Junk Chic Cottage Comes To A Close

I want to say how much I have appreciated all your prayers and good wishes for us this past year.

As many of you know Terry lost his position as Fire Chief at a Fire Department he loved.  It's been a hard and sad time in our lives. 

It has been so helpful to him to have connections with the men and women of his last fire department.  They relay to Terry how much they miss his leadership, how he cared about their welfare and the welfare of the community and how much he is missed.  That makes him feel good that his 7 years of service to this department as their fire chief made a difference and was well appreciated.  It is nice to know that the community and men and women that serve on that department knew what an asset he was there.

 The search for a new job has been a challenge over these past months.  Terry is well respected and very qualified in his field.  Terry found himself among 200 + applicants with each job potential and would always get down to the final two or three with each job.  With that said there has been a lot of competition, politics and just plain crazy!!!!  Wooo some times it was like Twilight Zone stuff!!!!

So as a lot of you know we sold our home at Thanksgiving and are getting ready to close the end of this month.  Since Terry does not have a new job yet we are going to our Plan B.


God has been good to us and has blessed us in many ways after all that has happened.  Sometimes you have to have bad things happen in life to see what is really important and how blessed you are and how a bad thing in life can turn into a much better opportunity.

So I thank you for your never ending prayers, friendship and encouragement for us as we have traveled through this last year's journey.

 I will be closing Junk Chic Cottage blog for a short time as I pack up this cottage and prepare for our move.


I thought I would post some pictures of Junk Chic Cottage over these past 3 years of my blogging adventure with all of you.  

  We have loved our  Cottage and have many wonderful memories in this beautiful home.  I know I will love another home but until then I will enjoy my last days here at Junk Chic Cottage as we pack up our lives for our next adventure.

So this is not farewell but a short good bye as we start into our new adventure.  Hello 2016!!!

Entry way 2012

Living Room 2012

2012

2012
Then in 2013...........
Living Room 2013
Then 2014..........
Living room 2014







Living room 2014

2014

Living Room Beginning 2015

2015


Leather sectional phase 2015

Mid Year 2015





Living Room 2015


2015


2015



Kitchen Change ups over the past 3 years.......


Farmhouse kitchen 2013

Kitchen 2014

Kitchen 2014

Kitchen 2015

Kitchen 2015


Front of Junk Chic Cottage Summer 2013

2013

Summer Front of House 2014

Summer front of house 2015

2015

2015



Deck Flowers and lounger 2013

2013

Lounger Deck 2014
2014
2014



Summer lounger 2015

2015
2015 Ahhh to think I will have my lounger set up year around now where we will be living.  Blessings!!!!

2015  


Whew!!!! that was a long stroll down memory lane!  As you can see by these pictures Junk Chic Cottage evolved and was well loved over the 3 years of my blogging with all of you from this home.  

New adventures await and new decor crazy to come.  So a short good bye for now and I will be popping back up in your emails soon with a post on our new cottage.  

I will miss all of you and will visit your blogs on my down time from packing and getting ready to move on to our new journey in life.  Thank you for your support and continued good wishes for us.
Good Friends Never Say Good Bye, They Simply Say "See You Soon"!

Love you all,
Kris
Junk Chic Cottage
:)

You are all Winners in my Book!

January 1st is Terry's Birthday.  He turned 58 this year.  He has an identical twin brother.  So it was quite the surprise to his mom back 58 years ago to have not only one new years baby but two.

To celebrate his birthday we went into the city of Chicago to Lawry's Prime Rib House which is the old McCormick Mansion in the city of Chicago.  We love to dine in this beautiful place.  Yummy and beautiful.  Right around the corner is the American Girl Doll Store so Abby was excited this year to make a visit to the AG store on our trip down town too.  It was a fun afternoon and evening yesterday.


Abby got her first American Girl Doll Grace this year from Santa.  She got some gift cards for Christmas so she also adopted Julie to take home.  Each girl comes from a different era and a story book of their life during this time.  Grace is Lives in Paris France and Julie is from the 70's.  As you can see behind Abby she has some groovy clothes and lots of fun things that reflect the 70's.  That is when I was a teen and I could relate to a lot of things Julie has going on.  You cannot see it but Julie has white go go boots on behind Abby.  I remember having white go go boots in the 70's.  Oh how I loved those boots!!!! I also had a banana seat bike too like Julie's.  Is it wrong that I want to have this doll lol!

My youngest daughter Kim works as an pediatric oncology nurse for Lurie's Children's hospital in Chicago. Lurie's Children's hospital is just one block away from where we were going to dinner.  

Terry got to sit in the actual real fire truck on one of the play room floors for the children.  I think he was having more fun in the fire truck than the kids do.  They have these really unique rooms for the kids to go to and play and there are no meds, shots, treatments done while they are in these safe haven rooms.

It is a place for them to go and have peace and fun away from the cancer treatments.  Nurses and doctors are not allowed to go in these safe havens while the kids are taking time outs in there.

This is Lawry's where we went for our yummy dinner.



Just an old beautiful mansion with the prettiest woodwork.

Charming old style dining room.
Would you look at that fabulous staircase and oh that chandelier just makes your heart beat a little faster!  If you live near the city of Chicago or ever plan a trip here this is a perfect place for beautiful architecture and yummy prime rib.


They carve your prime rib right at your table.  So delicious.




Here we are at dinner with Abby.  

Abby and her Aunt Kim our youngest daughter.


Tim our SIL, Abby and our daughter Jen.



Terry and I got a pic of us in front of the beautifully decorated mansion that is the Lawry's restaurant.  Just gorgeous in this old mansion.  It was a fun afternoon and evening to celebrate Terry birthday with our family.




Now on to the Give Away Winners.











Thank you for leaving your sweet comments on the give away.  I wish I had one of these cute wine purses for each of you.

I just threw all the names into a packing box lol!!! and drew out two names.

Here they are:

Rhonda A little bit French
Jane from Blondies Journal
Congrats girls!

Please email me with your address and I will get these off to you.  I am up to my eyeballs in moving boxes and bubble wrap.  Hoping to have some news to share with you soon.

Have a great week as we venture on into this wonderful 2016.  Keeping hope alive in our hearts is always a good thing.

Hugs,
Kris
:)


Woooo Hard Post To Share!

Happy New Year.  I know a lot of us try to make those new year's resolutions with the hopes of achieving them.  Mine every year for the last 20 years has been weight loss.  This is something I have struggled with for a long time.

I had a hysterectomy at age 35 and went into immediate menopause.  Not good to start menopause at age 35!  I also have thyroid disease that has my metabolism down to zero.  So on top of not eating healthy and these health factors I have struggled with my weight for a long time.

I have tried every diet ever put out there.  I alway start the year out with eating better and starting back to the gym only to lose momentum after a few months.  Frustration of not losing anymore than 15 to 20 lbs at any one time with any diet and exercise, I was soooo frustrated.


Then this past year Terry and I decided to do something surgically for the weight loss.
 I am going to share our stories with you but this by no means  is the best solution for everyone.  Everyone is different and has different issues and this should not be done lightly.

Here are some before pics of us.

Last Year at Disney in May 2015

Hard for me to look at these pictures of us.


 Terry was weighing in at 300 lbs and I was at a whopping 268lbs.  Yep this 5'3" body was carrying around a lot of extra baggage!!!!! Wow this is the first time I could actually write those numbers down for everyone to see.

We then decided to have a procedure called Gastric Sleeve.  It is similar to Gastric bypass but not as radical.  You do not lose your whole stomach with gastric sleeve like you do with gastric bypass.  With still having your stomach just smaller you can absorb important nutrients and vitamins that need to be done in the stomach.  So in a nut shell they go in laparoscopically and remove a major part of your stomach and leave you with a thin banana size stomach.

So we under went 3 months of preparation. Diet counseling, psychological counseling, saw our regular doctor on a monthly basis before being allowed this surgery procedure.  They do prepare you physically and mentally for this surgery.

Terry had his surgery done October of last year and has lost 100 lbs and I had my surgery in May of last year and now have lost 68lbs and am still losing.  

This is a picture taken right before Christmas a few weeks ago.  We are feeling better and healthy and finally after so many years of struggling with weight issues we are both at a better place.

Something finally worked for both of us and is continuing to work even months after the surgery.
I debated on sharing this on my blog since it is a very personal and very emotional journey for us.
Just thought maybe this might help someone that is struggling with health issues due to being over weight and they have tried all conventual diets and have not had success.

Being a nurse I know if I kept that weight on I was heading down a road to many health issues.  Diabetes, heart disease run in both sides of my family.
So this was the right decision for me.
Like I said this is not the answer for everyone but it was for us.    I do not endorse any surgeon or any of the companies out there that advertise for this type of weight loss.

We went with a safe and very experienced surgeon very renowned in this weight loss field before we made our choice to do this.
Just happy for the first time in many years to not have to make the resolution to try a new diet and exercise knowing deep down I will succeed for a little while only to struggle with gaining the weight back.

Even with this procedure you still have to exercise and make healthy food choices.  I still am a stress eater and crave the sugar when emotional.   This is not a easy fix to a big problem.  I still struggle with my weight but feel like for the first time I can actually keep going and get the weight off.


Now my New Year's resolution is to continue to exercise and eat better and continue on to my weight loss.  My weight loss is much slower than Terry's but Men are always the easy over achievers with weight loss!!!!  So I am being kind to myself and keep telling myself to be patient and keep moving forward.

My hope of sharing this personal journey of mine with all of you might just help someone out there that is struggling like I did.

Thank you for letting me share my weight loss journey with you.
Kris
:)




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