I'd Rather Be In (And Eat From) The Garden . . .: 2008

JANUARY - MAY
Leslie found out in October 2007 she was pregnant, so for me the year 2008 was all about Isabella. At this point I didn't know she would be Isabella, but had the feeling. I did everything as usual - work, house, kids, gardening, etc., but that baby was always in the back of my mind.

Sometime (I think it was in April!) we had a snow, so Nicky got to build a snowman and the kids had a snow day from school. It was short-lived as usual.

I had not looked forward to anything with as much excitement in a long time as I did that baby. In late March or early April we did find out that she was indeed Isabella and were able to see her clearly in her 4-D sonograms. We could not have loved her anymore or have been as thrilled had she already been here.

The Spring was a flurry of planning, shopping, decorating the nursery and baby showers. Leslie had a book shower at school, a shower in Aberdeen and a shower in Oxford. That baby had her own library, an awesome wardrobe and a beautiful nursery.

We had the usual round of end of the school year activities, showers and weddings. I didn't have near as much time to be in the garden as I like. On May 3rd, we saw Lisa Beard marry Brad Holder. On May 4th Mona and I drove to Aberdeen to watch Betsy marry Bubba. It was a sweet, beautiful wedding, but I must have been somewhat traumatized afterward because Eden called to ask me if I was going to take Nicky back to Oxford with me. He was working at the farm and I had left Nicky there with him during the wedding. I was almost to Pontotoc when he called. So I didn't get the Mother of the Year Award for 2008.

On May 20th, Abby, Nicky and I drove to the Desoto Civic Center to see Zachary graduate from Collierville High School. That graduation only took two days. His class had about 8000 kids in it. (Or so it seemed.) I'm glad we went, but I'd Rather Be in the Garden . . .

On May 24th Grady Tollison, the Percy's, the Caysons, the Barhams and the Martins threw an engagement party for Chip and Jada at the Thompson House. It started out a stormy day, but the night couldn't have been better and the flowers that Marie and I did were fabulous if I do say so myself. Some of the flowers came from Kroger, but some of the flowers and most of the greenery came from the side of the road between Starkville and Oxford and our own gardens.

On Memorial Day we had all the kids at home and had a really good day. Eden enjoyed himself a little too much as usual and rode Nicky's scooter off into the pool (with the brand new $1200 liner).