I realized that I never told the story of how we got engaged, so here it is....

He proposed on Jan 27, 2007 in the middle of the woods while snowshoeing. The whole story is so sweet, really, and the whole time I thought he wasn't thinking about getting married whatsoever (my dad was ready to sit down and have a little chat and ask "what are your intentions with my daughter?" and suggest that he move out until he's ready to propose.)

But he really WAS thinking about it - months ago - and little did I know, he and my best friend went out looking for the perfect ring together (and it really is SOOOO beautiful).

So here's the story, were were out in Bolton Valley yesterday, snowshoeing in 10 degree weather. We bought some hand warmers because it was so friggin chilly.

After an hour or so of walking around in the woods, we had warmed up a lot, and I put the hand warmers in my jacket pocket. He started taking a bunch of photos of the gorgeous snow-covered trees, and his hands got cold, so he said, "Can I have those hands warmers?"

We continued walking around, and took this trail to get away from all the cross-country skiers. Then it was just us and the woods, and the singing birds in the treetops above. We walked off the trail a little bit, and he said, "Hey, you want those hand warmers back?" And I said, "Sure." "Just reach in there and grab them," he said. So I took them out of his gloves and put them in my mittens."

He said, "Are they on the outside or inside of your hands?" "The inside," I said, but they were kind of bunched up, so I went to fix it, and he said, "Here come back onto the trail. (he was afraid I'd drop "it" in the snow.)" And I pulled the warmer out, because it felt like something was in my mitten, and I looked down and was sooo surprised. It was a beautiful ring and I just looked at him and I looked at the ring, and then Ilooked at him, and then at the ring, in shock. He said, "Well, will you?" Smiling, I said "Will I what? And he said, "I love you so much and I want to spend the rest of my life with you."

I really was sooo surprised because he had just given me diamond earrings on my birthday, Jan 2, so I was disappointed then thinking there's no way I'd get a ring anytime in the near future... He did it just to throw me off.

I was so excited to tell everyone, but he said my dad already knew since he had asked his permission that morning. And my best friend already knew since they had been looking for rings together (she did real good). He actually went looking by himself first and designed a ring in his mind. When he told my best friend about it, she said that amazingly enough, it was just like the one I had casually picked out one afternoon when we had gone looking. But the one I had picked out didn't have diamonds on the band, so this one is sooo much nicer.

We are just so excited....