Fun Weekend with the Parents

My parents came to visit us this past weekend. We had fun showing them around Phoenix, I think we succeeded in showing them a good time :) here is what we did...

Day 1: The arrival 6:20 in the A.M.

Obviously the first thing we did when they arrived was take them to the famous breakfast place, Over Easy...


My mom ordered breakfast nachos. You are probably thinking, nachos for breakfast? gross. Actually, no not gross. Very good!


MMMM breakfast nachos, I think I will order this next time we go.


Here we are, full bellies and all.

Funny story: The waitress at Over Easy was a little drunk, or at least hung over and hadn't showered yet. I couldn't smell her but Conrad said she stunk like alcohol. She was funny though. She kept saying the A and sh word. Then she told my dad to try a special sauce on his hash browns, she mixed it up for him and then SPOON FED it to him! Ha I was shocked it was pretty funny. Welcome to Phoenix dad, you are not in Utah anymore.


After breakfast, Conrad had to go to class, so my parents and I hit the Fashion Square mall to go shopping! My dad was a good sport. We stopped and had some Godiva Carmel Milkshakes. Oh my goodness! BEST milkshake ever! so good!


Yes, we were in milkshake heaven. That little cup we are drinking from, 6 bucks! it was totally worth it though.



Day 2: Shopping, food and games!

There is this store in Phoeinx called Nordstrom's Last Chance. Apparently people fly here just to shop at this store. It is like Nordstrom Rack but Last Chance has new and used stuff.

It is like black friday every day at that store, it is crazy! Every morning there is a line of people waiting for the store to open. I also heard there is an "E bay mob" that go in big groups and snatch up all the good stuff and turn around and sell it on e bay. You have to be aggressive and willing to hunt for that good deal but it is totally worth it when you find it :)

We attempted to shop at Last Chance and we found some good stuff! We got lucky though, we didn't really have to hunt, there was this random lady that just walked up to my mom and handed her a pair of TOMS. She said, "Here, I thought you might like these"... ???? we were confused, but gladly accepted because they were new and only 12 bucks AND my size! ha. 10 minutes later she hands my mom ANOTHER pair of TOMS. My mom and I looked at each
other and started laughing so hard. We named her the shopping fairy. We kept our eye on her the rest of the time to see if she would bring us more stuff. Nope that was it.

Here we are in the long line at Last Chance, we actually went there twice, my mom was excited about the stuff she got the previous day so she had to go again.

Notice how she already has a bag in her hand? well that is because after she got done buying one thing she found other things she liked and had to get back in line ha. Oh and the shoes I am wearing are the TOMS we got from the shopping fairy the previous day :)


This is what my poor dad did while we shopped...


He is probably wishing he was at school with Conrad haha.


After shopping we picked up Conrad and went to the local bar "the WineBurger" best burger in town... seriously it really is.





Ha, my dad burned his lip eating a fried zucchini. It was really bad, he had a blister on his lip.


Beer battered fries. mmmmmm best fries I ever had. Don't worry the alcohol was cooked out :)


The original wine burger. tastiest burger, and I have had a lot of burgers.


My dad really enjoyed the burger.


After WineBurger we went to Old Town Scottsdale and walked around the art festival that was going on. My dad made a friend.


There were some pretty cool paintings there.


After walking around in the heat we needed to cool off, so we went and got ice cream at a cool vintage parlor called Churn. Here I am eating a pretzel cone. It was a little too salty for me, but I had to try it because I had never heard of a pretzel cone before.


When we walked around to the back of the ice Cream Parlor we found this wall of cassette tapes, so of course we had to get a picture in front of it.








After ice cream, we went to the club house at our apartment and played some games. My mom was really concentrating, ha ha I love this picture.

Ja ja ja Jenga!




My dad cheated at air hockey... Isn't it a rule that you can't stop the puck, line it up and then take your shot? I thought the puck always had to be moving?



My mom and I attempting to play pool ha ha.


The game went pretty fast because my mom hit the eight ball in right away.

After hanging out in the Club house we went to another restaurant that Guy from Diners, dives and Driv-ins visited.


Thee Pitts Again... Interesting name I know but it was good. Have you ever heard of barbecue pulled turkey? well I hadn't and that is what I got, and it was GOOD :)


The waiter gave us little individually wrapped jelly bellies! how cute! I have never seen them individually wrapped before!


I just could not get enough of these!



Day 3: Mini Golf, more food and the Temple





This guy got like 3 holes in one, not because he is good though, he just got lucky ;-)






After mini Golf, we took my parents to the 50's Soda Parlor, Mac Alpines, the one that is also an antique shop. We got shakes and malts there. They were delicious!

This is a cool phone I found in the shop. Pretty sweet huh?



Conrad found a chair that looked exactly like the one his grandparents had in their house.


Later that night we drove to Mesa and ate at Tia Rosa. We saved the best for last. My Brother and Sister in law, Jessica and Adam introduced us to this place. We are sure glad they did. It still holds the place of our favorite restaurant over all the places we have tried so far here.


I get the same plate every time. Really tasty enchiladas. It is like a fiesta in your mouth:D


It was the perfect night to eat outside, they had the whole place decorated for Halloween. I loved it!





We drove over to the Mesa Temple after dinner to walk around for a bit. You know to walk off all the food we ate over the past 3 days.





A great way to spend the last night of a fun trip.


We had a lot of fun. It was good to see my parents and it went by too fast.

Missionary Experiences

About a month ago Conrad and I had the sister missionaries over for dinner, we got to talking with them about people who were investigating the church. I asked them about a girl who had come a few times to young womens on Sunday. They pretty much answered me by asking Conrad and I if we would like to come to the discussions with them and this girl. Of course we said yes, from then on we have been going with the missionaries once a week to visit this girl and her family.

It has been such a great experience. Being able to share what we believe has been a great testimony builder for me. It has made me realize how truly blessed we are to have the gospel in our lives. Having grown up in the church I sometimes take for granted the knowledge that we have and how great that knowledge is. It has been so fun getting to know this girl and her family and seeing the light and knowledge come into their lives.

Even more exciting is that this girl (Adrian) decided to get baptized and she asked Conrad to baptize her. She just got baptized tonight. I had the opportunity to give a talk at her baptism. Of course I bawled the whole way through. Hopefully they could feel the spirit because I am not sure if anyone could understand what I was saying. They were probably thinking why did I ask this blubbering idiot to speak ha. It was Conrads first time baptizing someone since his mission and his first time in English so he was pretty excited. It was a good night. :-)

Here is a picture of the exciting night....

The Sister Missionaries, Conrad, Adrian and her mom and sisters. Her mom and one of her sisters are already baptized. The sister on the very end I heard wants to be baptized now as well!

Unique Names

For the past two weeks now, I have been going to a speech clinic and a private school to get my clinical hours for my speech therapist license. It has been a lot of fun for me, each time I go, I get more and more excited about working in the profession. I have met many different kids who have a variety of special needs. Most of them are just the sweetest cutest little things ever. Having met so many different kids, I have come across some quite interesting names that make you wonder where the parents came up with that name.

First: Identical twin girls, BOTH have autism, interesting I know, even more interesting is that their names are Liz- Beth and Liz- Eth..... Huh? alrighty then? The names aren't weird but they sound the same. Thats just confusing for the parents. My mom gets tongue tied with mine and my sisters names sometimes and our names sound nothing a like.

Second: I have never met another Conrad other than my husband, just yesterday I met a cute little six year old that shook my hand and said, " Hi, my name is Conrad Jessie Danger Flores but you can call me Conrad Jessie" Ha! so cute... Danger though? I don't know about that. I think he should go by Jessie Danger, that sounds pretty cool. Conrad (my husband) thinks its a pretty sweet name :D

Third and probably most interesting is a cute little six year old boy whos name is........Wait for it...... . Heaven-Lee-Peace Omega Duran. Heaven-Lee-Peace is his first name and Omega is his middle name. Apparently he has a second middle name but the therapist said there wasn't enough room to put it on his records. Hmmmmm? Interseting... I bet there is no one else in the world who has his name so that is pretty cool.

I am sure I will come across many more unique names such as these. I wonder how people come up with these names?

Cockroaches & lizards & scorpions oh my... I'm gonna cry

I am glad we don't plan on living in Arizona the rest of our lives because I don't think I could handle it.

I thought I was scared of spiders... Turns out spiders don't seem too bad compared to what you see here in Arizona.

Saturday night I went with some girls in my ward to the General Relief Society broadcast. We went to get dessert after. We somehow got on the topic of finding little or not so little creatures in our homes. I heard several terrifying stories.

Story #1- One of the girls husbands was getting out of the shower and put a towel around him, he felt something crawling down his back... it was a COCKROACH! it was just hanging out in his towel!

Story #2- My friend's husband was getting into bed and felt a sting on his foot... yes there was a scorpion in their BED! in. their. BED!

Story # 3- My same friend's sister in law was sleeping on an air mattress at her house. She woke up to a scorpion on her arm!

Story # 4- Another one of the girls found a lizard in her tub.

All I could think about was, at least I haven't come across any lizards or scorpions in my apartment.

A few months back I encountered some cockroaches in our apartment and I was ready to move out. We got it sprayed and I haven't seen any since. THANK GOODNESS.

Hearing these stories made me extra paranoid. On Sunday I wanted to wear my boots to church. As I was ready to put them on I thought, what if there is a scorpion just waiting to sting me? I pretty much convinced myself there was a scorpion in my boots, so I settled for sandals instead.

The very next night after hearing the stories, I was walking through the hallway into our living room and I just happened to look down. When I did, I saw this little creature right at my feet.

I made a little/loud shriek, ran and jumped onto the nearest chair. Conrad looked at me like I was crazy. I said there is a LIZARD on the floor and I almost STEPPED on it! It was blending in with the carpet but its eyes were bugging out. That is what caught my attention. I made Conrad put a cup over it and then scoop it up with a piece of paper.

Funny thing though, Conrad was almost as jumpy as I was. I said, "You are supposed to be the brave one." and he said, "Hey! I never played with lizards in Idaho when I was a kid." Apparently playing with them as a kid would have made him less jumpy. Can't blame him, that thing was fast! He got it onto the paper successfully and took it outside.

Pretty sure those stories jinxed me. I am terrified that it is only a matter of time before I come across a scorpion. I now check my bed three or four times before getting into it and I look down at my feet when I walk around our apartment.

It's official I am completely paranoid and I am too much of a wuss to be living here.

Blog Background OCD and Conrads Apostle Name

My name is Hailey Mickelsen and I have blog background OCD(If that is even the right term you would call it). My last day at my old job was on wednesday and I don't start my new job til Monday so I had a few days of freedom and A LOT of time on my hands. I spent the first half of my day on thursday changing around my blog background. I was just not liking anything. I went through probably 20 different backgrounds, maybe more, I don't know it felt like a lot. Some of you were probably looking at my blog during that time thinking what the crap is going on! just make up your mind already. I finally found one I am satisfied with :) So hopefully it will stay like this for awhile.

So Conrad insisted that I change our title from Conrad and Hailey to W. Conrad and Hailey. Conrad is actually his middle name. His first name is Wesley. He went by Wes all the way up until high school and then when he went to college he decided to go by Conrad instead. His family and some of his friends from high school still call him Wes sometimes. It is weird for me to hear them call him that because I never knew him as Wes. He says he is proud of his roots and always signs his name as W. Conrad. He also jokes that it is his apostle name ha! I do have to agree it does sound like an apostle name.

A little update on us, Conrad is doing well in school, he said this year is not as stressful as last year. His midterms are coming up soon so I probably won't be seeing much of him in the next couple of weeks. Me, nothing much but my new job which I already talked about. Life is good:)

A bitter sweet goodbye

Yesterday was my last day of work at the preschool and I had to say goodbye to these cute faces.

These are the school age kids I work with in the after school program.



One of the girls I work with is really good at making cakes and she surprised me with this adorable cake.


I have gotten attached to some of these kids, it was sad to say goodbye to them and I'm going to miss the girls I worked with but I am also excited to move on to my new job and start a new adventure.

New Job!!!

I am so excited right now... Most of you know that I got my degree in Communicative Disorders and that I want to work in the field of Speech Language Pathology. Well the entry level for the profession is a Masters. It is pretty hard to find a job in that profession with only a Bachelors degree. I would like to go on and get my masters eventually but right now it just isn't the most convenient time for me to go with Conrad in Law School and all.

I have been searching for a year now trying to find a speech tech job or a Speech Language Pathologist Assistant job (SLPA). The SLPA thing is pretty new to the profession. Utah does not have SLPAs and Arizona just started hiring them two years ago. The requirements to get a license and practice as an SLPA is Bachelors degree and 100 clinical hours. Well I already have my BA I just needed to find an SLP that would work with me on my 100 clinical hours. That was so frustrating! everywhere I called they told me they didn't hire SLPAs or they didn't have time to do the hours with me grrrrr!

I was starting to get really discouraged and pretty much was ready to give up on the SLP profession altogether. I had been praying about it for awhile and was feeling like I wasn't really getting any answers. I decided to fast about it on Sunday two weeks ago to help me figure out what to do. Not even kidding, the very next day I was driving down a street and noticed a building that said Head to Toe Speech Therapy Clinic. I looked it up online and called the number. I talked to the owner and she said she can help me get my 100 hours and after that I could start working for them in home health!!! and then eventually I can work with them in the clinic if I wanted!! I was overwhelmed with excitement I was so giddy and hyper I started to do a little happy jig which looked a little something like this.....

Ha ha ha I LOVE Monk. This is probably one of my favorite scenes from the whole series. I instantly thought of this scene when I found out I got the job. I watched this scene over and over and laughed twice as hard each time I watched it. Conrad and I like to joke around and do it to try and get each other to laugh. Conrad is way better at doing it then I am. Oh if only I could record him doing the Mr. Monk jig and post it for all to see ha ha. He looks so funny, the first time he did it I almost peed my pants from laughing so hard. If you haven't seen Monk I would highly recommend it.

Anyway, I am going to start working on my 100 hours with an SLP in the clinic on monday! The sweet thing about working as an SLPA is that I get to do therapy and screenings(which is the fun part) I just can't diagnose and I don't have to deal with all the paper work which is fine with me. The Clinic I will be working at is called Head to Toe therapy and I will get to do the home health part of it. I love this profession so much and I feel so blessed and grateful for this opportunity. I know it wasn't just a coincidence that the day after I fast I find this clinic and find a job.

To celebrate, on Friday I went shopping with the girls that I work with at the Preschool as kind of a last hoorah before I leave for my new job! I mentioned before that the food here in Phoenix is good well the shopping is great here as well. I love it! Food and shopping, my two favorite things! :) We went to Fashion Square Mall in Scottsdale. Its only like 25 minutes away from me :). It is the biggest mall in the midwest. It has every store you can think of. It is GREAT ha ha. It's a pretty ritzy mall and has got all the high end stores as well. I can't buy anything from those stores of course but it is still fun to look. Anyway we had a lot of fun.

Me and my friend Fabi from work. No I did not buy anything from here. I wish ha.

Yes like everyone else I love H&M and I love that there is one close to me!