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?
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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!
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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. :)

Concerning the Homefront

This place is beginning to look like a home.
We now have curtains!  Okay not sure why but Scotty came fully equipped with everything EXCEPT curtains?
We live on the 3rd floor and have HUGE windows and Black leather couches. the living room is dangerous in the afternoon so the curtains are a welcome addition for us.

 My friend and fellow MAPper Ashley came up to visit on very short notice and I decided to put her to work.  Scotty and I are still in the poor college kid category for a couple more months so decor is slim around here. Thankfully Ashley is pretty handy with a paintbrush so we added two paintings of Magnolia blooms to our living room this past week and I LOVE them.  Scotty and I also demolished took apart a bookcase of mine while moving it in so after seeing it piled in the corner we repurposed it into some shelves for our barren walls. Not exactly the nicest approach to creating shelves but its much cheaper to throw to shelves up on white utility brackets for $4 than it is to go by floating shelves....  It was also a good excuse to get him to move the TV over. I like things to be centered, so much so that I measure everything and the TV being 52" its pretty obvious when it is off center, now its not :)

My diploma and teaching certificate came in but they are at Home-home. :( I want to hang them on the wall so badly or actually hold them in my hands.  Graduation is in 2 weeks and I cannot wait to have some closure for that chapter of my life. 

I have so many exciting new things going on but I feel like I won't really be moving forward until then. 

Coming up:  visiting a new church, grad school, wedding invitations are IN, new job, Pack visit.

New Leaf

No Excuses, even though I am the QUEEN of THOSE.
I really just wanted to hit delete and make the blog disappear.
Its not fun anymore because I try to make everything fit into pretty little boxes.
I don't share what I am cooking, because I'm not a foody photographer.
I don't post pictures of us or of life because quite frankly I am disgusted with how we look right now. But its like I told Scotty before, this is a time in our lives that we should be enjoying and making memories. Not hiding our in shame.

I start teaching less than one month from today.
I want to document that journey.

Apologies to everyone, because I am a pretty boring blogger.
My writing is bland, but this is for ME.

I love linky parties but the commitment is a bit much for me.

I love reading other blogs, but I really stink at commenting or otherwise being a good follower.

I write about too many things that noone cares about but who knows life may get real exciting soon.

Engagaversary

"Happy Anniversary Baaaabbbbyyyy I got you on my mi----ind"-- Rick and Bubba.

This is so late but yet again I am a self proclaimed slacker.
For our Engagaversy Scotty and I wanted to do something new. But heck were in a new state, everything is New.  The 4th as we all know by now is a big deal to me and we did get engaged on the 4th last year so it was fun to celebrate all that's happened since then. 

   

THEN:

NOW:

Not much has changed except this year we did NOT get rained on.
And for the Record, YES I am wearing the same dress. As per Scotty's request.  Creature of Habit much?

I really stink at surprises, I always figure them out.... I even knew about the engagement so he was determined to surprise me and played along. 

 We drove over to Murrells Inlet to Marshwalk.  I really don't know how to describe it other than it is a boardwalk  lining the Marsh that has tons of Fabulous local restaurants.  We ate at Creek Ratz and it was uh-mazing. Fried food galore.  Forget fitting into a wedding dress, we devoured that mess. Crab stuffed fried mushrooms the size of a raquetball....<3 <3 afterwards we strolled around for a bit then went to check out a store that I have been dying to go to. Lazy Gator is all I wanted it to be and more. They have a year round Christmas shop! I collect ornaments so that was uber exciting to me. A great mix of local crafts and more mainstream as well.  Super cute and fun just to walk around in.
Then we decided to head on over to the beach for a walk since the weather was absolutely stunning.
There were scattered fireworks while we were walking and live music playing= wonderful night for me. 
The first time I visited Myrtle Beach two months ago they had started on a new restaurant, later we found out it was a Jimmy Buffet, Landshark Bar and Grill. Not only that but it would be the location for the SKYWHEEL the 2nd largest gondola, Ferris wheel ride in the U.S.  187' at the highest point. I am afraid of heights, like big time. 187' is about 185 too many for me. But I was dying to ride so.....

 I lived through it, I wouldn't even look down until the very end and I am pretty sure I held my breath the entire time we were stopped at the top, but I lived.

Our last stop of the night just happened to be the 8th Wonder of the World, The Bowery

I'm not much of a bar girl but I am an Alabama girl.  The band Alabama got its start as the house band at the Bowery. Now being from the same area its no big deal to run into the guys of Alabama.  But its cool to see where they started out after they left DeKalb County.  Plus flash the guy at the door an Alabama I.D. and tell him you are from the same home town, and you can skip that cover charge. I've always been laid back, not one to dance, or anything so it was fun to kick back and just listen to the band in a good ole honky tonk atmosphere. 

This weekend was just what I needed
Just a night for Scotty and I to be us. Not what everyone else wants us to be. Not entertaining guests. Not having an agenda. Just being Us.