Scott & Holly's Blog

Ruby Ann's birth story

2009-11-02T12:13:00.002-05:00

On Saturday morning, 10/24, I was woken up around 4:30am by consistent contractions 7-10 minutes apart. We waited to go to the hospital until about 2pm and at that point they were 6 minutes apart. I had only been dilated to 1cm at my last appointment. I got checked and was still at 1cm (Ugh). They had me walk for about an hour, the contractions were getting worse and with my terrible back, it was pretty bad. They checked again - still 1cm (Double Ugh). Contractions were about 3 minutes apart. They were going to send me home, but I really don`t think I would`ve made it, my back was SOOOO bad. I think the nurse felt sorry for me and had me walk again for an hour to see if I would progress. And guess what - 1 1/2cm!!! YAY! They admitted me and got everything set up for my pain relief - the Stadol and the epidural. I didn`t think my back was going to be able to handle much more. This was close to 6pm. The Stadol kicked in and it was wonderful, then the epidural kicked in and it was magical. There`s no other word for it, I couldn`t have done it without it. I felt nothing after that. I was 3cm before long and they broke my water. The next time they checked me around 11pm I was at 6cm. Got a little bit of rest in and then at 2am they checked and I was at 10cm. I started pushing around 2:15 and pushed for a half hour getting baby in place for the doctor. The doctor came in and had me push two more times and out came baby! Since we didn`t know if it was a boy or girl, and we were totally expecting a boy, we were TOTALLY surprised to hear the doctor say that it was a girl! We fell in love instantly and keep falling more in love all the time. She is perfect and even tho I had to carry her an extra 5 days - everyone was right - it was worth it!

Ruby's here!!!

2009-10-30T14:47:00.002-04:00

Ruby Ann Russell, the first Russell girl in four generations, was born on October 25th, 2009, at 2:52 am. She was 7 lbs, 11 oz and 19.5" long. She shares a birthday with granddad Russell!!!

I'm going to let Holly post the birth story on here but overall, everything with labor and delivery went very well and Ruby was born with no complications (except that the cord was wrapped around her neck for a few seconds when she came out).

Holly and I are currently LOVING just being with our little girl. Snuggle time is our favorite and there's a lot of it right now. We're both exhausted (esp. Holly) but it's so worth it. We're so in love with this little girl. I told Holly that I had to grow a second heart to contain all the love I have for them both.

I'm posting a couple of pictures on this page. You can check the rest of them out on our photo site (HERE). I'll be posting pics by month so scroll down on the page and look for the specific galleries to look at the pics as they're updated.

Wow, has it been that long?

2009-10-08T14:36:00.001-04:00

Sorry to those of you who have been frustrated by my not updating this site lately. Holly's at 37 weeks now!!! Below is her 35 week pic. Our bags are packed and the nursery's ready. We're just waiting for the Bean to decide to pop out! I'll post pics & details here once we have them!!!

Holly's 17 week pic

2009-05-13T11:29:00.003-04:00

We actually wanted to start taking pics each week earlier than this but Holly hasn't been feeling well and we've been busy in the meantime. So here's our first "weekly" pic. More to come!

Much belated update...

2009-04-30T06:39:00.005-04:00

I'm honestly not sure how many ppl read this blog since most of our family and friends would probably rather check up on us on Facebook, but there's something a bit more "solid" about this medium. So, I'll update this page but only briefly at this point because if I go into much detail it will take me all morning (which I don't have)!

First...Holly's 15 weeks pregnant with our first child. We're SUPER excited about it and yes, it was planned. It just happened a lot more quickly that we expected! Holly's been doing really well despite her bad back and the inevitable exhaustion that comes with the first trimester. We think she's about through with the exhaustion, tho. We do not yet know what sex the kid is and we're not planning on finding out until he or she pops out. We've decided to call the kid "Bean" for now (this came about after the first ultrasound was taken because our kid was the size of a coffee bean...ummm, coffffeeeeeee....). The names we've chosen are Ruby Ann and Max Slater. And yes, we're aware now of the show, "Max and Ruby," but we found out after we had chosen those names. And we're not backing down!

In other news, Holly and I just got back (last Sat. night) from our "baby-moon" in Costa Rica. It was an awesome trip and we both returned relaxed rather than exhausted. I'm glad to be back at work...Holly, not so much. That's a different story. If you'd like to see more pics from Costa Rica click HERE.

Our trip started with 6 hours of flights and 2.5 hours of driving (with a crazy but really cool driver, Carlos) before we arrived at our "hotel" (it was really a series of small bungalows) at the base of the Arenal volcano (an active one!). While there (for 2 nights) we enjoyed the on-site natural hot springs and swimming in one of their cleaner (non-spring) pools. It was really a relaxing time and we didn't want to leave so soon. We also took a trip down the road to tour some hanging bridges that connected trails through the rain forest/conservatory. It was really amazing and beautiful. Just being in the rain forest was very calming (except for one of the women on our tour who was extremely acrophobic). We didn't get to see any monkeys, sloths, or toucans while there but we did see some cool little (poisonous) red frogs and some Macaws (but only at the lodge where the gift shop was).

After our adventures just outside of Nuevo Arenal, Carlos picked us up again (we were excited about that) and we drove to a local shop that takes tourists on river rafting trips. While on our raft we saw lots of cool birds, a few crocs, and a couple of trees full of howler monkeys. Our guide was REALLY good at imitating and irritating the monkeys into "howling" at us. It was really cool tho I was a bit afraid that they would start throwing poo at us (but they didn't).

After the rafting trip and a quick lunch we had another 2-hour drive to reach our 2nd hotel, El Diria Tamarindo. The hotel is right on the Pacific coast so Holly and I decided to spend most of our days sitting out in the sun, enjoying the sound (and sometimes the feel) of the waves. The hotel was absolutely beautiful inside and out and we were able to completely unwind while there for the last 3 days of our vacation. Check out the pics...not much else to say about this place!

After a long day of traveling on our last day, we arrived back in Baltimore around 11:15 pm and stayed the night with family. It was really nice to sleep a bit and spend a couple of hours with family before heading home again.

All in all, it was a great "last" vacation before Bean comes in October. I'll try to update this blog at least once per month from this point on tho this summer is gearing up to be one of the busiest ones we've ever had.

Family Skiing/Snowboarding

2009-02-09T19:54:00.006-05:00

Just now posting pics/vids of our skiing/snowboarding trip this past weekend. It was a BLAST! We (Jim, Natalie, Joe, Holly, and I) went to Wisp in MD instead of Snowshoe this year. Snowshoe is better but Wisp was really cool and it was a lot closer. Good compromise. We had a few wipeouts—mine was the most painful from what I could tell (hit a patch of ice, caught my front edge, landed on my right knee, slid about 20 yds) but Joe and Jimmy each had a fall. I didn't see Joe's, I just heard it. He said it really didn't count because he was "training." You'll have to ask him about that one. Later, Jimmy had a "yard sale" where he fell over on a black diamond called "Squirrel Cage" (there are a couple of vids that Holly took from the base of it, unfortunately not of any of us wrecking) and left his skis about 50 feet up the mountain. It was quite funny, especially since Jim wasn't hurt at all. I flew past him before I realized that it was Jimmy that had lost his skis. I laughed as I sat at the base watching Holly, Natalie, and Joe all helping Jim get his stuff back together so he could get down to the base. Wish we had some vids or pics of that! The rest of the pics & vids are HERE if you want to check them out.

Snow Day Together!

2009-01-28T13:44:00.007-05:00

Holly has off today and I am working at home, so we decided to go to Valley Forge Park to enjoy the snow before the rain takes it away later today. Man, it was really beautiful there. But the coolest thing was watching the kids who were sledding down one of the main hills there in the park. We were debating going to Walmart to buy sleds (I really didn't wanna drive to Walmart to do it, Holly really did). One of the moms there with her kids offered to loan us a couple of their "sleds" to take a run at the hill. So Holly and I decided to have a race down the hill. And I won. HAHA! But to be fair, I had a much nicer sled and Holly wiped out on a clump of grass. But it was a real blast!!!

These are a couple of pics from the morning. If you want to see the rest (some better than the others), click HERE.

Winter Pics

2009-01-19T11:46:00.003-05:00

I'm so excited that it's snowing today that I had to post some pics. I LOVE the snow and will probably spend a couple more hours outside today just to take it all in. In the meantime, here are a few pics I snapped this morning on a short walk outside our apartments.

Happy New Year!

2009-01-19T11:31:00.004-05:00

I haven't posted on here for a little while so I thought I'd wish everyone a happy new year. Things here continue to go well—I'm settling in to my new job with the church and am starting to get a feel for what I actually need to be doing on a daily and weekly basis. (For those of you who don't know, I was recently hired to be our church's full-time Student Arts Leader. This means that I get paid to play the guitar, sing, and get kids involved in Sun. night worship—not a bad gig!). Holly's entering the busy season for travel but she seems to be taking it in stride.

In other news, Holly and I went skiing/snowboarding for the first time on Sat., 1/10, and had a lot of fun. It snowed about 3" while we were there so the powder was just wonderful! We didn't have a decent camera on the trip so the only pics we have are from her phone and I don't have those available to post at the moment. The video in this post is the only documentation I have of the trip. In the vid, Holly was attempting to catch me falling on a black diamond but I'm WAY too cool to fall (while she was recording).

That's about it for now. Holly and I are really looking forward to the family skiing/snowboarding trip in a few weeks! More pics/vids to come from that, I'm sure.

(*If the video doesn't load properly, click HERE to see it).

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

2008-12-25T13:09:00.000-05:00

Days 6 & 7—Last dive and goodbye St. Croix

2008-12-20T09:13:00.004-05:00

Well, all the bags are packed and I'm finishing the last Red Stripe. Must be about time to go. :-(

Yesterday we enjoyed our last dive and it was right in our own back yard. We went looking for the ever elusive "lobster ledges." Holly and I never found them last year and we still didn't get to them this year. We think we figured out what we need to do next year, tho, so I think the 3rd time will be golden. The dive itself was nice and fairly relaxing. We dove really shallow (less than 30') and enjoyed the scenery as we kicked from the supposed site of the lobster ledges back to our home shore.

We also took some time to drive to the site where Christopher Columbus landed on his 2nd trip then went to "Rust Op Twist," the remains of an old sugar plantation & mill. We were joined by a family who were "drinking to the sunset." It was a lot of fun and the sunset was absolutely beautiful. I'm glad we were there for the last sunset of our time in St. Croix.

Right now the Raders are having one final cut-throat pool tournament to see who really is the best pool player. The score stands as follows: Holly-2, Joe-2, Jim-1. Joe just walked out yelling about how all the "slop shots" don't go his way! HAHA! So Holly's in the lead again. We'll be heading out to Off the Wall (restaurant) for some BBQ pizza and one last beer before we head to Christiansted for a quick tour then it's off to the airport.

This has been an amazing trip! I'm really glad that we brought the brothers Rader with us this time—they're absolutely NUTS and it's been a lot of fun having them around. Not sure if we'll convince them to come back again next year. If not, anyone else wanna join us???

:-P

Just in case you missed it, the gallery of all our pics from this trip (from ours and Jim's camera—Joe didn't bring his cord to connect to our computer) are HERE .

Day 5—Armageddon & Frederiksted Pier (part deux)

2008-12-18T20:08:00.005-05:00

We drove to Frederiksted again yesterday in hopes of seeing some underwater shipwrecks. We failed. :( After a VERY long kick from shore what we DID see was a bunch of junk piled up at the bottom of the sea...it was a real mess down there but the sea creatures we saw were pretty cool. (We later found out that the dive site is called "Armageddon," which is a good name for what we saw). We saw 2 turtles and a bunch of rays on the way there and back. We also saw some more sea cucumbers—I was tempted to pick one up but just couldn't get up enough courage to do it.

The kick back to shore was really tiring because the current was against us. When we finally got back to shore, Joe said "I'll never do that again!" I don't blame him. We were all worn out.

After a long lunch break near the pier we put our gear back on and jumped in right next to the pier. This time we swam from more shallow to deeper water under the pier then back again towards the shore. Jim and Holly got some really neat pics under there this time around.

And that's about it. Last night we finished the chicken we had bought and had a really good meal. We all crashed pretty early—I fell asleep while the 2nd round of pool tournaments was going on (that was around 10).

Day 4—Sleep & Shark

2008-12-18T08:17:00.001-05:00

Holly and I decided to take it easy yesterday and ended up just sitting around the villa while Jim and Joe went diving in the morning. It was quite wonderful. We also got to chat with the cleaning lady, Agnes, who came by to straighten things up. Incidentally, she said we were good guests!

When Jim and Joe came back we had some grilled cheese for lunch and continued relaxing. It was a good morning! Joe also decided to open up the coconut he had found on the beach. We were all betting on him hurting himself in the process but he got it opened unscathed! We have a bunch of pics in the gallery of this if you want to check it out! The coconut was delicious!!!

After lunch, though, we decided to go back to Cane Bay for a dive. We kicked out about 150 yards, dropped to the bottom, then kicked for the wall. It was really neat seeing that dark blue water ahead of us as we approached the wall. By the time we got to the dropoff point we were almost 100' deep and had to come back up a bit. There were so many fish just at the top of the wall—it was really amazing just swimming close to them and watching them. The coolest thing we saw, though, was a shark! Holly spotted it first—it was about 20-30 yards away, which was close enough! I think it was between 4' and 4½' but Holly thinks it was closer to 6'. I admit I was a bit freaked out and kept looking back to make sure he wasn't following us. But I also figured that he had hundreds of fish to choose from and we were a bit bigger than he was, so he'd probably go for them first.

Afterwards we kicked back to shore, disassembled and packed our gear, then came back for more relaxation in the hot tub. The Raders also had a big pool tourny but I stayed clear of that. I'm just not competitive enough to hang with those guys. But let me tell you, it was a lot of fun to watch! In the end, Jim won 2 games, Joe won 2, and Holly won 3. Don't ask her about it, though, unless you want to hear her brag about how awesome she is! :P

Day 3—Beer Drinking Pigs and More Scuba

2008-12-17T09:56:00.012-05:00

I'm getting a bit behind in these updates because we've been so busy with diving! We were completely exhausted after yesterday's dives—I even fell asleep in the car on the way back from Frederiksted and found myself with my mouth gaping as I woke up at the Cane Bay dive shop. Kinda embarrassing. But yesterday was another great day.

We decided to drive to the western side of the island to Frederiksted, where there is supposed to be really good diving. We drove through the rain forest to get there and visited a restaurant with "beer drinking pigs." Unfortunately, the restaurant wasn't open so we didn't get to see any of the drunk pigs. Oh well. It was cool just to be there. The restaurant was really cool and all decorated for the holidays. It's still so strange to see Christmas trees, lights, and Santa decorations in this climate. I'm honestly glad we'll be home for Christmas because this is just too bizarre. :-D

Once we got through the treacherous roads without losing our muffler (the 8 oxygen tanks, our gear, and the two Rader boys' butts made the back of the car ridiculously close to the road), we arrived in Frederiksted. Unfortunately, some roads were blocked off because of a Christmas jazz festival that they were preparing for. It honestly sounded more like Reggae & Jazz mixed to me. And I think I've had my fill of Reggae/Jazz Christmas music to last the rest of the year (or longer)! Anyway, we finally found a decent spot on the beach to park and began unloading our gear.

After a brief discussion about our best route, we kicked out to a buoy about 150 yards before descending into what looked like an underwater desert. There was literally nothing but sand and a few conchs on our way to the pier. As we swam, though, we found a really strange slug-like creature we later discovered was a *sea cucumber . As we prodded it (we didn't actually touch it as we didn't know if it could sting us) we found that it was REALLY soft and squishy. It was the most lethargic sea creature I think I've ever encountered! I flipped it over to find out that it looked pretty much the same on the underbelly as it did on its back. Such a strange creature! We also got a kick out of the trails that the conchs had left as they scoured the bottom of the sea looking for unsuspecting oysters, etc.

Just when we thought we had wasted a dive on this bleak location we got to the Frederiksted pier. And that was REALLY COOL! It was literally like swimming in an aquarium. We saw LOTS of fish, some in schools, a ray, some cool *porcupine fish (we were calling them "puffer fish" until we looked them up). It was just so cool to be there in that habitat and the pylons for the pier made it especially cool. I can't really explain it well but there was more of a sense of being able to be in so many different places. Instead of everything being at the bottom there was an opportunity to see a lot of really cool things at many different depths. And the pylons, I guess, provided a bit more reference for the depth. It was a really neat experience—one of my favorite dives so far!

After our 1st dive we sat and had a picnic lunch and rested a bit. Right after lunch a parks and recreation officer stopped by and told us to be on the lookout for Lionfish. These guys are not native but have been spotted here lately. The problem is that they're extremely poisonous and they eat pretty much anything. They could destroy the local ecosystem if they proliferate. While we were talking with him we discussed other dive sites around the area and decided to go to the other side of the pier to explore the "Swirling Reef of Death." We couldn't resist diving there!

So, for our 2nd dive, we parked near a boat ramp, assembled our gear on fish-cutting tables (they didn't smell—we checked first!), then kicked out about 200 yards to where we guessed the Swirling Reef of Death was. There was a HUGE, 3-deck dive boat right above there so we descended just shy of it and kicked around a bit. Honestly, there wasn't a lot to the reef. It was pretty and there were a lot of fish, but there was also a lot of sand between the spots of coral. The coolest things we saw there were rays (4 of them) and a sea turtle. The first ray was hard to see—I was actually right next to him when Holly spotted an eye looking at me and pulled me away. Once we scared him off he shook the sand off of himself and swam away, presumably to find another spot to rest where we wouldn't disturb him.

We're not sure why they call the reef what they do but the current did kind of swirl around there and we found a couple of anchors. Maybe it's a rough spot for boats? It was a nice dive but definitely not one of my favorites. The nice thing is that we swam in a circle and ended up back where we started with plenty of air left (it was also a shallow dive—max depth around 32'). We decided to use our air to kick back to shore underwater as it's a lot easier and interesting than doing it on the surface.

So that's about it. We came back here and all relaxed. We cooked up some chicken on the grill, made some homemade fries, ate dinner, watched some TV then went to bed! (Holly and I are REALLY excited that Michelle won Biggest Loser! We REALLY didn't want Vicky to win, even though she looked really good at the finale...)

*Note: These are links to pics from our dive. Click HERE for the rest of the gallery—all of our St. Croix 2008 pics are in one gallery so you'll have to scroll through to see the latest ones.

St. Croix 2—Anniversary SCUBA and sleep!

2008-12-15T16:47:00.004-05:00

Today's our 1-year anniversary!!! WE MADE IT!

We had our 2 boat dives today with Cane Bay Dive Shop (we love that place!). And because we had to stay up to watch the Cowboys and the Survivor finale we got less than 8 hours of sleep. My body doesn't usually do well with that BUT I was excited enough about the dive that Holly and I were able to roll out of bed around 7:30 to enjoy some cereal and coffee (of course).

We got to go out with Judy, our divemaster, for our first dive at 9:30. We saw 2 turtles (Holly touched one!), a lobster, and lots of really cool fish and coral. After our surface interval, some water, and crackers, and a false rescue alarm (our boat captain Rick had to go out in our boat to make sure someone wasn't in need of rescue—it turned out to be a buoy instead of a rescue beacon) we went back out for our 2nd dive around 11:45. We saw 2 more turtles (a smaller one and a really big one—check out the vids on our pics page), a puffer fish, a needle fish, and more really cool fish and coral. It really is beautiful here!

After all this, we came back, hung our gear up, had lunch, then completely CRASHED for about 2 ½ hours! It's so nice to be on vacation!

Not sure what's on the agenda for tomorrow but we'll probably go over toward Fredricksted and explore some shallow wrecks. There's just so much to see here and we only have 4 days of diving left!

Click HERE for more pics.

St. Croix Day 1—SCUBA!

2008-12-14T17:37:00.001-05:00

Hello from St. Croix! It's been awesome so far but that's exactly what we expected!

Holly and I got in a bit earlier than Joe & Jim so we got our rental car and drove to the grocery store. An hour and $300 later, we headed back to the airport to pick them up. We didn't have to wait long—they got there about 10 minutes after we pulled up. After a nice spaghetti dinner we settled in and sat in the hot tub watching the clouds, admiring the stars, and enjoying the extra-bright full moon. I slept better last night than I have in a LONG time! The sound of the waves crashing just outside our door is very therapeutic!

Today after breakfast we attempted our first dive. The surf here is REALLY rough so we struggled getting out past the breakers. I got busted up pretty good—mask off my face, one fin off my foot and wrapped around my leg. I'll admit, I panicked a little as the waves kept pounding me closer to the rocks. I went back ashore and fixed my gear and Holly and I were actually able to get back out past the breakers on our 2nd attempt. Jim had a regulator malfunction so he and Joe had to stay on the beach while we were out. Because we wasted so much air getting past the current on the way out we only had a 31 minute dive. But we got to see some cool stuff including a really big lobster!

Our 2nd and 3rd dives were MUCH smoother because we drove down the road to Cane Bay, which has MUCH calmer surf. After the 2nd dive we came back to the villa and had lunch and I crashed for about 30 minutes. Diving really takes it out of me! We drove back to Cane Bay and had our 3rd dive then came back and now we're cooking pizza and watching football. LIFE IS GOOD!

We'll keep posting updates and pics as we're here longer. I hope all is well back home in the 40° weather! :-D

Off to St. Croix...

2008-12-12T16:35:00.001-05:00

We're leaving to dive in St. Croix tomorrow and I'm just wrapping things up here at work. Holly, Joe, Jim, and I will be leaving early in the morning and will be at our villa fairly early in the evening. We'll update the blog while we're there as long as the internet is working there. But I don't plan on spending too much time on here because there's just WAY too much diving and relaxing to be done while we're there!

Oh, for those of you who don't know, I'm now the full-time student arts leader at our church (www.moviechurch.com). I'm so glad that Apple cut my hours because I think I'm much better suited for student ministry, esp. when it involves playing the guitar and singing! For those of you who live close enough you should definitely come check the church out some Sunday. I think you'll find that it's different from most any other church you've been to! :-D

Merry Christmas (Decorating)

2008-12-05T15:01:00.001-05:00

Took a break from decorating this afternoon to take this pic. I actually took it to show Holly that I was taking care of my throat by drinking tea with honey and lemon (don't be fooled by the label on the cup) and by wearing a scarf around my neck. But after playing with the pic in photoshop I thought it was cool enough to post. So Merry Christmas Decorating to all!

Thanksgiving 2008 Rader Style!

2008-12-01T14:33:00.004-05:00

I can't believe that Thanksgiving is over already! I think that I build up the holidays so much in my mind that these days feel like they should last at LEAST a week.

Visiting the Raders this Thanksgiving was absolutely wonderful, tho, except for the drive there. I pretty much crashed as soon as we walked in the door on Wed. night just after midnight (OK, technically it was Thurs morning). We had PLENTY of turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, etc. to fill all of us about 5x. I'm not sure what happened right after the meal because I was in a turkey coma for about 2 hours. All I remember is watching football (Cowboys won...w00t!). But after coming out of my stupor we went next door to Travis's house and shot skeet. What a GREAT way to celebrate the holidays with family! It was a lot of fun and I found out that I'm still alright at shooting. Holly wasn't as good as she remembered but she only took 2 shots. :( After all that we went back for a bit more food and the bro-in-laws all went "caroling" back at the Rader house. :-D

We were sad to leave but it was really good spending time with family! Can't wait to go back. Up next—St. Croix in 2 weeks (I'm sure there will be a lot of pics to come from that) then Christmas with the Russells! I haven't awakened in my childhood home on Christmas morning since I was 20! I'm so excited. Mom, get the peanut M&M's ready! I'll need at least one family-sized bag to myself.

Oh, yeah...click HERE for more pics.

Pics

2008-11-24T23:00:00.002-05:00

Cruise pics HERE!

Hello from the Atlantic!

2008-11-22T15:09:00.000-05:00

Holly and I are now on our way back to FL from Cozumel and will be flying back to Philly tomorrow evening. This has been an AWESOME trip and we have some good pics to share once we're back home. Today the sea's a bit choppy so we've been chillin' in the cabin and resting pretty much all day. We ate brunch (only because we got up too late for a real breakfast) this morning around 11:30, walked around a bit,then retired to the cabin. The rocking of the ship and the sound of the ocean from our balcony are really making us tired on this trip and we'll probably end up back at the cabin after our late lunch to lounge some more. Vacation is WONDERFUL!!! Right now we're out and about now to scrounge up some lunch, probably from Sorento's (pizza) or from Johnny Rocket's (burgers). We figured we'd use our $5 internet credit while we were here and give everyone an update. Oh, yeah, sorry moms & dads for a lack of a real conversation before we left. Holly and I both forgot our cell phones back in the apt so we had to use a pay phone to call you guys. We'll call when we're safe back at home in our apt. Until then, PEACE!

Updates & New Pics

2008-11-04T21:59:00.000-05:00

So, Holly and I have been quite busy lately. First, we carved us up some punkins 4 days before Halloween. Then we went to NYC on 10/29 to see Wicked (an AWESOME show!). Then, today, we went to Hawk Mountain to hike and to visit the spot where I gave Holly her ring a year ago today. Life is good!!! We're enjoying these couple of days off together, though tomorrow will be more work than play as we're trying to get our apt. squared away before we begin our "travel season." More to come on that—we're cruising later this month then we'll be back in St. Croix in the middle of next month to celebrate our anniversary. YAY!

In the meantime, here are two sets of pics related to our recent adventures. Click HERE to visit the pics of punkins and Wicked, and HERE to visit the pics from Hawk Mountain. Enjoy!

Dad Russell's 60th Birthday!

2008-10-27T22:13:00.000-04:00

Holly and I drove to DE over the weekend to celebrate my dad's 60th birthday and we had a great time with the fam. We were able to meet Jason's son, Aiden, for the first time while there. He's such a sweet and cute kid. I'm so glad that he's part of the family! We all had a great evening together. The next day we all went out to IHOP for a family lunch. Holly got to meet my uncle Denny for the first time and got to witness the antics that happen when the whole family gets together. And she felt right at home!

The pics I posted are from both days...it's obvious which ones are which. Sorry for the lack of pics of family on dad's birthday evening but Aiden was just too cute to point the camera elsewhere. Click HERE for the rest of the pics.

Me & My Crew...

2008-10-26T10:35:00.001-04:00

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Valley Forge Pics

2008-10-21T19:13:00.002-04:00

Not much to update everyone on right now...things continue to roll along for us here. Holly visited VF with her AWESOME camera (a gift from ME, of course!) while I was at work. Bah. Hopefully next time I'll be able to be there with her. But I'm posting a link to the best of the pics she took. It really is a beautiful time of year!

Click HERE for more pics.

Brad Slater's Wedding

2008-10-11T10:22:00.001-04:00

A bit late with this update, but Holly and I went to my cousin Brad's wedding on 9/27 and had a great time. It's so cool seeing family that I haven't seen in so long. Uncle Curt, Aunt Fran, Aunt Lynn, Aunt Cynthia, Brad, Drew (and some I'm sure I've forgotten to mention)—it was AWESOME seeing you guys! And to the the new Slater family, we wish you guys love and happiness for the rest of your lives.

I posted a few pics from the event. Holly and I didn't really take too many pics as we were just enjoying the dancing and the company too much to bother being behind a camera much. Pete & Mel, I'm sorry for the bad pics but they're too funny not to put up here! :-D

Click HERE for more pics.

Family Reunion, 8/30/08

2008-09-17T20:14:00.002-04:00

By request I'm posting a very late update to the blog to include a pic that sums up the Rader family reunion this year...let me know if you think I've missed it. Pretty much the whole day was taken up by cornholing. And if you think that's a dirty thing you missed the reunion and/or you haven't been to southern Ohio lately. It was a really fun day. If you're family and haven't received an email about how to get into the pics shoot us an email to ask for it (or ask Barb for the user name and password). The reason I pass-protected it this time is so that I could allow people to upload their own pics while on the page. If you're confused about how to do that you're probably over 35 years old and need to email me. :-D If no one is adding their own pics I may turn that feature off and un-protect the pics. Please let me know if you have any problems!

OC MD with the Patricks!

2008-08-08T11:50:00.002-04:00

This past weekend was a BLAST! Click HERE for pics. Be sure to check out the last 2 pics to see what Brian was doing most of the weekend. (Just kidding Brian, calm down!)

Sleeping with the aliens...

2008-07-27T18:36:00.002-04:00

Pretty sure this is Amy's handiwork. I love dad's earrings...haha!

12 Stones/Alter Bridge Concert

2008-07-26T11:52:00.001-04:00

We went to Croc Rock last night with Eric & Colin, two former students, to see 12 Stones and Alter Bridge. Awesome freaking concert. Nuff said. Well, maybe not...

These guys were just amazing, esp. AB. Mark Tremonti is probably my favorite guitarist now. He's just a lot of fun to watch and he's just as sick live (if not more so) than he is on the albums. But the WHOLE band was just sick, sick, sick. I was blown away by Myles Kennedy's vocals and I had NO IDEA he was such a good guitarist. Seeing things like this make me really want to redouble my efforts on the guitar! Mark T. is my age and started playing the guitar at the same time I did. Wow... AB has come a LONG WAY from Creed and Myles blows Scott Stapp away on vocals.

12 Stones was really good—they've also come a long way from the last time I saw them but they had a hard time getting the crowd energized despite Paul McCoy's best efforts and antics. He was fun to watch, as always. I bet he's a lot of fun to hang out with...

Pics are HERE. They were taken on my phone so they're not good at all but a couple came out clearly enough to make out what's going on. The vids are horrible but I put them up anyway. It was just too loud in there for my poor little Samsung phone.

Rader Visit 7/4 to 7/6

2008-07-11T14:00:00.006-04:00

Holly and I drove to OH this past weekend to visit the fam and we had a LOT of fun. We got to do a lot of hanging out and relaxing as well as playing with the Wii, bowling (the real thing), 4-wheeling, visiting the grandparents, sleeping (well, dad Rader and I did more of that than anyone else, I think), and playing with various animals (including the new puppies!) Pics are HERE if you'd like to check them out. Sorry in advance for any off-color ones that may or may not be present in the collection. :-D

Cruise Pics!

2008-06-30T13:37:00.005-04:00

Holly and I finally got back from our 2+ week trip to Europe (+ Asia & Africa) last night around 9pm. We're exhausted but we had a GREAT time. We'll be posting full descriptions of our travels in each place when time permits; for now, here are links to our favorite pictures from each place we visited on our travels. Enjoy! We certainly did!!!

To see the pics you can click HERE and choose the gallery you want to look at, or you can just click each one of these links individually. Each link will open in a new window/tab.

1st (and last?) update from the cruise

2008-06-21T15:27:00.002-04:00

So, we had this all planned out and figured out how to save time by typing everything for the blog out ahead of time then uploading it from the internet cafe. But, turns out that RC doesn't support Macs (BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!) so we're stuck using their crappy Windoze 2000 machines instead, so we'll have to keep this short. Oh, yeah, did I mention we're paying $.55 per minute here? Yeah, sux big time. Oh well.

So this is our update...things are AWESOME and we're having a great time. We're in Egypt tomorrow to see the pyramids and fry in the sun. YAY! Should be amazing. We even have an armed guard to accompany our buses! :-O We've been to Mykonos, Ephesus, Rhodes, and Cyprus so far. Again, it's been AMAZING. We'll have to upload pics (LOTS of them) when we get home.

Love to all. We'll update you when we get home. More from Rome at the end of the week if the Romans are more with-it than RC.

Off to ROME!

2008-06-14T11:23:00.003-04:00

We're about to leave for the airport so I thought I'd post a last minute sign off from the U.S. We'll update the blog as we can over there. We should have LOTS of pics and stories. I'm so excited to go on my first cruise!!!

Super Cuteness

2008-06-04T09:57:00.003-04:00

Just thought I'd share something with everyone that Holly and I get to see every day. This usually brightens my day, so maybe it will brighten yours, too. Lots going on here...so much, in fact, that I don't really have time to post it here now. Holly and I leave for our cruise in 10 days and we'll be putting as many pics as we can (with updates) once we're off! CAN'T WAIT!!!

ROME IN 24 DAYS!!!

2008-05-21T09:35:00.004-04:00

Sorry to all who have tried to keep up with us through this blog. Things here continue to be crazy and when they're not all we want to do is veg out on the couch and relax together. So...here's a very spaztastic and ADD-laden update...

So, quick update: I (Scott) am 3.5 weeks away from retiring as a teacher (YESSS!!!). Our apartment is still a wreck but it's at least livable. If any of you decide to come visit we have a comfortable bed in our guest bedroom that you might be able to get to if you push some of the junk out of the way! But you're always welcome (well, at least some of you are). We have been trying to get more involved with the youth program at our church but our schedule (and limited time together) has made it difficult. We'll be at the shore (OCMD) this upcoming weekend with our good friends the Patricks (probably dancing, boating, maybe even fishing in the bay). And finally, we'll be flying to Rome on the 14th and cruising till the 28th!!! YESSSSS!!!

So, that's it for now. Things are going really well but we're obviously really busy. We'll have a "caretaker" taking care of our apartment (and our kitties) while we're gone. Oh, and I'm sure he'll be taking good care of my xbox as well!

Drop us a line and let us know how you're doing (if we haven't already been chatting on facebook). Ciao for now!

Holly Ann the Alpaca

2008-04-17T09:05:00.003-04:00

This is "Holly Ann" the Alpaca, named after, well, you know. She's in New Zealand and is owned by a family there that obviously loves Holly very much! We thought this was funny because she's making a face that Holly would make. She's definitely living up to her name!

No other big news right now. Things are just too hectic. I don't think that God made life to be this way. We're trying to figure out a way to slow things down a bit so we can actually ENJOY life instead of living for time off together.

No word yet on what I'm going to be doing after I'm finished teaching this year. Still no official word from the Apple store in KOP, so I might be going back to computer school in July after all. Who knows but God? I know that things will work out, though, and I'm trying not to be nervous about it. It is a bit scary (and exciting) to be leaving a comfortable job that I've had for 8 years for the unknown.

Holly and I are also looking forward to getting more involved with the youth at our church and are hoping to have more time after I'm finished school to do this and to be together.

Drop us a line to let us know how you're doing if we haven't heard from you lately!

Spring break

2008-03-26T07:31:00.002-04:00

Not much time to post today, so I'll be brief. Holly and I had an AWESOME spring break together. We drove to DE to see my family on 3/17 then left there on 3/19 to drive to OH to see her family. We left her family's house on 3/22 so we could spend our first Easter together at home. *sigh* The week went WAY too fast but it was a lot of fun and it was really good to be with family.

Click HERE for some pics from the trip. The 1st 3 are from the woods behind my house, the ones of the clouds are from the Cumberland gap (aka the butt-crack) and the rest are from Holly's family's property. Enjoy!

Ski trip

2008-03-17T09:29:00.005-04:00

Sorry we haven't posted anything here lately! Things have been really busy and we're just now catching our breaths now that I'm on spring break. Makes me sad that this is my last spring break but I'm really looking forward to what's ahead (whatever that might be)!

I'm posting pics and a few movie clips (click HERE) from the Rader ski trip weekend at Snowshoe Mt. (in WV) from March 1st-3rd. It was a real BLAST! The weather was perfect (though the snow the night we arrived made getting there a bit tricky). Fresh powder, flurries followed by sunshine, and skiing/snowboarding with family. It was wonderful. I did get injured (3 weekends of falling on the same spot on my left butt cheek followed by a KILLER fall on Cupp run, my first black diamond, did me in). Maybe I'll post a hidden link somewhere on this post to get to the pic of my bruises. If you're really curious to see it you'll have to look around for it. But I can now say that I am finally a snowboarder, so it was worth it.

In other news, I am planning on going back to kung fu next month, so I went back to the school on Saturday to catch up with some friends. Holly and I are going back tonight to talk with my sifu (teacher in Chinese) and to let Holly see what it's all about. Hopefully she'll be joining the school sometime soon! There's no doubt that we'd both benefit from it as we both have kinda messed up backs (esp. Holly). Here's a LINK to my school. ow

That's about it for now. I'm packing this morning for our trip to the Russell and Rader homes this week. We'll be back on Sat. evening so we can spend our first Easter together at home. For now, zai jian.

NYC!

2008-02-04T20:53:00.000-05:00

So, on Friday afternoon I came home to Holly standing in the foyer (when she was supposed to be at work) telling me to put some jeans on (which she had out already) and get my hat, gloves, and scarf because we were going out. WHAT?! So, I was clueless but played along. I didn't know what we were doing until we passed the sign for New York. I was thinking at first that we were going ice skating but that's all I could think I would need to be bundled up for. After all, WE hadn't packed a bag, so I figured it MUST be something close by and only for the evening. Yeah, I was wrong.

We arrived in NYC around 6:00 or so and took our bag to the Marriott on 46th & Broadway (YAY!) and went out for the BEST PIZZA EVER!!! No, I'm not exaggerating. I had 5 slices and about burst. OK, I had 3 beers, too. But that had nothing to do with it.

We got to walk through the city in the rain, which was honestly really cool because it was pretty warm (and I was bundled up :-D). Our room had a partial view of Times Square (see pics) and the bed at there was really comfortable...

We took our time getting up on Sat. morning then we went to Starbucks (in the hotel!) then went to lunch at a really classy place. OK, it was McD's. And it wasn't all that great but it was in NYC so it was OK! After that we went for a rickshaw ride through Central Park (if you get the chance, go for the horse-drawn carriage instead of the rickshaw—they're about the same cost and the horses are more romantic) and saw a lot of the park we hadn't seen before. Afterwards we had a bit of time left so we walked to the Trump ice rink and sat on the rocks. Then we walked the Brooks Atkinson theater to see Grease. IT WAS FREAKING AWESOME! After this we decided to check out which shows we could possibly see for 50% off (from the tkts booth). We bought tickets for Hairspray and then walked around the city more and then went to dinner @ Charley O's. Again, wonderful food, and again, STUFFED! Afterwards we went to Hairspray and it, too, was AMAZING! I'd definitely recommend it to anyone, esp. with George Wendt (NORM!) as the mom.

We made it home by 1:15 am and CRASHED! We actually missed church the next morning because we couldn't get out of bed. That really stinks because we're really enjoying Sunday morning worship lately...

For more pics from our NYC trip click HERE.

Wedding Pics

2008-01-21T09:57:00.001-05:00

Hey everyone. If you haven't yet received an invite to see our pictures and would like one, send me an EMAIL and let me know so I can send you an invite from SnapFish. Unfortunately I can't just post a link here for you to follow. For those of you who received a BUM invite, send me an email and I'll resend the invite. SnapFish was having issues with their site when I sent the invite and I THINK the site's working again. **crosses fingers**

In other news, Holly and I are finally making progress towards making our apartment actually LOOK nice. The living room is all set up now—all we need to do is hang some pics and it's done! I still have a lot of unpacking to do (I brought a lot more JUNK into the apt. than Holly did). Our guest room should be done and set up by the end of next month, though, if any of you want to come and spend the night (or weekend)!

We are also mourning the sad loss of Green Bay to the less worthy NY Giants. Brett Favre—if anyone could have had a chance against the Pats it was you and your team. Now the SuperBowl probably won't even be worth watching... And to Rich—we'll send you a case of tissues this week to help ease your pain.

ONE MONTH ANNI!

2008-01-15T09:51:00.001-05:00

We've been married for one month today! WOW! This month has FLOWN by. Holly and I have agreed that if the first year of marriage is the hardest one and things keep up this way we're going to have one amazing marriage! Things continue to be amazing. We couldn't be any happier (unless, perhaps, we were independently wealthy and were able to spend every day with each other, preferably in some place WARM with blue water)!

In other news, the wedding pics are up! Click HERE to see them. You may have to sign up for a free SnapFish account to see them. Email me if you have trouble seeing our pics and I'll send you an invite.

You can also order prints and high-res digital pics from the site. They came out pretty well but we're hoping the color is better in the actual prints than the digital copy.

Oh, yeah, one more thing...as of 2 days ago we were OFFICIALLY married—we finally got our marriage certificate in the mail! YAY! Now Holly can officially be named Holly Russell...her credit cards, license, and ss card all proved otherwise! Who are we to argue with the government?

Reception Slideshow

2008-01-09T06:25:00.000-05:00

The reception slideshow is up! Click HERE to see it. Be sure to check out the "evolution of the mullet!" :-D

7-Month Anniversary and UGH!

2008-01-08T14:32:00.000-05:00

We celebrated our official 7-month anniversary last night by using our gift cards to Bahama Breeze. :-D It was wonderful but I left there COMPLETELY stuffed. Thanks to you all who gave those to us!!!

Holly and I have decided that real life stinks! I haven't had time to update this blog since being back in the "real world." Well, more accurately, when I HAVE had time I've chosen to do other things to recover from the harsh reality of work. Blah. Holly and I are trying to figure out how we can get paid to stay at home together all day.

In other news, I'm going to attempt to upload the slideshow from the reception tonight. My internet connection at school is not reliable enough and honestly using the bandwidth to upload during school would be kinda rude. I'll post a link in another entry when it's uploaded.

Not much more to report here. Holly and I are really missing our villa and our freedom from our honeymoon and are REALLY looking forward to our 6th month anniversary cruise in June!

Happy New Year & Pics are up!

2008-01-01T21:15:00.000-05:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR to you all!!!

Holly and I are glad to be home but are pretty bummed about having to to back to work. We spent the day cleaning the apartment and watching the season 2 Biggest Loser marathon. We also ate lots of chicken dip and p-nut m&m's while watching it...haha! This place is actually starting to look and feel more like "home."

Posting THIS LINK to our misc. pics from the honeymoon. (It will open in a separate window). There are still a few that we haven't posted yet—we'll have to sort through some to make sure the best ones are up. There some repetitive shots (esp. near the end of the pics) because we haven't had time to sort through them all. I figured I'd just post what we have for now. Feel free to browse & download whenever you can. There are plenty of pics to look at (433 for now)! And yes, that's me riding a carousel horse underwater! YEEEEHAWWWWWW!

One last post...

2007-12-29T09:13:00.000-05:00

So, we're about 45 min from leaving for the airport and we're sad. I'm standing here in jeans sweating for now but knowing that I'll be shivering once we get back into Philly later tonight. :( I am looking forward to being home, though, and especially to seeing family and friends this weekend. Maybe there's still a bit of Christmas spirit left in the air back home for us to enjoy. Here are our last 2 pics we'll post from here. We'll post MANY more pics next week after they're all sorted and I have time to let the computer sit for many hours to upload them all.

But for now, goodbye from paradise...we'll be back (but not soon enough)!

Christiansted

2007-12-28T07:35:00.000-05:00

We went to Christiansted yesterday just to look around and buy a few things. Here are some of the pics we took.

We also checked out an old sugar mill at a place down the road called "Rust Op Twist." We have NO IDEA what that means, by the way. The pics of the old stone "building" on the hill are from there.

Christiansted was really cool. It's a pretty quaint little town that's on a bay. We found some good spices (and other stuff) there that we'll bring back with us. We also found out from a shop owner there that we can't bring back shells from here. We'll have to be creative on how we pack our suitcases for the trip home or some of our treasures may have to be surrendered. We're not going down without a fight!

We didn't dive or snorkel at all yesterday because we went to Christiansted then hung out in the villa during the afternoon. Later in the evening we went out to "Off the Wall" for some pizza (GOOD pizza) and pretty much crashed as soon as we got home (@ 9:30pm). There's just something about hearing the waves that knocks us out! Combine that with diving and we're wiped out at the end of most days! One of the guys at the scuba shop we got certified through told us he always sleeps best after a day of diving. It must do SOMETHING to us because I have not slept this well in many, many years!

We'll be home tomorrow. It's a bittersweet feeling. We're really looking forward to being in our OWN place—we've only spent about 4 hours there (awake) as a married couple. It's also going to be really nice to have friends over for new years. I'm really glad we're not going anywhere this year for new year's eve. I'm ready to be HOME for a while, even if home is a jumbled mess right now. And I have to be honest, I've REALLY missed my HD TV and my surround sound, oh, yeah, and FAST internet. :) Not sure if I'll have much time to update this tomorrow so this may be our sign-off from paradise. It's been an amazing time. I hope we can come back in early December next year. Anyone else wanna come with us? It would be relatively cheap if we could get a bunch more people!

Yes, we know...

2007-12-26T17:32:00.001-05:00

We are AWESOME! Haha! We actually took this pic on 12-20 right before our first shore dive. Somehow we forgot to post it till today. Merry day after Christmas, everyone!

We did 2 boat dives today (our first) and they were pretty cool despite the limited visibility. Click HERE for pics. Holly actually got a cool video of a turtle today...it's the last video on the pictures site but it may not be available till we get back and can upload it. She took off away from the group to get the video so I chased after her. I didn't see the turtle, tho. :( We actually caught up with another diving group (how random!) and were confused for a bit. After we figured out what happened we kicked back to our group. We ended up using our air MUCH faster than the rest of the group because we're still amateurs at this (and because Holly was chasing a turtle!). When we surfaced with very little air left one of the girls who was with us still had more than 1/2 of her tank left. We felt bad but we couldn't do anything about it. Guess we're gonna have to practice moving around less and conserving oxygen more. We still got 37 minutes out of our tanks, though. "Not too shabby," as Adam Sandler would say.

Missing family...

2007-12-25T20:03:00.000-05:00

Holly and I both agree that being here in St. Croix together is wonderful but it's just not Christmas without family.

To our families—we miss you guys a whole lot. We're looking forward to being back with you and hope you all had a great Christmas. We promise we won't go away next Christmas!

Merry Christmas (2)!

2007-12-25T08:29:00.001-05:00

Merry Christmas everyone!

Merry Christmas from the Russells!

2007-12-24T16:38:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas Eve!

2007-12-24T06:06:00.000-05:00

I woke up at 5:30 this morning and couldn't get back to sleep. I decided to watch the sunrise and get some pics while I let Holly sleep a bit more. Not sure why I woke up so early but I was wide awake and laying in bed seemed a waste. Here are a few pics I took this morning (some while enjoying a fresh-brewed cup of Starbucks Christmas Blend coffee).

I hope all of you back home are having a wonderful beginning to your holidays. I can't imagine a better start to Christmas. Merry Christmas (eve) to you all and may God bless you on the day when the world remembers the birth of His son!

More snorkeling pics...

2007-12-23T19:39:00.000-05:00

Can you tell that we love snorkeling and diving? Tired of the pics? If so, don't click HERE. Otherwise, click to see the new pics. We started out today by walking to Cane Bay for a nice brunch. It took a while to get our food but it was worth the wait...Holly got french toast and bacon, I got the lobster omelette & home fries. SO GOOD! Our wait was made MUCH more tolerable by the sound of the waves, the wonderful weather, and a flamenco guitarist who was playing there.

Afterwards, we snorkeled out to a couple of buoys, the last of which was more than 1/2 way to our villa (it's a 10 minute walk to Cane Bay from our villa, so that's a good swim!) We looked for some "lobster ledges" that a picture in our villa refers to but we didn't find them. We don't think they exist! We were out in the water for about 2 hours and didn't get burned TOO bad. A lot of the pics today came out better than any previous ones. We must be getting better at this!

Tomorrow we'll be doing 2 dives, both no deeper than 40'. We'll start by the villa and dive along the coast down to Cane Bay where we'll stop for lunch and get our tanks refilled, then dive back along the coast back to the villa. Should be a great day. We're also hoping to walk down the road (about 1.5 miles) to the nearest convenience store for a resupply. We're running a bit low on food here!

Happy Christmas eve eve! We're going to watch "A Christmas Story" tomorrow night, which will make it KIND OF seem like Christmas eve. I don't miss the weather back home but I've gotta admit it is weird to have an 85 degree Christmas!

New Pics

2007-12-22T19:04:00.001-05:00

Well, as nice as the .Mac pic gallery is, we're having a really hard time uploading pictures to it from here. For now I'll post the pics on Flickr...it's not as pretty but at least the pics are up! We'll save the "prettiness" for when we get back and have a better internet connection.

Today we started out with a nice leisurely dive that took 33 minutes...there's nothing like just taking your time and enjoying the scenery and harassing the locals while down there! Our max depth today was 73' (Scott) and 76' (Holly). After lunch we went snorkeling for about 1 1/2 hours. We're pretty wiped out this evening!

Click HERE for scuba & snorkeling pics from today (they start after the hammock pic).

1 week anniversary—we're goin' diving!

2007-12-22T10:28:00.000-05:00

We've been married for a week today!!! YAY!

We're off for another dive today. More pics to follow. We're going to stay more shallow today (thought you'd be glad to hear that, dad Rader!), staying between 60' & 75'.

We spent the morning in this hammock...the weather is PERFECT as it always seems to be here, current temp 81!!! I think we'll spend most mornings in this hammock (or on the back deck) for the rest of our week here. YESSSSSSSS! STILL ONE MORE WEEK LEFT!!!!!

Misc. Pics

2007-12-21T17:20:00.001-05:00

I realized that we didn't have many pics of just US here so here are 3 that we took today while strolling the beach. Holly's new camera is AWESOME and we were able to get a lot of good ones. We'll wait till we're back to upload the lot of them, but these are 3 of the best ones we have of us so far.

Snorkeling Pics are up...

2007-12-21T09:25:00.000-05:00

The snorkeling pics from a few days are up on our web gallery now. Check out the gallery here. We'll be posting pics as we can but we're having trouble with the internet here so some may have to wait till we get back to the states.

Scuba Pics

2007-12-20T13:59:00.000-05:00

Click here for our first scuba pics! Our max depth was 98' and we were down for about 23 minutes. This is the deepest dive we've done to date. It was really cool but the kick back to our villa (against the current) was really tough. Now we know why you're supposed to dive INTO the current and let it carry you back to your insertion point!

We're HERE

2007-12-20T09:55:00.000-05:00

We tried to upload our snorkel pics last night but the wireless internet here is giving us trouble. We'll try again later tonight after we dive. We're doing our first dive today so we should get some really good pics today, too. In the meantime, here's a google-earth image of where we are in St. Croix. We're in the red one! We'll be snorkeling out to the left of the villa (heading N-NW) and heading for some "lobster ledges" where we'll descend to about 25'. We're hoping to get out to a sea-mount called "Jimmy's Surprise" at some point but it's probably too far to get to from the lobster ledges on one tank. We'll also be doing 2 boat dives while we're here, so we'll end up with 6 dives total. Not bad!

Weather

2007-12-18T13:52:00.001-05:00

:-D

Greetings from Paradise!

2007-12-18T12:44:00.000-05:00

St. Croix is more amazing than I could have ever imagined...

This is a view from our back deck—we get this for 12 more days!!!

P.S. Hot tub's on the right! :-D

On the way home...

2007-12-18T12:36:00.000-05:00

Had a bit of trouble on the way home...everything was going fine until we got to Hagerstown, MD, and some jerk who didn't clean the snow from the top of his SUV messed Holly's car up. A HUGE ice sheet (about 2 ft square) flew off the top and smashed her windshield. It ALMOST went through. Oh, and Holly's driver's side mirror was completely knocked off, too. Here are some pics. God was watching out for us, tho, and all that really happened was that we were inconvenienced. We got home around 10:45 PM (thanks to Amy, Holly's sister, who lives in D.C. THANK YOU AMY!!!!!!!!!!!!!) instead of at 8. We finished packing and got into bed by 1:45 am the next morning and got up at 4:15 to catch our flight. Needless to say, we were really tired yesterday! We got lots of sleep last night, tho. :-D

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2007-12-16T10:00:00.000-05:00

Goodbye 203!

2007-12-12T12:05:00.000-05:00

Here's Holly in front of the door of her old apartment for the last time. This was where we first began our relationship in earnest and where we began dreaming of a life together. It's really sad to be leaving this behind but we're gaining so much in return. Goodbye old lives...we'll never be the same again.

MOVING=DONE (?)

2007-12-11T09:57:00.000-05:00

Well, all of our stuff is in one place now but it's FAR from sorted and put away. We'll be working on this for MONTHS! The good news is that the entertainment center is set up. Music, movies, Glenn Beck, football...CHECK. Now for the rest of the place.

One VERY silly thing we did was to pack the pictures for the slideshow and the programs (that need to be printed this week) in a box that's SOMEWHERE in the mess. We haven't been able to find this stuff yet and we're getting a bit stressed about it!!! We're hoping that it's in a box close to the top of the stack. Our guest room is just a storage unit at this point. I guess we have our work cut out for us when we get back from our honeymoon but for now I'm just happy to have all this stuff in one place!!!

The picture is of the things that were left over at my place AFTER the move. Some of this stuff is still in my car right now! Ugh, I hate moving. We're going to have to stay in this place for a couple of years to make this worth it!

Extreme SCUBA!!!

2007-12-03T10:45:00.000-05:00

Holly and I are now certified scuba divers!!! We were certified at Dutch Springs (outside of Bethlehem, PA) in the quarry. It was FREEZING (literally)! Our gear actually froze to the table while we were waiting to dive. And yes, that's snow on the ground! The water temp was a little better at 52 degrees, but we were frozen nonetheless. The next time we dive the water temp will be 80+ degrees!!! YESSSSS!!!

Click here for a few more pics.

Holly's Wedding Band

2007-11-29T11:24:00.001-05:00

After going to 3 different jewelry stores and NOT finding what we wanted, Holly searched eBay and found this awesome wedding band. She won't get to see it ON her hand until 12/15 but here are a couple of pictures of the ring.

In other news, things are coming along pretty well regarding prep for our move, wedding, and honeymoon. I'm still in the process of writing and recording the music for the wedding but we've been really busy getting certified for scuba diving. Once all that is done (this weekend) I'll be able to put the majority of my efforts into the wedding music. Packing will also become more of a priority as we approach the magical day of 12/8! We're really looking forward to Holly's parents being here to help and also to having all of our stuff in one place. This commuting back and forth to each others' places is a real drag! But we only have to put up with it for a little while longer! If any of you are able and would like to help us move email me and I'll give you the details.

OFFICIAL official engagement pic

2007-11-25T16:55:00.001-05:00

Holly and I visited Valley Forge park today after church and got some really good pics. We chose THIS one as our official pic but we'll post the others some time later. We're really getting down to the wire now. Not sure how I'm going to get everything done before we move next week. THIS IS INSANE!!! What a great story this will make for our children some day!

4 weeks to go!!!

2007-11-17T11:51:00.001-05:00

Not much of an update to give, but wow, time is flying!!! I'm currently working on the music for the wedding and Holly and I are putting together the program for the wedding and reception. The gifts have started arriving already and yes, we've begun opening them—I guess we're just a little excited and impatient at this point! Thanks to everyone who's sent gifts and cards. We appreciate everyone's "well wishes." I just found this picture from July and liked it so I decided to post it. This is from our almost 1 month anniversary as a couple. It was taken at our favorite restaurant, Bahama Breeze. The table right behind us is the one that we sat at when I first came clean with Holly about the feelings I was starting to have for her. We really wanted to sit at that table, but alas, it wasn't meant to be that night.

New Address

2007-11-14T12:40:00.000-05:00

Our new address (starting on December 15th) will be:

Scott and Holly Ann Russell
640 American Ave. #E304
King of Prussia PA 19406

32 days left!!!

2007-11-13T10:53:00.001-05:00

Wow, things are happening quickly! Holly's due back in the states in about an hour (she won a trip to Belgium) and I can't wait to see her!!! I was able to go to Ohio and work on a top-secret project for Holly with her dad while she was gone, though. It was really great hanging out with the family even if it was a really short visit. I am blessed to be joining such a great and loving family!

There's so much to do before we're married...packing up the apartments (we're moving on 12/8 if any of you want to come help!), finishing Holly's wedding gift(s), planning for Christmas, seeing the family (the Russells) on Thanksgiving, oh, yeah, and keeping up with work. Not doing so well at the latter but then again I've always had a hard time keeping up with the duties of teaching!

I'm posting this pic of Holly's dog, Kamper, with this link to a few other pics I took while I was in Ohio. More to come!!!

Holly's ring

2007-11-06T12:32:00.001-05:00

Here's a pic (up close) of Holly's ring.

Official Engagement Pics!

2007-11-05T10:53:00.000-05:00

So, Holly and I are official...she has the ring! I "officially" proposed to her at Hawk Mountain right outside of Allentown, PA. She said YES!

Click here for more photos (and for larger sizes worth printing).

Registry Info

2007-11-05T10:48:00.000-05:00

We are registered at Bed, Bath, & Beyond. Click to go there. Just in case you aren't taken straight to our registry, our number is 3046537. You can either visit the store online or go into a store with this number (or even just our names!) to access our registry.

Thanks!!!

Blennerhassett Info

2007-10-23T10:39:00.001-04:00

Here's more info on the Blennerhassett Hotel (where the reception will be held).

Directions

2007-10-09T11:19:00.001-04:00

So, the invites haven't gone out yet but most of you who have found this know when & where the wedding is. Click HERE to go to OVU's website for directions to their campus. Click HERE to go to the Blennerhassett Hotel (where the reception will be held). We have a block of rooms reserved at a special rate, so if you'd like to book reservations here please be sure to mention you're our guests!

Unofficial Engagement Pic

2007-10-09T10:55:00.001-04:00

NOT our official "engagement photo," but it will do for now.

Hi

2007-10-09T09:27:00.000-04:00

Welcome to Scott & Holly's blog! We'll be using this site to keep you updated on happenings related to our upcoming wedding as well as what's going on after the wedding. Please drop us a line and let us know what's going on in your life!!!