The Muench Bunch

The weather has been unusually warm this time of year getting up to 50’s. Mark and Jayden rode horses after school today. Yesterday we finally got Dakota out of the stall and moved her in with Jake and Winnie into the geriatric horse home.

Getting to wear make-up and have her own cell phone comes with turning 13. In addition, Jayden, gets to renovate her bedroom. Thirteen is defiantly a good age to turn at our house. It is time to turn the room from little girl into teen girl. Really makes me a little sad.  I asked if she would still leave her American Girl Dolls in her room on a shelf and she said no. Jayden started by picking out a western comforter that she liked. We took down her bunk bed and took down old wall paper and repainted her room. I did let the kids all help  paint the big areas and I did all the borders and touching up. Painted over the lemon yellow with a light beige. Painting took a couple days and turned out nice. It is a work in progress with arranging furniture and hanging things on the walls. Jayden picked out a western comforter and decor. She has had some zebra items that she had added to her room over the past year and still tied that in. Zebra print and western, only in Jayden's room we ca

The weather has been super nice for this time of year. Today was another warm one, but very windy. Jayden invited her friend Makenna over to ride with her. She brought 3 of her own horses to ride. The girls set up the barrels and did some practicing. With relatives in town, we had an audience while riding. Uncle Lavern came out and rode Tex for awhile. I guess he must have been feeling brave because at one point he went to loping on Jessie. We all held our breathe. Mark and I did some riding and roped the hot heels.

 Jacob still has a fascination with anything old and most of it is just junk. He manages to find things wherever he goes. An old television, an old corded phone, a tape player, oil can, hub cap, you name it , it is a treasure to him. He also had an interest in school buses that started about 1 st grade.  The school bus coordinator came to the school to talk to the kids about bus safety. He had a little stuffed school bus and Jake told him he really liked it. A few days later, it came in the mailbox to Jake. He has had that in his bed ever since. And soon he wanted toy school buses and now has a pretty good collection started. 

 Once again, I ended up with all the kids on black Friday. I wasn’t going to stay home and babysit, so I sent the boys with Mark and us girls hit the town. Jaynie, Maggie, Jayden and I went shopping at Target, then met the rest of the gals for lunch. We all ate at a Mexican restaurant then did some major shopping at the western edge.    At the days end, I had some good Christmas shopping done. I think it is kind of fun to shop on black friday, but sadly I think the whole thanksgiving holiday has turned into such a shopping frenzy. In the past few years, the big sales began starting at midnight, now there are even places open on thanksgiving day so people can get the best deal possible. It really is sad. It takes away the whole idea of being thankful and is replaced with greediness

 Thanksgiving was a little smaller than most years with several of the long distance relatives unable to make it. Outside of immediate family was Lavern, Verna Mae, Kellie, Kally Mae and Suzy. Verna Mae had only gotten out of the hospital a few days ago. She has been battling a stomach ulcer that was the result of medication from blood thinners that were the result of a blood clot that went to her heart that resulted from her having surgery. Whew, she has had a rough time this fall. Thanksgiving was held in Melinda’s newly renovated kitchen.  A typical year, we eat around 1:30 to 2:00. This year Tom turkey wasn’t even close to done by 2:00. We had a lot of hungry people and couldn’t keep waiting. We enjoyed all the thanksgiving fixins, minus the turkey. We had squirrel. Yes, I did say squirrel. Ferrari’s brought some squirrel meat that was going to be set out for anyone to try, well since that was the only meat, everyone had some. The favorites are always Melinda’s butter horn

The kids and I made a chocolate birthday cake and our family took Po Po out for supper at The Lucky Pig restaurant in Ogden. Today was his 69 th birthday.

 We had Jayden and Jacob’s birthday parties today at Hidden Acres with all our family. Jake got to invite one friend , Soren. Those two boys are a lot alike and seem to think the same. They are always smiling and laughing. With cousin Riley the three boys had a blast in the swimming pool. It was a pool party, Mark and I got in and enjoyed the warm pool along with the kids. Nobody else under the age of 13 joined us. Luke and Alivia played in the water and took several hot tub breaks. We had sloppy Joes, beans, and snacks for supper and cake and ice cream later. Grandma Mawgee and Grandpa Peepaw created the cupcakes for our farm themed party. Neighbors Lindie and Julie came and enjoyed the party with us. They are like family to us. The kids opened gifts and Lindie and Julie even gave Luke a little something, a tractor that he had been eyeing in their store.  It was a good time had by all. 

 Today was another warm day in the 60's with wind. Jayden and Dad rode horses out in the arena. It is so nice to have our very own arena.

My little Jacob turned another year older. Today he turned 9 years old. He is a sweet tenderhearted boy. He had a great day today. Today was a nice day, sunny and warm in the 50's. I volunteered in the morning at the school and had lunch with Jacob. His teacher even gave him candy and let him eat it during class. After school, cousin Rylie ended up coming to our house and stayed the night. Thanks to grandparents being close by, Rylie ends up spending a lot of time at our house, which the boys love. We went to Ames to a D6 kids Cornerstone play. They sang songs and did a cute skit. After we went for build your own bowl of sherbert. Each person got to pick from various flavor choices, then add a variety of toppings. Mmm, yummy. Jake got some fun gifts, a vintage school bus for his collection, a toy camper because he is very into campers,and  a cool John Deere shirt he wore to school that day. 

  We have had Traveler in a stall trying to fatten him up after he lost some weight.  Dakota has been in a stall because of her numerous health issues. First it was breathing, we kept giving her steroids for two weeks at a time. She would be ok for awhile, then the dry heat would get to her. Then she had an eye infection that took 3 weeks to get over. Then she came down with a sinus infection and needed antibiotics. Having them in a stall means feeding, watering, turning them out, and cleaning stalls. It is a job! Jayden has been helping quite a bit. 

 Luke was learning words that start with the letter “F” and we were saying different words to each other. He said Ethanol has a lot of f’s in it. I got a kick out of that and didn’t want to correct him.    Luke seems to be a very popular guy with the ladies. On occasion when I pick him up at Preschool there is always a girl or two that has to come up and give him a bye hug. Luke is always telling me who his girlfriend is and how he is going to marry her. From day one it has been Karrigan. Lately it has changed. Today he came up to me and pointed to a little girl and said, "That is Lexi and I am going to marry her.” The teachers around were chuckling and asked the little girl if she liked Luke. She put her hand over her heart and said,” He stole my heart.”   A few days after I wrote this post, Luke came home with a picture a girl in his class drew for him named Jazzie. He said she wants to marry him but he wasn’t thrilled about it and doesn’t want to marry her. She drew this

 The kids don’t have school the next day so the boys went with grandparents, and Jayden went with Mark and I to Bondurant to the indoor arena for some riding and roping. My plan was to just ride and rope the hot heels a few times. I roped the hot heels a half a dozen times and probably roped the live steers close to a dozen. It went rather well, I caught several, turned two, lost my dally a lot, and missed some. When I do catch, everything is happening so fast that it is like a blur. When I did dally and turn, I didn’t know what to do next and kind of stopped. At the end of the night, my neck had a kink and I went to push a horse over and zing my neck went to hurting something awful. If I moved so much as an inch, it felt like a stabbing pain. I rode home with ice on it and went straight to bed after a long bumpy ride home. I spent the next day with ice and sitting in the chair. It took several days and a few chiropractor appointments to feel better.

The boys spent two nights at grandparents and played with cousin Alivia.

This year on Veteran's Day, my Dad was chosen front the story of a local vet. His story was in the Daily Freeman Journal newspaper on the front page. It was a very good article and makes me proud. WILLIAMS - Nothing could have prepared Williams native Wayne Wahlert for the experience when he first set foot aboard the USS Coral Sea Aircraft Carrier in October 1969. A 1966 graduate of Northeast Hamilton High School, Wahlert entered the Navy in February of 1968. He received his basic training in San Diego, CA and then attended Aviation Fundamental and Aviation Structural Mechanic schools in Memphis, Tenn. From Tennessee, Wahlert was sent to Naval Air Station Cecil Field in Jacksonville, FL where he trained on A-7 aircraft. The A-7 is considered the workhorse of the military and is tasked with carrying heavy ordinance. It was during his time in Florida that Wahlert married his high school sweetheart, Connie Laugerman of Webster City. Wahlert was deployed in October 1969 with the Attac

Last night Hannah and Jaynie stayed overnight. The boys went home with grandparents Mawgee and Peepaw for 2 nights. Today the plan was for the girls to do horse stuff. Jaynie had morning basketball practice, then they went to getting horses groomed and ready to ride. The big bummer, in Iowa when the temperature is nicet, 70, the wind comes up. It was so windy today!! We didn't let it ruin our day. We all rode horses, even Aunt Lori rode awhile before taking the girls home. We got a few sprinkles along with almost blowing away, and it brought out a rainbow. Later that evening Mark and I went out to dinner with the Peterson's. Jayden went with Jaynie and spent the night.

I found a great opportunity to serve. Meals From The Heartland packages dry food to send to countries like Africa to feed starving families. I was excited to sign myself and the kids up. Jayden told her bible study group and we ended up with a team of 18 people. We invited Jayden's friend Hannah and cousins Jaynie and Rylie. Luke was very sad that he was not old enough to help. We arrived at 5 for a one hour shift. They showed us a quick training video and sent us on our way. We wore gloves and hair nets, had an assembly line at our table, filling bags with dry ingredients, weighing them, sealing, counting, and boxing. It was a great system. Jacob ran the sealing machine and took his job very serious. After about a half an hour we had a good system going and were really moving things along. By the end of our shift, we were smoking fast and nobody wanted to be done. The kids loved it and we all could have stayed longer, however our group had dinner plans. We filled 7 boxes containin

The elections were so close last night we finally had to shut the television off and just pray for good outcome. I think we were hopeful, but kind of knew what the outcome would be. I turned my television on first thing in the morning and soon discovered Obama had been elected again. Not only that, our judicial system in Iowa kept a crazy judge that brought the legality of same sex marriage into our state along with electing new lesbians to congress. Past elections didn't get to me and I try really hard not to follow politics. It only upsets me.  This year it was hard not too. It just seemed so obvious that Obama was not helping our country, but really hurting it. All day I felt sad, like there was a haze about my thoughts. I could not think of anything else and just in shock and awe at Americans, Iowans, people.  What has happened and how our morals and standards have turned to laziness and expecting everyone to take care of those who don’t want or care to work. There are lazy peo

Today my little preemie girl became a teenager. It is so hard to believe.  I can remember every little detail of her birth like it was yesterday.  13 seems like such a big milestone. This morning we put a home video on of Jayden’s first birthday and watched it while we ate breakfast and got ready for school. We got some laughs and smiles.  She also got to open presents. She is renovating her bedroom, took down the bunk beds and decorating in a western theme. She got some décor for her room and some things for her horses.  After school the grandparents, our family, and Auntie Alice took the kids out for their birthday. Alice likes to leave in early November to head to Albuquerque for the winter. This was a birthday party for the kids with her. She got Luke his birthday present early too. A big Bruder dump truck, he was excited!

  Tonight the high school put on the musical of Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory. Cousin Torrie had the lead part as Charlie in the play.  It was fun to watch, cute and funny. Afterward they had tons of candies and desserts to snack on including cotton candy. That is what got the boys interested in going. There was a television in the musical that Jacob spotted and took interest in. He decided to make his own and he spent hours making a television made from a cardboard box. 

 For Jayden’s birthday, she wanted to have a couple friends go to the mall and have a make-up consult with her. One of the big privileges in turning 13, is she FINALLY gets to wear make-up. She has gotten to wear make-up on certain occasions and I must say she is doing pretty well at it.  She invited Cheyenne and Makenna over to spend the night. The girls arrived after school and we headed out to the mall. All 3 girls ere in their camo coats, kind of a funny sight. The looked like they were going to hunt deer. In the mall they had a consultation on make-up and each had make-up applied. They all felt like they barely had any make-up on. I thought they looked lovely and I always think girls look so much prettier when their make-up is natural. I think they enjoyed it for the most part. After that they didn’t really want to shop, they were more excited to get home and watch numerous episodes of Heartland. It is a series of shows that are only showed in Canad. Jayden and I have been buy