Doggy Show

Dezi competed in a Dog Show on base.. my dog is awesome! She does like every trick in the book- plus some! She is the love of so many of our lives.. especially ours! But she is truly just like a grandchild to our parents.. and special to everyone in our family... Dezi is awesome. I love my dog!! Plus, she obeys sooo well! It was very nice having her here when Nate was gone!!!



This was one of the first nights after mom and Britt got here.. Remember Nate only arrived 2 days before they did.. so this was a very enjoyable meal for him! :) He is so darn cute!







One of the days during the second week mom and BT where here, we navigated to Shimoda to hit up some markets and the mall. Most of the time I just pay the 350Y and take the toll- but since I had them with me, I chose to navigate the backroads.. we had a lot of fun. We found more markets and some shrines! Of course we stopped to take pictures. We only took over 700ish pictures while they were here! :)







With them here, we navigated to SOOOOO many places! It was awesome because we would just drive and drive and stop at interesting places!! :) What a great time we had.. but it went WAY to fast!!!

Mom and Britt's Arrival to Japan

Mom and Brittany arrived in Japan on June 8, for a month! We had a fun-filled month with one another. There will be several blogs posted about their trip! When they got here, the first full day after they were here we went to the nearest beach to us. It is only about a 10 minute drive. We went to Miss Veedol beach and had a good time. We found a ton of seaglass and seashells for BT to take home.. of course she had to share with mama!











For dinner we had sushi. They did not care for it, to say the least! It made me very sad.. :) But at least they tried. Enjoys these pictures ... Will post again soon!

May

May was an exciting month. I was preparing for the arrival of Nathan and mom and Britt. I was pretty busy at work and on my down time, I was working on my house and getting the guest room in order. On May 21st, I graduated Grad school, so I officially have a Masters Degree now too!! Good times! Other than getting ready for everyone to come home and end of the year stuff at work- there wasnt much going on in May! But the most exciting was that I HAVE MY MASTERS!!!

Cherry Blossoms

These are sooo beautiful! We were able to bask in the beauty for a few weeks here in Northern Japan... Dezi loved them as well. At school we had a BBQ at Train Park with our students and their families! We were able to enjoy the beauty of the cherry blossoms.. It was just so dad-gum cold.










On April 26th, the Wades, me, and Tanya took another ITT tour to Hirosaki to see the Cherry blossoms. It was not a pretty day. This day is easy for me to remember, because my baby neice turned 7. As we were in Hirosaki we had our last snow fall of the season. But boy did it snow. We got home hours late.. it was miserable. It was cold, wet, and snowy on this trip. Another reason why I do not care for ITT trips.. :) Not like it is their fault! :) We just have not had great experiences.

If you have never seen Cherry Blossoms.. they are totally worht seeing. The whole base and off base is.. pink!!!!! So pretty.

April

Girl Scouts was going along great. We were about to have our end of the year celebration! The theme was JAPAN! (imagine that)... My friend, Sadie- who is also my co-leader, and I headed to Towada City and went to the 500Yen Kimono shop. We both left with 2 very cute Kimonos! That was a very fun time!!







Misawa Idol was in full swing during April. Kim and I tried to go every Saturday. It was something nice to do every week- that we looked foward to. Kim and I hung out a lot while the boys were gone- and we are a lot alike. We were most content sitting at the house. We do not go out and party and stuff--- so Misawa Idol was a nice welcome!!

Goodbye's are always so hard. A friend of mine left this month- and her two beautiful little gals. I had to go see them off... it was sad!



Along with these fun things-- we were THAT much closer to Nathan coming home again. He was doing good. Some days he hated it- others days he was happy! Skype was a FREAKING life saver.. we skyped daily.. several times a day! :) It really helped our time apart not seem so far away!!

March

One of the most AWESOME months ever. I was offered a job teaching 6th grade Language Arts at Sollars Elementary School. It was not a guarantee for next year--- but I got it! IT was something that I waited for and waited for. I am once again reminded about how blessed that I am!!! I was just entering my last three classes, expected to be the most intense, of grad school! March was a great month- getting to know my students and fellow teachers!

Along with getting a job- we were getting THAT much closer to Nathan returning!!

February

The 2nd month Nate was gone was continued subbing, grad school, and with friends. The beginning of Feb. Nate finally arrived at his final destination in Iraq. Once he got there, there were many emotions coming from both of us. He was finally there- and he was about to begin his time away. He was now living in a room with tons of boys, no privacy, trying to get use to his new life for the next four months, and being away from us. But my boy is strong, and he did great.







Kim and I traveled to the Towada Snow Festival with ITT during February. It was a good time, but not really. Does that even make sense? We should have driven ourselves. It was bitingly cold... and just wasnt worth sitting there for hours and hours!!! I will go back this year again, with Nathan- but we will drive!





The second month of Nate being gone- came and went... I continued to work hard with school.. and Nate continued to work hard in Iraq. Once again, I was reminded of how blessed that I truly am!!! God has blessed me so much- I live in this amazing country, I have awesome friends, and my husband is truly great and serving the country!!