Peep

Yes — I’m still alive. I know it’s been well over two months, and I really don’t have any great excuse for being MIA. I think the longer time passes, and the more I have to catch up on, the less I feel like doing it. Not to mention my workdays have become incredibly busy, and since I’m on the internet 40+ hours a week Monday through Friday for my job, I try and disconnect on the weekends. That leaves little time for blogging.

But here I am. I’m not even going to attempt a real catch-up. I can’t even remember what I did last weekend, let alone way back in February since I last blogged. The main theme of the activities over the past few months have been wedding-related. With my sis’s wedding quickly approaching (two months from today!), we have been in major wedding planning mode around here. Between three wedding showers (one thrown by Dani’s work, one by her bf Mary in California, and a tea party thrown by my Mom and I), bachelorette party planning, invitation addressing, Maid of Honor shoe shopping and more, our lives have been overtaken by everything wedding. It’s all fun stuff though (although the hubby might beg to differ). I’m really happy that we live near each other now and I get to share in all the preparation for my sis’s special day. Oh yeah, and Nick’s. =)

So Dani and Nick’s June 27 wedding is the start of a flood of upcoming summer/fall weddings. In mid-July Mike and I will be heading to Florida for the wedding of some of our best friends out here in Denver — Jourdin and Melissa. I’m really looking forward to their wedding on the beach, and the following week Mike and I get to spend in Disneyworld. I’m in dire need of a vacation and July couldn’t come soon enough! The third wedding on the list is my cousin Amber and her fiancé Dustin. That wedding will be taking place in September in Grand Junction, about a 4-hour drive over the mountain. Mike will be standing with Dustin as a groomsmen and I’ll be one of Amber’s bridesmaids. And last but not least, our close friends Kim and Brandon will be getting married back in California in early October so we’ll be rounding up the wedding season with a trip back to the Bay Area. And again Mike will be a groomsmen, and I’ll be a bridesmaid. If anyone’s counting, that’s three groomsmen roles, 2 bridesmaids, and 1 Maid of Honor between Mike and I. Yikes! Thankfully they’re all somewhat spread out, but no one else is allowed to get married until 2010! =)

So other than weddingpalooza 2009, Mike and I have been busy preparing for him to enroll in school full-time in the fall. So far, that has meant making cuts financially where we can and paying things off in preparation for Mike’s looming part-time work schedule and associated pay cut. We’ve also starting fixing up our basement into a little apartment and plan to rent that out once school starts as an easy way to bring in some extra money. We have way more house than the two of us need, so it really won’t be much of a sacrifice on our end. Our basement is pretty large, around 1000 sq. ft., so Mike built a wall down there and has made it into two rooms. One side has a big walk in closet so we’re imagining a renter would use that as a bedroom, and the other side can be more of a living room/lounge area. It’s separated from the rest of our house so I think it’ll be a good rental situation for someone looking to save some money. We had someone from our church who was interested in renting, but that fell through, so now we’re just focusing on fixing the space up and will continue to look for someone who might be a good fit. With so many unknowns, and me being a person who likes to have everything planned out, I’m surprisingly at peace over the whole situation. I think we’re making the right decisions and I’m confident that God will take care of us and provide.

In the long run, after we’re done renting out the basement, it’ll make a great guest suite! Hopefully good for resale too. =) I’ll post pictures when we get further along.

Another home improvement project we’ve been working on as of late is the backyard. Mike and I gave up on salvaging what grass there was last year. It wasn’t in very good condition, and with two large and energetic dogs added to the mix, that poor grass had no hope. So basically we didn’t water it at all last year and let everything die. We didn’t think it completely through though as the aftermath was a mud pit that we had to deal with all winter. Everytime we let the dogs out in the backyard, before we let them back in we had to wash all 8 paws with wet paper towels at best, and give them full on baths at worst. It was such a pain!! So a few weeks ago we took advantage of the nice weather and cleared out the backyard of all debris, tilled the ground, and planted grass seed! Oh yeah, and we put up a plastic fence so that our dogs couldn’t go on the lawn and ruin our progress! For the past few weeks Mike has been dedicated to watering the backyard twice a day and watching for new growth. It’s been a much slower process than we thought it would be, but it’s coming along. I’m sure the random snow storms and up and down temperatures hasn’t been ideal for growth, but we’re determined to grow a full lawn! I’ll post pics of the before and after once we have something more to show in the after shot. =)

That’s about all that’s going on in the Passantino household right now. Life has been pretty uneventful lately. We wake up early, carpool to work, head home, eat dinner, watch some tv and workout (me), play with airplanes and cars (Mike), and then head to bed. May sound boring to some, but the stability is comforting. And we do sprinkle in some spontaneity and fun activities into the normal every now and then too. =) But I’m learning to slow down and appreciate the here and now. Must be growing up!