August Happenings

August was a BUSY month! To start out Pat's birthday is August 5th and as silly as this sounds I threw him a party at Chuck E Cheese. Ok, yes we may be a bit old for Chuck E Cheese but Pat loves the pizza and of course ski ball. What better way to throw a party then there...I didn't have to make my house immaculate just so we could have a bunch of friends over to help make it messy again. Well worth the money, all were fed and entertained and I didn't have to clean up!!! To make that day a bit more interesting our friend's the Armstrong's had their 4th child Keagan. Amanda wanted me to be there to witness the birth but I had of course planned Pat's surprise party and had invited them before we knew what day Keagan would be here. I was at the hospital all day with Amanda and Courtney w/out much progression all day. As sure as I leave, Amanda was almost completely dilated 45 mins later. Pat's party started at 5:30 and Keagan was born I believe at 6:23...I guess I could have gotten the party started and then left Pat to host his own birthday but he would have also been left to take care of 2 of the 3 other Armstrong children. Oh well it was a fun day with our friends the Brinkmans, the Nielsens, the Hansons, 2 of the Armstrongs, the Cordes' and the Timmers.
Emma Armstrongs birthday is August 6th and since her brother had been born the day before I was able to spend the majority of the day with her. While Pat worked I went to WalMart with Emma and Cassidy and picked up Emma's birthday cake, then we went and got lunch for us and their parents and headed to the hospital to celebrate her 4th birthday. After Pat returned from work he and I took Emma and Cassidy out for dinner @ IHOP where they sang to Emma. We returned home and waited for their mom and dad to come and pick them up once they were released from the hospital.
While Pat was at school on August 11th I went to a "Town Hall" meeting concerning the homes we live in here at Ellsworth and found out that they have enough larger units that although we don't technically qualify for a larger place we could get one. When Pat got home I told him about this, we were into the housing office the next day to see if it was for real...well it was! Within 15 minutes we had signed for a new house, scheduled a pre-inspection for our current house, was informed we could have the keys for the new house on Friday the 14th and set up our final out of first house for August 24th.
Funny story...our friends the Brinkmans who we had lived next to for 5 1/2 years bought a house off base and moved out the end of July...guess who's old house on base we got? It worked out nicely...no major packing just walking things from one house right next door! We started taking things off walls on Thursday and then once we had the keys Friday we basically got all moved thanks to lots of hard work and also some friends. Thanks Courtney A, Michael, Jerri, Kevin, Kris, Allison and Courtney B...also thanks to the Shults and Michael's neighbor who loaned us their hand trucks.
Once we were moved it was a matter of cleaning the old place. Now my house can get messy from time to time but overall I thought I kept a clean house...AAGGGHHH the things you find when you move furniture!
With school time around the corner our friend Amanda Packer emailed to see if we wanted a visitor before she started school on the 24th...I told her she was more than welcome but we had just found out we were moving and I would be putting her to work, she came anyway! Monday the 17th the Brinkman girls came and helped me start cleaning, Tuesday Amanda arrived and we finished the rest on Wednesday and Thursday! Thanks for all your help girls!
Luckily we got that done so we were able to do some enjoyable things with Amanda including bowling, going to a Demolition Derby at the fair, visiting our friends the Deals, who live in Wall, and playing Settlers of Catan.
Part of the time that we were moving the Central States Fair was going on which we had purchased Grandstand passes for. The Demolition Derby that we attended with Amanda was part of that, we were also privileged to hear Heidi Newfield, Chris Cagle, Dustin Evans and Rodney Atkins in concert (I only took my camera to Dustin Evans and Rodney Atkins). We also attended one night of the PRCA Rodeo with Mike and Jen Timmer.
Sunday the 23rd after attending Sacrament Meeting Amanda left. On the 24th we had our final out...I was so nervous but the inspection lasted a total of 5 mins and we passed with flying colors. Now we had just a week to get organized enough to go on out 2 week vacation. Although we left August 31st I will include our vacation in September's post. Enjoy the pics for this month!