The Beginning...

While I'm sure that only people we know and love will view this blog, I'll still write it as though you might not know us.

I'm Katie, a wife, wanna-be-homemaker, and reality-school teacher. I teach middle school music which can be incredibly tiring and difficult but also unspeakably rewarding at times.

This July 7 I married my very best friend, Kevin.

While it may have been the hottest day of the year, we still ended up married which, to us, was all that mattered!

I have this picture hanging outside my classroom because my students are struggling with my name change (side note: so am I! I went to the eye doctor last week and after my exam asked how they had known my maiden name and why it was on the prescription... turned out I had written that on my paperwork... OOPS! Someday I'll figure it out!).

I've had numerous students comment asking "did you get married on a FARM?" My reply is always "no, but we took pictures at my parents' farm!" They only see me in school garb teaching music - little do they know my heart is in agriculture, farming, the outdoors, tractors, animals, and well - I think you get the idea.

Kevin and I met over our love for farming - we had both joined a farming forum to meet people because we were both at places in our lives where we wanted to meet others who shared our passion for agriculture. I joined when I moved to Kansas, he joined around the same time. We met in January 2011. God certainly opened doors for us because just two months later (after I had fallen hard for this really awesome guy I only knew through phone calls ... looooong phone calls ... and emails ... looooong emails ...) a music teaching position opened in the county where he lived. I applied, they changed the whole interview day so I could be there, I bought the last plane tickets available on the flights I needed, and headed to WV.

Talk about a whirlwind weekend! I met the man I would later marry in person for the first time, interviewed for a job, and met his family all in a matter of 2 days. And on the third day I found out I had been chosen for the position!

I spent the next few months gearing up for the move and on May 21 made my second cross-country move in less than a year.

After the summer Kevin and I became more serious about beginning a real relationship. His mom jokes often about us being the only couple she knows that's gotten together over a mutual love of cows and farming - but that's exactly it! Kevin and I attended the North American Livestock Expo in early November and were an official item the next week.

Just a few weeks later he asked me to be his wife and the wedding plans were off and moving toward our selected day of July 7, 2012! While some may think we moved way too quickly, we had seen some adversity in our relationship already and come through it closer on the other side. I was never more sure of anything in my life than I was knowing that I was made to marry this man.

So here we are! We would LOVE to farm someday and dabble in it now with our flock of 25 chickens, 5 feeder calves, and 7 Boer/Keiko goat kids! Someday we hope to make farming our life, but for now we rush home after work to do the "work" we consider fun. I've discovered a LOVE for homemaking this summer and enjoy all things domestic as well as helping Kevin outside. This blog will be for the tales of our life and for me to share happenings and pictures with those we love who live far away.

Sorry for the long first post... I promise (I'll try) I won't always be this wordy.

Until next time, keep God first!
"As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord"