To all you who never thought it possible (myself included!), I am absolutely overjoyed to announce that I now have a diamond ring on my finger. Or, shall I say, a ring with 69 diamonds in it. At least, so I am told. I haven't taken the time to count them all yet. But, instead of trying to describe it to you, I'll just let you see pictures instead.

 You've heard about the wise men bringing their gifts from afar. Well, I don't know how wise a man this courier was, nor how far he had come. But he did bring a most unusual gift. So if any of you are looking for a great Christmas gift idea, look no farther. Simply go down to your local grocery store, pick out a nice looking, little watermelon, grab a permanent marker, write the address on the rind, and send it on its merry little way. After all--what can say "Christmas" better than a red and green watermelon?!

And, in case you ever wondered what a MLB field looked like *without* grass on it . . .

Okay, so baseball is officially over for the 2007 season. And even though it didn't end quite as I had hoped, it still was an incredible run for my boys, and I'm very proud of them.

From winning the tie-breaker game to become the 2007 National League Wild Card team (and we front-office staff getting to be in the tunnel when they went from the dugout to the clubhouse to celebrate!):

To sweeping the Eastern Division Champions (Phillies) in 3 games straight to advance to the National League Championship:

To my co-workers and me getting to cheer them on in person *in* Phoenix and then have them come home to sweep the Western Division Champions (Diamondbacks) in 4 games straight to then advance to the World Series:

To actually getting to the World Series when no one all year long gave them a chance to even make it to the postseason in the first place:

It was truly a miracle on Blake Street (the Ballpark's address is Blake Street): 

Thanks, guys, for such a great year! Can't wait to see what happens next year!!

And now, for an aunt update, since I haven't given one in a while. Cody is now crawling everywhere:

But prefers to be walking everywhere:

Soon to be driving everywhere (watch out, toes, if he is anything like his father!):

You’ve heard the saying, “Never look a gift horse in the mouth”? Well, I have a new motto. Never put a gift ring on your finger if you don’t intend to keep it. (And, no, for all you wedding-minded people out there, it was not an engagement ring I’m referring to.) Things in the office were very busy last Monday, being the day of Game 4 in the National League Championship Series. And this middle-aged gentleman with an eye-patch and I’m not sure a sound mind, kept coming in repeatedly throughout the day. He wanted to talk to various people, who were understandably (in my mind, anyway) very busy with important game details and were not available to talk to him right that minute about his great money-making idea of putting a Rockies logo on the side of a cigarette lighter/bottle opener. On his last and final time in, he says to me, “You have been very sweet to me. I’d like you to pick out one of these rings for you to keep.” And he proceeds to pull out this little pouch with 3 different rings in it. Trying to nicely turn him down, I simply said, “My fingers are small—I don’t think any of them would fit.” He wasn’t to be so easily discouraged, however (guess I should have taken a clue from it already being his 4^th time in the office in one day.). He insisted I try the smallest one on. So I do. Surprisingly, it actually slipped snugly onto one of my fingers. Um, did I put in there the words “a little too snugly?” Because that’s exactly what I discovered when I attempted to pull it back off my finger and return it to him. Yes, you heard me right. I said, when I attempted to pull it back off. Because it obviously wasn’t coming back off without a serious struggle. And I wasn’t about to give it a serious struggle in front of a one-eyed bandit that I’d been trying to shoo out of the office all day long. Thus, I simply smiled at him, said “Thank you,” and went quietly back to work.

So, there you have it—never put a gift ring on your finger if you don’t intend to keep it.

Oh, and did I mention,

WE'RE IN THE WORLD SERIES!!

GO ROCKIES!!!!!!

WE'RE IN THE PLAYOFFS!!!

WOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!