one year!

well we've been together for five years now and been married for one year!  hard to believe how fast the time has flown by, and certainly this year in particular.  in the single year we've been married, mike was hired by costa mesa police department, sent to the oc sheriff's academy, lived in irvine during the week and in temecula on weekends, graduated from the academy and started his field training, i finally quit the winery, found a new job at surfrider foundation, and we moved to san clemente.  whew!  

anyway, our anniversary fell on a monday, so it was a little difficult to do much to celebrate that day since i had to work.  but, when i  got home, mike was cooking dinner and had some beautiful roses waiting for me.  he made fajitas which were REALLY good and then we watched 'what happens in vegas' which was a bday gift from sammy.  it was a good night.

in order to continue the celebration, we decided that we would use a gift certificate we got as a wedding gift and go to ruth's chris steakhouse for dinner.  i know, i know, you're all wondering why i would want to go to a steakhouse, but i was sure they had other things on their menu.  we got dressed up last night and made the trek to irvine which is the closest location to us.  our table wasn't ready right away so we had a nice drink at their bar and watched some of the red sox/rays game.  i ordered myself a frou-frou drink a pear twist martini made similar to a lemon drop.  the drink was so good and very crisp and refreshing!  (its so not like me to order these kinds of drinks and i even had a pomegranate martini the night before with the harveys).  it's fun every once in awhile and i guess it really makes it feel like a night on the town!  

we were seated to our table and had plenty of time to search through their menu.  they actually have a pretty good special where you have a four course meal for two for only $89!  but since we had a gift certificate we thought we'd order straight from the menu.  we started off with some seared ahi tuna -- one of my favorite things!  we each ordered a salad and mike got a chop salad without the bleu cheese of course and i got their tomato, mozzarella salad.  everything there is ordered a la carte so we got two side dishes, potatoes au gratin (yum) and french fried onion rings (yum).  mike ordered their filet and i ordered their stuffed chicken -- both of those were served on piping hot plates drenched in butter.  so fattening, but sooo good.  my chicken ended up being a WAY bigger portion than i anticipated and i think i only ate 1/4 of it.  i could barely stuff any more food into my belly!  mike was full too and we had to bring at least half the meal home with us.  

and to finish off the evening, they gave us one of their desserts on the house!  and the even wrapped it up to go.  i went for the cheesecake, but i haven't had a chance to eat it yet.  it looks just delicious!  i'll let everyone know how it is.  so after our huge meal, we ended up only shelling out about $25 for close to a $200 dinner.  not to shabby -- thanks to mike's probation friends enrique and kip for that one!

until next year...

here are all the wonderful flowers mike got me and all the nice cards we received from everyone.  the askanas-graul family (my mom's best friend since 6th grade) was thoughtful enough to buy a bottle of wine at the bernardo winery when we were there for the wedding and then mailed us the bottle for our anniversary!

here is mike the chef.  fajitas. ole.

our timed photo before leaving for dinner

our close up photo before dinner

this photo is a little dark but from back to front you can see the huge onion rings, mike's perfectly pink filet, the potatoes, and my huge chicken portion.

mike was really hungry!

this is after the meal.  we left with our doggie bags and with a food coma.