Fire Fire Fire...

Hello all.... How goes it? Abby and I are hanging in there. We are at work right now. Good times! Tonight is shift 4 in 6 days. I'm very tired to say the least. Abby has been sick the past couple of days, so she has missed a shift trying to recover. We think she is finally getting better, so keep your fingers crossed as it is very lonely and boring when the other is sick. We depend on each others company so much, that it is not fun when the other is down and out. Come on Abby, you can do it!!! :) As most of you have probably heard by now, LA is surrounded by wildfires. The smell of the air surrounding us is very strong. We are about 20 miles south and 20 miles north of where the fires are. Those santa anna winds sure do create a stir. I just hope Oprah's puppies are safe.. Take shelter little yappers..
What have we been up to you might ask?!!! Well, lets see. I surprised Abby with a little romantic dinner action on Tuesday night. We went to this place called Yamashiro's in North Hollywood. http://www.yamashirorestaurant.com/ You have to travel up near the Hollywood sign to get there. It was amazing. The view was awesome and the food was too. We enjoyed a couple of cold beverages, then went to the second part of her surprise. We saw "Wicked" at the Pantage theatre on Hollywood Blvd. I'm not the biggest play fan, but this play was awesome. Go see it if playing in a theatre near you. http://www.wickedthemusical.com/ It was really fun because we got dressed up and just enjoyed a romantic night out together. Always fun to do. Afterwards we just headed back to our apartment and crashed. that night Abby became sick, and so the past few days have been uneventful. We are both training for a 1/2 marathon at the end of January. Abby has been slowed due to being sick. My last 2 runs have eclipsed 3 miles each. I'm proud of myself, but a big 4 miler looms near. If you don't know me, lets just say that I'm not the most accomplished runner. "Let's be honest (a favorite saying by my beautiful wife)" i hate running, but figure this would be a good way to get back in shape. The average man would probably just be like, hey lets train for a 5K. Naaaa, i skip that silly crap and head straight to the 1/2 marathon! High aspirations by yours truly! Wish me luck.
Enough of the good news... I have been asking everyone to keep my Grandpa in their prayers, and I thank you all for doing so. I just received notice that he has been placed on Hospice a couple of days ago. We are waiting for THE phone call, and then we will probably be heading to upstate NY for a few days to be with my family. Very sad times in my family, but he will be 94 at the end of this month, so he has lived a very amazing, full filled, and wonderful life. He sure will be missed by all whom have had the opportunity to meet him. By far the greatest man I have ever known! Keep praying for easy and pain free travels to a better life! Also, please pray for my grandma and family as we go through this time. Also, please be praying for my oldest sister as she too is sick.. thanks for the prayers.. sorry for having so many!
I am picking up an overtime shift tomorrow (Sunday) night, then will have a few days off. A much needed break. Oh don't worry, i will be staying awake after tonight's shift to pull for the Giants against the Ravens.. One of the few perks of the West coast.. Football comes on at 10am. CA actually has been very accommodating to a Giants fan. In NC the Giants games are ALWAYS blacked out due to Panthers or Redskin games. It's nice having 2 really crappy teams (raiders/chargers) out here. CA football fans want to watch good football I guess.... ;) haha.. at least that's what i think...
Hope everyone is doing great.... Enjoy the rest of your weekend. Till next time....
In His peace,
Michael and Abby Lee....
p.s. thanks for the many prayers!
p.s.s we are going to try and make 1 of 2 or both movie premies this week. "Bolt" and "Australia" are both having movie premiers right down the road from us. We hope to be in attendance. Not in the audience, but in the audience to watch the stars arrive. I sure do hope Oprah's dogs make it...

Stars sighting...

It's official... Abby and I have officially spotted our first stars in Hollywood. The first star we spotted was Travis Stork (well, he's not really a star, but he's been on TV a bunch). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Travis_Lane_Stork We sat next to him outside a coffee shop while we were waiting on go on The Price is Right. The next star we spotted was later that night. We were finishing up dinner at Maggiano's in Hollywood and as we started to walk out Abigail Breslin. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abigail_Breslin She was a cute little girl who seemed so excited to be at Maggiano's. She must have seen us and been just beside herself... after all, we are stars now! haha.. Then after dinner we headed to a local star hot spot called The Grove. http://www.thegrovela.com/ We were just walking around enjoying the shops and people watching after dinner when we spotted Tom Bergeron. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0074477/ He was eating dinner at a restaurant in the Grove shopping area. So, as you can see the stars are out. I know that all but 1 are b-list stars, but stars nonetheless. Sorry no pictures or autographs at this time.



So, the PRICE IS RIGHT!!! Now that was a blast. We spent all day there, but unfortunately we weren't picked to be participants. We did however get VIP seating during the early show which was aired today, Friday the 7th. We stayed up this morning to watch and see if we could spot ourselves and sure enough we were able to. Pretty neat I tell ya. The process of getting on the Price is Right is very lengthy. You have to arrive early that day to get a "order of arrival" pass to assure your spot in the audience. If you are lucky enough to get there early enough to get an order of arrival pass whose numbers are called, then you get in line to fill out a few forms and receive your name badge. Then you get in another line to get interviewed. What happens is this: They line you up in groups of 10-15 people and these 2 people chat with you about who you are, where you are from, what you like to do for fun, etc.... It takes only a few minutes and from this interview they choose the lucky participants to appear on that episode. I guess Abby and I weren't interesting or spunky enough to get picked. We used our travelling pediatric nursing line and talked about saving lives, but I guess that is boring to them. We will come up with something good next time to attract their attention. After the interview you go through a metal detector and then wait in another line. So, you arrive no later than 8 or so in the morning and then you are waiting in line until around 12:45 when they decide to let you into the studio. A long day, but well worth it. Once inside you are placed in areas to make sure the entire audience is filled. The studio is very small. I believe someone said it seats just over 300 people. The stage is also very small, which makes for a nice viewing of the show. They have loud music playing and everyone is very excited and having a great time. Then you are greeted by the announcer who gets you even more excited. Remember, at this point you still think you have a good chance of being called. Then the show starts... The announcer starts calling the first 4 people down... You get even more excited... Then Drew Carey comes out and the place goes nuts.. You can't really hear how loud that place is when Drew Carey is speaking, but believe me it is extremely loud. Let the games begin. To be honest, when the show is just about over and you realized that you are not going to be a contestant, you develop this hurt inside you. You become bitter and you just want to leave. Don't get me wrong, watching the show is a blast, but your expectations are shattered. Better luck next time! We then decided to stay for the second taping of the day to try our luck again. Still no luck. We will get those people who pick the contestants if it's the last thing we do!!! haha.. That's pretty much about it.



On Wednesday we ventured just outside of Los Angeles to beautiful Santa Monica. We first went and walked around on the Santa Monica Pier, then ventured up to this place called the Promenade. There we found a strip of shops, restaurants and more people watching. It was a nice night away from LA. We hope to venture there again. Check out these websites for pictures as Abby and I didn't do a great job in taking pictures ourselves. We will do better next time. http://www.santamonicapier.org/ Also check out: http://thirdstreetpromenade.org/visitors/index.html



there you have it.. Abby and I had 6 days off and took full advantage. We also began our training for this Half Marathon... http://www.carlsbadmarathon.com/site5.aspx That's right people, we are going to run this joker. I tried once before and never made it, but I'm going to make this one. We printed out a running schedule on runnersworld.com and hope to dominate this race, that's if running doesn't dominate us. Week 1 down, now starting week 2 of 14. haha.. Good luck with that is right. We just need something to look forward to when working out, so hopefully this will be the motivation we need. We will keep you posted on our conditioning.



Well, that's about it. Back to work! We finally received a paycheck, so we are very excited. I am going to pick up a couple of Overtime shifts the next few weeks to help bolster the bank account. It is just about Christmas time and between my family and Abby's family we have an extensive list of nieces and nephews to look out for. Remember that it is Abby's Birthday coming up on the 21st of this month.. Send her something nice! I am going to surprise, her with something she will love, this coming Tuesday. A little early, but it will be our only chance to do what I have planned. Stayed tuned. We love and miss you all. Hope to hear from you all very very soon! till then...

In His peace,

Michael and Abby Lee...

Come on Down... or not

Hello everyone.. Just a quick update. I wanted to get this out to you ASAP because of time sensitive material. Abby and I went to The Price Is Right on monday. We actually saw 2 episodes, but the first one will be aired this coming Friday, November 7th. I am not sure what time the price is right comes on, but I think it is around 11am. Check your local listings. When you look in the audience Abby and I are sitting 3 rows from the stage almost right behind the 4 contestants that bid. When you look at the 4 contestants, look just to the left of them and you should see Abby and I right there. I had a blue NY Giants sweatshirt on and Abby had a blue and white stripped sweater on. We had a blast eventhough we weren't called to be contestants. It was a very fun and exciting time and an experience we will always remember. I will write more about our experience later this week. Set your DVR's to record it if you will not be home. Enjoy and please check back later this week. Till then....

Nap Time!!!!!

The news of the week is this: At our current hospital, the night shift crew encourages hour naps! That's right people, nap time like we did back in preschool.. They have this one room where everyone goes. In said room you have a large couch and sofa chair with a coffee table to put up your feet. The lights get turned off, blankets get passed out, then you set your alarm so that you don't sleep the night away. Abby and I have only worked 2 shifts so far, but Abby was quick to try out this amazing perk. She liked it!!! :) Other than the nap time, this hospital is pretty similar to the others we have worked at. The patient load is going to be tougher then we are use to coming from a pretty chill hospital in Phoenix, but Abby and I are both ready for the challenge. You really don't worry about the high acuity when you have great teamwork and a great hospital that encourages great patient care! We will be caring for many transplant kids, heart kids, and other stepdown caliber kiddos. We should learn a lot, which is what we want.

Before arriving in LA we stopped over in Palm Springs. I think I mentioned this before, but we stayed at this amazing resort for cheap. Hookups I tell ya! I posted a couple of pictures from the resort. Unfortunately we were really not into the photo deal while there, but we were able to capture a couple of scenes. The waterfall shot was from where the pool was, and the golf course shot was right along our path to walk to and from the pool, etc.. to our room. This place was amazing, and we plan on going back. Our trip to LA was a quick drive from Palm Springs. We arrived to find ourselves stuck in our first bout of LA traffic. The rumors are very true! LA traffic is horrific. We drive 5 miles to work and it takes up 30 minutes. This is with taking the back roads. Crazy! There are many perks to living in downtown LA. Everything we need (grocery store, restaurants, shopping, starbucks, etc...) is within walking distance. This area seems very safe, so hopefully we will not have much trouble.

Since our last post, we have been really concentrating on saving money. Going from assignment to assignment you get this delay in work which equals delay in pay. We will go about a month without receiving a paycheck, so times are tough. Having said that, we really haven't ventured out to see the sights. The only Star news I have for you is this: Jennifer Love Hewitt and her fiance were at LA Children's on Saturday to sign autographs and throw a party for the kids. Didn't get to go or meet her because we worked the night before and then the next night, but hopefully we will catch other stars throughout our time. We have been talking with the "locals," with whom we work with, about areas to visit. I must say that we are establishing a very long "to do" list. Hopefully we will get to play a lot once we get paid. The best thing about this area is the weather. To get a feel for what we will be enjoying, please visit http://www.weather.com/weather/wxclimatology/monthly/graph/90089?from=dayDetails_bottomnav_undeclared

The last picture we posted was one taken from our balcony at our apartment. It is a really bad picture as we couldn't use the flash, but you can get an idea of our view. It is pretty awesome! You can kind of see the Staples Center directly over Abby's head. Whenever there is a game or event taking place there, the building lights up purple! We intend to cheer for the Lakers during at least one game. The only down side of our apartment is that we are right along Highway 101. You can hear the traffic when you sit outside, but thankfully our apartment is well built and we really can't hear much inside. What other news can I tell you???? How about the NY Football Giants!!! :) oh and congrats panthers... :) Na, I'm very happy for the Panthers! Guess I should start to develop a love for them as Abby and I plan to end up in Charlotte one of these days. I guess that's about it from LA. Sorry we really don't have much to write about. Come payday, the constant vacation continues!!! Do hope everyone is great. We love and miss you all....

In His peace,

Michael and Abby Lee

Not quite the hills...

Hello everyone.. Greetings from Los Angeles California!!! Haha.. Wow, have Abby and landed in a different world... I'll get back to that. We had a wonderful trip to NY as you can tell from the pictures I posted on our last post. NYC was a blast, but honestly the best part was spending time with my grandparents, aunt, uncle and cousins. We enjoyed what upstate NY has to offer. We went to a local cider mill to purchase fresh cider, we went to local winery's to enjoy some fresh wine and grape juice. We drove around the countryside and enjoyed the view of the changing leaves! We played a lot of cards, and enjoyed some amazing home cooked food! We went rowing and canoeing on Lake Ontario and enjoyed spectacular views from Lake Ontario. As you can see we really enjoyed our vacation and made the most out of our time in upstate NY. We were very sad to leave, but are happy to continue our journey across this amazing country! We had to say goodbye to my family which was extremely difficult knowing the state of health my grandparents are in. The flight home was extremely long which made our departure that much harder. We were delayed in the plane at the Syracuse airport for about an hour. We had to sit on the plane as Newark's airport grounded all incoming flights. We finally made it to Newark to enjoy a 3 1/2 hour layover then once we made it into the plane we were once again greeted with delay. We had to wait in line to take off for about an hour because of the traffic leaving that airport. Word to the wise, never fly in or out of Newark or NY city airports. The flight home was a quick 4 hours and 45 minutes putting us back in Phoenix around 1145pm. We made it home to our cat pee apartment and quickly went to bed. We woke up on tuesday excited to pack up. We were out of that apartment on wednesday morning quickly headed to our next piece of vacation before heading to LA. We were hooked up, by an old buddy of mine, at this amazing resort called Westin Mission Hills Resort and Spa in Palm Springs, CA for a couple of nights. We truly enjoyed the relaxation. I have been extremely loaded down with stressful times as of late, so this was a nice treat. Abby and I both enjoyed the 1/2 price food, drinks, and an upgraded room, all compliments of my buddy's hook-up. We lounged at the pool and soaked up some sun. Not to much sun though as we haven't seen the sun in a while. I know what you are thinking, dang Mike and Abby you lived in the desert for months now. You are correct, but we made a conclusion on phoenix. In most parts of the country you put on your winter weight because it is to cold to exercise and your lack of motivation drops due to the bad weather. Well, in phoenix you put on your summer weight. Why you ask? Well because it is so dang hot all the dang time and the sun never sets... You become agoraphobic! Meaning you never want to go outside! I know it is not really agoraphobia, but you get my drift...
Now we are in LA. The traffic is unbelievable. It took us 30 minutes to drive 5 miles today. It is a 5 mile trip to and from our work driving on all back roads. Doesn't really matter here! If you are on a road, you are in traffic. The great thing about this place is that we are living in downtown LA. We have just about everything we need within walking distance. The Staples Center is 1/2 mile down the street. USC is 3 miles away and our gym, 24 fitness is only 0.9 miles away. Starbucks is 1 block away, pizza another block away, Macy's Center (lots of shops) is about 3 blocks away.. You get my drift. We kid to each other that we will probably never drive unless going to work. Just nuts out there I tell ya! Our apartment is actually feeling homey. Our travel company hooked us up with a nice very comfortable king size bed. They supplied us with a kitchen table, full sofa and matching chair, a night stand, coffee table, end table and dresser. We have a lot of space in our living room and we are getting free cable. Okay, listen this this crap.. As an avid sports fan, I have gone without ESPN for about 2 months now. We get cable and search through the channels. We get 2 HBO channels, but NO DADGUM ESPN. A little bitter, but at least it's free! No bills to live! Nice! We did, however, have to buy all the cleaning supplies, cups. bowls, knifes, forks, etc... from Target! $300 later we think we have everything. We also had to make our first run to the grocery store! $180 later we have our first round of groceries! Please send donations to..... :) As we moved in we noticed a common trend... The tenants in our apartment complex fit the bill of LA girls. They are young, good looking and show off as much skin as they can get away with. Boys get out here quick! haha.. We felt as if we were getting weird looks from everyone. I think it is because we are both young (well I still claim to be young) and we are married! I don't think that concept has entered the minds of many here. Everyone is in great shape, which acts as major motivation for us to get back in shape! We actually went for a run through downtown last night. Hoping to make it to the gym tonight, but it's not looking so hot as we are both really sore from our 1 jog. We will get there! We think we will enjoy this place once we settle down. There is so much to see and do in LA. Well, sorry if I've bored you with the details of our past couple of weeks. We are both hanging in there and excited to get back to nursing. I guess that says something about our jobs. We do really get to a point where we miss taking care of kids. I hope you are all doing great. We miss you all and we hope to hear from everyone sooner or later. We have a big living room floor to accommodate our guests and we also have a queen size air mattress. Come one come all. Till next time....
In His peace,
Michael and Abby Lee...
p.s. Please continue to pray for my grandparents and family. Thanks!
Aunt Adelle, Uncle Rick, Jesse and Val.. thanks for such a great time... We really enjoyed spending time with you all..

Very Busy Times

Hello everyone. Sorry about not getting a post up recently, but we have been extremely busy with vacation, packing, moving, and everything else. We just wanted to drop a quick note to tell you that we will get up a detailed post in a few days. We just got back from NY on monday night and we leave for LA on wednesday. Tuesday was spent packing and really trying to figure out how we are going to get all of our stuff in the camry! The pictures below are from our recent trip to NY. I will explain them when I write our next post. Thanks for checking in and please check back soon. We are both very excited to get to LA, but we are going to make a stop at Westin Mission Hills Resort and Spa in Palm Springs CA tomorrow through friday. You should go online and google this resort. It looks incredible! We will have pictures from that part of our trip on our next post. We love and miss you all....
Michael and Abby Lee...
p.s. Our new address will be 722 S. Bixel St. Apt A1059, Los Angeles, CA 90017. We are staying at the Medici Apartments. You can google that as well. Bye for now!

90210

Hello everyone... I come to you with great news! Abby and I found out today that we will be going to work at LA Children's hospital. Hollywood here we come! We are both very excited to have found a job as time was running out. We will be working on a unit similar to the one I worked on at UNC. We will be taking care of post heart surgery kids, lung transplants, kidney transplants, liver transplants, among others. Should be very challenging, but we are both ready for it. We start on October 20th (and work through the beginning of Feb), so when we get back from our NY vacation, we need to pack and get on the road. We are still unsure about where we will be living, but hopefully somewhere close by the hospital as the traffic, in LA, is horrific! Our doors will be open for visitors!
Well, we are currently in NY having a blast. We have done so much in the few days we have been here. We arrived in Newark on friday night and quickly headed to the racetrack. We went to the Meadowlands racetrack to test our luck. We bet on a few races, but lost them all. The racetrack is actually a lot of fun. Saturday we headed into NYC via the NJ transit to Penn Station. We are fortunate to have a free shuttle from our hotel to the NJ train station in Seacacus, NJ. It is about a 15 minute journey to get into NYC, but well worth the time when we are saving over 1000 on hotel costs for 4 nights. On saturday we went to the Metropolitan museum of Art (Abby pictured above next to a Picasso painting, me pictured next to a formidable statue, and Abby pictured on the stairs leading into the Met), went to Times Square where we ate dinner at the ESPN Zone, and we spent lots of time in the subway (me pictured coming through the gate) trying to find our way around. If you have never been to an ESPN Zone, you have to. It's an adult chucky cheese! Abby and I tested our skills in a hockey game, football game, basketball and horse riding game. Lots of fun I tell ya. After eating and playing, we ended up at the bar to enjoy the UNC football game and the most incredible Warm Chocolate Chip Cookie sundae!

We made it back to the Hotel around 9pm as we knew Sunday was going to be a long day. Sunday morning arrived and I quickly jumped out of bed like a kid on Christmas morning. The NY Giants football game was at 1pm, so of course we had to get up early to get prepared. Abby, however, was not as thrilled about getting out of bed as I was. It took a hot second to get her up, but in all fairness to her, she was up and out of the hotel room on time. We donned our Giants gear (yes, Abby rocked a newly purchased Giants sweatshirt) and headed downstairs to eat breakfast. Much to my liking, there were so many Giants fans all decked out with their Giants gear! Go Giants!! haha.. Sorry for my elaboration on this subject, but I was just so thrilled to have finally made it to a Giants game! We quickly walked to the stadium from our hotel and took lots of pictures. We posted a few, but be on the look out for others. Our seats were incredible once we found them. I must admit that we spent about an hour down in the front row watching the Giants and Seahawks warm-up. We spotted a few legends of the game as we observed warm ups. Carl Banks, Harry Carson, and Warren Moon to name a few! When we were finally kicked out of our seats by the season ticket holders, we made our way to our seats. We were on the first level directly behind the goal posts about 36 rows up (see picture of Abby and I below). We could see everything. We were under the over hang which was awesome because it threatened to rain and we had a review TV directly above us. Great job on the tickets Abby! The start of the game was upon us and I had lots of goosebumps. A kids dream has come true!!!

Saturday night we just lounged around our hotel room watching the other games across the league. Abby is such a sport when it comes to watching football... I sat in a chair with my fantasy football stat tracker in my lap and watched my fantasy team dominant one of Abby's brothers team. I definitely got lucky to win this week, but I will take it. Sunday night we headed to a local restaurant for dinner and to watch some of the sunday night football game. As you can see, our family is quickly becoming a sunday football only kind of family. Gosh I hope I have boys!!! :) Well that is it for now. We spent all of Monday back in NYC, but we did way to much to write on this post. Tomorrow we head to my home town of New Hyde Park, NY to show Abby were little, chunky Hinchy spent his first 12 years growing up. We will add more pictures and write more later this week. We hope everyone is great. Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers. Till our next post....

In his peace,
Michael and Abby Lee...
Please keep those prayers rolling for my grandparents, thanks!
p.s. the last picture was taken on our last morning at Phoenix children's Hospital with some of the other nurses, and other great staff we worked with.