Uneventful

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!

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!

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!

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)

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!

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

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! :)