YAY.... ME!

I always write about my kids or my family or something going on around here, but today.... Its all about me! Why? Well....

"Hello! My name is Charity (or Daisy) and I have been a non smoker for 1 year, 3 days." 

Today I am celebrating. I was in the car with my family last night and we were on the way home from Monroe when I happened to look out my window and I saw a woman sitting on her porch, cigarette in hand. 

That used to be me. 

I have smoked for years, and always on my porch or in the car. Where ever we lived, if I wasn't with my kids inside, I was sitting on my porch or front door stoop, smoking. Whenever a new book that I wanted to read was released I would sit outside, cigarettes, coffee, and book and I would smoke my way through the book. Whenever my kids wanted to play outside, I would sit on the porch and let them run around while I smoked. I've quit so many times, but after a week or two, or sometimes I would even make it a month or two, something would always send me back to the store to buy a pack so I could have just one. 

BUT NO MORE!!!!! I'm done. Finished. Cigarette free. And it is so cool! 

Last night, Matt and I were watching a program he had DVR'd cause he was working when it aired, and it was HILARIOUS! We were laughing so hard that today my waist hurts & feels like I did an extra 20 sit-ups or something. A year ago, if I even thought about laughing like that, I would erupt in a coughing fit and it always felt like I was hacking up a lung. And whenever I walked anywhere, I had to walk slowly cause I was either smoking or short of breath because of the smoking. Now, I love walking places, and laughing with Matt was so much fun!

Let me tell you, it wasn't easy. There were a couple times I found myself at a counter about to ask for my usual brand. And it wasn't during the beginning months of being smoke free. It was during the summer and the last few months. And yup... I gained about 20 pounds of post smoking weight... maybe more. But snacks taste so much better without the hint of cigarette added, I usually have just one extra cookie or chip because I forgot how good it all tasted!

This summer when we went to Seattle to get Matt's Utilikilt... Ok his man-skirt. Shhhhh Don't tell him I actually called it a Utilikilt... I won't be able to get away with calling it a man-skirt if he knows I actually used it's real name! Any way, we were walking with the kids, wondering around killing time so that we wouldn't waste the money we had paid for parking. At one point, we got stuck behind this group of people with one or two (actually more like six or seven) smokers. It literally struck me dumb! I was smelling smoke from their cigarettes, feeling grossed out, nauseated and it hit me and I stopped walking and just looked at my family like I was stupid. I used to do that to them. 

So now, I'm going to go happy dance my way to the middle school where I walk home with my neighbor's daughter. Then I'm gonna happy dance my way to the bus stop when it's time to pick up my kiddos. And I'm going to breath deep... just because I can!

SMOOCHIES!