Although we technically can receive visitors with certain precautions, we've discouraged it in general: the less bugs the better. Since our home is a couple of hours away, no one's really biting to come, anyway, so this has not (I hope!) made us unpopular with our friends (and family who would fly out at the slightest word if we needed them. "This fall after the baby's born," I say). So it's been only eagerly anticipated weekend visits from Audrey and Daddy. And Grandma Donna when she was so kindly here for a month.
This weekend, Audrey & Nathan are in Nashville living it up with our beloved friends there (AS I TYPE THERE IS BBQ FUN I AM SO JEALOUS! ) because Nathan (ta da!) graduated yesterday from Vanderbilt and is now very officially, as Marian puts it, "a doctor of philocity." They were lucky to have Nathan's parents there, too...anyway, I digress. My point here is that they could not visit (okay because we saw them Wednesday--Audrey's birthday!--before we left) us this weekend, so I was lucky to arrange another visitor today: Marian's teacher. I cannot even tell you how much Marian loves this woman, who is so kind as to think the particular situation of her one-year loan as the first grade teacher at the girls' school may have been kindly arranged by Providence so that she could be inspired by Marian. Quite the other way around, think we, and have indicated so in more than one family prayer in the Goates household...I didn't tell Marian that she may be coming until the night before, because plans were not yet firm, but ooo did she wiggle on her little behind in joy & satisfaction. They talked for 2 1/2 hours and she grinned the whole time. Thank you, Konnie. You really made our day.
First hugs.
Looking at a scrapbook of the first and second grade and their "partners" notes to Marian. If you look closely on the cover, you can see three awesome photos: one of a framed photo of Marian that sits at her old desk. The kids turn "her" so they can see her grinning face & she now has to rotate tables because there was jealousy... another shows two of her friends posing with the photo, and the third her cutie-patootie 2nd grade partner, Nate, holding her photo and missing her (he has been such a darling friend to her all year).I also must mention that, beside a good joke book and book of children's classics and 2 envelopes FAT with cards from the first grade and university students in the Education Department who help at the school, we received a most fantastic activity book custom designed by the third grade class: pages and pages of mazes, color-by-numbers, math sheets, survey-the-nurses tally sheets...so darling. And Marian looked through EVERY page while she was here. Which took a considerable amount of time; they must have been working on it for a long time. Have I told you how much I love the girls' school?
