It is beautiful!!!

When I told people I was going to Vancouver many of them were jealous. "It's so beautiful there." "I've always wanted to go there." And when I got here I thought, what the heck were these people talking about. Okay, so the airport is kind of cool with all the Inuit art and stuff, but the rest of the city was just...city. Days went by and I was unimpressed, until last night. Last night we went to a restaurant on the top of Burnaby Mountain. Burnaby is a suburb of Vancouver and where I've been most of the time. The view from the restaurant was AWESOME!! And there were bagpipes and drums being played in the park which made wonderful background music. I took lots of pictures of the sun setting behind the mountains and the Burrard Inlet.

So now I know why people think this place is so beautiful.

Greetings from Vancouver!

Hello everyone! I'm in Vancouver. It's been rainy, cool, but humid. Not what we were expecting. Oh well. It's still a beautiful place and we hope to see some of the sights today. Hope everyone has a good weekend!

Day 9

Tom is just now starting to feel better. Yesterday was one of his worst days. I was really getting concerned about leaving him for my business trip knowing it would be really hard to get out of. But like I said, he's doing better and I leave tomorrow morning for a week in Vancouver. Maybe I'll see Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck!!!!!

Day 5 Begins...

Poor Tom, I feel so awful for him. He's in a lot of pain and there's only so much I can do. We live our days in 4 hour intervals and as much as he wants the medicine, he can hardly swallow it. For those of you wondering what this was all for, the surgery will hopefully improve if not cure his sleep apnea. His sleep has already improved, even if it is being helped along by the Vicodin. :) But he actually takes deep breaths when he's sleeping, something I've never seen him do before.

I have to go to Philly for a day trip tomorrow and I'm worried about leaving him. He seems to get a little worse every day, but they did say days 5-9 were going to be the worst. And to top it all off I have to leave on Friday for a week in Vancouver. He's not too happy to have his nurse leaving him!

Thanks for all the well wishes!

Fronda Nightingale

Tom had throat surgery on Wednesday. Had his tonsils and uvula removed and then they trimmed his soft pallate. They told him it would be the worst sore throat he would ever feel in his life, and they weren't lying. He's in a lot of pain and waits semi-patiently for each dose of pain medication. He spent one night in the hospital and had a very loud roommate so did his best to eat, swallow and talk so they would send him home a day early. Now that he's home he's started to worsen again. They said days 5-9 are going to be the worst. Not sure why, but it seems to be true. I'm busily getting ice chips, making jello, renting movies and measuring medicine. I took the first 3 days off of work to take care of my baby. I hope he can make it without me on Monday. :(

Tom's First Camping Trip!!!

Well, we've made it home from Tom's first camping trip!! And believe it or not, he had a good time. The weather this weekend was beautiful and so of course, was Grand Haven. Tom enjoyed people watching the often interesting people at campgrounds and his first S'more!! Which he didn't really like, I know can you believe it????, but at least he tried it. We went camping with Angi and Todd, Traci, Dan and Jack. This was also Jack's first time camping and I think he had an awesome time!!

Tom started off the trip saying he wanted to buy a camper, I'm not sure he still wants to commit to camping enough to do that just yet, but probably a bigger tent!

Hope everyone had a great 4th of July!!!

Joys of Traveling

So yesterday my co-worker Traci and I headed to the airport for a one day trip to Philadelphia. Getting there extra early to enjoy lunch and a margarita of course. :) About an hour before our flight we found out it had been cancelled due to storms in Philly. Okay, so after we looked at each other and said WTF? we called reservations and found out that we had been re-booked on the 3:47pm, which of course was at the other end of the airport. Okay, cool, but that mean 3 more hours in the airport before we take off. Good thing we had purchased 5 magazines for the flight! After many hours of making fun of the public people in the airport, reading our 5 magazines and eating a big bag of peanut M&Ms we find out that our 3:47 flight which had been delayed to 4:25 was now cancelled. We decided that it obviously was not meant for us to get to Philadelphia yesterday and we just went home. Many of our fellow travelers that we befriended in the airport were not so lucky since most of them lived in or around Philly. Two ladies were trying to get home from a trip to Japan! As we're boarding the tram to leave, the doors closed and then the voice came on and said the train was temporarily delayed. Wonderful. Moments later it did leave the station and we were on our way home. I think we may just be bad luck!

So if you're ever bored, just go spend 6 hours in an airport. It was highly entertaining. :)

City boy goes to the country

We just got back from a trip to Virginia with my whole family. This was an experience for everyone, but especially Tom. His cell phone didn't work, he didn't have his laptop and there was no 7-11 nearby!! Oh the horror!! He did think it was very beautiful and that they people were very nice, but that he never wanted to live there. :) It is a culture shock going from living across the street from Target to taking 45 minutes to go anywhere. He did enjoy seeing a driver in Kentucky hold his side view mirror out the window to look behind him! And of course, seeing the cow cooling off her feet in the creek!

All in all it was a good trip (especially since Tom doesn't like road trips) and we had a lot of fun. He was, however, very glad to be back in the real world. As he said on Tuesday, "We went to four stores and didn't have to take any Dramamine!"

Memorial Day Weekend!

Franklin and I went to Cleveland over the weekend and had a fabulous time! We went to the zoo, Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, an Indians game and saw "The Longest Yard." It was a very relaxing trip with lots of room service and resting, just what the doctor ordered! Hope everyone had an enjoyable long weekend, only 31 more days till the next one!!!

Dance Recital

This past Saturday I went to my niece's dance recital. These are always fun because it's 2 hours of 3-17 year olds doing tap, ballet, jazz, pom, and even irish jig! My favorites are the little ones who just stand up there and turn their heads to watch the teacher in the wings showing them how to do the dance! Sometimes they play with their costumes, wave to their parents or pick their noses. Great fun! However, my niece was by far one of the best dancers up there. Her and her two friends did a jazz dance called Night Creatures. They were very serious and performed well. Five years of watching her dance and she's definitely improved! She's a performer, kind of like me. :) Her excitement was overwhelming because just before the recital she found out she made the cheerleading team (traveling, competitive team no less)! Now it's all she can talk about. I'm not sure if she'll stay with dance but whether it's a recital or a cheerleading match, I'll be there to cheer for her!!

My new car!!!

In all the excitement of getting ready to head to D.C. I totally forgot to post about my new car!!! I was only able to drive it for 2 days before going on my trip, but it's wonderful!!! It's a Superior Blue Impala. It's beautiful and goes real fast! :) Can't wait to get home and drive it! Franklin has only taken it out once since I've been gone, or so he says. ;)

When I'm gone...

I'm out of town on business for 8 days and Tom hates it! He's a very social person anyway and doesn't like to be alone, but he particularly hates it when I'm gone. It's very sweet. Thankfully his family, my family and our friends are taking care of him. :) Thanks everyone!

Franklin - I miss you and I'll be home soon!!

Git-R-Done!!!

Tom, Traci, Dan and I went to see Larry the Cable Guy on Saturday. He was hilarious!!!! It wasn't fun driving to Detroit and walking around during our spring blizzard, but we still had a blast. In the words of Larry, "I used to be a lifeguard, until some blue kid got me fired." I don't care who you are, that's funny!!!

You know what I love?

I love crossing over those black wires on the roads that are counting cars or something. I'm not sure how they work exactly but I love that I may be part of something big!!! Especially when they're put on roads that have a ton of traffic, I think maybe they'll add a light or a lane and maybe I should turn around and go over it again!

What's in a name....

I thought I should explain the title of our blog. It's Franklin and Fronda. Those are our nick names for each other. Tom gave me the nick name Fronda because he likes to pick something silly like that and then do a ryhme..Fronda Bonda Shonda. And so on, yes folks, he does it daily. I gave him his nickname based on his signature. When he signs his name it looks like Frank and then I just started calling him Franklin. :)

Blogger Wannabe

I'm very excited about my first post!! I've been reading my friend's blogs and I feel like I'm with them more often than I actually am. :) I talk about them all the time and so Tom says to me, "Why don't we have a blog?" Why not indeed! So here we are being blogger wannabees. :)

Our lives are not that interesting but probably consistently busy enough to post something. Plus we do have a lot of friends that don't live near us and therefore they can feel closer to us, if they so choose, by reading this. If not, delete the link!