west virginia cowboy

i met Corey in the 6th grade and never looked back.

he was all boots and belt buckles with a side of ornery and the brownest eyes you've ever seen. and i loved him.

sitting in my first homeroom class with him then, i only knew that his name was Corey Queen, which was in front of me alphabetically, that he looked like me and he was already making me laugh. i didn't know i was sitting next to someone i'd talk on the phone to for hours at a time, someone i'd have countryside adventures with, someone i'd know and love forever. i didn't know that then, but i do now.

that was 13 years ago. i thought we'd have at least 100 more.

we talked about break-ups and bad dreams, heartache and homecoming skits. i told him secrets and he told me the truth. we grew up and i moved away and i wish so much i would have been around more. i wish i would have gone to wayne a few more times. i should have made time.

it's awful seeing so many people i know and grew up with and love all in one place because of something so awful, but at the same time, i know i've never been prouder to be a Queen or a Pioneer.

i have a lot of questions and i don't think i'll ever understand why this happened to a good person with a good family. so just remember me, his friends and his beautiful family in your prayers and good thoughts. 

hold your people close, be kind to one another and do what makes you happy. there's not enough time for anything else.

love.

krq.

on our way

well, we are officially under the one year mark for the wedding, which is unexpectedly making me nervoussss.

kyle and i are trying our damnedest to avoid making things too wedding-y. i still want it to be sort of traditional, but as i'm diving deeper into this whole thing, i am seeing why there are "traditions" and why most people do things a certain way for their weddings. because, well, it's easier if you just have to pick when and where and everything else is pretty much already decided. we just don't really want that...not because there's anything wrong with it, we just want things to be different. special. us. which basically means that we are making things harder for ourselves.

while things might be harder for me, i'm really trying to make it easier for everyone involved. for instance, i'm trying to find an alternative to dragging every woman in my wedding party to a dress shop and being put through measurements and high prices and even higher-priced alterations, and when everyone is living in different places and dealing with their own lives, i find this makes me feel a little guilty to ask that of them. so we'll see. 

something else that is causing panic with the date being less than a year away — fitness. i have been busting my ass for the past few weeks, like more than ever, and i'm just going to have to keep busting it. i mean, it's my wedding day, so i will not stop until my arms look like Michelle Obama's. period.

also with planning, i often find myself getting too excited and getting way ahead of myself, which in some weird way is a good thing. like, i already have a rough draft playlist on my iTunes. seriously, kayla? there will be a hundred more songs to come out between now and then, and i totally know that, but it doesn't hurt to plan ahead, right?

we still haven't decided 100% on a location yet, so if any of you know any farms/fields/empty barns that are fairly easy to get to, let a girl know. 

i believe that once everything is decided and we are there in the moment, it will all be worth this craziness. i promise, this will be one cool wedding, people. trust me. 

love.

krq.

birth days

two big things happened recently:

1. Kyle turned 27.

2. our new nephew arrived!

meet Hunter Jacob Dyer.

he is perfect and precious and i miss him already. Brady is already a great big brother. i love being an aunt and in about a year, it'll be official. because, you know, i'm getting married.

for Kyle's birthday, we took a little weekend trip to Nashville, which is SUCH a cool town. we shopped and ate good food and just enjoyed being somewhere new. we'd actually been to Nashville before, but couldn't remember a thing about it because it was in 2006, it was freezing, and we didn't get to stay long. but this time was definitely memorable. 

highlights:

- Kyle bought the coolest pair of jeans ever from imogene+willie.

- i had the best margarita of my life at rosepepper cantina. 

- i met and hung out with Miranda Lambert. 

one of those is a lie. 

anyway, it was a successful trip. yesterday, for Kyle's actual birthday, i made him a nice birthday breakfast, and baked a chocolate cake. from scratch, which basically took all day. but it was delicious.

it was nice just chilling at home for his birthday and then going to a movie in the evening, but it definitely wasn't the same without our families and friends around. we will definitely have to recelebrate next time we go to wv. we like to celebrate our birthdays for at least a month anyway. 

love.

krq.

seven

i know i write one of these every year, but why shouldn't i? kyle is my person. 

i could type all day long and not explain a fraction of my feelings for kyle or the understanding that we have for each other or the ways i know we love each other. but i won't. because true love isn't a long blog post or a list of adjectives or one particular story. it's a saturday morning filled with drinking coffee, reading together on the couch and an easy silence. it's dancing in the kitchen to old records. it's making a cup of hot tea when you're sick and cleaning up snotty tissues without a second thought. it's turning down the radio to talk about the movie, holding hands as you fall asleep and knowing when to shut up because the other one is in a bad mood. it's a bad day at work and a hug when you get home. it's crying in church and praying for the same things. it's dreaming of your future and planning weekend trips. it's taking the trash out and packing lunches and kissing goodbye.  it's comfort. it's every day. it's each other. it's life.

that's what kyle and i have built together, and what we will continue to build as we grow older. we'll figure out each step of life and we'll figure it out together. that's what we've done for the past seven years. 

that's love.

happy anniversary, kjd. i can't wait to be your wife and have a new anniversary.

love.

krq.