ready or not...

what can i say? somehow the time has just flown, and francis is done with school in 6 days. crazy! and yes, he is counting down! i think we are ALL ready for a summer that will hopefully dole out some sunshine, because, let me tell ya: it's been scant around here!

we've had weeks and weeks of gray, and rain, and baseball games rained out, and then the make-up games rained out...i don't know if seattle knows that it's actually june, i think it thinks it's still april, and May wasn't much better. (sigh) but one good thing was we didn't feel guilty for all the movies we've been seeing! perfect for rainy days! iron man, prince caspian, indiana jones...all in one month, and summer not even officially here yet! what a summer for the kids! we thoroughly enjoyed these movies along with francis, who was literally on the edge of his seat, every time!

i'm trying to wrap things up before school is over, and that means: all my spring cleaning that i procrastinated on is now a mother-lode chore! i've got post-it notes cluttering up the kitchen, and when i get to take one down and throw it away: success! you'd think that with all these gray days we've been having, that i'd be done by now, but no: when it is gray outside, it does not inspire me to clean. it inspires me to read and drink coffee and be lazy, and so i did manage to finish the lord of the rings trilogy. but when it is sunny, and the apartment is bright, THAT is when i get the gumption(sp?), the energy, and the will to get some things done. strange, i know. most people like to go outside when it is sunny, and i do too. but i also like to clean when it is sunny. so, i finally cleaned our bedroom, where the dust had been forming a nice solid layer (so gross!) and it felt so nice to sit and read in a clean, and tidy room, with the sun shining. francis was in a reading marathon, and could not put down "the Hobbit" until he was done. that's been so nice to see: him getting so into reading a book that he doesn't want to do anything else. he is now halfway done with "the fellowship of the ring" and wants to finish all three books this summer!





francis helped me spray-paint a big iron outdoor coffeetable, that we collected for free off the side of the road. it was rusty, but we cleaned it, and sprayed it down with this rustoleum paint, and now it looks as good as new. when the sun shines in our "back yard", we like to sit back there and eat and drink and read and play... (more pics on flickr)





on memorial day, after a glorious sunny saturday and sunday (it was a 2 day special only) it was back to gray, so i thought going to the zoo would be a nice distraction. i naively thought it wouldn't be crowded; wouldn't everyone be at home, enjoying their families and having BBQ's? nope! everyone was at the zoo, too! not our cup of tea. we like the zoo all to ourselves, so we did not stay too long. too crowded. too loud. even francis commented on it. we must have tainted him with our own preferences, because pretty soon, he wanted to go home, too. but we did get to visit the new creatures at the zoo: the flamingoes. they cracked francis up. you'd think they'd be a nice, quiet, regal bird, as beautiful as they are, in their familiar one-legged stance. but no. we were shocked at how noisy and feisty they are (they honk like geese), fighting constantly for food, and their whole area stank like a cooped-up bird house, even tho it was a brand-new habitat, and outside. startling. but they were still beautiful. i think it must be God's sense of humor to give such a boorish, pushy bird hot-pink feet.



and maybe it's because he's an only child, or maybe it's because he's still really just a kid, francis really wanted a stuffed flamingo. huh? i was suprised because what 10-year old boy wants a pink stuffed animal? but i caved, because first thing that popped into my head was suprise, and then "he's probably not gonna be asking for stuff like this very much longer." so many times he can get under my skin, acting like a pesky wannabe teenager, trying out attitude to see what it does... that when he is acting like a kid: i just want him to be a kid! and do kid things.so i said yes. and of course, he carried that flamingo around all day. (someday: he's going to be really embarrassed by these pictures! haha! but thankfully, not yet...)