The Muench Bunch

Jacob has been taking taekwondo lessons since May. He is in the "Tiny Tigers" class with 2 little boys ages 4. Unfortantly with younger boys in the class, it causes Jacob to not pay attention and act goofy most of the time. Jacob's class is a half hour with some games to make it fun. I hope that he will grow to like the sport and will begin to take it serious as he gets older. I know having him in the class is really good for him. I took taekwondo in college and think it is excellent.

Mark wanted to put up some nice hay for my horses. We like the square bales as there is less chance of mold. The last time we baled square bales for our horses was 12 years ago, and I helped. This time Mark did it all on his own with neighbor Larry driving. The kids and I waited with Mark until the hay was good and ready. The kids wanted to help so bad, or should I say wanted to ride.

Mark rode Missy to help the Anderlik's move cows. She didn't buck, but she did not beghave very well. She sure isn't the horse we were told was so quiet and nice. The kids enjoyed watching the cows coming down the road. The boys never got in on moving Mark's cattle. he would have 250 cows and calves running down the gravel road when he moved them from pasture to pasture. It was quite a sight.

Jake has been having trouble adjusting to school. He doesn't get his work done and corerectly. His teacher has been having to get after him and he tells me about it each day when he gets home. Today I asked how his day went and he said, “good”. I asked if the teacher had to get after him, he said,”No.” Then he blurted out, “We had a substitute teacher today.” I had to laugh.

I had to get some photos of the kids, so I got my camera out and was pleased with the photos I got. I am so blessed to have such lovely children!

Today was a hot one! We went to the Dayton Wranglers Buck nite horse show around 3 and it was a hot and humid!! Jayden and I took Missy and Dakota. Hemi had an accident while in the care of the previous owner. Apparently the other horses ran him into a fence and he cut his chest all up. I feel so bad. We are just having an awful time with these horses. Jadyen rode in walk trot getting 4th place and western pleasure getting 3rd place. She does so well in those classes and they are large groups, 15 or so kids. Then on to the races. In barrel racing, Jayden really let Dakota run and she flew. She did such a great job!! She ran her fastest time ever a 19.06 and won the youth barrels. She was pretty excited! I rode Missy in poles and barrels also. I think she has a great start and will be good at these events. Jacob rode Missy while I walked alongside during barrels. Later Jayden rode a horse around the parking lot that is for sale. She looked so good on him and fell in love. The horse is a

Luke really likes to sing. He doesn't really know all the words to many songs, but he just sings away. I caught him singing on video and later realized what he was inging. " I Surrender All". He has hears Jayden sing it so many times he just repeats the chorus over and over. Here is my mini George Strait.

Jayden and Jake started back to school, Jake in 1st grade and Jayden 5th. Unlike most parents, I do not look forward to my kids returning to school. I like them home. I do like the fact that they have more of a routine during the school year. I pray that the kids will do well, kids will be nice to them, and they will enjoy it. I think this will be a hard year for Jake and I hope he gets along well.

Through 4-H Jayden and I signed up to work at the Iowa State Fair “Little Hands on the Farm”. This is a kids hands on farm that is super cute for kids. We went through as a family with our kids last year. The kids plant in a garden, gather their vegetables, raise corn and beans, fuel pedal tractors with bio fuels, gather eggs from chickens, wool from sheep, and milk from cows. These are all pretend items and animals in little barns. At the end the kids sell their stuff at the farmer’s market and get money to buy a real treat. The kids love it. Jayden and I were excited to help and Mark was going along with the boys to watch the Beef show. We were given volunteer shirts, parking passes, and tickets into the fair. All was great, except it never stopped raining the entire day. Jayden and I worked the little farmer’s market under a shade umbrella, not waterproof. It was not a very pleasant morning, however it did not stop parents from bringing their excited kids. Some parents had umbrellas

Between the heat and mosqitoes, we haven't been able to be out much. However, now we have dropped the humidity, the temp is in the 80’s, and we haven’t had rain lately. I am starting to enjoy Iowa again. The kids and I have enjoyed lots of outdoor time.

For the Muench reunion, I attended the cemetery tour where Orrie talked about the late Jacob Muench and his battle stories. It is truly amazing that he even survived. He was in the cavalry and some battles with mass casualties. Jake and Luke were to wear their civil war hats and got in on some photos.

It has been sooo hot and humid. Mark has been cleaning out grain bins by hand with shovel on some of the hottest days of the summer. Heat and humidity are unbearable and he is in the grain bin dust working hard. He is such a hard working man! I am sure that and other things combined added to him getting sick going from couch to chair and terrible stomach pain.

We planned the cousin backyard sleepover again for this summer and ran into conflicts so didn’t have it again this year. However, Jaynie had a sleepover as part of her birthday party. She had both Jayden and Jacob stay. Jacob and Rylie got to have fun while the girls had fun. The most exciting part for Jacob was getting a ride in Uncle Troy’s white Trans Am. I heard about it continually for the next 24 hours. He talked about the air cleaner, how he wishes they made cars like that today, and how he is going to have one someday, and on and on. The boys got quite a ride as Troy revved the engine and peeled out. Great, now Jake is hooked.

Jayden and I set out to Ames to have our #7 Secret Keeper Girl (SKG) date. The topic of discussion was how God gives us "garmets" for us to wear that give us internal beauty and how our hair is an expression of our internal garmet of submission. The challenge was to go to a salon and have a fun hair style. Little did we know when we left the house, the entire city of Ames was flooded. A mom on a mission can get to the mall with determination, and that we did. The first part of our day was Jayden’s hair cut and style. The plan was to have a fun hair do. Jayden was in need of a hair cut too, so it worked out well. Jayden picked a curly hair style and looked like Goldie Locks when she was finished. As her hair worked down, she looked like a little rock star and loved the feeling of being all dolled up. We did some clothes and shoe shopping in the mall, along with trying on some dresses for fun . With the floods, there were few stores open and few customers. It was almost like we

Jayden and I had planned this day for her, mom, and Grandma to go school shopping. I set out at 8Am to get the babysitter, Megan. By 9, we were headed to Ames. It rained again last night, around 2 inches. Over the past three nights, the rain totaled over 7 inches. I didn’t think much of it as we headed into Ames on the north side. On E-18 we came across our first water over the road east of Pilot Mound. We watched and waited for others to cross before braving it. This was my first indication that this could be an interesting day. Almost to the mall on hwy 69 the road was closed with lots of water across. We followed the heavy traffic out and around Ames and found our way to the mall. I had not idea how bad it was in Ames. The entire city was a flood mess. I found out later Hilton coliseum looked like it was sitting in the middle of a lake. Target was surrounded by water and even Interstate 35 south of Ames flooded and hwy 30. People were stuck, they could not get in or out of Ames on t

We planned the cousin backyard sleepover again for this summer and ran into conflicts so didn’t have it again. However, Jaynie had a sleepover as part of her birthday party and she invited had both Jayden and Jacob stay. Jacob and Rylie got to have fun while the girls had their party. The most exciting part for Jacob was getting a thrill ride in Uncle Troy’s white Trans Am. I heard about it continually for the next several days. The boys got quite a ride as Troy revved the engine and peeled out.

Last night it stormed. Will this weather ever end?!! It started to thunderstorm around 10PM and went throughout the night. This was by far the stormiest night. The thunder was so loud and constant, I felt like we were in the middle of a war with bombs going off. We woke to the rain gauge of 4 inches of rain and water in the basement. On some of these hot days Mark has been cleaning out grain bins. Literally cleaning out with a scoop shovel. When he comes in at night his clothes are ringing wet and dusty. How miserable! Jake likes to go with Dad and it is important to him to dress just like Dad, plaid shirt, sunglasses, belt, pliers, cell phone( Jake's is an old one), and boots.

Today we celebrated Jaynie Ferrari’s 9th birthday at Twin Lakes. The plan was to eat at noon. Knowing Mark’s sisters are always late, I thought if we showed up at noon, we should be about right. We arrived at noon and were the first ones there. Eating came later on. Packing for a day at the beach is like packing for a vacation with the amount of stuff needed. This lake had a little hike from the parking lot to the beach, so I took the little red wagon along. Not 20 feet from the car, we noticed we were being attacked by mosquitoes and bad. We had to stop and spray everyone before going on. They were so bad!! We got to the picnic tables and I felt like a horse stomping, moving, and slapping the mosquitoes away. The heat was unbelievably hot. Today was estimated to be the hottest day of the year with high humidity and heat index 112. The families arrived and Lori Ferrari went all out on food. She brought ribs, bakes beans, green beans, salads, cupcakes, and all kinds of fixins. After we

Jayden- She has been outstanding this summer. You ask, and she does it without complaining. She has been so awesome with the boys. She loves helping with Luke and there is never any trouble between them. She bathes him, takes him potty, dresses him and babysits while I mow. They have a very close bond. Jayden has a tougher time with Jake. He likes to be difficult and pesters Jayden a lot. She also helps Jacob in any way that she can and spends hours playing all kinds of things with him. They play Barbies and tractors. They like to play outside in the old garage (they call it their club house). They are creative and can get along great most of the time.

It wasn’t supposed to rain at all, but sure enough it rained hard in the night and we got another inch of rain. Things never get a chance to dry out and the mosquitoes are multiplying like crazy. I am tired of bug repellent and bug bites!

Jake and I don’t get to have much one on one time, so I took the day just for him and I to go school shopping. We went to Ames and picked out school supplies, a new bag, and some shoes. Jake got to pick where we ate and he chose Subway. The highlight of the day for Jake was to get a balloon before leaving town. The things that excite him are so funny. Alice came down with Grandma to stay with Jayden and Luke. They had a fun time at the house. To top off the day, Jake and Jayden got to go home and stay the weekend with Grandma and Grandpa.

I would say potty training is a success. We survived long travels and a vacation to the Dells without more than one accident. I think we can boot the pull ups and call Luke potty trained. YES!!!!!!!!!

Thunderstorms have been frequent this summer. We have not had more than 5 days in a row without rain. The kids have crawled in our bed so many times this summer, that I finally set up camp in our bedroom. If the weather forecast talks about thunderstorms, I put sleeping bags on our floor, ready for the kids. Last night we got 2 inches of rain and more thunderstorms expected tonight.