Is that a light I see at the end of the tunnel?

All I can say is that Flash (or should I say AS3)has been kicking my ass so to speak. First off, now that I am this far into the project (I am going to say a day's worth the layout work and two days worth the code to write before I am done-this is after going pretty much non stop for two weeks) I can see every little mistake I have made. I employed the "learn as you build" technique (with AS 3.0) which involves a lot of trial and error, web searching, and seeing the easier path too late. Then today someone with their infinite wisdom says to me, are you sure you aren't putting too much on there (as is too many images of work). I of course said no, but after thinking about it for a bit I realize I have left nothing exciting and new to be seen in my "hard copy" it's all online. But as with the way it has been built, I have put too much effort into the f&#ker to go back and change it now, before it has even had a chance to get a good "real world" critique. Then to add insult to injury the movie file size is big enough it really should have a preloader. I can't even begin to tell you how confused I got looking at some of the preloader code and tutorials I have found online. So I decided with as much trouble as I have caused myself with this project I would just give myself a pass and buy a little piece of preloader code. In my heart this feels like cheating; like buying a term paper, but that didn't stop me from investigating. So I go to Flash Den and find something simple, reusable, and cheap-only to find out I have to buy $20 worth the credits to use the $2 I need for a damn preloader. So I turn to istockphoto. I already have credits there. They do have preloaders, but they don't specify what version the code is written in !*UGH*! I can't just can't seem to win. I don't know what to do. I guess I will just keep plugging along toward the light...I pray it isn't a train.