The Lavender Soapbox

8 months...what?!

2011-06-16T10:49:00.004-05:00

8 months...? Seriously Megan? That's how long it's been since I've blogged about anything. Life has been a whirlwind - which is always the best kind of life...at least in my humble opinion. I thought about just shutting this whole thing down and enjoying life daily, but isn't that what this blog was suppose to do for me? Wasn't I suppose to stop in the midst of the crazy, and document the great and funny small things of life?

Well, that's what I'm here to do again. Lots of big changes are happening in the Gilmore household and a summer filled with big adventures has begun. So, let's make a toast. A toast to big changes and enjoying this glorious life.

cheers.

oh, and speaking of toasts...I made a little mojito the other night with crushed mint, limeade, rum and ice...delish

2010-10-12T12:00:00.000-05:00

This has been my pet project the last couple weeks...

Oh, and be sure to like us on facebook...I get really excited when more people like us...

Six Days

2010-10-11T22:00:00.003-05:00

In six days this will be me:

Actually, there will be lots of other people in front of me and my time will probably say 2:10:00, but still, those little blue boxes with the white ribbon will be on the side waiting for me.

Wish me luck. I've made it to 11 miles so I'm not too worried, but we also need to remember that I live in Texas and there aren't many hills here...

Here's the course map...super excited to run past the Golden Gate Bridge!

Dinner Lately

2010-09-07T21:36:00.005-05:00

There's this little place down the street that is the perfect walking distance and they happen to have the best pizza...and I am not a pizza girl...but I crave this pizza. Thus, I have become good friends with the owner lately...Terry is just so nice...but however nice Terry and Jo can be, they are not nice to our wallet and my kitchen utensils have been rather lonely sitting without use. So, last week I planned out meals and came upon some delicious recipes...so good, that they might be part of our revolving list of must have dinners. I found them all on the kitchn.

#1 - Fried Rice - I will no longer make soggy fried rice. This recipe is great - so good we had it twice this week. I made it with chicken instead of tofu and bok choy is one of my new favorite vegetables.
#2 - Chili, Lemon & Basil Shrimp with Israeli Couscous - Two words: Quick & Delicious. I added snap peas and carrots for a little crunch.
#3 - Chap Chae (Korean Noodles with Vegetables) - I added shrimp and used some delicious brown rice noodles.

{photos via the kitchn}

The ALICO

2010-08-23T21:57:00.007-05:00

Everyone who has ever driven through Waco has seen the ALICO building. Throughout college, to me, it was just the building with the large red letters on top. The only building downtown that was over 9 stories and it was the only thing you could see of downtown from the Baylor campus. Sure, it is an icon of Waco, but I had no clue what ALICO even stood for. For the last two years, I've even stared at it from my office window.

When we were approached at work to execute a campaign that celebrated the 100th Anniversary of both the ALICO building and the company, we jumped on it. My first question was when I would be able to get to go to the roof. The first time I got to go up there, I had someone from my office take a picture of me. Look how small I am next to the "O"!

I've learned so many cool things about this building too. Did you know that when it was built in 1910 it was the tallest building West of the Mississippi? Or that it was completed in under a year? Or that it was completely self-sufficient for over 40 years with it's own generator and artesian well?

I could go on forever with facts, but you'll just have to check out the website yourself: www.100alicostories.com. If you're in Waco, check out the 30-minute special this Thursday on KCEN at 6:30pm or pick up the latest Wacoan with a feature article.

When Greg proposed on top of Pat Neff, I took a picture of the ALICO building. So when I was up on the roof of the ALICO, I took a photo of Pat Neff. I know, cheesy.
Please disregard how hazy the sky is...but I won't complain... :)

H.O.T.

2010-08-22T19:46:00.005-05:00

I'm back...but before I start blogging, I need to get this post out of the way. This is always on my mind, but in order to save you from constantly hearing me complain, I will get this off my chest right away...

I HATE TEXAS IN AUGUST.

This is what the month of August has looked like this far:

Yes, you did read that correctly...21 days straight of triple-digit highs. 22 counting today. And...tomorrow's high is suppose to be 106. I just want to be able to run in daylight!

There. I'm done. Glad to be back, hope you are too.

Two years of bliss...

2010-06-21T12:30:00.001-05:00

I cannot believe it has been two years since we got married. It seems like just yesterday we were in Colorado celebrating with everyone we love. I guess time flies when you are having fun, right?!

Happy 2-year anniversary to my amazing husband. I love you and I can't wait to spend 80 more years creating an adventure with you.

Happy Father's Day!

2010-06-20T22:10:00.003-05:00

Love you Dad! Can't wait to see you in July!

And, yes, I am that much shorter than him...some of that is the hill we were walking down...but not much.

Meal Kit

2010-06-10T21:44:00.001-05:00

Remember when my awesome sister sent me sporifes and I told you about the most amazing little meal kit? Well....get excited....you can now buy them on target.com...honestly, I'm not all that surprised. Target is absolutely wonderful, so why wouldn't they sell a cute little meal kit complete with a colander?

How great is this? It comes with 2 plates, a spill-free cup with lid, a combined colander and cutting board, a spork and a small waterproof box. And...it is BPA free, dishwasher and microwave safe, will float and will not soften at higher temperatures.

Designed for Light My Fire by Scandinavian designer Joachim Nordwall.

My Favorite Banana Bread

2010-06-06T21:57:00.004-05:00

When I was little, my best friend down the street (the lovely Miss Katie) had the Alpha-Bakery Cookbook from Gold Medal Flour. I was extremely jealous. So my mom helped me to send in my upc codes and whatever else it took and I too had my very own cookbook. Then I moved to Texas and I failed to bring it with me, so I stole the banana bread recipe out of a friend's Alpha-Bakery Cookbook. Why? Because it is the best banana bread recipe in the world. I have no experience with any other recipe for banana bread, so don't hold me to this, but trust me when I say that the banana bread always comes out perfect and delicious.

Just so you know, you can buy these wonderful little books on ebay and amazon. Don't worry, you can thank me later.

Favorites...Chocolate Milk

2010-06-02T07:30:00.001-05:00

A short story just for you:

Freshman year I would go running pretty regularly on what we at Baylor call the "Bear Trail" - a 2-mile-ish loop around campus. My friend Lauren and I would usually go at night and then head back to our dorm and eat either oreos and peanut butter or raw cookie dough...just because we could. Well, that was before pledging and before I had anything else taking up my time. Then one time late in the Spring semester, Lauren and I decided to go running in the morning before lunch at the cafeteria. Let's just remember that this is late April in Texas and by 11 am, the sun is beaming down ready to burn any little red heads that peek their face outside. After a quick lap on the BT, we then collapsed inside the air-conditioned doors of Penland...the building that housed not only delicious food that I would still eat today, but also the cutest boys on campus.

So, once we regained our breath and slightly cooled down, Lauren happened to notice how freakishly red my face was. Did I mention how my face resembles a cooked lobster after running in the heat? Did I know this before I moved to Texas? No. Did I ever notice this while eating cookie dough late at night? No. And this red face also has a mind of its own. It decides - not me - when to go back to my white, freckled color. But I was also starving, and I couldn't stay in the old, dirty bathroom forever, so I decided to face the entire cafeteria of cute boys, one of whom happened to be an "ex" boyfriend. Needless to say I was mortified. (btw, this is all before Gregan ever happened and I had no idea about the cute boys over in Martin Hall)

Then, this weekend, after a little 3 mile jaunt on the BT and after heroic efforts on my part that included fans and ice packs, I had to text Lauren about the re-appearance and lack of disappearance of lobster face. But, I bit the bullet (again because I was starving) and went to Panera with Greg. Lo and behold, as I was standing there with my cinnamon crunch bagel and a chocolate milk, I had flashbacks of freshman year come flooding through my mind. In a town of over 150,000 people, why was it that I had to run into a client? Seriously, a client? Luckily, they happen to be a very nice client and didn't comment on my face or the fact that I was about to eat some sugar bread and drink children's chocolate milk from a box...which, by the way, is the best chocolate milk in the world. I take it to work sometimes as part of my breakfast...in case you wanted to know.

Up There

2010-05-28T15:02:00.000-05:00

Do you ever look at old buildings with the faded paintings on them and wonder what they looked like in their "heyday"? When all of the ads on buildings were hand-painted and not just some large piece of vinyl that was printed in a shop somewhere? Or wonder who the guys were that painted that 30 story mural on scaffolding with small brushes? Did you know that there are still companies who do that?

Check out this really cool documentary about the art of hand-painted murals. So worth the 12 minutes...at least it was to me...I want to hire these guys to paint the entire ALICO building in downtown Waco and then I could stare at a beautiful painting all day long.

UP THERE from The Ritual Project on Vimeo.

I got this from the lovely Rifle Paper Co. blog who got it via Billykirk's Blog.

Clever Little Bag

2010-05-28T11:48:00.004-05:00

Awhile back Lovely Package tweeted about this innovative design from Puma and I haven't been able to shake it since. You can read all about the reasoning behind changing from the traditional shoebox to the "clever little bag" on their blog. But in case you don't have time to read the whole blog post, read this paragraph:

"With our “clever little bag”, Puma kicks-off the next pivotal phase of its’ sustainability program. The tens of millions of shoes shipped in our bag will reduce water, energy and diesel consumption on the manufacturing level alone by more than 60% per year. In other words: approximately 8,500 tons less paper consumed, 20 million Megajoules of electricity saved, 1 million liters less fuel oil used and 1 million liters of water conserved. During transport 500,000 liters of diesel is saved and lastly, by replacing traditional shopping bags the difference in weight will save almost 275 tons of plastic."

highly addicting

2010-05-27T08:50:00.002-05:00

need a creative outlet for a few minutes? or maybe you just need a way to waste some time?

i present to you the virtual keyboard...have fun....

kitchen gadget of the day

2010-05-25T17:00:00.000-05:00

i was blessed with quite a few amazing kitchen gadgets for our wedding and i am still learning the wonders that my kitchen drawers and cabinets hold. today's kitchen gadget of the day is not just a gadget but more of a miracle disguised as a blender...the vitamix. i wake up each morning to a smoothie waiting in the freezer, never really knowing why it has the perfect texture. but then i finally opened up the cookbook it came with. did you know it makes soup? the blades spin so fast that you actually put whole ingredients in the blender and steamy, delicious soup can be poured straight from the vitamix to the bowl. and the best part of all? it makes ice cream. yes, you read that correctly...ice cream. we made strawberry ice cream the other night. it was not only delicious, but easy...blend frozen strawberries, milk, sugar and vanilla then eat...and it came out as perfect strawberry ice cream.

a lesson learned the hard way

2010-05-23T18:47:00.009-05:00

when you were little and your mom said, "be sure to wash your hands after touching the jalapeno" did you listen? apparently i didn't. just in case you are ever in the situation where you "thought" you washed your hands thoroughly, and yet half way through making salsa, your upper lip and then your nose and then your cheeks start to tingle and then burn like someone is pressing an iron on your face...

you should NOT:
1. try to rinse your face with water...the burning will spread
2. try to dry your face...the burning will spread

you SHOULD:
1. combine baking soda and milk into a paste
2. cover face with paste and use q-tip to get all the way up the nose
3. breathe slowly (through mouth) and try not to cry
4. cover face with ice packs
5. once burning has resided, rinse face and cover with aloe
6. if you are as lucky as me, get a loving husband to do all of the above for you

The Texas Heat

2010-05-18T22:48:00.004-05:00

Just so you all know what has been going on lately, here's a timeline:

April - Texas starts to get warm and I love being outside. I start running and run a 5k in 28 minutes. My brother and sister talk me into signing up for a half marathon in October in San Francisco.

May 1st - All of those beautiful trees and flowers start to make nose itch...and then my throat starts to itch...then my head starts to hurt...and my nose won't stop running...and I cough ALL day long...and the allergy medicine plus cold medicine makes me want to fall asleep at my desk.

May 5th - Then Texas decides that 95 degrees is a better temperature and I am now not only sick, but cranky. I have no desire to leave air conditioning and that makes it awfully hard to train my body to go from zero miles-a-day to 13.1 miles in 22 weeks.

I have now pushed all of my pants and long sleeve shirts to the back of my closet so that skirts and dresses will be all that I wear. I'm also thinking really hard about running in the mornings. Ladies and gentlemen, that would mean I would have to wake up early. I can't even wake up on time, let alone early.

All this to say, I am kind of cranky, but I went to the grocery store the other day, bought a bottle of wine and lots of beautiful fruit that's in season. The wine really helped the crankiness and then I think God was really trying to tell me that I need to suck it up and enjoy life, because this is what I found when cutting the watermelon:

How cool is that?!

For those of you who actually read through that post to get to the photo, (which will not be my brother) thanks for coming back to the blog after such a long time away :)

Spring Football

2010-04-10T18:22:00.004-05:00

Today was such a beautiful day! While I can't stand the summer in Texas, spring is absolutely wonderful. We spent the morning on the front porch of our local coffee shop, Common Grounds and then headed over to the Baylor spring football scrimmage - something I never went to when I was a student...oops. I completely forgot my camera, so you get to see it off of my blackberry, but it was a great day to be out there. The new practice facility is amazing and it was fun to have a big crowd out there. You can see more photos here.

I connect way too well with this....

2010-04-01T16:37:00.007-05:00

Mother and Brother

2010-03-30T22:07:00.008-05:00

Last week two of my favorite people celebrated their birthdays and I completely forgot to post about them.

The first and foremost is my sweet mother. I am so thankful that she is my mother and I still get to have her as a part of my life. I wish so badly that I could live closer to her. She is such an inspiration. She amazes me just thinking of all that she has gone through battling brain cancer and to be alive and so joyful. I thank God every day that she is still with us. I love you mom!

Secondly, my dear old brother celebrated his 31st birthday last week. My poor mom has always had to share her birthday week with him and now has to share a birthday post too. Sorry mom. But brother - I do love you and miss you and I can't wait to run a half marathon with you in October. Then maybe I'll have pictures of you rather than having to steal them off facebook :)

I love you both!

Precious

2010-03-30T21:56:00.003-05:00

Is she not just the cutest thing? We were able to visit some friends in Houston while we were there for the Baylor games and they have the most precious puppy. Thanks Janet for letting me take so many photos of your little Dixie! Hopefully we'll get to see you guys again soon.

I was on the news!

2010-03-24T10:33:00.003-05:00

Not as a criminal...as a social media expert...

From relaxing to CRAZY...all in 12 hours...

2010-03-20T19:43:00.003-05:00

BLOOMS

2010-03-18T06:30:00.001-05:00

Two weeks after it snowed, the weather is now in the 70s...and I am loving it. If only it would stay this way and not get 30 degrees warmer.

We got out and enjoyed the sun this weekend. After getting suite tickets to the Dallas Stars game (it was awesome, but I didn't bring the camera) and then getting our hearts broken when Baylor lost in the Big 12 tournament, we stayed the night up in Ft. Worth with Greg's parents. They took us to Blooms at the Dallas Arboretum. It was beautiful! (I also thought all of the kids were adorable...and the little old lady)

His shirt definitely said "I'm a McCutie" and was accompanied by a leprechaun hat.

Aren't they precious? Even the one in the dirt?

They had the cutest little waddle and their shoes even quacked when they walked.

He was made of snow...

2010-03-17T06:30:00.001-05:00

but the children know, how he came to life one day!

If my boss were to ever read this blog, I would want him to know that it was so worth it to give us a snow-afternoon in Waco...

If you are wondering why there is no snow on the ground, it is because a) it had started to rain and b) there were hundreds of other snowmen on the ground - or other creatures...
Sic 'em bears...is that a giraffe in the background?

Somebody must have had left over paint from Sing...