Father's Day weekend!

PICTURES POSTED FINALLY! :)

Thursday, June 18th-Claire & I drove (along w/ bump and Cooper) down to Stigler to visit w/ mom and dad a few days longer. Breck stayed home due to work along with Hill and Ryan. They all came down Friday evening together. When Claire & I got there, we enjoyed visiting with MiMi and Poppy, playing, and eating Charlie's Chicken together. Claire especially loves the rolls with honey! Poppy even made a special trip to get Claire some more Play-Dough so she could make "ice cream" with her play-dough ice cream shop. We just hung out the rest of the evening, Claire dressed up like Cinderella and watched Poppy brush-hog while mom and I rocked on the back porch....very fun and relaxing! (pics to come soon--that brown stuff on her mouth is chocolate pudding....:))

Friday, June 19th-
MORNING: Claire, mom and I decided to take a little trip to Shady Point, OK to visit Nana banana (claire's great grandma) and Grandpa Carl. We arrived to them practically running out to the Tahoe to see us. Nana had lunch already made and ready to go! We had many laughs and giggles while eating our lunch together. Nana kept telling Claire over the phone many times about her strawberry patch....well we went for a little walk in the yard to find 1 ripe strawberry that Claire immediately devoured! She also is growing tomatoes, blackberries, raspberries, blueberries! It's so fun to see the excitement and watch them find berries to pick and eat! We named their scarecrow that they made....Carl Jr.! Claire enjoyed playing out in the "playhouse" which is a little storage building with toys, crayons/coloring books and books in it. All the great-grandkids love going out there to play! Grandpa Carl had to show off his new scooter and mom wanted to try it out too and go for a spin! We laughed so hard! It was such a fun visit. We enjoyed looking at pictures, watching Claire play, hearing stories and enjoying coffee cake that nana made...yum!!! (pics to come!) What a BERRY fun time we had!

AFTERNOON: Claire & Mimi took cat naps all the way back to Stiger after a good visit w/ the great grandparents. Once we got home Claire was still asleep and mom and I wanted to drive around a bit. We went through the "old" neighborhood, Rollin' Hills Estates, where we grew up. It's changed so much, there are many more houses where Hillary and I used to play and run around with the neighbor kids. It was good to see the familiar houses and streets we ran around. Good memories. We drove by the lake in Stigler, not much going on there....a few swimmers and that was it. Pretty little lake though for a small town. We went back to their house and mom stayed there to rest while I took Claire to the Roye Park Splashpad. What a fun park/playground/splashpad for kids to play on! We also got to visit with GiGi, Gramps, (some of his family that were in for the weekend)....Les, Janice, A.J., Christi, Matt, Kyle, & Kerry. Claire enjoyed splashing in the water and playing. (pics to come!!)

EVENING: I went to the grocery store, got dinner ready, and we enjoyed Gumbo and cornbread together. Since reunion days were happening in Stigler this weekend, there are always lots of friends/families and alumns in town. Of course, there is the annual turtle race that the kids participate in....so we had to go out terrapin huntin'. We drove around backroads, by ponds, etc....not ONE turtle around...bummer. We hoped that we would find one on the way back home, no luck. Hill, Ryan and Breck came in later that night! Aunt Sissy had bought Claire a new Barbie DVD and Thumbelina DVD, sooooo we had to watch some of it....oh joy! :) Everyone was pretty tired so we headed to bed.

Saturday, June 20th-
Reunion Days of Stigler.....Hero Poppy!! The official turtle finder! What a great Poppy!! He got up around 6:30 a.m. or so because I heard him leave, and he drove 20 miles around.....finally he found a turtle....once he got close to home, he found ANOTHER one, and then he found one in the DRIVEWAY of his house! Can you believe that!?!? HA!! We were outside showing Claire when uncle Donnie came driving down to the house....we were watching her run around the turtles and then guess what...?!!?!?Uncle Donnie spotted ANOTHER TURTLE in dad's backyard crawling! That was the one we used because it was fast! I helped Claire paint her turtle aqua with black spots only to watch it crawl along the sides of the box to mess it all up. It looked like a splatter painted/camo turtle. We went to reunion days at 9:30 for the turtle race. Claire's got 4th or 5th, we're not really sure....anyway, it was fun to see everyone and race a turtle. Mom and dad liked watching and visiting with friends and then went back home. The rest of us stayed and walked around looking at booths and letting Claire jump in the bounce house. Thanks to all of you who talked with us and asked about mom. Keep prayers going! We headed back to have lunch and then went swimming over at the Lackey's. That evening we had hot dogs while we watched the movie, Hotel for Dogs...ironic huh!?
Sunday, June 21st-FATHER'S DAY!
Happy Father's Day to all the dad's! We had a wonderful day full of eating and visiting! Hillary and I detailed dad's truck for him while Breck and Ryan helped clean out the Tahoe for mom. Mom and dad enjoyed watching Claire and playing with her. Uncle Donnie brought Buddy the horse down for a visit. After we cleaned the vehicles, we started on lunch. We had a Mexican themed lunch along with homemade vanilla ice cream...yum! Dad and Breck opened cards/presents and we helped clean the house and do some laundry a little....gigi came over to visit for a little while then sadly, we all had to get ready to go back to Tulsa. :( We had such a great weekend enjoying the weather and family time! We hope you and your families were blessed as well.

Monday, June 22nd-Tulsa dr. appt.
Mom and dad had to come up for a chemo dr. appt. She is doing great...keep praying for her to be healed and for more strength, she is weak from the chemo. Thank you all for the prayers and support you give to all of us!

--The Forrester Family :)

GREAT weekend!

Hello everyone!

We all had a wonderful weekend!! Ryan and I drove down to Stigler on Friday night and beat mom and dad home by an hour or so....they were on their way back from Houston to Bartlesville and Bartlesville to Stigler all in one day! Whewwww.....They got to fly in a very nice jet!!! Our friend Christen Gullatt's neighbor was on the same flight and mom and dad got to talk to her (Tracy). They enjoyed getting to meet and chat with her!

We were all tired of course that night but....stayed up awhile watching "Australia". What a great movie! I encourage you all to go rent it! By Red Box of course - only $1.09! hahahah!

Saturday - didn't do much in the morning....Ryan and I went to Roye Park for a jog while mom and dad worked outside on the yard a bit. We all had to get ready for Brittany Beck's wedding at 4pm. Mom had a great time getting out and seeing her friends and the Beck's...It was a beautiful wedding! Brittany looked absolutely gorgeous! May God bless them many years to come! :)
We headed home after the wedding and spent some time with Grandma Charlene and Virgil! She fixed us some beans, fried potatoes, cornbread....YUMMY!!! sooooo delicious! As ALWAYS! Uncle Donnie, Aunt Ramona and Hannah ate with us too! So fun to be with your family!!
Ryan went to Red Box (at Walmart by the way) and got "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button". Also a movie I would suggest renting....a little strange but very neat! Mom and I REALLY liked it...BRAD PITT! :)

Sunday - We cleaned house and hung out together....Mom finished watching the movie while dad, ryan and I loaded some things for me to take back to Tulsa! We didn't want to go but knew we had to get back for work the next day....booooo!! :)

We hope you ALL had a fabulous weekend....I know lots of people from our community went to Afton Burris's wedding in the city, including Brooke and Breck, and heard it was BEAUTIFUL as well...Please continue to constantly pray for mom....She will have another MRI in approx. 5-6wks from now to check everything again...This will be an ongoing thing so please pray for patience, strength, energy and encouragement....she really needs it! We need it - she's got a wedding to plan and a new grandbaby on the way....!!!! :) PRAY HARD!!

God bless,
The Forrester Family

***side note- if you want to...please check out ryanhillary.blogspot.com! It's our wedding blog!

Made it to MD again!

Mom and dad had a great flight to Houston EARLY this morning. They will stay tonight and fly back tomorrow (Friday) after her appointment. Dad spoke to Dr. Rao (her neurosurgeon who performed her surgery) and he will be meeting with them along with her oncologist tomorrow to view the MRI and discuss further treatment options. Hopefully they will just rest today and enjoy visiting people they got aquainted with during their time down there. We'll update when we know more....thanks! The Forrester's

Mom at Roye Park & End of school year pics!

Here are some pics of mom, her students and fellow colleagues at Roye Park in Stigler. Aren't they so fun! I know her students missed her not being at school to finish out the school year, but she never stopped wondering about them and what they were doing at school! To all of mom's students and parents from this past school year....thank you for understanding, being loving and prayerful for her healing and recovery. She misses being at school so much and wants them to have a fun and safe summer!

To all of mom's friends/co-workers and administration...thank you for stepping in during this time, we all know that it takes a village to raise a child; especially when you have 20 students....so thank you for the help and support you put towards mom's classroom and her students this year since she's been out. Thanks again to Mrs. Bratton and Ms. Weaver for being amazing teachers to fill in for mom and to her first grade team...Lana, Phyllis, Michelle & Tracy! Mom loves what she does and hopes to one day be back! Have a wonderful summer break!

Today's oncology check-up...

Mom's appointment went well, all in all....her oncologist came in and pulled up her MRI scans on the computer. The scans looked overall really great! Where the first tumor once was...is now a little black space where there is NO sign of that tumor! WOW! Isn't God good!!!!! There is a little post-op "healing" areas that do show up but he said that is very normal after operations. Right beside the first tumor area, there is a spot that showed up that he wants to watch. Mom will continue her chemo and have another MRI scan done in 6 weeks to see if that spot has grown. Pray that it just disappears!!!

Mom and dad will go to Houston tomorrow, get another check-up with her doctor's down there, and they will let them know their opinion about that area. Pray for them to have safe travel and a good check-up in Texas!

Thank you all again for your prayers....I know we had prayer chains going today as well as texts/emails/facebook comments coming at us all day...thank you for those, it helps mom, dad, and the rest of the family to know that everyone is rootin' her on through this!!!

Love, The Forrester's

Day in Tulsa...

Claire being silly and cracking Poppy & MiMi up!

Hi everyone!

Mom and dad made it to Tulsa yesterday (Monday) for her MRI appointment which was RESCHEDULED without my parents knowing that!!?!?!??? So....luckily with the help of her cardiologist they were able to get her in to another appointment that afternoon. Glad that all worked out! They came over to our house to see Claire before we headed out to shop a little. We ate lunch at Mexico Lindo (see pics) and had a fun time letting Claire throw coins in the waterfall. Mom has still been tired from the chemo treatments, but doing amazingly well. Her and dad both have such an amazing, positive outlook towards everything. After lunch, they headed to St. John's to get her MRI done. They'll be back to Tulsa for another dr. appointment tomorrow (Wed.). Then they will fly out of Bartlesville on Thursday to head to Houston for her appointment on Friday.

Thank you all for the love and support you continue to provide for our family! Love, The Forresters

School Luncheon!

Here is a picture of the end-of-year teacher luncheon at Stigler Grade School. Mom enjoyed visiting and seeing her co-workers/friends/family of Stigler GS. In the picture is Phyllis, Mr. Cannaday, Mom, Lana & Mr. McClain. Go Panthers!

Busy Bee Doreen~

Hi everyone!

Sorry that we haven't posted much! Mom has been a busy bee though...from visiting her students before school was out, enjoying a staff luncheon, working out in her yard/garden/flower beds planting and weeding, visiting with friends and family members, and making a few more trips to Tulsa for appointments again~whew!!

Bridal pictures for Hillary! Mom came up the other day for Hillary's bridal picture shoot at the Philbrook Museum...gorgeous! Aunt Ramona drove her up and they went to see Hillary's new house, watched Hillary get her hair done (thanks to Natalie White-Renfrow!!!!) ate dinner at Panera where Claire and I met up with them....then we all headed over to the Philbrook to help with the pic shoot. They are beautiful pictures and Hillary will make a beautiful bride in September.

Shopping for mom....Mom, Dad and Hillary went to Ft. Smith a few weekends ago just to "get out" and enjoy some shopping time! She did well, a little tired, but now has two new cute hats!! Very sassy! One is a straw one and the other is a cute black hat w/ a buckle on it, she looks so cute in them, it makes me want to wear hats too! On the way back....they stopped to visit mom's mother, Nana, to chat and play dominos with her and Carl. They had a great time!

Girl Trip! Mom's fellow colleagues...aka....fabulous friends...."her girls"....called her up to see if she wanted to go to Ft. Smith with them. Of course!!! They ate at The Marketplace restaurant and enjoyed retail therapy at T.J.Max, Target, etc...

Please continue to pray for mom....she has a few upcoming appointments here in Tulsa and in Houston during the next few weeks. We know and trust in God that everything will be perfect, flawless, and that all tests and scans show no sign of cancer! :) Thank you all again for your uplifting spirits and prayers.