Road Trip

If you look closely, you can see drool...

Classic photos from a Spann road trip. We'll take a short one back to Mayer this weekend to re-list our home with another realtor (as 6 months have come and gone...) and yet again to Kansas City and then to Texas for the Holidays. Where's that minivan when we need it?!

Family

We made it back in one piece... the car didn't break down (or blow up, as we feared)... we met family members for the first time... we ate... we ate some more... it was Thanksgiving at it's finest.

Claire & Nolan met their great-grandmother, aunt, uncle & cousins (as well as many other relatives) and Kelly & I saw them for the first time in seven years. We also saw my sister, brother-in-in law and their 6-month-old. It was a week stuffed with family and it was great.

Now comes the re-adjustment period. Getting used to real life again. Back to school, work, laundry and housekeeping and working out. We head into the holiday season with Tea Parties, school & church events, traveling, shopping, baking and celebrating the real reason for the season.

Some good news: we had a few showings over the holiday week, including a second showing on our house. No news yet, but there's still hope!

Here's hoping your holiday was fantastic, and that you're making the "adjustment" well! Happy Holiday Season!

Happy Thanksgiving

We have so much to be thankful for! May you & your family experience all the joys of the season... Love, The Spanns

So Close... Yet So Far

It almost happened... we were this close.

We nearly had an offer on our home. A family had accepted an offer on their home, looked at ours and planned to return on Saturday to make a non-contingent offer. The offer on our potential buyer's home (are you following this) was from a couple who were going through a divorce. This couple has decided to reconcile, and will not be purchasing the home, therefore, our buyer cannot make a solid offer on our home. They are still interested in our home and something may still come of it... but who knows.

Sometimes I'd rather be in the dark then to know what could have been. Sigh...














Ed Note: We're totally happy for the couple who is not divorcing!

Friends

The snow came on Friday, but friends didn't. After waking up to several inches of the white stuff, it was decided to cancel our "girls weekend". Everyone was disappointed, but sometimes the risk of traveling in bad weather (especially with babies & kids) isn't worth it. (Of course, the sun showed up around 3pm and the roads began to clear... sigh.)

We did get to see the Fantastic Fisk Family Friends, however, much to our delight! A Saturday morning lunch invitation took us to Chevy's near the Mall of America - a quick chance to say hello. That evening we went to the Morgan's where we enjoyed friends once again.

Friday was Crossroads' home basketball opener for both the men's & women's teams. All went smoothly, even if the Knights didn't put up a win. The kids & I didn't get to the game... the sacrifice for having only one car, but Kelly said they had a decent turnout. Kelly is training a new announcer for the games, something I know he'll miss doing. Many people have said he should do it professionally.

That's Kelly: a man of many talents. Really, isn't he awesome? Ask him about basketball officiating. Before we had kids, Kelly attended many camps (yes, they have camps for officials) where he was told he could get to the professional level. It was a huge time commitment, and he decided he had to choose between pursuing a career in athletics & coaching or focus on officiating. He hung 'em up, but still pays just as much attention to the officials as he does the players when watching an NBA game.

I'm not sure why I just went in that direction, but just want to share that my husband is amazing. He's incredibly talented, is really great with people and one of the funniest people I have ever met.

But if you know Kelly, you already knew all that.

Thank goodness I like him so much... we're together all the time. He's my best friend.

Snow Day

View

The view from our front door, 7am this morning... and still snowing.

Weather You Like it or Not

Weather.

Minnesotans are obsessed with it. Now that I have lived in MN for a combined 9-or-so years, I'm also obsessed (as you can tell by my posts!). I log on to weather.com everyday to check the forecast. But when you consider the week we're having, it's totally understandable. We're enjoying a beautiful 65 degree day today: the kids are playing outside with short-sleeve shirts, and I'm still wearing my workout shorts (much to the dismay of my fellow Wal-Mart shoppers). But what are we expecting within a day or two? ...Snow.

Only in Minnesota.

Beautiful Day

We're thankful for another beautiful Sunday afternoon. It's 60 degrees, sunny, no wind and nowhere we have to be. My ideal day.

Yesterday our family attended a movie premiere. No red carpet or anything, but there was a sing-along. You gotta love VeggieTales. Gideon: Tuba Warrior was everything you've come to expect from the Veggie crew. FYI: Did you know that the creators of VeggieTales met while attending Crown College (then called St Paul Bible College) and began their company after they were both "dismissed" for chapel skips?? Something I found out pretty recently, although many people apparently already knew this.

We've begun making holiday plans, none of which we'll spend at home this year. We plan to drive to Kansas City for Thanksgiving, and while my sister and her family will be in Colorado, we'll see Kelly's uncle, aunt and grandmother, along with many other relatives. Our kids have not met most of Kelly's family, so it will prove to be exciting. For Christmas, we will head to Texas to see the remainder of Kelly's family, while stopping in KC again, where my family is spending the holidays. We've been pretty wimpy when it comes to traveling but are taking the plunge this year. Claire and Nolan are very excited - really, we all are.

And this weekend, a group of my college friends will gather in Rochester for a girl's weekend. This particular group usually gets together a few times a year, but with the birth of 4 babies just this year, it's made things a bit difficult. I'm really looking forward to seeing everyone!

We enjoyed a fun couple of days with my mom visiting. We put our regular weekly plans on hold (Claire even missed a day of school) and just enjoyed "grandma" time. Short and sweet, but we were grateful for the visit.

We are deeply missing our friends and family, and are looking forward to these upcoming times to reconnect. Our little Spann Family of Four has greatly benefited from this time, however, as our home is wherever we are.

As the holidays approach, let's remember the real reason for the season, and remember to cherish those we share it with.