Hope

A little over a week ago, my Grandma Vera, passed away. She was my dad's mother.
Over the years I have witnessed (and done some witnessing) of people sharing their faith in Jesus with her. Praying for her to accept the free gift of salvation that is offered through our Lord Jesus.
While I was growing up she had been our guest many times at church. She sat through the service and I never noticed that she really didn't want to be there.

My dad (her son) shared his faith, I've shared my faith, my other set of grandparents shared their faith, even my daughter shared her faith with Vera. Of all of the people I know of, Alexis sharing her faith made me pray more and more for Vera's heart to soften towards The Truth.

My grandma was a proud & strong-willed woman, gave her opinion on everything & anything no matter what the listener thought.
Growing up, we always laughed at her "colorful" language and gestures towards everyone!

She would listen to what we wanted to tell her about Jesus, but sometimes would basically say that she had had enough.

Unfortunately I didn't know she was in her final days so I can't say for sure if she had come to a decision at some point in her life (or in her hospital bed) on whether she had accepted Jesus as her Savior or not.

After she died, I felt so sad that I didn't have yet one more opportunity to pray with her and tell her one more time that God loves her and I want to be with her in Heaven some day.
But as so many people have reminded me, she had been given plenty of opportunities and ultimately she was given free will to do with as she pleased.

I pray that I will again see her someday.

I was given a fresh boost of hope 5 days later when I was teaching in Alexis' 1st/2nd grade class on Wednesday night. The class has a prayer journal that the teachers record each child's prayer request if they have one.

Well 2 days before Vera died, Alexis' prayer request was for her "great grandma's salvation". I was not in her classroom that night, nor had we talked about Vera in the past week or so.

However, this is not an unusual prayer request from her (according to other teachers) but that night it had even more value.

We can expect HUGE miracles from our Lord because he promised he would be faithful. The Holy Spirit brings people & other prayers to mind & I'm so thankful that Alexis was obedient to that.

I pray that it has eternal rewards in the following days.

Alexis & Charlie did the Born 2 Run Challenge

My hip, knee & ankle all were hurting at mile 8 but I finished and beat last years time.

Alexis & I were in the Lane Pregnancy Support Center's 3rd Annual Born 2 Run Challenge.

It was raining & cold, but the rain lifted just long enough and the coolness felt good after awhile.

Alexis did the 5K walk with Uncle Rick & Aunt Sandy Smith (Travis' family) and Charlie did the 15K run.

Alexis thought my goal should've been to win, but my goal was to do better than last year.

I'm not going to brag about my time because, let's be honest, it's nothing to brag about. I finished in the same place as last year, but I did better.

My time was 1hr 36m for 9.3 miles. There are some serious runners out there, how can you run the whole way? I didn't walk much, but I still had to a few times. I do like to run, but I'm not a runner that's for sure.

I don't yet know how much the center raised through this fundraiser, but prayerfully it was above & beyond expectations.

Alexis was excited to do it with her Aunt & Uncle and I'm so glad they were willing to go with her.
Travis' cousins (Janelle & Jason Smith) were also in it and both beat me like crazy. Of course they're just young kids ya know.

Janelle did great, beat me by about 11 minutes and it was her birthday.
Jason, 21, came in 12th overall. Amazing.

Next year I think Travis will probably run the 5K with Alexis. He doesn't like distance running, but I know he'll do it for his little princess.

Aunt Sandy & Uncle Rick Smith with Alexis after crossing the finish line.
Good job team!!

1st Sleepover and 1st Snow of Winter

Well it was last week, but that's pretty good for me posting it so close to the actual event.

I figured I'd get a new post up before adding our yearly letter which I still haven't started yet.

Alexis had her very 1st sleepover last week while school was still out for Christmas break. We had our neighbor, MaKenzie, to stay the night. I also figured it'd be good since they live downstairs that in case she wanted to go home during the middle of the night (which I remember doing), I wouldn't have that far to go to take her home.
Everything was great, they went to sleep with talking or giggling. What kind of girlie sleepover is that? Oh well, I'm sure she'll be doing that soon enough & I'll get tired of going in and saying, "Girls, keep it down". Ya know, in a nice 'sing songy' voice.


That was the day we had our 1st snow of the winter. It came down in whispers in the afternoon and then came down hard & heavy. Earlier in the day I loaned out Alexis' snow clothes to a friend and literally on the way home it started snowing. Oh well, we managed.
It actually stuck and I'm glad we took advantage of it, even though it's so much work to get 4 kids plus 2 adults ready to play in the snow, because by the next day it was slushy and now it's all gone.
We went and played at night, I love snow at night. So quiet & light.
We had a great time and got to stay up late, that must be why the girls went to sleep in like 5 minutes.


We have a new borrowed camera & this was the 1st time using it so I didn't have it all figured out yet, so I apologize for the exposure.

Carter

Makenzie, our friend


Alexis & Charlie

Travis, that was Preston's snowball at him. Good shot.


Preston & Mommy

Born 2 Run Challenge

Charlie 'competed' in the Lane Pregnancy Support Center

2nd Annual Born to Run Challenge on May 30th.

It was a 5K/15K Run/Walk.
I chose to run in the 15K (9.3 miles). I trained for about 1 month and was feeling very confident. I estimated that I would finish in 1 hr 45 min at the earliest, I beat that and finished at 1 hr 40 min.
However evidently there are a lot of serious runners out there, I finished 43rd out of 48.
That was a bit humbling to say the least, I'm confident I'll do better next time.

Even though I concentrated on trying to beat others & just doing my best, that wasn't the reason for the race.

This was a fundraising event to benefit the most innocent, unborn babies.
It was such an honor to be a part of something much bigger and have a great impact on the innocent, lost & hurting.

The estimated amount that this marathon raised for the center was around $7, 000. Awesome!!
Prayerfully it will go along way.




My cheering section.
Alexis, 6
Preston, 4
Carter, 2

Travis' brother, Sean & fiance Jill, took our kids 1st thing in the morning for breakfast and tons of outdoor fun.

Becky Hall's Wedding

Becky Hall got married to Tom Gregersen on May 23, 2009.

It was such a lovely, relaxed, and fun ceremony in Albany, OR.
From 1st date to Wedding date - 3 MONTHS!!!

They honeymooned somewhere on the coast, isn't that wonderful that as the daughter I still can't remember where despite being told many times.

Becky & Tom will be staying at Tom's house in Junction City until his exchange student has left, then they will move into Becky's house in Eugene while they figure out what their plans are. The have talked about many possibilities, no decisions made yet.

Becky has 2 kids + 6 grand kids, Tom has 3 kids + 4 grand kids.

They are going to be a very busy newlywed couple, and hopefully all of us will remember what being a newlywed is like.
I''ve already learned to cut them some slack, it's going to be a big change for everyone involved.

It is so nice to see my Mom being giddy, even though she's always happy this is very different.

They are always laughing and are always going somewhere. We're going to enjoy having Tom in our family, it will be exciting for sure.




Tom, Becky with Chuck Hall's family
Nicole, Tom, Becky, Chuck
Aidan, Kennedy & Grayson

Some of the grand kids
Tom, Becky
Jacob Gregersen, Preston, Alexis, Grayson, Aidan
Carter & Kennedy

Hollye & Duane Daggett, I think Hollye likes weddings.

Our family at the Hall-Gregersen Wedding 5/23

I don't have pictures yet of my Mom & Tom at their own wedding, but I have this one of our little family for now.

It was a beautiful ceremony, wonderful day and an extremely happy couple.

More to follow......

Update you've been waiting for

Alexis can now blow bubbles with her gum, tie her shoes, whistle and now ride her bike w/o training wheels. The bike thing today was a bitter sweet moment for me, I actually got a little teary over the whole deal. My baby is not my baby anymore, I know she's 6 but she's a big girl now. This opens up a whole new range of possibilities for her, so much more independence and mainly confidence.

The sun was in Preston's eyes that why he looks so sinister. He does not care at all that he's riding a girls trike and I'm glad he doesn't because that's all he's getting for a while.

My favorite part about this picture of Carter is his cute little fingers. He went through a whole bottle of bubbles because he's just so good at not spilling.

Look at our cute 'little' family. This was taken at an Easter Egg Hunt in Eugene over Easter weekend. More candy for me....

The kids loved decorating their eggs, oh yeah I put them back in the fridge and there they remained. Oops.

This is what Carter did the whole time they decorated, isn't that nice?

Portland Zoo day

Portland Zoo day

My Mom, Becky and her intended Tom Gregersen. So far the date is set for Sept 26th, we'll see if they last that long though. Maybe it'll just be for a reception and they go get hitched real quick like before.

All the boys had birthdays

For some reason or 20 others I have completely neglected putting anything family related on our blog. I'm sorry, I'm going to try & make it up to you now.

So all the boys celebrated birthdays in the last 2 months. Carter turned 2, Travis turned 34 & Preston turned 4.
Here goes....

Well, I promised that I would take as many pictures of the younger kids as I did of the older kids. I just let myself down. I didn't get a photo of Carter on his birthday, so this was taken shortly before so we'll count it.
We celebrated both little boys' birthdays in Eugene at Grandma Becky's house. So much easier than having family come to us, more fun for the kids too.
Carter is still such a sweet little guy. He loves to be in the mix of everything. We have started being more quiet so he can have time to talk & guess what? It's actually working, he's talking now.

Here is Travis turning 34 & I did manage to get all 34 on the cake. It was pretty smokey after he blew out all the candles. I had all the lights off so you could really get the feel of how much light 34 candles gave off. I didn't plan for when he actually blew them out, pretty dark.

All of Preston's photos from his birthday party were a little too busy to put up here. This is a photo of him at a festival in town. He really liked being up on the big bike. He didn't ask to get one, but just in case he asks later "NO".
He had a great party at our place & he got to invite 4 friends. He loves his boy friends & literally prays for them at every meal. Of course the siblings & mom's came too. We had a total of 13 kids in our cramped little place. The kids had a blast.
It was hilarious to see how the girls were playing & then the boys. The boys loved to harass the girls by trying to break the door down. The girls said, "NO BOYS ALLOWED!!" Loved it.

11 Years of Wedded bliss

Last Saturday the 17th, Travis & I celebrated our 11th wedding anniversary. I thought only old people were married 10+ years, I guess we fit the bill now. It just doesn't seem possible that we are old enough for that, but when we watched our wedding video with our kids, Alexis said that "Daddy looks so young" or something to that effect.
It's true that when we were dating & he would come in to see me at workand the guys would ask if that was my little brother...hee hee, how cute...yuck!
We met at Lane Community College in Eugene, OR in 1993, we were biology partners with relational commitments elsewhere so no flirting was taking place & I had no intention of being other than friends with this guy. Later, I was a 3rd wheel with him & his then girlfriend and 4 years later would think it was completely weird to be going out on a date with Travis Daggett. Our first date was to a pool hall & we innocently said good-by at the end since it would've been really gross to kiss a friend. I quickly got over that & 6 months later we were engaged and 6 months after that we were married. Quick you might think, but well OK you'd be right.

Thankfully we both had praying parents & grandparents that I really believe helped guide us & protect us from whatever else is out there. We made a good choice.
I am so glad that we "went through with it" and that day replays in my mind like it was just yesterday. The only thing I regret is not taking my bridesmaids advice and letting them keep the ankle length dress instead of hacking it off to mid-calf. Doesn't every bride go a little crazy with wanting their way since it's their day?

Well, 3 kids later, many moves later & many hard times later I am 100% sure that I married the man of my dreams. He's a good man, that Charlie Brown. What a lucky girl I am!
I am excited to see where another 11 years takes us, wow I'll be 44 by then. Crazy! I know I just told you how old we are, but I'm not embarrassed by my age. I better not be Alexis tells everyone that "my Dad is going to be 34 & my Mom is 33", I'm enjoying my life a lot more in my 30's than I did in my late teens-early 20's, truthfully I really don't ever want to go back to those. Well, I guess but only the times that involve Travis.

Year End Family Letter

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

We pray that all of you had a great Christmas celebration and have accepted God’s gift of His Son and have a great year discovering God’s daily blessings.
Like all of you, our 2008 whizzed by us and we’re excited to see what is in store for us in 2009.


Now to the traditional part of our letter……the updates

In February we sold our duplex in Tigard & moved to Hillsboro, OR to be closer to Travis’ office while we wait for an opportunity to move back to Eugene, OR.

Travis has been a wonderful provider for his family & the kids and I are so thankful that he makes his family a priority every day. He continues to work as a sales trainer at Combined Insurance just a few minutes from home and comes home almost daily for lunch with us. He has been able to play racquetball a few times a week until about a month ago when he tore his calf muscle….twice. He is patiently waiting for his leg to heal, but is eager to play again. When we go to Eugene he plays a lot with Duane (Dad) and his buddies, he missed out playing with them over Christmas & was really bummed.

Charlie has been such a wonderful wife & mother, but what else is new? Ha, just kidding I think whoever writes the letter should be able to say whatever they want about themselves.  I have been doing a lot this year with kids, etc. We are homeschooling Alexis this year in Kindergarten and have been learning what her learning style is and that is exciting. I am still in my Mother’s Bible study, homeschool group at our church, let’s see I know there’s more but they escape my mind right now. Oh, I started our family blog this summer but haven’t been able to spend very much time on it since school started. www.daggetthouse.blogspot.com

Alexis turned six in November and is doing a great job in Kindergarten, much better than I had anticipated (thankfully). Her interests are: telling people what to do, being a helper, arts/crafts, making pictures for people, computer games, showing how smart she is. After all, she said she has the smartest Daggett brain. It’s exciting to see at an early age what her gifts are and we know that God is going to use her to speak to many about Jesus. She has such a great passion & concern for people to know who Jesus is and accept him as their Savior. She is gifted in her praying also. I love listening to her prayers because they are so big and she’s not just repeating what she hears people say, but takes bits & pieces and puts them together very deliberately. Her love languages are still quality time and gifts.

Preston will turn four next month and is still the same sweet little boy he’s always been. He enjoys school time too; he sits at the table and does his puzzles or colors. He’ll chime in once in a while, but for the most part he’s quietly doing his own thing. His favorite part of school is getting a fruit snack afterwards for good behavior. He enjoys telling us that he “was obedient all through” whenever he’s been instructed to behave at church or elsewhere when we’re not around him. His interests are: following sister around, bugging sister, wrestling with anyone, puzzles, cars, tinker toys and coloring. We haven’t figured out how God is going to use Preston, but we do know that he has such an obedient spirit. His love language is physical touch.

Carter will turn two later this month and is just starting to talk. Well, he’s said MOM!, Dad, Ba (for blanket), NO!, and all sorts of animal noises for a while now. But I just figured out (after two other kids) that if you spend some quality time teaching words he’ll get it. I’m sure it has to do with his age too, but now I’m getting him say to them back now. He knows most of his body parts & some sign language. He would know more sign if we taught him more, but he’s very good at telling us what he wants/needs with the same sound (for everything), pointing & directing us to what he wants. He naps while his siblings have school so I can maintain my sanity; I’ve taught school a few times in the morning when he’s up…it’s not worth it! His interests are playing with “bo-bo” (brother) & “sssssss” (sister), reading books, following mom around, hitting/pulling hair (siblings’), sometimes giving the gifts of hugs & kisses, and loves animals-especially lions & horses. His love language is physical touch and quality time. It will be interesting to see if those change as he gets older.

We have taken a few trips this year. In February Charlie & the kids went with Becky (Charlie’s Mom) to Minnesota to visit her Grandma Dee for a few days. It was a very fast trip and the kids loved playing in the super cold snow.
In late May, Duane (Travis’ dad) married Hollye in a private family ceremony in Eugene. In June we (including kids) went to Mexico to celebrate with them & lots of the new family. We were there for five days or so, now I don’t remember. We had a great time exploring everything on our own during the days & meeting up with the family for dinners. The best day, I think, was the day we just played on the beach. I grabbed some plastic cups & flatware and the kids could’ve played all day if we didn’t have to eat. Preston loved just throwing pebbles/rocks into the water. We have some great memories from that trip.

We are in the process of moving to Eugene, longtime in the making. There is now an offer of income (same company) down there that will enable us to make the move. We spent some time over Christmas looking at a lot of houses, it’s a little overwhelming since there are so many on the market right now. Better to have too many than too little, though. There are a lot of variables to the move so there is still no set time-frame in moving. Travis could transfer anytime, but the new position wouldn’t start until March/April so we have a couple months to get everything set up, the sooner the better of course. We have put our condominium on the market again, prayerfully that will sell quickly. We like it up in the Portland area, but it would be wonderful to be close to the grandparents again.

I hope it didn’t take you a whole day to read this, but the more people there are to report on the longer it takes.


tddaggett@comcast.net
charliemd@comcast.net


Blessings to you,
Travis, Charlie (Sharlene), Alexis, Preston & Carter

A hike for AWANA

We went for a local hike with the kids' AWANA group & had a great time picking up "treasures" along the way.
Preston was really into getting miniature pine cones & Alexis was into collecting 'mushrooms' that turned out to be dead flowers w/o the petals anymore. She insists on calling them mushrooms anyway, I think it's because it's the opposite of what I say. She'll call it anything as long as it's not what I say it is, isn't that lovely?
What did Carter enjoy? That's a good question, he was very quiet & once in a while would point at things. He's a quiet observer at times.















This photo turned out a little weird because
it came out so bright so I had to mess with
it a little.

1st Day of School

September 11, 2008

Well today we have officially started Kindergarten for Alexis, I know a little behind everyone else. Oh well, we're on track now.

We have decided to homeschool Alexis for this year and I'm excited for her and excited to see how we will do. She loves the one-on-one attention.

The kids are also involved in a few church related classes.

Of course there is Sunday School, Preston & Alexis both learn the same lesson just designed specifically for their ages while Carter gets loved on and watches puppet shows.
Charlie is rejoining the Motherwise group at our church, during that time the kids have separate lessons and a particular curriculum throughout the whole year.

Alexis & Preston are also in AWANA this year, first time for Preston.

Then there is our mid-week service at church, and that is also fantastic and they have a completely different curriculum for that as well.
The Kindergarten class is focusing on Children Around the World and now Alexis wants to be a missionary and is currently focusing on our neighbors. She is writing out Bible stories that she is copying from her Bible & intends on giving them out. She also wants to save a family member that does not have Christ as her Savior. It's her mission right now to get her to understand what can happen if she doesn't go to Heaven.
Preston's mid-week church class has certain words that they focus on for a few weeks at a time. The word right now is "Hard-Working" and according to Preston it simply means to "clean-up your room... & stuff like that".
Carter is just enjoying what everyone else is doing and wants to be apart of the action. He's a little guy, but he's a tough cookie and likes to get the ball rolling on wrestling with his brother & sister.

That pretty much sums up what's going on with the kids.

Travis & Charlie are doing the normal thing of keeping up with our normal responsibilities. Travis has joined the health club so he can play racquetball more often, we all know that he struggles with his weight so he needs to keep up with exercising. Note the sarcasm in the text.

I, Charlie, am trying to figure out how to balance everything and keep my sanity, is that possible? Thankfully I don't have an outside job, otherwise I don't think I'd survive.

Charlie's Dad's Story...

Dave's Vietnam Story