the end of july

These little girls, with the shoe box of little special dolls-so sweet.

This weekend of perfect weather:

These two--our very beautiful Elin, disappointing in so many unfixable ways, and the guy she completely adores:

Another perfect morning:

Beautiful weekend.

So much love, Val
 

happy birthday, alicia

Here we are, Girlfriend, a sea of rowdy celebrating people:

And there you are, right in the middle, your dad over to the left.

All the people ready to receive slices of cake!

Oh, Alicia, you beautiful, patient woman, how lucky we all are for you.

Happy birthday today and every day,

Love, Val, and Jay, and Everybody
 

weekends blur together

 Love you all, Val, aka Grandma, aka MOM

a wednesday trip to hay lake

Our niece who lives in South Carolina is here for a couple weeks, and we hadn't seen Jay's parents in a while either, so we figured out a day we could get away and go see them.  

The picture above is Jay tying his boat to a tree at the landing.  The landing at the cabin is super shallow and difficult. This one is very deep and the approach has a sharp angle.   He can back up any vehicle and trailer anywhere.   I read my book while he did this, doesn't need my frantic little eyes darting all over, wincing and that.

He brought the boat along in case our nieces daughters would like to go tubing. They did. They loved it.

Their cousin, our nephew, was there too and he rode along on many of the rides.  It really made the whole endeavor feel safer, knowing that a capable adult was in the water with them the whole time.

I really did NOT want them to get scared or have a bad experience.  That can take years to overcome.

They did not.

This little lake is so special, so lusciously beautiful.  It was cut in by an ancient glacier, cold and deep, and the sun always looks golden in the afternoon.

Getting daring:

My mother in law rode along and she doesn't usually get in on the tubing rides. She has the greatest laugh.  Plus also a super cute haircut.

Storms kept going past quickly, wild clouds.  This one at sunset made even an ordinary gas station special.

So glad we had a day to spend together.

Nothing but love, Val and Jay

quarter 2, missing you

This is a picture of Gladys and her husband Jim.  Gladys was our accountant.  

I still think of her as our accountant.  

She and Jim were friends of Jay's parents, absolutely first rate people.

When you start a business, you need a good accountant, someone who understands small business and can explain things in very basic terms. You need someone who does not talk over your head, who will explain things like what form  you need to fill out with the payroll deposits and what bank you can take it to.  Plus federal and state are a thing and both have to be kept straight.

It really helps.
 

Plus the kindness--she  was always so kind, never impatient or annoyed, just soothing her, with her Hollywood movie star voice.

One morning back in 2002 I called her and said I'd been awake all night. We can't pay these estimated taxes.  The payroll taxes are all fine, but these estimateds.     People haven't paid us yet, and we're falling in the gap. What do we need to do?

She said, "Valarie.  Do not lose one more second of sleep.  This happens all the time. The IRS will set you up with a payment plan, and do not worry anymore.  Not one more moment of that."

Psshht.  We ended up sending them in the next quarter, and it was all fine.  She was right.

One year we got our taxes back to sign and send, and we owed practically nothing, which was great, but as I looked them over thought these numbers don't look right, don't even recognize these numbers.

I called her, and as we picked through it, she had misread my handwriting. A 9 looked like a 5 or the other way around.  She ran the program again and we owed the usual obnoxious amount.

Jay howled.  He ranted a bit.

Finally I said, "Are you seriously mad because I know what's going on with our money?"

No.

"Do you really think this is an nefarious plot hatched by Gladys and me?"

No.

Okay, rant away. I'm with ya.

Anyway, working on papers tonight and missing an old friend, a beautiful friend.

Love forever, Val