose fat. Running lasts only up to 45 minutes after you stop. I still battle, at times, about trying not to freak out about the scale. I just have to remind myself that it doesn't tell me what I want to know.

Now, goals. I'm reaching them. I still have a long way to go, and I'm certainly no success story yet. However, I have been getting compliments by many people how fit I look, which tells me that my body is indeed changing. The fact that this is already happening after only training for 7 months speaks volumes to me! It makes me excited to see what I can accomplish in another 7 months! I am now benching triple digits, where, at the beginning, I could barely bench the 45 lb. bar with half pound plates on each side. You do the math. Not much, huh?! I can knock out 16 strict straight pushups (still working on 20!) when at the beginning I could barely do ONE! I run faster, I can do a kipping pull up, and the list goes on. I'm just a heck of a lot stronger, and I'm becoming more shapely, like I wanted. I wouldn't have recognized myself years 3-6 years ago. Another thing that I have benefitted from doing crossfit is that I have been told by people that I motivate them to get in the gym. To me, that feels so good to hear that! I LOVE hearing that I give people motivation.

Tyson looks FANTASTIC and he just keeps looking better. He's got more muscle definition, and he's leaning out considerably, and faster than I am.................because he's a guy, and women tend to hold on to fat for dear life. So bitter right now. Lucky boys!

I love this picture of Tyson. You can see the striations in his muscles here. Of course, if the picture was bigger, you'd be able to probably see them better.

Tuesday, after our weight training workout, Tyson walked out in jeans with no shirt, while changing for one of his night classes. I wished I had my camera with me because I wanted to snap a picture of him to show him how great he's looking. Back when Tyson used to seriously weight train (before crossfit) he could NEVER bypass 200 lbs on his bench press. Crossfit has taken him to the next level and has put him over that. Tyson used to have absolutely NO endurance. I feel like he's now catching up to me in that department. Tyson used to make excuses as to why he couldn't go to the gym. Now, he feels mad at himself if he skips a workout. Tyson used to eat fast food ALMOST every day, and sometimes BARELY anything. He's now joined me on the clean eating train and has been supportive with my efforts to make us look and feel good. I'm so proud and excited for him to see all of the changes he's making. I'm glad we can share this experience together.

We have built some relationships in this crossfit culture. It's nice to be surrounded by people who support you, push you, and help educate you on fitness and nutrition to help you get you where you want to be. I have learned so much, as you can tell from all of my rambling up above. Fitness and nutrition is such a science!

Now, I wrote this long, possibly pointless to some people blog because I feel good about the lifestyle changes Tyson and I have made and I just have to scream it out to the world! :) Also, on Facebook lately, I see posts from friends about being upset with what they saw on the scale that day, how they're planning to devote 2 1/2 hours doing cardio in a gym (and YES, one of my FB friends statused that and actually did it!), , working out harder and not smarter, complain how they want to lose weight, yet I read on their Facebook check-ins that they were at a Mexican buffet or McDonalds, say that they'll plan on skipping a meal because they feel fat, etc. Also, I'm tired of hearing, "I worked out today, so I can eat this slice of pizza." No! Put is down! Just say no! The best thing I ever heard come out of someone's mouth when talking about nutrition and fitness is, "You cannot out-train a bad diet." Also, please, PLEASE get off that scale! It's not completely reliable. Now, I'm not saying I'm pefect because everything that I just wrote above.........................I admit I used to be this girl, and I'm still in the process of training myself to get out of this mindset.

This is the first time in a long time I have been this passionate about something, well, besides graduating college and being a teacher. The last thing I was passionate about was dancing for my high school dance team back in high school. I have become so passionate that it has inspired me to set new goals for myself. I want to eventually study nutrition and fitness. Also, I plan on taking my physical education certification test so I can teach P.E. I want to teach children how to be healthy. As I observe kids at my school, I get to see what's in their lunches, what foods the cafeteria provides, obese children (which makes me sad), and the fact that some of my kids can't even run for one minute without stopping and gasping for a breath, looking like they're about to die while doing it. I also get to see the copius amounts of high calorie, high fat, or high sugar snacks parents provide for every holiday under the sun. This all just makes me sick.

Overall, after my work outs this week, I have been feeling like the happiest person alive. Tyson and I like to just sit and talk about the work out that day, and how much we were kicking butt in a certain area that we never were able to before. This all has made me think, and I had to write it all down. We are reaching goals that we have set for ourselves, and we are darn proud of it. I know we are not huge success stories, but we hope to be one one day. To me, making a healthy lifestyle change makes me feel successful. :)

Sister Time

2011-08-14T15:54:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I went to Austin with my sister to visit both my mom and our younger sister. It was a great trip! We did the typical....vegging, eating, and shopping. My mom always wants to make sure we are fed well, and BOY OH BOY was I fed well!

Then, both my sister, Rebecca, and I drove from Austin back to The Woodlands. Rebecca spent a week with me visiting friends and family. She wanted to make this trip before the baby is due. I haven't seen my sister since her baby shower almost 2 months ago, so it was an incredible sight to see her ever growing belly, and!.....on top of that....She looks GREAT! So beautiful! It's crazy to me to think that she will be due in ONE MONTH!!! Braxton was bee bopping all around inside my sister's tummy. I loved feeling him kick and move in her belly. It was such a wonderful, beautiful, and magical feeling. It was a magical thing to know that what I was feeling was my little nephew in there. Here's a few pictures of my mom and littlest sister feeling on Rebecca's baby belly:

Our mom feeling Braxton move.

And there's Rylee feeling Braxton move! She's so excited to be an Aunt!

My sister just left back for Austin, and as we were hugging and saying goodbye, I started to cry like a baby and then placed my hands on her belly. This will be the last time I will see her belly in person. Well....sort of. Actually, the next time I see her is when she's ready to deliver. I plan on driving up to Dallas for the birth to be there for my sister.

I don't know what it is, but it just broke my heart to see her go. I miss my sister, and I already love Braxton so very much. It was hard to see her and her "Braxton belly" get in the car and drive away. As I was tearing up Rebecca said, "Awww...don't cry." As she said that, I laughed and replied with, "Gosh! If I'm already bawling my eyes out right now then get ready because I'm going to be a hot mess the minute Braxton is born. Tyson kind of chuckled himself while he watched me cry. When we both got in the house and shut the door behind us as Rebecca drove off, I began to cry even harder. Tyson just held and hugged me as I buried my face in him, and all I could think of was, "Get it together Reannin! You will see them soon!"

So, I can't wait. Only one more month. I hope one day, Rebecca, Shane, and Braxton move back down here. I miss my sister, and it rips my heart to pieces to know that we live so many miles from each other that I can't see her on an almost every day basis. Plus, she's about to have my little nephew, and I want to hold him and kiss his sweet cheeks every chance I get.

In other news, I go back to work tomorrow and then the students come back next week. I'm ready for my 3rd year of teaching! There are so many new things happening and things changing with the Texas State Assessment that I can't wait to see how everything unfolds. I'm hoping Tyson and I will be able to see each other enough with both of our schedules. Tyson's schedule will be crazy busy with work, school, and K9 training. Watching him do all of that this summer was exhausting for me. He's a tough guy, and I love him oh so very much because he's hard working, goal driven, and ambitious. I couldn't have asked for more.

Summer Wrap-Up

2011-08-03T17:48:00.000-07:00

Well, summer vacation is slowly coming to an end for me. :( I must admit that seeing back to school commercials and seeing all of my friends' Facebook statuses about going up to their schools and getting their classrooms set up is quite depressing for me. I want to tell them to stop posting that on their statuses so I don't have to be reminded! haha! I've had a very relaxing summer while Tyson has had a busy one. Crossfit training has pretty much been taking up our summer, with me training sometimes twice a day, while Tyson goes of to his summer classes at night. We have both been frequenting my parents' pool since it's so HOT!!!

Since school is going to begin, I'm going to have to go back to the 4 o'clock crossfit class. I'll have to admit, I'm going to miss the noon class. Tyson and I have built a strong bond and friendships with a lot of the people. Also, that class is full of FAST and STRONG little suckers which has made me have to push myself harder in the workouts. I'm also going to miss sitting around with all of the trainers and fellow crossfitters talking about nutrition and training and getting educated on it all. I do have friendships built with some in the 4 o'clock class, so it will be nice to see all of their lovely faces again!

Tyson and I are so proud of what we've been able to accomplish over the summer as far as our fitness goals. Tyson has started mastering the dreaded double
unders <----The most frustrating thing for Tyson, and I'm starting to get the rhythm of them. Tyson's running has improved (he doesn't think so, but he is!). I'm getting stronger in my chin ups, and I'm knocking out strict push ups like a mad woman (I never thought I'd see the day!). I also have succeeded in getting my kipping pull ups, as well as improved on my running pace/time. Overall, we've been putting in some hard work, especially in one of the hottest summers we've had in a while! See...........

Tyson fell to the ground in exhaustion after the workout, so the trainer thought it was perfect timing to snap a picture. ;) I can honestly tell you that it has been REEEEEEALLLLY tough working out in this heat that I can't wait until Fall comes around.

To wrap up my summer, I'm going to Austin this weekend with my sister to visit my mom and our youngest sister. Tyson won't be able to come because of work, so that's a bummer. We weren't able to take a vacation this summer because of Tyson's school. He's been constant go, go, GO, chomping at the bit. I don't know how he's doing it.

We will be celebrating our 11 years of being together this upcoming Monday, August 8th. I can't believe it has been 11 years!!!!! It feels like it was yesterday we started dating. We're probably not going to do much except give each other a high five for going strong for 11 years. We did a mini celebration dinner last night at Hubbell and Hudson because Tyson will be in class Monday night. We'll stick to the more extravagant celebration for our wedding anniversary since it's our new one. :)

Well, we hope everyone is staying cool in this heat. It looks like it is hitting everywhere around the states! Hopefully we will all find some relief real soon!

Texas Heat! No Rain = No Fireworks!

2011-07-11T19:51:00.000-07:00

If you're one of our family or friends that doesn't live in Texas.....let me tell you something.....It has been hot, hot, HOT here in Texas! By noon it's at 98 degrees, and when the sun goes down, we still stay at about 90 something degrees. Throughout the day, we often linger between 103 to 112 degrees!!! We haven't been getting much rain which is contributing to all of this heat. I think we were going about a month and a half without rain for a little while there. There have been fires popping up everywhere. We've already had fires that started as close as 5-10 miles from our house!!! It's been CRAZY!!!

Needless to say, since we've been in this crazy heat/drought/ fires popping up, we weren't allowed to shoot off fireworks, at least in the Houston area. The Woodlands area (in which we live in is just north of Houston) is on a burn ban and you would be fined HUGE for setting off some fireworks. The Woodlands, every year, has set up a nice fireworks display for the community for the 4th of July ever since 1975. This was the first year since 1975 The Woodlands chose to not put on their production which was very sad for me because every year I sit at the Concert in the Park with my family, listen to a live band, and watch the show. In the downtown Houston area, however, they went ahead and did their traditional fireworks display they do every year. I guess because you have more buildings than trees.

Of course, I knew that area was probably going to be a madhouse since that was the ONLY fireworks display happening in our area, so Tyson and I just watched it on our T.V. at our house. We spent the day lounging around at my parents' pool, and then just chilled out at home. I must admit though, it was nice to not hear fireworks popping off in the middle of the night in our neighborhood. The biggest reason I was happy about this is because our K9 dog, Rosco, FREAKS out when he hears them. He would have been barking all night. Tyson calls our K9 a huge walking contradiction. He's scared of the vaccum cleaner, and I mean tuck his tail between his legs and run off to hide in a corner scared, he's scared of fireworks, the blowdryer, etc.............yet............he's not scared of running into an unknown, possibly dark building to bite a bad guy. Silly boy.

Anyways, we're trying to stay cool! Drinking our fluids and trying to hang out at my parents' pool once in a while. I don't know how we've been keeping up with our Crossfitting in this heat! It makes the workouts HARDER! I can't wait until it cools down...

Baby, Baby, Baby!

2011-06-20T11:07:00.000-07:00

Last weekend me, and my sister's sister-in-laws held a baby shower for Rebecca and Shane at my house. There were sooooooooooo many people. Shane has A LOT of family and friends. I have never seen a baby shower that jam packed before! I felt so bad because we were crammed into my house, and the air conditioner was having a hard time keeping up with the amount of people, along with the oven going, and our door constantly opening and closing. Everything went as smooth as it could go. I am thankful Tyson was there to help. He's such a wonderful man! He got up in the wee hours of the morning after working until 3 o'clock in the morning and did the dishes, helped my step mom cook, help me set up, and overall...just helped me throughout the baby shower. I kept thinking in my head that I don't know very many men in this world who would have done half of the things he did. I know it was all out of love. :)

Overall, the baby shower went great and my sister and her husband made it out of the baby shower like bandits! They got SO MUCH STUFF!!! I think they're pretty much set! I feel so happy for my sister to be so blessed to have married into such a wonderful, and also HUUUUUUUUGE family. That baby is going to be so spoiled and loved! Here are just a few shots from the baby shower. Rebecca is now 5, almost 6 months. I can't remember the exact weeks. There are more photos of the baby shower. Just go to the top of our blog and click on our Picasa Photo Albums. Also, last post I accidentally typed in the wrong web address for Crossfit so sorry to those who clicked it and came to a blank page. I have permanently posted their web address underneath our Picasa Photo Albums address if you are interested in what it's all about and possibly would like to try it. Sort of free advertisement for them! HA!

The cake table. I got them that Mom + Dad = Me frame and put a picture of Becca and Shane with an ultrasound of Braxton! Cute! Cute! Shane's mom and sister-in-laws put together that awesome diaper cake!

Mommy and Daddy-to-be!

Baby Bump!

The cake!

My mom with Rebecca!

Opening gifts. This gift was a onsie that said, "I'd rather be naked" HA!!!

Pictures of the sisters!

Summer Swoldiers

2011-06-08T16:23:00.000-07:00

Summer is finally here! Yayayayay!!! I'm so excited for some well desered R & R, while Tyson will be busy taking summer courses while working. All of them are night classes though.....BLEGH!.....But a man's got to do what a man's got to do! This summer we plan on continuing our Crossfit journey on to becoming buff "swoll-diers." The Texas heat has been kicking my rear end! Doing what we have to do at Crossfit is hard enough in itself, but out in the HEAT!!! GAHHH!! In Texas, we've been hitting some record high heats. It's only the beginning of June, and we've already been around 100 degree weather!!!!! This summer is definitely going to be a hot one! Talk about some serious heat exhaustion issues. I'm about to place bets on when I'm going to throw up for the first time on one of these work outs. Tyson already has...so that's one man down. I see my day coming. :-/ Eeeek!

Tyson's looking great! He's putting on more muscle and leaning out if you can see in the pictures below. He's going to kill me for putting what I call his "stud muffin" picture down at the bottom. We're both getting stronger and reaching goals we've never been able to accomplish ourselves. I'm a HECK of a lot stronger than I've ever been. Bench press is one of my stronger upper body lifts, and just the other day I was able to put the what I call the "BIG BOY" weights on. They have smaller, plain, black weights that look girly, but then they have the BIG BOYS that are large and colorful that look like the real deal. Well.....I was finally able to slap those suckers on the barbell and bench it. It felt so good!!! Also, I'm able to knock out 10 (CORRECT) strict push ups. I used to barely be able to get ONE without fighting it. My first few goals are accomplished, but now I'm going to push myself to continue to add more weight on all my lifts and get my first pull up. Tyson's reached his first goal of getting a muscle up on the gymnastic rings, so he's pretty proud of it. The trainer got a video of him doing it, but we haven't gotten it yet. Anyways, below are some pictures to show what we're up to! By the way, if you live in The Woodlands area and want something that is going to push you beyond your limits, I HIGHLY suggest this place, Lift Strong Run Fast a.k.a. Crossfit The Woodlands. Check it out! liftsrtongrunfast.com I LOVE the results I'm seeing on both Tyson and me!

Tyson doing the AMRAP for the day. The AMRAP included 5 barbell thrusters, 7 chin ups, and 9 kettle bell sumo deadlift high pulls, and you did that set over and over and over for 20 minutes straight. One of the longest 20 minutes of my life! Oh...and did I mention that this was AFTER 30 minutes of lifting weights and strength training??? Talk about muscle pre-exhaust!

Me doing the chin ups. You can see the fight in my face. This work out hurt so bad.....I'm mean GOOD! ;)

This was this Monday's workout. After doing 8 suicide sprints, and 3 sets of 10 GHR's and 20 step ups, we had to do 3 rounds of 50 double unders, 20 goblet squats, and run for 200 meters all for time (see how fast you could do it). Another exhausting workout.

This was during Tuesday's workout. The trainer snapped a picture of us lying on the ground, worn out. The trainer told us to look exhausted, and this is what we gave her: me with a smile and Tyson playing dead.

Summer Breeze...Makes Me Feel Fine...

2011-05-29T15:51:00.000-07:00

Summer is almost here!!!! I'm looking SO forward to it! It means a little break away from kids, more time to spend not being so exhausted, time with family, and more time to see Tyson.

Next week is my last week of school. We have tomorrow off because of Memorial Day then I have only 3 days with my students. Thursday is their last day, while Friday is mine. But, that Friday is going to be a breeze. It's only half a day and we get to eat a yummy staff breakfast!

Yesterday my family celebrated my dad turning 50 this past Thursday. Here is a picture of us celebrating. I insisted we sing happy birthday to my dad, but we didn't have any candles. My dad solved the problem by putting a lighter above he cake while we sang to him. Hy-ster-i-cal! HAHA! I had to get a picture.

I love any time I get to spend with my family. We bar-b-que and chill out by the pool. My sister came into town, as well as my brother. Well, he's really my cousin, but I consider him a brother. It's always good to see them! My sister looks fabulous with her ever growing baby bump. I got to feel Braxton bop around in there, which is such a magical feeling. It just makes me more anxious to meet his sweet face. We talked about all kinds of pregnancy stuff, which I think frightened Tyson....more frightened by all of the symptoms and details that go into being pregnant and birthing.

It's hard to believe my sister is 6 months pregnant, and she's going to be a mommy! Her sister-in-laws and I are having a baby shower for her at my house in 2 weeks. Next week I will be busy cleaning and prepping! Thank goodness summer break is almost here!

Childhood Home, Baby, and Turning 50

2011-05-16T16:39:00.000-07:00

So I'm sitting here, in my sweat, after a HORRENDOUS, but kick your butt, GOOD work out at Crossfit today.....you know....the type that makes you want to cry while doing it, but you feel so accomplished afterwards??? No? Yes?

So...I'm sitting here thinking...
I'm sitting here thinking, "Too bad Tyson missed that work out today, and if today's work out was any indication for what's to come at Crossfit for the rest of the week, then he's lucky he's on vacation!!!" I'm kind of sad that I won't see Tyson for a week, especially since I've felt like I haven't seen him in 2 because of the mix of his job, my job and end of the year obligations, his late night and early morning K9 trainings, and his schooling. ::sigh:: Makes me sad. Where's Tyson you might ask??? Well, he's off to Florida with his dad! I'm very excited for him. For quite a while now, Tyson's been talking about taking Hugh on a trip back to Florida where Hugh grew up as a young boy. It's just something special Tyson's been wanting to do with his dad. So, they're going to have some father/son bonding time in Florida. I can't wait to hear about the trip! Hopefully I'll see some pictures. Come to think of it...I should have given Tyson my camera. But...then again...he's not "snap happy" like me, so he probably would have gotten ONE photo taken.

As you all know, one of my younger sisters is pregnant. Well, a couple of weeks ago, we found out the sex of the baby and it is a BOY! I'm so excited and I'm probably just as impatient as my sister to see his cute little face. The name will be Braxton Talley Bean. Braxton is a random name that both my sister and her husband shouted out together one day when they were trying to think of boy names. Since they both so "coinky dinky" shouted that name at the same time, they thought it was meant to be. Talley is a family name through Shane's side. Here's a picture of my little nephew! Love him already!

On another note, my dad will be turning 50 on May 26th! My dad can't seem to believe it, but I think he looks GREAT for 50! Especially now that he's clean from smoking for about 3 years now. I'm so proud of him! We're holding a what's supposed to be a surprise (but it's not a surprise anymore) birthday BBQ party for him. I'm trying to think of what to get him for his birthday, but I'm just so stuck.

Anyways! I have 12 more school days left until I complete my second year of teaching! YAYAYAYAY! I couldn't be more excited for summer to get here! I'm EXHAUSTED. Tyson is just a couple of classes away from his Associate's and I think he's going to try and knock that out this summer. After that...it's on to his Bachelor's! Otherwise, nothing new. Still staying active and working, working, working! Hope everyone else is doing well!

New Food Obsessions

2011-05-08T15:17:00.000-07:00

So...along with my Crossfitting I've been on this clean eating kick. I've learned your diet makes up 80% of your body composition. Exercising is useless if you don't watch what you eat. Poor Tyson is forced to eat clean with me....of course....when he's not at work; although, I KNOW that when he's at work, he's cheating.......and it's usually probably not his cheat day. TSK! TSK! Right now, I have two clean food obsessions:

Oatmeal and protein powder with cinnamon
and........
Clean French Toast Sticks

Mmmm!!! I look forward to breakfast EVERYDAY! I just can't get enough! I used to not eat breakfast back in high school and throughout college. Shame on me! Now, I can't live without it! I wanted to post my Clean French Toast receipe for anyone wanting to try it!

Clean French Toast Sticks
(Makes 6 servings)

Ingredients:
6 egg whites
1 cup skim milk
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1 Tbsp. olive oil
6 slices of whole wheat french bread, cut into 4 slices. (I prefer to use Ezekiel bread instead. It's a protein bread that's whole grain and flourless. Lower carbs, AND there's no added crud to the bread....ie: unbleached wheat flour, hydrogenated oils, etc.!)
3 Tbsp. 100% maple syrup

Instructions:
In a shallow bowl, combine egg whites, milk, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet or griddle over medium heat. Dip both sides of bread evenly in egg mixture.

Cooking in batches, place bread pieces in a single layer in skillet and cook for 3-5 minutes on each side until lightly browned. Serve with syrup.

Nutritional Information (per 4 sticks and 1/2 Tbsp. maple syrup serving):
Now, this is the "overall" nutritional information that the website for this receipe gave me. It's going to be a little different depending on the type of bread and how much maple syrup you use.

Calories: 147
Fat: 3.5 g.
Carbs: 21g
Protein 9g.

Catching Up

2011-04-16T10:32:00.001-07:00

I have been slacking on this thing, I know! So sorry! Nothing too new with us. We just celebrated our 2 year wedding anniversary end of March. We didn't do anything to celebrate because Tyson had to work. :( I did get a guitar for our wedding anniversary because I've always wanted to learn to play. Now that I got one, it's time to start learning!

Work is going well for both of us. There's nothing new in Tyson's job world, still doing the K9 thing. He's getting ready to go into instructor and F.T.O. school so he can be trained to teach some training classes up at his department, and the F.T.O. school is to train newly hired officers of the department. I'm wrapping up my second year of teaching. Only 30 something more days! C'mon summer! I am also so very thankful that I still have a job and work for the school district that I do with all of these budget cuts occurring. VERY scary!

Crossfit is going AWESOME! We're getting stronger and noticing changes in our bodies. Speaking of stronger!!!!!.........I deadlifted 200 lbs. yesterday, which to me is quite impressive for my size. I'm so EXCITED about that! I especially like that I'm getting that more fit look that I've always wanted to achieve that I couldn't seem to get with cardio and baby weights alone. Our trainers have defintely opened my eyes up to the importance of weight lifting and the significant effect it has on fat loss. I'm losing inches I never thought I could lose, so here's a message to you ladies.....YOU WON'T BULK! You'll just gain lean muscle, rev up that metabolism, AND create that afterburn that allows to you continue to burn calories. Gah! I just love all of this stuff, and I would love to be a personal trainer! Now, if only I could get that OOOOOONE pull-up without a spotter.............. That's the goal I'm trying to reach.

2011 Spring Break Cruise

2011-03-24T17:43:00.000-07:00

We're back from our cruise!!! Well....we got back Sunday. Sorry for not blogging and posting pictures yet. I had to get back into the work grind and then I had to get sick at the beginning of the week, so I was a little out of commission. We had a wonderful time, but I think we'll stick to the 5 day cruises next time. 7 days was good. We relaxed, slept a lot, did the vacation/touristy thing, and ate. Oh am I SO SICK of food. I got in some working out, but not my Crossfit type of stuff that really whoops ya! I missed it so!!!! Tyson couldn't get motivated, so he never hit the gym with me.....bleh. Below is our cruise itinerary with a little description and some pictures to go along with. Here's a little how our cruise went:

Day 1: Board Carnival Conquest, and say goodbye to Galveston!........while being served some seriously, "knock you on your butt" drinks. We even got a couple's massage on our first day on the ship! HIGHLY enjoyable. What massage isn't?!?

Day 2: Fun at Sea. Eat, sleep, lie out, eat some more, sleep some more...

Day 3: Fun at Sea. Rinse, lather, and repeat........Repeat of yesterday. Eating and sleeping was getting old. First formal night.

Day 4: Jamaica where we went horseback riding! That was my first time. TOTALLY was scaring me. All I could think was, "Good horsey, nice horsey.....don't drop me." I KEPT THINKING OF YOU NANCY!!! hahaha!!! ---------> "Good Terminator..." Everytime we would gallop a little, my heart would race so hard. After our little ride on land, we got to swim waist deep with the horses. They ran through the water with us on their backs. It was the best part! After that, we enjoyed some jerk chicken and a Red Stripe! Classic Jamaican!

Now Jamaica really warmed my heart. In this country, they don't have ANY problems......only situations. They try to fix the situations before they turn into problems. I like that train of thought! They have a KFC like we do but they say theirs stands for "Keep From Cooking."....HA! When you want to say, "Yes," you say, "YEAH MON!" When you want to say, "No," you make a, "ne-eh!" noise while shaking your head. And, if everything is good and great, it is, "irie." The BIGGEST thing that warmed my heart was how upbeat and positive they were for having such limited means. I never realized what a poor country it is until I saw it and learned about it. Yet, they don't let money worries bringing them down. They are so uplifting, have such happy, positive attitudes, and have so much love for everyone. I LOVE POSITIVE ATTITUDES! I learned that minimum wage is $50 A WEEK! And 2 bedroom house would cost millions for them. Of course, it equates to only a hundred something thousand in U.S. dollars, but for the amount of money they make in Jamaica....that's a lot! The fact is that that they have their love, and that's all that matters. ♥

Day 5: Grand Cayman Islands. We snorkeled, window shopped (I was saving my money for Cozumel), had lunch at Margaritaville, and just enjoyed the crystal clear waters.

Day 6: Cozumel. We lied out on the white sand and overlooked the clear water, did a little paddle boating, enjoyed some drinks, ate some authentic Mexican food, shopped, and PARASAILED!!!! First time for both! On the boat, there's so much noise and chaos, but when you get high.....I mean SERIOUSLY HIGH up in the air, it is SO peaceful.

Day 7: Fun day at sea. Slept, slept, slept, slept................and ate. We were over it at that point.

Sunday: Back home.

So, that's how we spent our Spring Break! If you look at the top of our blog underneath our big, main picture. I have a link that says OUR PICASA PHOTO ALBUMS that's highlighted in blue where you can see the rest of our cruise pictures not shown on the blog. At the end of the pictures in the album are videos I took during our cruise. One is us horseback riding in Jamaica, a couple of videos of the Jamaican taxi bus driver talking and singing to us in his really cool accent, one of us parasailing, and more! I'm still continuing to add more videos because I have a few more, so check back later to see them.

Overall......I'd say we gave this vacation a TWO THUMBS UP! We all know Tyson does!

Exciting News!

2011-03-05T09:11:00.000-08:00

Okay, okay. So I've been holding off telling everyone, but I have been itching to get this news out. I think now's the time. No. We're not pregnant but MY SISTER IS PREGNANT!!! 11 weeks to be exact and due late September. For those that don't know. I have two sisters. Rylee who is 8 and Rebecca who is 24. Rebecca and I are just only 18 months apart and very close. I can't wait to be an aunt!!!!

What's really striking my curiousity is what this baby will look like. Rebecca and I have always talked about what we think our children will look like being that we're both married to blonde hair, blue eyed boys.....I mean...MEN! HA! Rebecca and I are only half Korean. Our mom is Korean and our dad is mixed with German and French. This will make our babies only a 1/4 asian, so we're dying to see how this will all turn out. Have any of you ever heard or seen Jon and Kate plus 8 on TLC? Well, I'm sure it will look a lot like Jon and Kate plus 8 babies since Jon is only half Korean himself, and of course we know Kate is white as they come. We wonder if there's a possibility for lighter hair (obviously not blonde) and blue eyes. Rebecca and I carry the recessive gene for both. Rebecca has a friend that is half asian while the dad is white, and their kiddo turned out to have brown with blonde going through the hair and BLUE EYES!!! Ahhh! I just can't wait to see how this turns out! ♥ I'm sure what ever the case, my sister's baby boy or girl will be so incredibly beautiful being that my sister is gorgeous and my brother-in-law looks like a Ken doll.

I'm currently living vicariously through my sister's pregnancy since Tyson and I are still waiting. I can't wait to see her growing belly, and I certainly can't wait to hold and kiss that baby! Rebecca is now living up in Dallas with her husband, so the day her water breaks or she has to be induced, you bet my behind is finding some way to get a sub for my class and head straight up there for the birth. I want to be there for my sister every step of the way. This is just so exciting!

In other, short news. Tyson and I will be leaving for our cruise in ONE WEEK!!!! We both can't wait! We're SO ready for a real vacation. Stay tuned for the next blogging about the cruise with pictures to come!

Happy 26th!

2011-02-17T16:00:00.001-08:00

As you all know, Tyson turned 26 a few weeks ago, and his parents came down to help celebrate. It was a nice little visit! We went to Tyson's (and mine of course) favorite restaurant, Pappadeaux. It was delicious as usual. Sunday, we spent the day snacking on finger foods, vegging, cooking burgers and watching the Superbowl. We were all rooting for the Steelers, but unfortunately they lost. Here are just a few pictures from Tyson's birthday weekend.

The Mr. and Mrs. out to dinner for Tyson's birthday!

Lounging around in our living room with our dogs.....watching the Superbowl.

Tyson cooking burgers for the Superbowl!

Then Valentine's started coming up, and Tyson was asking me what I wanted. I told him that I don't require to have things BOUGHT for me, and that simple little gestures like a note saying how much he loves me is enough in itself. Save your money for Christmas and birthdays! We typically just do cards for each other and write a 12 page essay of how much we're in love and appreciative of each other, which I always enjoy doing for him as well as receiving. Sooooo.....Valentine's Day rolled around and Tyson was just the SWEETEST Valentine ever. Look what card he got me! Nothing says "I love you" more than this card did.

The front

The back

WELCOME TO OUR MARRIAGE! HAHA!!! I thought it was AWESOME! I got a good laugh. What's funny is that Tyson says this to me all of the time. He always says, "That's okay. You don't love me. You just want me for my body." That is the thing I love about "us." We have humor and play in our marriage. Tyson's witty, and he knows I've got a great sense of humor....so....WAHLAH! Of course, on the other side of the card was the 12 page essay of I love yous that we always do. It always makes me warm and fuzzy inside to read what he has to say. You always don't get a chance to tell your sweety every day how much you love them and how grateful you are for all that they do; so, it also always feels good to express it to them..........and of course.......to hear it back.

Now, for all of you fitness buffs....Tyson and I are still kicking it together as a team at this Crossfit thing, but now the place we work out at has been changed to LIFT STRONG RUN FAST. It's still affiliated with Crossfit, but the owner has fused his training methods to go along with the Crossfit methods, so he's renamed his business. I'm glad Tyson and I are working out together......FINALLY! It's always been me, by myself. It's nice to have an interest and hobby in common together. We're both getting stronger every week.....benching, pressing...etc. more than we ever have. I like all of our new muscles. I also like how I'm being taught how my body works, what I need to eat, the whole bit, and challenging it to a whole new level I've never taken it before. I'm also doing things I've never done before. Still working on my pull ups though!!! HA!

Anyways! Told ya I would have something to write about this blog around! Tyson and I hope everyone is doing great, and we send our love and hugs! ♥ See you next blogging!

February Ramblings

2011-01-30T15:10:00.000-08:00

February is here already?!?! I've been sitting here thinking about how fast time flies. But, Febrary is a good month. It's the month of Tyson's birthday and it's the month of Valentine's Day.... ♥♥♥♥♥♥

Tyson's parents will be here this upcoming weekend to celebrate Tyson's birthday. It's always exciting when they can make it down for a visit. I can't believe he'll be 26, and then it will be my turn next month. I don't feel it. Tyson and I periodically talk about how crazy it is, and it seems like YESTERDAY we graduated from high school. But, we're over the middle mark, in our later 20's now, and approaching 30, which is CRAZINESS to me. I genuinely am not afraid to turn 30 like a lot of others typically are. It's just another age......and I never feel my age.........and I certainly don't LOOK it, so what's to worry about? Tyson and I still get told we look 17.......which BUGS me. My only reply is that we'll be one young, good looking couple when we're 40 or 50! ;)

I don't have much to blog about right now....same ol' same ol'. Currently, Tyson's doing a one month K9 handler's training course, so he has a DREAM schedule right now. Monday through Friday 8-3 with weekends off. I say "dream" because it's my dream. Hey! I like seeing my husband more than 3 times a week! Sadly, he'll go back to his "normal" schedule in 2 weeks. Bummer.

Anyways, that was my February ramblings. I'll have more to blog about in a week. Promise!

Just for Fun...PICTURES!

2011-01-08T12:09:00.000-08:00

Thought I would just post a picture blog today. Below are pictures from our few days before Christmas in San Antonio and an update of us showing our healthy side and getting our work out on at Crossfit!

Early Christmas dinner since Tyson and I had to go back to The Woodands (Houston) the day before Christmas Eve.

A fun one in front of the Christmas tree! Just look at everyone's expressions...

Nancy got one of Precious wedged in the back pillows of the couch. It's such a hard life for my dog...

Britain and Brody opening some presents! They're getting so big!

Nancy and I sampling some Crown.......and laughing the whole time. Maybe a little strong???

Helping out while the kids made Christmas cookies! Look at both Britain and Brody with their eyes so fixated on that bowl of cookie mix...

Brody, Tyson, and Precious.

Officer Brody Downs. Tyson and I got Brody a cop play outfit for Christmas.

Now...Tyson and I keeping up with our goal to get buff! This Crossifit stuff is some serious business people!!!

Tyson doing Russian kettle bell swings. I found those to be interesting. Look at him working hard! We had to do squat thrusts, then immediately go into pull ups, then immediately into Russian kettle bell swings, and you had to repeat that circuit over and over and over again. Oh....and not to mention this was after "WARMING UP" with bench presses, dynamic push ups ( where you do a push up and clap in the air), and some other thing with the barbell. It was HARD!

Me doing squat thrusts. So focused.......and you can't see it, but this work out was kicking my butt! Behind me is the pull up bar where I had to do pull ups immediately after the squat thrusts, then into Russian kettle bell swings...boy oh boy...so hard. The first time they had me do pull ups a couple of weeks ago, my immediate reaction was, "You have got to be kidding me..."

Getting strong! This was a separate day from the other two pictures where it was a max out arms day.

It's been about a two weeks of Crossfit for me and almost a month for Tyson and we both have not had a break from the soreness. NOT A SINGLE BREAK. We have to roll out of bed, and we grunt and groan with every body move we make. I haven't been this sore since drill team 8 years ago. I'm sore from shoulders ALLLLLLL the way to my calves, and I can barely move or bend over.....but it hurts so good! At least we know this program is working!

Welcome 2011

2010-12-31T11:53:00.000-08:00

And so it is, yet again, a new year. Tyson and I are optimistic that it will be a great one! We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! We had a nice Christmas spending time with family and just veggin' out. Tyson had Christmas Eve off, but he had to work Christmas day. What a bummer...but at least I had him Christmas Eve. We spent two days in San Antonio doing an early Christmas with Tyson's family, and then we both spent the rest of Christmas with my family. We got a lot of cash to do spend it on what ever we wanted. Needless to say, we have both been shopping. Tyson has finally come to the mall with me to get him new clothes. His clothes were still from high school and beginning of college, and they're so worn out. I've been begging for Tyson to get some new things, and he finally gave in. Overall, we had a lovely Christams!

For the New Year, Tyson and I are already starting it off right.........with getting our bodies in shape that is. I know it sounds cliche.....everyone goes on this weight loss kick after the holidays and makes a resolution.......but that's not what we're doing. I've already lost the weight, and Tyson doesn't care much about him losing weight. I've been really into fitness for a year and a half now...more like obsessive... and about a couple of months ago, after a few things went down at work, Tyson has decided that he really needs to strengthen up. Over the past couple of years, I have been able to lose a good chunk of weight (first step completed)...but I've also always wanted to buff up. I do weights, but never achieve the look that I want. Now that I've lost the weight, I really want to strengthen. About a month ago, Tyson got into this Crossfit thing. It's like a boot camp, but different. I don't know how to explain. All I have to say is that it is intense.

Tyson really wanted me to try it since I want to get buff. My first day was Wednesday, and since then, I've noticed a TREMENDOUS difference in my body already as far as "buffing" up, and it's getting me really excited to see what changes I can make in the future. I'm also noticing a difference in Tyson. So we're excited about the New Year and bulking up as a couple....hee hee. My goal for the New Year is to get us both looking like a hot, buffed couple. ;) I'm really excited about this! I know they do Crossfit in other cities/states. I really recommend people trying it. If you're interested in what it's all about, click the link below. This is The Woodlands' Crossfit page by the way:

http://www.crossfitthewoodlands.com/

I made it on the front of the website yesterday! They had this picture up on the website. A lovely shot of me doing mountain climbers with my tush in the air.

We hope everyone has a happy New Year, and may this New Year bring you health, wealth, and happiness!

Elf Yourself!

2010-12-06T20:46:00.000-08:00

This was just for fun! I tried to embed it as a video, but it was being a pain in the toosh so I just created a link. Click on the link below to watch our Christmas Disco Dance! Give it time. Sometimes it takes a while to upload. Hope you like our "Elf-ed out" video! ;)

Merry Christmas!
♥ The Suttons

http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/C8GHqzpk1Q4VNbU46Ea0

If you would like to Elf Yourself, go to:
http://www.elfyourself.com/

Thanksgiving 2010

2010-11-27T14:26:00.001-08:00

We hope everyone had a happy turkey day! We had a great time! Tyson's parents came into town for Thanksgiving, and even my parents were able to join. Usually both my step mom and my dad have to work. My step mom was able to get off from work, and my dad was able to leave work early, so it was a treat to have them for Thanksgiving this year. Like I promised.....PICTURES! This will sum up our day...

What do you normally see during the Thanksgiving day...???...

All of the ladies in the kitchen getting everything all cooked and ready to eat! Some company/people donated a bunch of Honey Baked Hams to the police department, so we got a HUGE one for free!

While the boys sat on the couch and watched T.V. and football all day. What would be Thanksgiving without a little football?!

It's turkey time! Tyson carving up the turkey!

Everyone in the kitchen happy, laughing, and smiling!

Here's Hugh and Nancy!

Tyson and his mom take one!

Tyson and mama take two! We got the giggles out.

♥ Hubby and wifey! ♥

My brother, daddy, and me!

The first time my dad got to FINALLY see my new car. He had to sit in it. ;) I don't blame him. It's a pretty nice ride if I do say so myself.

After dinner, Tyson's family always helps us set up the Christmas tree! No one could get pie until the Christmas tree was set up. ;) That was our motivation to get it finished quickly.

Me pulling the branches apart.

Hugh putting on the final touches with separating the tree branches.

My hand got in the way of the flash, but that is Hugh sticking his tongue out at me. haha!!!

After we were all fat and happy with our bellies full, we all sat to watch the UT VS A&M game. UT lost, and I was bummed.....we were ALL bummed!

Precious had NOT had a nap ALLLLL day due to all of the hustle and bustle. Too many interesting things were going on. My stepmom snapped a shot of all of us watching the game while my dog fought to keep her eyes open.

Precious had a happy, busy Thanksgiving day as well.

And that's all folks! We hope everyone had a very happy Thanksgiving and stuffed themselves with all kinds of Thanksgiving goodies. I know I stuffed myself to the miserable point. ;) But! It was a happy miserable. ;) About an hour after dinner and 4 different pies.....Tyson went back for second helpings of pie. I don't know where it all goes.

Just a Short, Little Blog

2010-11-08T18:45:00.001-08:00

Nothing new. Just quickly updating since it has been a while. Work is going well for both Tyson and me. Tyson's keeping busy with both work and school. He's almost finished with his first semester and all ready having to register for next. By this summer he should have his associate's then it's on to focus on the bachelor's.

As for me, work has been high stress. I have a handful of academically low kiddos that are a challenge for me. It's certainly keeping me on my toes, but I'm certainly ready for Thanksgiving Break to get here so I can regroup. I'm TIRED and shutting down! TWO MORE WEEKS! And here's the treat.....I get a full week off for Thanksgiving!!! This has just started this school year. We used to only get 3 days.

Speaking of Thanksgiving....this will be our first Thanksgiving in our brand new house! Tyson's parents are coming into town to spend Thanksgiving with us. It's sort of become a tradition that we do Thanksgivings, and I rather like it! We're looking forward to seeing and spending time with Hugh and Nancy. Pictures to come! ;)

Megan, TJ, Britain, and Brody (Tyson's sister, bro-in-law, and our niece and nephew) came in this past weekend. Lady Antebellum came into The Woodlands, so Meg and TJ came into town for that, had a little date night, and we watched the kiddos. Britain and Brody are a hoot and are definitely not shy. LOVE IT!!! It was fun to see Tyson interact with them at times. Watching Tyson's patience get tested while Brody got on the couch, off the couch, on the couch, off the couch, on the couch, off the couch.....(you get the idea) was quite comical in itself, but Tyson was such a good uncle and played so well with both Britain and Brody. It was a really short visit, so hopefully we will get to spend more quality time with them in the near future. We're planning on making a trip up to San Antonio for Christmas, but, how many days??? We don't know.... That all depends on Tyson's work schedule.

Anyways........I said just a short, little blog. Was this short??? ;)

Career Day

2010-10-12T16:54:00.000-07:00

Last week was my school districts' "Go Get It Week!" It is a week devoted to talking to our students about the future and planning for the future, such as colleges they might want to attend and careers they might be interested in. For the most part, every day, our school had a speaker come and talk about their job. They would also talk about the importance of getting an education and how math, reading, writing, etc. are involved in their job.

Well, I had Tyson come with Rosco to talk to our 4th graders about being a police officer/K9 handler, and he did a GREAT job. I'm not being biased, but I'd say that out of all the speakers we had, he was the best one. ;) He did really well with his presentation, and the kids LOVED HIM! They just ate everything up! He got so many questions, and when we were trying to dismiss our kids back to our classrooms, they were swarming Tyson like bees to honey with questions and interest. We couldn't get them to refocus. There's something about a person in uniform that just draws an audience. No other speaker got the positive student response that Tyson got. Tyson also surprisingly had great classroom management skills for not working with kids on a day to day basis. Welllll.......then again........he does sort of deal with adults who are just bigger versions of kids with more years of experience with whinning and tatty-telling ("He cut in front of me!" "He was speeding too!" "He hit me first!").

First Tyson did a narcotics demo with Rosco on our playground, then he put him up and talked about his job. Below is a picture, but the rest is all videos. Sorry if you're unable to view them. :(

Talking to the kiddos. He did a great job!

Tyson's introduction

Introducing Rosco

Rosco searching the playground

The find. Everyone was impressed

My New Car!

2010-09-12T14:56:00.001-07:00

I have some exciting news! I got a brand new car!!!!! It's a 2011 Camaro 2SS. It's black on black, and it has leather that smells and looks oh so delish! I've ALWAYS wanted a sports car my whole life, but unfortunately, I couldn't afford one because I was working low paying jobs and paying my way through school. Typical broke college student story. Now that I've graduated and landed me a big girl job, I can now afford one, so this is my reward! In all actuality, this is both Tyson and my reward because we've worked so hard TOGETHER for everything, saved and saved, and we continue to work hard and save and save.

Sooooo....I got to trade in my college vehicle...an 03 Ford Ranger that was as cheap and affordable as I could own just so I had a car to drive me to work and school to work and school....and got me a niiiiiiiiiice sports car. It feels so good! Below are some pictures of my new car!

Speaking of continuing to work hard, Tyson has officially gone back to school. I can't remember if I wrote about this in my last posts, but he has done it. He wants to go back and finish his degree so that he can go federal one day. When Tyson first graduated high school and left for college, he really didn't enjoy going to school. He was just finished with it all. He felt he wasn't in the right mindset at the time to get through school, and all he really wanted to do was get out on the streets and be a cop. It was even more tempting because he knew that you didn't have to have a degree to be one. Throughout the last 5 years being out on the streets as a patrol officer, he now wants to do something bigger and grander with his life than just being a street cop, and he's realized that he's going to need a degree to do it. After a few years of contemplating this, he feels that he's mentally ready to finally go back to school to finish where he left off. He's not going back full time. Right now he's starting off slow and taking 2 classes this semester just to get him up on his feet and running. He's going to see how he does this semester with 2, and if it's successful, he'll bump it up to 3 classes. As of right now, he's probably going to stay taking 2-3 classes per semester until he finishes, because it will be hard to do the school thing while doing the work and K9 thing at the same time. But! Who knows! He might take more. Tyson is such a strong, ambitious person, and I know he can do anything he puts his mind to.

I'm so proud of my husband, and I know each and every one of his family members is proud of all the accomplishments he's making and will CONTINUE to make. I'm lucky to have married an ambitious man with such a good head on his shoulders. He works very hard, and he's wise with all of his choices in life. I fully support his choice to go back to school, and I will stand by his side while he goes through the process just like he did for me.

Right now, I feel that we're both feeling very accomplished. If we're starting out our lives together just like this, then I say we're on the right track and I foresee many many MANY good things happening in our future. I'm optimistic.

Summer's Coming to a Close

2010-08-22T15:12:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the lack in posting. I've gotten caught up in all of my "Back to School" things going on........staff developments, getting my classroom set up, etc.! I'm very sad to see summer coming to a close, but the cool part about my job is that I know another summer is just next year! :)

There's really nothing new going on lately with both Tyson and me. I go back to work tomorrow, and I'm really excited about the new school year. I can officially say that I'm not a first year teacher anymore! I met some of my students and their parents this past Thursday at "Meet the Teacher," and I can already tell you that I'm going to love my new class. They seem like a great group of kiddos, and the parents are wonderful!

Tyson's still trucking along at work and using Rosco here and there. I'm still waiting on that phone call from Tyson that Rosco got his first bite. You bet I will be screaming with excitement when I hear the news! Tyson's just itching to get that first bite. He's come so very close a few times, but just missed it.

Well, we didn't do much vacation time this summer, but we plan on taking some vacations next year. We're already looking at a cruise during my Spring Break and possibly Las Vegas next summer. I'm totally pumped about the cruise. This will be my second, and it will be Tyson's FIRST EVER!!!! I can't wait to show him the wonderful world of relaxation on that cruise, because that's all you do. It's wonderful!!! Since Tyson's always in a somewhat stressed out state, I think this will be great for him.

Anyways, we hope everyone had a wonderful summer!

Love,

The Tyson, Reannin, Precious, and Rosco Sutton!

Sweet Summertime

2010-07-17T20:18:00.000-07:00

This is going to sort of be a random blog full of random pictures showcasing our summer so far.

Not much has been going on down here in Texas at the Sutton household. My parents FINALLY got their pool finished just in time for 4th of July, so I spent my day there while Tyson worked........holiday pay!!! Here's some pictures of their pool:

This is looking at the pool head on. If you look where the floats are, that is what is called the beach. A perfect place to just lay in the water and tan! Back in the back is the waterfall and a banana tree right behind it! I don't like bananas, but for some reason I'm STOKED about that stinkin' banana tree!

This is the jacuzzi (sp?). That umbrella can be placed in other areas around the pool. My dad had holes installed in the deck for it to be moved around.

Looking at another angle of the pool.

Tyson was able to have a Sunday off, so we spent the day at my parents', swimming. Tyson got to dip into his old swimming days and did some laps around the pool.

Tyson being camera shy and trying to splash me! Not nice...

Tyson caught me in a deep moment of reading. I was WAY into this book!

Took a snap of my daddy after his quick dip in the pool. Him and my stepmom are heavily into trying to get the landscaping done around the pool, so he needed a cool down.

My sister has come into town quite a few times this summer. One of the weekends she was down here, I spent the day with her in-laws at their BEAUTIFUL, resort lookin' home in Montgomery. I hung out and bar-b-qued at their pool and even took the boat out on Lake Conroe! We only spent a couple of hours on the boat, which was PERFECT. Sun, water, and fresh air really makes you tired. Plus, EVERYONE was on the lake, so the water was really choppy. Unfortunately, as usual, Tyson had to work so he couldn't join. :( Sad day for me. Here are some pictures from that day:

My sister snapped a quick shot of me......

So I snapped a quick shot of her...holdin' out the flag for her hubby while he got on his wakeboard.

♥ Sisters! ♥

I call this picture of my brother-in-law "the stud picture." What a stud...smoothin' back his hair, while wakeboarding with one hand.

So far this summer, we've been visiting with our families, and Tyson's been busily working, and tryin' to get some days off here and there. I've have a little less than a month left of my summer before it's back to work for me. For now, I've been busy enjoying my water, fun, and sun, visiting family, and also catching up on a lot of reading and gym time. My bladder/back/nerve issue has healed up enough to where I'm now confident to run again....yayayayay!!!!!!! I'm SO happy, and feel SO good to literally be up and running again. The best part is, I've picked up where I left off in my running, so I'm so thrilled. Running has been helping me heal, too, by making me really focus on tightening my core in the specific spot my disc made its slip and slam against my spinal cord, so I'm very happy that it's helping. But, I am still very cautious and have to remind myself to take it easy.

Oh, and by the way, Tyson was hiding some cute pictures from me from our trip to Austin and San Antonio a few weeks back! I thought I'd share them since I found them on our computer:

Sweet Brody and silly Uncle Tyson. Look at those gorgeous baby blues coming from both my husband and Brody. Gah! BEAUTIFUL!

Britain and Brody clowning around with Uncle Tyson!

♥ LOVE ♥

Austin/San Antonio Trip June 2010

2010-06-29T13:58:00.000-07:00

This past Thursday through Sunday, Tyson and I drove to Austin to visit family. We stayed with Hugh and Nancy and visited with them. We also got to see my littlest sister, Rylee and my step dad, Jay. ALSO! We finally were able to make a little trip to San Antonio to visit T.J., Megan, Britain, and Brody! I didn't get to see my other "little" sister due to a busy 4 days we had, but she's coming into town this 4th of July weekend, so that will be nice to see her.

We drove up to Austin late Wednesday night. Tyson spent time with his dad and his dad's buddy playing 18 holes of golf, while Nancy and I vegged out by the pool. My skin hadn't seen sun in I don't know how long, so it was nice to get some color (although I still need more). When Tyson came back from playing golf, he had gotten more color on top of the OTHER color he had from not wearing sunscreen from K9 training. He was definitely rockin' the farmers tan, while the rest of his body glows from his whiteness. Poor guy.... LOVE YA HUN!!!

Saturday, we drove to San Antonio to celebrate Megan's birthday. Well, her OFFICAL birthday was the Wednesday before. All of us girls went shopping/errand running while the guys stayed back and watched Wimbledon and the World Cup. I think the ladies had seen enough of both sports, and it was time to do something else. I was DEFINITELY tired from hearing that annoying horn noise from the T.V. Before going out to dinner, we all decided to take a little family photo from all of our cameras. Of course, we had no one to take it, so we had to prop it on a Ritz Cracker box, strategically place our bodies in the best position so that all of us could fit in the picture, and put on the 10 second timer. This was all a comedy in itself. We were all scrambling to "get into place" before the flash, but we managed to get a good one from my camera.

After scrambling around to get in a couple good shots from our cameras, we thought we'd humor ourselves by playing the, "Beat the Flash" game. We basically all started where the camera is located, pressed the ten second button, and RACED to the wall to get in the shot before the flash went off. Talk about even MORE comedy in itself! Pretty entertaining.

That night, we drove back to Austin, and Sunday Tyson and I left for Houston/The Woodlands. Precious had been on edge all week from being away from home. She couldn't seem to relax. Well, when we got home, she finally relaxed:

We found her wedged in the pillows of our couch. I'm just SO *sarcasm* glad she finally chilled out.

The Computer is Up and Running! Lots to Update!

2010-06-20T18:54:00.000-07:00

Yes! We're still here. Our computer got a gagillion viruses, so I haven't been able to get on here and update. It was such a pain. But, now we have our computer up and running, and I have A LOT to catch everyone up on......so it feels like. I just have a lot of videos and photos I wanted to share!

Well, the last day of school was June 3rd for the kids, and the 4th for me. I got a lot of gifts and a lot of tears from the kids, which pretty much almost broke my heart. The last day of school REALLY reminded me of the rewards you gain from being a teacher. I will always love and will miss my first 4th grade group of kiddos. They truly were the best! Below are some pictures of the last days of school. My kiddos were such a hoot!

Do you remember the Where's Waldo? books? Well, since I blend in with my kids (since I look 15 and about their height) let's play, Where's Mrs. Sutton? Within these next few pictures! ha!

This is my homeroom class. Not all kids are pictured. :(

A fun one!

A wacky one! This picture pretty much sums up my homeroom group of kiddos.

This is my switch class. They were my "down to business kiddos."

A fun one of my switch class! The two pictured on the front row on the left side of the picture sums up their personalities. They were fun!

Messages left by my kiddos on the last day of school. So sweet!

Tyson's been doing some great things since he gotten K9! He's gotten to use Rosco a couple of times at work. He's gotten to use him for narcotics type stuff, but not anything patrol, yet. I am just anxiously awaiting that phone call from Tyson saying that Rosco got his first bite. I will be cheering on Rosco saying, "Way to go buddy!" when that day comes. Of course, the person he bites will be a person that deserves it! hahaha! Tyson has also done a few K9 demos for the Humble community. About three weeks ago, he had a demo at Old Navy in Humble for the Community Safety Event. They had a lot going on that day in that shopping center. I think they had the fire department there, and some organization reminding people to keep prepared for a hurricane ever since we've had the HORRIBLE hurricane Rita and Ike within these past 5 years. Ike will forever haunt me.......that was MISERABLE! Anyways, below are some pictures and a couple of videos captured from that day.

Here's Tyson and Rosco in the newspaper!!! The caption below the picture reads:

Gregory Collins, 17 months, is intrigued by Humble Police K-9 Rosco, a 2-year-old Belgian Malanois, at Saturday's Old Navy Community Safety Event. Rosco is trained in tracking, apprehension, building search, evidence search and narcotics detection. Humble PD Officer T. Sutton is Rosco's handler.

I'm so proud of Tyson and my baby boy Rosco! :)

And here's the picture that was in that paper up above!

Awww.....What a sweet little boy giving Rosco hugs! He loved Rosco!

Below are a couple of videos of Tyson introducing himself and Rosco. The last video is Rosco demonstrating a narcotics search inside Old Navy.

Well, that's just about it! We're still putting the house together. I've gotten a couple of things done, but not much. I'm still waiting on one accent chair to be shipped so I can get the living room looking the way I want to. Yes. That ONE accent chair is my "inspiration piece" that will help me decorate the living room, so I can't do anything until that thing ships in. Note to all new home buyers. Don't buy at Rooms-To-Go. You won't see your furniture for about 3-4 months after your purchase. We got in all of our other furniture within a couple of weeks after purchase, but Rooms-To-Go seems to be taking their time. Otherwise, we're still trying to make our house look like a home. I hope to have the majority completed before I go back to work for the new school year. We will see!.....

Tyson's Little Gig!

2010-05-17T17:32:00.000-07:00

So, over the past few blogs, I've blogged about how Tyson has something he's getting started at work, but I wasn't going to say anything just yet. Well, I waited because I'm very superstitious, and wanted to wait till this "gig" was a done deal.

Tyson is OFFICIALLY the K9 officer for Humble!!!!!!! After TWO years of working his tail off by investing in a dog as a puppy, training it as a puppy, putting the bug in the department's ear, and after writing a huge proposal, he's officially done it! As you all know, last year Humble was showing no interest and it looked as though the K9 program was not going to happen. Since this was the case, Tyson left Humble and made an irrational thought by taking on a position as K9 for a different deptartment in Houston. After one week, Tyson realized that he made a huge mistake, and being at a department he liked and was comfortable with outweighed JUST the K9 thing. He needed the whole package: A department he wanted to work at PLUS be K9.

Tyson was just told today that him and Rosco start THIS Friday! Rosco gets to go to work with Daddy, and be an official police officer! I'm so excited for them both. Tyson will get three days off a week now while keeping his same clock hours on the job. I'm SO THRILLED about the 3 days off a week! I will get to see him more, and summer is coming up so this will be perfect! I'll be off from work and get to spend time with my baby boy (Rosco) and Tyson at training on one day, and then spend the next two whole days off! You may think I'm a dork, but Tyson doesn't have the typical 9-5er job with weekends off, so three solid days off is the best thing in the world! .........well technically he's training on one of the days off.........I should say it's more three NIGHTS off!

Well, that's the newest news! Still putting the house together piece by piece. We get our new furniture in on Wed. I'm totally pumped! I've decided to wait to take pictures of the finished house. I'm still trying to get it together, and WAY busy with end of the year work stuff, but it will get done! :)

Say hello to Officer Rosco!... a.k.a...our Mister Man and Baby Boy!

We're In!

2010-05-06T15:54:00.000-07:00

It's official! We're in our new home!!! Sorry for the lapse in time between blogging, but we have been TERRIBLY busy. Tyson's parents came into town last Thursday to help us start with the move. Thursday, our sod came in.....a little late in the day......but it came in, and both Tyson's parents and my dad helped us out when it came to putting down the sod. Everyone was soaked in sweat, while I just stood there and watched Tyson and them do all of the work. I felt so bad. I'm supposed to be babying my back like crazy so I was MORE than grateful for their help because I'm not allowed to be lifting too heavy of things and bending too much. *sighhhh...* I'm looking forward to my back strengthening up so I can ease into more activities.

The move in process has become quite an adventure, especially since a few things haven't gone as planned. I was reminded many times, "Welcome to being a home builder/homeowner." The BIGGEST thing that happened is that the builder put carpet by the back patio door when it was supposed to be tile. We didn't notice it until a couple of days into closing. We mentioned it to our sales guy, and he told us that it was supposedly an option and we'd have to pay 300 some odd dollars to fix it, along with going to home depot to get things to finish out the carpet ourselves. In reality, if we had known that, it would have been a $100 upgrade, and it didn't require us to go to home depot and finish the fix up ourselves. The whole 3 months through this process, never once were we told it was an option. We were told it was standard, so Tyson stood tall on his feet with the assistance of Hugh and Nancy (thank God) saying that we should not be responsible for the miscommunication. When all is said and done, the builder is taking care of it.

We've both been pretty overwhelmed with this whole process. Tyson's stressed because he's trying to take care of house stuff while trying to get this thing at work up and running (I'm still not going to tell you yet), while I'm just plain exhausted from moving stuff, staying up late trying to adjust to things, and get up earlier for work and trying to adjust to the timing of the drive and traffic because we're further back from the freeway....ALLLLL while this is the heaviest paperwork month of my job.

I have no pictures of the weekend move, but Nancy has a ton of photos of the whole experience. I'll try to grab some of those to put up on the blog for you all. I will take pictures of our home and the furniture in it, but right now everything's out of place. I can't decide whether or not to wait until our NEW furniture comes in, we've had some time to organize and move everything, and I've had the time to get some things decorated. I definitely know what I'll be busy doing in June! :)

Overall, work is going well for the both of us. Tyson's all pumped about this new change at work and how his chief and sergeant trusts him to get the ball rolling on this change. I know I'm proud and excited for Tyson. I'm all pumped because I had a great week! I had a parent email my principal, singing my praises, and I had my principal compliment on how I am an excellent teacher. Those two compliments can make any girl's week! Health wise, I'm doing great. The nerves are slowly, but surely calming down. I'm slowly, but surely returning back to LIFE! Oh how I missed it. I think I got a good slap in the face this past year to remember that we need to be always grateful for all of the little things in life that makes us happy and that we have our health.

Hope everyone has a great weekend! Hopefully I will get new pictures up soon! :)

MRI Results and House Update

2010-04-23T20:14:00.000-07:00

The time has come! We close April 29th! This Thursday, Tyson will be closing on the house for both of us. I'm going to be at work all antsy when I'm actually supposed to be relaxing after the TAKS (Texas' state testing) with my kiddos! Tyson took off from work Wednesday through Sunday, and Hugh and Nancy will be in town to help us pack up and move this Thursday through Sunday. This will definitely be a real treat! Tyson and I are both incredibly excited.

Below are some pictures and videos that were taken around April 24th-ish. The house is pretty much now complete as of today (April 27th). They just need to do touch ups here and there, and they need to paint our front door; as well as put the decorative hardware on our garage doors. We can't wait to see those on! I think they will look pretty schnazy!

Here are the videos:

Here are the pictures:

We have a yard!

Master bath is almost finished. I guess they messed up and we get only one light fixture.

Guest bathroom is complete.

We have fans!

We now have a fenced-in backyard!

The beginnings of installing the carpet.

.....and then...TA-DAH! Sorry it's so dark. My flash wouldn't flash. The tile was getting cleaned the day we came in to take a look. That's why it's all nice and shiny. :)

So......be checking the blog over the next couple of days through to next week. I will try to get the finished product up as soon as I get a chance to get away from all of this "hectic-ness" that's going on for both Tyson and I over these next couple of weeks.................and it's not just house stuff. I want to spill the good news, but I can't yet, so I'll just leave you hanging. And NO! We're not pregnant, so check that one off your list. ;)

As you all know, I had my MRI done last week. The results came back, and it came back negative which is apparently REALLY good news. WOO HOO! Now, having this information, my PT was able to confidently show me, with a model of the spine, what she NOW mostly likely thinks happened to me. It was pretty interesting, and she showed my what my spine was looking like....it was gross and definitely wasn't normal. It's pretty much the same stuff I've shared before, but this time, it's not necessarily a big disc slippage. My lower back was just too much in "flexion" (that arch I was telling you about) from my years in dance, and it caused my spine to continue to curve further inwards. There's a few discs in our spine that contain the nerve bundles that control the bladder. She showed me, with the model, the two specific discs she think were involved in the lumbar spinal region. It was really neat to see. Since my spine was so heavily curved inwards, there's something I did that was the final straw that broke the camel's back, and my spine was just waiting for something to happen. Excessive running and exercise eventually caused my spine to "give out" (become unstable) and pinched either a nerve or pressed against my spinal cord. I'm back in the gym again, but I have been put under strict restrictions of what I can do so that I don't get back into this mess. My symptoms are still coming down, but my nerves are EXTRA sensitive. My nervous system was put under so much stress for so many months that it could take 6-8 weeks, or even 6-8 months until they calm down. For now, I just need to keep my core super tight and re-stabilize my back. It's so bad that I tried to clean the kitchen over the weekend, and the next day, I felt AWFUL and back to crying my eyes out in discomfort.

Might this be a good excuse to get Tyson to start cleaning the house for me until my back settles down???!??!??!?!?!? Hee hee! A girl can only dream... ;)

We hope everyone has a great week!

Two More Weeks

2010-04-15T19:14:00.000-07:00

As of right now, our house should be finished, and we will be moving in in two weeks! Thank goodness! We have hired an inspection guy to come through our house on the 23rd, and then we close on the 27th of this month. Since it's coming up soon, the contractor has gotten a little move on our house. Our next door neighbor has said that they continue to work well into the night on our house.

Below are some videos and pictures of everything that has been completed so far:

We have a driveway, tile, light fixtures....YAY!

Our kitchen! Cabinents have be stained, formica is in, and our tile backsplash is up.

Going down the hallway to all of the extra bedrooms. More tile and bathroom plumbing, sink, and shower!

Master bath. We still need our other light fixture, glass for the shower, and replace the frosted glass with just a regular see through window......an "oops" made by the contractor.

Front of our house with a driveway! The house still needs the trim and garage doors to be painted. Also, garage door Sanoma hardware not on just yet. We can't wait to see that extra added touch!

We have two coach lights on both sides of the garage. Tyson originally didn't want them, but I thought about it and thought that it would add a little extra personality to the outside of the home. Oh boy was I right! It looks so good that our next door neighbor wishes he had done it to his house now that he sees what it looks like.

Our light fixtures were put up!

We now have our tile in! It looks a little dusty and dingy. It'll look better once it's clean.

Our kitchen!!!!!! The cabinents are stained, counter tops are in, we have our sink, and our tiled backsplash.

Bathtub and shower. We just need the glass for the shower. Oh.....and a replaced window. I don't like frosted glass. We requested just a regular window, and they put up a frosted window on accident. Oopsies!

Master bath sinks and one light fixture. We still need the second for the left side.
Hall bathroom where the extra bedrooms are.

Extra bedroom hallway is all tiled up. It just needs some cleaning now so it can look extra pretty! :)

A couple of days later, we went back to our house, and we had LIGHTS!!! The electrical is put in!

On a different note, I had to choose a new primary care physician (PCP) last week because we were having so much trouble with my other one. He is a friend of Tyson's family. Well, Monday I went in to see him, and we had a conversation about my journey from beginning to end with my bladder and back situation. He pretty much said the same thing as my PT; he was surprised no one thought to take a look at my back since bladder meds weren't working. He's a D.O., not an M.D., and he told me that D.O.'s are out of the box thinkers. He then made me laugh by making an analogy out of all of the M.D.'s and specialists and how they don't deviate away from the box. I told him that my PT said the same thing and that I'm starting to really like out of the box thinkers on my situation. When I mentioned to my PT about the "out of the box thinker" conversation, she said, "You want to know what?! I think we're both very well INSIDE the box. It's your other doctors who were out of the box; and quite frankly, I'm very disappointed that they never thought about the back."

Well, to make a long story short, he has written me a script for 9 more PT sessions and a referral to get an MRI done. Both him and my PT think that this is a very important step we need to take, so I'm scheduled to get one done on April 20th. My new PCP is going to gather all of my medical history to wrap his head around this whole thing, and him and my PT are going to remain in contact about my progress. My PCP said that after 9 more sessions, I'm still having symptoms, we're going to have to re-evaluate things. I'm thinking we will talk about surgery since he really emphasized that physical therapy is only temporary fix. :(

My PT has warned me that there is a strong possibility that nothing will show up on the MRI, and that I shouldn't get discouraged if there's nothing. She said I should look at it as a good thing that my spine was able to get put back together. This lets her and my doctor know that I CAN be put back together. We'll just have to see, and I will let everyone know how it goes.

Tyson was off yesterday, on a Friday, and it was a REAL treat. We went out to Pappadeaux and had our very first dinner date since my issue started. The food, so far, has not bothered me. I'm becoming more brave since my PT says that the inflammation is in my back, and not the bladder, so foods shouldn't effect my bladder. I'm still being slightly cautious though. I hope everyone has a FABULOUS weekend!

The Happy Blog

2010-04-06T16:27:00.000-07:00

Well, they have started working on the interior of our home. Last week, our style of garage doors were put in (without the hardware design that we chose. Those will probably be added last.), and when Tyson and I walked into the garage, we saw our doors and trim. Yesterday, I went back and they had all of the doors put in, started the trimming, and even have started on the cabinents and shelves of the house! It all seems so surreal. Our brick is STILL not on our house after it has been sitting on the lot for a couple of weeks. I'm starting to pull a Tyson, and I'm getting impatient. I just want to see the brick on our house. :( However, I know I need to savor each moment and step of our first home being built.

Of course, we all know that I'm going picture and video happy, so here is a look at more of the progress being made:

CABINENTS!!!

SHELVES AND TRIM

MASTER BATHROOM AND WALK-IN!

Last week, the garage doors were put on....

....and our trimming and doors were delivered.

April 5th, I walk in to find our cabinents are installed!

Starting on the trimming. They aren't finished.

Bathroom cabinents are installed. This is in the master bath.

Shelving has been put in all closets. Shown below is part of the master walk-in. I had to showcase those wonderful shelves! Tyson and I LOVE this!......epecially me......ladies......shoes......ya know?!

We will be signing the contract at the end of this month,we will get the keys to our new home, and we'll be officially homeowners!

Now off to some random blabber. As the majority of you know, we have two dogs .............A bichon named Precious (she lives up to that name) and then a crazy, hyper malinois named Rosco. You've all seen pictures of the both of them, and you would never expect Rosco, our police dog, to be such the BABY compared to Precious. Well, Rosco puts on this goofy grin every time we either baby talk him, give him kisses, or rub his belly. He never fails to give this funny looking smile. I've been wanting SO BADLY to capture this funny looking grin he gives when he's being loved. Welp! I got got the opportunity the other day! Click on the video below.

Sometimes he smiles with just his bottom teeth, but on this day, he decided to show ALL of his teeth. Oh! And he was SO relaxed and content that he let his tongue just hang limp and lifeless on the outside of his mouth. How can you not love this face???

Next topic! I mentioned that I have a new diagnosis, but I didn't remember what it was called. Well, I remember! I have what they call SPONDYLOSTHESIS. Below is an article that explains what it is, what causes is, treatments, etc. It mentions how it happens with dancers and gymnasts. The style of dance we did was a mix of gymnastics and ballet. I was trained to arch, arch, ARCH and lift my chest to hold my center, and we did A TON of choreography that involved movements where I had to be in constant arch (layouts, arabesques, stunts that had me bending backwards, etc). The small box off to the right mentions bladder and bowel changes to be a big red flag! Now I understand why my PT said that if I had came to her when this all started, she would have had me rushed to the neurosurgeon. She wasn't kidding, I AM a very lucky girl for not losing my bladder function after 9 months of this thing not getting sorted out. But, this is my exact story. I've always had lower back pain for years, and never knew that those days were the beginning stages to a disc in my spine to give out.

http://www.thenaturalback.com/articles/spondylolisthesis.php

I have continued to make more progress. I am actually sitting here right now symptom free, but, it goes in and out. My lower back is just achy, but that comes with the territory of having a really weak lower back that I never knew about. I had a sort of set back yesterday that made me walk into my appointment telling my PT how discouraged I was that I felt I had taken a step backwards. My entire back was aching like crazy and my bladder sensations were pretty uncomfy. She asked me what activities I did on Sunday, and I told her that I did all of the exercises all day long that she has me doing, and I was on the ball all day. Right away she knew what was wrong.

Number one: I got over-enthusiastic, and I pretty much overexercised my core, and it is now "sore." She said I basically got my muscles overworked which caused them to re-inflame that nerve that controls my bladder....joy! Number two: This just solidified that fact that my lower back is WAY out of shape. More so than we thought. That's why my upper back was killing me. It was trying to compensate for the lack of strength in my lower back just to hold me upright. She said it would probably take a year and a half to two years for my lower back to get to full strength because it has been under SO much trauma. Yuck! The good news is that she is VERY PLEASED at how well my body is responding to the treatment. The one thing I'm grateful for is the fact that I can tell her each symptom that I have, and she can respond with WHY I'm having that symptom, then she'll give me an exercise or perform therapy on me that takes those symptoms away. I have SO MUCH MORE CLOSURE with this woman than I have EVER had with any other physician on this horrific journey, and I don't ever walk out of her office unhappy.

I called this the Happy Blog, because that's where Tyson and I are right now. We're happy we're so close to being moved into our home, we're happy that we have such a well balanced police dog, and we're happy (and blessed) to have found this wonderful woman who has given me an accurate diagnosis, the reason for all of my problems, and my life back. We're getting back some sense of normalcy these days. She has me getting more normal and normal each day. I have been eating chocolate, strawberries, hamburgers, and I even went to the gym this entire weekend! I'm able to take car trips with less pain, and go do the things Tyson and I used to LOVE to do together. I can sense how much more relieved Tyson seems to be to have his wife back. I just feel relieved to have found the problem, and I'm no longer left with any questions.

Our House, Our 1 Year Anniversary, and PT Progress

2010-03-29T18:38:00.000-07:00

Whew! So much to catch up on. Like I said in the last post, the VERY NEXT DAY, Tyson and I went to our home to check it out, and they had dry walled it. We no longer could walk through the frame of the house to get to another room. We now have WALLS! It's looking more like a house on the inside:

Tyson HATES being in front of the camera, so I had to shoo him away to let him know I was coming! Hope he doesn't mind he was in it for two seconds. ;) Love you hunny!

Yay for walls!

Now on to the update on my physical therapy, and there's quite a bit to update. So, last Wednesday, my PT admits to me that she's been "feeling me out" for about a week and a half to see how I respond to the exercises she's given me, and if my back is improving. She also wanted to really solidify her hypothesis. She knew there was a back problem but also wanted to check on my pelvic floor muscles for any sign of bladder issues. From the mental notes she's made from my feedback to her, she told me that she is now EVEN MORE sure it's just my back. Basically, she sees no need to go on up and work on my pelvic floor because that is not the real issue, and my bladder is not the issue either.....................it's my back.

She explained to me what exactly she think has happened to me. She said that from all of my years dancing, it caused too much flexibility in this part of my back and hips. My spine has slowly shifted out of place, and what was probably the trigger was all of the running I did that finally let that one disc go and pinch on the nerve around the S1-L5 spine area, that this is what controls bladder function. My nerves are wigging out which is causing my bladder to have a mind of its own. My spine is moderately arched to where it's pushing towards my tummy (when you look at it from my back) and it's pushing my pelvis forward.

Do you see how the discs on the right side are squeezing together? Since the discs are going that way, there is a disc that is pinching the nerves that control the bladder. This has led to inflammation, which thus has sent me on a 9th month struggle to figure out this enigma. Once I was told this by my PT, a lot more stuff about my history came together for me. Not only did I used to complain of my lower back hurting while kneading my fists in the my back, but I ALSO used to complain how my arch was so prominent that it caused my butt stick out and my lower tummy to pooch/push out in the front. Little did I know, that was not normal and a warning sign. We're trying to get rid of my large arch in my back by all of the exercises I've been doing.

Now, here's the catch. The PT said that there is a possibility that this thing may rear its ugly head again around maybe the 8th month in my pregnancy once Tyson and I decide we want kids. It's kind scary if you ask me.......the part where I will run this risk if I get pregnant. I'm so devastated to hear this news. I would LOVE to get pregnant one day, but the pain is so TERRIBLE and I don't want to go through it again. It's bad enough for me to just say it wasn't meant to be, and it wasn't in my plan. She also said that if it does happen, I need to, "RUN, not walk to the neurosurgeon." and she seemed pretty serious. She had also mentioned that had I come in and had seen her back in July when this thing happened, she would have quicly referred me to a neurosurgeon for surgery on my back. She said it's probably kind of a good thing that I didn't think to see a PT at the beginning because she feels confident I will not need surgery since I've been living with this problem since July of last year (JEEZ!...That's too long to be in discomfort). She said that since I haven't gone numb or lost bladder control, she sees no need for surgery, and that we're going to do everything we can so I don't have to go that route. She told me that I was, "A very lucky lady," because this could have led to some serious problems. Now, I AM improving, but if I plateau, I will be referred to a neurosurgeon.

We have altered my exercises. I am no longer doing that yoga pose, and I'm now having to do lower abdomen crunches that tighten my lower tummy, and I'm having to do, what I think are called pelvic drops. For the past few days, she's been rocking my back white I lie down in a sideways fetal position. When her and her intern pressed on a part in my low back, it felt so tender. It was supposed to happen because she was stretching it out. It was neat. Now, they hook me up in a harness that kind of lifts me from pelvis up while I walk at a comfortable pace on a treadmill. Think of standing in between two counters holding yourself up while your legs dangle underneath you and you feel that stretch in your back. On this, I'm still able to touch the treadmill with my feet and walk. It is the WEIRDEST thing I've ever felt, but OH BOY could I tell the whole left side of my hips/back and down were SO weak, and this just so happens to be where I feel my severe issues. So, that's it so far. My PT seems to think that my back might be fixed, and now the nerves need to settle down which could take 6 weeks, or maybe less or more. There's no right answer. All I know is that I'm noticing a HUUUUUUUUUUUUUGE difference and improvement. More than all the modern medicine I've been taking has done for me.

Okay, enough of that! Tyson and I celebrated our one year anniversary yesterday. We can't believe it's been a year! We didn't do much except relax, take the dogs for a walk, and eat the top tier of our cake.

Slightly a mess, but HEY! Not a big deal. The hole in the top of the cake is where we had a mini bouquet of pink roses! :)

It actually didn't taste so bad! I was afraid we would crunch in to some freezer burn! There were a few spots where you could taste it, but overall, we were impressed!

So, that's it for the updates! We will continue to update everyone on the house and the progress of my physical therapy. We're definitely feeling that the glass is half full these days!

Moving Right Along!

2010-03-24T17:55:00.001-07:00

*Note: THE BUILDERS ARE SERIOUSLY MOVING FAST! This blog was started yesterday (3/24) and was officially posted today. Tyson and I stopped by the house today, and the dry wall is up! I have a video and pictures that I'll put up within the next couple of days. At this rate.....who knows! There might be something new tomorrow!

Tyson and I LOVE stopping by our house (our house......SO COOL!) and seeing the progression. Over a two day span, the brick has come in, the insulation is up on the walls, the A/C unit is getting all put together, they have our electrical outlets and the pipes for the house set up, etc. etc. etc.!!! Who would have thought I'd get that giddy over seeing insulation and electrical outlets put up in our home?!?!?! Below are a series of videos and photos of the progress. Forgive me. I sound a little nasally. Houstons' roads and cars are practically painted in yellowish-green pollen, and we're having some up and down, crazy weather lately.......temperature wise that is. That's Texas for ya!

Our Brick is Here! We can't wait to see it on the house!

Recessed Lighting is Put in, wiring for surround sound, A/C......Etc.!

Master bath and shower is starting to be put in. Thanks to the rain, we have some lovely things floating in them.

We have a roof!

The brick is officially in! I can't wait to see it on our house!

The house is covered in insulation. Do you see all of our electrical outlets?!? :)

A/C thingy-ma-jig. Also, they've put in our recessed lighting up on the ceiling, as well as the wiring for Tyson's surround sound!

There's part of our tub and shower with some yummy things floating in them thanks to the rain.

I always love walking into our garage and seeing that the inspection guy has come through our house and written notes to construction on what to "fix." It makes us feel good to know that they're building us a quality house!

So that's it so far. If you read my note above, Tyson and I went back to the house today, and the dry wall was getting put up and pretty much finished! We didn't have it yesterday! It's looking more and more like it will be finished by the end of April!!!! YAY! Get us out of this apartment!

I Told You So!

2010-03-17T22:03:00.000-07:00

I had my first PT appointment yesterday on my bladder and pelvic pain issue, and the physical therapist thoroughly examined me. But, let me start from the beginning because this is interesting. So, she walks in and I tell her about my 9 month battle with this thing. I told her my entire history all the way from docs, to all tests I've done that ALL have came out negative, to meds, and to my symptoms. I also told her about me being a dancer and that I think this is where it all stemmed from. BEFORE even examining me, she confidently already knew what was wrong. I can't remember the name of the diagnosis she hypothesized, but she basically hypothesized that it's a lower spine issue mixed with a neuromuscular issue, but it probably pretty much started with my back. When it came down to it, her hypothesis was EXACTLY what I've felt was wrong with me all along. She then examined me, and sure enough, both her hypothesis and my theory were right on the money! But, there is ONE detail that I didn't even take into account, and that was my flexibility. Who knew?!

Basically, I'm apparently OVER flexible from my history of dance. I'm too flexible in my hips, so this has caused my lower back to have too much range of motion. As you move up my back, I'm really tight. This combo has caused my lower discs in my spine to shift out of place and probably compressing nerves. The ones she found that weren't how they were supposed to be are the discs that contain the nerves that control bladder function. My nerves have become inflammed and irritated, and this has caused tension in my pelvic floor which is creating a vicious cycle of inflammation which prevents my body from healing. That is why 9 months later, I still feel pain and the CONSTANT need to go. My body is unable to heal because the tightness is restricting bloodflow to my nerves, and they need that oxygen from the bloodflow for them to calm down. Sound familiar from my last posts?????!!! Also, my back needs to be put back into the right place. Apparently, she said that the problem that she was feeling and seeing with my back is quite typical of a dancer. I'm not surprised because I was required to do some heavy duty stuff back in high school, and my lower back has ALWAYS hurt me so badly after standing and walking for a while. It also would hurt after I'd wake up. I used to blame it on the matress. I would complain to Tyson how sore my back would feel and that we needed a new matress. I have this habit of kneading my fists into my lower back after walking and standing for long periods of time. I used to think this was normal, but I guess not.

The PT did numerous exams and we found that I was tight in the left side of my body from pelvis on down. Sure enough, that is where I feel most of my bladder symptoms. She had me do numerous exercises, and we found that my range of motion and other physical aspects IMPROVED! Once she did all of her exams on my back, she basically told me that she wasn't even going to do a pelvic exam. She told me that she can pretty much already tell I'm VERY tight in my pelvic floor, and there's no reason for her to go poking and prodding and making my symptoms worse when she already knows what's wrong from the few simple tests she had done already. My PT said that we're going to work on the back problem before we start hunting for trigger points in my pelvis. We need to take care of the problem that started it all FIRST, and then work out the "injuries" I've gotten from this. Trigger points are bascially painful muscle knots in the deep tissue. I have already found TONS in the past 3 months, and the tennis ball has become my new best friend. Oh how it hurts so good when I put pressure on the trigger point with the tennis ball! All of this lower back problems my PT found would explain why putting pressure with the ball in my lower back causes my bladder symptoms to dissipate!

My PT is allowing me to use the tennis ball if it's working for me, but I need to be careful not to aggravate the nerves more than they already are. She's given me exercises I need to do at home. One is a breathing one that relaxes everything, but at the same time, is core work that strengthens the core.......I'm guessing to strengthen my lower back??? I also have to do this yoga-ish push up that you wouldn't think would do a thing, but sure enough, after I did ten, she turned me on my back, and a lot of my tension was released. My range of motion was also better. CRAZY STUFF! Even Tyson was able to see the difference. I got a "Wooooowwww..." from him and I blurted out "Wooooooow..." as well because I felt the difference! It's AMAZING to see how our bodies work, and what controls this and what controls that! The pose looks like this, but I don't hold it. I do like an army push up 10 times but without lifting my hips off the ground:

My PT told me that doctors never think to take a look at the spine for the source of "mystery" illnesses. When we go to the doctors, we tell what hurts, and the Dr. is trained to treat the part that hurts. In my case, I was complaining of bladder problems, so EVERY doctor I saw focused on the bladder and prescribed meds for it. This is why NOT A SINGLE bladder medication did ANYTHING for me because the real issue isn't coming from the bladder. The issue is my lower part of the spine that controls my bladder. She basically said what I've said in a past post; they don't think to think outside of the box. Actually, she put it as, "They use the gold standard methods in examining, but they don't think to look at the platinum lining that surrounds the gold standard." She also brought up an interesting point and that was that doctors are not trained the way PT's are in examining the DETAILS of the whole body. Docs take a more holistic approach. She then said, "I bet you got a lot of people telling you it's all in your head and that you're crazy?" I said yes (wanting to almost cry), and she said, "Well, you're not, and you are right. There is definitely something going on."

It's been one day into my exercises, and I'm already telling a difference both good and bad. There have been times when my symptoms increase and times where they're almost completely gone. My symptoms will usually fade after I do my exercises and I can relax, but they slowly creep in within 5 minutes and I get sad again. It's just going to take time because nerves take time to heal. She has me doing that breathing thing every other hour, so I guess this a constant way of keeping my muscles from tensing around the nerves.

I go back tomorrow, and I'm going to pretty much be going 3 days a week for now. I will continue to update everyone on my progress, as I'm SO MUCH MORE optimistic and hopeful.

The house is still moving along quite nicely. They got the roof on a couple of days ago. It looked like they were starting to put the A/C unit in today. The sales guy says that it looks like it'll be finished by the end of April. Tyson and I say HALLELUJAH!!!! :)

Perry Doesn't Mess Around

2010-03-12T17:52:00.000-08:00

And I'm serious! When they get going, they get going! It's looking like the house might be finished in April. There is a strong possibility Tyson and I will close and move in at the beginning of May, which is one month sooner than we planned. We originally were going to let it sit for one month before we close so we weren't paying one month's rent on our apartment AS WELL as a mortgage. We wanted to close in June, and we would finish paying rent that June, and then start paying the mortgage in July. After thinking about it, we'd rather pay one extra month's rent along with the mortage instead of just waiting. We don't want to stay any longer in this apartment while we watch our finished home just sit on its lot. We figured it is very do-able for us, and we can afford to do that. I know I want to get into our home as soon as possible, as well as Tyson.

Below are some videos of the different stages our house has gone through in THREE DAYS! Tyson and I went and took a look on Wednesday, March 10th, and they were pretty much finished with the framing. The very next day, we had the framing for the roof, siding, windows getting put in, pipes....you name it! And all of this over the course of ONE DAY! I apologize ahead of time. Some of these videos might be repeating some things because, unfortunately, my camera only video tapes in one minute intervals, so I tried to pick up where I left off as best as possible.

March 10th-Framing is complete and walls are starting to get put up.

March 11th-Framing of roof complete, some piping put in, and the windows were getting put in.

March 11th

March 11th

March 11th

March 11th-As we were talking to our next door neighbor, we found out that the workers worked on our house up until about 11 at night! Then! We discovered that our siding was put up! We didn't realize it until we were leaving.

If you can't view the videos, here are some overall pictures of the stage our home is currently in:

March 8th- Getting the frame of the house finished.

This is what was complete late afternoon on March 10th.

The VERY NEXT DAY, frame for the roof is up, windows are up, black tarppy things (don't make fun! :) around house and getting ready for insulation.

Back of the house with the siding put up. Windows are up.

Our side/backyard. It's nice and wide!

Our covered patio....the BEST decision we made!

They started on the piping throughout our house. The water heater is already set up.

Living room view.

Kitchen/Morning Room.

Looking down the hall from our front door.

Dining room.

That's it so far! They're working hard and moving right along! We got an email from our sales person, and he said that they should starting putting the roof up within the next few days.

Anyways, Tyson and I hope all is well with everyone. Today was my last day of work until the 22nd. It's Spring Break for my school district! ....YAY! Tyson's working, as usual, but, I'll at least be home all day on his two days off so that will be nice. I don't know when everyone else's Spring Break is, but we hope everyone has a good one! Enjoy the weekend!

Progress of Our Home

2010-03-04T17:10:00.000-08:00

Tyson and I drove by our lot right when I got home from work. Tyson had seen it earlier this morning, and they had already put the slab down. Low and behold, he goes back with me, and they're already starting to frame the house! The video is below. I say we're looking from our back porch when I meant to say back patio, but you understand what I mean. :)

We have upgraded to a covered back patio.

Here's a picture below if you can't view the video. This is actually the view from the front of the house:

The Perry Sales Office moved into a new model home. Below are pictures. The home just happens to be the same floor plan as ours. If you notice in these pictures, the dining room, kitchen, breakfast area, and living room are all set off to the right of the home. Ours will be opposite. We're having a right side garage, so everything will be set off to the left, except for the hallway leading towards the utility room, extra bath and bedrooms. Master will flow to the right of the home. I did not take any pictures going down the hall and into the bedrooms. Too much sales stuff, and we all know what a bedroom looks like.

This is starting from the front door, looking into our house. Love the lighting!

Off to the right is the dining room. Ours will be off to the left.

As you continue walking down the front entry way, you walk into the kitchen area.

That's the breakfast/morning area. I love the windows, and I love the break up of the living room and breakfast room with the arched wall and mini window. Loving our island!!!!! The sink is in the island.

Standing under the arch looking into the kitchen.

Still standing under arch, but now looking into the living room. I LOVE the windows. I'm thinking of getting 108 drapery panels and setting it all the way up above the little windows. This will emphasize the nice ceiling height this home has.

Standing in on corner of the living room by the windows. That back wall in the kitchen that's set off to the right of that door (garage door), I'm going to put a buffet/wine table. There's a nice gap between the island and the wall, and I would like to make some use of that space.

Another corner of living room.

Sitting on the couch, looking into the kitchen.

Walking towards the master bedroom. The door on the right is the door leading to the back patio.

In the doorway of the master. You can't see it from this angle, but there is A LOT of extra space in the right hand corner of those windows. I hope to put a nice, comfy chair there.

Standing up against the widows, looking at a different angle of our master bedroom.

Panning a little more towards the right.

Standing in the bathroom doorway looking into master bedroom.

Looking into master bath. Yay for a separate tub and shower!!!!

Double vanity is an upgrade that we got. Short, Korean girl's reflection in the mirror comes standard.

Here are a few pictures of the master walk-in closet. As you walk into the closet, to the right is this nice shelving area that will most likely hold my abundant shoe stash.

Walking into our walk-in.

Turning the corner...and HELLO!....more closet. This is good since I usually have many retail therapy sessions at the mall.

Walking back out of our master and looking down the walk way of our house. STILL IN LOVE WITH THAT LIGHTING!

Guest bathroom. The tile in the shower almost goes all the way up to the ceiling. I'm going to get 96 or 108 drapery panels and raise the rod at the shower's highest point to add more height and drama to the bathroom. I have a few great framed art pieces that might go well against that back wall that's reflecting off of the mirror.

This is the style doors we chose for our garage. They call it Sanoma hardware. This is not our brick color, nor our garage door and trim color. Also, our elavation will be different. We WILL have the two separate garage doors and coach lights.

We hope you enjoyed! Stay posted! More progress to come! Have a great weekend!

The Beginning!

2010-02-27T15:14:00.000-08:00

This past week, Tyson and I had our last design center appointment where we finalized our choices for what "look" is going into our home. There are some things that we went standard on (that I'm not too crazy about), but we went that route with certain things that we knew were easily replaceable. We didn't go standard and upgraded on things that we knew were going to be a pain in the butt if one day we decided to change it.

There's nothing much to see yet, but below is a picture of our cleared lot. They cleared it, I believe, this past Thursday (2/25).

The VERY NEXT DAY, they started the framing for the foundation and put some pipes in. It's already moving along quickly. It's going to go quick, then slow down a little bit, and then go quick again. In no time, our home will be built.

Below is a video of the beginnings of our home being built. I'll be putting more detailed videos/photos up as we continue the process. I didn't go further up to the lot on this video because I didn't want to get in the way of the workers; but, at least you can see that our home is starting to be built!!! :) :) :)

If you're unable to see the videos, don't worry. I will be posting pictures for those who are unable to view the video.

Tyson's been working working WORKING, so I've been the only one to really see the progression over these past few days. But! We are very excited! We got to choose the look of our garage door yesterday, and we went with this detailed/hardware designed garage door. It's hard to explain, but I'll get a picture of it on another house, and hopefully that will give everyone a good sense of what it looks like. We have also chosen our brick color, so I'll take a picture of that as well.

As far as my health, I'm still continuing to get better. I've been stretching my pelvic floor like a maniac and massaging out those tender points in my abs and pelvic floor. Ever since this large piece of the puzzle came together for me, I'm feeling the best I've ever felt in 6 months since this thing started. I've confidently added a few more foods into my diet. Sometimes, I'm feeling SO good, I just want to go back to eating everything and working out. However, I know that is not possible right now because I'm still in that healing process, and I shouldn't chance it. Man do I miss my chocolate, Dr. Peppers, happy hour, and gym! I'm remaining optimistic that I'll beat this thing.

Like I wrote above, Tyson is working a lot of overtime lately, and it's driving me insane because I barely see him. Ever since we've bought/started building our home, he's been in work overdrive right now. Tyson's just one of those worry warts that wants to make sure we're covering all of our bases, and I do feel very lucky and grateful to have a husband with such a good head on his shoulders. Hi hunny! ♥

Until then, keep checking back often. I have this feeling that I'll be posting more and more videos/pictures up rather quickly. ;)

Design Center and Health....Wierd Mix

2010-02-15T17:57:00.001-08:00

So Tyson and I had our first design center appointment last Wednesday, and it went really fast and really smooth. Smoother and faster than we thought. Tyson's parents came with us and helped us make up our minds on some nitty gritty house decisions. It also went really fast for us because I walked in there already knowing the look I wanted, and Tyson let me "go at it." Also, from my prior experience being the visual specialist at Bed Bath and Beyond years ago, it was easier for me to see how everything was going to work with the look I was trying to achieve. We had our designer with us to help confirm my choices, or help me make up my mind when I got iffy about choices. I think all of this components listed above really made the process a lot easier.

Ever since we signed the contract to start building a house, Tyson's been picking up extra jobs and overtime shifts left and right. Before we ever went to the design center, he thought I was going to go to town on upgrades. I know this because he TOLD me! :-p Haha! NO FAITH TYSON!....no faith... As it turns out, I didn't go overboard with upgrades like he seemed to have thought I would, and he walked out of there a happy man because we're under budget for what we originally planned for, so YAY to that!

As far as my health is concerned, I think I'm putting the puzzle pieces together one by one and I'm getting excited. This past month, I figured out a BIG piece to my IC issue, and basically, I've come to realize I don't believe I have Interstitial Cystitis. I believe I have hypertonic pelvic floor dysfunction. I could go on and on with how I made this official, but I won't. Hypertonic PFD is where your pelvic floor muscles are too tight. Basically, my neuromuscular theory is proving more and more to be correct. The pelvic floor holds up the bladder (and all of the female things down there) and they share the same nerve supply. Because my pelvic muscles are too tight, it entraps the nerves, cause inflammation, which thus causes urinary issues or more constant tightening from the pain. For me, it started as unrelenting urgency and frequency with no sign of infection.

This is a HUGE breakthrough for me, and Tyson and I are more hopeful and excited than ever before! When it comes down to it, I stopped and thought about my past history and compared it to medical information about PFD other women with this issue have shared with me. Sure enough, I fit the bill TO A T!. I've realized that all my life I've held tension in my pelvic floor. It was caused by all of my years of dance. (And yes, there is a lot of research to back this up) I did a lot of ballet and gymnasitics type dance, and you have to use your core muscles to hold your center. For those of you who don't know the jargon, basically holding your center is where you keep an upright posture and suck in so you can hold your balance. Even when I'm not dancing, I walk with a lot of poise out of habit from years of dance. Those of you who see me frequently, watch how I walk and you'll see what I'm talking about. Well, by doing this, it pushes down on your PF, thus keeping the mucles tight. Then, over the past year, I became a gym junkie and worked out A LOT on my core. I also ran a lot, and your PF muscles tighten naturally when you do this so you don't (and forgive me) have an "accident." Working out heavily only caused more insult to injury and BAM! Here I am....down right miserable and in so much discomfort, and no doctor can figure it out.

There are what they call "trigger spots" all over my lower abdomen, glutes, piformis muscle, etc. etc. etc. Tyson is my PROOF that there's a lot going on with my PF muscles. Tyson watches me squint in pain on the floor while I press and massage at these LARGE muscle knots I've found along with stretching them. But it's one of those pains that "hurts so good," if you get what I mean. Usually right after I've worked out some of the kinks, I already feel TEN TIMES better bladder wise, and I'm not kidding! I even had about 5 minutes of being symptom free one day after working out the knots, and that was the 1st time ever in almost 6 months that I didn't feel the constant need to go. It was total bliss! Of course, it slowly crept back. When it boils down to it, I need to see a physical therapist to work at each layer of the muscles. I've already got the person and place picked out thanks to some references! I'm really hoping this lady will be my saving grace and the answer to all of my prayers.

Between the house building and me figuring out my "issue," Tyson and I are excited. Tyson's ready to have his wife back and I'm ready to stop being in pain and feeling like I have to go CONSTANTLY! Together, we both are ready to get out of this apartment and into our home. ♥ I've become a grouch with our neighbors that surround us. Tyson's always been that way from day 1.

As usual, we'll keep everyone updated on the house and the progress in my health!

Uneventful

2010-01-31T12:45:00.000-08:00

Thought I'd just drop in and update. There really hasn't been much going on lately. Tyson's working a lot just to have extra "comfort money," just incase we want more for our house, etc. He's just thinking ahead and trying to make sure we stay comfortable. I sure miss him though. He's been working nonstop since a couple of weeks ago, and his first day off isn't until Feb. 10th when we go to our first design center appointment.

This Saturday morning, we will having our blueprint review of our house. I still can't believe we're building a house. It just seems so unreal, but so exciting at the same time! Ugh. We just can't wait to get out of this apartment. Feb. 10th, Hugh and Nancy will be meeting us at the design center. I'm glad I'll have Tyson's parents there to keep his head cool because I know he'll be a ball of stress. For what? Nothing really. It's just Tyson. I have a feeling he'll just be overwhelmed with the choices and making sure we don't go overboard with costs. I'm thinking of grabbing some home magazines and flipping through them with Tyson to see what sort of look we both like, which I'm HOPING will make it less overwhelming on the 10th. I sure won't be stressed! I have a feeling I'm going to have fun with this! But, you never know. I could be wrong.

Soon enough, you will see probably tons of pictures and videos on here that I'm going to post on the progress of our home being built. I'm going to try to go the video route more, so hopefully everyone will be able to view them on their PC.

Work is going well for me, and it's a hit or miss with Tyson's job. He's really pushing for this K9, but fears he won't get it. He's been in a cruddy mood these past few days, but he won't talk to me about it. I have a feeling it has something to do with K9. I wish I knew what I could do to make him feel happy and not stress over the K9 so much, but I'm powerless. I also wish I could knock on his Chief's door and tell him how hard Tyson has been working for this on his own time and out of his own bank account, and that he'd be crazy to not allow Tyson to become one of the K9 officers.

As for me, I've been preparing my kiddos for the writing TAKS test that's coming up in one month, and I'm exhausted as I'm sure my kids are as well. I'm grading 40 stories week by week that take about 5 mins. a piece to read, and then I leave my kids feedback. I'm usually very thorough because I want them to do well. But, when you're thorough, it sure takes up a lot of your time. I definitely can't wait until this test comes, so we can all breathe a sigh of relief. I have full faith in my kids though. I started grading some stories they finished up on Friday, and so far, I'm VERY impressed with the huge gains they've made. I just want to go to school tomorrow, tell them how proud I am of them, and give them all a big hug.

Well, that's about it. We'll continue to keep everyone updated on the house. There will be videos and pictures to come!

SOLD!

2010-01-16T13:20:00.000-08:00

This past Thursday, we officially signed the contract for our very first home that we're building. So, it's now even MORE official! We are ecstatic and cannot wait to get started. We have our first design center appointment either Feb. 10th or 11th because, like I said, we're trying to stretch out the time that we're building our house that way we will have a June 15th close date. We're probably the only home builders in our section telling the contractors to take their time. HA!

Well, Perry homes has taken a few pictures of us at the beginning stages of getting ready to build our first home. Here are a few pictures out of the MANY you will see for the next four months! Pardon the 12 hour day make-up and hair.

Us posing with our SOLD sticker that I'm holding up! You can barely see it, but it's there. I'm SO glad Tyson decided to wear that lovely looking hat! (sarcasm)

Me putting the SOLD sticker on our lot we chose on the neighborhood platform thing. Tyson let me do the honors.

THUMBS UP! We're excited! We're building our very first home!

We're Building a House!

2010-01-12T16:55:00.000-08:00

Yes. It's official! We are building our very first home! It just became official today. It's the house that I was talking about in the last post. If you never read it, there's a link down there that shows a model of what it will look like.

Yesterday, I went out with our realtor and the sales guy to look (in detail) at the three lots that Tyson and I were considering. When Tyson got home last night, we discussed a few things further and had our hearts set on a specific lot with the specific model we wanted. PLUS! The price of the home is OUTSTANDING! We got quite a deal! We knew that these were some "hot lots" and a popular home model, so we wanted to jump on it because.........who knows! They would have been sold the next day because it's such a popular home on a popular lot. We did not make a rash decision. We have been letting this home brew in our brains for a couple weeks solid. After looking at other options, we couldn't seem to get our hearts off this other home and open our mind up to the other possibilities that we looked at. We even looked at things BEFORE we ever saw this house, and we were never too thrilled at the selection. Turns out, last night our realtor told me that we made the best decision as well as a smart decision, so that made me feel REALLY good and confident. Honestly, I'd have to agree. Everything just worked out so beautifully.

Tomorrow, Tyson and I will sign the contract, and then it's off to the design center we go! Well......in about 2-3 weeks will be our first design center appointment. The builder is working with us to stretch our close date till the beginning of June, so we are in NO hurry. The builder has organized a time frame of how many weeks until we go to our first design center appointment. Then, we wait another couple of weeks and go to our second appointment, and so on and so on and so on. Basically, we're taking our sweet time until March. That is when we will say, "Get our stuff that we chose and let's start building!" I like this idea because it gives us time to choose the look we want for our house.

We are so lucky that these people are stretching everything out for us. It would be a big mess if they started building now. Our lease in our apartment doesn't end until July, and if we had them start building now, we would have to close in May; therefore paying a months rent ON TOP of a mortgage. That wouldn't be fun. So, we're stretching it out to June where we will pay our rent, and then the next month, we will start paying our mortgage. It works out perfectly financially. Plus, we want to close in June so we can get that $8,000 tax credit. I'm not going to take credit for this well thought out plan. Tyson has mapped all of this out on his own. Go hubby!

We will continue to keep everyone updated on the home building. I'm going to be taking pictures like CRAZY! I want to photograph our FIRST home being built from beginning to end, and then I might put it into a book. This is definitely an experience and a memory I believe we will want to cherish. AHHHHHHH!!!! THIS IS SO EXCITING!!!! We're so thrilled!!! I would have NEVER thought we would end up BUILDING our first home together................never! Come on June! I can't wait!

Happy New Year 2010!

2010-01-01T13:32:00.000-08:00

Wow. Tyson and I can't believe it is 2010 already! This decade has flown by quickly. In August, Tyson and I will have officially been together for 10 YEARS!!!! Boy that flew! The beginning of 2009 was an awesome year for the both of us............our wedding, me landing my teaching job before I graduated, and my graduation. The end of 2009 wasn't so nice to us.............I was diagnosed with IC and it put our lives on temporary hold. HOWEVER! I'm VERY optimistic about 2010 and the years to come. My gut feeling tells me that we've got many wonderful, happy things and events heading our way! I've got great intuition *wink*.

For the past week, Tyson and I have been patting ourselves on the back and are especially proud of all of our accomplishments in these past couple of years. We've managed to put a ton of money in savings which leads me to some awesome piece of news.....TYSON AND I ARE FINALLY LOOKING AT HOMES! We're both VERY excited, and Tyson is growing very impatient (typical). He wants to get us into a home very soon. We want to be under contract by April and be able to close in June so that we qualify for the $8,000 first time home buyer tax credit that we will get next year. But, we won't get it if we don't get under contract at lest by April and close at least by June. That is why Tyson is stressing to get into a house by then because we've got a plan for what we want to do with that money like furnishing the home and putting more in savings.

We've worked it out to where we'll be able to put money down on the home and still have plenty in savings. Then after house payments, fees, other bills, fun money, etc. we'll still have money to continue to add into savings, and THEN we'll get the tax credit and put THAT into savings! Overall, I'm pretty pumped! I like to see money go into savings! I'm pretty impressed with how financially smart and organized my husband is (thanks Hugh and Nancy!), and he knows he doesn't have to worry about me blowing our money on things unless we HAVE it. Being a broke college student in the past taught me a lot of financial lessons like learning how to save every penny just to pay for a semester's worth of classes. It wasn't fun, but it sure taught me a lot. In the end, I think the past has prepared us, and now we're ready to get into a nice, new, and cute little home. EEEEEEEEEEEK!!! I'M EXCITED!

For the past couple of days, we've taken advantage of both Tyson and my days off together, and we've gone house hunting. We originally were looking at both Plantation and Perry homes. Tyson was really going for Plantation because he got a bad first impression with Perry when he met with one of the sales people in the Imperial Oaks neighborhood. Well, we went into the Spring Trails neighborhood and looked at Plantation first. Tyson was dead set on Plantation until I told him that we need to keep an open mind and at least meet with the Perry sales people in the Spring Trails neighborhood. Well, as it turns out, Tyson kept telling me yesterday that he was thankful that we took a peek at Perry because he is now dead set on Perry. So am I.

As we've discovered, Perry will give us more for our money. The home we're looking at with Perry looks EXACTLY the same as the home we liked with Plantation. The difference with Perry, though, is that they have more standard options. The home automatically comes with tiled kitchen (60 different choices in tile!), tiled backsplash, separate bath and shower in the master, tiled showers/bathrooms, etc. It basically has a lot of the things we want, PLUS they pair us with an interior design person to put together the look of our house. With Plantation, none of those things I mentioned come standard. Those are only upgrades which is yuck. By the time you add in all of the options, the price of the home would be more than we wanted to pay. I decided to convince Tyson to at least allow me to see the Plantation homes in the Imperial Oaks neighborhood so I could see how he got a bad first impression. As I've said before, I wanted to keep an open mind. Well, the sales person showed us a home with the same layout we're looking at with Perry, and when I asked him if the tile came standard, he said, "No. Linoleum is standard." I then proceeded to look at the guy, and said, "EW!" He lost me at linoleum. Then Tyson and I both looked at each other, and we didn't even have to say anything. We knew right away that the Perry home in Spring Trails was the way to go!

Below is a virtual tour of the house we like. It's the model of the Plantation home because I couldn't find the virtual tour of the house with Perry. It's the EXACT same look and layout we like with Perry. What you'll see in this tour is an added media/game room. This will not be in the home we're looking at. Also, the Perry home we're looking at has a square footage of 1,909 and it has 4 bedrooms, not 3. The home you're about to see on the virtual tour is smaller and has one less bedroom. I thought this would at least give you an idea of what we're looking at. Click on:

http://www.plantationhomes.com/community_details.aspx/Houston/SpringTrails-45ft-Homesites

On the left side of the page is a box named COMMUNITY LINKS. Click on 4817D/Kendleton under model home tours. The page will load. It might be quick, or it might take a while depending on your PC. If it doesn't load, just keep X-ing the page, and re-click 4817D/Kendleton. Sometimes it's stubborn. Once it loads, a picture of the home will pop up. You can eith click on SLIDESHOW or VIRTUAL IMAGES to see the home. I'd suggest VIRTUAL IMAGES.

Let us know what you think! We love it and we think (or I think) it's super cute! We want to move right away. We're tired of the screaming, angry guy that lives above us who's always screaming at someone on the phone. We're also tired of the people who live on the other side of the wall from us because they blare loud, techno music all night. Also, some people just moved in the apt. right across from us, and they have late night arguments which leads to screaming and slamming front doors. Plus, they have this little annoying moped, and every time they drive in, Rosco goes NUTTY! Needless to say....WE'RE READY TO GET OUT OF HERE! But, we will continue to pace ourselves, but I think we've already nailed down the house we want.

We wish everyone a Happy New Year and may 2010 bring you wealth, health, and happiness!

Christmas 2009 and Lots of Updates (Long Post)

2009-12-28T14:53:00.001-08:00

I do warn you, this blog will be long and it's going to jump around a bit. We have so much to share: Our Christmas, my IC theory, and a sad K9 current event that happened here in Houston. There are pictures in this post though. :) :) :) Happy reading!

CHRISTMAS 2009

This Christmas, Tyson and I stayed home and celebrated with my family. This was the first time the Manger family was all together in a LONG time on Christmas. To tell you the truth, the last time we were all together was back when I was senior in high school. SIX years ago! It was my sister and her husband, my brother Brandon, my cousin (who I consider a brother), Kellie, my dad, Tyson and me. The only difference was that husbands (Rebeccas and mine) were involved in this Manger family Christmas. Last night, my dad told me that this was the best Christmas he's had in a long time because it felt so good to have us all there together. It really warmed my heart to see my dad that happy.

It ended up being an overall good day. We ALL were in the kitchen cooking and laughing, and I LOVE that. Occassionally, Shane (my sis's hubby), Tyson, Brandon, and Cody were downstairs playing video games, but for the most part, they were in the kitchen. I think this is the first Christmas I've seen Tyson not glued to the T.V. He was actually in the kitchen eating, helping, and conversing. Which, by the way, my parents totally remodeled their kitchen and it's GORGEOUS! I wish I got a picture of it. Anyways, I helped my dad in the kitchen a little bit. I did my traditional deviled eggs that I always do for Thanksgiving and Christmas, and I helped my dad make some shrimp appetizers. We rolled jumbo shrimp in Montery Jack cheese in crescent rolls with jalapeno slices inside. I obviously couldn't eat these, but it seemed like the family liked them. Overall, my dad did the cooking. I've always told my dad that he should have been a chef.

Typically, Tyson and I are in San Antonio during Christmas with his family, but because of the IC pain driving causes me, we stayed home. There's a Christmas tradition his family does and that is Christmas crackers. It's this cardboard wrapped tube thing where one person holds one end, and the other person holds the other end. You pull it apart together, and it makes a popping noise. Out will fly a toy (or a gadget type of thing) and a paper crown. We wear the crowns on our heads while we eat. Tyson's mom and dad came into town last Wednesday and brought some for us to share the tradition with my family. Unfortunately, Tyson and I totally forgot to have them do it before we ate, but we still did it after we ate. Below is a picture of my family with the crowns on. I'm not in it because I was taking the picture. :)

Going from left to right: Tyson, Cody, Brandon, Harley (Brandon's dog), Kellie, Daddy, Shane, and Rebecca.

My family got a kick out of these things. I'm happy that Tyson and I could bring a little piece of his familys' tradition into mine.

IC THEORY

Overall, this holiday season was extremely hard on me mentally and emotionally because I'm in discomfort, and I couldn't really enjoy the holiday foods, but I made through it. I'm hoping that by this time next year, I will be feeling and living normally. Who knows. HOWEVER!!!!! I think I've finally come to a conclusion about my IC situation that will hopefully fix my issue. I think what caused my IC was a diuretic I took back in July. Today, it just hit me, and I was compelled to do my research, and now I'm fully convinced it was a stupid diuretic that has caused me all of my problems. Tyson and I have always had this thought back in our minds, but we weren't really sure. Well, today, I'm pretty sure. This is how I've come to my theory:

For the past few months, I've discovered that I'm having a lot of nerve issues around my pelvic floor that seems to be shooting down my leg to my feet sometimes. It's so random. The pain I was experiencing was nerve pain that was causing me to tighten my pelvic muscles (which causes more pain), and ever since I've been prescribed Elavil, that pain goes from being very mild to almost gone. BUT! The pain does spike when I drive in the car. The vibrations of the car vibrate on my pelvic floor nerves and stimulates the pain (I can feel the stimulation) which then sends my bladder into that feeling like I've got to go. Also, when I press all around my pelvic floor and thighs, I feel stinging or soreness like I've ran a marathon. ALSO! I've noticed, and have been noticing for several months, that I have an uncomfy ticking/prickling sensation in my bladder that gives me that constant sensation like I still have a little bit of urine left in the bladder...VERY UNCOMFORTABLE!!! I've attributed this to nerve sensitivity.

Well, back in July the day before we left to visit Tyson's parents in Austin, I remember going for my normal workout because I felt very bloated and wanted to sweat it out. When I got finished with my workout, I went and bought DIUREX to try and get all of my water retention to ease up. This was the first time I had ever taken this. That night, I was having to use the bathroom constantly, which is what happens when you take a diuretic obviously. However, I had only taken two pills throughout the day, but well into the night, I couldn't sleep because I had that constant tickling/prickling sensation in my bladder to have to go. I was thinking this was abnormal because I would have thought the medicine would have worn off by then.

For the following week while we were in Austin, I was frequently going with barely anything to go. The following Friday, I drank a TON of water (probably stirring up my nerves even more), then WHAMMO.....from that point on, urges and the tickling sensation were nonstop and unrelenting. It only got worse from there which I think had to do with the food I was ingesting because I now had very hypersensitive nerves and anything was going to irritate my bladder. For about a month, I never knew about the "special diet" so I was probably eating very bad foods that only made my bladder worse. Well, a side effect from DIUREX is hypersensitivity. I did my research and hypersensitivity included allergies to autoimmune diseases. IC is thought to be an autoimmune disease and has an allergic component to it which creates hystimines in the bladder thus causing a cycle of inflammation. I have put myself in a cycle of inflammation which led me to this IC issue. When the nerves are effected, it causes inflammation. The inflammation causes mast cell release of histamines (the bodies natural reaction to inflammation) and the histamines cause inflammation, and the inflammation irritates the nerves more, which then sends the EXACT same inflammation cycle over and over again. Basically, my body is attacking itself (autoimmune disease).

Now, I know many people in this world take diruetics (especially for cardiovascular related issues), and never have this reaction like I did. I do believe that I was predisposed to IC from some possible abnormal gene that creates a protein called APF which restricts cell growth in the bladder to maintain its lining, and it needed just the perfect trigger to set this all off. In MY case, it was the DIUREX. I do remember having more freqency issues for about a year or 2, but it was never bad enough to send me to the doctors with concern. I think my lining was slowly withering away. With this thought, I DO believe my bladder lining is pretty thin (now more due to the inflammation) which exposes all of the irritants to my bladder nerves, so I'm going to have to take my Elmiron (bladder coating) to restore my bladder lining to protect my nerves. I am a full believer that my issue is more nerve related because the VERY first night I took my first pill of my nerve med., A LOT of my pain settled down, and it's only gotten better since, BUT I think I've leveled off. Tomorrow, I'm going to call my doctor to schedule and appt. to share this theory and ask to either increase my dosage of my nerve med, or put me on something possibly stronger (what ever he thinks will be the safest). I am SO convinced I need to settle down these nerves even more, and that this will do the trick. I have so much research to back my DIUREX and nerve theory up that I want to show him.

DEATH OF A K9 OFFICER

Next topic....whew....are you tired of reading yet???? Last week, on Tuesday, an officer from Pct. 4 (who will remain unnamed) was called out to bring his K9 dog, Bleck, to track down two guys who burglarized a home. While tracking, this officer tripped in the woods and lost the long line that Bleck was on. Of course, the way Bleck is supposed to do, Bleck kept tracking and ran off to continue to do his job he was trained to do. Of course, the officer lost sight of the dog. Well, this officer and others finally found the dog unfortunately dead. This was so unexpected and no one had a clue how this dog could have died. They took the dog up to A&M for an autopsy (which Pct. 4 was told that they wouldn't have the results for a couple of weeks), but they all had speculated that he was killed by the two guys that broke into the home. They were thinking Bleck had found the guys, attacked like he was supposed to, but the guys teamed up and probably choked him to death from his long line. He had blood in his mouth, so that is what lead to this conclusion. Well, sure enough, the two guys were caught a couple of days later and they admitted to killing Bleck. We know that Bleck didn't go without a fight though because the guys were REALLY banged up.

Pct. 4 officers and Blecks owner were really torn up about this when they found out that Bleck had randomly passed during a track. Tyson and I were even torn up even though this wasn't our dog. All we can think about is this dog just doing his job, struggling to fight, all while being choked to death. It's been a very emotional week, and I can only imagine how the K9 officer felt about his dog's death. This has really been a touchy situation. The news showed video footage of the night that Bleck and this officer were tracking, and all I could think about while I watched the video footage was that this dog and officer had no idea what they were about to run into. Well, I just about lost it and burst into tears while watching this footage and Tyson's just about ALMOST lost it himself for a couple of days last week once we discovered what had happened. I've maybe met the dog and officer once at a K9 training, but it is Tyson that knows this dog and officer better than me. I know some of you are probably laughing or saying, "Good grief, it wasn't even your dog," but what you don't understand is that this leaves a lasting impression when you actually own a dog who is like a Bleck. These dogs put themselves out there in harms way so that the police officers can be more safe. This made us think about Rosco and if we were ever to lose him in a situation like that.

All of last week, Tyson and I have cuddled and given SO much attention to Rosco. It's made us extra sensitive. I think Rosco is noticing the extra attention so now he's pretty much acting like a big baby and demanding it. He's been putting his head in our laps and looking up at us with the "please pet me" look on his face that you can't resist. When we're sitting on the floor, he tries to be a lap dog by trying to get his entire body up on our laps. He's been cuddling with us, etc. etc. etc. He's basically acting like a big weenie. Here are some pictures of Rosco doing things to demand our attention.

Tyson immitating Rosco's "happy boy" smile.

Rosco trying to get ALL of himself up into Tyson's lap.

Rosco had come down and lied next to me. He then put his head in my lap and closed his eyes. Tyson got up to take a picture, but, of course, Rosco was more interested in the camera.

Well, I think that's about it. I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas. I can't believe we're about to welcome a new year already! 2010!!!!

It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas!

2009-12-19T12:37:00.000-08:00

Hello friends and family! Sorry for a lapse in time since I've blogged. Just wanted to stop by and update everyone once again.

Nothing too new down here in The Woodlands, Texas. Both Tyson and I have still been working away putting money into savings for a house, and just to have your typical back up money. Now that we have a double income going, we're doing REALLY well. We feel successful and happy, especially me because this is the first time I've every been able to buy something REALLY nice for Tyson for Christmas. I've always been the broke college student paying my way through school. Now that I'm not broke, I decided to go all out for Tyson. My intentions were to give him his gift on Christmas day.....you know.....the way you're supposed to do it. I have been trying to "hide" his gift for a few weeks now. I kept the gift in the trunk of the car because I'm always at work when he's home, and I'll usually have the car. He rarely even drives it even though it's HIS car, so I thought it would be a safe enough spot until I could get his gift inside a moving box. I'll tell you why I wanted to put his gift in a moving box in just a second.

Here was my "gift hiding" plan. I decided not to hide his gift in the apartment because Tyson is too impatient, and I knew he would cheat and search the apartment for his darn gift, so I kept it in the car knowing Tyson wouldn't be driving it for a while. I knew this would buy me enough time until I could get a moving box to put his gift in. Then I would wrap the moving box and put it under the tree. The reason why I wanted to put it in a moving box and then wrap it is because I knew he would unwrap a little corner of the wrapping paper to try and get a peek at what it was. He's such a little cheater!

Well, weeks and weeks went on and I never got the opportunity to grab a moving box. I knew one of my co-workers would have a moving box in one of his extra classrooms, but I kept forgetting to ask him due to the hustle and bustle of getting all of my work completed before we left for Christmas break. Yesterday, I thought that now that I'm on break, I'll have the opportunity to grab one while Tyson is at work. It just so happens that Tyson has been taking the car A LOT lately to run errands when I get home from work. It was driving me bonkers, because I was afraid he would find the gift. Sure enough.....he did. UGH! He came in the door last night with this look on his face that told me he was up to no good. I asked him what was up, and he tried to play it off by saying, "Nothing." I told him not to lie to me because he knows I can read people like a book, and by the way he's looking right now tells me that I know EXACTLY what he's thinking. He told me that I might be right and gives me a little grin. I told him to fess up, so he gives in and tells me that he found what he thinks is his Christmas gift. My heart weeped with sadness, but I knew it was my fault for not getting it in a moving box and wrapped up earlier.

So, I told Tyson to go ahead and get it out of the car since it was no longer a surprise. He did, and he looked like the happiest little schoolboy in the 3rd grade. I got him an XBox 360 with the ever so popular Modern Warfare game........very geeky. Good GOD that whole thing was expensive, but I knew he has wanted it for a couple years now, so I got it for him. Also, it was sort of a treat to me because I felt good knowing I could afford it and get it for him. You should have seen me walking through Best Buy aimlessly because I had NO CLUE what I was looking for. I kind of got treated like I was a ditzy airhead by one of the workers when I asked him questions, but I wouldn't blame him because here I was prancing through Best Buy in my heels and with my Louis inquiring about a video game console, and asking questions that I knew made me look like an airhead. I don't think this employee could take me seriously....ha!

Tyson told me that he would give me my gift now, but I told him that I still wanted to wait for Christmas. Besides, I already know what part of my gift is because he came straight out and said, "How much money do you want so you can go shopping?" I also knew this was going to be one of his gifts, becuse both him and my family give me money and gift cards every Christmas to go shopping.....and Lord knows I LOVE SHOPPING! But, I DO know Tyson got me something else. I don't know what it is, and I intend it to be that way until Christmas.

Now on to other updates! I'm currently on Christmas Break. TWO WEEKS! YAY! I'm still loving my job, not just for the vacation reasons, but because I love my kiddos, and I love the positive influence I have on them. Tyson is thinking about going back to school so he can make more of himself than just being a street cop for the rest of his life. He loves law enforcement, but he wants to go further in his career with it. I say more power to him!

Tyson has a five day Christmas vacation this upcoming week, and I'm excited. We will be staying in town this Christmas because it is very difficult for me to travel in a car with my IC. The vibrations of the car cause me to have very uncomfortable pelvic pain. I am actually very excited to stay in town for Christmas. This will be the first year in a LONG time I've spent Christmas with my family. Hugh and Nancy (Tyson's parents) are making a one day trip this upcoming Wednesday to visit with us for a little while since we can't go up to San Antonio for Christmas, so that is nice.

As for the update on my Interstitial Cystitis, I'm still making progress. The day before Thanksgiving, I added another med to my treatment, and that has seemed to take my symptoms down another notch. I'm still not symptom free, but I'm remaining optimistic that we will knock this disease, condition, illness, syndrome (whatever you'd like to call it) off of its tracks really soon. This thing is such a pain in the a**, and it still leaves me dumbfounded, wondering what happened to my poor body to cause me this much discomfort, pain , and grief. I would never wish this on anybody. It's horrible. But, Tyson and I are happy that I'm making progress. I can now lie on the couch and watch T.V. for a little while, and it makes me so happy that I can finally do that without discomfort or pain! I also discovered that I can eat white chocolate and peppermints, so I'm again very happy. It's sad when being able to lie down comfortably and eat peppermints without pain is the highlight of my life!

I hope this Christmas finds everyone happy and healthy. Merry Christmas everyone!

Favorite Time of the Year

2009-11-20T19:06:00.000-08:00

This has got to be my most favorite time of the year. I love the holidays because you have family....food...fun.....you get the jist. I'm so excited that this time of the year has come, that I have officially replaced my scented plug-in in my classroom to the scent of apple cinnamon. It just makes the room feel warm and smell like the holidays..........at least that's how I associate the smell of an apple cinnamon plug-in. I just LOVE walking into to my classroom in the mornings and getting a whif of that scent. It makes me happy. Tyson's parents come into town next week for Thanksgiving, and both Tyson and I are excited. Tyson always gets REALLY excited when he gets to see his mom and dad since it's so infrequent. The three hour drive and Tyson's schedule get a little bit in the way.

Speaking of happy....TYSON GOT CHRISTMAS DAY OFF! That just THRILLS me! I like it when he has more time off for the holidays. Police schedules are no fun! Tyson is still working his butt off trying to get the chief of Humble to see how beneficial a K9 program would be, and that he's the perfect candidate to be the K9 officer. He is still faithfully taking Rosco to K9 training, and Rosco is just doing awesome! I'm so proud of my baby boy! I just want to put it out there that it completely shocks me that my dog is trained to bite the crap out of a person, and yet, I can roll around on the floor with him and put my face right up to his mouth giving him kisses, and yet he's the most loving dog in the world!...........as well as Precious of course! But, Tyson, as usual, is continuing to work his butt off so we can save for a house. I'm trying to tell him to take a break, that now we're not just living off of his income anymore; but, I think he has trouble seeing that sometimes since he's so used to working. He did go and play golf with a buddy of his yesterday. I'm glad he took that time for himself.

I'm still LOVING my job and having so much fun with it. I was talking to Tyson on the phone yesterday while on my way home, and I realized that I put in well OVER 50+ hours at my job, yet, I don't feel it! My days just fly, and I'm always so busy that I'm not one of those workers that is looking at the time saying, "Ugh....when is it time to get off?!" I'm actually looking at the time and saying, "SHOOT! I wish I had more time with these kids because there's still so much I need to cover!" I also have a great group of supportive parents, and feel so blessed to have great parents in my first year of teaching. Again, teaching is really a great gig if you have the passion for it.

As far as my bladder health goes, I am finding that I'm continuing to GRADUALLY improve some more. The pain I've had has pretty much been almost non-existent to mild. You do not know how grateful I am! I had ONE MONTH of NON STOP pelvic pain that caused me so much agony that I wanted to crawl under a rock and just die. Now, the pain is so much more tolerable (still uncomfortable at times) that I'm a little happier.........now if I can only get rid of this sensation to have to pee all of the time, and lose the awareness of my bladder...
I have three goals in mind with the first one being my most important one and that is to become symptom free "remission," then number two would be to get heavily back in the gym like I used to be able to do, and then number three would be to be able to eat and drink what ever I want. The gym is more important than the food to me right now, because I'm eating relatively healthy due to this strict IC and gluten free diet I'm on, and I want to keep my body fit. Once I get heavily back into the gym, THEN I will worry about how long it will take me to be able to eat a Papa John's small pepperoni pizza......and yes......before IC I would be able to eat a small ALL BY MYSELF. Just ask Tyson! :) Now some of you see why I was in the gym so much! I LOVED to eat! Plus...I wanted muscles! :) :) :)

Overall, I'm feeling a little bit better now, so I've been trying to experiment with foods. I say trying because I'm still so psychologically scarred from what this bladder condition has put me through, that I don't want to to fall back and have my beginning symptoms return. Good God that was horrible! I don't think ANYONE deserves to suffer like that. As I've said before, I experiemented with a sugar cookie and did fine. By the way....that cookie wasn't gluten free.............................and then, today, we had "Donuts for Dad" at school this morning, and I tried a glazed donut. So far....no symptoms, but we will see how I feel tomorrow. Again, that was another food item that wasn't gluten free....but OH how could I NOT resist the donut. I sound like Tyson................HA! I have my 2 month follow up appt. with my Uro. this upcoming Wed. We'll just see how he assesses my current situation, and what route we need to keep following. I can't believe it's been 2 months since I saw him. I never thought I would make it a full 2 months without wanting to call him, begging him to give me pain medication. But, I didn't, so that is good.

Anyways! Tyson and I hope everyone is happy and healthy, and that everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving. Eat lots and lots of turkey! :)

Happy Halloween!

2009-10-31T15:55:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween everyone! I hope every gets.....or got (if you're reading this later) a lot of candy! I know I did at school yesterday! JEEEEEEEZ......the kiddos LOVE to bring me candy. I wish I could eat it, but, of course, I don't have the bladder health right now to even try a piece, so I brought my large bag full of candy home for Tyson to enjoy. I think he could get used to my career choice. Lots of gifts and food that I can bring home. I told him to just wait until Christmas!

School is going SO well. I'm having so much fun and I just absolutely LOVE my job. It's SO different from any other job, and I don't think anyone could understand it unless they were or are a teacher for themselves......who have or had the passion to teach of course. Now, if you don't have the passion.....you will not like the job. But I do! And I LOVE going to work every day. I love my kids, I love my school, and my principal is AWESOME!

Onto health for both Tyson and me. I'm still happy to report that things are SLLLLLLOOOOOOOOWWWWWLLLLLYYYY getting better..........HOWEVER.......I STILL feel uncomfortable, and I still don't feel normal. It's still having a negative effect on me. But, I say I'm better because the pain has gone from severe to mild now, and my urgency and frequency has tapered off a bit. I'm still on my VERY RESTRICTED diet which is KILLING ME right now because I would give anything to have a piece of chocolate, a piece of pizza.....or just to be able to go on dinner dates with my husband for goodness sake!!!! Also, go out to eat with friends......MEXICAN FOOD!!!! Ughhh!!!! And fruit...............OH HOW I LOVED FRUIT before this STUPID disease decided to haunt me. Now I can't have a bite of ANYTHING. I am so young, and I feel so robbed of enjoying all of life's simple pleasures. The one thing that this has taught me is to NEVER take my health for granted EVER again. Again......I will not settle for less! My goal is to feel COMPLETELY asymptomatic, get back into my full workout routines again (oh how I miss my gym time!), and be able to eat and drink anything and everything with absolutely no problems. Basically, my goal is to get my pre-IC life back where I was feeling great and living carefree. And I will have alllllllllll of this sooner than later! This is what I look forward to.

As far as Tyson, I don't know what's been up with him lately, but he's starting to get back into taking his Irritable Bowel Syndrome a little more seriously. He's started to really focus on his diet, and take supplements to help him. When he first got this, he tried to figure out what to do. When medicines weren't working, he gave up on treating his IBS and decided to live with it. A year later, he's back to taking it a little more seriously because he's finally realized what a damper it puts on his lifestyle. I don't know what' gotten into him, but I'm VERY happy he's trying to get this under more control. I was VERY unhappy when he just decided to give up a year ago. Now, since he's on this roll...I think he needs to find himself a new physician (Something I told him to do a year ago). He needs a second opinion on his treatment options. His physician reminds me of my old Uro.......Barely took the time to listen and showed a lack of concern or interest. I'm SO glad I found my new Uro....Dr. Corey. Him and his nurse practitioner have been a BLESSING....and they show SO much interest in my health, and it's obvious because I'm now on a treatment plan that is SLLLLOOOOOWWWWWWLY getting me to normal health. Now, if we can find Tyson a Dr. Corey of IBS, and get Tyson to have some patience with his treatment.......I think Tyson would be golden!

Anyways, I hope everyone else is in good health and enjoying this fall weather! Again, I will continue to keep everyone posted on my health......and now it seems Tyson's as well. Also, I will keep you posted on any other tid bits of anything exciting that is occurring in our lives.

IC, Teaching, and K9

2009-10-11T16:23:00.000-07:00

It seems like this combo of meds that I'm on seems to be helping me. My IC symptoms are still very apparent, and I'm obviously still aware of my bladder, but my symptoms still continue to subside slowly but surely. I'm hoping that this trend continues, and I'm back to my old life and old body (pre-IC) in no time! I'm still remaining postive that I will go into remission rather quickly. I'm trying to make sure I do EVERYTHING right to allow my bladder to heal up really fast.

As SOME of you know, I frequent an Interstitial Cystitis online support forum, and this support forum has educated me SO MUCH. I also frequent the "I'm in Remission!" page.......VERY OFTEN. I've found that I'd rather read positive things than negative things. I've noticed that a lot of people do go into remission....whether it be medicated or not. I WILL say this....When Elmiron starts working for me, I DO plan on staying on it for maintenance. My goal is to eventually get off all medications and only have to take maintenance doses of Elmiron. I just don't have the psychological stamina to allow this disease to haunt me again. I don't even want a TWINGE of symptoms. I want to be feeling good and free and able to eat ANYTHING I want without fear in the back of my mind. A lot of people have told me that I'll see more negative things posted thank positives. Some people are feeling so normal, they forget they ever had IC to begin with and they are usually not posting. Most people talk about the negatives more than the positives. Today, I read a remission post on the IC forum where some women were talking about their remission and how they easily go into denial that they ever had IC to begin with. They are feeling THAT good. One woman said that she even knows a woman locally whos IC went in remission and she REFUSES to ever talk about what her life was like living with IC before remission.......EVER! I have a feeling I'll be one of those people. This thing is SO TERRIBLE that when I do go into remission, I NEVER want to have to think or talk about it EVER again. For now, I will talk about it because I'm in that terrible phase, and it's only theraputic for me to talk about. Think about how you would feel if you CONSTANTLY had the sensatation of a urinary tract infection with chronic pelvic pain on top of it and you could only eat a select few foods, and you would FEAR FOR YOUR LIFE of taking in something as simple as a sip of plain water or a bite of an every day food that will send you in a flare so debilitating that you would think death would be better than this. Yeah....not so much fun......and it's definitely not life.

Now, on to some different news. Tyson and I are still doing well. Tyson has lessened up on the extra jobs. Probably because I've been so "ill" and he wants to be at home as much as possible to help me out with everything. I've always known this in the back of my mind, but it is now really confirmed that I have such a wonderful, loving, and understanding husband. Even though he doesn't have IC, he has been put through so much hell from me having this disease, I was for sure scared I'd run him off by now. Another reason why I think he's eased up on the extra working is because now we have a second income from my job and it for sure helps a lot in putting money into savings for a house this coming summer.

By the way....I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE my job!!!!!!!! I think being a teacher is what I've always meant to be, and nothing else. Not to sound cheesy, but it's TRULY TRULY TRULY a rewarding job. It's pretty much a great gig. It's HARD work though! The teaching children and managing a classroom isn't the hard part......it's the paperwork and all of the things I'm required to do to meet each individual childs' needs that is hard. You basically have to be skilled in multitasking and staying organized, or you can easily get off track. Anyways, I'm really enjoying it. I love my kiddos!

Lately, in Tyson's K9 world, this K9 thing with Humble PD has started to stir up again, but in a good way. From what I gather from Tyson, Humble seems to be in the thought process of possibly adding K9 back to their department. So, this now has Tyson salivating and trying to figure out any way he can to get Chief to notice that he's a great candidate with a dog ready to go. There's one problem though. One guy at his department also wants to do K9 all of the sudden. There's some drama with that, but I'm not going to go into it. Basically, Tyson is just going to have to keep putting his name out there with the Chief to ensure that he can become K9 if Humble officially decides that they want it back. I think the Chief would be CRAZY to not allow Tyson to be K9. I don't think the Chief has a clue what a great candidate Tyson is....and that is sad. I wish Chief could see in his heart how badly he wants this and how HARD he's worked and how much money he's invested in getting himself started because he has such a passion for it. Now, I'm not being biased because I'm Tyson's wife, but I certainly know that I'm being honest because I get to see all of the blood, sweat, and tears he puts into trying to persue K9.

So, that's what's happening overall in the Sutton world. I'll continue to keep you all posted on my progress, and any new life news Tyson and I have to share.

Kicking IC to the Curb

2009-09-29T15:47:00.000-07:00

I know, I know. It's all I've been blogging about lately, but this has been the center of Tyson and my life right now. I promise I have something different to add at the end of this blog. Grab yourself a cold one, because this is going to be long. I have A LOT to catch everyone up on.

Anyways, I just wanted to give everyone an update. Since my procedure, I've been SLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWLY, getting slightly better each day. It's REALLY gradual. Actually, after my hydro/cysto procedure, I accumulated one extra symptom and that was a very tender and distended lower abdomen. I basically will look like I'm 3 months pregnant, and I CAN'T suck in. It's TOO TOO TOO painful. It's just too painful, period. My belly is so distended that I feel like I'm going to burst and it hurts. From what I researched and what my doctor has told me, it's part of an inflammation process. My bladder is inflammed, so fluid fills my tissues to protect my bladder; therefore, I have a distended tummy....ta dah! I think the procedure irritated my bladder a little bit more, and just like any procedure, you're going to be a little sore or out of whack for a little while. That's my theory. This is my very first procedure ever in my life.

Well, last week Tyson and I went for my follow up appointment with Dr. Corey (my new and wonderful urologist). Tyson and I were sitting in the room, and a woman walks in. My heart dropped because she definitely didn't look like any Dr. Corey. I wanted MY doctor. I guess she saw the disappointment in my face so she quickly said, "Hi, I'm Kim, and I'm Dr. Corey's nurse practitioner. He'll be right in in just a sec." I was relieved, and also relieved that she was a woman. I was thinking to myself, "A woman in this practice??? THANK GOD!!!!" She then told me that Dr. Corey looked in my bladder, and it's officially Interstitial Cystitis. She then asked me if I knew what it was. I told her I do, but I wanted a doctor's version on it. Little did she know that I have done TONS AND TONS of THOROUGH research for 2 straight months that even I could possibly diagnose someone with IC (not really, but you know what I mean) and I was sort of testing her to see how well versed she was in the disease (since it's not widely known about). So, the Nurse Practitioner went into detailed information about IC and blew me away. She mentioned everything I already knew AND even elaborated more on it. She spent a good 20-30 minutes with Tyson and I and answered ALL of our questions. She DID NOT act like she was in a rush (like all doctors do), and was even trying to make sure I didn't have any other questions. I was on cloud nine. This was too good to be true to have a doctor spend THIS much time with us. If I started crying, she was there comforting me and handing me tissues. Again, she's a woman! Thank goodness!

As I described all of my current symptoms still existing, and what new symptoms I've occurred over the past 2 months, she then said, "You're on 200mg of Elmiron twice daily, right?" I exclaimed, "Noooo....I'm only on 100mg twice daily, and my old Uro refused to up my dosage to the recommended starting dosage by the FDA (100mg 3 times daily) after I had asked him to put me on the recommended dosage." She looked puzzled, and said, "Well, since you've not had any side effects, I want you to start taking 200mg twice daily." I said, "THANK GOD! I was going to ask you if we can up it so we can kick this healing process into high gear." Not only was I happy she upped my dosage, I was also happy she upped it 100mg over the recommended starting dosage. Some people have to take 900mg. They are obviously more severe cases. I don't know how those people even live! My moderate case is excrutiating enough, and I'm not being a drama queen either! The reason why I wanted my dosage to be high is because this medicine takes up to 6 months to a year to even work.....if it works. Only about 2-5% of each pill makes it to the bladder to coat it, so the normal bladder lining cells can piece back my bladder lining that has been damaged. So much of the med gets lost in digestion. That's why I wanted to take more. She was then going to prescribe me Atarax because it is thought that IC creates histamines in the bladder, where the bladder is basically attacking itself (on accident) because it's trying to protect me. Well, thank goodness for Tyson because he mentioned how all in my pelvic region I'm experiencing debilitating pain almost to the point where I can't walk at all, and I can barely live day to day. She then said that my IC must be causing me more of a nerve issue so she prescribed me Elavil instead. What I've researched on the nerve issue is that my bladder lining is basically worn down, has holes, and is damaged. Urine is already acidic no matter what. When my bladder starts to fill with urine, the acidity of it is touching my bladder nerves because my protective bladder lining is almost non-existent. This is what is causing me so much pain in my pelvic region because all of the nerves are linked. In a normal bladder, you have a thick, protective bladder lining (GAG layer/epithelium) that blocks the acidic urine from touching your bladder nerves. She then took me off the Enablex (overactive bladder med) because I told her it has only made a dent in relieving any symptoms. Now I'm on Urelle which is a cocktail of an antispasmodic (keeping my bladder from going into spasms), something for pain, etc. etc. etc. After all of these newly prescribed meds, that leads me to the final piece of this blog......Oh..and by the way, Dr. Corey did come in to finalize any question I may have had. I barely had any because the nurse practitioner was SO incredible. He even boasted about her. Anyways, back to how the new meds are working for me.............

The first night I took my Elavil, I noticed a decrease in my pain to where my pain was more mild-moderate instead of severe. It even zonks me out so I sleep like a baby and feel really rested. I have to take this at night for this reason. It caused me to be in a fog the next day, but after a week on it, my body has adjusted. All I can say is that I usually can't wait for 7-7:30 to roll around because that's when I get to take my Elavil, and I'm feeling almost pain free. It's a non addicting drug by the way if you're worried. I inquired about Vicodin to the nurse practitioner, but she said even though that will help, it's not the best med to take care of my issue. Plus, it's an addicting drug. Thank goodness she prescribed Elavil.....mmmmm...I love me some Elavil! I think the Urelle is even working better than the Enablex, plus, it's an extra added bonus to pain management. Also, I don't know if it's the Elavil, Urelle, or me healing up from the procedure, or a combo of ALL of this, but ever since I've upped my Elmiron, I've noticed a significant difference in my symtoms, and it's only been a month since I've even started Elmiron. Even when I was on that lowest dosage, I noticed a SLIGHT SLIGHT SLIGHT difference, but not enough. I think since I was put on it one month after my symptoms had started, it has been more effective for me. For others, I think that low percentage of it working is from people who don't get diagnosed or put on it about 6 months AFTER their symptoms have started. Yes! People live like this for 6 months going from doctor to doctor until finally one diagnoses them! That's CRAZY to me for someone to live like this for 6 months until they can get diagnosed!!!! Some doctors need to be ashamed of themselves. Just because we don't look sick on the outside, doesn't mean our bodies are screaming on the inside. I will tell you the pain and discomfort is SO bad that I think, after dealing with this, I will be able to give birth without an epidural. NOT KIDDING EITHER!!!!!!! Thank goodness I was so persistent and probably the biggest pain in all of my doctor's rear ends, but, hey! I got put on the Elmiron quickly so I have a better chance of it working, and quickly too!

I am sitting here today, typing this blog after being on Elmiron for only 1 month and then all of my new meds for only a week, and I can tell you that today was the first day I felt 85% better since IC attacked me two months ago. I can only pray pray pray it just keeps getting better from here, and I don't take a nose dive.....KNOCK ON WOOD!!!!!! I forgot to mention that the Nurse Practitioner told me to have a gluten free diet for now because there's now research that says gluten irritates an IC bladder. So, not only am I on the already restricted IC diet, I also have to be gluten free which basically cuts the already complicated IC diet in half. It stinks, but I have heard and read success stories that once someone has gotten their bladder to heal up, they've been able to add more foods to their diet. I've changed mine up a tiny bit. I am now eating gluten free brown rice tortillas which are actually pretty good. I'm still eating chicken, and I've added zucchini to my diet. I've taken out potatoes because about 4 days ago, I thought I figure out that potatoes might be a problem food for me (even though it says it's IC safe on the diet). Potatoes have potassium in it, and our IC bladders are sensitive to potassium. So I've cut that and replaced it with organic brown jasmine rice which is actually delicious. I've added romain lettuce and some organic eggs. And....READ THIS.....did you know even your water can be acidic!!!!??? I JUST figured out today that I think the water I was drinking was hurting me. I switched up my water (to another IC safe water-Fiji) and that's when my difference started yesterday. I decided to give my other water I've been drinking a test trial after school today. I don't know if it was me looking for it, but I felt sort of a twinge of my symptoms start to flare, so goodbye to that water. And, they even said this water I've been drinking was safe! But, I have been told and read that the IC diet is only a guideline, and I still can still flare from eating and IC safe food. It kind of stinks. It's all a guessing game.

So this is what's happening with me right now. I think I'm improving, and I'm PRAYING that this is me improving and it will only get better from here. I'm hoping for a speedy recovery and I can return to the life I lived pre IC. I have full faith that I will. In my heart, I know I will return to the life I lived pre IC. Again, thank you EVERYONE for all of the love and support. I can only hope that I'm educating everyone about this debilitating disease since it's not widely known like cancer. Why, I don't know because MILLIONS of people have this disease. But, some are suffering silently, or doctors can't seem to diagnose them quick enough. Please continue to pray for Tyson and me. I feel that all of your prayers are working.

Overall, Tyson and I are EXTREMELY happy with Dr. Corey, and especially his nurse practitioner....WOOHOO!!!! A two man team that is treating me, and one is a woman! I'm so happy. We both walked out of there feeling SO RELIEVED, and Tyson even admitted and apologized to me for not listening to me when I told him I felt iffy about my old Urologist. Dr. Corey and his nurse practitioner Kim have been my saving grace. They make me feel SO positive that I will be an IC success story and be completely asymptomatic.

Officially Diagnosed

2009-09-13T16:16:00.000-07:00

I warn anyone who is going to read this. This blog will contain some personal information, and possibly some gross information. At this point, I have no shame and want to educate everyone on this debilitating disease. So, if you're not too comfortable, I suggest not reading this blog. But, it won't be THAT bad.

Well, as many of you already know, I went in on Friday for a procedure where the my Urologist went to take a look up inside my bladder to look for signs of Interstitial Cystitis (IC). He found a sign. I apparently have hemmorages inside my bladder. Apparently, this is a sign of IC. My poor bladder walls are damaged/injured. For what ever cause, I have no clue. No one knows what causes IC. We did not discuss much information or treatments to start since I was considered "a little out of it," and I wouldn't remember. He wants to see me for a follow up appointment in 2 weeks. I guess that is when we will talk about all of this.

I've always had a feeling in the back of my mind when all of this first began back in July that it could be IC. I just had this gut feeling. Well, when I was officially diagnosed on Friday, my whole world came crumbling down even some more (even though I knew this was coming). Nothing is more devasting to hear that you're diagnosed with a disease that is incurable, no one knows what causes it, but there are treatments, but not all of them work. It's like a trial and error thing, and all treatments take a LONG TIME to see if they work. Basically, when I heard the words, "You have Interstitial Cystitis," all I heard in my head was, "Be prepared to feel constant discomfort and pain for a while until we can figure things out." I've already been in SO much discomfort for 2 months now. I don't know how much more I can take. I'm frightened and scared to death, and I'm always questioning, "What am I going to do?"

I can say that after 2 months of this, I am pretty much psychologically scarred. I mean, you would be if you were in CONSTANT chronic pain and discomfort and it's altering your life. I try not to let it, but unfortunately, this thing has such physical control over me, that even a push to try to get through it only makes it worse. I force myself out of bed and go to work, but by the end of the day, I'm squeezing my legs together so tightly while hurled over a piece of furniture crying in pain/discomfort and begging to God to take my illness away from me. It's quite depressing. I'm tired of crying in pain, discomfort, and the fact that I'm DESPERATE to get my body back to feeling normal so I can physically function (pain and discomfort free) again. Don't get me wrong. I'm not negative ALL of the time, but I do have many ups and downs. I TRY TRY TRY to remain positive and tell myself it will all go away, but it's so hard to when you wake up feeling the same way every day and there's no decrease in your symptoms. It's kind of hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel when you see absolutely no improvement for 2 months straight.

Which leads me to my next thing. It has been 3 weeks now since I've started the Elmiron and been on my strict diet. So far, I don't think I can tell much of a difference. Friday, I was so nauseated from the anesthesia that I threw up my first dose of the day. There's one pill down the toilet....literally. Post procedure, I was fine overall. Kind of sleepy, nauseated, but I didn't have that instant urge that some people were saying I would have when I woke up. Peeing for the first time after surgery hurt SO BAD. I felt like I was peeing shards of glass. Luckily, they gave me a little pill that eases it. It's been two days, and it doesn't hurt to pee as much. My symptoms are pretty much still the same....go figure. My current symptoms are:
Urgency
Frequency
Tightening/painful ache "down there," around urethra area, underside of buttocks, and in the crease of my left inner thigh. *This all hurts worse with walking and standing.*

There is a possibility that I have developed some pelvic floor dysfunction from this IC thing. My doctor told me that all of that painful/tightening ache I feel occurs in most IC patients. Great......another thing to worry about and treat. He said we can start treating this if this continues to be an issue. Well, it's been an issue for a month now, and I'm going to bring that up to him at my follow up.

Tyson has been as much of a trooper as he can be. This is NOT how I pictured our first year of marriage to be like. He tries to comfort me, but often gets frustrated when I seem negative about the situation. Like I said, I try to be positive, but no one will understand why I can easily fall into a negative state until they have experienced this for themselves. I WOULD NEVER wish this upon ANYONE.....EVER! Doctors/scientists/researchers...WHATEVER....have related the symptoms of IC to the pain and discomfort of end stage cancer. Fabulous..... Not....

Anyways, I'll continue to keep everyone posted. I'm sorry there has been no positive blogs or any blogs that have some variety. When it boils down to it, nothing new is going on. Again, I want to thank everyone for their thoughts and prayers and any help they can give me.

I pray that they find a cure for this thing REALLY soon. I wish I knew how to create more awareness of this very confusing bladder disease. More and more doctors, researchers, and scientists are becoming more familiar with the disease, so hopefully, the end to this pain is near.

Trying Our Best

2009-09-05T08:00:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the no post in a long time. Life has been REALLY busy and hectic for both Tyson and me. School is going okay for me. It would be a better experience if I wasn't so miserable. My students are great! The teaching part is fun! But......the OTHER things that a teacher's job entails......paperwork, testing students, basically doing 50 other jobs on TOP of trying to make sure your students are getting the necessary knowledge to pass the standardized test at the end of the school year is wearing me out, but more so because I'm trying to do it all while I'm so extrememly uncomfortable. I'm a VERY organized person, and all of this is causing me to get disorganized. I'M SO BUSY!!!!! I can't stay caught up, so I have to bring work home. :( I never wanted to be one of those teachers, but, unfortunately, I have to do it in order to keep up. What's really holding me back is my possible Interstitial Cystitis. Since I'm so uncomfortable, and can't move very fast right now, I'm getting behind. Some days I just want to crawl into a corner because I'm "hurting" (if that's what you want to call it) and I can barely teach. I get behind in my teaching. I don't know what to do. This is NOT the way I pictured my first year of teaching.

Tyson has been such a trooper at trying his best to take care of things that I can't take care of right now, while working his tail off as well. I feel so helpless, and I can barely do half of the things I used to because, at times, I can barely move without flaring something up. I feel so HORRIBLE to have to put everything on him right now. He's been helping me cook the only 4 things I can eat right now (yeah...you heard me right....that's a whole other long story in itself), helping me with the dogs, helping me around the apartment, etc., etc. This situation I'm in has really put a hold on our lives right now, and we're trying our best to get through this. We're both staying as positive as we can with this in knowing I WILL be normal again.

It's been two weeks since I've been on the Elmiron and I have noticed a decrease in the severity of my symptoms. However, I have also gone on a REALLY strict diet, so I don't know if it's the diet or the medicine or BOTH! I feel 50% better, but I still have another 50% to go. Unfortunately, last month, I accumulated new symptoms that deals with my pelvic region, and they've gotten worse. They're worse when I stand or just stand for a long period of time. So, who knows what will happen with this. Maybe it'll go away on its own as my bladder/urethra urgency, frequency, and tightening/pressure symptoms go away. I've read up that IC affects your bladder nerves, and those nerves are connected to the pelvic nerves, so I'm probably feeling something in connection with my possible IC. Overall, this is ridiculous. It's just one pain after the other and it doesn't stop. I'm so grateful that my urologist put my on Elmiron one month after my symptoms started. Usually, people with IC, don't get a diagnosis until 6 months AFTER their symptoms started, and THEN they start treatment. By then, the disease has progressed, and the patient will have to do a multitude of treatments and it could possibly take longer for them to feel results.

That leads me to my other update. I'm going to see a new urologist. Tyson has a k9 buddy who's wife has Interstitial Cystitis and sees this doctor. I spoke with her, and she says he's knowledgable in IC. It would just make me feel more comfortable to go to a urologist that has knowledge in the subject matter, PLUS, I know someone who goes to him, and who's sister (who has IC) goes to him. I'm trying to be as proactive as I can with this because I want to feel and be normal again within this month. I have a great feeling in my gut about this doctor. I have a feeling he will be the one that will know EXACTLY what to do, and I WILL return to a normal state and get back into my normal routines again within this month. I will give an update on the doctor's appointment when I go on Tuesday.

Anyways, I want to give a big thank you to those that are giving so much love and support right now. It's exactly what Tyson and I need through this difficult time.

Not the Best News

2009-08-23T12:19:00.000-07:00

Hello friends and family. I wish I could say the Sutton household is doing great, but unfortunately, this blog will contain some bad news. A couple of blogs ago, I had mentioned that there was a possibility that I had a bad urinary tract infection that left me with a "whacked out" bladder. My urologist had put me on an overactive bladder medication thinking that my bladder infection had left me with an inflammed bladder, and I needed the medicine to calm down my bladder spasms while my bladder healed. My symptoms got slightly better, but I still was not feeling normal. I still had a constant uncomfortable urge to have to go (like every hour), and I wanted to go frequently. The urges would hit me really hard (a lot of bladder pressure) and it wouldn't slowly come about like a normal person's bladder would.

Well, I went for my one month follow up this past Friday, and I had received some news that I was fearing to ever hear. I told my urologist the scoop on what symptoms I still had. After I tell him this, he sat in deep thought and he tells me that he is going to prescribe me Elmiron. When he said this word, I about broke down in tears. It's a medicine for people with Interstitial Cystitis (IC). I knew EXACTLY what this medicine was for before he told me, because, about a month ago, I had suspected I had this bladder disease due to my symptoms and I had done a lot of research on it. In the middle of all of my thoughts, he finally came out and said that this medication is prescribed for people with Interstitial Cystitis, but he never came out and told me that this is what he thinks I have. At the end of his talk, I looked at him with tears filled in my eyes and said, "So you're saying that I have Interstitial Cystitis?" He looked down at his paper, then looked up, siged, and said, "Let's just see how you do with this medication." My urologist wouldn't formally tell me, and I don't know why, and it's still so frustrating to me. So, it was like an informal diagnosis.

As I walked out of the office to make a follow up appointment that I will need to go to in 6 months, I started crying. The whole office was concerned for me,and I was embarrassed. Tyson and I got in the elevator to get back to the car, and I just hysterically broke down and cried, "Why me?" as he held me so tightly. We both feared that my condition would come to this (more so me.) Now, as you're reading this, some of you are wondering why I am crying and so frightened over this Interstitial Cystitis thing. Let me explain.

Interstitial Cystitis or Painful Bladder Syndrome (PBS) is a disease of the bladder where the bladder is chronically inflammed. There is NO known cause, and there is NO cure. It can only be treated. In people with IC, the protective mucous layering of the bladder has been damaged from inflammation (creating holes in the bladder) and any acid from urine seeps through these holes, irritating the bladder, and creating more inflammation. The body reacts by the bladder contracting and spasming (because the bladder thinks there's a foreign substance in my bladder and it's trying to get rid of it) causing a constant, strong, uncomfortable urge to go, and the need to go very frequently. Some people have bladder pain or pressure with this. I have urgency, frequency, and pressure (at times). The only way I can explain this miserable feeling is to tell you to go to the bathroom, then right when you're about to finish, stop and try to hold in that little bit of urine left in your urethra. It's uncomfortable, right? And you want to release the rest of it, right? Well, that's the way I feel ALL day EVERY day of my life. I empty my bladder completely, but I have the feeling like I didn't. It's SO VERY uncomfortable. Also, not only does it feel like that, but it also feels like you just drank a ton of water and you have to go VERY bad. I would go, and then INSTANTLY I would get strong feeling like I drank a bunch of water even after I had only drank a couple sips of water. This disease disrupts people's way of life. Because I am so extremely uncomfortable, I have trouble going places and doing things because I'm just so miserable the whole time, and I can't enjoy myself or just physically do it. It's like when you have the flu, you don't want to go out and party it up. You want to stay home and sleep.

The Elmiron coats the bladder so that it can "cover up the holes," while it gives the bladder a chance to try and heal and repair itself. I also have to remain on a special diet. There are many foods that irritate the bladder, and if I eat these foods, all I'm doing is re-irritating my bladder while it's trying to heal. Let me give you an example. You scrape your knee, and you put a bandaid over it and leave it alone so it can heal. If I were to eat the bad foods, I would basically be scrapping my knee, putting a bandaid over it, THEN taking the bandaid off in one day, and re-scraping my knee. Basically, it won't heal and just constantly be re-irritated.

I will have to be on this medication for the rest of my life, and I will have to stick to a pretty strict diet for quite a while. The really upsetting part in all of this is that I will have Interstitial Cystitis for the rest of my life (thus resulting in me taking Elmiron for the rest of my life) and Elmiron only works for 50-60% of its patients who take it, and it takes a good 3-6 months OR EVEN A YEAR for it to really work. It works better when taken for a longer period of time. So, basically, I have a 50-60% chance of this working, and I really should wait 6 months to a year to see if my symptoms subside (knowing that there's only a 50-60% chance the medicine is even doing its job.) It's all a waiting game. I can tell you that I've been dealing with my discomfort for only a month now, and I feel like death. I don't know how I'm doing to do this for another year-ish. I'd rather be put out of my misery.

So, this is why I broke down in tears so hard and cried, "Why me?" I have been completely devasted ever since I was "informally" told the bad news. I thought 2009 was going to be a GREAT year for me....get married, graduate college, get my first teaching job..........but now, everything has been washed out due to this illness and I am a puddle. I start my first day of school tomorrow, and I don't know if I'm mentally ready because of this illness. It's been really hard to make it through these days, and I fear it will affect my work performance because I'm in so much misery. This disease is both emotionally and physically taxing.

Anyways, I thought this was important to share with all of Tyson and my family and friends. All I can ask from everyone is your understanding, support, and prayers through this rough time. This is a really big deal, and it is not minor. I have been so blessed to have Tyson's constant love and support, and that's all I can ask for. I am SO extremely devasted and frightened to death. I don't want to live like this for a long period of time. Let's hope and pray that this medication I'm on will do the trick and I can feel like I have a normal bladder again.......and it won't take as long. I'm having wishful thinking, thinking that the reason it takes so long for other people to feel the effects of the medicine is because it took them a while to get diagnosed. I've been diagnosed early, so I'm trying to remain positive that this medicine will kick in pretty quick. I will try and keep everyone updated on my progress. Below are a couple of links about Interstitial Cystitis if you're interested or want to understand it more.

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/interstitial-cystitis/DS00497

http://www.kidney.niddk.nih.gov/kudiseases/pubs/interstitialcystitis/

I apologize if this blog comes off as, "please feel sorry for me." This is not my intention. I only want to everyone on my condition so you can better understand why I feel so bad all of the time. Also, it is very therapeutic for me (especially right now) to talk about it and get it off my chest.

9 Years Together!

2009-08-10T14:29:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to post that Tyson and I have officially been together for NINE YEARS!!! August 8th marked our 9 year anniversary together. We can't believe it has already been that long. It seems like yesterday we started dating. And we were SO young.....YIKES! I'm glad I married my high school sweetheart. We have SO many memories together, and we plan on making many many more! Even though our new official anniversary date is March 28th, we will forever aknowledge August 8 as the day we started dating! Here are some pictures from over the years. Enjoy! *There are some gaps in age, but that is because I don't have all of the pictures saved to my computer.*

15 Years Old

16 Years Old

18 Years Old

20 Years Old (Tyson's 21st Bday)

21 Years Old

22 Years Old

23 Years Old

24 Years Old

Month of July

2009-08-03T15:45:00.001-07:00

Sorry for no blogging almost the entire month of July. I was stricken with a weird case of a POSSIBLE urinary tract infection for 3 weeks straight. No doctors could really figure it out, and no medications would cure me. To this day, I can't confirm that it WAS a UTI because it only came with extreme urgencies. I didn't have any of the the other symptoms that comes with a UTI. This was the weirdest, mystery illness I have ever gotten, and I've been miserable. So, as you can see, I haven't been in the mood to blog much. This past week, I was given antibiotics that I seem to think is finally the right medication that will cure me of this chronic so-called urinary tract infection. I don't think I will ever know what happened to me. I'm still not 100%......but, slowly every day, there seems to be some improvement. I am praying that this "infection" will be cured and it will never come back.

ANYWAYS!!!! I finally was able to get into my new school, and I've started setting it up! I'm so excited. I'm alreay attending new teacher workshops, and getting ready for the beginning of the school year. I hope to be COMPLETELY healed within the next couple of days so I can fully enjoy all of this new beginning stuff. I hope to have pictures of my room posted. I want to post kind of a before and after picture. Well see if I can get the before picture before I go crazy getting my room set up. I'm being kind of antsy right now.

Tyson is still working away, and that's pretty much it. Nothing new with him. He's still K9 dog training, and doing it as a hobby until one day he can become a K9 officer. Rosco is getting better and better as he matures. He's still a VERY well balanced dog.

Tyson and I hope everyone is doing well, and if you're in Texas, you're keeping cool from this heat. Hopefully it won't be almost a month before I blog again.

Austin Vacation

2009-07-26T18:04:00.000-07:00

We had a great four days in Austin this past week. Tyson got some much needed time off from work and stresses, and I got some much needed time away from the monotony of home. We got to see both of our families and spent some quality time with them. The four days consisted of nothing but food, fun, laughter, tennis, and golf!

Thursday, Tyson got to spend quality time with his dad, as I spent quality time with just my mom. Later that day, I had a home cooked dinner with my mom, stepdad, my two sisters, and my brother-in-law. IT WAS SUCH A FUN NIGHT! It brought back old times when I used to have visitations in Austin with my mom. Definitely A LOT of laughter, joking, and serious/intellectual conversations............the way it always used to be. I miss it.Overall, Tyson and I had a lot of fun and didn't want to leave.

Here are a few pictures from our little trip to Austin. I wish I could have gotten more action shots of everything (ie: playing tennis and golf), but silly me always forgot my camera!

THIS IS BOSS, MY SISTER'S BOXER.

TYSON AND BOSS
BOSS JUST FINISHED LICKING TYSON'S FACE!
MY MOMMA AND ME! ♥
MY BROTHER-IN-LAW WHIPPING UP SOME YUMMY TURKEY BURGERS!
MY SISTER AND HER HUSBAND.
MY STEPDAD, JAY AND MY LITTLEST SISTER, RYLEE! ♥
TYSON HELPING TO GET DINNER READY! THAT'S ONE OF THE MANY THINGS I LOVE ABOUT HIM! HE'S A MAN THAT ACTUALLY ASKS IF SOMEONE NEEDS HELP IN THE KITCHEN!
TYSON COOKING...........AND SQUATING WHILE MAKING A GOOFY GRIN. NICE COOKING TECHNIQUE HUNNY...
AWWW....MOMMA AND SON! ♥
AND TIGGER!......JUST WAITING FOR SOMETHING TO FALL ON THE FLOOR.

Austin

2009-07-05T11:43:00.001-07:00

Tyson and I are heading off on a week long trip to Austin......sort of......more like a Monday through Friday trip. We can't wait!!! We both SO desperately need a change of scenery. With every day life stresses, it's good that we're just leaving town and getting away for a bit. I know Tyson's definitely looking forward to it. We both want to see our families. I know I'm going a little nutty and just want to GET OUT!

Austin has always been a second home to me. As a lot of you know, my parents are divorced, so I had visitations with my mom. I would go to Austin almost once a month, spend every other holiday there, and spend half a summer there. It's a BEAUTIFUL city and it's so healthy and active....JUST LIKE ME! I miss jet skiing and taking boat rides on the lake, eating out in downtown Austin, the Austin city nights, the geography! Tyson and I both wish SO badly that we could move there , but our lives right now don't give us that option. I just started a new job, and Tyson really can't up and leave Humble PD.

Anyways! I just wanted everyone to know that we're headed off to Austin and hopefully I will be able to have a nice blog about our trip.

Austin, here we come!

Time Off? REALLY?!

2009-06-23T18:07:00.000-07:00

I thought I was going to fall off my chair when I heard the words, "I have Saturday AND Sunday off," from Tyson.

I was like "WHHHHHHAAAAAAAAT????!!!!"

Apparently, he told me this, but I must have forgotten. But, then I was thinking, "Why would I forget something like that???" And not only will he have his regular Wednesday, Thursday off along with his requested Saturday and Sunday off, we will be heading to Austin to visit family not next week, but the week after that!

I am so excited! Let me break it down to you.....

Tyson is off....

This week: Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday.........

and then the week of July 6th through the 12th!

I think I'm more excited for him because he actually will have some time away from work. But, then again, I'm thrilled that I get to spend some quality time off with my husband.

Tyson has expressed to me that he is SO excited to go see his parents and to go play some golf.

Well, I have ants in my pants! I can't wait to see his parents, my mom, and my sisters! Time to go do a happy dance! ♥

Wedding Photos....FINALLY!

2009-06-15T20:55:00.001-07:00

I know! I know! I'm sorry I'm JUST now getting them posted. There's lots of reasons why this is so three months late, but I'm not going to get into it because I know you're ready to see wedding pictures!

I warn you, I don't know what it is, but Picasa wouldn't let me get the pictures bigger. So, they look kind of small and I hope you can see them clearly.

Here is the link to our wedding pictures:

http://picasaweb.google.com/reannins/OurWedding?feat=directlink

JUST AN FYI! At the top of this blog, we will have a permanent link, IN BLUE LABLED "OUR PICASA PHOTO ALBUMS, that links to our Picasa web album. This will be used for future pictures. Our blog will let you know if there's any updates! Other than that! ENJOY! Leave us comments and let us know what you think!