County Grill

Carter woke up around 10:30 last night and I didn't think he would go back to sleep, but surprisingly he did.  The babies didn't wake up again until about 3:30.

I got up later than a typical Monday today since I wasn't going in to work.  We got the kids ready and I ran them off to daycare.  I can remember when we only had Calvin and Brayden and we would take a day off work and drop them at daycare.  I think the first day or two we felt guilty, but the free time to get things done quickly overshadowed any guilt.

I came home after dropping the kids off.  I took the car seats and seats out of my minivan so that I could pick up some large shelving units from Lowe's.  What a pain.  At least it forced me to clean out the minivan.  I couldn't believe how much cereal was all over the place. 

The LATCH system is awesome.  If you don't know what it is the LATCH system is a way to fasten baby car seats to the actual car seat without using the seat belt.  It uses steel hooks that are built into the seats.  It is so much easier than using the darn seat belt.  Go figure that my minivan only has one seat equipped with the LATCH system.  Erin's Dodge Grand Caravan has three seats equipped with the LATCH system.  Speaking of the Caravan you can't underestimate the stow-and-go feature of the Dodge Grand Caravan.  Lifting those heavy seats out of the Chevy Venture was a shore.  The second and third row stow-and-go seats in the Caravan would have been so much easier.  I probably should have swapped cars with Erin today.  It's no wonder that Chevy doesn't make a minivan anymore and that Dodge sells more than any other makers combined.

I thought about going to the gym today, but decided to get some shopping done instead.  I figured that I could lift at home if time permitted.  I have two of the BowFlex SelectTech 1090 dumbbells.  Those things are great.  My only complaint is that the weights are taller than I would have liked.  I would prefer for them to be shorter and wider.  Some exercises are a pain to do because the height (diameter) of the weights gets in the way.  It didn't bother me today since I didn't end up having time to workout.

I ended up going to Wal-Mart and Lowe's in Williamsburg this morning.  I think the cashier at Wal-Mart was either drunk or stoned.  She was acting very strange and was very slow.  Being strange and slow are normal for the South, but this girl was out there.  I bought two sets of ice cream bowls which were sold as part of a holiday set.  There were four bowls in the set (one blue, one green, one yellow and one pink).  I thought this was fitting since Brayden has a blue blanket, Calvin's is green, Carter's is cream colored (close enough to yellow) and Aubrey's is pink. 

I picked up more shelves for the unfinished part of the basement from Lowe's.  I needed four more shelving units, but they only had three.  I went home and dropped everything off and then headed back out to see if the Lowe's in Newport News had one more.

Since it was getting close to lunch I decided to eat at County Grill.  County Grill is by far my favorite restaurant in Hampton Roads.  They have great pulled pork barbeque and beef brisket.  Oh and their corn bread muffins are the best I have ever had.  I also love the fact that their meats are served with just a dry rub and they have six different barbeque sauces on the table to choose from.  I like to mix their Memphis and Kansas City sauces together.  Today I strayed from the norm and didn't get the Pit Master sandwich (pulled pork barbeque and beef brisket).  Instead I got a smoke turkey sandwich.  I'm glad I did because it was awesome.

After lunch I went to Target and Toys R Us to return some things and pick up some more gifts for the kids.  Then I went to the other Lowe's and picked up the fourth shelving unit.  While there I helped a guy load a bunch of plywood on his cart and then helped him load it in his truck.  I know what it's like trying to do things like that by yourself so I'm always happy to help out others. 

I got home at 3:00 and had enough time to get things situated and relax for a little bit before heading out to pick up the kids.  Erin got home from work a few minutes before I went to pick up the kids. 

Carter and Aubrey ate very well tonight.  Together they ate two of the Gerber food containers.  We tried giving them sippy cups, but that was a complete failure.  Can't remember at what point Calvin and Brayden started using sippy cups.  Speaking of Calvin and Brayden they tried my chili tonight. Brayden didn't like it, but Calvin kept asking for more.  It is hotter (spicy hot) than usual so I was surprised he like it.  I'll have to tone it down for the next chili competition.