Kristin and Steve get Married!

I have been waiting to get photos from the other photographers (guests) but it seems to be taking much longer than I expected.  That means I'm going to post the few that I've got and post additional photos at another time.

Right from the very beginning of the planning stages we wanted simple, casual, and fun.  We invited our friends Bud and Bettyann to come with us to Sarasota, FL for the weekend.  The rest of the guests at this wedding were going to be nearly all of Steve's family, a couple of family friends and my Dad.  In a former life, Bettyann was a florist, so the day before the wedding I charged her with the task of finding a nice bouquet of flowers from the local Trader Joe's and make them look suitable.  As you can see from the photo above, the bouquet was gorgeous!  Thank you Bettyann!!

Steve and I designed, printed and assembled the programs.

When Steve walked down the aisle he presented his Mom with a Gerbera Daisy.

Here we are, Bettyann and I.  We were waiting for the music, which stopped for some reason and was never put back on.  So both Bettyann and I walked into the ceremony without music.  I also had my hair up (a temporary relief from the heat) and forgot to put it down until I got up front.

We had our wedding in Steve's Sister's backyard.  She and her husband were fabulous hosts and did 90% of the work to make our wedding wonderful.

Steve and I were asked to hold hands and we laughed because we already were.

We asked our friends and family to place some rocks in the bowl, surrounding this little orchid plant, as an Act of Unity.

Steve and I decided to have necklaces to serve as wedding rings.  The Groomsmen passed the necklaces around to each guest and we asked them to hold them and put their love and good thoughts and intentions on them.  By the time we got the rings back, they were already filled with love and good blessings.

It was an early afternoon wedding and that was the perfect time to enjoy our wedding cheesecake!  Here is our attempt to cut through the sticky cheesecake.  We managed to get it accomplished and gave each other a little piece.  We were civilized about it and didn't smear each others faces with cake.

We had a Cranberry Ginger ale  toast and Steve's Mom has come in for a kiss.

The Family Photos

My Dad - Galen Corlett

Steve's Parents - Paul and Peg Binder

Paul Binder (brother) Peg, Paul, Carol (sister) and Binh (Carol's husband, BIL)

Steve's nephew and niece have been added into this photo - Binh and Carol's children, David and Andrea.

The couple we dragged along to Sarasota - Bud and Bettyann

The car - all decorated with decorations from inside the house.

and they lived Happily Ever After!
Kristin


If you would like to send a postcard or card to us,
you can use my UPS Store address.
I have chosen not to change my name, so I'm still Kristin Corlett.

Kristin Corlett
Steve Binder
12620-3 Beach Blvd
#194
Jacksonville, FL  32246

A license to get married

I joined an online group for the summer called Index Card A Day.  It's just for the months of June and July and the idea behind it is to make a little bit of art every day on something that isn't precious (an every day index card) and that doesn't need to be perfect, just to create and experiment.  Well, I am truly in the "she can't draw worth a lick" kind of artist, so what the heck!

I've always wanted to learn how to collage.  It seems so easy - glue stuff to paper.  The few times I have attempted such a thing, they tend to just look messy.  The ICAD challenge is just the type of thing that I can do to both get my mind into a creative mode at least once each day and to practice my collage skills.

The Angel card at the top of the page was just part of a sticker I got from my last Lane Bryant purchase.  It said # I'm no angel, but that was just far too big to put on an index card.  I cut out the one word and then used a silver sharpie to make one giant frame around it.

The Eiffel Tower card was one of the months of a printable calendar for 2015.  I think it was January's card.  I cut it to fit the index card and added a few found pieces of paper and a bit of string I found on my table.

The Sundance Card was a special one as this signifies the delivery of the wedding rings/necklaces that arrived that day.

On June 2nd, Steve and I went to the county court to apply for our marriage license.  While we were there, I picked up a handful of the number tags that were left behind by other people.  I thought it would make a fun collage piece for that days index card.

The card above is the entire card -- I used parts of the tags and then colored on the thermal paper with dry erase pens - they smeared and changed color and were totally cool looking, in my opinion!  I am really glad I thought about taking those numbers home.

I used the Retro Camera App on my phone to take these next two photos.  I love the sketchy white border on them.  

This Saturday, Steve and I will be getting married.   I never thought I would find a partner that I loved and cared for as much as him.  Ya know, because I'm too old to be giggly in love.  I'm 48 and he's 52 and we're beyond that!

HA!

We have been in this rose colored, bouncing love bubble since about a month before we admitted we were in love.  We are the best team I've ever been a part of and I am grateful to be with Steve.  He's never been married before and I am proud to be his Bride.

Have a wonderful day!
Kristin

Be sure and see our new designs at KNSgear.com.  Here's our delightful model, Kristin, showing off her new shirt.  Proud to be a registered Organ, Tissue and Eye donor.

Cat's Log: Day 11 - 30

Those first two weeks all we really saw of our newly adopted kitties were these two brown bundles.  Nessa would lay under the towel and Lettie took control of the overturned cat bed.  I banished them from the bathroom one day and that's when they took up residence under my bed.  All I wanted was a shower, but that's all it took to discourage them from living in the bathtub any longer.  It worked out for the best, as you will see from the updates below.

This is part 2 of the saga.  To read part 1, click here.

Enjoy!

Cat's Log: Day 10
Some fun was to be had while the guards were sleeping. We discovered something called "leftovers" - human food forgotten on the  . We snacked on chicken, rice, celery and water chestnuts. We found the water chestnuts to be crunchy and the chicken wasn't too bad! We had to move a few items from the counter tops in order to get to the leftovers, but it was fun watching each item crash to the floor.

Now we are snuggled in for another day, covered head to toe, in our bathtub. With Steve Binder

Left: Lettie
Right: Nessa

Cat's log: Day 11
Last night I decided to explore the house, I mean the prison, a bit and found this awesome basket to lay in! I figure I'm gonna be stuck here a while, so I probably better just get used to being here. So when mom and dad, I mean the prison guards, were asleep, I quietly snooped around a bit...until about 4am when I heard (caused) a thundering crash. Somehow a light on the kitchen counter suddenly fell and smashed into tiny pieces. The guards quickly arose, but by then I was safely hiding. I'm still hiding. Don't tell them I'm under the bed with Lettie, okay? -Nessa

Cat's Log: Day whatever
We remain in hiding.

Cat’s Log: Two weeks
So this place is turning out to be pretty cool. I sleep mostly undisturbed, get treats and lots of attention when I come out, play and run around all night, and get to explore all kinds of new things. I’m gradually claiming this place as my own, rubbing my scent on my people and my new stuff. Hmmm…yes, I think I could get used to this place. –Nessa

Cats Log: Day 14 of hell
The guards have cleverly brainwashed my sister. She seems to be enjoying this God-forsaken place. My cell is of no use now. The guards use it at their own pleasure for seemingly every need. Corners and under beds seem to be the best hiding places. If they cannot find me, they cannot torment me. I fear for my sister for she clearly has been tortured beyond recognition. Undoubtedly the clean litterbox, good food, cool clear water, and comfortable sleeping ploy has turned her. Please, anyone reading this message, help me escape. I don’t know how much longer I can take this suffering. -Lettie

Cat's Log: Day 25
Not much has changed except where we are forced to feed and use the litter box. The woman guard had the gall to put our litter box in a closet! Not just any closet, but the bathroom closet. It's like she's embarrassed of our bathroom habits or something. She also moved our food, so now we have to eat in the living room. I will not be bullied however, so I refuse to come out and eat until the guards are completely sound asleep. Nessa continues to interact with the prison guards, but I've finally convinced her to only go out AFTER it get's dark outside.

We both have found the accommodations under the female guard's bed to be the best. She has never successfully been able to reach us, so it works perfectly as our hideout. At night Nessa and I have started our own version of Kitty Olympics. We race each other from under the bed to the kitchen, as fast as we can. Sometimes though, the guard has shut the door partially, so one of us get's a clean shot through the open door and the other runs head first into it, causing quite a racket! After we do our running, we like to hang out in the window and do our stretching exercises. Our claws make great sounds on the glass. We have decided it could make for the start of a great theme song! For the high jump portion of our Olympics, we have learned how to catapult ourselves from under the bed to the top of the bed. It is best to avoid the sleeping guard, but we haven't quite perfected that technique yet. This is why we only do this in the dark. We have successfully escaped from her grasp each time we've attempted this maneuver.

Nessa may hangout with the guards, but I have yet to see them face to face in well over a week. At this point, I may never need to see them and that would be fine with me.

The Mistress of the night,
Lettie

Prison Guard Log:
OMG, Lettie just came out of the bedroom, walked down the hall and into the kitchen. Then when she realized she was spotted she high-tailed it to the bedroom again. Still, SHE CAME OUT OF THE ROOM WHEN THE LIGHTS WERE ON! Progress!!!!!!

Cats Log: 1 Month
I think our prison term has ended. I have become quite familiar with the grounds and good friends with the male guard, despite both my sister and I finding great comfort underneath the female guard's bed. Oh, and the guards have begun calling my sister "Abby," a name that sounds quite strange to me. They still call me "Nessa" and do not know if or when they will start calling me something else. But "Abby" and I still gain much fun disturbing the guards' sleep by running around and causing a general ruckus at night. Somehow, I sense they do not enjoy our nighttime playtime as much as we do.

Until next time...

Have a great day!
Kristin

Check out our website - KNSGear.com

Spinach and Bacon Quiche

Thanks to Pinterest, I finally made my first quiche.  I kept seeing all of these great recipes for quiche, but I was intimidated.  I thought it was going to be difficult for some reason and I just never had the nerve to make it.   My eyes finally had had enough of the beautiful quiche photos, I had to make one and now.  I looked in the fridge and realized I had nearly everything I needed to make a quiche.  All I really needed was the pie crust.

I asked Steve if he liked quiche and he sort of gave me a "well it isn't my favorite but OK" kind of look. So with that burst of enthusiasm from him and my apprehension to make it, I was off to the store to buy a pie crust and make us some dinner!

It turns out that quiche is pretty fool proof!
I didn't have whole milk, so I used what I had - half and half and 2%.  I didn't have any mushrooms, so I used onions.  I didn't have Parmesan cheese, but I had Dubliner.  Quiche is a good way to use up leftovers.

I baked the quiche for 50 minutes and it was so beautiful - it rose up like a souffle about three quarters of an inch over the top of the pie crust.  The top was golden brown and creamy yellow.  I pulled it out of the oven and let it cool down.  Then the quiche settled.  It wasn't as beautiful as the big puffy, just-out-of-the-oven version, but it looked good.

I served us each a quarter of the pie.
We studied it a bit before biting into it.
Then tentatively we each took a bite.

OMGoodness!
It was heavenly!
Steve loved it.
I loved it.

We ended up eating the whole thing that night!
We were stuffed to the gills!
(We've since learned to only eat half and save the other half for lunch or dinner the next day or so)

I combined several different quiche recipes into this one with lots of variables.  It really is foolproof.

Here is the Kristin version of

Spinach and Bacon Quiche

I premade 9 inch frozen deep dish pie crust

5-10oz frozen spinach, thawed, drained, squeezed nearly dry
1 or more of the following
*fresh mushrooms, sliced, sauteed
*sliced green onions
*onion, sliced, sauteed
*chopped fresh dill
*1 teaspoon minced garlic (or chopped roasted)
2 slices bacon cooked and crumbled

5 large eggs
1 cup whole milk - (or 1/2 cup Half and Half, 1/2 cup 2% milk)

1 cup shredded cheese (Cheddar, Gouda, Mozzarella, Swiss)
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese or Dubliner
salt and pepper, to taste


Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Place frozen pie crust on a baking sheet in case of overflow and to make the transfer in and out of the oven more stable.

Whisk together the eggs, milk, and the seasonings you decided to use, as well as the salt and pepper.  Set aside.

Blot and squeeze the rest of the water out of the thawed spinach. Spread spinach on the bottom of the frozen pie crust. Add the mushrooms and onions and then 1 cup shredded cheese. Place the bacon crumbles on top.  Pour the egg mixture over everything leaving 1/4" to the top of the crust. Top the whole quiche with the 1/3 cup Parmesan or Dubliner cheese.

Bake the quiche until it is golden brown on top and the center is no longer jiggly. Depending on your oven the time will vary.  Mine takes 50 minutes.  Allow to cool for 5 minutes before slicing and serving.

The quiche makes great leftovers.


Enjoy!
Kristin

KNSGear - I'm the reason t-shirt

KNS Gear has not only created designs for organ donation and transplant, but we also are coming up with designs that are just for fun.  This is one of my favorites.  Of course, I'm not the reason why we are late, if we are - that's all Steve's fault!  Or at least that's what I'm saying since he's not editing this!

The words "I'm the reason we're late" with the hint of a clock behind the design.  You can see the first and second hands as well as the 12 and 3.  The design will look great on nearly every color shirt.  Be sure to check out the new designs.  We're adding new items weekly.

The Love Bubble

September 2014

I've been in a love bubble for a couple of years now.  It's totally awesome and I highly reccommend it to anyone wishing for a beautiful love filled life.  Actually, it might not be for everyone, but it is the perfect place for the two of us.

Our days are not spent looking at each other with dewey eyes and a love struck look on our faces, but at some point during the day our eyes will connect and both of us will get a little catch in our breath.  It's right then that love has just come over us like a tidal wave.  I've never experienced such a thing ever before where two people connected so much.  Every fiber of my being is connected to his and we have our own vibration.  I swear I can feel it even when we are separated.

I've been on the love struck end of the relationship many times, but the love interest wasn't.  Maybe they were initially but it didn't stick.  Steve and I have been bouncing around in our love bubble for a couple of years now.  We think it's wildly beautiful.  Our friends probably roll their eyes at us!

After the New Years Eve Party - Jan 1st, 2014

Last year was the year of the selfie for us.  I decided that we needed to get a photo of two of us for each and every month of the year.  That's only 12 months (January, February... December - yep, 12)  but it seemed like I was always trying to take our picture!  I have never liked getting my picture taken so I have precious few photos of me and my friends.  We somehow managed to take a selfie or had a photo taken of us each month last year.  They hardly look different from one another as we are usually seated at a restaurant and we are sporting a goofy grin, but I love that we did it.  One of the significant photo days was November 15th, 2014.  That was the day we got engaged.  

Engaged!

We'd talked about getting married lots of times and just assumed it would happen some day, but goodness, the actual act of asking. making it official. saying yes.  We hadn't done that until that night.

We went out to dinner and were seated in a small room with a table of 20 celebrating an 80th birthday and three two-top tables.  We sat in the back corner, with a view of the room.  The table was almost too big for me to sit across from Steve and actually hear him, so I pulled my chair around to sit next to him while we had our salad or appetizer or whatever it was we had first.  At some point Steve asked what I saw of our future and I was completely tongue tied.  I spit out something like, "Well, pretty much as we are right now - bouncing around in our love bubble and hopefully one of us getting a paying job!" and poor Steve looked at me with such a pained look --- I didn't get it.

November 15th, 2014

It was then that I saw his nervousness and his tenderness.  He was talking about marriage!  Oh goodness, my heart nearly skipped a beat.  We got real close together and started talking about when and how and where and who.  Your Main Course Has Arrived!  Well, that put a new twist into the cozy talk we were having.  I pulled myself back around to the other side of the table so I could eat and we ooh and ahhhed over each bite.  We shared stories and thoughts and plans and ate every bite.  We ordered dessert and I pulled my chair back to his side.  More talking and dreaming.  At some point we realized that the entire room was empty.  We had hardly noticed, we were so wrapped up in our own bubble.  We kissed a million times that evening, but at some point one of us was going to have to ask the question and one of us that it might be fun to ask each other in unison.  So we did and as we said those magical words we got closer and closer and sealed it with a whispered yes and a kiss.

The waitstaff wasn't oblivious to what was going on and we noticed we had an audience.  They took our picture, brought us out a dessert with Congratulations written on the plate, then presented us with a hard copy photo of the picture they had taken.  Then people kept popping their head in to congratulate us.  By the time we finally left the restaurant everyone was just beaming at us.  Love does that to people.

We were engaged.

to be continued...

Read Part 1

Have a great day!
Kristin

The Gift of Life shirt is one of Steve's newest designs.  Share the Gift of Life with your friends and family and tell them that you want to be an Organ, Tissue and Eye donor.  If you'd like more information please go to www.DonateLife.net and see how you can get on the registry.

Please visit our website KNSgear.com

Chicken Asopao - aka Sazon Goya

I had never used Sazon Goya spice packages before, so when I was introduced to this recipe I ended up nicknaming it Sazon Goya - Also, I wasn't exactly sure how to say Asopao.  Now that I know there are a dozen different Sazon Goya combinations, I see the error of my ways.  Too late though, this dish is our Sazon Goya.

My Mom and I visited with a cousin one weekend and she made us this delicious meal.  I think everyone in my family likes soup - everyone but me.  I like the occasional creamy soup, but broth soup...ugh.  I'll tolerate it.  So you guessed it, she made us a broth soup.

Oh Goodness!  This stuff was so good!  It was so good that I asked for the recipe.  It was so good that I came home and made it the next day.  It was so good that I now make it at least once a month.  It was that good.  Thank you dear cousin for making this for us.

The first thing you do is get yourself a whole young chicken at the grocery store.  I made the mistake of getting a hen one time - I wasn't paying attention and that was one tough chicken!
Don't make that mistake.

Get out your soup pot, put in the chicken, add water and chicken stock, if you'd like.  Then give the chicken a good boiling.  I usually boil the gizzards and neck along with it, to give it more flavor.  When the chicken is cooked, take it out of the pot to cool and fish out the gizzards.

 I usually let the chicken cool for an hour or so and then I take it all apart, shred the chicken into bite size pieces and add it back to the pot.  Turn the heat back on because you've waited the sufficient amount of time so as not to burn-your-fingers-to-a-crisp pulling apart the chicken.  Add a chopped onion, a jar of sliced green olives and all the liquid, a small can of tomato sauce and Sazon Goya to taste.  Bring the soup to a boil and add in 1 - 1 1/2 cups of rice or quinoa. The soup is done when the rice or quinoa is done, about 30 minutes.

My cousin used rice and I did the first couple of times, too.  The leftovers though became more like casserole than a soup.  The rice had soaked up all of the broth.  So I used quinoa and found that it did not continue soaking up the broth and stayed a lot more soupy.  We now use the quinoa all the time.

The last change that I made was to the Sazon Goya.  I discovered that the regular Sazon Goya has MSG in it.   I sometimes have issues with MSG so we decided to trade it out for another spice mix without MSG.

The original

The trade

If you don't have a problem with MSG, then I'd get one of the Sazon Goya spice mixes just because that's the way this was introduced to me.  The one we used was the Coriander and Annatto.  The Badia, no MSG was their Sazon Tropical.  Both are delicious.

Chicken Asopao

1 young chicken
water and stock to cover chicken
1 small jar of sliced green olives plus the liquid
1 onion chopped
2 cloves of garlic chopped
sm can of tomato sauce
2 pkgs Sazon Goya or 1 - 2 T. Sazon Tropical
1 - 1 1/2 cups rice or quinoa

Boil chicken in a large soup pot.  Cover with water and chicken stock.  When the chicken is cooked, take out, bone and shred.  Put the shredded chicken back in pot.  Add in the green olives and the liquid from the olives, the chopped onion and garlic, a small can of tomato sauce and the Sazon.   Bring the soup up to a boil and add in the rice or quinoa.  The soup is done when the rice/quinoa is fully cooked, about 25-30 minutes.

Serve it up!


Let me know if you try this.  It's great for a crowd and also for leftovers.  We usually freeze about a third of what we make for later in the month.

Have a great day!
Kristin

Getting it together

To say that I'm in the best mental health of my life is an understatement.  I honestly don't know when my emotional well being has been so peaceful.  I worked a long time on trying to improve myself, I will admit that.  I feel like I was way too emotional and would burst into anger over nothing among other things.  I certainly didn't handle stress very well and I would attach to people in an instant if I thought they might like me for more than 5 minutes.  I was my own roller coaster ride for a couple dozen years, that's for sure.

I really have to credit the entire process of going through a liver transplant with my husband (at the time), Tom.  All the years of self-help books that I read cover to cover, all of the positive affirmations, all of the daily washing of being good to myself, learning how to control most of my emotional outbursts and desperately trying to handle stress so that it didn't build up inside,  all came together when we learned Tom was sick and was needing a transplant.  I didn't realize it at the time, but I was going to need every every word I ever read and every safe place I ever envisioned to get me through it and the years following transplant.  I knew Tom was going to get a new lease on life with the liver transplant, but I didn't know it was going to profoundly change my life as well.

The best combination of things I ever did was get married to Tom, who needed a transplant, who was transplanted at Mayo Clinic Jacksonville and ultimately we decided to move to Jacksonville to be close to Mayo. That combination of events brought me to the happiest place on Earth and it wasn't Disney!  After Tom's transplant I started attending the support group meetings.  I have talked many many times on my blog about how much I love my transplant community here in Jacksonville, Florida.  Sometimes I think the support group I've attended for the last 10 years actually did all of the reshaping of me, but I'm sure I had something to do with it, too.  I was able to use all that I learned in those books and help the patients and the caregivers get through pre/post transplant and in turn, I could see all of that good working on me, too.  One hand washes the other.  I help them, they help me and on it goes.  Despite all of the health problems that so many have, the support group was and is an incredibly positive experience.  It's my favorite day of the week, Support Group day.

Kristin and Steve at lunch with the support group

Even in the midst of being the happiest I'd ever been, I still needed more change.  I had to get out of my marriage.  Tom was the one who got me to where I needed to be, but we weren't going to go further. I spent years doing everything possible to make it work but ultimately it wasn't to be. I talked about that a few years ago, also right here on my blog, so I won't get into all that again, but our marriage had run its course.  Steve and I got together shortly after and I discovered that my puzzle finally had all the pieces!  He was a transplant recipient, he was active in many organ donor awareness projects and and and I could go on for days!!  We had met nine years earlier and were friends in our support group, but this new time in our lives the stars lined up.  We knew right away that together we were something special.

The Love Bubble had formed.

to be continued....


Have a great day!
Kristin

Come visit our website which will get you to our store.  We have transplant and caregiver shirts, mugs and tote bags.  We decided to start our designs with what we know best and that's transplant, but we won't stop there.  Steve and I are having too much fun getting ideas and running with them, so  pop on over and see what we have to offer.  When you do get to Zazzle - always get a coupon code! You'll see it at the top of every page.  They have a sale all the time, so don't ever purchase at full price when you don't need to.

KNS Gear website --- and yes, KNS stands for Kristin and Steve