Wow, is all I can say...I just scored a 988 on my IINS exam. It wasn't too terribly bad, but you had definitely know your SDM and firewall topics...
Because I was floating on air afterwards, I don't remember the drive back in to work.

I used the following as study resources:
-Both Cisco Press books, along with the accompanying Boson exam labs.
-CBT Nuggets streaming subscription. (Thanks to my work) Jeremy is da Bomb!
-Techexams and the forums. The forums kept me motivated and the Journey (
http://www.techexams.net/forums/ccna-security/67710-my-journey-implementing-cisco-ios-network-security-640-553-iins-ccna-security.html) helped a lot. I made flash cards and all kinds of notes to help me accomplish each requirement as stated by Cisco.com.
I only used a Cisco 851 router and followed along with Jeremy on the nuggets.
My Boss at work was really great at helping understand the IKE phases a little better. I definitely need a little more exposure to that.
Thanks everyone for your motivation, suggestions, tips! This is definitely the best forum on the net.