Staff Sergeant Yates!

Josh got promoted today to Staff Sergeant.

I am so very proud of him.

Congrats Erik and Maki!

We went to our first Japanese wedding today. This was Erik and Maki's wedding. It was very nice and was a little similar to an American wedding. There was a lot of differences like instead of bringing a wedding gift you bring money. We had to bring 13,000 yen per person, which is equivalent to 130.00 dollars per person. This money helps the couple pay for their wedding. There was no dancing, but a lot of music playing. The wedding ceremony was very similar to an American style ceremony. The main difference was that there was Japanese and English translations. The father still walked Maki down the aisle. They still exchanged vows and rings. Erik kissed the bride. Erik and Maki were pronounced Husband and Wife and they took their first walk together. Maki threw the bouquet. They had wedding cake and fed it to each other. Here are some random photos from the wedding and reception.

Not a lot of Americans have the opportunity to go to Japanese weddings while stationed in Japan. Therefore, we were very honored to attend.

I'm the Number 1 Aunt

My brother just had a baby on 13 March 2008. The baby was born at 6:20 pm, Weighs 7 lbs. 1 oz., 18 1/2 inches long. It was a boy!!! They named him Tre' Anthony Mones. He is the cutest little baby. They have named me the number one aunt. :)

Curlers

For Josh's ALS graduation, I fixed my hair with curlers. Well, I did not have enough time to go home from work and fix my hair before the graduation, so I had to do it at work. My boss took pics of me with curlers in my hair at work. So, this is me in my office at work.

Swan Festival 2008

Swan Festival!

Josh was dreading going with me to this all week....well little did he know that he was going to have a blast. He really enjoyed himself. It was kind of like something you would see in the movie, "The Notebook." There was a lot of swans, ducks, and seagulls. The seagulls were greedy like always...one even flew into my face.

Josh got bird poop on his shoes. I think it is funny that we saw this sign about dog poop...but hello there was bird poop everywhere.

We took funny pics in this little cutout. How cute!

It was a really fun adventure.

Professional Photos from the ALS Graduation

Hello everyone!

Here are the professional photos that are a lot better from the ALS Graduation. Problem is that they were sent to Josh through email, so there is no way to develop them. However, it is nice to see how good they turned out. Especially the POW/MIA table.