the moment you've all been waiting for

Introducing the brand spanking new blog of
Evan and Katie Fairey!

musings & marriage
http://ekfairey.wordpress.com/

*I will no longer be posting on this blog. Please keep me up to date with your blogs/email addresses/etc. I'd love to hear from you!

Wedding Pictures!!!

Here is a small sampling of the 450 some pictures that our wonderfully talented friend (and photographer), Katie Long, took the day of our wedding. She captured everything so beautifully- I will cherish them all forever. Enjoy!

our home sweet home

Well-- we did it! Evan and I were married exactly 3 weeks and two days ago!
I don't have any pictures quite yet, but as soon as I get them I'll post them. But rest assured, it was the perfect day. With sunny skies, 72 degree weather, the little white chapel, "getting away" in my Dad's little red '76 Fiat and 4 choices of cheesecake at the reception, I could not have asked for anything more lovely and more beautiful than our wedding day. I can't wait to show you pictures.

But right now, I'm going to show you around my new apartment in Winter Park, FL. This is the living room. It's a really good size! You see Evan's shoulder on the bottom right- he's sitting at the dining room table and to the right of that is the door. I'm standing taking the picture in the kitchen doorway and next to me is the hallway down to the other rooms.

Here is our awesome kitchen. It's a great blue color and has a lot of storage space!

Down that hallway I was telling you about are two bedrooms. I didn't put a picture of one of them in here because of all the boxes lying on the floor, but this is our bedroom. It's complete with walk-in closet and bathroom! The yellow color is a little rough, but we can deal with it for now. There is another bathroom at the end of the hallway too.

I think one of the coolest parts about this place is the huge screened-in porch we have. There are big sliding glass doors both in our bedroom and in the living room that lead out to it. The picture below is the view of all the plants and stuff we see when we look out into the yard.

It's still a bit too warm right now to sit out there and hang out with the heat index "well into the hundreds" as the guy on the radio said yesterday, but I look forward to cool nights that we'll have on the porch.

Pray for me as I am on the job search full-time and Evan is seeking more permanent, full-time employment as well. Pray also for my transition to down here and away from my family and friends.
God has blessed us richly with everything we need and with a wonderful church family down here. We are so blessed to be together :-)
***Stay tuned for more pictures and blog/email address changes!!!***

The sun'll come up!

Tomorrow I'm getting married! The weather forecast is 75 degrees and sunny, and I have never been this excited in my life!!! I can barely believe it is happening and every time I think about it I get more and more excited! Today I'm getting my nails done, checking into the hotel with my family and going to the rehearsal! Thanks so much for your prayers and support through all of this-- it has been a tremendous whirlwind and I am so blessed by all of you. Please pray for our trip down to Florida on Sunday and our trek to our honeymoon on Siesta Key on Tuesday. We covet your prayers so much.

Stay tuned for pictures as soon as I get them!!!

Much Love, friends.

another congrats is in order!

I wanted to post about this a long time ago, but I am just now getting around to it...

My dear friend, Jayme, will be getting married to the
love of her life, Rob, on Saturday, November 7th, 2009! I had the pleasure of living with Jayme during the first months of her romance with Rob and got to spend a lot of time with him-- you know-- making sure he passes all the tests. I am happy to say that he passed them all with flying colors. I will be proudly standing up as one of Jayme's attendants and hope to see a lot of you there! Congratulations you two. I love you!

Congratulations!!!

I just wanted to give a shout out to my sister, Marina, who got married on August 8th! We had a great weekend-- lots of family and friends were in from out of town and we had a great time helping Beth build the floral arrangements and getting all the other details ready for the big day! Everything was just beautiful. Marina is now living in her new house with her husband in Youngstown, OH, where James is working at the Air force base and Marina is preparing to go to the Aveda Institute in January. Love you guys!!!

all growed up

He was just 3 when he became apart of our family and now, he's in the band as a high school freshmen. He plays the marching Baritone! I can't believe how fast time has flown and how giant Vitaly has gotten in the past few years. A full blown car-loving, boy-scouting, All-American boy, I think he's actually down in the basement right now playing Game Cube.
I just had to share this picture with all of you. Now, I'm a crier, but when I saw this, I seriously welled up. He looks so handsome!

Things are coming along nicely with wedding planning and moving plans. In a few weeks, Evan and a few of his friends will be loading up a moving truck and hauling all of my stuff (and his left-over stuff that is still in Pittsburgh) down to our new condo in Winter Park, FL. Last week I met with the wedding coordinator at the church, the event planner at the restaurant, and my florist and everything seems to be go!

One month to go :-)

movin' on up

Well, a little change of plans, folks.
Evan and I decided to push up the wedding-- to September 19th! I know, crazy, but it's what Evan and I have always wanted-- a small wedding sooner. We're keeping it small just inviting our original wedding party and extended family. I'm not exactly sure who all will be able to come, but we're thinking it'll be about 75-100 people. It's much different than the one we were originally planning. We just decided something smaller and more intimate was what we wanted... and we are really excited about the change!
Getting a husband and moving across the country all in one weekend... wow... and only 2 months away!

i win.

why don't I blog more?

I have been asking this question to myself a lot lately. I like to talk, to share my thoughts on the world, and I certainly have opinions. So, why don't I let people know what is going on in my life and randomly blog about the things going on in my head? Events make it up onto the blog, but I don't really...


To be completely honest, I know the answer to this but am a little embarrassed to share it. But, I am going to. The reason? I am honestly scared to death of what people think of me. Yes, you. I care what you think of me. It cripples me beyond belief, actually. I wouldn't admit this to myself and it has taken a lot to realize and to start to get over this annoying fact about me... but it's happening. I am slowly but surely caring more deeply and truly what God wants for me rather than what people do. This is only happening through God's grace, constant encouragement from my soon-to-be other half, and a lot of prayer. I am a people-pleaser... a chronic people-pleaser (I know, some of you are thinking "Well, DUH, Kate..."). I want people to like me (duh!) and will do anything in my power to get that to happen... in the end it seems, though, those people get hurt and I have lost myself, who I am in Christ, and things God has convicted me of.


Why don't I want people to see Christ in me more? I mean, I do... hopefully we all believers want that to some degree, but my sinful nature and twisted sense of self urges me to crave affirmation from other people instead of Christ... and I think it's killing me, killing my spirit, and squelching Christ's radiance in me.


I'm only a few chapters into it, but I started reading a book by Edward Welch called "When People are Big and God is Small". I'm sure it doesn't have all the answers, but I am praying it gives me a little more perspective as I am on the road to recovery. A recovering people-pleaser.


God is faithful. He is the only constant in my life and long to praise Him more fully.


But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere.
2 Corinthians 2:14

I'm going to be a Fairey!

That's right- you guessed it. I am the future Mrs. Evan Kyle Fairey!!! Here's the story:
Evan flew into Pittsburgh last Monday for a visit. We planned this visit to go to see his parents in upstate NY and so I could finally meet his brothers and see his family. We did a marathon run through Pittsburgh, saw a million people we love and then got in the car and drove to NY. We had a GREAT time up there- cooking, watching movies, just hanging out and touring around Wappingers Falls- it was wonderful. I met both of his brothers who came in from out of town and everyone threw me a surprise birthday party on Saturday night! Meanwhile, in my mind... I was totally thinking that he was going to propose sometime that week. Well, there were only two days left before he went home and there just didn't seem like there was going to be a time for him to do it! I was anxious and annoyed, to be completely honest. After my bday party, I kind of just threw up my hands and stopped expecting anything to happen.

Well, on our way back to my parents house on Monday afternoon, we are about halfway home and Evan said he needed to go to the bathroom. Naturally, he just pulled off the side of the road. As I am shielding my eyes from anything, he opens my car door and tells me that we are exactly halfway between his parents' house and my parents' house. He got on one knee, told me he loved me so much, and asked me to marry him. I, of course, said YES! It was really funny and I was completely shocked!
We SPAZZED out most of the way home and have not yet come down off the high that we are on. I am so thankful that God has brought such an incredible man into my life- I am so blessed by him and his love for God and for me everyday.

We are thinking around Christmastime... keep your eyes peeled for more details!

Here are some pictures of our trip!

Phipps Conservatory in Pittsburgh

Scary large plants

the tulip exhibts were gorgeous!

Evan's brothers, Alan and David, and Mrs. Fairey!

My ring!!!

We clean up nice, don't we?
This was taken after church on Sunday-the day before we got engaged!

a new year and a new house

It's been a few months since my last post and my life has dramatically changed since then. For about 4 months I had been feeling God's call to leave Pittsburgh. The question then was, "Well, then where the heck do you want me to go?" So I mapped out my goals and I what I truly felt that God was leading me to do with my life. Music ministry. I've tried very hard to run from that and change my perspective and allow my pride to step in to do something "bigger" and "better". But what is a higher calling than leading people to the Cross of Christ during worship? To provide God-centered introspective worship to help the children of God feel His presence and see His face? Not that I couldn't show the love of Christ on an opera stage, but music ministry is where I am being called.
So, I moved home. Think I'm crazy? Yeah, me too. Trust me, it's not going to be easy. But in order to finish my Master's in a year (I've been working on it for about a year and a half at Liberty Theological Seminary online- it's a Master's in Religion and Worship Studies) and get more experience within ministry, moving home was where I've been led. I'm now a full time student and an intern at Emmanuel Christian Church helping within the worship and youth ministries.
If you think about this, please pray for me. Over the last few days I have been quite overwhelmed leaving all of my friends in Pittsburgh, still being so far away from the Columbus crew and Evan, and not quite feeling 'settled' here in supposedly the safest place in my life. I haven't lived here in 6 years... I'm a different person than I was 6 years ago and God, I am confident, will continue healing and refining me through the coming year as well.
I have been redoing the bedroom upstairs that belongs to Abbey and I! It's kind of fun to have a project (and yes Bethy, your socks are on their way! One of them is completely done... impressive, eh?) and good for me to make that space different than it was when it was first done in '92. I took down all the wall paper and will finish up the painting today, hopefully.

As far as Christams goes- it was pretty sobering as Marina was in an auto accident (no one was hurt, but the car was totalled) and that brought an obvious attitude of thankfulness to the family. It was great to be with everyone and have the baby around! The New Year was great as Evan was in town for two whole weeks!!! It was amazing to see him. We realized that we had only seen each other 3 days in 18 weeks. It'll be another 10 weeks until I see him again. But God is good and is strengthening us each day. We know that He is the One getting us through this time of being apart.
Here are a few pictures from Christmastime.

The whole fam!

My Evan and me!