Dazed and Confused

Hello all! I'm just back from a business trip to South Carolina and let me tell you somethin'....there's no place like home.

The last few weeks have been a blur. This has been my life....I go to work every single day, (not complaining, I love my job) I'm there until about 9 on Tuesdays holding weight loss clinics, I come home and look over the plans and my checklist for our "BIG BBQ BASH", I bathe (when there's time), watch a little TruTV, and go to bed. When I'm super lucky I get to bring work home with me. (I understand you can't tell tone in a blog but let me assure you that was sarcasm)

So last night I roll into town about 11pm. Unpack a few things only to decide I didn't give a crap and living out of a suitcase never hurt anyone, then headed to bed. Woke up this morning after an amazing nights sleep and ride with mom to Raleigh to pickup the drug bug. On the way back to Zebulon I decided I'd stick around the store for a bit so that I could catch up on the things I missed while I was out of town. No sooner than I hit the bypass does it start to POUR! And I'm not talking, "oh it's raining i can still see the road" I'm talking, "holy cow...where the hell did the lines on the road go?" After driving in this mess for what seemed like 3 hours I finally made it to work. It didn't take long for me to realize that work was the last thing I felt like doing. I managed to make it to closing, packed my crap and got the heck out of town.

To be completely honest with you, I got more done once I was home than I could've ever gotten done at work. I created a family Facebook page so that we could all communicate in a central location, cooked sausage biscuits, drank an entire bottle of pink lemonade (an accomplishment in my book any day), and watched 2 hours of lifetime. Ahhh....home sweet home!

Tomorrow I have several things to look forward to, Mom is cooking a family breakfast, we're having a Brantley family meeting to discuss fundraising ideas for April (post-transplant) and then I get to relax by the pool!

Wow, I just realized the last few paragraphs were a complete mess....please forgive me. My brain is telling me to hurry and finish this blog so that we can unpause the tv and continue our lifetime marathon.

Ta Ta for now!

Love and Peace.

Lungs for April

My previous blogs were all about me. But I'm dedicating this blog to my cousin, April.

My cousin April is more like a sister to me than any sister could have ever been. Mainly because we say things to eachother that sisters wouldn't even think of saying because they'd be afraid the other would stab herself in the face. I can tell her anything, and I do. We have had more fights and our relationship is more on again off again than Jennifer Aniston and John Mayer. But that's ok, because this chic owns a special little corner of my heart. A part of my heart that if ever left void could never be replaced. Which brings me to the entire reason for this blog.

This cousin of mine is 25 years old and has cystic fibrosis. A lung disease that causes a thick sticky mucus to build up in the lungs and digestive tract. She has gotten to the point where IV's and long stays in the hospital just aren't doing the trick. Recently she began taking the steps to prepare to placed on the lung transplant list. Let me add this...April needs a double lung transplant. She couldn't settle for just one! :)

Oh, something I forgot to mention...something even more important than my bond with April. She has a beautiful 2 year old daughter.

So, long story short...this is the start of my blog to document April's journey for new lungs.

July 4th Adventures!

This is the last thing I'll do before July 4th weekend is officially over. I must say though, it's been an eventful and exhausting adventure!

Friday after work Wes and I left for Belmont to visit Russ and Betsy. We arrived around 9pm, freshened up and headed to downtown Belmont for a few drinks and to watch some fireworks. Of course we were late and missed the show but we decided that it'd still be a good idea to walk to a local bar. It was almost a chore to get a drink in this flippin' place and I doubt they could've gotten one more person in there. (a midget or very small person may have fit but definately not an average size human) After we burnt off the beer calories by walking to the car we headed back to Russ and Bets place, crawled into bed and tried not to let the excitement of our upcoming events keep us awake!

Saturday morning came quick and we threw all of our crap in the truck and made our way towards the U.S. National Whitewater Center for a day of rafting, kayaking, beer, friends and our favorite band.

To make a long story semi-short...we flat water kayaked, whitewater rafted, mega-jumped, stuffed our faces, drank our poison of choice, rocked out, and made a million memories and after sleeping in the truck 3 hours we eventually made it back to Belmont to hit the sack.

We woke up Sunday morning to realize that we would not live 2 more seconds without food...and not just any food would do. Bojangles was in order. We manage to get our breakfast down, pack our crap and head back to the 919 to BBQ with my family. I took at least 80 billion photos and I've just now finished cropping, uploading and tagging said photos. As much as I'm enjoying blogging my unbelievable life, I'm fairly certain my bed is calling my name.

It's been real folks. Not that you gave a damn anyway but there goes my second blog. Whoopty doo. Go Traci.

Peace and Love.

My very very first blog!

Hello world! It's come to my attention that I talk alot. So, I've decided that I should blog these words that no one listens to, and maybe someone will read them! By choice of course instead of me forcing word vomit down their ears.

Hmmm....where shall I begin?

This morning, I wake up literally on the wrong side of the bed; (which I hate because Wesleys side feels nothing like mine, it almost always makes me grumpy) and as it turns out my day decided it would go along with the saying. I've been counting down the hours to when I can curl up on my couch since lets just say....8:30 this morning. Now we sit, approaching the 6 o'clock hour and these are the loooooongest nine minutes of my life. At least it wasn't 853 degrees today and when I plant my tail in my car my glasses won't fog up. That my friends...is the up side to this day. Oh, and Wes is taking me to get breakfast for dinner.

It's amazing that as you get older smaller and smaller things make you happy. But the small things make me happier than any of the big things did. So its somewhat confusing for a small town southern gal such as myself. :)

Side note, I just hung up with a rep that told me to "have a great weekend". What kind of sick joke is she playing!? Its WEDNESDAY!!! I still have 2 full days to go. You tell people that like....late thursday or anytime during the day friday.

Today was very blah, which is sad because this is after all my very very first blog; but there will be more exciting things to come. Unless of course my life levels off and red box rentals become the highlight of my week.