The Best Year of My Life!

I can't believe it has already been a year. Yesterday was our one year anniversary. For many years I never knew if I would ever see the day and now, here it is. We have had a tough few weeks so it was nice to have a chance to relax, spend some good quality time together and think about the last year we spent together.

After work we headed over to Del Navio for dinner. Del Navio is the restaurant we went to for our wedding luncheon exactly one year ago. It is a small quiet Italian restaurant that is tucked away on a side street by the Oakland Temple. It was defiantly a good find. We were the only two in the restaurant. We started off with an appetizer -some Italian meatballs with marinara and a polenta cream sauce. We then ordered our favorite dish there, chicken breast wrapped in procuitto and cheese with a side of fettuccine and the other dish was fettuccine carbonara with pancetta, olives and tomatoes. They were both pretty good. We did not eat dessert at the restaurant since we had some waiting at home for us.

We then headed back home for the moment Rick has been waiting for most of his life - the wedding cake. When Rick proposed to me, a few minutes later I told him that he had to make me a promise. This made him very curious. I told him that he had to promise me, not to smash cake in my face on our wedding day. This was something that he had been planning on doing for most of his life so he wouldn't make me the promise. This worried me, even up to the second we cut the cake on our wedding day. 

My sweet new husband was so good to me and did not smash the cake in my face on our day. I told him that he could have his moment on our one year anniversary.

Since we didn't save the top of our wedding cake for our anniversary (who wants to eat old freezer burn cake) I ordered us a fresh new one. I ordered the same exact cake we had at our wedding but made it look a little different (more anniversary like than wedding like). I decided to have it light blue which was the color of our wedding and add a little design to the sides. We had a great time cutting the cake together, smashing it in each others face, eating it with our hands, and trying to document it all with our tripod and camera timer. We laughed and enjoyed ourselves. Trying to clean it all up was another story. Who knew buttercream would be so difficult to get off your face. It was like we smeared Crisco all over.

Who knows, maybe eating cake with our hands each year for our anniversary will become a fun tradition for us.

A few weeks ago I told Rick that I wasn't sure his anniversary gift was going to arrive on time and he said "What, are we doing gifts?" Typically we aren't that big into giving each other gifts for birthdays and Christmas. It's just not that big of a deal. We do buy each other gifts but it's usually not too much. Plus it's more fun to buy for others than just ourselves. I told him that out of all the different days of the year that we celebrate with gifts, our anniversary is the one day I wouldn't mind celebrating with a thoughtful gift for each other. 

A few weeks later I told him that if he wanted to, he could buy me some Amber in the Domincan Republic (they are famous for it) for our anniversary and he said "Maybe for Valentine's Day, you can't give Amber for your one year anniversary. A non traditional gift would be a clock and a traditional gift would be paper."

I knew that my comment a few weeks prior sparked him to investigate what he should get me for our anniversary. After several hours on the Internet ( I am sure) and some consultation from some girl friends he probably knows more about one year anniversaries than I do (I had no idea it was paper for the first year).

I spent a lot of time trying to think about all the different things I could get Rick and then the perfect gift popped into my head. A bonsai tree. Now why would I think a bonsai tree would be the perfect gift? Because if you nourish it, love it and take care of it, it will last forever. Rick is such a good husband and is always working on nourishing, loving and take care or our marriage so we'll be happy together forever. I know it sounds kinda of cheesy but it just seemed to fit perfectly for the way I feel about him and our marriage. I also thought he might enjoy taking care of it, training it and sculpting the cute little tree into a piece of art.

I ordered him a Chinese Elm bonsai tree. The shipment did come on time. However, it was a little damaged in shipping and I think they sent me the wrong tree. I ordered a trained tree that was 10 years old and 14 inches high. We got an untrained tree that was 9 inches high. As you can see the branches are scattered all over the place and it still needs to be formed and shaped. It does have the potential to be a beautiful piece of art.

Sweet Rick brought me some beautiful flowers - roses, tiger lilies, and tulips (all some of my favorites) and the best card in the world. I don't know how he finds them, but he always seems to find the perfect card, and believe it or not he writes the most romantic words. He is so romantic it makes me cry. Instead of actual paper, he decided to buy me a stamp embosser of a B for Bingham (I'm pretty happy to be a Bingham now!). This way I can make my own stationary or use it for what ever I want rather than just buying me boring paper. He knows me pretty well, I love anything monogrammed.

We are going to finish our anniversary celebration with a great trip to the Dominican Republic where we will enjoy some kiteboarding, scuba diving, warm sunny weather and some beautiful white sandy beaches. We are leaving the day before Valentine's Day.

Happy Anniversary sweet pea. I love you!

On our one year anniversary I ask myself, what is the one thing I love about Rick? I can't seem to come up with just one answer. Just some of the things I love about Rick (in no particular order):

1. Kindness - I love his kindness. He has a big heart. My theory in my dating/younger years was this: The important thing to notice in a good guy is how he treats other people. If he pays special attention to only you and doesn't notice anyone else around him, opening the door for you and letting it close on the lady right behind you, then there is a pretty good chance that once you marry him, he will start treating you the same way he treats everyone else. If he notices others and treats others kindly, you can be sure he will treat you kindly even after years of marriage. Rick still opens the car door for me even after a year of being married! 

Oh yeah, I just thought of another kind thing Rick did. Remember when I blogged about our family cruise to Mexico in May? Well Rick took the blame for what he thought was grandma passing gas in front of the whole family, but it was really the fart machine my dad had that no one knew about - it was hilarious and so sweet.

2. Adventurous - I love Rick's adventurousness. I love that he is up for anything any time. I love that we can hop in the car and take a road trip with out having a destination in mind, that we can ferry over to Vieques Island, hitchhike to the beach, and camp on the sand with our packs. I love that we can camp anywhere and any time even if it is just pitching our tent on the side of the road in the mountains. I love that we love to explore different parts of the world together.

3. Solid as a rock - and I don't just mean his abs. I love his faith, spirituality, and strong testimony of the Gospel.

4. Ambitious - I love Rick's ambitious side. He is a go getter. He spends a lot of time thinking about what he wants and he goes and gets it. He has a great mind and he puts it to work for the good. Always wanting everything to be as good as it can be.

5. Service Oriented - Rick is always serving. He is constantly serving me and our marriage which I am truly grateful for. The first story that comes to mind happened just recently when he laid up with me all night rubbing me legs while I laid on the bathroom floor sick as can be. I laid on that bathroom floor for 15 hours straight. He also does a great job serving others. I remember an experience we had while we were dating. We were on our way to the coast and we pulled in to the grocery store to pick up some food. As we were getting back in to our car, Rick noticed that the lady parked in front of us could use some help. She was sitting on her little driver scooter next to her car trying to load her groceries (they were piled in the front basket of her scooter) into the car. Without thinking twice, he ran over to her car and helped her load her groceries in.

6. Thinker - Although sometimes this drives me crazy about him, I love it. Rick is the biggest thinker I know. He spends every second of the day thinking about things. He uses his mind to make the best decisions, ask the right questions, and find the best way. I tend to be much different in this area, not that I don't think, but sometimes I make quick decisions and I am thankful he is by my side to help me think about it first.

7. Good with money - I love that Rick is good with money. He is a wise spender, a good saver, and still knows how to enjoy life.

8. Listens - Rick is a good listener, this is something that has improved over the last year. You know how they always say men are from mars and women are from venus? This is true, but if you know that, it can be a big help. In the beginning or our marriage, I would come home from a long day at work and want to "vent" to Rick. I would do a little complaining and tell him all my problems. In the beginning Rick would do the guy thing and try to solve the problems, or give me solutions or recommendations which is usually something a girl doesn't want to hear when she is trying to vent. Listening! Rick now just listens, is there for me, and knows exactly what to do.

9. Desire - I love that Rick has a great desire in life. A desire to always be better, and do better. I love that we both have the desire to progress together in life.

10. Good with kids - I love to watch Rick with his nieces and nephews. He loves them to pieces and they love him. He is so good with kids and has a wonderful way of teaching them, loving them and playing with them. Can't wait to have babies with him!

Good Looking - I can't forget that one. I love that my husband is soooo good looking. He turns me on!

Love you to pieces Ricky B. Happy First Anniversary!

The Bingham Family Review

For those of you who did receive our Christmas card this year this might sound a little familiar to you. For those of you whose cards got lost in the mail you might enjoy hearing about our year.

2008 has been a great year for us. As you know, we started our Bingham family on February 2, 2008 in the Oakland Temple. Our wedding day was perfect and we were so happy so many of our friends and family were there to celebrate with us.

We moved into an old brick warehouse that was converted into a loft in Oakland, CA. It has 20 foot ceilings, brick walls, hardwood floors, and a wall full of windows. We love it! We can run around the house and even play glow in the dark Frisbee with our new Frisbee that we got for our wedding - thanks Emily!

We have been enjoying our new married life together and have been keeping very busy. Rick is currently the ward clerk and the first councilor in the Elders quorum presidency (has since been released as the ward clerk) and I am the first councilor in the young women's. We enjoy our very diverse ward which includes inner city Oakland.

Rick is still at Del Monte and has moved from the StarKist business on to the dog biscuit business. He is now managing the Milk Bone & Meaty Bone brands and loves to spend time in the pet food aisle of the grocery store. I now realize that the tuna fish aisle wasn't so bad after all. I am still at ChefsBest and am working on my ninth year there. I am currently doing sales and marketing, working with all the big food manufactures. I now get to travel to fun places like Battle Creek, MI and Minneapolis, MN to visit with Kellogg and General Mills. Sometimes I make it back to the kitchen and do a judging session or two.

We have had a ton of fun together this year. We started our married life off with a two week vacation to the West Indies. We started in Jamaica and spent 4 days there in a bungalow on the rock cliffs over looking the beautiful blue ocean and beach of Negril. We then flew to Grenada and the Grenadine Islands. The Grenadine Islands are a bunch of deserted islands about 60 miles off the coast of Venezuela with beautiful sandy beaches and blue water, perfect for a honeymoon! We went sailing, kayaking, snorkeling, exploring and of course took our yellow rubber raft with us. We ate great food and had a wonderful time.

A few months later we spent the week in the Mexican Riviera. We went to Cabo San Lucus, Mazatlan, and Puerto Vallarta. We went jet skiing, shopping, boogie boarding, sailing and zip lining.

This summer we did some camping in Santa Cruz and at Lake Berryessa, went 4 wheeling in the Sierra Mountains, entered a tuna fishing contest in Oregon (we did not win but we did catch about 60 pounds of tuna), hiked in the Lava Caves at Lassen National Park, and spent the 4th of July in Westwood. We ended the summer season with a 27 mile backpacking trip along the Lost Coast of California hiking along the beach with the bears.

We hope your year has been as great as ours! Happy New Year!

Christmas Time

On December 20th Rick and I hosted a Christmas Party at our house. It was fun, much different than any other Christmas party I have had. This one actually had lots of kids and married people. I am used to hosting a party where people are in nice dress, there's lots of good food and people are mingling and meeting new people. Now that lots of our friends are married and have kids a party like that doesn't really work.

We played one game. It was a Noah's Ark game. Each person got a name of an animal. Without talking or making noise they had to find their other pair by acting like that animal. Once they thought they had it they had to go to Rick who was the judge and act like their animal. It was a pretty funny game. Some were easy like a money or lion and some where more difficult like a camel, zebra or hippo.

We decorated our house with lots of candles and white paper lanterns hanging from the ceiling. I spent time make some of my traditional recipes. We served: symphony cookies, peanut butter fudge, chocolate dipped apricots, caramel corn, white chocolate cranberry pecan tart, assorted christmas cookies, spinach dip, smoked almond cheddar fondue, bruchetta and artichoke/olive tapenade, pasta salad, antipasta picks, and maybe some more but I can't remember right now.

Right before our party my family dropped by for a quick visit. They had just picked my brother Justin up from the airport. He is home from the Air Force for a few weeks before he heads out to Italy for two years.

We headed to Utah for our Christmas vacation. We spent about 8 days there with Rick's family. We spent lots of time with the nieces and nephews. We went sledding a few times, shopping, movies, friends reunion and lots of family parties. It was a fun week.

After all the car trouble, we did actually make it to the beach. After spending hours on the car, we were all starving. We went to Asian Rose which was a recommendation by Justin and Silvia. It was good, but too our surprise it was a vegetarian restaurant. Our hunger was hoping for a little more substance - some MEAT.

Ben - although there was some trouble, we still had tons of fun having you and hope you come back for another visit soon!

Our weekend continued with some more fun. We decided to throw the surf boards into the Land Rover (the Subaru was in the shop) and head to Santa Cruz with Ben. Right as we passed Los Gatos on Highway 17 we had a major tire blow out. We walked back into Los Altos in the rain to find a tire shop. 

Unfortunately my Land Rover did not come with a tire iron when I bought it and the lug nuts to get the tires off are not standard. A regular tow truck doesn't have the tools needed to get the tire off. Luckily, we found an open tire shop pretty quickly and borrowed a few tools. Our spare tire was bald and flat so we ended up having to roll the spare back to the tire shop to fill it with air and then put it on the car. We realized we had 4 very bald tires. We were driving around on the wires. Of course standard tires for a Land Rover can not be bought with out special ordering them so we ended up driving around on our bald tires. Land Rover's require an H rated tire which is a tire for high performance and high speeds. It is very difficult to find an High performance tire that is all terrain and a little nobby for 4 wheeling which is why I have the Land Rover in the first place. 

Several weeks later and lots of money gone, we finally have new tires and all new brakes for the Land Rover. 

TIMBER

Like I said earlier - Don't get a Christmas tree that is over 10 feet tall, actually let's say 8 feet just to be safe. 

Timber! That is right, it happened. I walked into the house after work one night and my mouth dropped and my heart skipped a beat. Our very big Christmas tree (that took me so long to decorate  - 3 nights) was lying flat on the floor. There was shattered glass everywhere from the new christmas bulbs that I had just bought. That wasn't the only devestation, I walked around to the back and sure enough all the water in the stand that I had so diligently kept full had spilt all over my beautifully wrapped christmas gifts. I had spent hours wrapping about 40 presents in nice gold paper and beautiful ribbon and they were all soaking wet. I unwrapped them only to find a lot of wet clothes. Luckily the gifts were mostly for family members so we let them dry out and explained what had happened.

 

My dad and Terry came over that night to help Rick take care of the tree. Terry and I cleaned up all the broken ornaments and tried to save as much as we could. My dad and Rick spent the rest of the evening screwing in a large piece of plywood to the bottom of the Christmas tree stand and bolted the tree to the ceiling.

It took us a few days to get the tree re-decorated and luckily we had some help. Becky who is one of my favorite people to decorate trees with, was in town. We have been decorating Christmas trees together since 2000. Ben one of Rick's best friends was lucky enough to be in town visiting and was able to join in as well. The tree ended up looking okay. However, we never replaced all the new ornaments that broke, so the only part of the tree that ended up decorated was the front. The sides and back were pretty bare.