Ghost River

This morning, Team Oster woke up extra early. Not to go shopping, but to go canoeing on the Ghost River conveniently located just an hour and a half away. Our last canoe trip was two and a half years ago. We had picked a not so fun part of the Wolf River and spent the day battling downed trees and snakes. Needless to say, the kids were not excited about getting back on the river.

Warren and I had to listen to, "You mean we're just going to SIT in a canoe for 5 hours?" and other unenthusiastic responses for about a week. When one of the kids said, "I don't want to go canoeing!" I simply replied, "Tough."

I told them that they were just going to have to trust us on this one.

To make sure our trip went smoothly, I assembled an all star crew consisting of Naomi Van Tol, nature lover and Ghost River expert, and Team Banbury. Scott is an enthusiastic environmental all-star. Amy is the most badass midwife in town. Their kids, Kade and Brigid, are both super cool too.

To top things off, we had the best weather one could possibly hope for in late November.

There was no way the trip could suck. Right?


Wrong. I sucked. I have a hard time relaxing and well, I started off a little tense. I was the canoeing equivalent of a backseat driver. (A bow driver?) Warren gave me the opportunity to be stern, and that was not fun. The Ghost River is very challenging to maneuver and to make a long story short, I ended up in tears begging him to take the wheel.


Before leaving, Naomi warned us that married couples don't always make the best canoeing partners and that she would not hesitate to split us up if necessary. I giggled when she originally told me this, but uh, yeah, Warren and I had to be separated.

The Banburys graciously offered to "wife swap" with us, and Naomi invited Satchel to ride with her and Brigid. This turned out to be the perfect set up. Satchel and Brigid got to ask a million questions and have them answered by someone knowledgeable and kind.


Jiro and Warren got to ride with someone relaxed and laidback.



I got to sit in the middle of Kade and Scott's canoe and enjoy the ride. That's right, I didn't even have to paddle! In fact, I'm happy to never paddle again. It was so nice not worrying about anything.



The Ghost River is absolutely beautiful. Dare I say majestic? The cypress trees are amazing. We also saw lots of birds, including a blue heron, a beaver dam, and a preying mantis. Naomi happily answered everyone's questions and did an excellent job of leading us through the trail. We were in good hands. It's safe to say that everyone was having a great time.


Satchel and Brigid collected (and ate) Tupelo seeds out of the water and generally acted like two peas in a pod. Jiro was extremely calm and happy and entertained everyone in spurts with his "colorful" vocabulary.


The whole trip took about 5 hours and I think we all agreed that we couldn't wait to come back--especially when it would be warm enough for swimming.

It was the best Black Friday ever. Our only regret was not having any Ghost River beer to drink upon our triumphant return to the canoe pull out! (However, a nice guy with a shuttle service graciously offered us all soft drinks, Little Debbies, and a spot beside his campfire.)


As we were leaving, Satchel asked if we could go canoeing on his birthday--a sure sign that canoeing is awesome. Hearing this, Jiro, of course wanted to canoe on his birthday too. They spent the bulk of the ride home planning their guest lists.

A big, giant THANK YOU to Naomi for making one of my crazy ideas a reality. (And for knowing when to mix up the seating arrangements!)

Edited to add: Both Satchel and Jiro brought along a stuffed animal for the ride. Satchel brought home a baggie of Wolf River water to boil and drink!

Turkeys

Happy Thanksgiving from my turkeys to yours!



Speaking of turkeys, my workout parter, Ashley, and I ran our first race this morning--the Turkey Trot 4 mile relay. We did two miles each with a real turkey leg, which served as our relay baton! (The monkeys wanted to eat it the minute I walked in the door, hence their excitement at dinner time, pictured above.)

The race was actually fun and not nearly as hard as we imagined despite the frigid temperature, strong wind, and many hills. There were 1500+ people in attendance! We saw people running with strollers, kids, dogs, and there was even one woman with a small lap dog under her arm. Next up, the St. Jude 5K!


Warren spent the last two days cooking, cooking, cooking. Check out Chop Fayn for details.

Stray Thoughts

I thought about starting a Twitter page in the same vein as @sh*tmydadsays for the funny things the monkeys say, but I didn't. (I don't think I could do their cuteness justice in 140 characters.)

On Saturday when the weather was just lovely, Jiro looked out the window and said, "It's a beautiful day...for donuts!"

In the car Jiro asked me, "Are saber toothed tigers as big as my window?" He also wanted to know if he could put a "baby dinosaur" on his Christmas list.

There were more, but now I can't think of them. Shoulda started that Twitter page after all.

***

On Monday, my day off, I was folding laundry in the kids' room. I heard a loud thud on the roof and then outside the window. I thought for sure another branch had fallen. Nope. It was a squirrel that fell! I watched as it slowly opened its eyes, shook itself, and then timidly scampered off. It was amazing!

The next day Warren told me there was a dead squirrel just a few yards from where I saw the one fall.

***

Satchel and Jiro often do Google image searches on the computer to find images of their favorite TV/game characters. Then they use the pictures to draw their own. Last week I guess they got sick of Googling cartoon characters. I heard them giggling hysterically and when I walked over to see what was so funny I discovered that they had Googled "naced boobs." Thankfully the typo limited the image results.

Now, how do I do that parental control thing?

***

This is week ten of getting up before the sun to work out. After two months of boot camp, I've switched to working out with a friend. We do a cardio mix class at the Y MWF and a "Couch to 5K" program T,TH. I swear if it weren't for my workout partner, Ashley, I would NOT get out of bed. But I do. One of these days I am going to look awesome.

On Thanksgiving we're doing the Turkey Trot 4 mile relay at Shelby Farms. That's two miles each. Ashley says we're obviously a couple of turkeys.

I even signed up for the St. Jude 5K.

Who am I?

Lord of the Rings

Just when I think the headlines can't get any better! This week I give you Sad to learn most things that sparkle are not gold. It's actually a sweet tale of how Satchel gained possession of his great-grandmother's ring. (And just so you know, that's red marker, not scabs on his knuckles. More on that later.)

365

Local photographer, Amie Vanderford, is doing a project she calls Portrait 365. She started in August and has been taking one picture a day of someone talented, creative, hard-working, artistic and/or interesting. Her intent was to be increasingly creative (different types of lighting, natural and not, indoor/outdoor, different settings, composition that strays from my norm, etc.) with how she portrays each person.

My turn was last week and I couldn't be happier with what Amie came up with. This captures us perfectly:


See Amie's complete set here.

Ravioli

On Sunday, the boys and I went to the Alley/Brown Compound for the annual Making of the 50 Dozen Zanone Family Ravioli. The Alleys take several dozen to the extended family Thanksgiving celebration, freeze some for use throughout the year, and feed the rest to their hungry volunteers.

This was my fourth year participating and I have to say that I really, really look forward to it. Not just because I get to eat the best ravioli in the world, but because I get to spend the whole day with some of my favorite people!

Last year Satchel and Jiro were interested in helping. This year, not so much. They spent most of the day climbing trees (in their socks!) with JP.


I did manage to get Jiro interested at the very end, but for the most part I watched the other kids. C expertly cranked out ravioli faster than anyone, licking his lips the whole time. S also worked diligently, but has yet to meet her mother's and aunt's high standards for ravioli construction. (I only got fussed at a little bit.) Abe and GK also helped out for a good part of the day and it was fun being in the middle of such happy busy-ness.


Warren, in what has become something of his own tradition, arrived just in time to eat! He contributed some homemade bread to the feast, so we didn't make fun of his timing too much. (Actually after checking the archives, last year was the first year he actually got to come at all. He was sick in 2007 and working on the deck in 2006.)

I ate so much ravioli it was scary. It's so good!! I couldn't stop. I envy the people who get to eat it year round!

I hope that I'm lucky enough to participate for many years to come. (I just had a vision of us all drinking wine as we show our grand kids how to make the ravioli!) Since I'm dreaming--maybe someday I'll even get to help cook the filling or get a glimpse of the secret gravy recipe! Until then I'll enjoy carefully placing just the right amount of filling on the dough, folding it up, and poking it with a fork until it looks pretty.

Thanks to the Alleys for including me and my family and making us feel like a part of theirs.

Rock-n-Rompy

Saturday we had a Rock-n-Romp at the Metal Museum. The weather couldn't have been better, the bands more talented, or the crowd more enthusiastic. It is such a joy to see this event grow and grow and grow. In fact, Saturday we outgrew our 3 hour time slot. For bands plus the Beale Street Flippers was just a bit ambitious on my part!

Chip took lots of gorgeous pictures, which you can see here. However, you will not see much of Team Oster. I spent the bulk of the day at the sign-in table, Warren camouflaged himself, and the boys never really stood still long enough to be photographed.

The highlight of the day for Jiro was arriving at the show on the back of Warren's motorcycle. The highlight for Satchel was being reunited with one of his best buddies from pre-school, Miles. They haven't seen each other in about three years. Satchel waited for him for over an hour and when he finally showed up, they kind of gave each other a goofy grin and then put their heads down. I said, "You can hug if you want," and they happily did.

Then off they went to play. The mound out in front of the museum offered a great view to the music and a rush to all who dared slide, skate, or run down. As you can see by the amount of dirt on Satchel, he went down quite a few times! Thanks to Miles' mom, Susan, for getting a picture!

S'mores, Hot Chocolate, & Hayrides

We started our weekend off at the annual Overton Park Hayride hosted by Park Friends. This is one of our favorite events. It got rescheduled from last week due to rain, so I think a lot of people may have forgotten about it. Despite the light turn out, the boys had a grand time making s'mores, drinking hot chocolate with giant marshmallows inside, and taking numerous hayrides. Our friend and neighbor, Jack, was in attendance so the monkeys had someone to run around in the dark with and act wild and crazy. For dessert, we went out to dinner at Shanghai.

Hunt Phelan Field Trip

Thursday I once again spent my day off chaperoning one of Satchel's field trips. This time we went to the Hunt Phelan for a tour of the grounds and lunch in the dining room. The innkeeper, Stephen Hassinger, has two kids who attend Evergreen Montessori and he makes lunch at the school three days a week, so all of the kids know him very well.

They were SO excited about the trip! Once we got there everyone rushed through the front doors in a stampede. Stephen merely laughed and began telling the kids all about the house's history.

Just a few fun facts that I remember--The Hunt Phelan home featured the very first indoor bathroom in the Mid-South, it was home to the very first Freedman's school, and the tunnels originally built underneath it for gun smuggling eventually were used for the Underground Railroad.


We got to see the gorgeous grounds, a few fancy hotel rooms, the kitchen, and the bar. Stephen even told us a ghost story. Then we all sat down in the dining room for a delicious lunch consisting of pumpkin soup, steak, broccolini, and shoestring French fries. For dessert we had white chocolate chip and coconut cookies.

I sat at a table with Satchel and four of his friends. It was hilarious listening to their comments about the food. C said, "This needs salt." Satchel asked, "Why doesn't Mr. Stephen cook like this at school?" Remi noted, "This meat isn't juicy like my dad's." Funniest of all was C, who was seated next to me. He kept asking what I was writing down and why I take so many pictures, especially of food.

The lunch was a hit, despite the few disparaging comments mentioned above. The French fries and the homemade steak sauce were the stand outs. Satchel declared it the best lunch of the year and his friend, and Stephen's son, T agreed.

When lunch was done, the kids asked if they could have recess and Stephen graciously agreed to close the front gate and let them have the run of the yard. T brought out some toys and his sister got their dog. The kids were having so much fun, we started planning a Field Day for the Spring semester, complete with live music, beer, and potato sack races. (We also did a little fantasizing about how awesome it would be to move the school to the Hunt Phelan.)

If you've never been to the Hunt Phelan, I highly recommend it. Next week (the 11th-14th) the Hunt Phelan is participating in Downtown Dining Week. You can get a delicious three course meal for only $20.09! And if the weather is as nice as it is this week, you can have cocktails on the heavenly back patio.

It was the F-Bomb

My darling angel (pictured below) dropped the F-Bomb in his speech class, but I couldn't say that in the Commercial Appeal! Read Open up kid's voice with word of caution.

Jiro's Book

Jiro brought his book home today. (It contains a second story that is on hold until someone draws him a snow leopard.)


Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Underground Bakery

We got invited to check out Muddy's Underground Bakery on Monday. Read about it here.

Halloween

We started the day off, inexplicably, at Donald's Donuts. It was going to be a sugar filled day, why not get a head start? Next we went to the Farmer's Market to get some pumpkins from Whitton Farms. We spent the afternoon carving them. Satchel picked out a teeny tiny pumpkin and carved it all himself. He wanted Warren to help him, but Warren was busy turning his own pumpkin into a dinosaur. I offered to help him, but he flat out said he didn't trust me! Nice, huh? Jiro, on the other hand, was happy to team up with me. He and I had a great time making our pumpkins and both were a total collaboration. (I love that Jiro wanted a tail on his devil pumpkin.) Then we put out some cobwebs and waited for Warren to put on his scary make up!


My mom, sister, brother-in-law, and two nieces came over for a bit then we all headed over to Stonewall for some trick-or-treating. Then Team Oster headed over to the Smiths' for a party. It appears that the Smiths love Halloween as much as Warren does! They went all out on decorations and yummy treats. The face/hand meatloaf was for the kids, but the adults ended up eating it piece by piece at about 11pm.


Warren was in love with his costume and made me take a thousand pictures of him. It was pretty hilarious, but I have to admit he was really starting to freak me out. Those teeth were by far the nastiest part of his costume. He is still torturing me with them today.


I had planned on dressing up as the Bag Monster, but figured I better not. A demon and a Bag Monster would have been too much, I think. Midtown's not ready for that.