Austin/San Antonio Trip June 2010

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!

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!

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!

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

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

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

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.