Here goes everyone.
I don't have a clue if I am writing in the correct place or not.
I was so happy to hear your news Ilona and Takaya. What a wonderful couple you make and after 3 and a half years you definitely know each other well. I couldn't be happier to think Ilona will be part of this family too.
Takaya, your proposal sounds pretty phenomenal. I am not sure which family you take after with such a romantic proposal. Your Gramma Brunner told me after the birth of Charles and Marlen that the Brunner boys don't always get around to proposing and perhaps I should do the proposing myself. She then told me she had done the same to Jake. It was good advice but I enjoyed reading about your proposal better. Way to go!
The art work idea is quite amazing too. I am impressed.
Love to all,
from the Yukon Brunners

Congratulations

Well done, Takaya, excellent style. Ilona you have trained him well!!

Chris

That is wonderful! Congratulations to you both. The ring is beautiful and so was the delivery. I haven't had a chance to meet you yet Ilona, but I look forward to it. Nothing so exciting here. We enjoyed the hot weekend playing mini golf at Paradise in Parksville with Chelsea and going to Rathtrevor Beach afterwards. I did end up buying the ice cream due to my poor golfing, but it should count for something that I nearly got my ball in the second story window of the playhouse on the course!!

Congratualtions!!!

Takaya and Ilona,

I know I already spoke to both of you but congratulations once again!! Takaya, I love the artwork. That was not what I had pictured when you described it over the phone. The "Will you marry me?" sign is very subtle, I almost didn't notice it. Also, good taste in the ring. Very impressive! I am so happy and excited for the upcoming wedding.

No other news will compare to your "engagement post" so this may be the end of our blog ...

Love Melissa

Absolutely the Best News

Dear Ilona and Takaya
I loved the engagement details.You have the ability to make me feel like I was right there. Good job Ilona. Takaya must have gotten significantly better at making pancakes to bring them to you on such an important day! Your ring is beautiful!!! I'm impressed,Takaya. I also really liked the memory lane picture. I couldn't help but notice there was a Canadian flag in there.
Our family has something grand and exciting to look forward to and uncle steve and I are both thrilled. You two are great together. Much love to both of you!
You might want to send everyone an e-mail and tell them to check the blog because there are a few slackers when it comes to checking and contributing on this blog (That will get a response from someone)

Big News!

Family,
Today at 7am I proposed to Ilona and, thankfully, she said yes! So officially, I'm now engaged and planning on getting married August 2010. It was a great day, and I'm really excited - I'll now turn it over to Ilona and get her impression about the proposal.

Hi everyone!!! I’m engaged and I’m SOOOOOOOO excited. I feel lucky to be engaged to Takaya and grateful to be joining such a wonderful family. I'm sure everyone wants to know how he proposed and I'm even more excited to keep reliving the moment. Today at 7:00 am, Takaya walked into my bedroom at my house holding a tray with roses and the best pancakes I've ever had. He was also carrying a present wrapped in green (my favorite color) that looked like a picture.

Today is our 3 and a half year anniversary so when I saw him this morning I started to suspect that he might propose, but was then unsure because I saw a present. We had some breakfast in bed together and then he asked me to open the present. I slowly opened the present and it was an original piece of artwork that outlined all the significant events we experienced during our relationship. It was a "walk down memory lane" starting with the first day we met and ended in a picture of a street sign that said, "Will you marry me?" As I read the sign, Takaya got down on one knee and opened the box holding the ring. I immediately started to cry and nodded and after about 10 seconds managed to say yes. I was crying for about an hour after that and had a very hard time composing myself. After I had some time to control my emotions, our families took us out to brunch to celebrate. I knew we were planning on going to brunch, but I thought it was a good-bye party for my sister. She’s moving to San Francisco next weekend for law school. Little did I know that we’d be celebrating our engagement!

I've always dreamed of this day, but I could have never imagined feeling the way I do. I'm so happy and excited to be engaged :) Oh and the ring is BEAUTIFUL!!! It's perfect and I'm going to have a hard time getting used to wearing such a shiny object on my finger. We've attached pictures of the ring and the two of us as an engaged couple.

enjoyed your comments, John

Hi everyone

I decided to check the blog in case someone like say, Takaya, had something exciting to post. No such luck. I'll try back later. I did get to read your post John, and had a good chuckle about the t-shirt. I would have thought a fellow caveman would have loved the smell of stale sweat. Instead of putting the t-shirts in the laundry pile, why don't you just hand wash it in the sink. With your hot weather, it should be dry in no time. Just an idea.

We are up at the cabin and the temperature is about 37 (very hot) The neighbor kids are playing on our big water trampoline and having a blast. We had Ayana up here last week as her daycare is closed for 3 weeks. Tomorrow we pick her up for week 2. It has been going great and we had a blast with her up here. A perfect place for a little kid!

Hope you are all having a great weekend. For us BC'ers, it is a long weekend. Monday is BC day!

Love cindy