My pallet Christmas Tree

Since I am behind and before Christmas gets too far away, I wanted to show you my Pallet Christmas tree. I had been wanting to make this for several years and each year the time got away from me, so this WAS the year!!!
So....TADA here is my Christmas tree: by day

and by night!! It was just something different cuz I'm different Ha!

Surprisingly enough....No one took it from the garage. Not sure if that is good or bad!! LOL

Heres what happened to Don

On Jan. 7th we had company over for a bible study. It was raining a bit when they came and it started freezing before they left. We have about 6 steps to our back door which is about 4 ft from the ground. He thought that he would scatter some salt before they left so that no one would slip. When he went out I said don't fall.....Yah ok I heard back lol
Next thing I heard was a BIG thump and the back door was closed!! It was really loud!!
He had the bowl of salt in his arm and went to throw some with his right hand and took one step and next thing he knew he was at the bottom of the steps. I opened the door right away and he was trying to get himself up. I said Are you alright and he said his arm hurt!! Oh great!!
So he came in side and get some more salt and still salted very carefully!!! At that time we thought he must have landed on his shoulder. The walk-in was already closed in our town and he didn't want to drive to Rockford cuz the roads were icy and slick and so he would go in the  morning. Well...he didn't sleep much that night and he was feeling where it hurt and there was a big bump below his neck. He woke me early and we were at the ER by 6:30 am

The bump was bigger than pictures. Its at the bottom of his neck, left side

They took X-rays and he must have landed on his arm and the arm pushed up and jammed the collar bone out and it separated it from the sternum on the chest. He hit is ankle and had bruising on his ankle, hip, back, arm and shoulder area and TONS on his chest. VERY PAINFUL!!! They sent him home with Norco for pain.

About 3 days later we went the Ortho Dr and he said there is no surgery that it just has to heal. Even if you break your collar bone they let it heal. He just had to relax and take muscle relaxants and give it time. A week ago last Sunday he woke up with a swollen ankle and it was sprained, this was 2 weeks later.  For a week he kept it up and his neck wasn't feeling any better with icing it. I finally talked him into going to the chiropractor.

The Chiropractor took X-rays and he has 2 slipped disk in his neck and they are pinching some nerves. Its the 2nd and 5th disks. He said that he can help him with the neck but wasn't going to touch the shoulder since its all connected to the collar bone. He also looked at the ankle and he said there's a ligament that runs over that bone and that he must have strained it too so he's been adjusting his ankle too. Last week he went 3 days in a row and this week will go mon, wed, and Friday.

Monday was a BIG Dr. day. Appt. with
Regular Dr. ....Blood levels all good. He's healthy!! lol The Dr wanted X-rays from the Ortho Dr
Ortho Dr. ....Took X-rays. Nothing broken but that ligament is strained. Rest, rest and more rest!!
But he did give him this boot type deal to wear and have more support.
Chiropractor appt..... Worked on neck again.

So ......he's off another 2 weeks at least. On the form, the Dr has written for a return date of Feb 28. So he must be planning on him being off more than 2 weeks. Don doesn't want to go back before its healed. If he had a office job he could be back but being a truck driver you need arms to pull yourself in the truck, close doors and turn these dolly things. Don isn't the type to sit around, he likes to keep busy and he LOVES working so this has been hard but yet he hasn't gone stir crazy as I thought he would be. LOL. Its nice having him home.....but.....its cramping my style somewhat!!! LOL

I enjoy "MY" time when he's sleeping in the afternoon when hes normally working. 

I haven't been able to do any exercise with my videos cuz he's watching TV or in the Living room. He's not suppose to go upstairs except for bed do there's no place to kick him too!! Ha!!!

Oh yah!! Yesterday he asked me: Do you think that I need a bell?

I said NO!!! cuz I know how he will use that bell and that it may end up wrapped around his neck!!! So.....no, NO bell!!! lol

Still keeping on.

Hey. I'm back and soooo much has been going on....at my little corner. I've been bad and just hadn't taken the time to get here. I promised myself that I will get back to it this New Year. I don't know where to even start so I thought Id share my weight accomplishment.

I started this Sept 5th. Actually my sister and I are doing it together. We each made up our rules for what we wanted to do that way we will still to our own plans. We decided to weight and measure every Tuesday and report in. Oh...It was so hard in the beginning to give up all the "GOOD" stuff lol'
I thought that I was gonna die but no, I'm still here to tell about it HA!
So here are my rules:
6-8 glasses of water a day
No tea cuz I love TONS of sugar in it
No pop
No cookies and if I did no more than 2.
1 bread a day
6 chips, pretzels etc a day if needed
No fast foods...that was a killer!!
3 processed foods a week. (Processed food being over 5 ingredients in them)
2 lunch meats a week'
1 c. rice, pasta etc
No potatoes
1 slice of cheese a week
1 c. milk a day
1 c. cereal
Food portions had to fit in my hand.

Exercise: Swimming at least 3 times a week. I joined an exercise swim class.
aerobics and home exercise. I stuck to this exactly and lost either inches or lbs. each month and sometimes both at a time. I kept a journal of it all and so I can see progress.
So here are my results from 3 months progress: I was so excited!!

Total Stats for 3 months:
Chest 7 1/2
under chest 7
waist 7
stomach 6 1/2
hip 6
bottom 7 1/2
thigh 3 1/2
lower thigh 1 1/2
calf 2
arm 2 1/2
face 1

Then we faced December which I knew was gonna be hard and it was as hard as I thought. LOL
Treats at work, parties, Christmas... NO swim class for 2 1/2 weeks and well, I put on 5 lbs for the month. I thought it was gonna be worse but I can take it off in coming months.

January came and I thought ok! I can get back into it. Well....it didn't quite work that way. My husband got hurt and I will tell you about this later. Anyways he's been off work since beginning of Jan. You know how husbands being off knock you way off schedule? LOL I haven't been getting my exercising in cuz he is watching TV and I find myself sitting around with him. And when we were in the frozen tundra and I'm sitting around .. what do I do? SNACK!!!

I weighed last week and have gained 2 more lbs. YIKES!! But that knocked me upside the head.
Last week I got myself back to the pool and reclaimed some TV time in the afternoon LOL
I'm planning on the rest of Jan to get those 2 lbs off and keep on going.

Man!!! Its just as hard not to stop eating all the GOOD food as it was in the beginning LOL
I am determined and will accomplish my goal.
Short term goal is: Loose 20 lbs by April 15th
Soo....I'm keeping on keeping on!!! LOL