You can use an image, not sure why not smiles... but for images you have to upload the image to another site (I use photobucket) and then copy the direct link and wrap some img tags around it and viola.
example:
[ img ]directlinkhere[ /img ]
make sure you take out the spaces I put there. I put spaces so it would appear and you can see it. If you are really desperate for smiles, upload those to photobucket and then do the img tag thing.
It's good to hear that you're busy. I think the internet "life" can be terribly bad for people who spend too much time on it. At least glad to have heard from ya.