Sweet Summertime

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

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!