Winner of the Wahl Beauty Contest 2008

As we head into 2009, the competition for most beautiful Wahl member has been finalized, and I win! After working 12 hrs, driving 3-4 total in the snow, putting on and removing chains twice, taking care of creatures at home and snowed in neighbors up the road, rescuing the kitten abandoned in the snow (why me?), and chopping down the tree that fell over my fence onto the road, I just came inside and took my own picture. I figured, this picture would say it all - and so, on that note I wish you all a Happy 2009 - I'm going to bed to catch up on my beauty sleep.

Happy New Year!! n

ps - those are grandpa's glasses - my dogs chewed up mine, and I had saved his for emergency use... he would approve

A quick Christmas "hey"

Hey, all. Just a quick post from us Wahls on the East side of the hills. We survived our annual Christmas sprint over the Cascades; this was the first year we've had snow from our door in Waterville all the way to Mom and Dad's place. While we're used to the snow over here, I don't much like driving with a foot of white stuff on the ground in Lake Stevens. Freakin' crazy people, I tell ya! But we made it over for Christmas Eve at my folks place, and got to see Butch and Ron, too (Katja gets a real kick out of getting her picture taken with Uncle Santa every year). It sure isn't like it used to be, and I do miss seeing you all. But times change — heck, my oldest doesn't even make the journey over to Bumpa and Graddy's because she has obligations at her in-laws-to-be on Christmas Even and morning. And we scurried back home Christmas afternoon for dinner at my in-laws place here in Waterville (yes, they followed us over here. As did my sister-in-law.) Now we're headed to New Year's. Before it hits, I figured I'd better shoot off a quick "Merry Christmas" to you all here on Just Grandma's Hotline (I'd get in trouble for calling her Helen : ) Hope you all are having a great holiday season.

XXXOOO,

Andrew and clan

This is your Merry Christmas Card...

Merry Christmas and Congratulations Matt!

I don't seem to ever get around to writing on those cards I buy... so here's the cheaters way - Merry Christmas all! And congrats on the great grades, Matt - way to go!

Yes Matt, I did get relieved at work yest. am - and thankfully had my chains on since it was 8-10" of new snow; at 8 am, that feels like 2'... there is another 3-6" predicted tonight, and of course I work again tomorrow. But rain will be starting Thursday, with temps up into the mid 40's by early next week - sure hope we don't have floods, but I am ready for a bit less snow.

I helped catch a cat today, thankfully the woman loaned me gloves or I would be on antibiotics tonight - and no, I don't have to keep this one!

I've read a book, now am off to the cookie baking - see, life really does stay much the same :)

Matt - you can keep the long long winters... I figure we have had ours now, it is time for spring!

see ya - lv,n

Merry Christmas

It looks like you guys are having some fun out there. That's how it looks out here until March. I hope you guys are all being safe on those roads. I know how tricky they can be. I'm done with finals and I got 5 A's and 1 B. I'm pretty excited about that. Nancy I hope your relief came and you didn't have to work a 24 shift. Thank you Angela for that hot chocolate recipe, that will certainly come in handy since our highest temp has ben 12 in the last 2 weeks. Things are going good here and we are ready for Chirstmas.

Merry Christmas everyone and have a great holiday.

Matt

YOW!

Here I am at work, all the patients sleeping nicely and me watching the snow fall outside, hoping against hope that I have someone here to relieve me in the am! Because, you know, I am not allowed to abandon my patients...! But last I heard, we could accumulate 6" tonight - oh dear! Well, I drove in with my chains on (went the back roads figuring I could avoid all the nuts who have to speed on the icy main roads) and I am sure glad I did! It was so peaceful on those roads, no one in sight except for the cop who put on his blue lights to pass me - ufda.
Wish me luck, because I really don't want to have to work a 24 hour shift! See ya ... n

Another beautiful day in the neighborhood...

Happy Winter Solstice to everyone! Only a few more days 'til Christmas, then another week to New Years and our lives can return to some semblance of normalcy. I hope you are all keeping cozy as can be. I love you.

Ted and Vicki's Christmas House

Oh that Theodore - hasn't figured out the posting yet. So I'll do it for him - here is their home in the snow; I talked to Vicki tonight, she said Ted chained up the truck and took her to work today, let her party and then picked her up. They are now snug in their cozy home and not going anywhere!

Pretty home in the snow...

Thank goodness we didn't have to drive anywhere today. I slept like a bear until 11am and spent the day sorting through stuff I wanted to get rid of. Thanks to Nancy for the following hot chocolate recipe- it came in handy!

4 1/2 cups hot milk/soy milk

4 oz bittersweet chocolate

4 oz semi-sweet chocolate

3 Tbls Dutch chocolate powder

1 Tbls sugar

1 tsp vanilla

Heat milk but do not boil. Add chocolate chips. Stir until fully melted. Mix cocoa and sugar together. Whisk into hot chocolate. Add vanilla. Slurp with delight!

Helen's Hotline

I had to laugh - Debby said this about the blog "Mom would have loved it, wouldn't she? Maybe we should call this blog "Helen's Hotline". Maybe we could even get her spirit to participate!" So there you go, ma, the challenge is issued - we expect to see some participation! You know, mom was pretty good with her WebTV, I'm betting she could figure it out :)

Yep, can't beat this snow. I took cookies to the 80 year old men up the road, then a short while later I see them go tootling past in their truck :) Me, I'm just sitting here watching the icicles grow - and Debby and I really do remember one icicle that was over 8' long when we were kids - it was the same year the goldfish froze! COLD!

Home sweet home - thanks Theo for finding me my cabin 27 years ago...

Paul's snow creations...

Paul and I both enjoyed the snow today. Where I enjoyed not having to go to work because the roads were too scary around my house, Paul created lawn art. Enjoy!

Heartwarming

First - yes Betsy, you did it right :) Now we look forward to travel pictures posted on here - fun! Just think, when you are on trips you can post on the blog and we can all see what you are seeing :)
The heartwarming thing? An 80 year old woman was evicted from her long time apartment this month, and had nowhere to put her 15 year old dog and the 8 cats she had taken in. Her relatives wouldn't help, and she was heading towards a retirement center with a limit of 1 pet. Because old and shy animals are euthanized at the Everett shelter, the woman planned to take in any she could not find a home for and have them euthanized.
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A friend of mine posted the story on craigslist; I told her I would take the dog if no one else would, but just couldn't take more cats. She called me a short while ago to say she had received EIGHTY EMAILS, and all the animals have a place to go to. It might be partly because it is Christmas, but mostly we think it is because so many hearts were touched by the thought of an 80 year old woman evicted and forced to euthanize her pets. Isn't this a wonderful example of the fact that people do still care?
There is still goodness in the world.

Merry Christmas!

Hello everyone! I hope I do this right. The weather outside is frightful..... let it snow, let it snow, let it snow! But not as much as Matthew has. Cute little Gomez doesn't know what he's in for being in this family. Hope the court case comes out well. Good luck. Jamey has been doing a lot of welding projects around Camano to Seattle and just finished his fall quarter. Winter quarter he is taking a CAD class to use the plasma cutter (he already does, but needs the class officially!) Jim and I are going to Nuevo Vallarta, Mexica-north of Puerto Vallarata from Jan 4-18th. We are sick of running to Seattle and back since Aunty Hilda died and this cold, gray weather. So that will be a fun time. Then it's back to work... Hope to see everyone sometime this month. Lots of love, bets

The weather outside is frighful...

So here's the view from the sliding glass door in the kitchen. The maple trees have been filled with birds today, actually every day since I started filling the feeders on the back deck. I loved waking up to a snowy world today. It's so peaceful.

Kids, Cooking, Cats...

Matt, it sounds like you have gone down to the bottom and are on the way to the top - how fantastic. I read once a book that talked of how most people are just sleepwalkers in this life, never really aware of what they are doing - just doing. I hate that you have had to go through all the hard things, but the fact that you have learned from them and are growing is what makes you fully alive. I look forward to meeting your children and Amanda and hearing more of what your lives are about. And no thank you, I will leave the excess snow for you - 3-4" is enough :)

Good luck on the finals!

Angelina, you rotten girl - now there is one more yummy thing to eat. I have to laugh that it came from mom's Norwegian cookbook, because mom did NOT like cardamom! When I finally tried some, I loved it - and it was one of the few things I made she wouldn't eat (mine was cookies though). I loved your review of the cookbook - that is exactly what mom loved about it too. Fun.

Cats - I'll just be brief and post a pic of my latest rescue - the stupid neighbors moved, left behind their 2 cats. I found a home for the baby, but this 2 year old orange boy is jailed in my bathroom until his new home appears - any of you interested, just lemme know... :) his name is Louie Lovebug.

Also, I just read an amazing book - Wesley the Owl. For all of you who think I am the odd one in the family, read this and you'll see - we are all odd, just in differing ways. This woman though told her story straight - she didn't hide, didn't pretend to be "normal" in her thoughts and feelings. I found it to be incredibly powerful and beautiful. Highly recommended.

Have a lovely day, all - bye for now, n

Christmas Cooking

The days that make us happy make us wise. - John Masefield

Do any of you have a favorite Christmas tradition? One of my favorite's the baking that goes on. Tasty delights are in abundance and I get great joy from making them for others. Today I pulled out my copy of Kitchen Secrets of the Daughters of Norway: Scandinavian Specialties, Original Recipes, Health Recipes. (That last one puzzles me only because many of the recipes are so NOT that.) It's from 1956 and was given "to Merrily with love, Mama, Christmas 1969," which I think is pretty nifty. Thanks Mom for gifting me with it! We all know how much Grandma loved food! The cool thing about this book is that it not only has recipes handed down from generations of Norwegian women, it has folk sayings, Norwegian prayers and customs, including a whole section on how important Christmas is in their traditions.

I've been having fun paging through it and noting how different it is from modern cook books. Most of the directions are vague, listing ingredients but not the order to mix them. While I can't imagine a time where I'd make Chili Balls or Veal Supreme, some of the recipes look really tasty. Today I baked a cardamom coffee cake and it's quite good. So I thought I'd share it here, for those who also take great joy in baking. I've tweaked the recipe a bit- it didn't list what size pan to use, so I used an 8x8. I suppose you could do it in a 9x13 as well- maybe it would actually bake in the 20 minutes called for in the recipe. I don't know if I'd use quite that much cardamom next time, though it's still quite nummy. Enjoy!

Cardamom Coffee Cake
1/2 cup shortening (I used butter)
1 scant cup sugar
2 whole eggs
1 cup milk
2 cups flour
3 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
1 Tbls crushed cardamom seeds (crushed between two papers, I used powder)
Mix well and spread in an greased 8x8 baking pan.

Topping:
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 Tbls butter
2 Tbls flour
1 tsp cinnamon
Mix well and sprinkle evenly over top of cake.Preheat oven to 350 and bake for 40 minutes. Test with tootpick until it comes out clean.

Devour, preferably with a nice pot of your favorite tea or a pot of coffee. I could totally see this going well with some sort of Eggnog drink too.

I think I got this

It's nice to have a spot for us to keep in touch. Thank you John for giving me the link so I can post. For those who are wondering, I am living in Helena MT and have been here for over 5 years now. I have recently gotten divorce from my second wife who I had three beautiful girsl with. It's been a horrible custody battle and I haven't seen them in a long time, but I go to court in January and this mess will be cleared up. My girlfriend, Amanda and I, had a baby boy in June of this year. His name is Gomez and he is tons of fun. I have decided to go back to school and I am about to complete my first semester of college this week. Finals are fun but I can't wait to be done. I am working towards a bachelor's in business. I have also had my bouts with addiction and have been working towards being clean. On the 2nd of December I celebrated 9 months clean.

If you like snow Nancy, you should come out here. We have gotten 4 inches since last night and are expected up to 15 by Monday. Not much fun for driving in, but it is beautiful scenery. Sometimes I wish I had some artistic ability so I could paint it. We plan on coming out to Washington this summer to see everyone. It has been too long since I have been out there. I sent my mom pictures of Gomez we got done at Wal-Mart and if you want a wallet contact her. We will get family pics done once we have the girls again. Take care and have a Merry Christmas.

Matt

Catching you up -

For those who do not quite have this posting figured out yet, and have put in comments on a particular post, remember it will only show up as a comment. No one will see your comment unless they specifically go looking - so if you want it to show up like this one, you have to sign in and write a new post. I have copied the comments from the beginning email into this post, so those of you who missed the comments can see who did...
I am at work, it is 5:30 am and I have only now had a break - 10 hours without a break is too long! Oh well, the day is almost over... and I hear we might have snow this weekend, YAY! I have lots of firewood and good books, I think I am due a snow day!
John, I of course would contribute a can of food - you should have a central drop point for anyone passing by. You needn't arrange to come pick up single cans... I don't work again until next Friday - is that too late to pick up donations? It would be the 19th, I could bring to work and you could get it here. Otherwise I will be out and about Wednesday and Thursday, could bring stuff wherever.
Okay, back to work - bye! n
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Comments on the beginning post -

John Wahl said...
Hi Aunt Nancy, cool idea, we could all share a password and login and just use this as a message board etc. etc. I forwarded you message to Matt mwahl74@hotmail.com so maybe he will chime in. Cheers, John
December 5, 2008 11:07 AM
offthewahltoons said...
Auntie N:I look forward to seeing how this project evolves. Good fun.XXXOOO,'drew
December 5, 2008 2:04 PM
Staziaface said...
Hi Auntie Nancy! I know there is a way to add other contributors to the blog, but its been a while so i can't think exactly how to do it off the top of my head.. I look forward to hopefully keeping in touch with everyone on that side of the hill!=)Stazia
December 5, 2008 2:38 PM
THEO said...
As you get older you will find that if you take one day at a time you will have a easier time going through life... only 18 days until Christmas...I don't know if this will work but my tec... Im sure will fix it for me take care Theo
December 5, 2008 10:02 PM
wally74 said...
Thanks John for sending me this. Hello everyone from Helena MT. I'm busy with finals coming up and I'll get more into this after they are done.Matt
December 6, 2008 9:37 PM
merrily said...
Well,this could be great fun! Even though he would proably have been frustrated I bet dad would have liked to give this a try.So Matt,what are you doing? I live in the woods with the racoons and other critters. It's pretty special and I really liKe it. So Nancy,good job getting this started,maybe I'll figure out how to send some pictures next.Andy and Stazia and John,Good to hear you chime in.Talk to you later,lv m

Hallooo!

Nancy, I'm so glad you made this! It's awesome! So Danku for that.

I hope everyone is keeping sane this holiday season. I'm working 3-4 days a week at Planned Parenthood in Everett- I quit the funeral home job because I wanted my weekends back. Fortunately PP has plenty of hours for me. Paul's business is keeping him crazy busy, which is a good thing. A bored Paul is a bad thing.

Life is good. And I hope it is for you all as well.

Blessings!

Just One Can!!!

Hey everyone Brenda and I are doing a holiday food drive and so far we are getting a great response. My pitch is "just one can" and truly that is all I ask, is one can of food from everyone and it really adds up. So if anyone wants to participate and help collect food from people you know or just want to donate some food to benefit local food banks. Please let me know and I will coordinate a way to pick it up. Thanks John

YAY!

YAY! John figured out how to post, now the rest of you are challenged to do it too! Thanks John for posting Matt's clan, how fun to see them! Matt, they are darling - make a family trip here in the summer and we'll hold a family get together at a park with swings and slides :)

bye for now! n

Matt's Clan

Hey Matt I hope you don't mind but I do have the pictures you sent over and I will put them up. John

Ok we have Gomez Wahl and the girls are from left to right Ellie Wahl. Georgia Wahl and Livie Wahl

Holiday Shuffle

Hi Everyone I think this new blog is a great idea and a great way to connect with everyone at least a little bit. I hope that everyone is is doing great and in good health as we prepare to do the holiday shuffle! That is I mean make our rounds to be with friends and family and sometimes there are lots of stops to make. So everyone be safe, have fun and stay in touch even if it is just in cyberspace. I will work on getting some pictures up. I remember everyone crammed into Grandpa and Grandma's house visiting and eating and drinking and singing and running around and having a fun time. Take care, John

Matt! How great to hear from you! And the baby in the picture is...? I'll be interested to hear what kind of finals you are in, what you are doing, how the family is doing - maybe see some more pictures??
This is exciting, I can't wait to hear more from all! Now, since I worked a 12 hr night shift, came home and took care of animals, got up and went to Arlington to check out a barn home for one of my strays, went to my friend's house who is on vacation to take care of her 3 diaper cats (see, there are those WORSE than me in this cat business!) and just got home to take care of all the animals again before I go to bed and get up and go to work for 12 hrs... I will say goodnight! (by the way, that is a typical day in my life, just letting you see ... yep, totally crazy.)
bye! lv,n

Figuring it out...

Okay, I sent all of you an email "inviting" you to be contributors; I see Theo posted a note after that, but not one like this - Ted, your note came through as a comment. When I came to this site to post this note, I had to sign in - try signing in by clicking sign in, put your email in, and make up a password of your own. That should work...

I'm at work, working hard... 3 am, this is my usual break time. One reason I love email - you can communicate when it is good for YOU :)

see ya... lemme know if the contributor posting doesn't work! n

oops - picture delayed...

oops, the picture didn't come through on the last post - here it is now!

goodnight!! n

The Beginning...

Greetings to the assorted clan members of the Ted and Helen Wahl Norwegian Mafioso... oops, I didn't say that ,mom. :)
I thought it only right to initiate this family blog with a picture of Helen as a young woman, mainly because you KNOW she would want to be smack dab in the beginning, middle and end of it all. Of course, I am new to all this so nothing may come through as I think it will, we will see.
It is my hope we can all share not only what is happening in our lives at this time, but philosophies and plain old fun stuff too. As far as I am concerned, anything goes. Now I am not quite sure how to add everyone on as "contributors" - if need be, I'll just give my email/password and anyone can sign on as me - otherwise, I guess you just post comments. Any of you computer guru's who want to figure it out and let all know, please do - for now, I have to go to bed so I can get up and go to work, gotta buy more cat food...
Happy Holidays all - I hope this works out as a way of communicating! bye for now, lv,n