Moscow's 1st Oktoberfest

Moscow organized an Oktoberfest a couple of weeks ago (yes, in September, but never mind that). It landed on a beautiful Saturday, and it seemed the whole town was out enjoying the day and celebrating. The weekly Farmer's Market in Friendship Square was swarming with happy people, a bluegrass band was playing live, and both artists and children were creating masterpieces with chalk on Main Street! The band, Forgotten Freight, is a well-known local group with Andy's co-worker Susan playing bass.


Andy and I were VERY impressed with the artists' ability to create these incredible portraits out of plain ol' sidewalk chalk!
(The best I can do is a cartoonish choo-choo train!)

Got Bread?

So....I love to bake. Pies, mainly. Cookies, cinnamon rolls, dinner rolls - anything that involves closely following a recipe, manipulating dough and having the reward of something delicious to share. In the last year, I have tried...maybe 3 times to bake just a normal loaf of bread. The first time, it came out weighing 20 pounds, I swear. The next...was a little better but once it was not longer fresh-out-of-the-oven, it was horribly dry. So, I decide a few weeks ago, to try again!
I pull out a new recipe to try - my mom's recipe for white bread. Trouble is, it is written for those who know what they are doing. It lists the ingredients and then says - "Knead, form and bake like normal bread". So, I'm looking at 3 different recipes at the same time, trying to decide how to finish this out. The dough turned out perfectly elastic, soft, raised incredibly well - I was going to nail it this time!!

When the timer goes off, I excitedly open the oven and pull this out....The world's tallest loaf of bread - for sure!! I'm beginning to wonder if maybe the recipe was supposed to say something like "Yield: 2 loaves"???

We had to store it in a plastic bag saved from a pack of 18 hamburger buns...Sandwiches for lunch were made with one slice, cut in half...BUT it was everything homemade bread should be - just on a larger scale :)

Car Show Season comes to a close...

Sadly, the summer is over and so are the car shows. We ended the season with an appearance in Lewiston during Hot August Nights and another show Sept.13th in Palouse (part of Palouse Days). During Hot August Nights, we chose to park at the private show in NAPA's parking lot rather than Main Street Lewiston while we browsed the show. Paid off! We won a little Barbeque Grill :)
At the show, we ran into a 50's trailer fanatic of sorts, and he got us motivated again to finish the 1953 Terry Rambler I gave Andy for his birthday....the day after he gave me a diamond ring. Quite the trade ;) So, hopefully in the next year or so, you will be seeing pictures of that project coming together.

The Palouse Days show was pretty exciting. It was the first public appearance for the Dodge!! Unfortunately, we were so absorbed in the happenings that we forgot to take pictures of it there! We're pretty sure someone in the club did though, so stay tuned and I'll post them when we get them. It got a lot of attention for an "in-progress" project, which was encouraging. We also came home with a trophy from this show - for the Buick.

All-in-all, a wonderful summer and car show season! Looking forward to the next...

1 year and counting...

Happy 13-month anniversary to us!

Since we were busy celebrating our first anniversary on the one-year mark, I decided to do an anniversary post on the one-year, one-month mark instead. This past year went by incredibly fast, but we filled it full of fond memories and good time spent having fun and getting accustomed to sharing life together. There are obviously many things we have in common, but it's the ones that make us unique that are discovered in that first year, right? I did a little reflection and came up with some funny differences I've noticed...

1. He folds his clothes like he's always had his own closet.
She folds her clothes like she's shared her closet with 3 other girls.

2. He thinks about dinner as meat and two side dishes.
She thinks about dinner as a main DISH (which could include 3 food groups), and some hope for dessert later.

3. He is careful to get excited about anything until it is certain to happen or is happening.
If there's some small chance she can go to Disney World in the next 3 years, she gets very excited, tells everyone, and looks it up online.

4. He puts his shoes on when he gets dressed and keeps them on all day and evening.
She slips hers on as she leaves the house, takes them off as often as possible throughout the day, and leaves them at the door when she returns home.

5. He dislikes putting laundry away.
She dislikes sorting laundry to wash.

6. He will research the life out of something, and even visit the store multiple times before purchasing.
She wants to come home with something if she's going to be stuck shopping for very long, even if it's not quite perfect.

So far, our differences balance each other out quite well! It's obvious that our pasts are a big part of who we are, but it's also becoming apparent that we are rubbing off on each other a little...who knows what the next year will bring?

Thank you all for your love and support of our marriage - it's the cherry on top :)