My City of Alvin Park friends let me know yesterday that the City of Alvin Parks and Recreation department has set the date for their Easter Eggstravaganza and the date is set for March 23rd. Be sure to mark your calendars and bring your children and grandchildren to have a great time hunting plastic Easter Eggs filled with candy. This is a yearly successful event so be on time because the eggs go very fast! If you are hunting eggs or hunting for your next home call me Sussie Sutton to help you with this next endeavor! 03/14/2013

Alvin What-A-Burger to Open on March 14, 2012 A while back the team  met with the suits from the corporate office of Whataburger. They wanted to discuss vacating the local building they have in Alvin and moving to a new location. This kind of meeting can be devastating to a municipality, as cities depend on Sales Tax. Remember a city must operate from Sales Tax and Property Tax received each year. The thought of a business moving out of a small town can hurt that city. Fortunately for the city, the suits explained that business was so good in Alvin that they wanted to move to a new LARGER building! They saw a need for more seating. The new building will be seating 200 people. It will have a better drive through, two in fact. Access will be more convenient for customers. So where will th... 03/06/2013

What for Lease In Alvin This March There are currently five homes in Alvin for lease. They are priced from $1,000.00 to $1,650.00; each has 3 bedrooms except for one which has four. The square footage starts at 1,066 with the largest one at 2,875-square feet. All have two full bathrooms except for one. Three of the rentals are in newer residential subdivisions. Most are located in beautifully kept older residential areas. Although there are many rental homes in Alvin they are rarely vacant. It has been my experience that there are almost always at least seven homes for lease. These homes don’t last long out on the market. So if you are looking for a lease in Alvin be sure to call me today! 03/02/2013

  Aren’t these tiny hats adorable? They were part of the table decorations at a luncheon I attended at the Nolan Ryan Center in Alvin today. The entertainment for the event was a funny fashion show, so the table decorations included a centerpiece of a hat with gloves, jewelry and scarves, along with these tiny festive hats at each place setting.   Believe it or not, these cute little hats were made from Styrofoam cups!   Members of the organization that hosted the luncheon made the little hats by heating up Styrofoam cups in the oven to shrink them, and then decorating them with paint, ribbon, flowers and beads.   I couldn’t resist looking for the how-to instructions on the internet, and I found several sites that offered directions for the project.   This one website, Crafts By Amanda,... 02/23/2013

Building Setbacks and How They May Affect You   When building an addition to your building, home or detach garage you will need to consider the building setbacks for your city and subdivision plat. In the city in which I live, the standard building setbacks are 5-feet from the property line to the building sides; 10-feet from the property line to the back side of the building; and 25-feet from the front property line to the front of the building. This can change if special city council consideration was given to the subdivision while in the platting stages. I have seen some subdivisions where special consideration was given so that the house width is 40-feet wide in a 60-foot wide lot. This means no attached garage. What happens is that the garage was put in the back yard with a drive w... 02/18/2013

I know you! You are Sussie Sutton – Realtor!   I know you! You are Sussie Sutton – Realtor! This is what the young lady at the car wash told me as I had my truck washed yesterday. She went on to tell me she befriended me on my personal Face Book Sussie Sutton - Realtor and Face Book Page, Sussie Sutton Says. Actually it turns out she is a friend of my granddaughter, Alexandria. It was she who told her about me. So that she would not lose my name she befriended me. I can remember meeting her once before. She said she had read some of my AR posts on Face Book and had followed my advice on seeing what was on her credit and was shocked to learn that a person with a similar name and bad credit had been added to her credit information. She is in the process of taking care to have all that rem... 02/09/2013

 It Might as Well Be Cow Chips   A Chip Sealed road surface is not my favorite thing to see when going to show a home. It might as well be cow chips. I don’t like trying to walk on it, nor have it trampled into a home.  I know many of you are wondering, “What the heck is she talking about now?” Well I am talking about the road surface material used for some streets in our nation. Chip sealing is a cheap economical way of keeping roads surfaced for driving and walking. Chip sealed surfaced roads start out with a very thin layer of heated asphalt (oily) liquid sprayed onto a road. This layer is quickly followed by a layer of “chips” or rocks aggregates about the size of a quarter. After the layers of chips are placed a roller is then rolled over the road to “smash” in the aggregates into ... 01/24/2013

Don't Let Your House Be The Ugly House on the Block!   Even though we are entering February it is time to walk the parameter of your home to see what types of repairs are needed this spring. I did this very thing and realized someone has been failing at their job. Some of the things I noted were that it was time to replace all outside water faucets. The ones that were still usable appeared to be on their last leg. One was non existent and had been since we purchased the home. We had planned on fixing it but out of site and out of mind, and it fell off our mental to-do list. The other things were some of the soffits need to be replaced along with the screen venting. It appears some critters won out in their determination to get into condo living in our attic. There are bigger issues too.... 01/22/2013

TODAY IS NATIONAL POPCORN DAY! There seems to be some confusion as to exactly what day it is supposed to be. Most think it has to align with Super Bowl Football and whatever day that falls on. Actually, October is corn harvest time and this holiday should be celebrated sometime during that month. It is said 16 million quarts of popcorn are consumed by Americans. I know I don’t eat anywhere near this amount. There are many flavors of popcorn these days. My favorite is theater popcorn. I was surprised to find out that popcorn originated in Mexico. I always thought the American Indians had discovered it. Maybe it was Mayan Indians all along. 01/19/2013

Bonjour Comment Allez-Vous?  Oh Wait! That is French!   Michelle Nesrstra, Coordinator for the Alvin Parks Department recently sent me an email. She was informing me that their department will be providing a Spanish learning class for children 4 -7 years of age. Children easily learn different languages when they are younger; so now would be a good time to enroll your children in this class. Read below for the actual invite to the public. “Spanish for Kids is a great opportunity for your child to learn Spanish and have fun! We will be reviewing colors, shapes, weather, days of the week and counting in Spanish every week. Plus, we will be learning more vocabulary. We will learn how to say our manners, greetings, body parts, family members, and seasonal vocabulary in Spanish. So, how will... 01/17/2013

  You're invited to the City of Alvin's Daddy Daughter Dance! The Dance will be held City of Alvin Parks & Recreation will be hosting the 8th Annual Daddy Daughter Dance. Girls ages 5—12 are welcome to attend with their father figure. It will be an elegant evening filled with music, dining & fun!  The Dance will be held Saturday, February 9, 2013 from 6:00-9:00pm. Tickets are $25.00 each and must be purchased in advance! To purchase tickets visit http://www.bookking.ca/bkalvinrecreationpub/index.asp or stop by the office at 309 W. Sealy St.      01/17/2013

  Olive Garden Coming To Alvin!    There have been many requests made to see if I; or someone I know can entice Olive Garden to come to Alvin. These requests fell on deaf ears as the City of Alvin did not meet all the requirements to have one built.  Well the tides changed with the construction of Home Depot, Office Depot and Chili’s.  They now feel the organization could prosper in this city. The project has long been on the books but remained confidential until a formal announcement was made by the organization.  The location of the restaurant will be next to Chili’s and in front of Office Depot located on North Bypass 35 at Highway 6. The slab was poured some time ago and the iron framing has been completed. I have been told that the next step will be the façade and the interior buil... 01/16/2013

  The Brazoria County Women’s Center provides much-needed services to victims of domestic violence and sexual assault.  This week, the center received a check for $2,116 from members of an honorary education group that I belong to.   Members of the Alvin area chapter of Delta Kappa Gamma made their annual donation to the Women’s Center from the proceeds of the Alvin Christmas Tour of Homes, put on each year by members of DKG. Delta Kappa Gamma is a professional society of women educators which promotes excellence in education.   This is a picture of DKG members presenting their donation to a representative of the Women’s Center.   The Women’s Center is a non-profit organization, supported by state grants, The United Way, and donations from individuals, groups and organizations.   The Br... 01/15/2013

  NEVER SAY NEVER…. TO ME ANYWAY.   Years later after having a hand in getting a donut store to Alvin I decided to see if we could get a Starbucks Coffee Shop. It wasn’t that hard getting a donut shop so why not a Starbucks.   In the same manner that I asked a store manager for a phone number, I did the same for Starbucks. It however, brought me no luck. The mighty internet came in to play. I Googled Starbucks to get the name and phone number of the CEO of the marketing department.   What I got was a name and an email address! BINGO! So I wrote him a short note requesting information on how we could get Starbucks to come to Alvin. I thought that I would get an informative email back from his administrative assistant. What I got was a personal phone call! His most important question was ... 01/15/2013

  IF AT FIRST YOU DON’T GET A DONUT…  TRY…TRY AGAIN  We were communicating around the water cooler the other day and it was mentioned that it was my fault that we had so many donut shops in Alvin. While it is certainly not my fault; but it may have started with me.  It all started when I was hankering for a donut. So at my break I requested to leave the building and go buy one. When I got to the donut shop they said they were all out of donuts. I was devastated. When I asked when will the next batch come out? They informed me they only made one batch daily. They went on to say they always sold out early.  GREAT. I asked why were they open if they had no donuts and they responded with, the men like to gather here to drink coffee and visit. I was so mad. My hips certainly didn’t need anot... 01/14/2013

Sex, Drugs, & Rock-n-Roll Fox News reported this morning the words that are suggested to be banned from the Queens English.  The words are as follows:   Spoiler Alert Trending Bucket List Fiscal Cliff Superfood Guru Job Creators Double Down Boneless Wings Passion/passionate  I am not ready to be rid of the word Spoiler Alert. This is because I think the word is necessary to give me enough time to change the volume or channel so I won't hear what is fixing to be said.  Bucket List is another word I feel I want to keep. I like this one better than “To Do List” plus, it tells me these are fun things I want to do.  Finally, Trending, I am not ready to retire this word either. I think it is an efficient word.  I noticed “It is What It Is” is not on the list. I think I am ready for that one t... 12/31/2012

Christmas Decorations that Scream for Attention.   While attending the Alvin Christmas Tour of Homes there were many more decorations that I did not show you in my previous posts. I promised one home owner that I would show all her pictures in a post and email it to her. You may have guessed that this person was the owner of my favorite home I visited. However, there was one other home that did a great job too; so I am going to just show all the pictures and just let you enjoy them as much as I did.                           I hope you have enjoyed these pictures as much as I enjoyed taking them! Merry Christmas to all and to all a Good Night!                                     12/18/2012

What for Lease In Alvin There are currently six homes in Alvin for lease. They are priced from $750.00 to $1,400.00; each has 3 bedrooms except for one. The square footage starts at 944 with the largest one at 2,112-square feet. All have two full bathrooms except for two. Three of the rentals are in newer residential subdivisions. The others are located in beautifully kept older residential areas. Although there are many rental homes in Alvin they are rarely vacant. It has been my experience that there are almost always at least seven homes for lease. These homes don’t last long out on the market. So if you are looking for a lease in Alvin be sure to call me today! 12/15/2012

Christmas Trees On Parade!   During the Alvin Christmas Tour of Homes there were many decorated Christmas Trees to see. There were so many differently types of trees to see that I just had to share a few of them with you.   The lovely tree below was found in the bedroom of the owner of one of the houses I viewed. Her house was my favorite.  The picture   was found in her Angel Room and this is her Angel Tree. Below are the Nut Cracker and Santa and Snowman Tree.                                           This tree was decorated with a Mardi Gras theme. It was so beautiful that the camera could not catch all the busyness of the tree.                     To have youreally see the tree I took two more pictures up close so you can see the ornaments. First a look of the whole tree.           ... 12/13/2012

You can enjoy a Christmas Wonderland aboard The Christmas Train at Living Stones Church in Alvin, Dec. 13-16 and 19-23 at 6:30 p.m. This will be the 13th year that Living Stones Church has sponsored the free event for the community. There will be displays of more than 250,000 lights, decorations and attractions which attendees can enjoy while touring the campus on the Christmas Train. There will also be a beautifully decorated train depot where you can enjoy holiday music and soak up the Christmas spirit. There will be a coffee bar, snacks and pizza, and a gift shop with lots of goodies for gift-giving. Kids of all ages can also have their photos taken with Santa. Admission to The Christmas Train celebration is free, although train rides are $3 for children and $6 for adults. The Christ... 12/08/2012