A former smoker

All of my "pre-children friends" will remember me as the fun one who always had a cigarette in hand. I was a really heavy smoker, averaged a pack a day…sometimes more depending on the day :) It was a nasty habit, but one I loved dearly. I'd watch friends try and quit, only to pick it back up in a couple weeks. They'd ask me to try and quit with them and my answer was always, I don't want to, I don't even want to try - I love it too much!

When we bought our first house, my smoking habit was relegated to the basement. I think Lance's theory there was "if she has to go to the basement, maybe she won't want to smoke as much." Boy, was he wrong! I set myself up a whole smoking lounge down there. Chairs, table, tv, laptop, etc. It was a nice lounge. When we had dinner parties, my lounge was hopping because a good chunk of our friends smoked.

When we bought and moved into our second house, I pleaded my case and got my smoking lounge upgraded to the second floor. Lance realized I wasn't letting go of that habit anytime soon and if he wanted to see more of me, I'd better be allowed in the main area of the house. So we set the third bedroom up as a smoking lounge/hanging out lounge - it was sweet. Dark burgundy paint on the walls, comfy seating, poker table, good times.

I had always maintained if I were to get pregnant, I would quit smoking. Initially, it was just something to say to get people off my back, I had no intentions of getting pregnant. But after six or seven years of married life we decided we'd join the breeding masses. I knew my time was up, I was going to have to let go of this habit for the good of the baby and myself, not to mention all that second-hand smoke Lance had inhaled over the years. When I found out I was knocked up, that was it. I quit cold-turkey. It's hard to say if I was cranky after quitting, because I had all the pregnancy hormones raging through me. It is pretty safe to say though, that Lance had a very, very rough couple of months there for a while.

I honestly don't even know how long I've been a non-smoker. I'm not one of those who count it down to the day or week - all I know is I quit in 2008, probably around April. I do know that I can smell a cigarette from blocks away though. If I have my kids with me, I instantly think about how to keep them away from the cigarette smoke. If it's just me, I will inhale the smoke, just a little bit :) So when Lance and Hannah came home yesterday smelling like smoke I was all over him. You smell like smoke, yuck! Hannah's hair smells like smoke, yuck! Stay away from smoke with her - yuck! Hours later, I could still smell smoke on them…I know they weren't being smoked "on or at," but just being near it, man that smoke is a hanger-on-er. Makes me realize why one of my friends hated smoke so much, he always said my clothes smelled like it. Turns out he was right. Hear that Larry? You were right :)

So, any ideas I may have occasionally about picking back up the habit are always quashed once I think about my sweet little girls smelling like smoke.