The Muench Bunch

The very last day of school and possibly the very last day of public school for Jayden and Jacob. We planned a very special day. The kids all got out early 11:30. We planned a cousin day at Spring Lake. Everyone met at our place and we drove to Spring Lake, only a 15 minute drive. It was pretty windy, but it was nice and warm. We set our stuff up at the playground and picnic area. Karen went with and helped me out too. I was amazed at how quickly the kids went from activity to activity. It kind of felt like I was with a group of first graders. First the ran to the playground, then they found all my balls an started playing volleyball, then the were setting up the rodeo golf set, then the grabbed my kites and were trying to fly them, then they discoverd the opposite side of the road was flooded and they took of shoes and started running in it. This all took place in a matter of a half hour. It was crazy. I had hoped they would do each of those things for a long time. Once they were in t

Once in awhile I have to give my opinion about something. Today it is the price we pay for jeans. When I buy jeans for my child, I know that they will be lucky if the can wear them for more than one year. Myself, i can wear the same pair of jeans for at least 5 years. There are cute jeans and there are name brand jeans. When I started buying jeans for Jayden in her teen years, she was in between little girls size 14 slims and ladies size 0. I was used to paying $25 for her jeans. Along came Miss Me jeans and the range from $88 all the way up. I don't want my kids to get wrapped up in name brands, nor do I myself. If you can find a cute shirt or pair of jeans that is no different than the ones with the name brand across it, why pay for it. Why pay for the brand. So, we find the super cute jeans that have all the bling like the Miss Me jeans and pay half as much. I also avoid the stores such as The Buckle where they sell all those name brand only pay three times as much as you should

This has been a history making year. Never as long as I have lived have we not gotten our crop in the ground. Since we are a 100% corn crop farm, we have run out of time to get the cron crop in the ground. It has been rainy and muddy. We have planted 1/3 of our corn. Mark talked with an insurance rep today and is discussing taking insurance for the rest of our land. He will be sending back all the remaining corn seed. His plan is to buy beans. 

Our tiny little orphan kittens are growing and doing well. They are all bottle fed, which is the cutest thing ever. They still require a lot and we get a little tired of the mess. We found that they like to sleep in an oatmeal container. All three of them squeeze in together. They are of course cute, cuddle, and fun to play with. There is just something irresistible about tiny kittens.

For Luke's pre-K graduation he got his own play razor and some shaving creme. Since he is a graduate and all grown up now, he needs to shave. he loved this and wants to shave with Dad quite often. He stand in front of the mirror with Dad, lathers on his shaving creme and shaves. It is too cute.

DAYTON, IA. — The people of this small, agricultural town in central Iowa have banded together often in times of crisis. Through the years, the embrace of friends and family have made the horrors of cancer, house fires and car wrecks more tolerable. Yet as the search for abducted teenager Kathlynn Shepard stretches into its seventh day, residents find themselves in an unfamiliar position. Like the people of Moore, Okla., where a massive tornado took the lives of 24 on Monday, the town is grieving. But what happened to 15-year-old Kathlynn can’t be explained as “an act of God” and has caused Dayton residents to question whether the violation of trust has forever changed the town. “This was the evil of man; pure evil,” said Sharla Coleson, whose daughter has been a classmate of Kathlynn. “I think we’re horrified that something like this would happen in small, rural Iowa. All of us, I think, are still in shock.” The streets of Dayton are lined with yellow signs, urging “Caution — Childre

 This has been a long week, one that has really taken a toll on the emotions. Monday the small town of Dayton was shaken. Our small safe community has become a crime scene. An evil monster entered our town, took two girls, one of which is still missing and the hopes of finding her are slim. There were recent reports of blood found. It is devastating. One thing that I am proud of is this little community that has joined together. People showed up in mass amounts to help with search efforts, people have brought food and drinks, helped serve food to rescuers, sent money, made purple ribbons to share in support of Ktahlynn’s favorite color. Benefit meals and prayer vigils. More stories have surfaced about the kidnapper. He has a dark history. At 16 he beat a girl and was sent to juvenile center, later kidnapped a couple 3 year olds, and later kidnapped and hurt a 17 year old. He only did 19 years of his 40 in prison. What we cannot understand is why someone like this would be released fro

In the middle of all the choas, it was nice to get away from it and help plant flowers with Karen. Elaine and Terji were still here along with Verna Mae and Lavern. The kids and I along with the ladies, all helped plant flowers.  Flower pots here and there scattered from the front deck all the way around the yard. Karen plants a lot of flowers. The boys helped with the gator watering all the flowers.

I drove the kids to my parents to stay. It was hard driving on E-18 through the river bottom and seeing search parties. Seeing the trees and the river and thinking Kathlynn could be out there anywhere. It is always on our minds. The kids had to take their kittens for the weekend to they could take care and bottle feed them. They are very high maintenance right now. The kids also helped Peepaw put american flags on all the veterans graves at the Williams cemetary.

In the morning I joined Jacob at his field trip to spring lake. His class played at the playground then went roller skating. I could only stay for a couple hours because I had to get Luke from pre-school. Everyone's minds were on Kathlynn and the search and the shock and awe of it all.  Everyone at school was asked to wear purple in support for Kathlynn her favorite color. The teachers and us parents had a little tighter rope on our kids, watching their every move from playing to walking to the bathroom. We were all in disbelief as we watched another school not far away let their kids roam the place. Going to bathrooms alone, even fishing along the water bank without a teacher in sight. We watched our kids like a hawk. I don't think any of us in our little community will ever feel as comfortable and safe with our kids as we did before May 20.

Today I still think of the abduction as the search goes on for the missing girl. I baked cookies and took them to the fire station in Dayton, the least I could do. I felt like the whole town of Dayton should be  covered in yellow crime scene tape. The town is crawling with police officers, agents, and news media. I still feel like I am in this fog. It seems more like watching a bad movie. Today I left my television off. Each day there is a little more to the story, more information, more leads. Everytime I hear this new info. My mind goes back to the girls, to the suspect. Questions whirl in my brain, what was the man thinking, why did he take them, what was he planning, where did they go, what did he do with the missing girl, why, why why? I can’t get it out of my brain. I heard that the man kidnapped two little 3 year olds back in 1992 and left them in a dumpster, today one of those girls was searching for Kathlynn.  Today was busy, after baking cookies I mowed, Elaine and Terji cam

Everyone is still hopeful that Kathlynn will be found and brought home safely. We are all hoping and praying. Each day there is another piece to the puzzle, more information. It consumes my mind and is draining. We heard the man that took these girls has a violent criminal background and has done this type of thing on a few occasions. He was sentenced to 40 years and only was in for 20. That right there is the most disturbing. There is something really wrong with our system. We have heard Dezi's story. The man asked the girls if they would like a mowing job, told them to get into the truck and he would drive them home to ask. He drove them to a hog confinement where they were zip tied. He took Kathlynn in first. Dezi managed to free herself and  found a hog euthanizing gun in the truck, took it and ran. She ran as her shoes fell off. She ran barefoot through rough timber until a farmer found her scratched and bleeding and called police. All the while, she could see the man was driv

 Mark was up early and loaded up both gators onto a trailer and took Mike and Cory to Dayton. They were ready and willing to help in the search and rescue for missing Kathlynn. Once the kids were off to school, I read hourly updates on facebook and decided my sitting around thinking about everything really wasn’t helping out. I got all the water bottles and gatorade I had and headed towards Dayton. I stopped briefly at Karen’s to see Karla who had been to Mayo clinic about her seizures. She still isn’t any better. There are som many bad things happening all at the same time. In Dayton there were a couple hundred volunteers. Makes you proud to belong to a small town that cares. As soon as I saw all those people ready to search, I knew I needed to also. I signed up and Spillman's offered me a horse to ride. I called the school and made arrangements for Luke to go to Rhonda’s day care. There was a lot of wondering and waiting, not a lot of communication, and tons of people waiting to

Getting the kids to bed, Jayden got on facebook briefly. She informed us she read about the Nemechek family just missing the devastating tornadoes in Oklahoma. Around 3:00 this afternoon a horrible tornado went through Moore Oklahoma. The twister was up to 2 miles wide and devoured the city. The devastation was horrific. There were so many children getting ready to go home for the school day. Amazingly in a town as large as 56,000 only 24 lives were taken. While reading on facebook we discovered more news, two girls from Dayton had been abducted. My heart sank in disbelief. They gave the ages, one being 12 and the other 15. That meant one was in Jayden's grade and one a little older. My mind raced with thoughts of girls that live in the town of Dayton, Jayden's friends, kids we know. This was all happening as I was trying to get the kids to bed. Jayden and I talked and prayed while I held back tears. Facebook was hopping with information. The Dayton Leader is an online newspap

Tonight we had Luke's graduation party from Pre-K. Grandparents and Terji and Elwaine W. joined us right after school. We had a light supper similar to the old fashioned graduation parties we were used to in high school- little ham sandwiches. We had cake and took some pictures then headed off to the school. Luke was looking for his favorite friend Lexi (Alex G.). We made sure to get a photo of them together. It was comical as her parents were lining them up for a photo when i came along and informed me that they were going to get married. Too adorable they are. Afterwards, Mark asked if we could go look at the rain gauge at the Dayton farm. It was so nice outside and Jake wanted to throw the baseball around, so we headed home and did just that. The rest of the evening was a turn of events, our little community of Dayton was turned upside down.....

Jayden had been wanting to look for baby kittens at her grandparents. This has become an annual event in order to add to our number of cats. All of our cats are fixed, therefore we never have kittens. There is just something about kittens. Jake had been with grandpa and pulled in the driveway carrying a box and I could see something peeking its head over the side. Jake was so proud of his find. He brought home two boy kittens one yellow and one black tiger striped. Later Jayden went back in search and found s tiny kitten with matted infected eyes. We couldn't bare to leave it with such bad eyes even though it was so little. Maybe a couple weeks old. The other two looked to be 3 or 4 weeks. Still they were all very little. The first 24 hours we stuggled to get them to eat. We tried the medicine dropper and sticking there faces in a shallow bowl of milk. They just cried and cried. Finally I went to the store and bought a bottle. Amazingly they took to it really well. Jayden found out

Another graduation for my niece Torrie. This time Mark and I were helping serve. Ferrari's had there machine shed all prepared for the party. The weather was dark clouds that eventually brought rain and some stormy weather. That didn't stop people from coming and she had a big crowd. Serving food, you get to visit and see everyone that comes through the line. Torrie was the shy quiet little girl that never liked to be in front of people. She turned out to be miss congeniality and was homecoming queen. She is liked by everyone, can sing, is smart, pretty and talented. She has been dedicated to showing her cattle. She plans to attend Iowa State and we are hoping to have her join us on Sundays at Cornerstone. It has been neat to watch her grow up.

In the evening we attended cousin Libby's graduation reception. It is hard to believe my little nieces are all grown up and graduating. They were such little darlings in our wedding. I watched Libby grow from a string bean who loved her dogs to a beautiful young lady. She babysat our kids many times. Now she has entered the miss Iowa pageant, shows cattle, sings, is smart and talented. It will be fun to see her as she starts her future. She plans to attend Northwestern College. Libby's graduation was so pretty with cherry blossom decorations surrounding the outdoor patio areas. Kind of reminded me of a wedding. Melinda served out of her fabulous new kitchen. Her and Karen made some 40 pies that people got to chose from. Since the girls did not have their parties on the same night, most of the relatives came to Libby's graduation. It was fun to see Kellie, Susie, and Kallie Mae. Libby's graduation was the most perfect of nights, no wind, or bugs and it was a perfect 75 d

The morning started early with cowboy church at the youth rodeo 8AM. The service was done by the ICCC rodeo team rough stock coach. He did a great job talking about David's battle with Goliath and how we can do all things through Christ. The rodeo began at 10 Am with the presentation of the American flag carried by Jayden Muench on her horse Tex. Even in the sloppy muddy arena, she looks so good out there on the big yellow horse carrying the flag. Since Jayden was not competing today, the plan was to leave early. They committee found me and soon I was running the gate for barrels, poles, flags, and goats .  Mr. Heckman helped me at the gate and gave me his horse to sit on and direct the girls in the gate. We picked at least a dozen bell boots out of the mushy messy arena.

Luke went to a little friends birthday party. Hayden Butrick was in his pre-K class. His mother was Jacob's Kindergarten teacher and may be Luke's too. His father is the school behavior specialist.

 I started the marble jar several years ago. Each kid has a little jar and once the jar is filled, they get a prize out of the prize box or $4 in cash to save. The prizes are things that cost  $4 or less. DVD's, matchbox cars, books, games, silly puddy, trucks, etc. For the boys they love to pick a $1 matchbox car. Jayden likes to get books or just save her cash. They do jobs and chores to earn the marbles. Some jobs are easy and others hard. Sometimes really good behavior gets a marble. Doing or eating something they don’t like earns marbles. Some days go by that we don’t think about the jars much and other days they work like crazy to fill the marble jar so they can get a prize. Cleaning horse stalls is not a fun  job to anyone, so that gets Jake a full marble jar. Luke has a smaller jar, since he is younger. It is fun to see them so excited to fill the jars and get to pick out a prize. The other day we were riding horses. The boys would rather play in the dirt than ride horses.

 April 15 is the prime time to start planting corn each spring, certainly not May 15. We are a month behind in planting and today the ground was finally ready. Conditions were not perfect, but it was the best so far. Mark got in the field mid morning. He took shifts with Mike and went into the wee morning hours. Jayden and I rode horses. 

 12 days ago it snowed several inches and broke records. Today records were broke for heat. It reached 97 degrees. Some parts of Iowas got up to 102. This crazy Iowa weather. On top of the heat was high winds. It felt like a firey furnace outside. 

 Mothers day I always like to be outdoors and do some type of picnic. We wen to church and grabbed subways to go. I had lawn chairs, blankets and stuff for the park. We went to a nice little park area and found a picnic table. There was just one thing we didn’t have enough of, coats. It was chilly, really chilly and breezy. We layered on as many sweatchirts and caots as we could find in the car. It was not a lovely day and I was bummed. Later the kids decided I needed a foot spa treatment.

 We got a call mid-week that two sisters on the serpentine team would be gone Saturday to their great-grandpa’s funeral. Jayden and Alivia were to fill in as alternates. Jayden has never gotten to practice the entire routine beginning to end. Today was the first Match of the broncs. Of course I was nervous, stressed, and had bad dreams about everything. I was nervous for Jayden who had not even practiced a full routine and today she was going to perform with the team. I was nervous because it was so windy and muddy and she also had to carry the big American flag for the star spangled banner in the arena all by herself. It is heavy and hard enough when it is not windy. I was also worried that my position as barrel director would not go smooth. There were so many little things that needed to be in order from helpers to the timers and etc. I wanted the day to be over before it began. I knew it was silly to get all in a fret and I just had to pray and trust. The girls arrived very early

 Luke’s little friend/neighbor Aleah’s Dad asked if Luke would like to attend the circus with them. Luke has been talking about the zoo non stop for the last three days since his teacher at school gave him a ticket. It was like an automatic "we're going"  for Luke. He thought that since he had the ticket he was going no matter what. He would tell complete strangers that he was going to the circus on Friday. I really am not a big fan of circus shows and didn’t really care to go. I also didn't want to break his little heart.  So, when Luke got asked, I was kind of relieved. Aleah came to our house to play in the morning. She always enjoys playing with our play-doh the most and following me around. At 3:00 Mr. Anderson picked them up and they went to the circus. In the meantime, our family took Karen out for mothers day in Ft. Dodge. Mr Anderson met us later with Luke. He was so excited and wound up when it was over. Luke had cotton candy, a slurpee, popcorn, and he eve

It has been getting cold in the nights again like down in the 40's even 30's. After school Jayden, Luke, and I went to Alivia’s dance recital rehearsal. We are busy during the actual recital, so went tonight just to watch. All the young kids performed tonight. It was so cute to see all the cute little girls all dressed up. It almost makes me which Jayden was still dancing. I enjoyed her dance years. Alivia was in a tumbling routine to the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse song. Very cute, she even added her own shaking and grooving moves. Afterwards we all ate at the Chinese buffet.

 Kids got out of school early at 12:30. Luke had his last swim lesson . I am so happy that he is able to go under and feel more comfortable in the water. He hasn’t taken off in the water yet. That will come with more time in the water. One thing about Luke, he is super cautious. While in Ames, boys got haircuts, got some groceries, ate at McDonald’s, (I was outvoted) and Jayden went to her last 180 youth group for the year. I am glad she went and she has met some really neat girls. 

 Not trying to brag, but kind of am, Jayden brought home her Iowa assessments testing scores. A grade equivalent is a score that describes your student’s achievement on a grade level scale. Jayden’s lowest score was 11.8 that being an eleventh grader in the month 8 of the school year. She scored several in six areas a 13+. Not sure what grade that is, but wowza!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Jake seems to be having one of his best years in school. The teacher gives me little updates once in awhile. She said he is opening up more and plays with the boys more at school. He seems happy and doesn't get as upset. He still gets in the normal sibling squabbles on a regular basis. Sometimes I think he just likes to annoy his siblings out of boredom. He still spends plenty of time with pencil to paper drawing with lots of detail. He continues to impress me with his work.