Do as my daughter does? Sara has a chance to go to Rome, Italy for ten days this summer with a church group. Cost? A mere $2000.

Now, you all have heard me complain about living in the ghetto and being broke and blah blah blah blah… so how would I ever come up with 2 grand for a trip to Rome for my 14 year old daughter? She tells me that she can get sponsors to pay for this. She said that places like Mardel, a Christian bookstore, sponsors things like this all the time, because it’s a tax write off. So, she’s going to write a letter and send it all over the place trying to get the money for this trip.
She’s so resourceful and creative and convincing, I don’t doubt that she will, indeed, be heading for Rome this summer.

When she first asked me, she said… “Would you let me go to Rome if it was totally paid for?” I laughed and said “Well, there might be a chance that I would let you go, but I doubt there’s any chance at all that your dad would let you.” So she asked him like this: “Would you let me go on a trip this summer with my church group for 10 days?” She’s been on lots of trips, within this country, with her church group. So at first he said yes, then he said WHERE. I said “That’s the kicker.” He said, “OH GOD, NOT LAS VEGAS!” LOL! She said, “No, the land of spaghetti.” He said “ITALY????” I told him yes, it’s Rome. Much to my surprise, he said that if she could get it paid for, she could go. This, coming from a man who hates it when she goes to the mall because it’s dangerous.

We both agreed that it would be a great experience for a 14 year old. Neither I nor Mike have ever been out of this country, and we may never get that chance. So I would love for Sara to have that opportunity. I hope she gets it.

Yep, I did it. 7 days without a ciggy. I hope I can keep it up, I will certainly try.
I’m so glad Diane did this with me, and that all of our blogger friends constantly kept dropping in and supporting us with little comments on our blogs, not to mention the posts on their own blogs supporting everyone participating. Thanks everyone. It really did help.

Pet, I haven’t heard from you in a few days, so I don’t know if you made it or not. If you didn’t, that’s ok, you just try again when you’re ready. Either way, I’m glad you joined us.

Diane, what do you know? We don’t smoke.

Today I’m more relaxed. I haven’t had any problems at all today. I think I have it beat. Short post, but what else can I say?

It’s time to go nominate your favorite blogs for the 6th Annual Weblog Awards, the 2006 Bloggies! You get to nominate up to three blogs in each category, and there are lots of categories. Hurry, time is running out! GO NOMINATE YOUR FAVES!!drinkers cumfree blowjobspictures penisanal ebonysexy schoolgirlporn mangawhipped assnudes male Map

Things are better today. I’ve stopped daydreaming about going across the street to buy cigarettes, and I’m getting used to the two hardest things, not smoking in the morning and not smoking after I eat. I feel physically better today than I did yesterday, also.

It really does help to have all my blogging friends dropping in with supportive comments, and to know that my best friend Diane is going through this with me. ringtones 8700ringtones alltel freebonus 15 ringtones08007 nj barrington contact3g4free ringtones3007 warringtonringtones airplanemaker ringtone alltel Map

I live on the corner of a busy street and a side street, in a foul neighborhood. There is a small convenience store across the busy street from me, facing the side street that my house is on. The store is owned and operated by a very nice Chinese man and his family.

Today I heard a several cop sirens and looked out the door. There were four cop cars at the convenience store, so I started watching to see what was going on. Pretty soon a cop placed the yellow police tape across the front of the store so nobody could cross, a news truck showed up. Then one at a time the other news stations showed up until all four local news stations were there, setting up cameras. I was terrified that the store owner or some of his family were killed.

Then something I didn’t expect happened. After the news people got their footage, two of the news cameramen were setting up their cameras to face the side street, and the other two news trucks drove down the side street past my house. That’s when I went out into my yard and looked away from the store, in the other direction, past my house, and saw that three houses past me were 3 or 4 more police cars. Apparently I had missed all the action though, but whatever it was involved the convenience store and a house on my street. I would have to wait on the news to come on.

The condensed story is here, but according to what I heard on the local news, this is the full story: The store owner was robbed by two 19-year old boys. Here’s something you don’t see everyday though, after the robbers left, the store owner got in his car and chased them around the block. The robbers fired shots at him but they missed, so he kept chasing them. A policeman who happened to be patroling the neighborhood heard the shots and called for backup. When the two were being chased by the police, they left their vehicle and fled on foot, cutting through yards. The police chased them on foot, and the chase ended at the house three doors down from me, where the police caught one robber, and a police dog caught the other one. The one caught by the dog is under arrest but in the hospital. Apparently he was chewed up pretty bad. The other one was simply taken to jail. The store owner got his money back.

How did I miss all this? I didn’t even hear the gunshots.1200 mic mp3mp3 dalmatians 102wonderful mp3 013001du mp3 lieber augustine ach7000 caffe mp3121 powerline mp31053 mltr mp301mp3ins fp876 mp3 Map

Well, I had a really crappy day today. I had to quit using the patch because starting yesterday my skin was getting irritated. I tried moving it, tried putting a new one somewhere else on my body, twice, and it really felt like my skin was burning no matter where. So today I had no nicotine in my system, and I really wanted to smoke all day long, but I didn’t.

I’m in a foul mood. Still.movies sex pigpregnant movies pornquotes fiction pulp movierectal movie tempthe scream movie scriptmovies sexkeysharon stone movies nudesim girl ending movie Map

1:10 pm: Piece of cake. in loan advance cash 20047 loans 24 easy cashin loan california 2nd mortgagemortgage 2nd loan moneycash payday 6 loan 4 andof loans employment 401k terminationfax 5 loan online 7 payday5 loan payday payday internet 7 Map

This morning when I got up, I wanted a cigarette, but not nearly as bad as I wanted one yesterday morning.

It is now 1:45, making it about 42 hours since I last smoked. So far today, I’ve only reached for my inviso-cigs about 6 times, as opposed to the 60 times I reached for them yesterday. I just ate lunch, my belly is a little full which made me want a cig, but it passed after a few minutes.

Something strange was going on though. About an hour after I got up this morning, both of my hands and arms (up to my elbows) went numb. I shook my hands and arms around trying to get them to quit tingling, and seemed to have no feeling at all in my fingers. This went on for about an hour before I wondered if it was a freaky side effect from the patches, so I called my doctor. He said that it was not from the patches, but from my circulation finally getting stronger after all these years.

For years, the sides of both of my palms have been bright red, and a few years ago I asked this same doctor what that was from, and he told me then that it was poor circulation from smoking. So when he told me on the phone that my hands were numb because my circulation was getting stronger, I looked down at the palms of my hands, and sure enough, they’re not red anymore, a little pinkish but much better. The numbness finally went away after about 2 hours, and my palms look even better now. Here you can see the reddish area on the one section of my palm. Just yesterday it was redder and covered my entire palm.

I’m starting to feel good about this.

I think I can do this.

11:17 pm: Whew. Another day nearly over. I almost gave in earlier. Two nights ago when I decided to quit early because I ran out of cigs, it was really because I LOST my cigs. I found them a few hours ago. Man. I actually stuck my nose up to the pack and sniffed it. So close I came to lighting up. I finally just stood up, walked in the living room, and threw the cigs at my hubby. I said “THERE are those cigs I lost.” He laughed and I didn’t. Anyway, it’s almost bedtime.

YAY HOORAY to DIANE for getting through her first day today without smoking. She says she has something for me. What could that be? Probably a swift kick in the ass.

YAY to PET for almost getting through and having only two.

Hmmm, I must say I’m a little disappointed that there seem to only be three of us participating in this.

9:13 am: I got up about half an hour ago, really wanting a cigarette. Not a nicotene craving, just wanting one because it’s my habit to smoke immediately when I get up, and actually to chain smoke 3 or 4, along with my coffee.

There are no cigarettes in the house. Mike has already gone to work and I told him last night to be sure and take them all with him this morning and to empty any ashtrays before he goes. He did, but don’t think I didn’t look. I knew this morning would be hard.

It was strange to wake up and not have a CRAVING though, I guess these patches really do help some, although I still want a cig, just not going out of my mind trying to find one, and not even considering walking to the store across the street to buy some.

The instruction booklet for the patches say that you should try wearing the patch to bed, but if they cause you have vivid dreams, you should take them off before you go to bed and put a new one on in the morning. I had crazy vivid dreams that seemed to last all night long, but slept like a rock which is unusual. I don’t care about the dreams, I’m going to keep wearing them at night because I liked not having that craving when I got up.

4:38 pm: I hate this. I want a cigarette. Dammit.

7:38 pm: Just over 24 hours without a cigarette. Yay! Go, Me! I still WANT one mind you, but reaching this point gives me hope. Rich asked me yesterday how long it had been since I had gone a full day without a cig… I thought for a minute and couldn’t remember EVER going a full day without one, since I started smoking at age 13, and that’s 26 years, so this really is a huge accomplishment. I hope I can keep it up.ringtone logo 8210 transferringtone samsung a560 sphfree i205 motorola ringtone absolutelybarrington amc il theatersa billy little currington bit lonelyharrington friend adult delaware finderf1 355 phone ringtone ferrari mobilei seeing ringtone all cingular Map332334336338340342344346348350 Map