15 weeks, 6 days: Labor day labor really pays off!

So Kevin surprised me this morning by not having to work!  I so called it a few days ago--but he had me convinced that he had to work today.  Ha.  So we slept in until 10am, which is the longest I've slept in in the past 7 months or so. (And probably the longest I'll get to sleep in for the next 2-3 years or so lol)

We got up and I really wanted to go to IHop or Steak and Shake for some pancakes, but S&S stopped serving breakfast at 11am (it was 10:40am at the time) and they were the ones with the cheaper pancakes.  So after much grumbling, I made pancakes here at home with whole wheat flour and lingonberries and maple syrup.  YUM!  They were good.  And I was glad we made them here.  After that, we went and looked around Home Depot and ended up coming home with 1 fern and 1 hibiscus plant, 1 big bag of fertilizer, and a few other small things.  We had lunch at Burger King (2 whoppers, 2 drinks, and 2 fries for $6.99!) and then Kevin dropped me off to change clothes and get all sunscreened up while he went to Lowe's to get 13 bags of topsoil and a gallon of bleach.

Plants trimmed & fertilized, garden weeded, and a new layer of topsoil.

Spider webs & bugs swept away, & handrail bleached clean.

After that, we went to the back yard to repeat the process--the weeding, fertilizing & topsoiling anyways.  No pictures of this, was getting pretty dark by that time.  But we weeded about 140 sqft along the back of the back yard--we have a line of plants back there that we are hoping grow up to be a shady, shrubby, tropical wall of paradiseness.  After weeding, we fertilized, covered the plants with topsoil, gave everything--front yard and back yard--a good watering.   I really hope our plants live through this winter!!!

We came inside after this, showered and cleaned up a bit, and then Kev and I put up this shelf above the tv.

New shelf with pictures on it above TV.

The house is a bit of a mess--we're getting ready to rip up the carpet and put down new vinyl flooring that looks like wood.  Anyways, so stuff is just kinda around at the moment.  I'll post a pic when we get everything done.

But we got a lot accomplished today!  I'm pretty excited.  I used my birthday money one 2 new plants and on hopefully encouraging growth.  Plus the front of the house was looking hillbillyish.  I feel so much better with all the plants being trimmed up and bleaching the white handrail--it was so moldy looking!  

And good too--I'm pretty sure we're going to end up with the baby shower here at the house, so any sprucing up before that time will be very very helpful!

On a not laborious note, I got some maternity clothes from Jen that I work with!  So sweet of her--I'm going to have to write her a thank-you note.  I've got a good sized pile so far of keepers, and a few that I know I won't wear, so I'll give those back to her.  I think I'm just borrowing them, so hopefully I'll remember which ones are hers!  There's a belly band in there, which I'm SUPER excited about.  Some of the stuff is kinda big...but I suppose I'm only 4 months along...I have a ways to go yet before I decide what's too big haha.  I might end up surprised.

Oh yeah!  I did the baking soda gender test last night and it said "girl!"  I'm going to try again tonight and see what happens!  Maybe I better go drink some water....