I have never owned a more comfortable summer top in my life! The Bamboo Halter Top, made by Be Present yoga clothing company, is with out a doubt the best halter I have ever worn. It is soft, comfortable, and supportive, without any “pull” on your neck or shoulders from the tie around straps.

I’ve worn this top to yoga classes, the gym to lift weights, and just around town running errands. It’s figure flattering, too!

In fact, I’m wearing my Bamboo Halter in this picture after a long run up Table Rock Mountain Road, and then a final hike up to the summit:

Now what girl wouldn’t want all that in a halter top? Go get one today! You won’t be disappointed. Enter BPAL08 in the discount code box to receive 10% off your order.

I had a great 4th of July. I took Symba out for a short run around my neighborhood and then went on a nice bike ride. It was nice to start the day early since the humidity was definitely back in force.

On my way back home, I stopped by the Hibernian where the 100k Spin Cycle Firecracker Ride was to finish in Cary to see my friend, Lal Chand of Athletic Edge Sports Massage. He worked on me for a few minutes (Lal is the BEST therapist in the Triangle Area, hands down, by the way)… and boy, did that few minutes remind me how badly I need to get in for some massage. Soon!

After lunch and a walk with the dogs, I went over to visit Alicia Parr for a bit. I missed her baby shower when I was visiting my parents, and I really wanted to get over to see her and just hang out for a while and catch up. We haven’t been able to do any long bikes together to chit chat, so it was wonderful just sitting around in the air conditioning talking for a few hours. The nursery she’s painting is amazing. She’s a really good artist- I can’t believe the detail in some of her fish and sea animals.

We had a couple of friends over from Joe’s work for a cookout, and watched about a bazillion episodes of Flight of the Conchords. “Foux de fa fa, Foux de fa fa fa faaaaahhhh”

Our fireworks were rained out, but my mom was nice enough to send some amazing pictures of the fireworks in Morganton.

After another early morning ride, it’s time to walk the dogs again… enjoy your day!

I went in to school today to “get my room ready.” Not many high school teachers really do the whole “getting your room ready” thing, it’s more for elementary school teachers with all the fru-fru they put up in their rooms… but I went in for several hours today so I could clean and straighten my new room.

On Monday, Joe was nice enough to come to school with me and help move my desk and other furniture up to my new room. So at least all my “stuff” was there in the room… I was able to just focus on the cleaning and putting away of things.

It’s a lot of work, but it’s really cool to take a step back and take in the room once you get finished. I’ll have to post some pictures of what my new classroom looks like, once I get a little more settled. I have a lot of ideas, and I’m going to bounce them off my colleague before going too crazy. One thing I’m definitely going to do is get some nice plants to put in the room.

My room is fairly small since it’s a behavior support classroom. You don’t want huge open spaces for my type of classroom… instead you want a comfortable, somewhat home-y, environment. The students should feel safe in our space.

I was delighted to go through some of the materials that the previous teacher left behind for me. I found a book that I was going to check out from the library; but, lucky me, she left behind a copy! The book is “The First Days of School,” by Harry K. Wong and Rosemary T. Wong. At the behavior workshop I attended, they referred to this book a lot. I’ve busily been looking through it for ideas to pile on to my ideas I already have. Fun! (well, for me!)

Now it’s time to relax a little, then take the dogs out for a walk.

Here’s a picture of Sheldon sleeping. This is how he sleeps next to me when I’m at home.

Look what I was greeted with when I came out of the bike shop:

They’re so cute!

I’ve had a busy week, even with my time off from school. It seems like I never sit down. But, being busy is good, and I am enjoying the weather and being outdoors. Happy Training!

Hi Everybody, meet my new puppy! He looks just like a mini Symba, don’t you think?

Sheldon:

Symba:

Here’s my view of Lake James today. If you look in the far distance, Table Rock is in the background.

Last week was my first week out of school, but I still had some “work” to do… I attended a week-long workshop dealing with behavior and difficult students. It was a lot of fun- I’d hardly consider it work. I learned a lot and now I am even more excited about being the Behavior Support Teacher next year at Athens Drive. I really look forward to applying the concepts I learned in the classroom.

This weekend, Joe and I headed to Morganton to visit my parents. We had a great time. Both days we slept in really late, which was nice after all those 5am wake ups that I had been doing during the school year.

Saturday we went for a mountain bike ride in the Gorge, and the weather was perfect. It wasn’t too hot, and it even sprinkled a little on us while we were out. When I was waiting on Joe at the top of a climb, he came riding up with a turkey feather stuck in his helmet like an indian cheif. It was great seeing him enjoy the ride so much. His new Titus switchblade has really gotten him back into riding. Now I am just waiting for my new Titus Racer-X to arrive!! The order went in today (Monday), so hopefully that will be on my doorstep soon!

Sunday we went out to Table Rock and went for a run. Table Rock Mountain is the symbol of Burke County. It’s a very distinct mountain, and you can always see it in the distance. There is a gravel road that climbs up to the top of Table Rock, from about 1200ft to about 3000ft total.

So we started out our run at the base of this road. I ran the whole way up. The road twists and turns through the forest and you cover several mountain passes. I’ve biked up the road before, but never ran it. I didn’t realize that it was as much of a climb as it is until Joe told me the GPS data.

We spent some lazy summer evenings at home with my parents, and Joe left last night to go back to Raleigh to work. I’ve stayed behind to visit with my parents some more and take advantage of the wonderful training this area has to offer.