getting my feet wet.

I cannot believe the first week of school is over already!
God has blessed me beyond belief with a fantastic school and staff.
This week I have done a bit of everything from breakfast duty, subbing, to crisis management and traffic control.
I have fallen in love with this school and every single student that is a part of it. I cannot wait until I find out exactly which students will be mine!
I hope week 2 is just as exciting and wonderful as the first, but I could deal with it being less exhausting!

Room 310

Today was my first day in my grown up job. 

Exciting for sure, but at least I am getting to be eased into it.

Since I am an Interventionist, I have to wait and analyze post assessment date before I find out which students will be in my class.

For now I am on a modified schedule just helping out with new students, training, and testing. 

My poor classroom looks so bare. 

I have no clue who my students will be so nothing is personalized. 

Until the data has been processed I won't know which lessons we will be beginning with so my adventure board is barren as well.  

I am glad that I have to opportunity to ease into teaching but I am READY NOW.

Commencement

\kə-ˈmen(t)s-mənt\

 

: an act, instance, or time of commencing

   a : the ceremonies or the day for conferring degrees or diplomas  

   b : the period of activities at this time 

 

 

Tomorrow is the big day. I realize that I have been finished with school since April.

I have my teaching certificate in hand, as well as a wonderful job.

I have seen my diploma in the hands of my parents.

Tomorrow I walk across the stage of Coleman Coliseum.

Tomorrow I hear "College of Education, Whitney Paige Barrentine, Summa Cum Laude."

Tomorrow its all worth it.

Tomorrow I will be proud.

Not only of myself but for my classmates, the University of Alabama, the city of Tuscaloosa, and the state of Alabama as a whole.  

Tonight there will be a candlelight vigil held at Foster Auditorium to honor all who lost their lives on April 27th. Its amazing to see so many come together as one, but the fact that it is at Foster Auditorium says even more to me. 

Just to brush up on your Alabama History-

"More than any other event, Foster Auditorium is known as the site of the "Stand in the Schoolhouse Door" incident. On June 11, 1963, Governor George C. Wallace, making good on a campaign pledge to not allow integration of the University, stood in the doorway of the building on the day of registration. He was attempting to block two black students, Vivian Malone and James Hood, from enrolling at the University. President John F. Kennedy called on the Alabama National Guard to forcibly allow the students to enter the building if need be. Calling it "an unwelcomed, unwanted, unwarranted and force-induced intrusion upon the campus," ^[7] Wallace denounced the actions, but, seeing as he could not win against the combined efforts of the Guard, federal marshals and Deputy United States Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach, stepped aside, returning to the state capital as Malone and Hood entered for registration. The incident is seen as one of the seminal events in the Civil Rights Movement in America. This is where the building got its name, after Autherine Lucy Foster, a Civil Rights activist."

Tonight, a little more than 47 years later people from all walks of life will be joining together at this same location, United as One People, the Crimson Nation.

Tomorrow I will walk across a stage that represents 180 years of greatness. 

I am not speaking purely of athletics or academics.

I am speaking of the University of Alabama as a whole. 

Last night I could not sleep because I kept having nightmares that the distruction of April 27th was happening again, only this time I was there. I still feel guilty that I was not there. I could not comfort my friends.  I could not physically support my community.  I could not help bear the burden.

   

That is MY apartment, those are My neighbors. 

I will never know why God was gracious enough to spare me from it all.

It was for His Glory alone.
 

I went back to Tuscaloosa one week after the tornado to see my students, they will be starting school next week.  Starting school on a different side of town in a new building. 

The devastation of that day will always loom but this is a time of Commencement for Tuscaloosa as well.  

Rebuilding is everywhere.

Spirits are High.

Students and communities are coming together like never before.

I am grateful for the opportunity to be a part of such a wonderful place. 

Being the first person in my family to graduate from college, was a great accomplishment. 

I am thankful for the education I received, and the friends I made.

But the greatest blessing of all is the person I became because of my affiliation with the institution.   The healing of the human spirit.  The unity.  The many ways God showed up and healed this town. Knowing that in many ways Tuscaloosa will always be a home to me. Its a refuge, a safe place. Many things will have changed when I walk onto campus in the morning but the one thing that will not is the way each one of us will feel when we are there. 

I'm not joking its almost electric. The energy present tomorrow will be abounding. 

Roll Tide! 

The Name Game

 What does yours mean?
Why did you choose the name you have?
______________________________________________________________

To participate, all you have to do is:
1. Answer one or both of the above questions. And include anything extra that you want! What's your blog's purpose? Do you have a subtitle?
2. Include a picture of your beautiful self because pictures always make posts better! ;)
3. Add the button to your profile.
4. LINK UP!
______________________________________________________________
I have blogged on and off for sometime now but at the end of my senior year in college Scotty got a great job in South Carolina.  I was still in Alabama.  Life was up in the air at the time, where would I be? Where would I get a job? ETC. I have always loved the song "Heads Carolina, Tails California" by Jo Dee Messina Alabama nicely fit in place of California. Up in the mountains, Down by the Ocean  went right along with my life at the time.
So it stuck as a blog title and sub title.
My blog really has no purpose and it quite boring most of the time. To me its an outlet, and a way of tracking this crazy trip called life. New twists and turns like a wedding and a new job are coming very soon!

You live, you learn

"You live you learn
You love you learn
You cry you learn
You lose you learn
You bleed you learn
You scream you learn"
- Yes Alanis .


I have no brothers, I've never had to live under the same roof as a boy other than my uber-tidy dad.
I have had my fair share of roommates over the years but man alive.  Scotty is not messy per say buy goodness gracious at the little stuff that goes over looked. 
I am Messy, very messy. Ask any of my friends and they will agree but I have always worked and went to school every day and used that as an excuse.  Now that I am at home all day every day I feel like I should keep this place spotless.  So much for that. I would never survive as a SAHM. I have so much respect for those who can, but not me.
I know Scotty could write a book about me and the little things I do that annoy him, but Scotty doesn't have a blog and I do so I get to share :)

This is NOT a towel rack. This is a shower curtain rod. The reason you can't put the towel on the towel rack??? Because you pile your clothes on the towel rack. That's what a HAMPER is for. I am going to go elementary and start using picture labels to show what goes where.

I cleaned out the linen closet, washed, and folded all 8 sets of sheets. I took the time to stack them according to which bed they go on. Each set was put inside the pillowcase. Very handy little system. So Scotty switched out the sheets, yanked the whole stack down, piled them back up and here's the kicker: PUT THE DIRTY SHEETS BACK ON TOP OF THE CLEAN ONES. Again HAMPER??

Not sure if this is him being a smarty pants or lazy? I asked for a new roll to be put on the holder, not on top of the holder.

Decor? I have a problem with hanging pictures too high, I think its because I am too short. But this? One at the ceiling, one at the floor? Too funny to even get mad about, except he used dry wall screws to hang them!

Oh got to love him, even if by the end of every afternoon I want to bury him under the piles of laundry I have done and drown him in the dirty dish water. :)