Jeannie and Russell

Posted Friday, June 13, 2008 10:16 AM

The Preparations

Russell originally made up his mind to look for an engagement ring about six months prior to asking me on May 7, 2007. He then spoke to my boss to request a few days off from work for me. He told her that he wanted to surprise me for our six-year anniversary.

On Sunday, May 6, he started doing the laundry and was acting a little weird. Luckily for his grand surprise, I didn't think anything of it because I wasn't feeling well. Russ was trying to find a way to get me out of the house. He thought of calling one of my friends to take me out for lunch or have my girlfriend call and ask for a favor, but since I wasn’t feeling well, he didn’t. He went into the bedroom, looked through my closet, and said that I had a lot of clothes. Apparently he was trying to figure out what clothes I normally wear. Any chance he got, while I was showering or napping, he would grab something of mine and run down three flights of stairs to throw it into his truck. He was in such a rush that he often left the clothes on the hangers. He was trying so hard to pack for me.

Things Always Work Out

On Monday morning I woke up around 5:30 a.m. still not feeling well. I called in sick for the first half of the morning and told my boss that I’d be in around noon. Russell wasn’t sleeping well either that night. Around 2 a.m. he went to the living and slept on the couch. Around 7 a.m. I told him that I called my boss and would go in around noon. At this time Russell knew there would be confusion with my boss, but it was okay because it’d be explained when I returned to the office.

Russell woke me up around 11ish and asked how I was feeling and if I needed to go to the doctor. I told him that maybe I should go to the doctor and just take the day off. He then said, “Well, we can take the day off and go to Santa Barbara.” I was confused. Santa Barbara…what were we going to do up there? It was totally random. He was asking to gauge how I felt. Russell decided he had no choice but to tell me what he had planned for us; he couldn’t cancel the hotel reservation since it had past the cancellation period. He explained to me that he already spoke to my boss and that we were going up to Carmel and leaving now. Needless to say, I was very surprised and excited! I also got to pack the things that I actually wanted to take. And would you believe it, I suddenly felt much better. His initial plan was to carpool with me to work on Monday morning and, rather than get off the freeway at our normal exit, he would’ve driven straight to Carmel/Big Sur instead, never letting me in on the surprise until we arrived.

The Proposal

On our drive up to Carmel, I did wonder if Russell was going to propose, but I didn’t want to get my hopes up if it didn’t happen, so I let the thought go. We arrived in Carmel close to 6 p.m. Russell had booked an amazing hotel nestled in the cliffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean and the gorgeous beaches of Big Sur. Over dinner on the balcony the first night, while watching the sun set into the ocean, he got down on his knee, handed me a small jewelry box, and said, “You know what would make this sunset even more perfect?” He then asked if I would be his wife, and I said yes.