Working hard...

Greetings to all. I come to you from the wonderful Phoenix Children's Hospital. Abby and I are currently working. Working hard as you can see! It is 3:20 in the morning; only 4 more hours. This is our last of 3 night shifts in a row. We are both catching on quickly. Lots to learn. We are both very confident in our nursing skills, but learning the different charting, pumps, protocols of a new hospital takes time. Our first 2 nights we were with a preceptor, and tonight is our first night on our own. The people we are working with are a lot of fun. We work with a lot of other travel nurses. One may think that this is a disadvantage, but actually it is a great help because other travelers are very quick to help each other. A nice bonus when we are so new to the routine's of the hospital. When we walk out the door at 730 this morning we will be off until next Monday night. We really don't have big plans this week due to our lack of money in the bank. We still haven't received a paycheck since the beginning of April, so we are hesitant to travel anywhere. Hopefully we will find some fun things to do that doesn't require spending to much money.

Last week was a very relaxing week. Since I wrote last....... well, not much new happened. We were actually in class everyday last week (Monday - Sunday). Abby is slowly shaking off this cough that she has had for 3 weeks now. She went to the urgent care for antibiotics, a chest xray, and a bill of $300 dollars. Dang she is good at spending money! :) Hopefully this cough will be gone soon so that we can get back to being active. I find that climbing squaw peak by myself is getting less and less enjoyable. I was able to take pictures of the hike, but I will have to wait until I get home to post the pictures. As you all know, pictures don't always portray what is really being seen, so realize that the views from the hike are amazing. I saw my first lizard on the path, but still no rattlesnakes or scorpions. There are countless signs stating "please stay on path." I wonder if those signs are more for the animal population, or more for the danger of falling off the cliff. Needless to say, I stay on the path. I must say that I'm officially a mountain hiker with my camelback and hiking boots. Yes that's right, Abby and I went out and bought hiking boots. They actually make a huge difference with traction and comfort when walking on rough terrain. Abby's are still in the shoe box! Good news though, she said she is going to hike with me today after we wake up! That remains to be seen. I give her a hard time, but she has actually been amazing with this cough thing. I couldn't imagine having a cough for over 3 weeks. Her back has been hurting due to the constant cough and somehow her feet are hurting also. Well, maybe not, but for some reason her feet and back are what I constantly rub to help make her feel better. I think the word sucker needs to be thrown in there somewhere. Hoping she shakes this soon. There is so much to been seen in the phoenix area, and so much that we want to explore. Once we finally get paid, I think we will venture out a lot more.

The house is still incredible. As of right now, the house is still ours, but John has been allowing a couple of interested parties to come see what they could rent. We'll see what ends up happening. The latest guy who came over last night is a travel nurse also (another gaylord fauker). I woke up early today (for no apparent reason) so decided to visit the pool. It was extremely windy with wind gusts of up to 40mph. I found one of our towels at the bottom of the pool, lots of debris, and a couple of Budweiser cans floating around in the pool. I decided not to go swim, but hopefully I'll get the pool cleaned out tomorrow, then lots of pool time this week. The weather is crazy down here. Monday and Tuesday were record highs of 106-108. Today it's suppose to be in the low 80's for a high, then on Friday it's suppose to be in the low 70's for the high, then back to the high 90's for the weekend. What? Should be an interesting few days of weather.

Well not much going on as you can see. I'm sorry for the boring read, but I'm just not the most animated or thoughtful at 3:45 in the morning. I'll write more when I get the pictures up of Squaw Peak. Oh a few more things that I remembered. Abby experienced her first round at In and Out Burger; (For those who aren't familiar with In and Out Burger.... well lets just say you have to experience it for yourself. Amazing burgers!) We are both Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS) certified; We were given 10 packages of 15 1.5L bottles of water for free; Life is good. Continued thanks to all those who keep in touch with us and for all those who constantly think and pray for us. We love being out here, but definitely miss all of you. Please please please keep in touch through any form of communication you like. Phone call, written letter, electronic mail, text messaging, and/or pony express are all acceptable forms of communication! We love you all. Time to check on my patients. Get to work people.......

Much Love,
In His peace,
Michael and Abby Lee