The Muench Bunch

 We have a rule that their must be light coming in the window before you can get up on mornings that are extra special. Today I was up and starting breakfast before anyone else awoke. The Easter bunny had laid his usual eggs of specific color across the living room and kitchen. The kids hunted for them and got candies and goodies. They each had a prize they had to follow a clue to find. Today Allie joined us for Easter church service. This has been a long awaited answer to prayer. It has been almost 2 years since our family has all been together with Allie. There have been a lot of circumstances for not getting together. There has also been a lot of prayers for Allie. I was very happy she could spend the day with us. Cornerstone had one of their special dramas. This was the first time Allie had been to our church.  All the families were at Karen and Orries's for a nice Easter meal. I think the girls all enjoyed seeing one another. At the end of the day, Mark offered to driv

Jayden and I went to Iowa Falls for a horse clinic. We took Tex Friday night and rode for awhile. The equine center at the college is awesome. They have a giant indoor arena, tons of nice stalls, and a wash area where we gave Tex a much needed bath with warm water. It was very cold outside, so it was nice to have such a great place to ride. We stayed the night at my parents so we could be up bright and early. We were up and on the road by 7AM. The clinic consisted of 15 girls. Glad I didn't sign up because it really was for kids. I got to be a spectator. It was really good for Jayden and shelearned lots of good info. and some skills to work on.

Today seemed like a good day for egg decorating. The kids all had their own way of decorating. I pulled out the decorating supplies and discoverd we had no dye tablets. We made due with some food coloring and Jayden jumped into action searching the internet. She is awesome at finding ideas on pintrest and google. She discovered using crayons on hard boiled eggs while they are still hot. The wax melts on the egg and you can make all kinds of designs.

We took Grammer out to dinner to Hickory Park for her birthday. A dessert birthday sundae is a great way to celebrate.  

Jayden took Daisy to obedience class for the first time. She has only been on a leash a handful of times in her 9 year life. I thought she did a pretty good job for her first time. She did a lot of pulling, was very excited around other dogs and other people, but she did a good job of paying attention to Jayden and really tries to please. The class had around 20 participants and was an hour and a half long. We had gotten there early to practice and Jayden thought it was never going to end. She thought it was so boring. It will take some time and practice, but I think it will be great for Daisy and for Jayden to learn.

I had been wanting to visit my Aunt Rose and see relatives and meet Rose's exchange student. I lined up the weekend, Jayden, Luke and I went with my parents. I drove most of the way, then let Dad take us into Waconia the back way. That was interesting  There are some 11 roundabouts on the way. The first one I had to scream and shout to keep us from being hit by another car and scream and shout that there is a stop sign. We only had to stop and back track like twice from a missed turn. Anyhoo, we met Rose, John, Rita and kids, and the exchange student Mayeesha at Pizza Ranch for supper. Back at the house we talked to Rose and Mayeesha and watched a kid movie on their big screen theater screen. Mayeesha is very friendly,  kind and has an outgoing personality. I enjoyed visiting with her. The next morning we drove to Laura's house and visited with her all day. Noah was at a retreat and Austin was home for awhile. He showed us his huge gun collection. They have way too many guns

Today I took Alivia's pictures. Jayden had an appointment later in the day, so I decided just to keep her home and she was my assistant. Alivia did such a good job, she posed and smiled and had a few outfit changes. I took some with the girls together too. Very cute.

There has been some blowing snow and made for some icey roads. I got a call from the school letting me know that Luk'e preschool van had gone in the ditch. Everyone was ok and Mr. Anderson got to the kids before I had. He ended up asking if it was ok for Luke to go to Aleah's house and play for the rest of the day. The kids werent really scared, just gave them a lot to talk about. Luke got to see Aleah's new hamsters and that was most exciting to him.

Our family attended the early church service and then we all did child care for the second service. Mark and Jacob volunteered in Luke’s room for their first time as helpers. I think Mark enjoyed it and got to see what Luke gets to be part of. Jayden was really wanting to help in a baby room, so sure enough we got to help. We were in the crawlers room. For the first 5 minutes they all sat there looking so cute and babyish and super sweet. Then the crying started and never stopped. At least one child was always fussing. You would console one and another would cry. There were 12 babies and 6 helpers. There were times when you didn’t have enough hands to hold the criers. It was a tough hour that felt like 3. I had snot everywhere. Every baby in there had snot running. Something about other peoples babies and snot and dirty diapers is just plain gross. I think I got my baby fix for awhile.

There is a special kind of love from a Grandma. I miss and remember my Grandmothers. My Grandma Laugerman always liked to pamper us at her house. She would serve us healthy snacks and food in a recliner and make sure we had our feet up. My Grandma Wahlert loved to bake all kinds of yummy snacks and she liked to sew. She made hand made bible covers, aprons, a gymnastic mat, and lots of blankets. Recently I came across a blanket back at Mom and Dad's. It was a blanket that she quilted together with lots of fabrics and strawberry pattern. I brought it home and Jake fell in love with it and has to sleep with it nightly.

Tonight the Jr. High and high school kids put on the spring "Pop's Concert". The kids sang and danced to some fun upbeat songs. It was fun to see Jayden on stage and her classmates singing and dancing. We fixed the back of her hair in a fun waterfall style, she had her bling pocket jeans and her tall grey boots. For being the tall girl in the class for years, now she is one of the small girls in the class. She's just so darn cute.The vocal program at the school seems to be a big hit. Both sets of grandparents got to come see Jayden perform.

Sometime before Easter, Mark decided he was going to lose weight. At 215, his goal is to get to 185lbs. He bought an elliptical machine and put it on the balcony in the shop. So far he has been working out several times a week, has cut out pop, sweets, and dessert from his diet. He has a lot more will power than most.

After the weekend blizzard everyone headed back to school and out and about. Around noon the winds picked up and things got ugly in a hurry. It took everyone by surprise. the kids got out of school and home before it got too bad. This winter weather has been all over the place and as always man can never predict what is going to happen.

   In thewee morning hours Luke had a temp of 102 when I gave him more tylenol. By the time he was up for the day he felt a little better. For the morning Mark went out and began the tedious job of scooping snow. He said it was the worst snow he has ever had to move. It was heavy, wet, and deep. With mud underneath, you couldn't help but shovel up lots of rock and mud. It made such a mess!  Jayden and Grandma went to making orange rolls. After lunch, we were able to head home to our house.

 Today we took our nieces Torrie and Jossie to church with us. Torrie is starting college at Iowa State and we wanted her to know about Cornerstone and the college ministry, Salt. I think they were really encouraged by the people and service. After we went to Old Chicago and had pizza with them. My parents had the boys and brought them to us and we all had lunch together. This late in March last year we were experiencing record breaking warm weather in the 70's. You don't expect to have snowstorms. We thought we were finished with the snow, but it has been an interesting month. There was a winter advisory for this afternoon. It was kid of a drizzly rain morning and they expected things  to freeze later in the afternoon. Well, we got much more than that. As we headed home, it was starting to snow a little just a few miles from home. The girls got home fine and it continued snowing. It was a thick heavy snow with everything already wet, there was a lot of ice. That combination ma

Mark brought me some flowers for my birthday, they are a plant, so i can plant them outside in the spring. In the evening my parents came down and Karen and Orrie had us all over for my birthday. She fixed a nice meal and we had a nice evening. The weather has been kind of unpredictable and it was really blowing snow so my parents decided to spend the night. For some reason, my age is really hitting me and I am getting closer to #40. I know my body feels it. I can't believe how things ache already. I aways thought that 40 was sooo old! 38 is here and 40 isn't too far off.

We started piano lessons in Ogden at the beginning of the year. We found a lady named Lisa and she happens to be a home school mom. She is very sweet and the kids just love her. She is so positive and encouraging that the kids enjoy it so much. So far with her schedule it has only worked out to meet every other week. Jayden is just flying through her lesson books. I continually hear her teacher telling her how impressed she is and says," I don't think you realize how advanced you are". She told me that Jayden is very musically gifted. Jacob is taking to piano also. He seems to enjoy his lesson time and is learning. He doesn't like practicing at home quite as much, but does enjoy messing with the keyboard. Luke gets a 5 to 10 minute lesson at the end and he is picking up on learning also. He is playing songs with his 3 fingers. It is cute to see him play. The kids lessons are $10 each at a half hour each. The teacher always ends up going way over for their time and spe

 Luke Surprised me today by washing the tahoe. He was very proud of himself. he said all he had to do was put snow on his mittens and rub it all around. I had to act happy about my lovely tahoe cleaning.

Went to church, heard a great  sermon, and the music was so awesome. There is something about a church close to 1,00 people singing praise and worship songs like  “One Voice”. I look across the auditorium and see so many with hands raised and singing out. Then there is the moment when the band stops playing and it is just everyone's voices singing out, it is just awesome. After service, we picked up Luke from his classroom and he kept telling me over and over, you have to talk to Carolyn. Carolyn Mai teaches in the classroom across from Luke. In talking to Carolyn, she invited our family to have lunch in their home after church. That was a nice surprise and we were thrilled. The kids all had fun and us adults visiedt about anything and everything. Carolyn has become  such a good friend. I am Thankful God has brought nice families and friends into our lives, something I have prayed for years about.

Mark has been asking me all week what I wanted  for my birthday. I came up with a plan. Our family going to Homemakers in Des Moines and picking out a dinning set and living room set. We have had our second hand dinning table and chairs since we moved here 11 years ago. It has been more than time to update. We also have been looking to buy a new couch, love seat and lazy boy. Today we did it all. Homemakers is gigantic!  The boys found some massage chairs and were quite content while we shopped. I found my dining set and couch set. Mark picked out his own lazy boy recliner and they said they would ship them in about a month. It will be so nice to get new furniture. With our new carpet everything is so fresh, nice, and new. After shopping, Mark took us to Beaggi’s Italian restaurant for my birthday. It was a very nice outing and a great family day for my birthday. Back in Williams Carina hosted a surprise party for brother Wade’s 40 th surprise birthday party. I just couldn’t figure

3/1/13 I worked all day cleaning, deep cleaning and cooking. Tonight was our first night to host the family bible study with the Nemecheck family. They came at 6:00 for dinner. It has been a long time since we have had company for dinner.  We had ham balls, little smokies, beans, cheesey potatoes, and strawberry jello salad.  With 10 people in our kitchen, I realized I really do need to get that new dinning table I have been wanting for some years. The kids had a blast in the basement playing and just being silly. Us adults started our dvd series talking about the secular world and what is happening to christianity. It is quite sad. I think this will be an interesting series.  They stayed until 10. I am really enjoying getting to know their family and so thankful for new friends.