The Guthries are (in)famous again...

We are definitely making our mark on the Iwakuni community! Just in the past few week, three of the four Guthries have been featured in base media. Will was selected out of his entire school to be interviewed for a worldwide broadcast about M.C.Perry Elementary School being selected as a Blue Ribbon nominee. Of over 100,000 schools in the nation, M.C. Perry was one of the 200 selected as a nominee. The school and community is very excited about this honor and Will was proud to have been chosen as the "spokesperson." As soon as we have a link for the story, I will post it.

The boys' baseball skills were also on display on base. I am friends with one of the base marketers and she asked me for baseball photos t promote the upcoming youth baseball season. I gave her a disk of my favorites and here is what happened:

Xan was featured in the monthly base magazine of activities, The Preview.

Will is featured on the poster... he ACTUALLY is the poster child for the 2014 youth baseball season.

And I was featured in the Winter 2014 edition of a quarterly magazine that the base produces as a relationship builder between the Americans and the Japanese. Not a great photo of me, but I'll do what I can to grease the wheels with foreign relations.

So, despite our celebrity, we've continued to manage to live normal lives. We celebrated Valentines Day. The kids thank you for all the goodies you sent them. Rodney and I went to a 7-course dinner the base hosted and had a very nice time.

I tried goose liver pate' for the first time and didn't gag, thanks to the raspberry drizzle on it.

And these are the roses Rodney gave me.

He also got me a small camera backpack so I can carry just the essentials. I gave him a baseball stitched with a heart and a gift card to the Exchange. The kids each got gift cards from the Exchange and spent them the next day. I made them each save part of the Valentine's Day money that was sent to them, much to their disappointment, They are saving up their money to buy Skylanders in Okinawa. Our Exchange here doesn't have them.

We still have the cat, who is trying my patience on a regular basis. She is like a teenage daughter, I think, constantly doing things she knows she's not supposed to because it is fun to aggravate me. Like play with my feet, jump on the kitchen counters, interrupt me while I am photographing some scrapbooks, sitting on my desk when she knows she's not allowed on it... you name it. She has also started rejecting her comfy bed on the arm of the sofa for these lovely digs:

That would be the boys' dirty clothes hamper. Rodney said she needs a bath. I said he could bathe her if he liked. I'd rather not be clawed. Oreo loves her Dad... here is a shot to end this with, of them playing chase around the house.

And this one is for Mom... here is how milk is sold at Costco in Japan:

If I go by color, I think the blue one is non-fat, but there isn't any English on the cartons to confirm.