Fernando Ortega - Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing

This is the single most important song in my life and I can think of no other song for my future son to hear first. The greatest memory in my life so far was at our wedding singing this song with the whole congregation with tears running down mine and Laurette's faces. I am sure this memory will soon be in second place once Jack arrives, but I still cherish that memory. The lyrics in this hymn are simply amazing and honestly bring me to tears every single time I hear it.

The background on this song and the author draws me even closer to it. If you have the time, be sure to check out the author's, wiki page to learn more...because seriously, everything is true on that site right??

It is an interesting tale, but what I love most is his conversion and the songs reflection on the massive scope of God's Grace.

I also love the story of the Ebenezer from 1st Samuel-7. At work I have my own little "Stone of Help" on my desk and it has always been a comfort for me during stressful times.

So here it is the first song for little Jack to hear... I have a few different versions I love, but since I don't want my son arriving into this world in skinny hipster jeans and galoshes...I decided to skip the Sufjan Stevens version for right now and stick to the plain jane Fernando version.

I promise that not all these posts will be as deep as this one, but you gotta start strong out of the gate, right!

1. Come Thou Fount of every blessing
Tune my heart to sing Thy grace;
Streams of mercy, never ceasing,
Call for songs of loudest praise
Teach me some melodious sonnet,
Sung by flaming tongues above.
Praise the mount! I'm fixed upon it,
Mount of God's unchanging love.

2. Here I raise my Ebenezer;
Hither by Thy help I'm come;
And I hope, by Thy good pleasure,
Safely to arrive at home.
Jesus sought me when a stranger,
Wandering from the fold of God;
He, to rescue me from danger,
Interposed His precious blood.

3. O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I'm constrained to be!
Let that grace now like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here's my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above.

The Boy in the Bubble

So it is Travis and I believe it is about time for me to take over this here blog for a while. If anyone is still out there....hello...is this thing on?

I have decided to do a special project. For the past month I have been playing music to Jack. Each night when it is time to go to sleep, I bust out the headphones and play something for our future son. I am about 25 songs deep now and I think it is time I start cataloging them.

Now I am not promising that I have the best taste in music, but I do hope to give little Jack some insight on the music that has shaped me.

This is not only something that Laurette and I really enjoy every evening, but I also see it as an investment in the future. As my father can tell you, I wasn't the most athletic kid in school, and I am not sure if that kinda thing skips a generation, but I do love me some music...so the future for this kid has to be in music. After all, Jackson Wolfe just sounds like an awesome songwriter name, don't you agree? Anyway, suggestions are welcome and I hope you enjoy.

Apologies on the front end for the terrible grammar.

Best, Travis

It's a.....

Well, what a weekend. We got about 6" of snow which started coming down in the middle of our appointment Friday morning. I had told my 1st graders on Thursday that if it snowed that I might not be able to get to the doctor Friday morning to find out what the baby would be. This really confused some of them. Jusbin wrote in his journal, "I hope it doesn't snow so Mrs. Wolfe can have her baby." Jusbin, thankfully that was not the case! They are so obsessed with this baby and are constantly asking me questions about it and telling me how big my stomach is getting! We have been studying penguins, and La'Dayshia brought a book up to my desk with a picture of a male penguin incubating the egg on his feet. "Look, Mrs. Wolfe, that pooch looks just like your stomach." Thanks, La'Dayshia! I asked them to write in their journals Thursday morning what they thought I was going to have and what they wanted me to name it. Tripper wrote, "Mrs. Wolfe will have a boy becuas boys are good. I will name him Spik." He ment to write Spike...we are still working on the silent e. La'Dayshia wrote, "I wont Mrs. Wolfe to have a gurl becus gurls are not hrd heded. And I love baby gurls. She will nam her KK Wolfe." That was "hard headed" to translate 1st grade-eese. So the boys will be excited and the girls will be sad because Baby Wolfe will be wearing blue!

Jackson Walters Wolfe will be here in June.

Jackson is my mother-in-law's maiden name, and Walters is my mom's maiden name. I just love family names because I am named after both of my grandmothers. So little Jack Wolfe will be terrorizing Maggie before she knows it! We are so blessed because our ultrasound was "perfect" in the words of our doctor. She said it was an A+! And Travis was relieved that he would not have to watch girl sports....really....I was just excited he has 10 fingers and toes!

In other news, I thought I was going to be a single mother this morning after our good friend Randall and Travis decided to "snow ski" down a hill in our neighborhood using water skis and some sort of poles - correction, broomsticks. I stayed inside most of the time with Paula and Annelise, Randall's wife and daughter. At one point I saw Randall running full speed down the hill to a parked truck with a ski right beside it. I was certain that Travis had skied under the truck....heart attack one of the day! They are so ridiculous. Here are the rednecks playing....





























Back to baby news....I called Mary Peyton to tell her the news. I thought she would be disappointed, but I think little boys have started to grow on her.

Me: Well, we found out today what our baby is going to be.
MP: What is it?
Me: Guess
MP: I think it's a girl, no a boy. It's a boy.
Me: yep you are right.
MP: I wanted a boy, but can you make sure it's not as wild as ours? He is chaos and destruction!
Me: well, they can just be wild together. We are going to name him Jackson and call him Jack.
MP: I will call him Jackson Destruction!

Where does she come up with this stuff? That's all for now.

"Who has a baby?"

Thursday was a great birthday...number 27 for me. Travis and my friends at school did and awesome job, and I have to say this was the best Nashville birthday yet! I always miss my family on my birthday, but this year I had PLENTY of birthday wishes. Our Assistant Principal always announces the teachers' birthdays in the morning announcements, "Today is Mrs. Wolfes' birthday, so if you see her in the hall wish her a happy birthday!" Let me tell you that kids take this seriously...they may not hear anything else that is said all day, but they are going to listen for the birthday announcement dead gummit! So to say that I heard "Happy Birthday, Mrs. Wolfe!" 200 times would be NO exaggeration!
It was also a fun week because Tuesday we got to hear our sweet baby's heartbeat! 162...my sister is predicting a girl. Everyone asks me if I have a feeling to which I answer yes, nausea! It hasn't been too bad, but I can definitely tell that big business is going on inside me! We found out Oct. 12th, but wanted to wait a while to share our news. To say we are excited would be an understatement but I must add shocked and nervous as well. My dear friend Paula assures me that God gives you 9 months for a reason. I agree. So far everything looks healthy, but we certainly covet your prayers. Oh, I almost forgot to write about telling my students. I have been stuffing my face in class for weeks now...food is the key to avoiding the puke for me. So since I reached 12 weeks on my birthday, I thought it would be the perfect day to tell my kids. We have been playing "Shark Attack" which is my more politically correct version of "Hang Man." I usually get them to guess the title of a book, so a sentence was a bit of a stretch. Well, Rontaz finally guessed it with one letter missing..."I have a baby in my t_mmy."
Rontaz: I have a baby in my tummy.
Rontaz: (2nd time more fluently) I have a baby in my tummy.
Rontaz: Who has a baby in their tummy.
Me: I do, I am going to have a baby!
Class: AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! (16 kids went NUTS!)
It was awesome! They were so excited and wanted me to bring it to school...Uh, hello, it's right here. They were a little disappointed to know that Baby Wolfe would not make his/her appearance until after we get out for the summer. They want to see him/her when they come back next year...are you kidding? My child will not be visiting that germ factory! I am already looking into getting my dad to build me a sanitation chamber at the front door. Speaking of, can you guess what I got for my birthday from my school friends? Six bottles of Bath and Body Works moisturizing antibacterial hand soap. They know me so well.

Rip!

That is the sound that I love to hear when I pull one of my student's teeth. I LOVE to pull teeth. I think I missed my calling as a pediatric dentist. One of my kids asked me to pull his front tooth today...imagine me grinning with delight while singing "I'll Be Your Dentist" from Little Shop of Horrors. Don't worry, I only pull really wiggly ones...clad in latex gloves of course!

Domination

I know it has been a while....a long while. I don't know if anyone even reads this any more, but I have big news!!! Mrs. Wolfe's first grade class dominated the first grade tug-of-war challenge. We took home a sweet blue version of this little baby.
Rontaz and I arm wrestled today...we took a break from guided reading. He lead our class to a victory, and that is only one reason why I love that kid. More from room 127 another day. Until then, I must get my sleep to make it through another 12-hour day!

Marathoner!

I know it has been a ridiculous amount of time since our last post, but hey, we have been busy. So if anyone is still reading this, allow me to take a minute to brag on my studly husband. This post is way late, but I am procastanating finishing report cards. 3.5 days left...whoop, whoop! I have a pep in my step that I haven't had in years. There's just something about a summer vacation, but back to Travis. At the end of April he ran his first marathon, the Country Music Marathon. 26.2 MILES! and he ran the entire way. Tyler and Katelyn saw him at miles 12 and 18, and I caught up with him at mile 20 and the finish line. I was so stinking hot! I was miserable, so you know Travis was sweating it running in that kind of heat. He finished in 4 hours, 53 minutes, and 34 seconds. I am really proud of him considering he didn't start training until January, and we had some cold nights this winter....he ran one night when is was below 10 degrees! There is just no way that I would ever do that!!! ever!!! He stuck with it, and Maggie deserves a little credit too. She was his running buddy for part of the training. I wish I had a picture of them in their matching reflective vests that I bought for them. I ran with him the first night, got mad at him because he wouldn't wait on me, and never ran with him again. He really stuck with this goal, and I am so proud of him for accomplishing something that I could not nor would not ever want to do! He has already put his name in the lotto for the London marathon next spring....Motherland, here we come!


I am not going to show Maggie this pic. I think she would be a little peeved to see Belle, her cousin, at the finish line when she did all the work training her dad! And, I know I am so pale that I am almost transparent, but that is just the way God made me. You got a problem with it take it up with Him! Katelyn and I look like pilgrims and Indians!