Did you ever just really blow it with someone? I did that yesterday...Ken's birthday. For some reason I just didn't have my act together and was totally unprepared to celebrate his birth - no card, no cake, no presents, no nothing. I didn't forget, I just didn't get anything done! A total and complete collapse on my part. And for someone who has always said birthdays are no big deal for him, he doesn't want a cake, don't spend any money on presents, no need for a card, etc. etc. etc. - well that just wasn't true! He was very... Continue reading

Originally Posted on April 9th, 2009 My first post. So — am I really going to be a blogger?! I have no idea where this little adventure will take me (and right now I don't even know what I'm doing!!), but I decided that it was time to take the plunge. Some of my friends have asked me what I'll blog about — and I guess I'll just do a little of everything in my life. I'm a preschool director by day, so I'm sure that will creep in from time to time. Gotta love preschoolers and their fresh perspective... Continue reading

Good Evening, Today is Sunday August 26th .... It is time for a New Season My Friends. After a lot of deep thought and soul searching, I have decided that it is time for me to step back from these weekly updates. Please know the decision was/is very difficult and I appreciate your full support and understanding..... Without going into the details, the blog up to this point has been an incredible vehicle for me to start my healing process; the writing and the comments / feedback. Unfortunately, that is changing a bit as I continue to move forward on... Continue reading

Good Evening My Blog Friends. Today is Sunday August 19th I arrived home earlier today from my eleven(11) day adventure to Oregon. I had a great time! That said, I am really looking forward to Roxy and I crawling into our own beds and having a very nice & long sleep (hopefully). I am going to try and provide you a few key details from my trip. Most likely I will miss some and will catch you up in the next few weeks (always in the mode of looking for new blog material). So from last week’s post, I did... Continue reading

Good Evening (from Albany, OR)…Today is Sunday, August 12th... I am ending the first few days of my journey back to My Janelle’s country. Boy, did she love the Northwestern United States. I am sure glad she choose to go to college in the Midwest and was willing to follow me wherever my career took us. I have wondered many times why she left this great part of the country back in 1976....but I am sure glad that she did...:-). I had a busy few days leading up to my flight into Portland. Monday included dinner with daughter#2 (Brittany) and... Continue reading

Good Evening, Today is Sunday – August 5th…. We are going to start out this post a bit heavy, I feel the need for providing some history and to be a bit transparent. I promise if you stick with me, we will end this post on a bright / positive note (including pictures). Being the detailed type of person that I am, I am going to have a lot of these times over the next year because I know exact dates of every Radiation Treatment, every Chemo Treatment, every MRI, every Positive & Negative result we experienced. This is Healing... Continue reading

Good Evening! Today is Sunday July 29th .... First order of business is to say Happy Anniversary to Britt & Kenneth (July 30, 2011). You have had a year that no newlyweds should have to experience, but you have remained strong and supportive/helpful to me and I love you guys very much! Check out the picture…walking back down the aisle... Second order of business is this week's Blog title. To my lady friend (Tess) from Down Under (that means Australia to the rest of you) I hope that I am making you laugh again this week. My opinion is that... Continue reading

Good Evening! Today is Sunday July 22nd. I trust that all of you have had a good week. I have had a busy week. As my title suggests and I will explain, I have eaten too much this week. I am not complaining because I had great company, but somebody could probably make the argument that eating out seven(7) nights in a row is a bit extreme and certainly does not help me in my quest to maintain my mid-section (which is already a tad large). Next week, I think I may just hibernate a bit. Sunday Night: I met... Continue reading

Good Evening Friends of My Janelle's Show and Tell Blog (i like the way that sounds)…Today is Sunday, July 15th. Hot weather remains although not quite as stifling as reported last week. I trust you all of have had a good week? All OK here, but still navigating the emotional waters quite a bit. Staying busy is a good thing; hanging out with fun people in small numbers is also a good thing. I am not too good in large settings where everybody is having fun, enjoying life unless they are all pretty close friends or family. It becomes a... Continue reading

Good Evening, Today Is July 8th. I trust you have had a good week? All good here. Very exhausted; between the heat and trying to keep up with my Big Lil Sister…:-). More on that below.... The Heat. Down here in the Carolinas, this week it was about as bad as I can ever remember. It is stifling. One of my favorite pastimes these days is sitting on the porch, sipping a beverage, listened to my Ipad shuffle playing, thinking about 31+ years of pleasant memories. This week I pretty much stayed on the couch with the AC going strong.... Continue reading

Good Evening; Today is Sunday July 1st. I trust that you have had a good week? I have! I will tell you a bit more about that below. I may have a few too many pictures this week, but trust me I did cut it down. I arrived home on Monday from my Midwest trip, early afternoon. As you will see, I just finished a busy week, all good. To set this up, I need to tell you about where Janelle and I went to college, where we met. Taylor University. I am sure there are similar stories, but the... Continue reading

Good Evening … from Mt. Juliet, TN (just East of Nashville, TN). Today is Sunday, June 24th. Roxie and I have logged 1,488.9 miles so far since we left Charlotte at 4:15AM last Wednesday. Tomorrow we will drive the final 327 miles (according to my GPS). It has been a fun & relaxing trip although many challenging moments as this is the exact trip that My Janelle and I have taken for the last several years. This is good (learning to deal with the hard times), this is necessary, so I am pushing forward. My Janelle would expect nothing less... Continue reading

Good Evening My Friends. Today is Sunday, June 17th. I trust all of you have had a good week? Everything is OK here. I will provide you a quick recap as well as a couple of interesting moments, but first I want to take this opportunity to honor Janelle's and My Dads on this very special day. Here are a couple of fun moments from the past. You can see that the smile My Janelle has shown you so many times lately was always part of her. On the left is the Hayes Family, April 1997. One of our many... Continue reading

Greetings my friends ..... Today is June 10th, 31 days ago Janelle entered the Kingdom, her eternal home in Heaven. I wish I could tell you that the days are starting to get a little easier, but that just would not be accurate. I certainly have started to get back into a bit of a routine, probably go a few hours at a time without some type of reminder that My Janelle is not coming home but then I am right back in the middle of it missing her so much. Sometimes I can quickly remember something fun and I... Continue reading

Hello blog friends of My Janelle. Today is Sunday – June 3, 2012. Let me start off by thanking you for the continuation of the many emails as well as comments directly to these blog posts. Please fee the freedom to continue those activities as it certainly is an encouragement to me during this time and of course my ongoing gauge that posting every Sunday night is a good thing, something that you are interested in me continuing. For a guy who thought all of this blog stuff was kind of weird, I find myself thinking ahead to a lot... Continue reading

Good Evening! Today is Sunday May 27, 2012, Memorial Weekend…. While I have posted since Janelle left us, in my mind this seems like Post #1 of the new journey. I am still not sure exactly how long this will go and where this will take us however since the majority of the comments I am getting suggest we should continue, continue we will. I have lots of thoughts about things I can share in the weeks and months ahead that will be very special. There will be some humor as I reflect back on many of Janelle’s posts and... Continue reading

Good Evening friends of the Show and Tell blog. Today is Sunday, May 20th ...... I trust you have had an OK week. Mine of course is one that I sure wish we would not have had to have however as one of my nephews put it on his Facebook wall…”I am blessed with a great family”. I quickly commented on his note as I agree. Here are the Hayes cousins, well cousin Stephen could not make it due to scheduling conflicts so minus one, but new cousin Kenneth (Britt's husband) is now part of the clan so plus one.... Continue reading

Good Morning My Blog Friends. Today is May 11th. My first order of business is to wish my son Ian a very happy 26th birthday. May 11th fell on Mothers Day in 1986 and he was the best Mothers Day present Janelle ever got..... Below is the obituary that will run this Sunday in Charlotte, NC as well as in Salem, OR. I provide it to you so you are aware of how things are moving forward. My plan for all of you very loyal readers is to blog at least one more time, probably a week from this Sunday... Continue reading

Good Morning All Of Out Blog Friends.....Today is Thursday, May 10, 2012. My dad would have been 98 years old today. I think Janelle has probably already told him Happy Birthday.... Janelle passed away to her final destination (Heaven) a few hours ago. It became apparent to me in the middle of the night that we were getting close. Ian arrived around 9:00, Britt got here about 11:30, we held Janelle's hand, told her we loved her, told her we would be OK and told her she could go. She did shortly there after. No final gasping for air, no... Continue reading

Hello. Today is Sunday May 6th; this is Ken checking in for Janelle. As has been my approach, I will provide you my Janelle Health Update at the bottom. First, just a bit about our week. It has been another week of blessings; friends coming by for brief visits, food provided, flowers to brighten up the house, many notes of encouragement. I (we) am very grateful to all of you standing with us through this time. As I mentioned last week, Britt came into town last Sunday, stayed until Tuesday, Britt & Kenneth came back yesterday for the weekend. Early... Continue reading

Good Evening, Ken here checking in for Janelle. Today is Sunday April 29th. I went back and counted the weeks since Monday August 1st. Thus today is the end of week# 39 as mentioned in the blog title. I will of course provide you an update at the end of this entry with how things are going for us as far as the journey. Before we get to that..... The abundance of love and general friendships we have continues to just overwhelm both of us. I am sure you can imagine that our emotions are a bit sensitive these days,... Continue reading

Good Evening, this is Ken checking in for Janelle. Today is Sunday, April 22nd. I wanted to provide you our regularly scheduled Sunday night update. We have had a good week in the midst of the storms; fun & challenging times. More on that in a minute. Janelle has decided that she has created a Blog monster as I am always saying things like "I think that is good blog material". Crazy, I used to just scratch my head toward all of this stuff. On that note, I must share a few of the special times from the week before... Continue reading

Good Evening, today is Wednesday April 18th, this is Ken, this has been a long day..... If you are reading this, you are part of our extended family that we appreciate very much. You also deserve to be kept up to date on our journey. Today was not great news. I will provide that info to you below. First, this is only Wednesday and the blessings just continue to flow. Sunday, dinner arrived for us mid afternoon from some of our church family (thank you Phil / Susan). Monday, Nora (along with Mom Maria and brother Hayden) came by for... Continue reading

Hello, today is Sunday April 15th, Ken checking in with you (for Janelle).... I would love to report that we have had a great week, but the reality is that I am somewhat paranoid to let my mind wander too far to the positive as whenever I do that, CANCER raises its head to remind us that our journey is day to day, sometimes hour to hour. We have had some very good times this week as I will share below, but it was sprinkled with a lot of fatigue, sickness and some genuine despair by me as I wrap... Continue reading

Today is Easter Sunday, April 8th .... this is Ken checking in for Janelle.... I trust all of you have had a nice week and great weekend with family / friends. I am still working on resigning as the blog updater, just not quite there yet. We have had a good week for the most part. This was treatment week and at this writing I can say that it has gone pretty well. Not great, but we will take pretty well anytime. The treatments (every two weeks since the beginning of November, 12 is the current number) are definitely hard... Continue reading