It has finally arrived.. Vita-Mix 5200! I'm guessing you are wondering what in the heck that is... Well, let's just say it is a blender on steroids! It is difficult to explain, so just go to this website to see for yourself. http://www.vitamix.com/ I am finally going to get my daily recommended fruits and vegetables! SWEET! We were witness to what this machine can do over our mini vacation. My eyes lit up when i realized that I could enjoy a smoothy that had cabbage, carrots, peaches, strawberries, and whatever else you want to add. I mean, amazing! Go check out the link and watch the videos. Go try and find a store that is holding a seminar and see for yourself.. Enjoy, because we sure are!
Well, now that I preached about the Vita Mix 5200, let me catch you up to our most recent excursions. A few weeks ago we went to Charleston, SC to visit with my family. This was the first time, since our wedding, that my family has gotten together. We all met in Charleston, SC for a few days. We had a blast. Did some tourist things, but unfortunately the rain stopped us from fully taking advantage of what Charleston has to offer. After my family left, Abby's parents came to town for a night. Then we stayed in Charleston for a couple of more days to spend time with Abby's oldest brothers (Jay) family. We had a blast visiting with family. Now we are back to the grind and looking forward to our trip to Dallas for the Cowboys vs. Panthers Monday night football game on Sept 28th. Should be a great game. Go panthers!!!! We were able to get tickets in section 247, row 3... for all those wanting to check out our seats.. pretty sweet seats!!! Going to wear our panther gear with pride.. GO GIANTS! :) After that trip we will anxiously await our trip to Portland Oregon in October. There we will be staying at the Riverplace Hotel in downtown Portland. Check this website out... http://www.riverplacehotel.com/ We will arrive on Thursday the 15th, stay close to my sister Dawn's house. Friday night we are going to my nephew's Friday night football game (it's homecoming). Should be an awesome time. Saturday we are checking into the Riverplace hotel and staying there until we leave on Tuesday. Can't wait for the cool air. Houston is still very hot and humid. I'm ready for a change in weather!
Work is good. We have been dealing with a lot of swine flu kids already. Good times! So far so good... No swine flu for either of us.. keeping our fingers crossed! haha.. Our work friends/co-workers threw us a "welcome to Houston" party a few weeks ago. It was suppose to be our going away party, but since we extended once again, it was our welcome party. They can't seem to get rid of us! We had a great time. We work with some amazing people who have really taken us both in! They will surely be missed whenever we decide to head to a new hospital.
Well, I guess it is about that time to check on my kiddos... I do hope everyone is doing well.. It's football season ya'll!!!! I can't tell you how excited I am.. I hope you are too! Love and miss you all... Remember, GO GIANTS, and GO PANTHERS!!!
In His peace,
Love,
Michael and Abby Lee
Saturday, September 5, 2009
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Wedding season is officially over!!!
3 months later and several weddings attended, Abby and i are officially done traveling back east for weddings (until 1 more wedding in November). We had a wonderful time during all of them, but it is now time to sit back and enjoy what Texas has to offer. Thanks to everyone for throwing awesome weddings, and sorry to our friends whom we were unable to attend. Congratulations to everyone and we wish you many blessings in your future endeavors together!
Now it is time to see what Texas has to offer. Throughout the summer we were heading back and forth to partake in wedding events. Well, mainly Abby, but I had to attend a few. We had to strategically plan our time off from work so that we could make said events. Now that we are officially done with all that, we can use our time off to venture out into the great state of Texas. We already have plans to head up to Dallas to attend the Monday night football game between the Carolina Panthers against the Dallas Cowboys! Go panthers! We already have the tickets, just waiting on them to arrive in the mail. So so excited. We also have plans to attend a Houston Texans football game. Sometime soon we are going to be heading up to Austin TX. I'm trying to push for a Texas football game while up there. Wish me luck. Just need to talk that over with the wifey because Texas football tickets are really expensive. We also plan to head down to New Braunfels, TX to visit the #1 rated water park in the country, Schlitterbahn!!!! That is going to be awesome! We are hoping to visit Galveston as well. We hear that there is still tons of devastation from last years Hurricane. Oh yea, Abby and I are on the hurricane relief ride out team in the event of another major hurricane. That means that we will have to stay in the hospital for a minimum of 3 days or until relief can reach us. Should be a blast!!!! haha..
Other trips planned: We are traveling to Charleston, SC on the 12Th of August to visit with my family. I am very excited because this will be the first time that my entire family will be together since my wedding. Should be a great time. Then in October Abby and I are flying out to Portland, Oregon to visit Dawn. Also, in November my brother and I have a tripped planned to NY to watch the NY Giants take on the San Diego Chargers. This will be Sean's first trip to the Meadowlands. Can't wait for this trip! The weekend of the 21st of November we fly back to NC for another wedding. When there, we are going to catch the Panthers game vs. the Dolphins!
Wow, we have a lot planned this fall. Should be a great time! Especially with all the football games we have lined up! So so so so so glad Abby has been raised by a football loving father! Don't think this relationship would have worked out as well if that wasn't the case. ;)
Okay, now for the important stuff in life. Abby and I have decided to extend, once again, here in Houston. We just could not pass up the opportunity to have a good paying job that we both enjoy. We were thinking about venturing out to another city, but there just wasn't much to choice from. So the plan now is to stay here until the end of November. When that time comes we will look for a job, but if one doesn't come about that we like....... we are just going to take off all of December! haha.. that's my hope! Will know more come November!
Well, time now to get back to work. 9 more shifts until our next week and a half vacation! Should be a blast. Hope all is well with everyone. We love and miss you all...
Michael and Abby Lee..
p.s. Hello Birdsong!!! ;)
Now it is time to see what Texas has to offer. Throughout the summer we were heading back and forth to partake in wedding events. Well, mainly Abby, but I had to attend a few. We had to strategically plan our time off from work so that we could make said events. Now that we are officially done with all that, we can use our time off to venture out into the great state of Texas. We already have plans to head up to Dallas to attend the Monday night football game between the Carolina Panthers against the Dallas Cowboys! Go panthers! We already have the tickets, just waiting on them to arrive in the mail. So so excited. We also have plans to attend a Houston Texans football game. Sometime soon we are going to be heading up to Austin TX. I'm trying to push for a Texas football game while up there. Wish me luck. Just need to talk that over with the wifey because Texas football tickets are really expensive. We also plan to head down to New Braunfels, TX to visit the #1 rated water park in the country, Schlitterbahn!!!! That is going to be awesome! We are hoping to visit Galveston as well. We hear that there is still tons of devastation from last years Hurricane. Oh yea, Abby and I are on the hurricane relief ride out team in the event of another major hurricane. That means that we will have to stay in the hospital for a minimum of 3 days or until relief can reach us. Should be a blast!!!! haha..
Other trips planned: We are traveling to Charleston, SC on the 12Th of August to visit with my family. I am very excited because this will be the first time that my entire family will be together since my wedding. Should be a great time. Then in October Abby and I are flying out to Portland, Oregon to visit Dawn. Also, in November my brother and I have a tripped planned to NY to watch the NY Giants take on the San Diego Chargers. This will be Sean's first trip to the Meadowlands. Can't wait for this trip! The weekend of the 21st of November we fly back to NC for another wedding. When there, we are going to catch the Panthers game vs. the Dolphins!
Wow, we have a lot planned this fall. Should be a great time! Especially with all the football games we have lined up! So so so so so glad Abby has been raised by a football loving father! Don't think this relationship would have worked out as well if that wasn't the case. ;)
Okay, now for the important stuff in life. Abby and I have decided to extend, once again, here in Houston. We just could not pass up the opportunity to have a good paying job that we both enjoy. We were thinking about venturing out to another city, but there just wasn't much to choice from. So the plan now is to stay here until the end of November. When that time comes we will look for a job, but if one doesn't come about that we like....... we are just going to take off all of December! haha.. that's my hope! Will know more come November!
Well, time now to get back to work. 9 more shifts until our next week and a half vacation! Should be a blast. Hope all is well with everyone. We love and miss you all...
Michael and Abby Lee..
p.s. Hello Birdsong!!! ;)
Thursday, July 16, 2009
What should we do?????
Hello everyone! How are you doing? We are great. Thanks for asking! Well, we are at a point in time where we are very conflicted on what to do next with our travels. We thought for sometime now that we were going to have to move on to another city. Texas Children's was not offering us an extension, but they were offering an opportunity to sign on full time! I don't think so! If we did that we would lose our free housing, monthly tax free stipend, free furniture and bills. Even though the pay would be pretty nice, it wouldn't make up for losing all the wonderful perks of being a traveler. Make sense? So, we have been talking with our recruiter about upcoming travel opportunities. Basically there isn't much out there right now. We have been patiently waiting and hoping for something good to come along. St. Thomas, VI has 2 positions open for peds jobs. We did apply there, but it is a long shot as we were late to get our paperwork out to the hospital. Other than that, we haven't heard of much. Now..... Yesterday, Texas Children's offered Abby and I the option to extend here as travelers (which we didn't think they were going to do). They told us that we can sign on for however long we would like. Be it 6 weeks, 8 weeks, or 3 months. We are both very excited about this, but we now have the bug to head to another city and explore another part of the country! So, there in lies the problem. Part of us wants to venture onward, and part of us wants to stay for the security of having a job. What do you think? Do we risk a new job with the possibility of being unemployed for a short time. If that were to happen we would move in with Abby's parents while we still attempt to find another travel job. So we do have that option. I don't know.... We are going to talk with our managers to see how long they will give us to make up our minds. That might help us out. Will keep you posted... On another note, Abby and I will be officially out of debt come this Friday. HIP HIP HOORAY, HIP HIP HOORAY!!! haha... It has been a long process, but one we have diligently worked on achieving! Now time to save for a new house, and dare I say future Hinchy's!!! ;)
Love you all and thanks for all the prayers!
Michael and Abby Lee
Love you all and thanks for all the prayers!
Michael and Abby Lee
Friday, June 26, 2009
Officially a southern poser...
Well.... I have finally caved in to the southern living... I guess that's what you would call it.. Or I would like to call it, pretending to be a southerner when my heart is still a YANKEE!!! This past weekend I broke down and purchased a pair of cowboy boots!!! haha.. that's right people, a set of Justin cowboy boots! They are SWEET!!! I wore them only once since getting them, but I liked it and plan to rock them a lot (as soon as the heat drops below 100). Be on the lookout for poser pictures!
This past weekend Abby's parents came in town to visit. They arrived in Houston on Saturday morning. We showed them around town or at least the area of town we were familiar with. Went to Freebirds (the greatest Burrito place know to Texas) for a late lunch. We then decided to venture to the see a movie. The term Venture is key! Abby's parents haven't been to a movie in about 8 years! It was an adventure. We decided to see Taking of Pelham 1,2,3 (which was awesome). We treated them to the movie tickets, so Jonesy (Abby's dad) decided to pick up the snacks. He ordered 2 large popcorn's and 4 medium drinks. The lady said, "that will be $30 please." I thought Jonesy was going to have, another, heart attack. haha.. He did admit that it was the best and most expensive popcorn/diet coke he has ever had. Both Jonesy and momma Jones loved the movie and the experience. So much in fact, they plan on going to see another movie back in Charlotte! Hope you both enjoy! I recommend "The Hangover." (a must see if you are over 18). :) Sunday we decided to venture to this neat little town called Old Town Spring. It's an old railroad town that features many little quaint shops and restaurants. We wandered around this town for a couple of hours then decided to head back to Houston. Sunday night we at at this amazing Mexican restaurant called Teala's. Stuffed our belly's, then proceeded to get ice cream at Swirl. Swirl is by far the best yogurt ever! I was extremely full before swirl, but as we all know, there is always room for dessert. Monday we went to walk about Rice University. We visited the bookstore and enjoyed the beautiful campus. (Rice University is across the street from Texas Children's Hospital). That night we went to Taste of Texas. Check out this website... www.tasteoftexas.com AMAZING!!! We celebrated my birthday, father's day, and her parents 40th wedding anniversary! The restaurant was kind enough to give us 2 free desserts. We tried their snickers pie and their key lime pie. This key lime pie was the greatest key lime pie EVER!!! Sorry to tell you that Van. Wish you could have been there to enjoy it with us! The snickers pie was also delicious! Abby and I both shared a 32oz porterhouse steak. Along with this steak we were given the option of 2 side dishes and also 2 salad bars. I an not a huge salad guy, but there were different kinds of cheese, delicious rolls, pastries, and everything else you could ever want before indulging into a delicious steak! All of us stuffed ourselves... Hard not to! If you ever make it to Houston, you HAVE to visit a Taste Of Texas! We did take pictures of our time there, so will definitely get those up soon! Tuesday was their last day with us. We had to take them to Poppa's Barbq. Texas barbq is different than NC barbq. It is mostly beef, not pork. They have a sweet barbq sauce, not a vinegar based sauce. It was still delicious! Oh I almost forgot. When we picked them up from the airport we decided to surprise them with a Texas delicacy... Kolache's! haha, i know that sounds weird, but they are incredible. They are breakfast pastries filled with all sorts of goodies! Ham, Sausage, Eggs, Potatoes, cheese, cream cheese, fruit, etc... They are so so good. I believe we ate Kolaches at least 3 times in the 3 days they were here. haha.. visit here to check out what I'm talking about... www.kolachefactory.com
We ate an obscene amount of food, but when in Houston.... Houstonians eat out all the time. There are more restaurants per capita here in Houston then any other place in the country. I mean it is my dream city!!! :) We truly enjoyed their visit, and hope to have more visitors in the future. Now it is back to work for the next 5 out of 6 days. Time to earn back that money we spent over the weekend. Cowboy boots are not cheap! Did I mention that Momma Jones also bought herself a pair of cowgirl boots! Rock those boots Momma Jones!
Our next city is still up in the air. We are probably not going to extend here in Houston. We are probably not going to head back to LA, so that leaves us with ???? Not much! We will begin our search come mid July, so will know more then. We are both hoping for the Northeast. I'm pulling for NY or Boston. NY would be incredible for the fall. GIANTS GIANTS GIANTS!!!! enough said...
Do hope all is great with everyone... We miss you all and thanks again for checking in on us.. sorry if my wording/grammar/spelling is garbage.. It is 3am and it has been a busy night... or maybe just because I'm not that bright and the smart one (Abby) in this relationship is at home enjoying wine and a movie after getting a pedicure and eating sushi... I'm not bitter.. ;) haha.. Okay people, time to get to work... Be good and God bless...
In His peace,
Michael and Abby Lee...
This past weekend Abby's parents came in town to visit. They arrived in Houston on Saturday morning. We showed them around town or at least the area of town we were familiar with. Went to Freebirds (the greatest Burrito place know to Texas) for a late lunch. We then decided to venture to the see a movie. The term Venture is key! Abby's parents haven't been to a movie in about 8 years! It was an adventure. We decided to see Taking of Pelham 1,2,3 (which was awesome). We treated them to the movie tickets, so Jonesy (Abby's dad) decided to pick up the snacks. He ordered 2 large popcorn's and 4 medium drinks. The lady said, "that will be $30 please." I thought Jonesy was going to have, another, heart attack. haha.. He did admit that it was the best and most expensive popcorn/diet coke he has ever had. Both Jonesy and momma Jones loved the movie and the experience. So much in fact, they plan on going to see another movie back in Charlotte! Hope you both enjoy! I recommend "The Hangover." (a must see if you are over 18). :) Sunday we decided to venture to this neat little town called Old Town Spring. It's an old railroad town that features many little quaint shops and restaurants. We wandered around this town for a couple of hours then decided to head back to Houston. Sunday night we at at this amazing Mexican restaurant called Teala's. Stuffed our belly's, then proceeded to get ice cream at Swirl. Swirl is by far the best yogurt ever! I was extremely full before swirl, but as we all know, there is always room for dessert. Monday we went to walk about Rice University. We visited the bookstore and enjoyed the beautiful campus. (Rice University is across the street from Texas Children's Hospital). That night we went to Taste of Texas. Check out this website... www.tasteoftexas.com AMAZING!!! We celebrated my birthday, father's day, and her parents 40th wedding anniversary! The restaurant was kind enough to give us 2 free desserts. We tried their snickers pie and their key lime pie. This key lime pie was the greatest key lime pie EVER!!! Sorry to tell you that Van. Wish you could have been there to enjoy it with us! The snickers pie was also delicious! Abby and I both shared a 32oz porterhouse steak. Along with this steak we were given the option of 2 side dishes and also 2 salad bars. I an not a huge salad guy, but there were different kinds of cheese, delicious rolls, pastries, and everything else you could ever want before indulging into a delicious steak! All of us stuffed ourselves... Hard not to! If you ever make it to Houston, you HAVE to visit a Taste Of Texas! We did take pictures of our time there, so will definitely get those up soon! Tuesday was their last day with us. We had to take them to Poppa's Barbq. Texas barbq is different than NC barbq. It is mostly beef, not pork. They have a sweet barbq sauce, not a vinegar based sauce. It was still delicious! Oh I almost forgot. When we picked them up from the airport we decided to surprise them with a Texas delicacy... Kolache's! haha, i know that sounds weird, but they are incredible. They are breakfast pastries filled with all sorts of goodies! Ham, Sausage, Eggs, Potatoes, cheese, cream cheese, fruit, etc... They are so so good. I believe we ate Kolaches at least 3 times in the 3 days they were here. haha.. visit here to check out what I'm talking about... www.kolachefactory.com
We ate an obscene amount of food, but when in Houston.... Houstonians eat out all the time. There are more restaurants per capita here in Houston then any other place in the country. I mean it is my dream city!!! :) We truly enjoyed their visit, and hope to have more visitors in the future. Now it is back to work for the next 5 out of 6 days. Time to earn back that money we spent over the weekend. Cowboy boots are not cheap! Did I mention that Momma Jones also bought herself a pair of cowgirl boots! Rock those boots Momma Jones!
Our next city is still up in the air. We are probably not going to extend here in Houston. We are probably not going to head back to LA, so that leaves us with ???? Not much! We will begin our search come mid July, so will know more then. We are both hoping for the Northeast. I'm pulling for NY or Boston. NY would be incredible for the fall. GIANTS GIANTS GIANTS!!!! enough said...
Do hope all is great with everyone... We miss you all and thanks again for checking in on us.. sorry if my wording/grammar/spelling is garbage.. It is 3am and it has been a busy night... or maybe just because I'm not that bright and the smart one (Abby) in this relationship is at home enjoying wine and a movie after getting a pedicure and eating sushi... I'm not bitter.. ;) haha.. Okay people, time to get to work... Be good and God bless...
In His peace,
Michael and Abby Lee...
Friday, June 12, 2009
Where to next???
Howdy y'all.... Hope everyone is just peachy! Abby and I are doing great. We are still in Houston, TX for the moment. We are here until the second week in August, then who knows. Here are our options so far. 1. Take a permanent job here at Texas Children's Hospital. The nurse manager offered Abby and I jobs. Exciting i know! 2. Try to stretch out another travel assignment here instead of accepting a permanent position. 3. Go back to LA to work at LA Children's hospital (the hospital we worked at prior to Houston). 4. Play the waiting game on a new city/hospital. The problem with 4 is that the jobs are few and far between. They are usually hiring nurses for the following week start dates. That seems a little to risky at this point. We both really want to venture somewhere new, but we are coming to realize that we may just need to be a little more patient and wait this slow time out. LA would be sweet because we love the hospital, but we are not the biggest fans of LA. If we go back we are hoping to live somewhere outside of downtown LA. The money is great in LA, so there are advantages of heading back west. We just don't know!!! Still some time to figure this out, but it is beginning to weigh on our minds! Will keep you posted.
Texas is beginning to show it's ugly head... The weekend it is suppose to be in the high 90's with very high humidity. Should be in for a rough stretch of weather as Abby and I haven't really been in the humidity since our summer days in NC. Supposedly Houston will teach a new level of hot humid summer days... Good times! Not good for my newly found obsession for golf... We plan to play early next week, but it might take a lot of convincing to get Abby to play with me!
Lately times have been a bit rough for my family. My grandfather passed away last November and just a few weeks ago my Grandma passed. They were amazing individuals and they will be deeply missed. We thank everyone for their prayer and support.
Well, Abby and I currently at work. Lately we have had a little more time at work to just relax and play on the internet. TCH recently approved 1 more nurse on our floors. That means that instead of taking 6 kids at night, we will be taking 4 kids. A much needed break as my waiter legs were getting the best of me. To many families to cater to and way to many kids to care for like they should be cared for! (if that makes sense)
Next weekend we are expecting the arrival of Abby's parents. We are extremely excited to have our first visitors while on our little road trip across the country. We have a lot of fun activities planned for the Jones family! Hope to have lots of fun pics to share.
Hope everyone has a great weekend.
Our love to all...
In His peace,
Michael and Abby Lee...
Texas is beginning to show it's ugly head... The weekend it is suppose to be in the high 90's with very high humidity. Should be in for a rough stretch of weather as Abby and I haven't really been in the humidity since our summer days in NC. Supposedly Houston will teach a new level of hot humid summer days... Good times! Not good for my newly found obsession for golf... We plan to play early next week, but it might take a lot of convincing to get Abby to play with me!
Lately times have been a bit rough for my family. My grandfather passed away last November and just a few weeks ago my Grandma passed. They were amazing individuals and they will be deeply missed. We thank everyone for their prayer and support.
Well, Abby and I currently at work. Lately we have had a little more time at work to just relax and play on the internet. TCH recently approved 1 more nurse on our floors. That means that instead of taking 6 kids at night, we will be taking 4 kids. A much needed break as my waiter legs were getting the best of me. To many families to cater to and way to many kids to care for like they should be cared for! (if that makes sense)
Next weekend we are expecting the arrival of Abby's parents. We are extremely excited to have our first visitors while on our little road trip across the country. We have a lot of fun activities planned for the Jones family! Hope to have lots of fun pics to share.
Hope everyone has a great weekend.
Our love to all...
In His peace,
Michael and Abby Lee...
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
New apartment...
Hello to all.. Abby and I are back in Houston after a great vacation. We went to Disneyworld with Abby's family for about 5 days. Afte disney, Abby was suppose to go to a bachelorette party but unfortunately got sick. I headed up to Raleigh to put in flooring in my house. Time to rent that joker out! I actually think I have found a lady to rent it from me. We are in discussions now.. Keep your fingers crossed because she seems like a perfect fit. Just her and her dog. She is actually a nurse at UNC. That would be sweet! We'll see...
We came back to Houston last tueday, then worked the rest of the week. While working 3 nights in a row, we had to move out of our apartment by saturday. It was a very tiring process, but well worth it as our new apartment is awesome! We had to leave a part of Houston that we loved, but are willing to give up location for comfort. We are now living in an apartment about 230 sq ft bigger than out last. Before i forget, our new address is:
7200 Almeda Rd #803
Houston, TX 77054
The area we live in now is consider the medical housing area for Texas Children's and the other hospitals near by. There are a lot of resident housing around us. We are about 1 mile from Reliant Stadium (home of the Houston Texans, and the old Astrodome). I hope to sneak over there at times to watch pre-season practice. We have yet to make it to a Houston Astros game, but we still have time. I think we will try and make an Astros vs. Mets game! Would be sweet as I've grown up loving the Mets. Enough of that...
We are working tonight, then we are off until friday night. Work 5 of the next 6 days, then home to Charlotte for a wedding! That's about it for now.
Not much going on. We hope to have pics up of Disney and possibly our new place. Who knows really. We are so bad about taking pics... Do hope all is great with everyone.. Thanks for keeping up!
In His peace,
Michael and Abby Lee....
We came back to Houston last tueday, then worked the rest of the week. While working 3 nights in a row, we had to move out of our apartment by saturday. It was a very tiring process, but well worth it as our new apartment is awesome! We had to leave a part of Houston that we loved, but are willing to give up location for comfort. We are now living in an apartment about 230 sq ft bigger than out last. Before i forget, our new address is:
7200 Almeda Rd #803
Houston, TX 77054
The area we live in now is consider the medical housing area for Texas Children's and the other hospitals near by. There are a lot of resident housing around us. We are about 1 mile from Reliant Stadium (home of the Houston Texans, and the old Astrodome). I hope to sneak over there at times to watch pre-season practice. We have yet to make it to a Houston Astros game, but we still have time. I think we will try and make an Astros vs. Mets game! Would be sweet as I've grown up loving the Mets. Enough of that...
We are working tonight, then we are off until friday night. Work 5 of the next 6 days, then home to Charlotte for a wedding! That's about it for now.
Not much going on. We hope to have pics up of Disney and possibly our new place. Who knows really. We are so bad about taking pics... Do hope all is great with everyone.. Thanks for keeping up!
In His peace,
Michael and Abby Lee....
Monday, April 27, 2009
We need a vacation!!!
Hello everyone.. Abby and I are doing great. Sure hope you all are doing great as well. Our 1 year anniversary was awesome. Abby surprised me with a round of golf. Ever since getting my new golf clubs, I have been itching to play. Abby also has new clubs, so we both played. We had a lot of fun. Abby has an incredible looking swing, but has not yet put together the swing and solid contact portion of golf. She is getting there! We played at a golf course about an hour north of Houston. We didn't want to play where it was crowded, so that meant leaving Houston as Houston's courses are all crazy busy! The following day Abby surprised with with a wonderful couples full body massage! IT WAS AWESOME!!!! Very relaxing and probably the best massage I've ever had! The best surprise was that Abby cooked me a Steak, twice baked potato, and asparagus dinner! She went out and bought the juiciest steaks and also treated us to a wonderful bottle of wine! 2005 Louis M. Martin. I think that is the name of it... Incredible! A great 1 year... Looking forward to another anniversary celebration! ;)
We are currently working our last 3 nights before our 2 week vacation! These are going to be very long and frustrating shifts. It becomes very difficult to deal with the things we deal with on a regular basis when all you can think about is the vacation you are getting ready to go on. Say a few prayers for us... haha... We are heading to Orlando, Fl with Abby's family! Disney world here we come! We will be down there with all her nieces and nephews. Should be a blast because none of them have ever been to Disney before! Can't wait! We will be there for 4 days, then I'm heading to Raleigh to put down laminate flooring in my home. I will be in Raleigh for 3 1/2 days. Should be a very busy trip to Raleigh, but hopefully a very productive trip! Abby is heading to Southport for a bachelorette party.
We recently found out that we are switching apartments when we get back from vacation! Our current apartment is tiny! I think it is just under 650 sq ft. The one we are moving to is going to be 857 sq ft! A drastic change. Still a 1 bedroom, but we can finally use our dining room table. Right now, our dining room table and chairs back right up to our couch, so only 1 of the 4 chairs are usable! Crazy! We really like the location of our current apartment, so leaving that area will be a bummer! The location of our new apartment will be only 1.5 miles from the hospital, so that is a nice bonus!
This past weekend Abby and I attending a friends Alabama BarBq.. It was great. Then on Sunday, I played golf with 3 other buddies as Abby went shopping for clothes! A great weekend for both. Now back to work for the next 3 nights... Hope they hurry up and end because we are really looking forward to our upcoming vacation!
Hopefully we will have great pics from Disney... be on the look out!
Much love to all....
Michael and Abby Lee...
We are currently working our last 3 nights before our 2 week vacation! These are going to be very long and frustrating shifts. It becomes very difficult to deal with the things we deal with on a regular basis when all you can think about is the vacation you are getting ready to go on. Say a few prayers for us... haha... We are heading to Orlando, Fl with Abby's family! Disney world here we come! We will be down there with all her nieces and nephews. Should be a blast because none of them have ever been to Disney before! Can't wait! We will be there for 4 days, then I'm heading to Raleigh to put down laminate flooring in my home. I will be in Raleigh for 3 1/2 days. Should be a very busy trip to Raleigh, but hopefully a very productive trip! Abby is heading to Southport for a bachelorette party.
We recently found out that we are switching apartments when we get back from vacation! Our current apartment is tiny! I think it is just under 650 sq ft. The one we are moving to is going to be 857 sq ft! A drastic change. Still a 1 bedroom, but we can finally use our dining room table. Right now, our dining room table and chairs back right up to our couch, so only 1 of the 4 chairs are usable! Crazy! We really like the location of our current apartment, so leaving that area will be a bummer! The location of our new apartment will be only 1.5 miles from the hospital, so that is a nice bonus!
This past weekend Abby and I attending a friends Alabama BarBq.. It was great. Then on Sunday, I played golf with 3 other buddies as Abby went shopping for clothes! A great weekend for both. Now back to work for the next 3 nights... Hope they hurry up and end because we are really looking forward to our upcoming vacation!
Hopefully we will have great pics from Disney... be on the look out!
Much love to all....
Michael and Abby Lee...
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Happy Anniversary to my Beautiful Wife...
Well Abby and I celebrated (if you can call it that) our 1st anniversary on Easter Sunday. Happy Easter everyone! Unfortunately we had to work all weekend, so we will hope to do a little more celebrating this coming week. Abby has some fun things planned for us. Can't write about them, because she is being very sneaky! I'm sure we will have a blast. We are currently working out 3rd shift and then back on a 4 day vacation. This is my 4th or 5th straight weekend working, and my 4th straight week of having 4+ days off in a row. That part of it has been really nice! Since my last post....
We didn't make it to the Houston Astros baseball game. Instead we went over to a friends house to watch the National Championship! Congrats UNC! Although it was a very boring game, it was exciting to see the Tarheels win. The following day we headed to Golf Galaxy and, well, let's just say we spent a few dollars on new golf clubs! :) (My early birthday present). Abby also got a set of clubs. We have been to the driving range a couple of times, and having a blast doing so. There are a lot of nice, relatively inexpensive golf courses around here. Abby and I, after practicing on the range for a while, plan to play a lot. There are also a few guys friends around that want a piece of the Hinchy 3 Iron off the tee! Inside joke! Looking forward to playing a lot of golf.
We found the most incredible fast food burrito restaurant. Freebirds is our new Moe's. You all know our obsession with Moes. Well, lets just say I think this place is much much much better than moes. That says a lot! can't wait to go monday night to celebrate our 4 day vacation!
Other than that, not much new! Oh almost forgot.. We did make it out to the friday round of the Shell Houston Open! Was a lot of fun, but unfortunately they didn't allow cameras. Did manage to get one photo right before we went into the gates. Will post said picture soon.
We do hope everyone had a great Easter weekend. We truly missed being with our family. To all those who get to see family on a regular basis.... DON'T TAKE THAT TIME FOR GRANTED!!!! Love and miss you all.... Hope to have some great Anniversary stories for you next week... ;)
In His Peace,
Michael and Abby Lee
We didn't make it to the Houston Astros baseball game. Instead we went over to a friends house to watch the National Championship! Congrats UNC! Although it was a very boring game, it was exciting to see the Tarheels win. The following day we headed to Golf Galaxy and, well, let's just say we spent a few dollars on new golf clubs! :) (My early birthday present). Abby also got a set of clubs. We have been to the driving range a couple of times, and having a blast doing so. There are a lot of nice, relatively inexpensive golf courses around here. Abby and I, after practicing on the range for a while, plan to play a lot. There are also a few guys friends around that want a piece of the Hinchy 3 Iron off the tee! Inside joke! Looking forward to playing a lot of golf.
We found the most incredible fast food burrito restaurant. Freebirds is our new Moe's. You all know our obsession with Moes. Well, lets just say I think this place is much much much better than moes. That says a lot! can't wait to go monday night to celebrate our 4 day vacation!
Other than that, not much new! Oh almost forgot.. We did make it out to the friday round of the Shell Houston Open! Was a lot of fun, but unfortunately they didn't allow cameras. Did manage to get one photo right before we went into the gates. Will post said picture soon.
We do hope everyone had a great Easter weekend. We truly missed being with our family. To all those who get to see family on a regular basis.... DON'T TAKE THAT TIME FOR GRANTED!!!! Love and miss you all.... Hope to have some great Anniversary stories for you next week... ;)
In His Peace,
Michael and Abby Lee
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
I miss my wife...
What's up world... Great to see you here! I am once again at work. Actually my last of 4 nights. Working 4 nights in a row is really taxing on the body and mind. Needless to say, I'm exhausted. To top it all off, this weekend was loaded with great basketball. If you know me, I will cut short my sleep to watch some sports... Go Heels!
Abby and I haven't spent much time together lately. Last week we had opposite schedules, then she went home to Charlotte for a wedding shower. I spent all weekend in the hospital trying to pay for Abby's expensive travel! Na, just kidding... Trying to pay for her expensive clothes shopping! Na, just kidding... trying to pay off our little bit of remaining debt!!! We are almost there! :) I Picked her up from the airport yesterday, then she took me straight to the hospital. I am now off until Saturday, but guess who has to work the next 2 nights? Abby Lee! haha.. So we will not be able to spend much time together until Thursday evening. Sad I know... Will have to plan a cool date night. I am going to stay busy this week as Abby does her share of working. On Tuesday I plan on heading to the driving range. Possibly after purchasing some new golf clubs!!! On Wednesday I'm headed to watch the Rice University Baseball team. Rice is literally right across the street from Texas Children's Hospital, so I'm going to drop Abby off at work, park in the hospital deck and walk to the game. I'm going to meet up with a couple of guys, so that should be fun. On Friday, Abby and I have tickets to catch the 2nd round of the Shell Houston Open golf tournament. 15 of the 20 top ranked golfers will be there... unfortunately no Tiger... Then a week from yesterday (April 6th) we are heading to opening day at Minute Maid Park to watch the Houston Astros take on the Chicago Cubs. That date might change as Monday night is also the National Championship game! Go Heels!
So, we have lots planned and hopefully will take lots of pictures... Other than that, not much new. Oh dang, I almost forgot.... I almost left out the most exciting news!!!! We have extended at Texas Children's Hospital through mid August.... We are both extremely excited. We love TCH and we have grown to love Houston! It will be a very hot and humid summer, but at least we have jobs. The travel nurse job market is horrible right now! So, if you have any desire to experience Houston, you have a place to crash!
Well, just a quick update for all you Hinchy followers... I do hope you are all great. We sure miss everyone! Thanks for reading and look forward to some fun and exciting post to follow... till then...
In His peace,
Beauty and the Beast...
Abby and I haven't spent much time together lately. Last week we had opposite schedules, then she went home to Charlotte for a wedding shower. I spent all weekend in the hospital trying to pay for Abby's expensive travel! Na, just kidding... Trying to pay for her expensive clothes shopping! Na, just kidding... trying to pay off our little bit of remaining debt!!! We are almost there! :) I Picked her up from the airport yesterday, then she took me straight to the hospital. I am now off until Saturday, but guess who has to work the next 2 nights? Abby Lee! haha.. So we will not be able to spend much time together until Thursday evening. Sad I know... Will have to plan a cool date night. I am going to stay busy this week as Abby does her share of working. On Tuesday I plan on heading to the driving range. Possibly after purchasing some new golf clubs!!! On Wednesday I'm headed to watch the Rice University Baseball team. Rice is literally right across the street from Texas Children's Hospital, so I'm going to drop Abby off at work, park in the hospital deck and walk to the game. I'm going to meet up with a couple of guys, so that should be fun. On Friday, Abby and I have tickets to catch the 2nd round of the Shell Houston Open golf tournament. 15 of the 20 top ranked golfers will be there... unfortunately no Tiger... Then a week from yesterday (April 6th) we are heading to opening day at Minute Maid Park to watch the Houston Astros take on the Chicago Cubs. That date might change as Monday night is also the National Championship game! Go Heels!
So, we have lots planned and hopefully will take lots of pictures... Other than that, not much new. Oh dang, I almost forgot.... I almost left out the most exciting news!!!! We have extended at Texas Children's Hospital through mid August.... We are both extremely excited. We love TCH and we have grown to love Houston! It will be a very hot and humid summer, but at least we have jobs. The travel nurse job market is horrible right now! So, if you have any desire to experience Houston, you have a place to crash!
Well, just a quick update for all you Hinchy followers... I do hope you are all great. We sure miss everyone! Thanks for reading and look forward to some fun and exciting post to follow... till then...
In His peace,
Beauty and the Beast...
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Houston Livestock and Rodeo...
Howdy ya'll.... I hope everyone is doing great. We sure are. We had a very fun week. It all started off with a trip to the Houston Livestock show and Rodeo. Let me just say, you haven't lived if you haven't been to the Houston Rodeo! haha. It sure was interesting. Let me first begin by telling you how we ended up getting in. Abby and I thought that we could just roll up there around 6pm and buy tickets. Right before we left our house around 4:30 I realized that the ticket windows closed at 5. We were hurrying down there and noticed it was 5pm and we still had a while to go. Well, as we were sitting at stoplights and waiting on people to make left turns and right turns (you know how it is.. when you need to get somewhere you hit every light, wait behind every person making a left or a right), I was listening to 97.5 (the local ESPN radio station) and Abby was reading a book. 97.5 was airing from a local Hooters. They were talking about the rodeo and they were talking about March Madness that started this weekend. They then mentioned how you could get free tickets to get into the Rodeo and to see Darius Rucker (lead singer from Hootie and the Blowfish turned country music star). They said, "come on down to Hooters and mention the secret word Bracketology and receive free tickets to see Darius Rucker." SCORE! We had already passed hooters, but quickly made a u-turn. They ended up giving us 2 free tickets to the rodeo/darius rucker concert, 2 97.5 cozies, and a 97.5 towel. haha. Pinch me now! :) 
The tickets were not quite nosebleed tickets, but they were up there. Heck, they were free. These tickets allowed us to get into the carnival, livestock section and the concert. We entered into a whole new world. We saw kids carrying around lasso's, tight jeans, cowboy hats, and huge belt buckles to name a few of the Texan ways. (I was going to rock all the aforementioned articles of clothing, but....) Needless to say, Abby and I had a blast people watching. The concert ended up being pretty sweet. It followed the Rodeo portion. The rodeo was something else. The best part of the rodeo was at the end. They had 4-6 year old kids trying to ride on sheep! These sheep would come barrelling out of the gate with these little kids hanging onto the sheep's fur for dear life. It was awesome. Kids would get up crying, laughing, giving the rodeo clowns high fives, but mostly they came up crying! Who does that to their 4 year old... haha... My boy would be down, that's for sure! haha.. Darius Rucker was pretty good in concert. He sang some of his country "hits," and also rocked out to some old school hootie! We didn't stay for the entire concert as we wanted to experience the carnival portion of the rodeo! 
The carnival was rather small, compared to the NC State fair, but it was pretty sweet. We didn't play any games or ride any rides, but we did enjoy watching all the unique individuals that were around us. Very very interesting I tell ya! 
We did enjoy some of the great Texas food! We had to work the next couple of days, but had Thursday and Friday nights off. Friday we had to hit up Verizon to get Abby a new phone! Man her phone is sweet! Not sure what it is, but it's very fancy! Friday night we met up with 3 other couples for dinner at this amazing Italian restaurant. After enjoying dinner, we headed over to Swirl. Swirl is an amazing yogurt bar with the best toppings ever! Toppings like cookie dough, Reese's cup, m&m's, etc... They weigh your cup by the pound. My yogurt weight is about 1/8 the total weight of the cup... why you ask? 2 words for you.... REESE'S CUP!!! good thing there is no Peter pan Peanut butter! I would be broke! We have been very blessed with the couples we have met. They are all young and a lot of fun to hang out with. Hoping to continue getting together more often. Now we are back to work. I have had a very busy night. Funny story... so I'm taking care of this 5 year old girl who just had an operation on her right knee. Well 5 year old are very very proud of being potty trained! We told her that it would be easier and less painful to just pee in her diaper. let's just say she is not down with that. I had to pick her up and carry her into this tiny bathroom so that she could use the toilet. Okay little girl, let's go! I have her hold onto my neck as I gently pick her up. I'm being very gentle because of her knee. She has a little drain coming out of her knee that is collecting all the blood that is draining. So, I have this 5 year old around my neck, one hand is carrying her by her back, the other is under both her legs trying to mind this drain. I finally get her to the bathroom which is about 5 feet away and TINY! I shimmy her onto the toilet and I'm standing to her left. My right foot is to her left side and my left foot is right in front of her. I thought I had a great position to keep her safe and secure as she was a "BIG GIRL" and used the toilet. Before I know it, she is peeing straight forward like a dang boy! All of a sudden her mom was saying "watch out she is peeing on the ground!" I look down and sure enough it was all over the ground and all over my brand new MBT work shoes! (look up MBT shoes, they are the best for your body when you are on your feet for hours) DADGUMMET!!!!! I never knew girls can pee straight ahead.. I guess you learn something new every day! Till next time......
Love to you all...
In His peace,
Michael and Abby Lee....
Monday, March 9, 2009
"I went Skydiving, I went...?"
Hello everyone... well well well.. if you haven't heard already, let me tell you. Abby and I did the un-thinkable on Friday. We went skydiving! That's right people, Abby and I jumped out of a perfectly good airplane at 14,000 feet. The reason for our madness, well it's a long story. When Abby and I first started dating, we did the.. you know, likes and dislikes game to find out more about one another. We discussed how both of us wanted to try skydiving, at least once in our lifetime. That same year, for my birthday, Abby surprised me with a voucher for 1 tandem skydive adventure to be used anywhere in the country. I was so thrilled. She mentioned at the time that she was unsure about whether or not she would go, but I knew I had time to convince her. At that time I weighed a little over 240 lbs. (I was chunky) I called up one skydiving place and they told me that their weight limit was 240 lbs. Let's just say I wasn't about to test fate while testing the weight limits. I decided to wait and go some other time. Well, about a year and a half later, I'm still chunky but only 216 lbs of chunk and knew I could now use my voucher with confidence. This voucher had a 2 year expiration date, so the time was approaching. I looked up the places to cash in said voucher and sure enough there was a sweet skydiving facility about 30 miles south of Houston called Skydive Spaceland. I called them and made the appointment. We were originally scheduling to go last Wednesday, but it was to windy in the Houston area. We decided to push the testing fate back to Friday.
Friday is upon us and I had to wake Abby up early to get there by 11am, our scheduled jump time. We arrive and fill out lots and lots of paperwork that continuously said how we can't sue for damages, i.e. DEATH or SERIOUS BODILY HARM! Abby and I were not amused, but knew we had to sign and sign and sign away. After finishing all the paperwork we watched a 30 minute video about how we were putting our lives at risk and how we can't sue skydive spaceland. So not only did we have to read pages and pages of information about this, this guy also spent a good 10 minutes of the 30 minute skydiving instructional video explaining possible death. SWEET! We finished up the video to learn that our jump time was being pushed back due to high gusting winds. A little knowledge for all you skydiving novices. Certain facilities will only allow jumps if the wind gusts are below 30 m.p.h. Certain skydivers will only jump if the wind gusts are below a certain level. Some require below 25 mph, others 30 mph and some brave 35mph gust. We later learned it all has to do with the landing part of the jump and how experienced your instructor is at landing with such gusts. So, when there is a measured gust of wind greater than 30mph, you have to wait 30 minutes from that point without having another gust of wind greater than 30mph. Make sense? These 30 minute increments were testing on the psyche! We waited a few rounds of 30 before we had confirmed lift off. Not only was this our first time, but we also had the enjoyment of having to deal with gusty winds. A sure fire way to increase our already apprehensive minds.
Finally we get the call. Will all skydivers jumping at said time please report to so and so area. This is it... Time to get ready to jump. We suited up, took some pictures, filmed some scenes, listened to all the tandem skydivers tease Abby about how her suit was unsafe, and after some last minute pep talks we were off to the plane. Said Video (scenes) will be up as soon as we figure out how to burn what's on our dvd onto the computer.
The plane is taxing as 4 tandem groups, and 3 videographers pile into this tiny plane. Abby and her partner are in first, I'm in second. We sit side by side as the other groups join us. We are jammed into this small plane. Nuts on butts is a fair term for most of the groups! The bay door closes and we are off. We take off on the runway heading up to 14,000 feet. We joke some more on the way up, trying to shake off the nerves. We film some more video, take more pictures, the time is near.... Our instructors begin to attach us to themselves joking that they hope they have done a good job. "Not funny dude!" We run through our responsibilities one last time. Abby tells her instructor, "I'm not jumping out of the plane, you are going to have to push me!!!" "No problem," her instructor tells her with a laugh.
"60" the pilot yells out. 60 seconds until we reach 14,000 feet. 60, 59, 58, 57 my mind starts to count. The bay door opens and we all get this rush of cold air upon us. Man it was cold!!! The first couple of groups begin to jump. "I love you Abby," I yell. "I love you too," Abby says. We grab hands and give each other one last kiss! Our instructors tell us to grab hold of our harnesses as they proceed to push us closer to the door. Abby goes slightly ahead of me. I watch her get closer and closer to the bay door. There she is standing at the edge! Her instructor begins to yell, 1, 2, and 3...... "GO ABBY!!!!" I yell and she "gets pushed" out of the plane! She begins to fall and fall and fall as I creep up to the bay door. It's my turn! The wind is howling around us, which makes it hard to hear. 1, 2, and 3.......
I jump and begin to flip all over the place. I don't know where I am. Am I up, am I facing down, "where am I!" I am soon tapped on the shoulders by my instructor which signals that it is okay for me to let go from my harness and assume the "flying position." Hands out to the side in a 90 degree angle. Also at this time I am suppose to push my pelvis downward kicking my legs back. I didn't remember to do that. I was also suppose to check my altimeter. didn't do that either. Are you kidding me with all this crap! I just jumped out of an airplane at 14,000 feet and i'm looking straight down at the EARTH... I begin to realize that I was falling at around 120mph. The wind was flying up my nose, (you can only imagine what kind of cold air was going up this huge nose) I had to concentrate on breathing, and I was freezing! It was honestly very hard to breath. I continue to yell in excitement. The camera guy is flying down with us trying to capture my fall. He approaches me and I give him a high five! I try to pull a superman pose, but quickly go back to the "falling position" in fear of sending us in a tumble. What a rush! I finally remember to check my altimeter (which I was suppose to check every 10 seconds or so). I think I remember for the first time about 30 seconds into my free fall. 9000 feet, 8000 feet, 7000 feet... At this point I am suppose to fixate on the altimeter because time to pull the chute is 6000 feet! Thank God I remembered this much! At 6000 feet I am suppose to wave off the camera guy to signal my need to pull the chute! Oops I forgot... Right arm back, "where is the knob, where is the knob..." I found it. PULL, PULL... It is a lot harder to pull then I thought. At this point I thought to myself, "surely my instructor is helping me out." (come to find out by the video that he DIDN'T help me pull the cord. He was saluting for the camera! Sorry joker) 5000 feet! I GOT IT... I quickly felt the cord release and away the chute goes! "PLEASE OPEN," I thought to myself... This is it.. Live or Die! At that point I felt us quickly slow down. I look up, and what did I see....? The most beautiful picture in the world. One beautiful fully extended parachute! PRAISE GOD! As Jonesy once said, "I defeated Death!" haha... Almost 1 full minute of free falling has come to an END!
I went from falling at 120+ mph (I give it a plus because I was the last to jump out of the plane, but the first to land. I was moving!)
Once the chute opened, it was a completely different feel. You could hear, it was peacefully calm, it was warm... What a difference! My instructor and I just chatted about skydiving and life. It was awesome. After about 5 minutes of descending, trying to steer the parachute (harder than it looks), and enjoying the peace and quiet, it was time to prepare to land. We went through a quick recap and then it was game time. Here we go... approaching approaching approaching... We push down on the parachute to slow us all the way down, planning on landing on our feet.... well we didn't slow down and we didn't land on our feet.. CRASH.. right on my coccyx! I mean we ate it hard! We come sliding in landing right on top of an ant hill. Thank God I did what I was suppose to (keep my legs and feet straight out in a pike position) or else I would have broken my legs. The people who were helping with the landings (because it was so windy) quickly began gaining control of our parachute and then all I hear is, "GET UP GET UP, You are sitting on an ant hill." haha.. Some lady started slapping my butt! YEAH BABY! ;) We quickly got on our feet and rejoice with glee! My feet and coccyx hurt, but I was so pumped from the entire jump that I didn't care! I made it.... I quickly run through a post jump interview with my videographer while trying to locate Abby! "Here she comes," I thought to myself. She too made it... A successful jump! What do I see with Abby's landing, you might ask? Well, she and her partner landed safely on their feet as if they were landing on a pillow! What happened to me was this. You remember way back in my story where I talked about the gusts of wind? Well, let's just say I hit one of those gusts which held us up and then "dropped us!" Or at least that's what the other people said. They told me it rarely happens! Well thank God it happened to me! What and experience!
I ran over to Abby and gave her a huge hug and kiss... We starting reliving our experiences with one another... "We did it!" haha... Skydiving! What an experience. I hope I was able to recreate just a hint of what we experienced. I definitely recommend trying it. Everyone asks this question... Will you do it again? We tell everyone that we would definitely do it again. Not so much on a whim to go skydiving, like "hey Abby you want to go skydiving today?" I don't think so... But, if a group of people wanted to go, we would go! Not sure how many times I want to test Fate! Although our instructors each had over 4000 jumps to their names! They go up, on average, 3-5 times during the week and 5-10 times during the weekend days. That is insane!
Well, I hope you all enjoyed a recap of our skydiving experience. Be on the lookout for pictures and hopefully a link to view the video of our jump. We hope you are all doing great. We sure are.. We are loving Houston and loving Texas Children's. Next week Abby heads home for an engagement party and I fly to Vegas with Corey and Van. We should both have wonderful trips! We love and miss you all....
Michael and Abby "the bad ass" Lee
until our next amazing adventure.....
Friday is upon us and I had to wake Abby up early to get there by 11am, our scheduled jump time. We arrive and fill out lots and lots of paperwork that continuously said how we can't sue for damages, i.e. DEATH or SERIOUS BODILY HARM! Abby and I were not amused, but knew we had to sign and sign and sign away. After finishing all the paperwork we watched a 30 minute video about how we were putting our lives at risk and how we can't sue skydive spaceland. So not only did we have to read pages and pages of information about this, this guy also spent a good 10 minutes of the 30 minute skydiving instructional video explaining possible death. SWEET! We finished up the video to learn that our jump time was being pushed back due to high gusting winds. A little knowledge for all you skydiving novices. Certain facilities will only allow jumps if the wind gusts are below 30 m.p.h. Certain skydivers will only jump if the wind gusts are below a certain level. Some require below 25 mph, others 30 mph and some brave 35mph gust. We later learned it all has to do with the landing part of the jump and how experienced your instructor is at landing with such gusts. So, when there is a measured gust of wind greater than 30mph, you have to wait 30 minutes from that point without having another gust of wind greater than 30mph. Make sense? These 30 minute increments were testing on the psyche! We waited a few rounds of 30 before we had confirmed lift off. Not only was this our first time, but we also had the enjoyment of having to deal with gusty winds. A sure fire way to increase our already apprehensive minds.
Finally we get the call. Will all skydivers jumping at said time please report to so and so area. This is it... Time to get ready to jump. We suited up, took some pictures, filmed some scenes, listened to all the tandem skydivers tease Abby about how her suit was unsafe, and after some last minute pep talks we were off to the plane. Said Video (scenes) will be up as soon as we figure out how to burn what's on our dvd onto the computer.
The plane is taxing as 4 tandem groups, and 3 videographers pile into this tiny plane. Abby and her partner are in first, I'm in second. We sit side by side as the other groups join us. We are jammed into this small plane. Nuts on butts is a fair term for most of the groups! The bay door closes and we are off. We take off on the runway heading up to 14,000 feet. We joke some more on the way up, trying to shake off the nerves. We film some more video, take more pictures, the time is near.... Our instructors begin to attach us to themselves joking that they hope they have done a good job. "Not funny dude!" We run through our responsibilities one last time. Abby tells her instructor, "I'm not jumping out of the plane, you are going to have to push me!!!" "No problem," her instructor tells her with a laugh.
"60" the pilot yells out. 60 seconds until we reach 14,000 feet. 60, 59, 58, 57 my mind starts to count. The bay door opens and we all get this rush of cold air upon us. Man it was cold!!! The first couple of groups begin to jump. "I love you Abby," I yell. "I love you too," Abby says. We grab hands and give each other one last kiss! Our instructors tell us to grab hold of our harnesses as they proceed to push us closer to the door. Abby goes slightly ahead of me. I watch her get closer and closer to the bay door. There she is standing at the edge! Her instructor begins to yell, 1, 2, and 3...... "GO ABBY!!!!" I yell and she "gets pushed" out of the plane! She begins to fall and fall and fall as I creep up to the bay door. It's my turn! The wind is howling around us, which makes it hard to hear. 1, 2, and 3.......
I jump and begin to flip all over the place. I don't know where I am. Am I up, am I facing down, "where am I!" I am soon tapped on the shoulders by my instructor which signals that it is okay for me to let go from my harness and assume the "flying position." Hands out to the side in a 90 degree angle. Also at this time I am suppose to push my pelvis downward kicking my legs back. I didn't remember to do that. I was also suppose to check my altimeter. didn't do that either. Are you kidding me with all this crap! I just jumped out of an airplane at 14,000 feet and i'm looking straight down at the EARTH... I begin to realize that I was falling at around 120mph. The wind was flying up my nose, (you can only imagine what kind of cold air was going up this huge nose) I had to concentrate on breathing, and I was freezing! It was honestly very hard to breath. I continue to yell in excitement. The camera guy is flying down with us trying to capture my fall. He approaches me and I give him a high five! I try to pull a superman pose, but quickly go back to the "falling position" in fear of sending us in a tumble. What a rush! I finally remember to check my altimeter (which I was suppose to check every 10 seconds or so). I think I remember for the first time about 30 seconds into my free fall. 9000 feet, 8000 feet, 7000 feet... At this point I am suppose to fixate on the altimeter because time to pull the chute is 6000 feet! Thank God I remembered this much! At 6000 feet I am suppose to wave off the camera guy to signal my need to pull the chute! Oops I forgot... Right arm back, "where is the knob, where is the knob..." I found it. PULL, PULL... It is a lot harder to pull then I thought. At this point I thought to myself, "surely my instructor is helping me out." (come to find out by the video that he DIDN'T help me pull the cord. He was saluting for the camera! Sorry joker) 5000 feet! I GOT IT... I quickly felt the cord release and away the chute goes! "PLEASE OPEN," I thought to myself... This is it.. Live or Die! At that point I felt us quickly slow down. I look up, and what did I see....? The most beautiful picture in the world. One beautiful fully extended parachute! PRAISE GOD! As Jonesy once said, "I defeated Death!" haha... Almost 1 full minute of free falling has come to an END!
I went from falling at 120+ mph (I give it a plus because I was the last to jump out of the plane, but the first to land. I was moving!)
Once the chute opened, it was a completely different feel. You could hear, it was peacefully calm, it was warm... What a difference! My instructor and I just chatted about skydiving and life. It was awesome. After about 5 minutes of descending, trying to steer the parachute (harder than it looks), and enjoying the peace and quiet, it was time to prepare to land. We went through a quick recap and then it was game time. Here we go... approaching approaching approaching... We push down on the parachute to slow us all the way down, planning on landing on our feet.... well we didn't slow down and we didn't land on our feet.. CRASH.. right on my coccyx! I mean we ate it hard! We come sliding in landing right on top of an ant hill. Thank God I did what I was suppose to (keep my legs and feet straight out in a pike position) or else I would have broken my legs. The people who were helping with the landings (because it was so windy) quickly began gaining control of our parachute and then all I hear is, "GET UP GET UP, You are sitting on an ant hill." haha.. Some lady started slapping my butt! YEAH BABY! ;) We quickly got on our feet and rejoice with glee! My feet and coccyx hurt, but I was so pumped from the entire jump that I didn't care! I made it.... I quickly run through a post jump interview with my videographer while trying to locate Abby! "Here she comes," I thought to myself. She too made it... A successful jump! What do I see with Abby's landing, you might ask? Well, she and her partner landed safely on their feet as if they were landing on a pillow! What happened to me was this. You remember way back in my story where I talked about the gusts of wind? Well, let's just say I hit one of those gusts which held us up and then "dropped us!" Or at least that's what the other people said. They told me it rarely happens! Well thank God it happened to me! What and experience!
I ran over to Abby and gave her a huge hug and kiss... We starting reliving our experiences with one another... "We did it!" haha... Skydiving! What an experience. I hope I was able to recreate just a hint of what we experienced. I definitely recommend trying it. Everyone asks this question... Will you do it again? We tell everyone that we would definitely do it again. Not so much on a whim to go skydiving, like "hey Abby you want to go skydiving today?" I don't think so... But, if a group of people wanted to go, we would go! Not sure how many times I want to test Fate! Although our instructors each had over 4000 jumps to their names! They go up, on average, 3-5 times during the week and 5-10 times during the weekend days. That is insane!
Well, I hope you all enjoyed a recap of our skydiving experience. Be on the lookout for pictures and hopefully a link to view the video of our jump. We hope you are all doing great. We sure are.. We are loving Houston and loving Texas Children's. Next week Abby heads home for an engagement party and I fly to Vegas with Corey and Van. We should both have wonderful trips! We love and miss you all....
Michael and Abby "the bad ass" Lee
until our next amazing adventure.....
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Sorry...
Howdy ya'll.... we have arrived in houston. let's be honest, we have been here for about 3 weeks now. I have been extremely slack on my duties to update this post. Honestly, I thought that no one really read it anymore, but I was proven wrong. thanks Jenny! I hope everyone is doing great. We sure are! We had a wonderful trip to Houston. We ended our assignment in LA and immediately went on a cruise! We found that we were going to be homeless because our assignment start date in Houston was going to be 2 1/2 weeks from our end date in LA. Unfortunately we were only allowed 2 days of lodging in our LA apartment before we were kicked out! The good thing is that we found a cruise deal. I think I talked about this in my last post. A recap: We went on a 7 night cruise to Mexico for roughly just under 400 a person! It left from Long Beach, CA which is about 15 minutes south of LA. DONE DEAL! We had a wonderful trip! We ate a ton, play lots of 3 card poker (and actually paid for one of our trips with our winnings), lounged around the pool, and explored some new areas of Mexico! Cruises are awesome....
After the cruise was my big 1/2 marathon! I finished with a time of 2 hours 3 minutes and 13 seconds! I know that time is not record breaking, but for someone who hates to run, I was pleased I finished! We stayed in Newport Beach, CA for about 3 days leading up to and after the 1/2 marathon. Newport beach, Huntington beach (site of 1/2 marathon) and Long beach are all very close together. You basically drive down the Pacific Coast Highway and go from one beach town to the next. The most incredible little cities I have ever been to. We hope to one day head back there for an extended stay. Very rich towns though. I think I saw more Bentley's in my 3 day stay in Newport Beach then I have ever seen in my entire life. Unreal money out there! Had a great time...
We left that CA area reluctantly heading towards Houston. Our drive from LA to Houston consisted of 1 road... Interstate 10 was going to be our friend for the next 1600+ miles. We made a quick stop right outside of Phoenix to visit this restaurant my boy Snacks told me about. You all need to google this restaurant, or better yet go on youtube and watch a special some food channel did on it. Type in the words, "Heart attack grille." You will be amazed. I was a wimp and went for the double cheeseburger. I couldn't even finish it. It wasn't because of the size (although it was huge). It was more of the grease! The first few bites were the best bites I have ever had when it comes to eating a burger! INCREDIBLE!!!! The longer it took to eat, the greasier the burger and sloppier the bun got. haha.. You took a bite of this burger and you can feel the grease squirt into your mouth! I guess I just knew how much junk I was putting into my body, and I started grossing myself out. If I weren't just in a mind set of trying to train for a 1/2 marathon and trying to be all healthy (well as healthy as you can be without eating vegetables) I probably would have been more apt to finish it. Oh well, an experience non the less.
We continued our venture down I-10 stopping a couple of times before reaching San Antonio. At this point we still had no place to live. We knew we had an apartment to move into on Saturday, but it was now tuesday and we had to make a decision to park it for a few days. San Antonio was right along I-10 and we heard nothing but great things about that city. Well let me tell you that all we have heard was correct.. An amazing and very fun city, well at least the Riverwalk and Alamo portion of town. We stayed just a couple of blocks away from the Riverwalk for a few nights. We had a great time eating in the great restaurants along the river and even ventured out dancing one night. We had a blast. Then it was on to Houston.
2 1/2 hours later we arrived in Houston, thankfully not hitting traffic as we searched for our apartment. We have heard that Houston traffic is bad, but heck nothing will ever be worse than LA. We open the door of our apartment in the Rincon Apartment complex to find a dirty and very small apartment. Abby had a quick little melt down, but quickly bounced back to realize that we have no choice but to pile in this little place for the next bit of our travels. It is about 650 sq ft. Not bad for 1 person, but when you count the both of us, it gets cramped. Thank God we love being around each other, or this would not be so fun! The area of town is great. We live in "Midtown." From what the locals tell us, this area is very trendy and fun with a younger crowd. SWEET! We do love it here and have ventured out only a few times so far. Restaurants everywhere! Supposedly Houston has the most restaurants per square mile (or something like that) then any other city in the US. What i'm trying to say is this: there are restaurants everywhere! I hope to frequent all of them! :) We have already found an amazing Italian restaurant, Tex-Mex restaurant, and a Pei Wei. All ideal for survival... haha..
We made it to the hospital which is about 4.5 miles away. So far so good! We love it there. A completely different form of nursing then we are use to. Let me try to explains. Our recent assignments have been with very sick kids. We had the extra worry about them not making it through the night. Here, the worry is more of task oriented. We have 6 kids which is 2 more than we have ever taken, but they are not very sick kids. Our patient population is like this. A healthy kid steps on a nail and needs medication through an IV. They have to come into the hospital to receive such medication. There you have it. A brief and simple explanation. A different busy, a different mind set. We love it! haha.. We are working on different floors for the first time in our travel career, but they are run by the same nurse manager. They have been amazing with working with our schedule and they have been very open and friendly! We are known as the "married couple!" :)
Let's see.. what fun things have we done in Houston so far. Well, the Houston Zoo is about the only thing. We plan on going to the HOUSTON RODEO sometime this. We are going to head down to Rice University. That campus is supposedly beautiful. There is a lot to do around here, so hopefully I will have some fun posts for you to read. We have off until saturday, then work saturday, sunday, monday, tuesday nights. I then head to Las Vegas with my 2 best friends, and Abby heads home for an engagement party for her best friend. Then it is back to work to pay off my loses in Vegas. Well, let's hope not! Thanks for reading and once again I'm sorry for not keeping up with this over the past month. Now that I have been reminded that people actually read it and care about what we are doing, I will keep it up! We love and miss you all. thanks so much for keeping in touch with us. You have no idea how much we appreciate it. When you are away from everyone you love, it gets really important to hear from your friends and family on a regular basis. Have a great week and we will chat soon!
In His peace,
Love to you all...
Michael and Abby Lee
p.s. We are going skydiving this friday (had to change it because of the wind). Just don't tell our parents! They know we are going, but don't want to know when so they don't have to worry! Aren't they great!?
Friday, January 16, 2009
Howdy Ya'll...
No that is not my attempt to sound southern, it is my attempt to sound TEXAN!!! That's right people, Abby and I are headed to HOUSTON TEXAS... We received the good news earlier this week and are currently working on getting a contract written. The reason for the contract delay is due to vacation time we are requesting. You see, when we sign contracts with hospitals we can enter time off for upcoming events. We are heading to Disney world with Abby's family sometime in the spring, so are trying to get the dates so that we will be assured that time off. The life of a travel nurse... Makes it nice! Speaking of vacation.... Abby and I booked at 7 night cruise to Mexico. We are heading out next Saturday (the 24th of Jan) for a nice getaway! We found a steal deal for this cruise through Norwegian! WE are very excited. We are being kicked out of our apartment on the 26Th of Jan and have to find a place to live until Feb 1st (the 1/2 marathon). We were thinking about heading to Las Vegas, but this cruise deal we found would be the cheapest! So, off we go! Just trying to do our part in helping to stimulate the economy! :) The rough part of this trip is going to be this.... I still have to run 13.1 miles on Feb 1st. We get off the cruise on Jan 31st.... What does that mean? Well, if you have ever been on a cruise before, you know how much food you can consume! I need to try and limit the binging. haha.. that's a joke, but i figure i can run a few times to help keep in shape! Yep, I am still on schedule to run my first 1/2 marathon. Abby, unfortunately, is going to have to back out of this race due to hip issues. Hoping she rests up to try again! Don't worry, she will be there supporting me and taking lots of pictures of me being out run by 80 year old men... Thank God for picture cropping! :) After the 1/2, we will try to find somewhere to watch the Superbowl.. Although, what a disappointment for both the Giants and Panthers! I truly was depressed after last weekend. Then on the 2nd we will begin our venture to Houston. We figure it will take us about 1100 miles. We hope to stop off in Phoenix to see old friends, then slowly make our way to our new home. Well, we are at work and I am needed by one of my patients. I do hope all is great with you. Please keep in touch. We love and miss you all...
In His peace,
Michael and Abby Lee....
In His peace,
Michael and Abby Lee....
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