Upgrade my Macbook10.5,8 (Leopard) to 10.7 (Lion)

Excuse the length of all this but I'm sort of new and hope I'm explaining correctly. I have a MacBook OS 10.5.8 (Leopard )and would like to upgrade it to OS 10.7 Lion (or even 10.8 Mountain Lion if this is possible). Would I first need to upgrade to 10.6.x (Snow Leopard) and then do another upgrade to 10.7 Lion?

What about Memory? I could upgrade 1 or 2 GB if it would make it all go smoother.

Do I upgrade the Memory first and then do the OS upgrades?

I understand Apple does not carry 10.6 upgrades but still sells 10.7. Where else could I go to get these?

Finally, I understand this model MacBook could not be upgraded to OS 10.8.x. Is this true?

Thanks so much , pszoellner

Unless you tell us which model MacBook you have we can't respond to whether or not Mountain Lion can be installed. However, the Late 2008 MacBook and newer can run Mountain Lion. MacBooks prior to that one can not.

Snow Leopard is now being sold on line by Apple for $19.99 plus local tax. You can order it direct that way. And yes, you need Snow Leopard 10.6.6 or later before you can access the Mac App store and purchase Mountain Lion.