Just an update: So the science stuff kept going, I am going to consider what I did a good training point for people that want to get in to career mode.

I have been playing using some mods:

TAC life support: Kerbals need food, water, air, and power or they die.
Deadly Reentry: Ships need heatshields or low speed reentries or they die.
Kethane : Collect resource on other planets for fuel (not there yet)
RemoteTech2: unmanned ships require a communication chain and you'll need to build and orbital communication network (playing without the delay feature on... it sucks)
MKS - Modular Kerhal System - A system of components for living in space. I'm not there yet either)

and I still have the clouds mod.

All of these together in career mode are really cool and make the game a lot harder/interesting. Downside.. I have killed three Kerbals so far. Bummer eh?