Anniversaries and Birthdays

Last Thursday Robert took me out to eat to celebrate my 21 birthday.  He drove me to class and ran errands for me while I sat in class.  He dropped off our rings to have them engraved.  Since my engagement ring is essentially three bands that are interwoven, I'm not getting a separate wedding band.  I bought Robert's wedding band the day we got my ring insured.  Anyway, Robert picked the inscription - chesid.  It's Hebrew, and of course we'll be using the actual Hebrew symbols.  The "c" is silent, and there's a gutteral sound at the beginning.  Anyway, it means covenant loyalty or lovingkindness.  The major bummer though is that it can take up to two weeks to get the rings back.  Seven days down.  Hopefully it'll be less than seven days before we get them back.  I know it might sound weird, but I'm kind of self-conscious that people think we broke up since I'm not wearing my ring.  Plus, my finger looks so plain now.  So after class, Robert took me to a surprise restaurant for dinner.  We ended up going to The Aviary.  It was delicious, and I would highly recommend it to anyone in the area.  It's in downtown Springfield.  Of course, we failed to take pictures, but the inside is absolutely adorable.  There is a gigantic fake tree in the middle of the room that reaches to the ceiling, antique bird cages, a fireplace, beautiful artwork, and you can even watch the cooks make your dinner.  The restaurant specializes in crepes, but it does have typical main dishes as well - steak, shrimp, etc.  Robert and I had only ever had dessert crepes before, so we decided to branch out and order savory crepes.  I order the Venetian - asparagus, spinach, tomatoes, and mushrooms with mascarpone cheese on the side and three cheese mashed potatoes for my side dish.  I could pick from mashed potatoes, rice pilaf, salad, or fruit.  Robert got the salmon crepe and mashed potatoes as well.  We split an Aux Nuella crepe (chocolate mousse, Nutella, whipped cream, chocolate shavings) for dessert.  Our server was great, and we loved the atmosphere.  Right after we ordered, approximately thirty ladies who were 70+ years old showed up for dessert.  I'm guessing that isn't typical, but for a second I wondered if we were crashing their party.  After we ate we enjoyed a lovely stroll downtown.
Coincidentally, our 1 1/2 year anniversary was Tuesday so we got to do some more celebrating.  Robert had a mandatory fire drill at 9:00pm so we knew we couldn't go to Springfield or do anything super big. So we decided to make our own dinner - glazed pork chops grilled on the barbie, grilled asparagus, grilled mixed vegetables (zucchini, onions, green bell pepper, Mexi-corn) {are you noticing a theme yet? GRILLED} and pasta salad (spaghetti noodles, chopped up turkey, onion, feta cheese, parmesan cheese, and Italian dressing).  I made sweet tea too.  Since Robert is a grill master I try to take advantage of it by having him cook us dinner as much as possible.  :)  We packed up our food and took it to Playter Park.  It had been about 100 in the day, but by the time we ate it was about 80, the sun was setting, and there was a bit of a breeze so it was perfect.  After we ate, we strolled around the neighborhood (Lakewood Hills) and admired the houses we can't afford.  It's fun, really.  We'll say things like, "Ooo!  That one has a big yard.  That'd be perfect for kids," "I love the brick/rock combo!" "I want a yard with a weeping willow tree," "That looks like the house I grew up in."  I like dreaming with Robert.