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

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...

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....

"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.....

Sorry...

Howdy ya'll.... we have arrived in houston. let's be honest, we have been here for about 3 weeks now.  I have been extremely slack on my duties to update this post. Honestly, I thought that no one really read it anymore, but I was proven wrong.  thanks Jenny!  I hope everyone is doing great.  We sure are!  We had a wonderful trip to Houston.  We ended our assignment in LA and immediately went on a cruise!  We found that we were going to be homeless because our assignment start date in Houston was going to be 2 1/2 weeks from our end date in LA.  Unfortunately we were only allowed 2 days of lodging in our LA apartment before we were kicked out!  The good thing is that we found a cruise deal.  I think I talked about this in my last post.  A recap:  We went on a 7 night cruise to Mexico for roughly just under 400 a person!  It left from Long Beach, CA which is about 15 minutes south of LA.  DONE DEAL!  We had a wonderful trip!  We ate a ton, play lots of 3 card poker (and actually paid for one of our trips with our winnings), lounged around the pool, and explored some new areas of Mexico!  Cruises are awesome....

After the cruise was my big 1/2 marathon!  I finished with a time of 2 hours 3 minutes and 13 seconds!  I know that time is not record breaking, but for someone who hates to run, I was pleased I finished!  We stayed in Newport Beach, CA for about 3 days leading up to and after the 1/2 marathon.  Newport beach, Huntington beach (site of 1/2 marathon) and Long beach are all very close together. You basically drive down the Pacific Coast Highway and go from one beach town to the next.  The most incredible little cities I have ever been to.  We hope to one day head back there for an extended stay.  Very rich towns though. I think I saw more Bentley's in my 3 day stay in Newport Beach then I have ever seen in my entire life.  Unreal money out there!  Had a great time... 

We left that CA area reluctantly heading towards Houston.  Our drive from LA to Houston consisted of 1 road... Interstate 10 was going to be our friend for the next 1600+ miles.  We made a quick stop right outside of Phoenix to visit this restaurant my boy Snacks told me about.  You all need to google this restaurant, or better yet go on youtube and watch a special some food channel did on it.  Type in the words, "Heart attack grille."  You will be amazed.  I was a wimp and went for the double cheeseburger.  I couldn't even finish it. It wasn't because of the size (although it was huge).  It was more of the grease!  The first few bites were the best bites I have ever had when it comes to eating a burger!  INCREDIBLE!!!!  The longer it took to eat, the greasier the burger and sloppier the bun got.  haha.. You took a bite of this burger and you can feel the grease squirt into your mouth!  I guess I just knew how much junk I was putting into my body, and I started grossing myself out.  If I weren't just in a mind set of trying to train for a 1/2 marathon and trying to be all healthy (well as healthy as you can be without eating vegetables) I probably would have been more apt to finish it.  Oh well, an experience non the less.  

We continued our venture down I-10 stopping a couple of times before reaching San Antonio.  At this point we still had no place to live.  We knew we had an apartment to move into on Saturday, but it was now tuesday and we had to make a decision to park it for a few days.  San Antonio was right along I-10 and we heard nothing but great things about that city.  Well let me tell you that all we have heard was correct.. An amazing and very fun city, well at least the Riverwalk and Alamo portion of town.  We stayed just a couple of blocks away from the Riverwalk for a few nights.  We had a great time eating in the great restaurants along the river and even ventured out dancing one night.  We had a blast.  Then it was on to Houston.  

2 1/2 hours later we arrived in Houston, thankfully not hitting traffic as we searched for our apartment. We have heard that Houston traffic is bad, but heck nothing will ever be worse than LA.  We open the door of our apartment in the Rincon Apartment complex to find a dirty and very small apartment.  Abby had a quick little melt down, but quickly bounced back to realize that we have no choice but to pile in this little place for the next bit of our travels.  It is about 650 sq ft.  Not bad for 1 person, but when you count the both of us, it gets cramped.  Thank God we love being around each other, or this would not be so fun!  The area of town is great.  We live in "Midtown."  From what the locals tell us, this area is very trendy and fun with a younger crowd.  SWEET!  We do love it here and have ventured out only a few times so far.  Restaurants everywhere!  Supposedly Houston has the most restaurants per square mile (or something like that) then any other city in the US.  What i'm trying to say is this: there are restaurants everywhere!  I hope to frequent all of them!  :)   We have already found an amazing Italian restaurant, Tex-Mex restaurant, and a Pei Wei.  All ideal for survival...  haha.. 

We made it to the hospital which is about 4.5 miles away.  So far so good!  We love it there. A completely different form of nursing then we are use to.  Let me try to explains.  Our recent assignments have been with very sick kids.  We had the extra worry about them not making it through the night.  Here, the worry is more of task oriented.  We have 6 kids which is 2 more than we have ever taken, but they are not very sick kids.  Our patient population is like this.  A healthy kid steps on a nail and needs medication through an IV.  They have to come into the hospital to receive such medication.  There you have it. A brief and simple explanation.  A different busy, a different mind set.  We love it! haha.. We are working on different floors for the first time in our travel career, but they are run by the same nurse manager.  They have been amazing with working with our schedule and they have been very open and friendly!  We are known as the "married couple!"  :)  

Let's see.. what fun things have we done in Houston so far.  Well, the Houston Zoo is about the only thing.  We plan on going to the HOUSTON RODEO sometime this.  We are going to head down to Rice University.  That campus is supposedly beautiful.  There is a lot to do around here, so hopefully I will have some fun posts for you to read.  We have off until saturday, then work saturday, sunday, monday, tuesday nights.  I then head to Las Vegas with my 2 best friends, and Abby heads home for an engagement party for her best friend.  Then it is back to work to pay off my loses in Vegas.  Well, let's hope not!  Thanks for reading and once again I'm sorry for not keeping up with this over the past month.  Now that I have been reminded that people actually read it and care about what we are doing, I will keep it up!  We love and miss you all.  thanks so much for keeping in touch with us.  You have no idea how much we appreciate it.  When you are away from everyone you love, it gets really important to hear from your friends and family on a regular basis.  Have a great week and we will chat soon!  

In His peace,

Love to you all...

Michael and Abby Lee

p.s. We are going skydiving this friday (had to change it because of the wind).  Just don't tell our parents!  They know we are going, but don't want to know when so they don't have to worry!  Aren't they great!?

Howdy Ya'll...

No that is not my attempt to sound southern, it is my attempt to sound TEXAN!!! That's right people, Abby and I are headed to HOUSTON TEXAS... We received the good news earlier this week and are currently working on getting a contract written. The reason for the contract delay is due to vacation time we are requesting. You see, when we sign contracts with hospitals we can enter time off for upcoming events. We are heading to Disney world with Abby's family sometime in the spring, so are trying to get the dates so that we will be assured that time off. The life of a travel nurse... Makes it nice! Speaking of vacation.... Abby and I booked at 7 night cruise to Mexico. We are heading out next Saturday (the 24th of Jan) for a nice getaway! We found a steal deal for this cruise through Norwegian! WE are very excited. We are being kicked out of our apartment on the 26Th of Jan and have to find a place to live until Feb 1st (the 1/2 marathon). We were thinking about heading to Las Vegas, but this cruise deal we found would be the cheapest! So, off we go! Just trying to do our part in helping to stimulate the economy! :) The rough part of this trip is going to be this.... I still have to run 13.1 miles on Feb 1st. We get off the cruise on Jan 31st.... What does that mean? Well, if you have ever been on a cruise before, you know how much food you can consume! I need to try and limit the binging. haha.. that's a joke, but i figure i can run a few times to help keep in shape! Yep, I am still on schedule to run my first 1/2 marathon. Abby, unfortunately, is going to have to back out of this race due to hip issues. Hoping she rests up to try again! Don't worry, she will be there supporting me and taking lots of pictures of me being out run by 80 year old men... Thank God for picture cropping! :) After the 1/2, we will try to find somewhere to watch the Superbowl.. Although, what a disappointment for both the Giants and Panthers! I truly was depressed after last weekend. Then on the 2nd we will begin our venture to Houston. We figure it will take us about 1100 miles. We hope to stop off in Phoenix to see old friends, then slowly make our way to our new home. Well, we are at work and I am needed by one of my patients. I do hope all is great with you. Please keep in touch. We love and miss you all...
In His peace,
Michael and Abby Lee....

Sorry for the Delay...

Hello everyone.. Happy Christmas Eve to all... Abby and I are currently at work. Work is good. Not much new. We are constantly reminded of the fact that we are not yet ready for kids. We have 3 to 4 screaming kids every night we work, so that causes us to keep putting off our desire to have kids. Sorry to disappoint all family who are hoping for some little Hinchy's running around this world. Although that day will be a very special and amazing day! Come on Boy!!! :) It has been about a month since I last put up a post. We have done a lot since then. The main focus of mine over the past month has been Fantasy football. I am happy to report that all my hard work at studying and preparing for the weeks paid off. I won my fantasy league! A nice payday! However, I broke our computer this Sunday. Dang Diet Dr. Pepper! Come to find out, computers don't enjoy that tasty beverage as much as I. We ended up purchasing a MacBook on Monday. We love it. Not real sure how to use it, but we love it. Mac's are incredible. We are looking forward to learning all the neat features and putting the computer good use. We continue to prepare for our half marathon. We had to sign up for the surf city 1/2 marathon on Feb 1st because the 1/2 in Carlsbad on the 26th of Jan was sold out. Never realized that 1/2 marathons were so popular. I recently ran 7 miles on a 8:47 min pace. Not to bad for your boy! We head down to Santa Monica for our long runs. They have paths all along the beach that seem endless. When I ran the 7 miles, I ran from Santa Monica down into Venice Beach, then back. Venice Beach was really neat. Lots and Lots of freaks down there, but very lively! We hope to head down there to enjoy all the shops and to people watch (a favorite of ours). The weather remains unstable. We continue to have 60 degree weather, but lately we have been dealing with rain. Hopefully this will blow over soon, as LA just doesn't function well with rain. We continue to shop and eat at our local hot spot, The Groove. When we were there last we met this guy (guy in the middle) http://www.criticsrant.com/Images/criticsrant_com/TV_How%20I%20Met%20Your%20Mother/himym_logo.jpg Funny story. We were walking into the movie theatre and I spotted him waiting outside. I stopped Abby and we secretly watched him for a bit. I noticed that he had money hanging out of his pocket. Well what better way to strike up conversation than "sir you have money falling out of your pocket." A classic Ice breaker. He was quick to walk over to us as he pushed the money back in his pocket. He was confused at first, so we had to repeat ourselves. "You had money falling out of your pocket." He thanked us as Abby throws out, "we love your show." Nice Abby.. He thanked us as we strike up conversation about how my friends at home love his show. "I wish I had a piece of paper so that I can get your autograph for all my friends back home." What a smooth line by yours truly! He laughed and apologized, then sign his autograph in the air and said, "there you go," with a smile. Wow, what a great conversation and moment in our lives. Most of you probably don't know who this guy is, but he is a star on one of the greatest TV shows out right now. "How I met your mother." Check it out sometime, you won't be disappointed. Comes on CBS. Not sure when, but google it. Abby thinks it is on Mondays at 8:30pm. We recently went and saw "Twilight" and "Seven pounds." Both great movies. We also have been blessed by the opening of ESPN Zone near the Staples Center (which is about a 5 minute walk from our apt). I have frequented this restaurant, enjoying many sporting events while enjoying great food and a new found beverage, Fat Tire. Abby and I plan on heading down there this Sunday around 10am to catch the Panthers game. Speaking of the panthers, HOW ABOUT THOSE GMEN!!! Big win, HUGE! It was an intense evening as Abby sat there with her Julius Peppers jersey on as I sat there with all my Giants gear on! We kissed and made up after the game, so alls well now. We are anxiously awaiting Christmas so that we can open up all the presents we have been blessed to receive. We will miss our family this Christmas, but having each other will make it a little easier. Our contract is up on Jan 24th, and we are currently looking for our next assignment. We really have no clue where we will be heading, but some of the possibilities are Las Vegas, Little Rock Arkansas, Boston, Seattle, Idaho, and a couple of other locations. We will know more after the holiday season. I hope we haven't lost our readers with this delay. We hope to start back up with weekly blogs and pictures. I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year.
In His peace,
Love to all,
Michael and Abby Lee...