It's a Date!

So, as many of you know, Scott and I have set the date of Saturday, October 17, 2009 as the day we begin our new life together (75 days away, but who is counting!). There will be a ceremony at Brentwood Baptist Church, in Brentwood, TN followed by a reception at The Martin Center off of Concord Road.

We have come to learn some new things about each other in our short months of planning "the wedding." The Good, The Bad, The Funny and The Ugly have all come out, but it has all been in great fun in learning more about each other. Our experience of planning the wedding has been all but stressfull. This experience has been event-filled and ... easy!

Scott and I look forward to seeing each of you on October 17!

Ashley's Story

Well, as you all see Scott started the blog, which means he had to release the username and password to me! I finally was able to get this information so I can share with you my side of the story ....

As we know, I did go on the New England Tour with Scott and the boys to simply hear them sing. When Scott had asked me to go I just knew it was because we couldn't stand to be away from each other for 4 days, so he had to take me with him! (little did I know!)

I don't recall if it was at breakfast in the airport or on the plane ride to Rhode Island, maybe it was before this even, Scott told me he wanted a picture of us on the beach at sunset before we came home. This came as absolutely no surprise to me, and for those of you who know Scott it is most likely no surprise to you! So as the weekend progressed I was just tagging along to be sure the boys all behave themselves .... Scott took me to tour the mansions and on our way to the Cape (Cape Cod that is) we stopped by Chili's for a quick bite where I devoured a hamburger while Scott enjoyed his spicy chicken tenders. Scott was sure to remind me at lunch that I was not getting engaged on this trip as perhaps I may have mentioned to a family member in weeks past. (I couldn't help but mention to my mother that it would be a very romantic and ideal location for such a momentous event!) O and we have proof ....

So off to the Cape we go for the evening concert. Sunday after church we went to Arnold's where we were able to have lunch with a lobster ....
and spent the afternoon in Chatham shopping (remember I was with 5 men). Of course we let time slip away and had to hurry back to the church to get ready for the Sunday evening concert (which we had approx 25 min before showtime).

I failed to mention weeks before we left home, Scott had picked out the outfit I was going to wear to the Sunday evening concert (I spent many miles trying to find my size in the shirt he wished for me to wear). His reasoning for picking out my outfit was that afterwards we are going to eat with the Pastor and his wife, so I needed to be dressed appropriately. Again, for those of you who know Scott, this should not be a surprise.

So, after the concert, I went to help him wrap up cords and get packed up ... we all had to get on the road home! Scott demanded I not help at this time and asked me if I needed to freshen my makeup and told me not to get my white pants dirty, we are going to get our picture made at sunset. Since I had just put my makeup on an hour ago, I didn't feel the need to 'freshen up' at this time. Scott had told me that when the Pastor says it's time to go, we need to go b/c he knows exactly when the sunset will be 'perfect'!

So, as Scott and the boys were packing up, I was talking with the Pastor's wife, she was describing to me how beautiful and romantic the Brewster Beach is ... it's a MUST to go before we leave. Well, the Pastor joined our conversation so that he can trade cars with his wife, this way he had plenty of room to take those of us to get ice cream! As we were walking out Von (a quartet member) decided to go get ice cream with us ... but hold on he has to go get his wallet! Well, maybe he really did want ice cream, but there was an alternative motive "photographer." We went to get ice cream where they hurried me along to eat fast .... all I wanted to do was enjoy my Chocolate Chocolate Ice Cream Cone in white pants and heels! As we got to the perfect spot for the perfect picture with the beautiful sunset in the background, they advised me to hurry and finish my ice cream .... I proceeded to stuff the rest of the cone in my mouth (so much for the freshly applied lipstick!)

We admired the scenery and the location and all the sweet couples watching the sunset, the kids fishing and playing all around. Scott asked me if I would like to take our 'perfect picture' on the marble rocks, or go down in the sand. Something about me made the quick decision to go into the sand. We went down there, shared a sweet kiss before Scott had to get my attention and proceed with his 'plan'! As Scott was able to get me to focus ... he said, "there is a reason why I brought you on this trip," This is where he pulled out the ring, holding between two fingers on both hands to tell me, "there is a question I would like to ask you," as he got down on one knee without one sense of nervousness I heard, "will you marry me?" I am not quite sure of my immediate response, I had several things going through my head. With huge tears of joy streaming down my cheeks, I was very proud to answer, Yes! .... but I did have a few questions ... Did you speak to my dad? what did mom say?

The sweetest part of the night was right after he asked the question, after he did receive an answer, he was holding me and wiping my tears letting me know that he has prayed for this moment, and prayed for the perfect girl to come into his life, he let me know he can't wait to spend his life with me.

I am so blessed to have Scott have become a part of my life, and very much look forward to our marriage together.
Ok, so as you can imagine, there was so many clues I should have picked up on ... he wouldn't loose sight of his brief case (this is where the ring was located), he demanded to "work" and he couldn't work on the computer while sitting next to me, he had to go way across the airport to "work." Um, HELLO ... Scott mentioned we must get a picture on the beach at sunset - if that wasn't a big clue. In case there was any question, Yes, I have blonde hair! Since Scott and I have talked and prayed about this together, I knew there was a proposal coming soon, my only request was that I wanted to be surprised. Surprise does not explain it, I was completely blown away. Not that it wouldn't happen, but that it happened the way it did without me having a clue. And for everyone I was around all weekend to have known ... even my boss back home!
Thank You to everyone who had a hand in keeping this secret. I stand corrected, Scott can keep a secret!

I'm not sure who was more excited that night, Scott or myself, or the family back home awaiting the call!

Thank You to all of those friends and family members who have prayed for both Scott and me individually to find someone to cherish in their partnership for life. Scott is without a doubt a dream come true, an answer to many prayers and my soon-to-be loving husband!

Ashley's enagaged!!!!

The moment that everyone has been waiting for is now official...Ashley and Scott are engaged!!! Yes everyone, I actually was able to keep it a secret to the one who is now my fiance'!! I want to thank all of you for keeping it a secret. You made everything perfect.

To tell you what happened, I had a couple of concerts on the Cape in Massachusetts. Ashley and I had talked about her going for a month or so, I was planning on her coming because this was where I wanted to propose! The pastor of the church we (Called Out Quartet) were singing at, Doug Scalise of Brewster Baptist Church, was a huge help in finding the perfect place, for the perfect moment.

So I have had to keep this secret all weekend...you know how hard that is for me? When Sunday night came along, I was ready to do this. The plan was to go get ice cream at this one place on the Cape in Brewster. It has the best ice cream. I told Ash on the flight up here that I wanted to get a picture of us on the beach at sunset...so that kind of covered me and made her think that I was just wanting a good picture of us. And Doug had told me that this beach is romantic and beautiful, so I knew that was where I wanted to have mine and Ashley's special moment. So this beach is beautiful...pics are posted throughout this blog.

So we got to the beach and were looking for the best spot to take the picture. I kept asking her, where do you think, is here good, is here good. Finally we found a good place and I was so anxious I couldn't stand it. Von, who is with the Quartet I sing with, was with us to take the picture (Thank you VON!!), and he did a wonderful job catching the whole thing in pictures.

Ashley was so surprised that she could not stand it. I will let her tell her side of the story to you in person later. I am the happiest man on earth right now and anxious to start our life together. I am glad everything went off without a hitch and that Ashley was surprised. She did not want to know anything about it and be very surprised, and I think she was.

Ashley and I want to thank everyone who has prayed for us and encouraged us and gave us advice about life and love. We appreciate all of your love and support. We are very blessed with many friends who pray for us and show us how to live through their example. We will post more later.

Day 1-Nashville to Baltimore to Providence and Beyond

Well, we have survived day 1 of of our first trip together. I was a little worried, but we had a great time yesterday. We had to wake up at 4:30am in order to get to the airport on time...and actually Phil Vasser was in line in front of us taking FOREVER!!
We ate at O'Charley's in the concourse area (I never knew that was there, and I fly I though at least once a year.) We had a big huge breakfast, which I am glad we did because we did not eat lunch until 3pm. Ashley was so excited and that was contageous. She was having so much fun just being with me, so she said. :)
We boarded the plane and moved on to Baltimore where we had about an hour layover. We got to the gate and made some pictures, which I will post later. I have two computers and niether of them will work. We boarded the plan and moved on to Providence. Once we got to Providence, Ashley decided to make fun of me. She thinks it is funny that I like to get things over with and I am so impatient. Oh well, I am who I am. We got our bags and rental car and moved on. We ended up going about 30 minutes away to an Outlet mall right outside of Providence. It was huge. WE got a few things there, and she found a COACH purse she wanted, but it was way to crowded, so we are going to go back on Monday to get it on our way back to Providence from Boston.
We then motored to the singing, where we saw some wonderful friends and made some new ones. So we are well on out way to Sunday night. She still knows nothing about it she thinks I have not told her parents, so it is going as planned. Please keep it under wraps until tomorrow night. We love you guys and are happy to share these things with you.

So, I sent out the universal email letting everyone know what the web address for the blog was today. I hope all of you that are reading got it. I have gotten some responses and I just want to let you guys know...please do not let Ashley know that the blog exists until after Sunday night. I will post pictures from the trip as soon as I can and show you the things that we are doing while we are in Cape Cod. I have had a great week trying to throw her off...because she thinks that I have not talked to her parents, Tim and Carole, yet. I have, by the way!!!
I am so excited about what the future holds, and I know she is equally as excited. We have talked many times about it, and I am pretty sure we have talked it to death in the short time we have been together...but most of all, we have prayed about it, and have gotten peace about it. I am letting all of you in on this little secret, so please help me keep it just that, a secret!! Stay tuned for more updates :)

So it is Friday afternoon and I have a little bit of time to write a few things down. I wrote a few days ago that I was going to keep everyone updated, so here we go. Well, to give you a little bit more information about Ashley, we met through some mutual friends that worked together (Darrell Collier and Karen Gore). I had met Karen through Darrell back in August for Tammy Collier's (Darrell's wife) surprise birthday, which was August 29th of 2008. I met Karen there, and we just shot the breeze for a little while, and thus sparked a new friendship. Fast forward to October 14, 2008 and I get an email from Darrell asking if he could have my phone number for Karen Gore. So I thought that it wouldn't hurt to give her my phone number. So I gave my phone number to Karen, who in turn gave me Ashley's phone number.
No sooner than I got her phone number, I get an email from Ashley just introducing herself and just "being Ashley." This began the start of my interest in Ashley. She was such a good hearted, funny, adorable person, even though I had not seen her. We talked over email for an extended amount of time because she was "man hating" for a little while, as most girls say...believe me, I don't get it either. We talked through email almost every day and I got to know Ashley quite well, and yes...she still liked me :)
I finally got my chance to take her out for her birthday in January. She had kept telling me that she was not going to even celebrate her birthday, except with her family, and that was it. I finally coax her into letting me take her out for her birthday to which she couldn't say "no" because I was being very persistent. (Imagine that!) So January 26th was our first "date"...but she won't call it that, she will call it just hanging out! Her birthday was actually the 28th, but she would not let me take her out then. We had a pretty good time, but she says I was on my cell phone the whole time...that was my peeps taking care of me (thanks LA, JB and VG). From then on, I knew I had met the person that I could possibly start a relationship with. She relented for a little longer, but I kept asking (persistence ????).
So we emailed all through February but never really went out (she wasn't sure about me :) ) but we kept talking and got to know each other more. So she got a new job the end of February and started in March...the week she started the new job, which was during the day, we saw each other three times...and we have been inseparable ever since.
She has proven to be a very special person in my life...stay tuned, you may find out more pretty soon.

Okay, well I started to do this blogging thing back in October of 2008 and found out that I didn't really have enough time to get on here and write anything of substance, so I just left it alone. Well, I now have many things to write about so I will keep you posted about all the happenings in this Russell's world as of late.

For starters, to give you a little background; My name is Scott Russell, I am the youngest of three children from Brenda Russell and Rick Russell, I have three adorable nieces, who's pictures I will post as soon as possible, and I am dating a beautiful and intelligent girl named Ashley Williams. More on her in future blogs. That is me in a nut shell.

I will try to update as often as I can with the goings on of my "so-called" life...which will sometimes be boring, sometimes be much more interesting...so check back often!!!