Baby Blues

Hello!  It's been quite awhile.  The busy recruiting season at work is upon us.  Bye bye free time...

I did take a break from all the craziness last weekend and headed to North Carolina to visit Jill and her family, including my goddaughter Emma.  She's 7 months old now -- time flies!  I've missed them a ton and had such a good time.

We did a mini-photo shoot on Sunday.  Somebody loves the camera!

Isn't this the cutest little Ralph Lauren dress?!

 Hooray for watermelon season!

Classic!  Cooper loves kids.

Southerners call these "ham hocks." Haha.

Look at those baby blues. One last outfit change...

It was really hard returning from NC and diving right back into work, but I know it will be September before I know it and time for a much need vacation!  Can't wait.

In other news, I think my IT band issue is pretty much cleared up (I ran 2 miles last week without too much pain), so I have to get back into a running routine.  I did not do a race in May, but I have a 5k and a 10k scheduled for June, so I'm OK with that.  Now just have to get motivation back on my side.  All in good time. 

I hope to be back to regularly blogging soon, too.  It's almost 1:00 a.m. on Saturday morning and this is literally the first time I've had a free couple of hours to blog in weeks, so be patient with me.  :o)

Baby Steps

Something very important happened this weekend.  I fell in love.  With this angel:

As I mentioned last week, I spent the weekend in North Carolina visiting Jill and her family, including their newest addition, baby Emma.  Even though she's only six weeks old, this little bundle of joy captured my heart.  I'm one proud Godmother :-)

Emma just recently started smiling, and she makes the cutest faces:

Sleepy Emma (and Jill).  Yaaawn!

Love this one!  Adorable.

Sweet, sweet, sweet....



All smiles!

Can't wait to watch her grow.  So much love!

Beach Bound

Can it be December already??  I just booked my flight to Grand Cayman for our family vacation, and I know time is going to creep by until then.

The Caymans are sooo pretty.  Check out that sky!

I've been to Grand Cayman twice, but only for day trips as part of a cruise, so I'm excited to spend a whole week on the island. 

The big attraction is Stingray City, which I did both times I was there.  It's an incredible experience to be crystal clear water and surrounded by dozens of huge stingrays, but probably not something I'll pay to do again (it's expensive!).  Plus, I'm afraid I'll step on one of those buggers and die a Crocodile Steve-like death.  No thank you!

This time around, I definitely want to do some sea kayaking and more snorkling, and maybe even some rock climbing if I can workout my fear of heights.  Or maybe I'll just spend my days laying out on the beach and doing absolutely nothing.  Sounds like a good plan to me.

And something else Grand Cayman is known for: jewelry!  It's a huge diamond import center and you can get some serious bargain shopping done.  And ya'll know how much I love to shop....

Pieces of Me

As a few of you have pointed out, I'm slightly behind on the blogging front.  I've been in the weeds, just trying to manage some resemblance of a work/school/social life balance.  Slightly overwhelming, but I'm alive.  Sorta.

(Source)

Even Cooper's feeling the burn:

Thankfully, there's an end in sight.  I take my International Business final tomorrow night, then I'm officially on summer break until August.  Boy do I miss the days when summer meant sleeping in and laying out at the pool.  For us evening grad students, life just goes back to the the regular 40(ish) hour work week.  Go crazy!

Since no summer break is complete without a road trip, I'm kicking mine off with a quick jaunt to Philly next weekend to see Elena.  I can't wait and I'm super excited to see her recently purchased townhouse.  So proud of you E-dubs, you're a real adult now!  Way to leave me in the dust!

Other than that, this week should be pretty uneventful and spent playing catch up from last week's hot mess.  I have to get back to the gym, and resume that whole getting in shape project I took up earlier this year.  I'm throwing around the idea of possibly doing a 5K this summer or early fall, even though I'm still having some issues on the running front (now in my hip -- I'm officially 80 years old).  Maybe having a race deadline in sight will help me push through my issues...

And last but not least, happy Mother's Day!  My mom is in California right now (life is tough, right?) so I went the traditional route and sent her this mix of lilies from Cosentino's:

Puuurdy.  On that note, the parental unit, who have been traveling/working in Asia these past few months, are coming back home to DC this Wednesday.  Hallelujah!  It's been a long time since I've seen them and I'm tired of checking their mail.  Joking -- I'm just excited to have you guys back :)

xoxo,

Olivia

Weekend Recap

I was lucky enough to have a three day weekend due to President's Day, so I took full advantage of the time off and hit the gym every day. I feel great, yay! I just wish I had three day weekends more often.

On Saturday, I made the trip to down to Fredericksburg, Virginia to get my hair cut at the salon I worked at during college. It was great to see all the ladies and catch up on the gossip. My friend Sarah joined me for the day, and very exciting news -- she got engaged that night! Another one bites the dust...haha. Here's a picture of Sarah and me from when we studied abroad in Spain during the Summer of 2005:



Congrats to Sarah and her fiancée, Travis! I'm honored to be part of the wedding and to be there with you guys on the big day.

Another exciting announcement, my little "cousin" Ibby had her baby last week. Kaylee Madison was born on February 12, 2010 and from what I've heard, everyone is doing great. Here's a picture Ibby's mom sent along:



I'm already stalking Baby Gap to find some cute clothes to send along. So adorable!

Well, there's not much else to report on my end. I did get a new pair of running shoes, after suffering from awful shin splints over the past couple of weeks. I'm a Nike girl through-and-through, but I visited the Pacer's Running Store at Pentagon Row and found a pair of New Balances that offer a bit more cushion and support, which should help with the shin splints. I've already put ten miles on them, and so far so good :)

Hope everyone had a nice weekend!

xoxo,
Olivia