Crown Center Christmas

Almost every year my mom and I go to Crown Center at some point to look at all the Christmas decorations, we have been doing it since I was little.

Now of course we take Jake. He enjoys looking around and playing in the small Santa's play area. If it is not to cold outside we usually go over and play on the outdoor display that sits under the Mayor's Christmas Tree.

I of course took some photos this year!

The Mayor's Christmas Tree and the Dancing Fountain.

This is a close up of the decorations on the indoor tree. The tree is suspended from the ceiling and hangs through three floors of the building centered in the middle of a set of escalators. The placement allows you to view the tree up close as you ride up or down between floors. It is beautiful to see in person. I love that the designers of this tree took the time to decorate the underside of the tree.

The little wreath is one of many that cover all the pillars throughout the halls of shopping center. The huge wreath on the right is hung at the main Crown Center Entrance that faces the Mayor's Christmas Tree and the ice skating rink. I estimate that the wreath is about 12ft or more in diameter.
The sign says it all for this next set of images. There is a great gingerbread village display encased in glass. It is fun for the kids to watch the trains as they travel on their tracks through this edible city. (Although I have seen the same buildings for the past couple of years so they may not be as fresh as they look!)

Here is the North Pole ... Where is Santa? Maybe he is taking the train!

My house wouldn't stay standing long if it where built out of these materials ... I would eat it!

If you have the time to go visit you should. It is a fun and free (as long as you don't eat or shop)!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Lights!

Our Christmas lights are up and working!

We had a bit of an issue last week and I was not sure if we were even going to have lights this year. I was 1/3 of the way done stringing the icicle lights along the roof line, when I realized that even though I had checked them on the ground, now they are not working ... grrrr!

So, due to budget and lack of patients I decided to just focus on the front porch and a few shrubs.

I think it looks very nice. Simple but nice.

The interior of the house is getting finished this week so I will post pictures of that when it is all done.

We hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas!

We're In!

We are completely moved into the new house! I even have the kitchen unpacked ... mostly.

I am in love with my neighborhood. Our street has children Jake's age and they are very nice. I haven't taken the time to meet our neighbors yet but I will. We have sidewalks and trees and whole families that actually walk by and say hi. Isn't that crazy, I love it!

Everyday when I walk out the front door the view I see is of large well decorated beautiful homes and then I turn around and get to say to myself, This one is mine!

I absolutely feel at home here. I am so happy and it is not just because I have this big expensive house. It is because of all the things that come along with it. The fenced in back yard that is not near a highway, but instead connects with other back yards. The children that Jake has already spent hours a day playing with. The nice neighbors, that I don't really know yet. The fact that we have enough room for Steve to have a pool table again after 13 years. The Bruns Family that just live 3 minutes around the corner. And most of all the good feeling I get when I am here. I sleep well and I feel safe, even with Jake sleeping in his own room. Which is a big thing for those of you that know me well.

Things are pretty darn wonderful in my world and to quote a very good friend of mine "Today I am glad to be me."

I hope everyone has a great day today! I get to spend the day cleaning my house ... and for now, I don't mind!

Kids Say the Funniest Things

I am repeating this story as it was told to me by Steve.

Steve and Jacob went to return a Redbox movie rental earlier in the week. The box where they needed to drop it off happened to be inside of a McDonalds.

As they were headed out the doors after returning the movie Jacob was interested in a sign he saw on the door. We have been working a lot on his reading skills and he wants to know what everything says. Most of the time we are patient enough to indulge him.

Jake - "Hey Dad, what does that sign on the door say?"

Steve- "It says , no shoes, no service."

Jake - "Why?"

Steve- "Because you have to where shoes when you come in here."

Jake - "Why?

Steve- "The floors are dirty and you need to have your shoes on."

Jake - "Oh. What does this sign say?"

Steve- "No Smoking"

Jake - "Oh. Well what does this sign say?"

Steve- "No Shirt, no service."

Jake - "Why?"

Steve- "Well you have to have your shirt on when you come in here or you can't eat."

Jake- "Why?"

Have you noticed a pattern yet?

Steve- "It is inappropriate to go places without your shirt on and it is a rule here that you have to wear your shirt."

Jake - "Okay."

That was enough explanation for Jake and he was ready to go. From inside the McDonalds they open the first door and step into the small entry way leading to the second exit door, at the same time a gentleman was entering the small entry way from outside. As Steve and Jake pass the gentleman who is heading into the McDonalds, Jake looks up at him while still walking and says:

"Keep your shirt on!"

The gentleman gives a puzzled but friendly look to Jake and then to Steve as he continues into the store. Steve and Jake make it out to the truck the whole way Steve is laughing out loud.

Oh my goodness this kid is funny. He does stuff like this all the time.

I just had to share! :)

We're Moving!

We have been given an opportunity to purchase a home from a friend, who is going to let us "rent to own". It was an offer we couldn't refuse. Okay well, we could have but we didn't want to. :)

Our new house is located in the Carriage Hills neighborhood on 62nd terr. Just around the corner from our friends the Bruns Family.

Here is the shortened version of how this home came to be ours.

Months ago when I meet Adrienne through church, she and I would visit and let our children play together. Shortly into our friendship her husband was laid off, like so many others we know, and it wasn't long before he found another job. They put the house they owned here on the market in June and moved to Pennsulvania. Just before they left, during our last visit together I had mentioned to her that I might be interested in renting her house in the event that she was unable to get it sold fast enough. Adrienne told me to go look at the house and that maybe Steve and I might want to buy it. I told her that was not an option for us right now but to please keep us in mind if she needed to rent it in order to relieve the stress of her mortgage payments.

I knew that if I went to look at the house I would fall in love with it and then I would be upset that I wasn't able to buy it. I have learned not to even look at things if I know I can't have them, so I never went to look at the house. Adrienne and her family moved away and I never thought any more about the house.

Adrienne and I stayed in contacted through Facebook and some time in August she sent me an email about the house that started out something like this: "I don't remember what you said your price range was ...", "house hasn't sold ...", "are you still interested in a rent-to-own ..."

I was a little shocked. I was honest with her and said that I had never even looked at the house and that Steve and I had never discussed it. I told Adrienne that I would go look at the house on Friday and talk with Steve about it and then get back to her. I couldn't wait that long. Jacob and I went right after I logged off of the computer that same day.

Just as I knew I would be, I was in love the minute I walked through the door. Jacob was just as thrilled as I was. He and I walked through every room and talked about what each space was going to be used for. There is a wonderful little nook in one of the bedrooms that we are going to use as part of our "School" area. We could hardly contain our excitement for the rest of the day.

I kept my excitement to a minimum as I let Steve walk through the house. I had brought our friends Jared and Sephie with us to get their opinion. They live in the neighborhood so I wanted to see how they felt about the house. We were all in agreement that this house was to good of a deal to pass up.

So, after attempting to discuss the pros and cons, Steve and I decided to go ahead and make arrangements with the Zeimers to "rent-to-own" their Kansas City Home from them. I say we attempted to discuss because if you know me, then you understand that my mind was already made up, I just had to get Steve to realize he wanted it too. :) Which didn't take much effort by the way.

We are moving in to our new huge beautiful home at the end of this month!! I am beside myself with excitement and stress. This is not the best of economic times and our family is definitely feeling it. I run my own photography business as most of you know and this year has not been as busy as I would have liked. So needless to say, we are not rolling in big wads of cash right now. However, we are going to make this work even if it kills me. Steve and I both have a wonderful feeling about this whole situation and have felt that this is the right desicion since the very beginning. We have no doubts!

Here are some images of the house.

The view from the street, Image provided by Google Street View maps. Thanks Google.

A view of the foyer and stairs leading to the second floor. Second floor has 4 bedrooms and 2 full bathrooms.

This is a view from the foyer into the formal living room and looking through into the formal dining room.

Standing in the Family room. We will probably never use this fireplace but it looks nice! This room is going to house our used/new pool table for the next two years! I told Steve that if he went back for his Masters Degree that I would forfeit having a sitting room and a family room. Well he starts classes on the 27th, so now this room is the pool room. :)

This view is from the same spot in the Family Room as the last image I just turned to my right and we are now looking into the breakfast nook of the Kitchen.

Now we are standing in the nook looking into the Kitchen. I can not wait to get all my cooking stuff in here!!

This is the view from the Masterbedroom into the Master Bathroom. We have a dual sink vanity, 2 walk-in closets, a soaker jet tub, and a toilet with shower in a separate little room. Steve is so thrilled about having the toilet and the sinks in separate spaces. I'm excited about having a closet all to myself!!


This is the soaker tub.

This is the little nook inside one of the bedrooms. This is the room that Jacob and I have claimed as our School/Craft room! Jacob is very excited to get all his school stuff set up in here.

This is the back of the house. We have a very nice flat fenced in back yard. I am going to enjoy the fact that there are no plants to tend to. I'm not a big fan of gardening so having a low maintenance yard is going to be wonderful!

We are so happy and are planning to be in this house for a very long time!!

Opportunity

My FaceBook status on Wednesday afternoon read as such:

"Michelle Lewis has been given the opportunity to start a much more forceful workout regime starting tomorrow! Bye Bye flab ... Heeeelllloooo FAB!!"

Well that is how I am viewing the negative pregnancy test results that I got ... as an OPPORTUNITY.

It is no secret that Steve and I have been actively attempting to conceive baby #2 for the past 4.5 years. We have not taken any steps toward medical intervention and don't intend to. I am fully aware that there are several things in my life that I need to change in order to increase our chances of conception. However like a lot of people I am a creature of habit, and a bit lazy when it come to sticking with a routine.

I had allowed myself to get hopeful this month, which I have been very protected against for many years. I had experienced all the early symptoms and was soooo sure that I wasn't wrong this time. I have many friends who are expecting or have just given birth and the excitement just sort of carried me away.

So here I sit feeling disappointed, yet again... bitter at all the people who are able to conceive just thinking about having sex and frustrated with all the other emotions that are involved in this whole process. Which by the way are to many to write about. I am and will be fine. I am only human however and not seeing a plus symbol just really sucked. Today I allowed myself to be emotional and tomorrow I will move on. I do not wish to invoke any kind of sympathy, I just felt like explaining myself and sharing a little.

I am truly happy for each of my friends who are expecting or just became mothers. It is so wonderful and exciting! I wish I could be experiencing it again for myself with them.

Now to explain how a workout regime is my positive twist to this rather pissy situation. I 'm looking at it like this: I have a vision of what I want my next pregnancy to be like and the current state of my physical body does not fit in that vision, literally it doesn't fit ... I'm overweight. If I made my vision board to scale it would be scary. So, in order for there to be less of me to love, I need to start a workout regime and a better diet plan. This will benefit both my physical ability to conceive and my mental vision of how I want to look and feel while pregnant. As well as a long list of other health benefits.

Because I am not pregnant at this moment, I have the opportunity to be more forceful with my physical plan. I do not have to worry about the stress level on my body in regards to a pregnancy, that is.

Well, I have a membership to the YMCA and the one in Parkville is great. I am blessed to have a very flexible schedule and Jacob loves to spend time in the kids play area that they provide. So together Jacob and I are going to slowly work our way up to 1 hour 5 days a week. I have already meet with a trainer and have a machine guided plan that will give a great overall body workout, followed by mindless walking on the treadmill while I watch HGTV or the FoodNetwork! Jacob also loves to swim, so we plan on hitting the pool at least once a week.

I am not giving up on the idea of more children I am just choosing to focus on what I can do now to make the pregnancy even better for me when it does finally happen. :)

Bedtime Stories

I was on my way to the computer to get caught up on some client projects that I needed to finish, when I made a slight detour and stopped to say goodnight to Steve and Jake, who were already in bed quieting down before lights out time. The image below is what I found when I walked into the room!



They were so proud of themselves for picking on of the best bedtime stories ever.