Skocik Money Pit: Rain Barrels, Planters, and a Shuttle Fly Over

This was quite the exciting week around here. First off, our house is still (mostly) clean from the baptism party…and we’re trying to keep it that way! That makes it much easier to focus on other things – we got some projects complete!

The most exciting thing of the week was the shuttle fly over. Tuesday was the day that the Space Shuttle Discovery flew from Kennedy Space Center to the Smithsonian at Dulles. It flew on the back of a modified 747 and made several passes around the DC area. It made a direct fly over of Goddard so Samantha and I drove in to see it with Chris.

Samantha didn’t have a clue what was going on but she always enjoys being outdoors.

Each night during the week was spent working on tile in the master bathroom. By the end of the weekend the floor was almost all complete (except near the threshold area). We still have more tile work in the shower – the floor, the curb, and all the special bullnose pieces.

We were expecting rain this weekend so early on Saturday I started setting up the rain barrels we got last weekend. It will be a great way to water the garden! It rained a lot on Saturday evening and the barrels are all filled (and my overflow tubing works too!).

I also spent some time working on the self watering planters (from the Family Handyman magazine). The end and side panels were pretty easy to assemble. The sides were so heavy that I need Chris’ help to move them. I still have more work to do on them because the rain ruined my plans.

One of the thorns in our side has been our extremely cluttered garage. It’s been so bad that we couldn’t even walk through it. So I spent some time removing a bunch of the debris and organizing some things (we still need to spend more time organizing). Now it’s nice and open – Chris was even able to dance in the space! We have a bunch of garbage bags and recycling that will be gone by the end of the week and it’ll be even better.

Samantha and I have been going to the New Mom’s Group on Thursdays. It is a great time to get out of the house and have fun with other moms. It’s a great group of women and the babies are all adorable.

There are a couple babies in the group that were born within two days of Samantha so it’s interesting to see how she compares (even though everyone tells you not to do it!). Everyone has commented on her strength and alertness. She holds her head up for the majority of the meeting (about 2 ½ hours) and doesn’t nap at all (we’re lucky to get her down for two 20 minute naps during the day).

Even though she doesn’t sleep well during the day, she is a champ sleeping at night. She is routinely going in stretches between 6 to 8 hours at night. I’m happy she’s sleeping this way (although a nap would be nice!).

One other thing we have noticed is that she is able to support all her weight on her legs. That in itself doesn’t seem too advanced but she pushes herself up from a knees bent squat to straight legs. We’re not sure when she is supposed to be able to do this but it seems like two months is extremely early.

Samantha loves playing in her gym and enjoys hitting the toys. She has also started a pseudo-speed bag punching of her rattle – it’s pretty funny to watch. She still loves her baths and is splashing all over the place. We’ll have to start giving her baths in the bathroom soon.

Here are some pictures of her from the week.