Nothing New in the Past Week

So this past week/weekend hasn't been to exciting.  We've both been working opposite schedules and have had only Sunday off together!  However, I have been able to watch a lot of movies :)  In the last blog I was going to watch "How Do You Know" and "Unstoppable" and give you my ratings. Here they are: I'm not much of a "chick-flick" kind of girl, but as far as those movies go, "How..." was pretty good.  Reese Witherspoon was cute hilarious as usual, but she was a little to clean cut, and Paul Rudd's strangeness got annoying after a while. I'll rate it a solid 7/10  "Unstoppable." however, was action-packed and very exciting, plus is was based on true events!  Denzel Washington never let's me down and Chris Pine is pretty cute :)  I'll give it a 9.4/10!  Two other movies I have recently watched are "Burlesque" and "Due Date."  Okay, so I'm a HUGE Christina Aguilera fan,   I'm not really a "musical" fan, but it had a good story and she, of course, belted it out like no other!  It also had one of the doctors from ER (one of my fav shows of all time).  I'm going to give it a big fat 10/10!!!!  I watched "Due Date" tonight.  It was pretty funny, up there with "The Hangover." Parts were crude (not for children, mainly language), but I actually laughed out loud with some of the scenes!  I'll give it a perky 9/10.  Maybe if nursing doesn't workout for me, I'll become a movie critic. Move over Roger Ebert!!

Sunday was a BEAUTIFUL day and Hayley and I decided to layout by the pool.  It was perfect weather: mid-70's, not a cloud in the sky, and a slight breeze coming from the east.  After laying out for 2 hours, and NOT getting burnt, we got cleaned up and headed to dinner at Hayashi, a japanese steak house.  I introduced Hayley to spicy tuna rolls, and I think she like them!

So, both Hayley and I have been told we have a southern accent.  Yes, surprise, surprise.  But no one has yet to guess we are from Alabama.  We've gotten Tennessee (as seen in a previous post), one of the Carolina's, and TEXAS.  I know I don't sound like I'm from Texas!  Every patient I've had has said "you aren't from here are you.  So, I guess my accent is thicker than I thought.

We've been walking to and from work everyday!  It's about a 30 minute walk. I'm kind of proud!  That's more exercise in the past week than I've had in the past 3 months. Well I guess that's all I can come up with at 2:42 in the morning.  We are heading to San Diego next week, so that should be a fun blog! Hope all is well with ya'll, and have a great week!

~Hayley and Elizabeth~

Been A While, But We Have an Excuse….

So, we moved into our apartment last Friday, and when I called to connect the internet, they said it would be March 23 before they could set it up!  That’s right, I said March 23 (tomorrow)!!!  We have been 5 days without internet and it has been horrible!  We don’t have a TV either so imagine no TV or internet for 5 days!  I don’t know how they did it in the 19th etc centuries!  There is only so much to talk about ya know!  I  was talking with my friend Jose today, and he mentioned we haven’t updated our blog in almost a week, so I’m sitting on our couch typing this up in Microsoft Word (trying to keep myself busy as Hayley is at work), and then I’ll walk up to the Leasing office, where there is free wi-fy, and upload this to our blog. So here goes another long entry, sorry……..

Thursday, March 17, 2011
Hayley’s amazing father O.C. volunteered to drive my car out here and arrived Thursday afternoon about 2 hours after our final day of hospital orientation.  In that orientation, one of our teacher’s Matt, asked Hayley and me where we were from, so I pointed to my AU scrubs to give him a hint and he said “Tennessee??”  What TN?  I immediately said “Where do you think Auburn is?”  He looked puzzled and I said “come on, the National Champions!”  He thought I was talking about basketball!!  Holy Moly, is he from Mars?!  The other teacher explained to us he was from Canada!  Whew!  Little bit of a relief since he doesn’t even know what American Football is!  Okay, so that’s the most exciting thing that happened during orientation.  Once Hayley’s dad arrived, we showed him our pictures from the past weekend and decided on a BBQ place to eat.  Said it was voted best BBQ in Phoenix! I wasn’t smart to look at its hours.  So we drove all the way there (about 30 minutes) for it to close at 3pm!  So anyways, good ole Kieren was there to help us out and we found a restaurant near by called Boston’s.  It was pretty good!  Then it was back to hotel and off to sleep!

Friday, March 18, 2011 Moving Day!!!
We finally were able to move into the apartment!  YAY, no more living out of a suitcase!  We woke up, ate breakfast and began to pack the car.  Wow, who knew we had that much stuff, along with all the things our mom’s sent with her dad.  Wish I had taken a picture of Cammie (my Camry-we name everything).  She was packed so full Hayley could barely see to drive.  Good thing the apt was only 7 miles from the hotel.  So anyway, we unpacked the car, and then Hayley and I were off to get our AZ licenses, groceries (found an AMAZING new ice cream flavor), and a few odds and ends for the apt before Hayley need to get home and take a nap before work.  While we were gone, O.C. made some friends in the apt complex and bought us a TV for $25.  Once we took Hayley to work, O.C. worked on getting that TV to work for hours! He even went back to that lady’s apt and got a VCR. We tried hooking up the Wii, but never could get it to show up on the screen.  I headed on to bed and watched Morning Glory (rate it a 9/10).

Saturday, March 19, 2011

house in our apt neighborhood

On the Apache Trail

I had to work today, so I slept in, but Hayley and her dad went to the Apache Trail and to a place called Rawhide.  It’s a restaurant that is like a small western town.  They told me it was cool.  They watched a gunshow, and an animal show, where animals (horses, pigs etc…) were taught tricks like bowing and such.  Hayley’s going to have to go back with  me J.   So, during the day, to pass the time, I went for a walk in our neighborhood and found some interesting front yards. I came home and took a nap, then got ready for work.  I walked to work with it only took about 30 minutes, so I will probably walk to and from work until it gets too hot!  (BTW, the TV was in black and white and the picture was all messed up so O.C. took it back to the lady, and we are still without a TV :(

Sunday, March 20, 2011
I was getting off work and ready to walk home when I saw O.C. there in the parking lot ready to pick me up.  How sweet!  So I came home to sleep.  When I woke up, they were off to a Gunshow at the University of  Phoenix stadium where Auburn did it big, War Eagle (sorry had to throw it in), and then they went to this cool outdoor shopping center, where they ate lunch at Margaritaville.  MMMmm good!  So anyway, they came home ,I was up at the leasing office playing on the internet.  While there, a little boy (about 10) came up to me and started asking if I had any games on my computer.  Somehow, we ended up playing tic-tac-toe on some game website for kids, and when Hayley came to find me she gave me this crazy look!  I’m supposed to be meeting people our age not kids that I could babysit.  Oh well, at least I’ve made a friend J Anyway, Hayley met another traveler the first night she worked named Dede, who lives in our same apt complex, so we picked her up on the way to work. At least one of us makes friends our age!  I dropped them off, then went to Walmart to find an egg crate for my bed, because I can feel the springs in the mattress and it is seriously hurting my back!  Found one for $9, SCORE! I also rented Wallstreet: Money Never Talks (rate it a 8.7/10) for my movie tonight.

Monday, March 21, 2011 O.C.’s Departure
Well, today is the day that O.C. left.  I really hope he enjoyed his stay and we didn’t keep him too bored!  After we dropped him off at the airport we headed back and just lied around for a couple of hours.  We then decided to head back to that outdoor shopping center for dinner.  We got there and it was raining so we found a restaurant that had a happy hour, ½ off drinks and appetizers from 4:00-6:30pm so that’s where we went.  We made friends with our waiter, Alex, as well as the manager John.  They had a mechanical bull, so of course I had to ride it!  We split a prime rib for dinner (it was 14 oz!!) and had a wonderful time watching country music videos, and other people riding the bull.  Once we got our check we told Alex we would be back and definitely ask for him again, he was too sweet (as was his cute girlfriend he introduced us too).  So we came home and CRASHED!

Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Only one more day until we have internet in our apartment!  YES, I’m dying!  We lounged around most of the day.  Hayley had to work tonight and I work the next 2 nights.  I went to Redbox tonight and got 2 movies to watch: How Do You Know, and Unstoppable.  Will give you my ratings on the next blog. I also drove around looking for a place for dinner, as I am tired of cereal and turkey/cheese sandwiches and found CHICK-FIL-A, and drum role please…..they had SWEET TEA!  It wasn’t Alabama sweet tea, but it will do for now!  I also got our schedule to bring home (we self schedule) once I dropped Hayley off at work.  Hoping we can be on the same weekend, we are going to try and schedule 6 days on and 8 days off, so if anyone want to come visit, hopefully we will have 8 days off twice a month so feel free to come on!!  I talked to by friend Leah, and we have already scheduled a time for her to come visit!  YAY!  Well, that’s all for now.  Sorry for being so long!  Hopefully this will be the last time an entry will be this long!  And hopefully I can make each blog interesting to read J  We miss you all!  Have a wonderful week!

~Hayley and Elizabeth~

Week so far...........

So far this week we have had several days of orientation for our new job, along with running errands around town in Ellie. Monday was our Abrazo organization orientation.  We spent two hours at the headquarters filling out more paperwork and taking more quizes!  Geez, will they EVER end!!!  We also found out that a huge virus had spread through their domain and shut down ALL computers in the system.  Yes, I said ALL computers. They said it could not be fixed until next week, so hopefully it will be fixed before we hit the floor.  Anyway, after we finished the paperwork we headed to the board of nursing to get our temp license.  After waiting an hour to be seen we were told we couldn't apply until we were fingerprinted!  The lady could have told us that as we signed in!  We are now finger printed and in the FBI database!  I guess we can't commit any crimes now! JK!  After getting all our paperwork together (yes MORE paperwork) and finger print cards, we headed back and finally applied for our Arizona Nursing License.  The rest of the night was pretty boring.

West Valley Hospital, Goodyear, AZ

Tuesday we had hospital orientation.  We finally were introduced to our new hospital, West Valley! The day was pretty boring, going over hospital policy (yes Gina they have a policy and procedure handbook that we must follow), etc.  Luckily we got out early and I was finally able to layout by the pool! The rest of the night was yet again pretty boring filled with watching tv, relaxing, and blogging :)

Wednesday March 16, 2011  HAPPY 26TH BIRTHDAY TO ELIZABETH!  Our day started out super early leaving the hotel at 0710,
making sure to get to our Computer class on time.  Little did we know, down in the basement of the Phoenix Baptist Hospital where our computer class was held, we would have NO cell service!  We were forced to pay attention!  Each time we took a break we would go to find our service and would have tons of text messages/facebook messages.  I really enjoyed getting the Happy Birthday messages/phone calls from all my friends and family! Anyway, we had to get Ellie (our car if you have forgotten) back to the rental place by 1700 and catch the bus back to our hotel by 1713.  As soon as our instructor passed out the evaluation sheet at 1630, we filled them out and hi-tailed it out of there.  With Kieren (GPS) leading the way and Elli flying like the wind we made it to the rental place by 1703, caught the shuttle back to the airport and missed our bus by 2 minutes!!!  So we made the decision to take a cab back to the hotel.  They guy spoke very little English (or at least seemed that way) and couldn't figure out his GPS.  Apparently he hasn't been in the area long because he didn't know the difference between Tolleson and Phoenix.  Finally we made it home changed clothes and headed to my birthday dinner across the street at Mr. Leno's Mexican Food.  We had to go someone close enough to walk and our only options were Waffle House, Arby's, Burger King or Mr. Leon's.  So anyway, this was the weirdest, but very tastey, Mexican restaurant we've ever been to.  Almost no decorations, no Latin music playing, however, Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squequal was playing on the flatscreen.  It was the BEST quesadilla we've had in a while. We are now watching tv and blogging again.  Hope everyone is having a good week!

~Hayley and Elizabeth~

First Weekend in Arizona

So our first weekend in Arizona was action packed!  Let us just do a little recap (sorry for it being so long):

Friday, March 11, 2011.

We met at the MGM airport to find that we each had a suitcase that was about 7 lbs too heavy.  We each emptied out enough into our carry on to be only 3lbs over and the Delta people were kind enough to not make us pay the extra $30.  So we get our bags, say good bye and head through security and into our gate. As we were trying to board, we came to find out that our tickets had suddenly turned into standby.  After a few stressful "we aren't going to make this flight" minutes we made it onto the plane with one other lady and got the last 3 seats on the smallest plane ever!  We won't bore you with the ATL airport, but we ate lunch and then headed to our next gate, and then boarded the plane.  We didn't sit together on either flight which made them even longer!  Once landing in Phoenix we booked our rental car in last minute fashion, as usual.  As we were heading over to the Car Rental place via a shuttle bus, I (Liz) said "I hope we don't get a Kia." And what car do you think they offered us, yes it was a Kia!  But luckily we also had the choice of having a Hyundia Elantra which is what we chose, and here she is "Ellie the Elantra"! (see above pic).  We get on the road, turn on Kieren, Hayley's GPS , and headed to our lovely Comfort Suite.  When we checked in we found that we only had our rooms for ONE night!  Emergency number of American Traveler was called, message left and we sat by the phone waiting on a call back.  Finally, 1 1/2 hours later some woman called, we explained the situation, and it was fixed!  We ate a great dinner at Islands, Burgers and Drinks, then came back to the hotel, after a seriously long day, to our separate rooms with king size beds. Boy did we sleep well that night!!!!

Saturday, March 12, 2011

We woke up early (0830), went down to our continental FREE breakfast (eggs, bacon, bagels, belgian waffles, fruit, yogurt), and then we were off to the Desert Botanical Gardens http://www.dbg.org/, with Kieren leading the way. This Botanical Gardens was WAY different from our English Gardens down in the south. http://s1197.photobucket.com/albums/aa434/classychicks/First%20weekend%20in%20Arizona/  There were Cacti, Aloe, Dirt, and Bushes everywhere,as well as a butterfly cage!  Next we were off to the Apache Trail. http://www.apachetrail.net/ On our way, I (Liz) got hungry, as usual, and we found a small family owned pizza and sub shop.  Very delicious!  So far, Arizona has not failed us on their food!  We then headed to the trail, once our tummies were satisfied.  Along this trail was beautiful scenery, Canyon Lake, Apache Lake and the Roosevelt Damn.  http://s1197.photobucket.com/albums/aa434/classychicks/Apache%20Trail/ The trail itself was 80 something miles long, but we only did about 40 miles of it.  The first 20 miles was winding roads that were paved.  The second 20 miles was mostly one-laned (at least it seemed that way) dirt roads along with one-laned rickety old bridges.  Ole Ellie road those roads like a champ, and we came out of it only slightly orange. After the trail, we headed to, yes Walmart.  We decided to get a few sandwich supplies and some shampoo, etc. After that, we headed home, ate a turkey sandwich and hit the sack getting ready for another busy busy day.......

Sunday, March 13, 2011  Happy Birthday Hope!

So today was was Daylight Savings, however, Arizona does not change time.  Apparently my (Liz) phone didn't get the memo, so when I wanted to leave by 0830 and didn't wake up till then, needless to say I text Hayley apologizing for being so late! At breakfast, we got the clock on my phone under control, and we were off to a LONG day of driving and site seeing, Kieren yet again leading us the correct way.  Our first stop was Sedona, AZ. http://www.visitsedona.com/  This was a BEAUTIFUL town surrounded by red mountains!  We both completely fell in love with this town!  There was a mountain by the name of Chapel Mountain, with an actual Catholic Chapel built into the side of the mountain!  Pretty awesome!  There was also the biggest house I have EVER seen (see pics) on the same road.  We both decided we were going to need to meet who lived there and become good friends :)  Our next stop was 2 more hours up the road to the Petrified Forest National Park http://www.nps.gov/pefo/index.htm and Painted Desert http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Painted_Desert,_Arizona.  Along the way we saw snow on the side of the road.  Imagine us in shorts and tanks, driving by snow!  Kinda crazy!  This national park was not at all what we expected, but still very gorgeous!  Petrified wood actually looks and feels like rock! There were signs everywhere saying not to steal the wood, and at the exit our car would be searched.  I really wanted to ask them how someone could steal a 100lb+ piece of wood without anyones knowledge, but I guess it happens.  After several stops at different petrified wood locations, we made it to the Painted Desert! This was absolutely breathtaking!  It was as if an artist painted the mountains perfectly!  At the end of the road was the check point in which the park ranger asked if we took any wood, which of course we didn't.  All he did was ask, no searching, so pretty much anyone could have lied (if he/she was a bad person that is).  When we typed in our hotel address, Kieren told us it was going to take 4 hours to get home!  GEEZ, not expecting that.  On the way home we called our good friend Gina, and talked with her for about 45 minutes.  We passed several patches of snow for about 30 minutes on the way back to Phoenix as well.  We arrived back at the hotel around 2100 and CRASHED again!  http://s1197.photobucket.com/albums/aa434/classychicks/Sedona%20Painted%20Desert%20Petrified%20Forest/