It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas

Brendan and I bought our first Christmas tree a couple of weeks ago, and it's standing proudly and beautifully -- albeit shortly, since it's only four feet tall -- in the corner of our little duplex. Its only adornments are a tiny, red tree skirt, a silver star tree topper, and one little ornament that's currently situated right in the middle. The tree's current dearth of ornaments has occurred because I'm too cheap to buy any new ones. My parents are giving me my childhood ornaments from their tree when we see them over Thanksgiving, though, so the lone ornament will soon have some friends.

The tree's singular ornament is one Brendan and I brought home from our honeymoon almost a year ago. We wanted to buy a Christmas ornament to remember our honeymoon by, and we found this adorable one at a Christmas shop in Downtown Disney. I love it, and I was so excited to finally remove it from its box and gingerly place in on the tree's sturdiest branch.


It feels weird to be celebrating our first Christmas when we've been married for almost a year, and it will be fun to have one more "first" before we hit the one-year mark. But no matter how long we've been married, placing that Minnie and Micky ornament on the tree will be just as special as it was the first time.

How Long

Obama was just declared the winner of the general election, and I'm so proud of him and our country. However, part of me is deeply sad tonight; I'm reminded that for one more election cycle our nation won't have a female president.

I hope someday we'll break that highest glass ceiling.

Baby GIRL Backett

It turns out that my baby intuition was wrong, but that's okay!

Today, Brendan and I found out that Tom and Natalie are having a girl! We don't know her name yet, but we're both beyond excited. This whole baby thing is becoming more and more real every time we find out something new about this little person.

Another wonderful thing is that I'm going to be this little girl's only aunt. Tom's brother isn't married, so she'll have two uncles and only one aunt. Ha! Take that, Brendan.

I still haven't decided what I want her to call me instead of "Aunt Erin", but I've got about five months to figure it out!

Cake Wrecks

Pretty much everyone who knows me well is aware of my undying love for cake. Well, I've recently discovered the most amazing blog called Cake Wrecks. The site showcases professional cakes that have gone horribly, hilariously wrong. Check it out; it'll brighten your day, and you'll never look at a store-bought cake the same way again.

One of the delightful Cake Wrecks

Teaching Tales

Several of my friends who are teachers have posted funny blogs about their students, so I thought I'd do the same, even though my kiddos are college students.

On Friday, the kids (I call them "kids," even though they're 18) were in an unusually good mood. I teach at 1:00 p.m. MWF, so by the end of the week they're pretty dead; they had just turned in a major paper the class before, so they were still riding that "My paper is all turned in!" high. I must give a brief bit of back story before I continue... Most days I'm in the classroom by 12:45 so I can set up my lesson and meet the kids as they wander in, and everyday I lock the door at 1:00 so I won't have kids ambling in at five-after.

However, I was running late on Friday. I planned to facilitate an in-class activity with a DVD clip, and I was borrowing the DVD from another professor who teaches at noon. So, in the process of meeting her after her class and procuring the DVD, I arrived at my classroom at 12:58. I didn't realize how late I was, and as soon as I walked into the room all 17 of my students were staring me in the face. I smiled and apologized for being late, and one of my students jokingly replied, "We were about to lock the door on you!" I kindly thanked them for their vigilance and began teaching. It's nice to know that my kids noticed -- and cared -- when I wasn't there.

In the middle of my lesson, one student interrupted me by asking, "Ms. Voss, are you sick?" I answered yes and told them that I have an icky sinus infection. "Oh, Ms. Voss," a number of students replied, "you need to go home and get some rest so you can feel better! It's alright with us if you cancel class today... anything we can do to help you get well." I smiled and thanked them for their "kindness," and continued on with my lesson.

Those little moments when my students show that they care about me as their teacher -- even if they have weird ways of showing it -- make it all worth it.

Count 'Em... Six

I got some exciting news this morning when I went for my normal dentist check-up: I have six cavities. Yaaay! Going in I knew that I probably had one cavity, but certainly not six. I'm kind of embarrassed by it, too. I mean, I'm 23! It's not like I go around eating candy all day like a small child and never taking care of my teeth. The dentist told me I had pretty teeth, though, so that softened the blow a bit.

While the dentist was informing me of the cavity count, I seriously flashed back to a seven-year-old Erin leaned back in that wonky chair with the dentist telling me not to eat too much sugar and to always brush my teeth.

At least I'm getting everything taken care of in two deeply-numbed visits, and then this cavity nightmare will be over.

State of the Union

The Birdcage airs on cable every Saturday.

If you close your eyes, Sarah Palin sounds exactly like Frances McDormand's character in Fargo.

Every time you watch 60 Minutes, you learn about a horrible new way you can die.

You know who always has a good haircut? Jennifer Aniston.

You can never go wrong with To Kill a Mockingbird.

This is how a three-year-old will tell a knock-knock joke:
Knock, knock.
Who's there?
I've got a bug in my pocket!

You can wear flip-flops every day of the winter in San Antonio.

In the criminal justice system, the people are represented by two separate but equally important groups.

It's a bad idea to get on the monorail going the opposite direction from your terminal at the DFW airport when you're trying to reach your gate.

No one is too old to enjoy Disney World.