artbyakm2183's Blog

I just had to say thanks for all the wonderful comments in my last blog about not smoking!

I have been doing great! Working into week 2 (9-10 days? lost count! LOL) I have had a set back on a really rough day....I smoked a half of one =( but none since and that was the day after my last post! YAY!

We are planning a road trip to Ohio next week (2nd for the summer =P) and it will be the first time that we have made the 8+ hour drive without the aid of smokes! Going to be rough when we stop at rest area's not to get that urge! Though I think I am more concerned with Gas station stops then anything...you can buy them there! Either way it is going to be a challenge that I am more then up for at t his point....my mind is slowly drifting from those thoughts which is making it easier to not smoke! Even on rough days...That is another thing I am learning to do....cope with stress without nicotine (i do mad cleaning instead LOL)

Anyway  Thank you all again for the kind words, Helping out a lot!!! I really like hearing stories about how you quit and how long it has been!  Congrats to you! I know it is HARD! To those who have had health problems...my deepest sympathy, I can only imagine a fraction of what you must have gone through...I was lucky and I can only see that more now!!!

Today marks day one of being smoke free. Has been tough but now at almost 6pm without an once of nicotine in my system I am feeling confident that I can finally kick the habit for good.

I have tried many times, as most do, to stop smoking....I have smoked since I was 12 years old I am now 24 years old...so an even 12 years of smoking and probably for about the last 7 or 8 I have been a pack a day smoker.....minus the months I was pregnant and brestfeeding (only breastfed 2 months). For the time that I was pregnant it was a no brainer for me to suffer whatever I had to in order to stop smoking....however the problem with making that last was that it wasn't for ME, it was for the life inside me so when I no longer had that keeping me from smoking I started right back up....not around the baby or in the house at all for that matter, but none the less I was smoking again.

skip ahead through 3 years and we come to now....

A few months ago I went to the gynocologist for my yearly visit only to find out that I need to go back AGAIN to make sure that I do not have dysplasia (stage before cervical cancer) for a second time...the colposcopy showed that I did not have anything to be concerned about but being that this scared the BLEEP out of me I knew what I had to do...I asked the doctor for a Rx to the medicine "Chantix" a pill that helps block the sensors in the brain from even caring about nicotine, or sometrhing along that line. Well finding out that insurance doesn't cover it because it was too new and the price for  it was pretty hefty for our budget (and before anyone says anything about the smokes themselves....If i could quit on my own long enough to save up for the meds I wouldn't need the meds now would I?) So It was a few months before anything could be done about it. Thanks to my Mother-In-Law we were able to just recently get that Rx filled...however it was for my husband not me...bummer.....well it only took him 2 weeks to quit and stay that way for over a month now! Yay for him!!

Well he actually started the pills in the wrong place....they give you packets and you ttake this one this week and that one that week....anyway he managed to leave the first week untouched...so I thought that while I couldn't get my Rx filled I would start with the left overs of his...they were the EXact same thing...well it turns out to be a really good thing that I did not rush out and get mine filled......It made me sicker then a dog!!! I can't take them...period. On the up side I was so sick te entire day that i couldn't smoke...I did have one later that night as I started to feel better ...and the next day I was only interested in 3 smokes....and today none.....It is hard to not think about smoking....it is hard not to smoke, but hey when i don't even have any to smoke then I can't bend or break...the more days like this the better!

It also helps that I want to prove those who told me i can't do it ...wrong. I have no choice to go this without help, but I am determined and confident I can!

So anyone who reads this...leave me some encouraging comments!!! And please nothing rude....I am cranky already! LOL

Had an absolute wonderful time last night at fireworks! We went to Tangelwood to watch them, it is about a 45 minute drive but it is worth it. I am a huge fireworks fan and tend to be a bit picky when it comes to were I want to watch them, when I moved from Ohio I lost a really awesome place to see them....one that was pretty much a grand finale all the way thru it and the finale itself was so spectacular!! The whole way thru they would play patriotic music ...it was just great. The first few years I lived here I could not find anywhere that could even compare...not that they were bad or anything just not the same or as exciting! I could not expect that anyway, we are talking a place that is about 8 hours away! So I kept looking and eventually my sister and I found Tangelwood, I knew at once that it was the place! The fireworks were really good, though still not as grand as the one in Ohio but they were still worth seeing and enough that I deemed that the place I would go to see them.  Well do to circumstances we skipped a year, went and then skipped 2 years...though one of those years we happened to be in Ohio and got to see my favorite fireworks display of all =) Of course that same year we went to where my husband used to live in Ohio and seen the fireworks there as well and ....they were a little closer then I was comfortable with! In fact we ended up coming home with a HUGE chunk of  firework that had nearly hit us! It was scarey and took away from the fun of it all...I don't like watching hot ash from fireworks fall to the ground in front of me STILL HOT! Anyway The next year we went to yet another place for fireworks, they were ok but there were other more personal reasons to go along with the OK fireworks that i was not satisfied. Then we come back to this year, happy to be back at Tangelwood once again with my family.

With 3 kids coming along we had to leave late to get there, I was not real happy with that idea but I understood why my sister wanted to spend as little time there as possible....though it turned out to be great and actually we could have gone sooner and been just as happy! The biggest fear was the kids getting bored and fighting with one another, but there were tons of other kids there and our kids ran and ran, they had such a blast!!!! We had our sparkelers and other minimal fireworks (basically a more elaborate sparkeler)  and a mini picnic. We did get the treat of some people with better fireworks setting them off next to us, I have some pics of that and the kids with sparkelers that I may put up on my photos once I edit them to look better. Anyway It was an all around good time and I was happy with the fireworks. We did end up waiting to get out of there after for around an hour and a half or so, but thanks to our dvd player the wait wasn't bad. The kids were out by the time we got home at almost 12am and we were all VERY ready to go to bed!

Hope everyone had a fantastic Fourth!