Making a List and My Stowaway Garden

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It's a perfect, sunny, pleasant Thursday. My mood is much improved from yesterday. I want to thank you all for being supportive and understanding of my crankiness, for offering encouragement and helping me through the day.

I have begun making a list of things to bring next week on our road trip to the Clinic. We'll arrive in our destination city on Wednesday, have the transfer Thursday, then I'll be on bed rest until Sunday, when we'll pile back in the car and come home.

I am bringing my laptop for several reasons: so that I can keep up with all of you and write about my experience, because ICLW begins next week, and so that I can look in on my two little dogs, who will stay in a "pet hotel" while we are gone. The doggie suite we booked has a webcam in the room, so I will be able to peek in on those two silly-heads to see what they are up to. Being away from my dogs from Wednesday through Sunday is the hardest part of this whole thing. I am going to miss them like crazy.

I told my husband that one (or, more precisely, two) of the things we have to take with us on our trip is my garden. Well, it's not exactly a garden. Not yet. Actually, I tend to kill plants. House plants, shrubs, flowers, vines, even grass. The only thing I can't seem to kill are weeds. But I love the dirt and I love planting things and trying to get them to grow. I try really hard for a while, but it's virtually futile, and in the end, they almost always face their demise.

Anyway, I got this big idea this year that I wanted to plant heirloom tomatoes and cantaloupe. Two things I adore in the summer. So I purchased some organic seeds. I planted them. I talked sweetly to them. I watered them, I set them in the sunshine during the day, and I brought them in the house at night. I have been doting on them for weeks. During my MIL's visit last weekend, she informed me that it's probably too late in the season for planting seeds, but I'm giving it all I've got! By golly, I'm gonna get at least one blooming tomato off this plant if it kills me!

Here are my little charges: Cantaloupe on left, tomato on right



So now, just when they actually look healthy and like they might survive, we face being out of town for 5 days. They would surely die. I can't really leave them with anyone because we're telling as few people as possible that we're going out of town and they think it's just for the weekend. We're not that friendly with our neighbors and...well, I just want to bring them with us. They're small enough that I figured it wouldn't be a problem. My husband doesn't want to drag them with us, and he said, "Oh, you can just plant more another time." But I'm bringing them! I'll be the one to pack for the trip anyway. He won't even realize they're in the car until we arrive at our hotel and I pull them out. I'll grin and he'll roll his eyes.

Besides, you see, I have it all planned. As I lie in bed after the transfer, praying and visualizing my babies implanting into my luxurious uterine lining, I can rest quietly and watch my garden grow.
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