Beavers and Lynxes and Bears, Oh My!

I was still feeling out of sorts on Saturday. I got up with the boys, sort of, and went through the motions of feeding and dressing them, while taking long breaks to lie down and occasionally doze off. Chris came home after work. I got myself together and ready and picked up our new babysitter. We'd never even met her before, but she came on high recommendation from a babysitter we already like, so we arranged to have her come over.

I picked her up at three-thirty and brought her over. Both kids were sound asleep. Chris got a ride with Cindy and the girls and I hung out to show the babysitter where to find things. We knew it wasn't going to be a late night so everything was pretty straightforward with no bedtime routine in the picture. On my way to meet up with everyone, I stopped to order a pizza for the sitter and the kids.

I met up with Chris and Cindy's family at the trapper's council dinner. My parents arrived shortly after we all did. It was a huge event, with auction items and draw prizes and a massive dinner for the throngs in attendance. I went with an open mind, eager to try some new things I'd never had before. I'm quite familiar with venison and moose (which I affectionately call 'meef'), but there were some menu items I'd never had the opportunity to try.

Before the dinner began they offered trays of hors d'oeuvres, consisting of varying dishes of moose, deer, and bear. Corned moose and deer were very tasty. The tongue and heart items I'm not usually too fond of texture-wise.

Each table was adorned with a sign bearing the name of an animal. Ours was the raccoon table. This was the method used to randomly choose tables to begin forming a line at the buffet tables. Ours was first. For the main course, I loaded up on a couple salads, along with some fish, moose, deer, bear, lynx, and beaver. The lynx was prepared in a delicious-looking and smelling sauce. But when I tried it, it was one of those things you want to get out of your mouth quickly. I washed it down with a drink of pop and left the remaining pieces on the plate. Interestingly, the lynx was Chris's favourite. Surprisingly, I quite enjoyed the beaver and bear. They were like a nice, lean, perfectly cooked roast of beef. Delicious!

Our good fortune in being chosen first to eat was our only one. With all the draw tickets we purchased for the auction items, we didn't win anything. But we had a great time out with our family, and it was cool to try something new and unusual.

We came home and I took the babysitter home. Apparently things went well, aside from Carter and Cooper's usual rambunctiousness, which led to Carter clanking his teeth together and chipping a couple bottom teeth. Thank God for baby teeth, since both boys have had tooth mishaps this past month. The pizza that arrived wasn't what I had ordered. There was one piece left to show for it. I decided to call and complain, which was to my benefit since they offered us a replacement pizza. We were completely stuffed from the big dinner, so we opted for a credit for next time.

This morning I slept in a little too late to get ready for church. I could probably have pulled it off, but not if I was bringing anyone with me. I had intended to bring both boys, since they had both agreed to go last night when I asked them. I lazed in bed as long as possible, until I could hear Chris's growong impatience with the kids. I got up to lend a parenting hand. Chris took Carter to Mom and Dad's to meet up with Bob and Josh to go fishing. Cooper stayed home with me. I got us ready and we drove out to meet up with everyone for supper at Mom and Dad's.

We had a huge supper as usual. There was ham, chicken, lasagne (Good Lord I ate many a species this weekend!) salad, scalloped potatoes, fresh buns, and fish. (I feel like I'm forgetting something.) We had a great visit with our family, Cindy's, Mom and Dad, aunts, uncles, and friends of the family.

We came home just in time for me to tune into a new episode of Desperate Housewives. For the first time all weekend I felt like my energy level is returning to me. I did a few loads of laundry and started sorting clothes in my room. The boys finally settled after a lengthy tantrum from Cooper, who wanted some toy downstairs while I was doing laundry. I didn't agree to help him go find it, mainly because there are already 8763458273465 toys upstairs, but he was terribly disappointed in my decision, and made a point of showing me so for the next while. He eventually caved, which surprised me, and curled up on my lap. I set the boys up with a movie and continued my quest to make a dent in the laundry. I was well on my way...

I took a break between loads and curled up with my sudoku game. Chris came in to crash. I dozed briefly and woke to the sounds of Cooper talking in his sleep. Turns out he had peed the bed. The Houdini-Weenie strikes again. This still happens with either kid occasionally, even with a pull-up on. I was disgruntled at having more laundry to do. Two blankets and a comforter were involved in the scene. But I could also smell barf, which was eluding me. I stripped that whole bed and found nothing. I stood on tiptoes and looked up at Carter on the top bunk. He was sleeping peacefully. I got Cooper settled on a makeshift bed on the floor with some cuddly blankets and pillows and turned the light on again to check on Carter. It seems he power-puked in his sleep, since I hadn't heard a peep out of him. I had to wake him to get him out of bed so I could get him cleaned up. I hoisted him off the top bunk by an arm and a leg, so as not to get any of the offending mess on myself or anything else.

I took him straight to the tub. I stripped the bed. Another comforter, a blanket and a pillow to add to my laundry pile. ::sigh:: I got Carter all washed up and back to bed beside his brother and headed down to wash some of the toxic mess. The foul smell had me retching but I managed to squeeze the comforter into the washer with the pillow and fitted sheet. I've had to wash those comforters a few times already, but I'm hoping the washer isn't too full to get all the barf off it this time. Ugh. I wish there were an all-night laundromat nearby; I'd have made a beeline for it with all that bedding!

So all that wet and barfed bedding all at once afforded me the opportunity to catch up on my blog. I'm hoping tomorrow night isn't this eventful, at least in the laundry department!

P.S. The plural of lynx is either lynx or lynxes! I opted for lynxes before looking it up for the purpose of coining that somewhat-familiar phrase! :)