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...
Friday, June 12, 2009
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.....
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