Great Weekend

It's been awhile since I've posted...Adam had a birthday last Thursday, and we had a lot of fun at dinner the following night with mom and Elmer. I ate a lot of food, and it was great. :)
On Saturday, we went to Grand Blanc for Grandma Thora and Great-Aunt Norma's 90th birthday party! The twins had a lovely dinner with family, friends, and loved ones surrounding them. It was a wonderful night. Every time I hugged Thora, her face was wet with happy tears. We really enjoyed seeing Adam's dad and Suzanne, and I was able to meet all his cousins too. Uncle Charles was there from NYC...Adam and I spent some wonderful days with him in NYC when we visited...he and his lovely wife Kim know good restaurants and good martinis, and are just a blast to hang out with. :) It's not often that families have the chance to all join together for a special occasion, but it's truly a blessing to see when it does happen.

The weekend continued when Adam and I spent the night at the Dyball's house and drove to the Tigers last game on Sunday...it was BEAUTIFUL outside, and we had a great time. The game itself was super exciting, until the extra innings - but we left before the bitter end. We got home in time to clean house a bit and watch Desperate Housewives. :)

This week has been busy as always, and I've been working late again. Tomorrow I have a hair appointment and Thursday we're going to the Brown house for a belated b-day dinner for Adam. We're also excited to watch the VP debate afterward. On Friday, I'm having a girls night with friends (dinner and a movie) and on Saturday, we're heading back to the east side of the state for a Michigan game. Sunday, we're having a Brown family picture taken, and then we're heading downtown GR to an Oktoberfest party! :)

SO, I want to wish a happy belated birthday to my fantastic husband, who I failed with no b-day posting...and I also want to mention that although Kiki had her cone off for 2 hours on Sunday (finally) - she proceeded to scratch her miniscule wound open again and is now wearing the cone once more. :( It continues...

My Husband Bakes!

Adam the Chef

Yes, it's true...we had some Amish friendship bread batter sitting on the counter all week, waiting to be baked. Amish friendship bread is bread meant to be passed on, like a chain letter of sorts. 1 c. of the "starter dough" is given to a person in a lg. ziploc bag, and directions are given with it. There are directions for 10 days - some days just letting air out of the bag, other days adding ingredients. At the end of the 10 day period, you add a few ingredients to the dough and bake it...reserving some batter to put in ziplocs for passing on to friends, continuing the chain.

This afternoon, Adam made the bread! Now he really can't say that he can't cook...making bread isn't easy, and his turned out perfectly! The recipe made two loaves of delicious cinnamon bread with a outer crust of cinnamon-sugar. I LOVE it. :) We kept a loaf for ourselves, and I brought the other loaf to my parent's house tonight, along with some frozen chicken noodle soup that I made last week...my poor mom is sick. :( She works too hard, and always has...but the lessons she taught me about working hard and following through didn't go unnoticed.
Love you mom!

Frank Lloyd Wright

Tonight I enjoyed an evening with the ladies of my book club. We read the book Loving Frank, which was a fictional story of the prairie period of Frank Lloyd Wright and his mistress. It was a great read, and I found it to be quite interesting. Most of the story was factual, which was even more amazing. We were able to go to the Meyer May house in downtown Grand Rapids, where we received a private tour of what is deemed the most perfectly restored Wright-designed home in America. The details were breathtaking...what an experience, and what an innovative gentleman he was (aside from the mistres bit.) :) The family I babysat for was very into praire style, and also Frank Lloyd Wright himself. Their house resembles the Meyer May house so much....very impressive. I found my taste in decor changing dramatically by the time I left the house. Exquisite - I could go on and on about the historical facts I now know.

After the tour, we went to a restaurant which had beautiful moldings and decor in the prairie style of Wright - great food, too! We had good conversation and laughed a lot...it was so nice to be back with the group I'd missed all summer.

Check out the website for the Meyer May house that we visited:
http://www.steelcase.com/na/meyer_may_house_ourcompany.aspx?f=18708

This site is good, too
http://www.dgunning.org/architecture/Michigan/Meyer%20May/

Weekend!!

I can't tell you how glad I am to have a couple days off!! I love my job, and I really love my class this year...but the hours put in this week were catching up to me. The cold I had is just about gone, thank goodness!

Tonight Adam and I supported our hometown team (and my employer) and went to the Rockford vs. Hudsonville football game in Hudsonville. It was a good game, and WOW was it packed. We left with two minutes to go in the game, and Rockford was ahead by 3 pts. with the ball. I hope they won! We stood up the whole game, and I really had a hard time seeing over all the tall Dutch people. :) Ha...I'm Dutch, so I can say that. It was great, because many of the guys playing were my former students! My first class is graduating this year, which is insane because that means I've been teaching for 8 years! Time really does fly.

Tomorrow is the tailgate at MSU - Adam and I are currently debating the length of the tailgate, as well as the fact that we're not going to the actual game...and wondering if we should really go, knowing that it will be hours of drinking and having fun...and then an hour drive home...meaning one of us needs to be good. My mom wants to go to the farmer's market with me and then out for coffee...and Adam and I have a big store credit at Menard's to spend - hopefully on some clearanced patio furniture! My sister is coming home too, and I'd love to see her. We're going to make the call in the morning. We'll be traveling the next two weekends, so it might be nice to just hang out at home.

On Sunday, our wedding photographer is coming over to take a few shots at the house, and I'll be grading papers, grocery shopping for the week, and doing some cleaning. Oh - and Kiki's cone is coming off. A good day around our house. :)

Great Dinner

Tonight Adam and I went to Reds on the River for dinner...we were able to sit outside, as it was 75 degrees when we arrived! Awesome. Fantastic dinner, good conversation, and yummy wine. I've been working a lot lately, so it was good to get out and hang with my hubby. :) I just love our little town that we call home.

Work is going really well, and even though I'm busy...I'm really loving my new class. Amazing kids. I also work with fantastic people, and I'm blessed to have friends at work. Life is good - no complaints!

For those of you keeping up with Kiki - she is a day away from being cone-free. Almost healed. Finally!! She's currently cuddling with me and Adam is jealous. He he.

Happy Wednesday - the weekend is close! More to come soon...
-KH

Chicken Noodle Soup Recipe

I had the urge to cook today, mostly because I wanted homemade chicken noodle soup. Being sick makes me crave soup and pudding, for some reason. I can't stand the canned stuff, and last time I made "Mrs. Grass'"noodle soup, it tasted fishy. Nasty I know, but it did! Here's what I came up with today, by combining my favorite chicken and dumplings soup recipe with Southern Living's chunky chicken noodle soup...it tasted really good. Adam had 2 bowls! It makes a lot.

Chicken and Dumplings
(or Chicken Noodle Soup, if you prefer)

2 Tbsp. vegetable oil
3-4 lbs. chicken pieces (or 3-4 breasts - what I use)
1 small onion, chopped (I use 1/2 of a Vidalia)
2-4 ribs celery, sliced thin
4 cups water, plus 1 cup water
2 cups chicken stock/broth
1 bay leaf
5-6 chicken boullion cubes
salt to taste
ground black pepper to taste
4 med. sized carrots, chopped
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
*kluski egg noodles - the straight, skinny kind - I get mine in the Dutch section at Meijer! - As many as you want - a few handfuls is what I used

Dumplings:
1 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. fresh parsley, chopped
2/3 cup milk
1 lg. egg
1 Tbsp. vegetable oil

1. Heat the oil in a large Dutch oven. Add the chicken pieces and brown them on each side for 2 minutes. Stir in the onion and celery. Saute briefly and then add 4 cups of water, 2 cups of broth, bay leaf, boullion cubes, salt, and pepper. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer the chicken, covered, for 30 minutes.
2. Remove the chicken, add the carrots to the pot (add uncooked noodles, if you choose to skip dumplings and do noodles) cover, and simmer for 10 minutes or until the carrots/noodles are mostly tender.
3. Meanwhile, shred chicken breasts with 2 forks. Set aside meat. Whisk together the flour and the remaining 1 cup of water in a sm. bowl until smooth. Add the mixture and the chicken meat to the simmering saucepan. Cover and continue to simmer.
4. To prepare the dumplings, combine the flour, baking powder, salt, and parsley in a large bowl. Make a well in the dry mixture and add the milk, egg, and oil. Stir briskly to make a batter. For each dumpling, spoon a rounded tablespoon of batter into the simmering broth. They can overlap a bit, or you can push them around to make room. Cover and simmer for another 13-15 minutes, WITHOUT stirring. Serve hot.
*If you choose not to do the dumplings, I could see some fresh, chopped parsley being good in the soup. I served it with "beer bread" with butter and honey. Comfort food at it's best! :)

*recipe is a combination of recipes from Carrie Douglas, Southern Living, and me!

Still Sick...

I can't believe I'm still sick - today was actually the worst day of all! My poor students...they watched me sneeze and blow my nose all day long. I should have stayed home, but I couldn't leave my lessons to a sub...and tomorrow will be the same. If it's not better by Wednesday, I'll stay home and see a doctor. I've been taking advantage of our whirlpool bathtub and the opportunity to drink tea. Adam is taking good care of me - what a good husband he is. Seriously - he is amazing. I've never met a more consistent and caring person!

We had dinner with my parents tonight at Cheers...bogo burritos! I had a margarita that I couldn't really taste and I do believe the hot salsa that I ate cleared my sinuses a bit! :) My dad and sister are working on getting Bears tickets for this Sunday, so we may just head to Chi-town if they can find some...I hope so!

Sorry for the boring blog - I have pictures to post tomorrow! :)
-KB

Rain, Rain, Go Away...

It's been raining forever here, and I haven't left the house since Friday afternoon! Adam and I are both sick, so we've been lounging around. I have a cold combined with a sore throat, and Adam has the same. Not a lot of energy flowing around the Hubner house. Sneezing, sniffling, and napping galore.

We've been watching football and taking care of our poor baby Kiki - it's been almost a week with the cone on her head (again) and she is just miserable. She's doing better though, and we're hoping to have the cone off by Tuesday. She has trouble eating, walking, and even eating her treats is hard. She is so depressed, and she looks at us like she can't understand why we're torturing her! I feel so bad.

We spent several hours on Saturday cleaning and organizing...we still had wedding gifts laying around, and the house was getting messy and dusty/dirty. I got really frustrated with Adam, because I get tired of having to ask him to clean...I work 11-12 hour days now, and I hate coming home to mess when someone has been home all day. He got really defensive at first, but then he later talked to me about it and said that yes, if he's home and not working that he totally should be cleaning and helping cook dinner. That sprouted a conversation about what to have for dinner if he cooks...and he listed the whopping 5 things he knows how to cook - all of which we had in the last week. :-) Such a guy. Needless to say, I'm excited about the Main Dish Kitchen meals we have coming...Adam did make the chicken wing dip for the football game yesterday, though!! He can follow a recipe so he's going to try some other dishes, he says!

Not much to report - this is a very easy week for us...not much going on besides work. We're debating on tailgating with friends next Saturday at the MSU game (all you uber Michigan fans are probably cringing) as they're playing Notre Dame and pretty much everyone is going. Tailgates at MSU are a blast, and I don't feel guilty for saying that! It's still up in the air...we may just reprise last Saturday's canceled plans, which include the farmer's market with the neighbors and planting mums (rained out, of course) and watching football on tv.

I need new shoes, so I'm thinking of going to the mall soon - however, that would entail getting cleaned up and leaving the couch, so it's still up in the air. :) I hope everyone has a good week!

9-11

It's hard to believe that it's been 7 years since that terrible day. I remember that it was my first year of teaching and I was pulled out of my classroom and told what had happened. I remember having the choice to tell my students or not...and I told them. I knew it would be a day that they'd remember forever, and I didn't want to take that from them. It's still horrible to watch on tv, and it brings back many memories. What tragedy.

My friend Brad Edwards is a reporter for Fox Detroit...he did a wonderful commentary on September 11. It has special meaning to him, as his aunt was on the plane that hit the Pentagon. See the link below for a touching tribute and a wonderful story.

http://www.myfoxdetroit.com/myfox/pages/Home/Detail?contentId=7405519&version=3&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=VSTY&pageId=1.1.1

Random...

I have been so busy lately with work...long hours and a lot of time spent at home researching...it's good to be back to work, though. I have to admit that I was extremely bored over the summer, even though I loved the schedule I had and hours I kept. As far as work goes, my class is awesome this year, thank goodness! I'm really pleased with how the year is going so far. We had a bout of head lice this week, which is unheard of this early in the year, but so far it seems to have only claimed one kid. I am super itchy, now that I know it's there, but I have been assured that I don't have it. Ew. Reminds me of the flea epidemic of '07 (aka, when Kiki became infested last fall.)

This week I'm seeing several friends, which I'm excited about...tomorrow I'm hanging with Katy at Blue Water Grill...Friday I'm getting together in Holland with friends (Janelle, Abby, Katy, etc.) and on Saturday morning I'm going to the farmer's market with some neighbors. I think Adam and I will hang out and watch football, and then hopefully spend Saturday evening together. Sunday we're taking our bikes out and getting some exercise...while enjoying the early fall weather. I can't wait! Next week I'm getting together with Kelly, and probably doing "Main Dish Kitchen" dinners. It's a lot like "Dream Dinners" that I did this winter, where you go and make meals to freeze and eat at a later date...but the food/menu is better. They have a huge variety on their menu, and everything sounds good. It's pretty economical, and the waste of food is much less for us. I am pretty good at planning menus for the week that use up my groceries, but with only 2 people, there is always waste. Our grocery bill was significantly cheaper last time I did it, and it was awesome knowing that I didn't have to spend an hour cooking dinner when I got home from work...Adam could cook them too, which was great.

Email me if you're interested in joining me! A few co-workers are going too.
https://maindishkitchen.com/Order/Step1.aspx

Mike and Johanna's Wedding

Enjoying the reception!


The groom - I don't know how, but I didn't take one pic of the bride! :(


hamming it up!


Gene and Amy - she is hilarious!


Jayson and Randi - one of the most fun couples I know!


Lauren and Marie



Rehearsal Dinner in Battle Creek


Brad and Jamie


Kurt and Marjorie - she and I spent a lot of time together in BC, trying to find fast food! No luck. We enjoyed a trip to K-Mart and multiple gas stations while the boys were taking pics with the wedding party.




We just returned from a wedding weekend for Mike and Joey! What a great time, and what great friends Adam has (I guess I do too!) We laughed and danced and enjoyed the company of some awesome people. The party bus between the wedding and reception was probably one of my favorite things...my brother was memorable. :) Adam and my brother, Kurt, were ushers, and I was able to enjoy the weekend as a guest, not a bride! Mike and Johanna are a beautiful couple, and we could not be happier for them. Here are some photos of the weekend!

Wedding Pictures are UP!

Take a look!

http://www.collages.net/

Hubner-Brown

11588

First Day of School!

It's my first day of school picture, taken bright and early this morning by my lovely husband.

*I fixed the blog so anyone can leave comments, not just registered "bloggers." Wedding pics soon!

Beginning of our Honeymoon!

Pacific Beach - a view of the coast

Pool pics from The Catamaran - hotel #1

Our room - it was clean but nothing too special. But the guy on the bed - he is very special!!

Ceiling leak #1 - about 15 min. before we left the hotel for good!

View from #1 hotel - The Catamaran of Mission Bay

Adam drinking my huge margarita from a fab restaurant in PB - "Gringos"

Me with my margarita and a fancy new necklace!! Gift from Adam.

Squinting, like always, in front of the Catamaran hotel #1

The gardens inside the lobby at The Catamaran were beautiful - a waterfall!


Pacific Beach - where there were a ton of surfers

the pool at hotel #1 - The Catamaran

flashing my bling :)

looking cute!

The view from our room at Hotel #1 - you're looking at Mission Bay and way in the distance is downtown San Diego.

It's hard to believe, but all the wedding festivities are over!! We had an amazing wedding, thunderstorm and all, and a great makeshift honeymoon. We decided to postpone our Cabo vacation and head to San Diego instead...hoping to do Cabo in December. It was a mess getting out of our Cabo package deal, but we did it with help, and were able to experience a new city together! We ended up staying at two hotels - the first one we booked rather quickly, and it just wasn't honeymoonish enough for us. When our ceiling started leaking, we checked out and moved to the much nicer Coronado Island, a water taxi ride away from downtown San Diego....we had a much better time there!! What a great trip!

Finally - at a new hotel!

The pool at the Coronado Marriott Resort and Spa - gorgeous in every way.


Adam relaxing with his crossword book - getting tan!


The view of downtown San Diego and the Coronado Bay Bridge - from my cushy chair at the pool, which was near the waiter who brought food and drinks to my chair. :)


Chilling at the pool - thankful for sunshine and nice hotels.

The Marriott really outdid itself! We switched at the last minute, and they were very accommodating. Beautiful room, excellent service and staff, and even complimentary champagne and strawberries in the hotel room for the honeymooners!! Everything was beautiful. We are so glad we stayed here!! Can't wait to go back.

First night on Coronado Island

It's blurry and an awful picture, but this was the view of the San Diego fireworks from our hotel on Coronado Island...it was unbelievably close!


More fireworks!


After dinner, we went to a bar that was recommended by a super cool bartender...it was a local place on Coronado - we talked to the owner for hours!! Boston guy - super.


He made us get behind the bar for a picture. I'm rockin' the humidity curly hair do'.


Behind the bar still!

Padres Game and Gaslamp Quarter Night

Rarely do I crave dessert...but I did at the game!! Adam made fun of me the whole time...


Until he stole my cookie sandwich....!


The couple who took this picture said we were an adorable couple and asked if we were newlyweds...we were asked that quite often on the trip, actually!


Gaslamp at Night!


I found dancing Elvis' so I took some pics...it was Elvis night at Petco!




San Diego Bay - our water taxi driver was awesome!! She told us where to go and what to do - before Padre's baseball game.






Huge bar/restaurant/nightlife area in downtown SD - it's beautiful!






Petco park from the outside - we ate at The Tilted Kilt - basically a Scottish Hooters. :-)








I requested good seats for the game - they were awesome!! Boring game, though.











Downtown SD taken from Harbor St. -waterfront...gorgeous city. So clean.