Are you surprised? Because I am totally… out of my mind… completely shocked and surprised.

Yes, yesterday Allan blindsided me… and proposed to me. I cried my face off. But I said yes!

Watch the video below if you’re interested. We were about to head out grocery shopping when suddenly grabbed me in a big bear hug and told me that he loved me. He then grabbed my arm and pulled me outside onto the patio. To my surprise there was a camera set-up and rolling and Allan brought us to our favourite corner of the patio. He started reading an amazing speech to me that completely blew me away. I was crying the entire time and couldn’t stop crying for about an hour afterwards. He pulled out a gorgeous artisan wooden box that he had purchased (somehow behind my back) while we were in Tofino with my favourite Tofino chocolate and a shell that we had collected together on a beach in Tofino. He asked me if I would marry him and through my tears I said… “Of course!”.

It’s still sinking in that we’re engaged. I seriously cannot believe it.

Believe it or not, the only thing that was NOT a surprise was the ring! Several weeks ago, I found out inadvertently through my mom that Allan had hand-written my dad a formal letter to ask for my hand in marriage a few weeks ago. My dad and Allan went out to dinner where my dad gave Allan his blessing and surprised him by offering an heirloom ring in the family. Since I had already found out about the scheme, Allan showed me the ring and asked me if I loved it. I did… it was everything I had ever wanted in a ring — yellow gold and a beautiful solitaire diamond. I didn’t want to see the ring when it was finished so Allan had picked it up without me.

We always knew that we wanted to be together, but we had discussed not getting engaged for several months. I’m usually good at guessing surprises and figuring things out… but I got completely blindsided on this one! I could not be happier.

We’ve known each other for four years and have been dating for three years, so I’ve known that Allan was the one for me for a long time now… so I shouldn’t be surprised… but I totally am. He means everything to me and he’s the man I want to spend the rest of my life with. I’m incredibly lucky to have such an amazing man.

We’re extremely happy and just enjoying the moment. We’re not setting any dates in stone yet, but aiming for around September 2011 for the wedding.

We spent the entire evening yesterday breaking the news to our closest family and made sure to tell our closest friends by phone so they didn’t have to find out by Facebook status update. It’s all just a blur right now! Will this turn into a temporary wedding blog? Haha… I guess that remains to be seen…

It’s hard to believe that it has already been three years that Allan and I have been together. Time really does fly when you’re having fun! On Wednesday I spoke a lot about authenticity… and I am so happy that one of the things in my life that is very much authentic and the same online and offline, behind closed doors or in public, is my relationship with Allan.

This long weekend, we’re off to Tofino for some sun, relaxation, time with friends, and of course, much needed surf to celebrate our three year anniversary. It feels like it’s been way too long since we’ve been in the water and I’m looking forward to kick-starting a summer of surfing! We’ll be staying at Ocean Village in Tofino.

When Allan and I first met at work at the very first video game company I worked at, we were friends for nearly a year before we started dating. I pretty much had to bribe him to go out with me… but it worked, and we’ve been together ever since.

I honestly thought we would get bored of each other with the amount of time we spend together. The very three months of dating we were together almost 24/7 and well… three years later, not much has changed. It blows my mind that we’re still not sick of each other.

We have the same interests… we love surfing, snowboarding, cooking, scuba diving, relaxing, golfing, and now, even mountain biking together.

We hang out with each other’s groups of friends together.

We introduce each other to new things.

We travel together.

We have fun together.

We’re not perfect by any means… every relationship has ups and downs, and ours is no different. But we do manage to resolve our disagreements quickly, and try never to go to bed upset. We’ve worked extremely hard on our relationship… we’ve set aside time to work on problems, we’re gone through tough times together, we’ve done exercises, read through relationship books and workbooks, and even made sure to do a few counselling sessions a couple years ago. It’s made a world of difference, and I can honestly say our relationship is very strong, healthy, and happy.

Nothing comes easy, that’s for sure!

What’s I’ve realized most of all (thanks to my friends Kim and Liv), is that it’s a relationship worth fighting for. And when I think about it that way, I know that we have to put time and effort into it to make it work. But it’s worth it. And most good things in life you have to work and fight for.

We’re so compatible in terms of interests, personalities, values, lifestyle, humour, romance, and careers… that I honestly can’t imagine my life with anyone else. I know he’s the one. I can’t even count how many nights we’ve gone to bed laughing so hard that our pillows got wet with tears.

Allan is incredibly creative, smart, kind, generous, hard-working, athletic, and so so funny. I feel so very lucky to be with him. It’s weird to get off work and miss each other so much during the day that when he comes to pick me up, it’s like a big reunion. Every frickin’ day!

So here’s to you Allan…. Happy Three Year Anniversary! I can’t wait to surf with you this anniversary weekend, and have many more surf weekends throughout our lives. I love you.