The Thanksgiving Post

So for my Thanksgiving post I intended to do something along the lines of a  “25 days of Thankful” post where every day in November I would jot down what I was thankful for that day. I made it to November 7. So instead I thought I’d do a “25 Things I’m Thankful For” but I could only come up with 10 or 12 or so before I started sounding superficial (i.e. I’m thankful for my Zune, for my computer, for Verizon fixing my phone, for coffee in the morning and so on) I can only say I’m thankful for my Family, Friends and Health in so many ways. (Which don’t get me wrong.  I truly am Thankful for all those things and much more) BUT instead of doing anything like that I chose to amuse you all with some hilar Black Friday ads because let’s be honest, that’s Thanksgiving is really all about.

I will also be cooking my very first turkey this year. Which promises to be amusing. Don’t worry, I’ll be documenting it for your enjoyment.

This one literally made me laugh out loud. And made my husband almost spit out the milk he was drinking. That’s how you know a commercial is funny.

This made me chuckle a little. Genius Idea for a commercial.

And of course the beloved Crazy Target Lady. Did you know she’s also on Twitter?

Hope everyone has a Safe and Happy Thanksgiving!

Red Velvet Cake Truffles

To kick-start the holiday baking season, I’m sharing a recipe I found..where else..but Pinterest. (Pin is here.) (And you can follow my boards on Pinterest here.) These Truffles are AMAZING. Probably the best things about these lil guys is 1) they’re totally versatile. You really can use any kind of cake flavor (next up for me  is carrot cake) and flavor of almond bark that you want. And 2) I used blue food coloring because the recipe I found was from Tiffany’s and they made theirs Tiffany blue. And for some reason my husband was convinced they would taste better if they were Tiffany blue. But the truth is, you can mix any kind of food coloring and make these whatever you want. They’d be great for tailgating, graduations and holidays. The only downside to these is that they’re pretty time-consuming because you have to bake the cake and then let it completely cool. But you can do them in stages so that it doesn’t consume all your time at once.

Here’s what you’ll need:

1 Box Red Velvet Cake Mix (and the ingredients it states on the box you’ll need to make the cake)

1 1/2 c. Cream Cheese Frosting

1 Package White Almond Bark

Food Coloring (optional)

Parchment or Wax Paper

Here’s What You Do:

Cook Cake according to Box and let it cool completely. (For a low-fat Recipe I substituted the suggested ingredients on the box with 12oz. diet soda. this can be tailored to your cake flavor too. Example: White Cake with Diet Orange Soda)

 

Once Cooled, crumble into a large bowl.

 

Throughly mix in Cream Cheese Frosting.

Once mixed, Roll mixture into balls and set on wax paper on top of a cookie sheet. I used my hands…so it got pretty messy.

 

Now they need to chill for several hours. (I froze mine for 2 hours)

Melt Almond Bark on Stove (If for some reason you have a fondue pot lying around that you might have gotten as a wedding gift and have never used *a-hem* this would work best because it keeps the bark at a constant temperature.)

(This is also where you would add the food coloring if you wish to do so.)

 

Once Almond Bark is melted, Roll balls in the almond bark until covered and lay on parchment or wax paper until cooled. (I just dropped mine in and then fished them out with a fork.)

 

Once cooled you can pack them up and take them with you or let them refrigerate until ready to eat or be served.

Easy Peasy, Right? Like I said, the recipe isn’t hard, there’s just a lot of waiting around – but totally worth it!

October’s Challenge : A Month of 5K’s

$80 dollars
12.4 Miles
4 Saturdays
3 T-shirts
1 personal best time

Well my month of 5K’s is officially over. And I have to say I’m a bit relieved. I love running but once I challenged myself to run a race every Saturday morning it felt more like an obligation than a hobby/passion. But I had fun none-the-less and that’s all that matters.

I do have to admit that I skipped one Saturday. Rarely does it ever happen that my husband and I have an entire weekend with no plans so instead of scheduling a race that day I decided to stay home and spend the weekend at home. Plus, the closest race was an hour away. Just didnt seem worth it. Besides that one weekend, here’s my schedule.

October 1 – 12:1 Run – Danville, Iowa http://www.twelve1run.com/
October 8 – Gold’s Gym/ Southern Illinois Hospice Run – Marion, Illinois
October 15 - iRun  – Carbondale, Illinois http://www.salukirun.com/iRun_Homecoming_5k/HOME.html
October 29 – Army ROTC Run – Carbondale, Illinois http://armyrotc.siuc.edu/?page_id=305

Most of the runs had something pretty cool and unique about it. The 12:1 run was on a rural highway in Iowa and had 3 or 4 bands playing along side the road as you ran. That was probably the coolest thing from all the runs. The iRun had a guy with a giant eye ball on his head who ran. And the Army/ROTC Run had a runner who carried the American Flag leading all the runners for the whole race.

Even though a couple different ailments kept me from doing my best in a couple different races (massive hills, sick with a cold and shameful to admit, a hangover)  Definitely was a good challenge for me.

I’ve collected all my swag: including the dog tags I earned from the ROTC Run. That’s right, Dog Tags.

And even beat my personal best time in the iRun. And found this pic on their website:

While I dont see myslef running any half marathons or even 10k’s in the future (not sure the attention span is there) I’ve enjoyed this month  and it has definitely reassured my dedication to running.

Halloween : Another year of traditions

Happy Halloween!

Well…tomorrow anyway. Per our Halloween tradition again this year we carved pumpkins. Thanks to Pinterest I had a million ideas on painting pumpkins and autumn decorating but then things got busy and time slipped away and I didn’t get any of it done. (Hopefully I’m not as lazy when it comes to Christmas) But alas, here are this year’s pumpkins

     

I’m sure you can guess which one I did.

This a big year for us – it’s the first year that we will actually get to have Trick-or-Treaters come to our house! Every year in the past we have lived in apartments where it’s not really feasible for Trick-or-Treaters to come to us. So we’re pretty stoked for it this year.

Also to abide by tradition we will be watching Hocus Pocus and I will make my first batch of Homemade hot chocolate tonight.

Oh, and I almost forgot. For the first time in years we actually had a Halloween Party to go to. I decided to be a hippie and Steve decided to be Brian Wilson from the San Francisco Giants.

Hope everyone has a fun and safe Halloween! (Can you believe November is knocking on our door? eek!)

Happy Birthday, N2S!

I decided to recognize the one year birthday of Numann to Sowers with a site overhaul. I realize my theme isn’t REALLY different than the one I had before but I’ve been able to add some more stuff and quite frankly, I’m pretty picky about themes and didn’t find many I really liked. I’m going to work on adding new pages and more frequent posts (I pinky promise!) So for now you can check out the new page (I get lost in it all)  Hope everyone has a great week.

Pretty Blank Piece of Paper

Believe it or not, this post was supposed to be a grocery list after I had cleaned out one of my old notebooks. Needless today, I haven’t started the grocery list.

 

 

September Football Frenzy

WOW! Last month was BUSY. But what better way to kick off the start of college football season than with a month of Saturdays going to football games? The Schedule is as follows:

September 3 – SIU @ Semo – Cape Girardeau, Missouri

September 10 – SIU @ Ole Miss – Oxford, Mississippi

September 17 – WIU @ Mizzou- Columbia, Missouri

September 24 – Missouri State @ SIU – Carbondale, Illinois

Ole Miss? Man, that place was nutso. I remember a while ago someone telling me about how everyone dresses up and the girls wear dresses and heals. So naturally, in true southern fashion, I wanted to participate. Until I ended up going to a benefit the night before and having too much wine with greatly diminished my ability to pack outfits. So, I didn’t get to dress up but I had a great time nonetheless. I’d never been to Mississippi before (or anywhere more southern than Tennessee or North Carolina in the Southeast)  and boy, Southern Hospitality is no joke! Everyone was extremely nice, friendly and helpful. Even though we were the opposing team. (Unlike WIU fans, BTW) It was a great trip and we had a blast. A couple pictures:

The Mizzou Game was LONG overdue. I hadn’t been back for a game since before I graduated 5 years ago. My in-laws came in town for the game as well and I got to tailgate with some old college friends. It was a phe-nom day! And a big Mizzou win always helps too.

So after spending a month of Saturdays attending College Football games I decided that my Saturday mornings in October will be spent doing my new favorite hobby: Running! I’ve challenged myself to do a 5K every Saturday in October and it just so happens that there’s on in the area every Saturday. Look for a recap at the beginning of November.

I’m ending with a pic of the tree outside my window as the suns going down. I love fall!