There has been a whole lot of construction going on in our neighborhood the past couple of weeks. We knew this construction was coming, and we considered selling our house like many of our neighbors did, but we ultimately decided to stay here. When the work is completed property values will rise. Right now it’s a noisy pain in the ass, just as we thought it would be. The one thing I never thought of when I was considering whether we should stick it out here was that our utilities would be turned off frequently. Our water has been shut off four days out of the last seven. Usually they turn it off from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. Our electricity has been off for two days out of the last week. We are truly roughing it right at home. I told Alex we should pitch a tent in the living room and tell the kids this is their summer camping vacation. I thought that the power being off would bug me more than the water, but aside from the worry over the food in the fridge and freezer going bad, I miss water more. I like being able to flush the toilet, thank you very much. I like washing my hands. The last day the water was off I was ready for it. I had bottled water; I filled the kettle; I filled buckets with water; I did all of the dishes and laundry; I watered the garden; I placed hand sanitizer by each sink. Still I mourned the loss of water. Oh indoor plumbing, why did I ever take you for granted? I hope that they won’t need to turn the utilities off again anytime soon.

I have been working a lot on June’s garden. It is looking so beautiful that I get garden envy and spend too much of the money I am earning on plants for my yard. Yesterday I planted the lupines and delphiniums that I had bought. I was so excited about my new flowers that I mistakenly thought that Alex and the kids would be excited too. I sang the lupine song from Monty Python. Alex didn’t remember seeing it, but he smiled anyway. Who have I married? I was raised on Monty Python. I asked him where he thought I should plant the new flowers and he admitted that he really didn’t care. He said I could plant whatever I wanted anywhere I wanted, so I told him that I was going to dig a hole in the middle of the front lawn and plant a zucchini plant there. Ha! Now he’ll regret his words. June gave me some plants that she no longer wanted. She gave me a lilac and a red rose bush. She hates red roses and wants to replace all of hers with yellow roses. I am gardening on a budget here; I appreciate the free plants. A friend of my mom’s gave me so many bearded irises that I don’t know what to do with them all. I have been a little overzealous in my digging and planting. My back has been hurting badly the past few days. It’s difficult to stay in the same position for any stretch of time so I haven’t been on the computer as much.

Nathan and Polly are doing well. It is getting difficult to find things that they both like to do. Part of me believes that it isn’t my job to entertain them, and then another part of me feels bad when they whine about being bored. I spoke with them about it last night and they both agreed that they would like to go swimming. It looks as if I will be squeezing my white as snow body into a bathing suit once again. The last time that we went swimming we went with my sister Monica and her two daughters. When I arrived at the pool my niece Erin stared at me for awhile before saying, “You look funny, Aunty Tammy.” I had just bought a new suit and you all know the horror of the first time you wear the new suit in public, right? I froze for a second. Erin grinned up at me and said, “I’ve never seen you without any pants.”