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.

Bad news...

Well where do we start... We were cancelled at the hospital in San Diego. What does that mean you might ask! Well it simply means, Abby and I are out of a job, we are working our last night at Phoenix Children's Hospital, we head to NY on Friday for 10 days, then we have to be out of our apartment the day we get back from NY. What does that mean you might ask? We are jobless come 0730 on Oct 2nd, we are homeless come 0730 on October 14th, we are broke come 0730 on October 20th (rough estimate with our spending habits), and we are now accepting donations. "Abby get off that street corner!" What a whirl wind we have been through the last few hours. Our recruiter told us that there are positions available, but not many. Most hospitals have staffed through the holidays, so only positions open are in January. We only had a few minutes to chat with her before heading into work, so thursday will be a big day of figuring out what to do. We have options, but not ones that we are excited about. LA has positions open, but I'm scared of Britney Spears or Shia Lebuf hitting my car; Dallas has a few positions, but i'm afraid of getting beat up when I rock my NY Giants football gear; we could head home to live in my soon to be vacant house! Who knows really. We are both very disappointed with this news, but we will make it. Thanks for checking in. Will have more informaton soon. Love and miss you all...
Michael and Abby Lee

2 more shifts...

Hello everyone. Do hope this message finds you all doing great. Abby and I are very very excited about having 2 more shifts left at Phoenix Children's Hospital. I know I have mentioned this before, but we are almost done with our time here in Phoenix. I think the best part about that is the fact that we can actually enjoy the outdoors again. We are very tired of having to hide from the sun. San Diego here we come.
I write to you from work where I'm all alone! Abby was fortunate enough to get called off tonight, so she is at home drinking a glass of wine and catching up on laundry and thank you notes. My night is great. I am working with some great nurses tonight. I must say that as much as Abby and I dislike the workings of this hospital, we have been very blessed with our co-workers. The other travel nurses here and several of the core staff have been amazing to work with. We actually had to say goodbye to one of our favorites the other night. It was harder then we thought. What a great experience we have had here. We have learned a lot of new ways to do things, and we have learned a lot of bad ways to do things. The relationships we have established will stay with us forever and we do hope to keep in touch with several of the nurses here and perhaps one day run into them again.

This past weekend Abby and I were able to experience Sedona, AZ. I must say that many of the people we have talked to were getting this place confused with Senoma, CA. Very different. Sedona is a gem here in AZ. We were told by many people to visit there, many of whom recommended Sedona over the Grand Canyon. Now, I must say that we found that hard to believe because the Grand Canyon was amazing! After visiting Sedona, we will agree with the beauty of Sedona being much greater than that of the Grand Canyon. However, the sheer awe of the Grand Canyon was much greater than Sedona. Come on y'all, it's the Grand Canyon! It's 1 of the 7 natural wonders of the world. http://www.bobspixels.com/kaibab.org/misc/gc_7wond.htm I will credit Sedona in beauty though. The beautiful red rock mountains were amazing to view. We tried to capture this beauty with photo's, but honestly you will have to see these in person to understand. The rocks would turn different shades of red depending on how the light hit them and certain viewing angles would offer different looks as well. An experience we will always remember. What made this trip amazing was the fact that we went on an ATV tour of the canyons. The ATVs were old, but the mud slinging, scenery, and tough terrain made up for it. Abby rode on the back with me, so I did my best to cover her with mud (it rained the night before) and jump as many hills as I could. We were led and followed by guides, but lucky for me (not so much Abby) we were in the middle. There were many trails where we weaved in and out of bushes so the front and back guides couldn't see us. This is when I would hang back from the people in head of us and then fly through puddles, jump jumps, fish tail, and whatever else I could think of to up the excitement of this tour. Good times I tell ya. I wish we would have taken a picture of before and after. My plan to get Abby muddy back fired as I was the one who got soaked. We had to wear something to cover our faces because it was so dry along many of the paths that the dust being kicked up from the people in front of us was very thick. Supposedly there is a ton of wildlife living out on this terrain, but unfortunately we didn't see any of it. The Javelina is a very common animal in these parts. http://www.azgfd.gov/h_f/game_javelina.shtml Check them out. They are ugly jokers who are very aggressive. I was hoping to spot one, but no such luck. Very similar to wild boar, but actually part of the rodent family. Interesting stuff I tell ya! We did this ATV tour on Saturday morning. Friday night we just went for a walk on the streets of Sedona and ate Buffalo at a local Cowboy saloon. They had rattlesnake, elk, and cactus on the menu. We thought about trying these, but they were actually very expensive items. We also caught a couple of jazz bands at this one strip mall. Here they had several galleries offering wine and finger foods. After dinner we ended up in the hot tube chatting about life and observing the beautiful clear sky. We were trying to hunt down Abby's first falling star. How romantic I know! Then you know what we did on Saturday morning. After showering we ended up at "Sedona Jazz on the Rocks, 2008." It was a neat event. Here we sat on the lawn (picture shown), listened to some good Jazz music, and enjoyed people watching. We stayed there for about 40 minutes or so, then headed to Javelina Cantina for dinner. We made a dinner reservation for 5:45 so that we could catch the sunset. Supposedly this was the place to have dinner and watch the sunset as they have a neat little patio that overlooks the west side of Sedona. We arrived on time, sat down on time, then much to our dismay a storm was approaching. This pretty much canceled the sunset, but we really enjoyed the cool breeze and the delicious Mexican food. After dinner we drove back to Phoenix, The End!







Sunday we were pretty lazy. Like I mentioned earlier, we really don't like to do much during the day. We watched the second season of "Lost." For those who haven't ever seen the show, it's Awesome! We hope to start season 3 when we get to San Diego. To be honest, I don't know how people keep up with this show weekly. The show does such a great job leaving you hanging after each episode, that I would go crazy waiting until the next weeks show. We started to talk about what we needed to pack up and ship back home (because we have accumulated a lot of stuff over the past 5 months. Mainly clothes). We work tuesday and wednesday nights, then leave on Friday for New York. On sunday I will attend my first New York Football Giants game. I have been such a huge fan for such a long time, and I finally get to attend a game. Thanks Abby (my Bday present). Don't worry, we will take a lot of pictures and post them when we can. We will be in NYC for about 4 days, then we are heading upstate NY to visit my grandparents, aunt and uncle. Should be a great time. To explain the pictures posted here. The picture with Abby's back to us was where Javelina Cantina was. The picture of just the mountain view was from outside our Hotel room. The rest of the pictures are pretty self explanatory. We posted more pictures from our trip on facebook. Well, that is about it from here. It is 0400 and time to check on my kids, give meds and start to think about charting. Hope you enjoyed the post. We love and miss you all... till the next time...


In His peace,
Michael and Abby Lee

p.s. keep the prayers rolling for my grandparents... thanks

6 more shifts...

Hello everyone... Do hope this message finds you all doing great. Things are wonderful in the life of the Hinchy's! Abby and I are extremely excited to head to San Diego. I think the anticipation is making the last few weeks seem much longer then should feel. We are still waiting to hear from our travel company regarding where we will be staying when we move to San Diego. We should know in the next week or so. Will update you to our new address as soon as we find out. Abby and I are both working tonight, tomorrow night and Wednesday night. We then have off until next Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, then we are done! Abby just came over to me and told me that she booked a room at a Best Western in Sedona, AZ. She was able to get a special rate combined with an ATV tour of the Sedona Canyons. Check this out. http://www.sedonaoffroadcenter.com/ATV1.html Abby will be riding on the back with me. Hold on tight Abby! Should be a lot of fun. We are only going to be heading up for one night, but hope to also catch an art/jazz festival either Friday or Saturday afternoon. Would love to stay up there longer, but the funds are limited these days. Why you ask? Well lets just say that we have been to a lot of expensive football games, we are going to NYC and upstate NY for 10 days, Abby has new diamond earrings, then we will have a couple of weeks without work. Add these up and you will understand why we have to cut down on our fun activities for a little while. Don't worry, they will resume once we become established in San Diego.

This past weekend was very relaxing. We were invited out on Friday night with a few other nurses (pictures will be posted later). We had a blast. On Saturday night we were invited over to another nurses house for dinner. David is his name. David wanted to thank us for being team players, and for being so easy to work with. It was a very nice offer and that is always nice to hear. As a traveler, you always wonder if you are fitting in and if the core staff like you. Glad to hear at least one person likes us! haha... It was a great home cooked meal. He had twice baked potatoes! Enough said! Sunday was a guy day for me. I met up with a couple of male respiratory therapists at a local sports bar to watch football. We met up at 11am (1pm East coast time) to watch the early football games. We ate some great food and enjoyed a few cold beverages. Abby had a personal training appointment at 1, then went to Target. After Target she met up with me at another sports bar (because I was dropped off there due to not having a key to get into our apartment) to watch more football and to get some food. Sunday night Abby watched the Emmy's and I watched the Sunday night football game. BOOOOOO DALLAS!!! We went to bed around 11:30 Sunday night. I woke up around 8am, went and worked out, then we had to pee in a cup for our new travel assignment at 2pm. Funny story about that... Abby gets there and she was called in first. 5 minutes go by, no Abby. 10 min go by, no Abby. 15 min go by, no Abby. 20 min go by, no Abby. I'm thinking to myself, "what in the world is she doing? Is it just that crowded back there? Why haven't I been called in to pee in a cup?" 25 min later, "Mike Hinchy." "Finally," I said to myself. I walk through the door and guess who I see sitting on the bench next to the water fountain? Yep, you guessed it Abby! "Hey Abby, what are you doing?" haha.... Abby was unable to pee enough for the specimen needed. She was sitting there this entire time drinking water. I would venture to say that it took her about an hour of drinking water to finally get the urge to pee enough for the test. I can't forget to mention that this waiting area was freezing. Her legs were loaded with goosebumps and she was wrapped up with her fleece. Her nose was ice cold and she was shivering. I had to leave a couple of times to pee myself and to head outside to warm up. Oh Abby.... haha.. She makes me laugh. The ladies in the lab office were extremely nice and constantly asked her if she had to pee. We arrived at the Lab office around 2pm and left a little after 3pm. The waiting room was packed out when we got there, and was completely empty when we left. We finally made it home after getting Pei Wei and a few things from the grocery store. We took a nap from 4 to 5:30, then headed into work.

So there you have it... A weekend and a day in the life of Abby and Mike. Sorry for boring you, but this is the most exciting stuff that has happened since our last post. Good times here in Phoenix. The weather is actually cooling down. We only have 2-3 days of 100+ weather a week. It's funny because you can honestly tell a difference in air temp when the high is 100+ compared to high 90's. Crazy I know. Well, it is 5:15am and it's almost time to finish up my duties for the shift. Be right back, patient calling out.... Okay I'm back. I was just called into a patients room so that he can tell me that he pooped and peed. We measure everything going in and measure everything coming out of our patients, so think about that when I say he pooped and peed. Good times. The beauty of being a nurse! YUCK! Okay, signing off for now. I hope you all had a wonderful weekend and have a wonderful week. We love and miss you all....

In His peace,
Love,
Michael and Abby Lee

p.s. Please keep praying for my grandparents! Thanks

We love some football...

As you can see i'm trying to get the hang of displaying pictures with my text. I kind of figured it out last week, but this week is a new story. For some reason they are clumped together. Oh well, you can still view them! Moving right along...

To start with, Abby and I went to the Arizona Cardinals vs. Miami Dolphins game this past sunday! As you can see by the pictures, I was a Cardinal fan for the day. Partly because we currently live in Arizona, but mainly because I had the Cardinals defense and a cardinals wide receiver on my fantasy football team. I have $110 invested in this league, so I was cheering hard for the aforementioned. The defense played well yielding 1 field goal and a late touchdown, but my wide receiver didn't get much love on the receiving end. Having players on different teams allows you to be a general football fan and pull for many teams as long as they aren't playing my beloved Gmen! Abby was quite embarassed during the game because I constantly cheered for the defense and constantly yelled to throw Breaston (my receiver) the ball. Oh well, it was fun to cheer for the home team and my players! This stadium was incredible. Right when you walk in you are in awe of how massive this place is. Our seats were awesome for $60 a ticket. I had an aisle seat which is especially nice. The picture with Abby and I and the picture of the Arizona end zone were taken at our seats. Not to shabby... There is a company I went through to get the tickets. www.ticketexchangeusa.com They actually have fair prices for many games. The guy I went through told me that he will beat the lowest price I find on my own. He will probably get lots of business through me as I continue my quest to attend every major sporting event and every major college football event in the areas we live. A great goal that Abby is very willing to support. We were going to try and attend the Arizona State vs. Georgia football game this weekend, but since ASU lost I am not as excited about getting to that game.






















Okay enough about football and sports... The countdown continues! Only 8 more shifts at PCH and then we are heading to NYC for 1 1/2 weeks! Then it is off to San Diego. We googled the temps in San Diego and the average temp year round is 70 degrees! Hot damn! Get us out of this HEAT!!! So, interruption for a second.. I just had this lady (a patients mom) come up to me cursing and yelling because we just placed a patient in the same room as her kid. What the heck? Why do parents think they can curse and yell at us! I told her to not curse at me and then I proceeded to ignore her! I'm tired of being abused when I care for your kids! Just flat out rude. Anyhow, enough with my soap box. Back to the happy thoughts by Mike Hinchy... Football... haha... Na, I think I was talking about San Diego... We are waiting to hear about our apartment living. We decided not to rent a place on our own because it is way to expensive for a half way decent place. Hopefully we get a nice place with lots of room because we are hoping to have many visitors! Hint Hint...
Next weekend we are planning a trip to Sedona, AZ. We hear the country up there is beautiful. There happens to be a Jazz festival going on in Sedona at that time, so we are also going to attend that. http://sedona-attractions.10-best.info/sedonaparks.html Check this site out to see what we will be enjoying. Slide Rock is suppose to be lots of fun, and taking jeep tours of the canyons is also suppose to be amazing. We will take lots of pictures, so be on the lookout. Well, I guess it is time to check up on my 3 babies. Let me tell you, 3 babies is not fun. I have changed so many dang diapers tonight. Let me tell you that working as a Pediatric nurse is excellent birth control. Abby and I joke all the time about never having kids. We have 3-4 different kids every night we work. Plus, we are having so much fun traveling all over and enjoying this amazing country. Who has time for kids, right? Na, we will most definitely have kids, but not for a while. Thank God I married young... haha... Thanks again for reading. The nurse manager on the floor is talking w/ that rude lady right now. I hope I don't get in trouble for telling her to chill the heck out... haha... who cares right.. 8 more shifts! :) Anywho, ya'll be good and please don't forget about us! Remember to cheer hard and loud for the GIANTS and the PANTHERS!!!!!!...
In His peace,
Love to you all,
Michael and Abby

p.s. please continue to pray for my grandparents...