I went to work on a Thursday and it was business as usual until I signed onto my emails and received an e-greeting card from Chris. Now, we do send each other greeting cards quite often so I thought it was simply one of our regular cards. Boy was I wrong. The card was drop dead cute with a note attached that upon reading, would change my life forever. He said that he was taking me away for a four-day long weekend getaway and that I shouldn’t worry about having to drop all my work with such short notice because he had already cleared my required time off with my manager. I peeked over at my manager and of course, he was smiling mischievously. Between walking on sunshine, wrapping up everything at work as quickly as possible, and excusing myself from a team meeting I had for school that Saturday, it was a very hectic Thursday. But alas, I got myself ready for a weekend away in Old Montreal.

We took our time heading to Montreal that Friday morning. I definitely knew that the proposal was lurking but I had no idea when or how it was going to happen so the anticipation that it could literally happen at any moment just killed me slowly. When we arrived in Montreal, Chris brought me to a nail salon to get my nails done. God knows that the nails had to be polished to complement the sparkle I’m about to wear on my finger! I got my nails done and we went back to the hotel to get ready for a nice dinner. We headed down to the lobby at 6:45pm and as we walked towards the front door, there it was, a horse carriage parked right outside, ready to take us on a tour around the old city and to our restaurant.

The city lights were dimmed, the weather was absolutely perfect, and romance was in the air. The whole time we were on the carriage, I tried to feel his pockets for a box but had no luck, so I was starting to think that the proposal was not going to happen that evening. But then a part of me still felt that it was going to. We went around the old city with a ton of storytelling from Jacques, our horse carriage driver. I’m usually very fascinated by history and love learning about different cities but I could not pay attention because, as you’d expect, I was completely preoccupied by the anticipated proposal. It’s a good thing that I had been to Montreal before.

45 minutes came and went and the carriage finally pulled over to the sidewalk in front of a dashing restaurant. I was ready to exit the carriage when my knight in shining armour says “hold on, let me help you down.” As he got off the carriage, he pulls out a Canon PowerShot camera, hands it over to Jacques, and gets down on one knee. At that point, my brain froze, my heart exploded, my stomach swarmed with butterflies, and I began to weep tears of joy. There were many spectators on the streets and all I could see were phone cameras pointing at us, while I listened hard to the speech Chris had prepared. I don’t remember much of what he said because the moment was just that overwhelming. I said ‘absolutely yes’ and the crowd cheered.

But that’s not all. The owner of the restaurant came out with two glasses of champagne and made a toast to us. He said he has been happily married for 26 years and wanted to pass that good luck to us. Then Jacques jumps in and says he, too, has been happily married for 45 years and wanted to pass that good luck to us as well. Of course, I cried some more. Chris and I went inside the restaurant to another cheering crowd, who toasted to the engagement and thanked us for a great show. What a night to remember.

And just like that, we’ve started a new chapter. We are sooo damn excited.

Let’s see here: full time job, part time MBA, Etsy Shop, and now wedding planning. As if my life isn’t chaotic enough. I am so busy. I really think my hair is starting to fall at an alarming rate because of stress. Here’s to hoping that if you workhorse through your 20s, that you can cruise control your 30s (and not be bald). Wedding planning is really exciting though. I am working on our website at the moment, it’s coming together quite nicely. :)

I still intend on sharing my romantic proposal story in detail but as expected, I don’t have time right now. In five minutes, I have to hop on a team meeting for school via Skype. I will get to the story though! Or maybe it’s something I save for the wedding blog…! Happy October!

Back for a post. And this time to document something exciting. Chris proposed to me off of a horse carriage in the cobblestone streets of Old Montreal this weekend. The man continues to sweep me off my feet and I love him and everything about him to absolute pieces. I also love this blog because it really has become a journal of my life since 2009, capturing everything from the minute details to the extremely special moments like these, all in words and photographs. Life just got that much more awesome (and busy). Wedding plans shall be in full swing (along with the million other things I’m trying to take on). I’m so, so, so excited for the future. I am so happy.

I am also absolutely fascinated by everything that I am learning at school and wish that I can tell you all about it. I’m pressed for time pretty much all the time and have to rush through these posts more often than not, but I hope to get around to it somehow. I’ll also come back to tell the romantic proposal story in more detail when I’ve got more time. In the mean time, I wanted to quickly get this up ASAP while it’s fresh and in the moment. :) I’ve got permanent butterflies in my stomach!

I finished my homework sooner than expected, so here’s another post! :) (For Circle of Life series.)

Missing in action, I know. Once again, I’m trying to do a million things at once. I’m so sad that I haven’t been able to post consistently. Classes have started back up and my life is yet again chaotic, so new posts will be slow to come around. What counts is that I’m posting today. :) On a brighter note, my Etsy Shop is 3 sales away from breaking 500! I’m super excited! Sales could be a lot better but I suppose I have no right to complain seeing as I don’t even blog consistently anymore. There is a shortage in time and effort there! Anyways, happy mid-September! I’ll post again next week.

I hope your long weekend was as lovely as mine. Adding this to my Circle of Life series.Chris and I watched 7 horror movies this weekend. We are so desensitized. Nothing is scary anymore.

Just a quick follow-up to this post. My CrashPlan back-up has finally been completed. 528 GB later. It took about 4 weeks – very, very slow turle-pace upload process but very pleased that it’s all done and safe in the cloud. I haven’t been feeling too healthy lately and actually feel a little bit malnutrition-ed. My body is crying out. I’ve been in high stress mode since last October and you really don’t even realize when your body is taking a toll. I’ve been chugging water and vitamins the past week and have been trying to eat healthier. I got a blood test done and can’t wait for the results to come in so that I can go on and fix whatever is deficient. Need to get strong again.

I got busy doing other things that I abandoned the blog for 10 days. What a shame. Back again though.

It’s crazy how quickly the weeks pass. I feel like I’ve only skipped a few days of blog posts when it has actually been a week since the last one. Anyway, final grades for the summer semester have been published and I cleared an A+ in Financial Accounting and an A- in Organizational Behaviour – awesome much? I worked so hard and basically hated my life, but it was all worth it. The whirlwind starts all over again in September though. BUT, at the very least, I’ve read up to Chapter 7 of the Managerial Finance textbook getting a head start and keeping stress levels under control… (lol). I realize I sound like a gigantic nerd but it’s the truth so there’s no shame there. My classes are in Toronto next term, so I’m looking forward to the change in scenery.

I’m getting into another show called Luther. It’s really, really good. I ditched Sons of Anarchy – it kind of sucks after a while.

Last chance to enter the Canon EOS 70D Fantasy Kit Contest, so get those entries in. The contest closes at 11:59PM tonight.

So play along!

I became rather obsessed with circuses after watching Water for Elephants a couple of years ago. So in the summer of 2011, I went to the Shrine Circus and took this photo, one of my top sellers to date. A few weekends ago, Chris and I were on the highway and a circus top came into sight, completely out of the blue. It was the Shrine Circus again. The sky was perfectly blue with just the right amount of clouds, so as you’d expect, I felt the need to seize the opportunity for a 2013 re-shoot and re-edit. We took the next exit and found the circus. Here’s the second rendition of the circus top. :)

I’ve been good with posting a photo a day just the way the blog should be. But come September when the Fall semester begins, it’ll all slow down again. Boo.