The Muench Bunch

 Luke had his very last AWANA night. It was a parent night and awards night. Mark got to go along and see the church and met the pastor. He told me he talked to that pastor longer than he has the pastors from our own church. It is sad, but true. They also had ice cream for everyone. Luke finished his entire first book and was so close to finishing his second book. Missing several AWANA nights to go to taekwondo classes made it pretty hard to pass them both. He did get all the books of the Old Testament passed at the end. That was hard! He did a great job all year and does well with memorization. I hope that he will forever keep those verses stored in his heart. He proudly earned his patches and wings. Tonight he also wore a brand new pair of Tuff cowboy jeans. He was feeling pretty good wearing his fancy jeans. I must say he looked pretty sharp. Jayden also had her last small group and the girls went for pie. I am looking forward to one less trip to Ames for awhile.  

I took some adorable photos of Jayden all decked out in her cowgirl hat, boots, belt, bling jeans, and shirt.

Jake has such different interests than most kids. He loves to pick and is always looking for what I would call "junk" for his collection. He has a collection of  old T.V.'s, and old pop bottles in his bedroom. Out in the shop he has his collection of this and that.  Jake spends a lot of free time drawing. He gets something on his mind and can't wait to draw it. He puts a lot of detail into his photos. He likes to build with Legos and is very creative. He doesn't need an  instruction  manual, he comes up with his own ideas and creates. Jake is all boy, loves the dirt and mud and creepy  crawlies .  Appropriately  timed, while learning about snakes in science, he found a  garter  snake in out yard. It was very much alive and he made sure to show me.  If I tell Jake to go find a good place to read, he does. He found a nice cuddly cat and a corner in the  swing set   playhouse  to read. Even though I am not crazy about it, Jake is getting some time behin

 I felt pretty lousy again today. I still didn't feel like eating and had only rice and toast all day. Thankfully Luke's soccer game got  canceled  due to a very cold and rainy morning. My parents had Alivia for the weekend and wanted to come down for the day. They brought Alivia and the boys played. Luke and Alivia even made cupcakes for Grandma's birthday. Mark and Jayden had left bright and early this morning to go to Centerville for a benefit barrel race. Jayden has been working getting her horse in shape and prepared to run. There was supposed to be a local rodeo she was going to run in that got cancelled. She wanted to go to this big benefit for Jackson, a  friend  of ours that broke his ankle and leg in a horse accident. Mark decided he would take the day and take Jayden. He is a good Dad to the kids and when the going gets tough, he is always there. I was glad the two of them were going to spend the day together. It was a long one! Long drive there, long wait, quic

We made plans quite awhile ago to take Jossie to church and out to lunch for her birthday. With Allie back for the weekend, we told her she could join us. Allie made plans with the cousins to meet at Hickory Park for lunch, only she didn’t go to church with us. Jossie came to church with us along with her boyfriend, Jaynie, and Rylie. Matt and Libby joined us at Hickory Park and Allie. How awkward, so Mark paid for everyone, ice cream and all. The cousins had fun seeing each other and having lunch. 

4/23 I woke up feeling  nauseated . Jayden got Luke up and off to school. I rested some more and was determined to get Jayden’s horse to the vet for his recheck. We had  already  rescheduled and the vet would be out all next week. I felt lousy but drove to Ames. She has been keeping Ace confined to a small barn and walking him. She has done so good bandaging his leg and giving him special care, We got a disappointing result from Ace’s exam and ultrasound. He will need anywhere from 3 to 9 months to heal and fully recover. This was not the news we were hoping to hear. I felt sick and had to sit down during the time there. I really needed to be home and in bed. Jayden was disappointed but she told me she wasn’t going to let it get her down. She would put her focus on Tex and work with him like she has been. She will patiently let her Ace heal. I know she is broken hearted. He is her special horse and she has worked so hard with him and was looking so forward to summer competing with him

Week of 4/20/15 The weather can’t decide if it is spring or winter. We get a streak of nice temperatures, then it drops again. This week the lows are in the 30’s. We have had a ton of wind lately. We had one perfect day near 80 degrees and no wind on April 17. After that its been windy windy windy, then rainy and now cold. This week 4/21/15  Jayden and I got haircuts then met Mom for lunch. We are celebrating her birthday with lunch and a pedicure. Elaine and Joan met us for lunch also at Applebee’s. After lunch we got our pedicures at Mom’s favorite place. Jayden just got her fingernails done and her first wax dip.

The first game of the season for Luke’s team started out a bit on the “Oh My, this could be bad” kind of game. His team has two boys including himself and a whole bunch of giggly girls. They are all first graders age 6 and 7. The team they were against was second graders, that were much taller and looked tough with 4 boys. Luke was on their team last year. Luke’s team did well, got right in there and after the ball. The first half Luke ran back and forth, kicked the ball a few times, then discovered he liked to hang back and play goalie. When the other team kicked a ball down to his end, he did a good job of kicking it back. It worked for him. By the second half he was hanging back almost the entire game.      The second half of the day we went to celebrate Alivia's 8th birthday. She had a family party with Pretty Pony decorations. She even had a giant pony balloon. This years party was quiet without all the school friends. Jake got into a bit of trouble. He and Alivia like to ga

4/18/15 As a parent you are always looking out for your children’s best interest. Today we woke up to rain and it never stopped. I was looking forward to Luke’s soccer game being cancelled and maybe doing something fun with Mark since he would not be in the field. I kept checking the website and waiting for a text. At 9:00 I got one” Soccer is still on in the rain.” What? Are these people crazy? The forecast was for rain all day and these are kids age 3 and up. Why on earth would they expect these little kids to run around in the rain. It isn't even warm out. My instant response is no way i am taking Luke. Then I begin to think, he is on a team, he will let his team down and part of participating in sports is being commited. I want to teach Luke that he has to commit to a sport if he is going to join and to be there for his team. We can't always quit when it gets hard or isn't fun.I was torn as I looked out at the rain coming down. It would rain hard, then let up, stop for

4/17 Today was the nicest day we have had so far. It got close to 80 degrees with little to no wind. It made for the perfect day. We have had so many sunny warm days with whipping wind up to 30 mph. It just takes the nice day and makes it very unpleasant. We had a short school morning then the kids went with grandparents. I ran lunch to Mark in the field, then had lunch with my friend Angelia in Boone. I spent the rest of the day outsid e . Jayden and I had our first sun bathing experience together. We sat in the sun for almost an hour. It was hot in the sun. Mark has been in the field all week and when I rode with him tonight he had planted 1,000 acres. He has been running 14+ hour days. He has been really exhausted. He gets home so late at night and up so early in the morning. I often wonder why we have so many acres. Here is a photo of his office during planting. It is amazing how many monitors and controls he has to keep track of. Its surprising he was ever able to plant back whe

Mark took Jayden and Jacob to Feed the  Farmer  near Zearing. KWMT does a Feed The Farmer program. The Farmer chosen is selected from a drawing. The farmer in our case doing the feeding gets to promote their business. Mark was  interviewed  all about his Salford business. Mark is a natural at interviewing. He sounds so professional. The kids got to go along. The word was the food was terrible so they went and ate at Hickory Park on the way home. Go figure.

April 10,  Friday we took the day off from homeschool and Jayden and I went to Des Moines to the Iowa horse fair with Michelle and Makenna. We got there at noon for the colt training challenge. They have 4 round pens set up with 4 different trianers and horses in each one. It is fun to watch each person's different approach and the difference in the horses. We wandered around the rest of the day seeing different events and things for sale. It was a very chilly day and windy. Most buildings were not heated and I was chilled the entire day. At 7:30 we watched the IRCA rodeo. It was great to watch and I saw some old rodeo friends. It almost makes me miss it all. Jayden wishes I still rodeoed and wants me to run barrels with her. 

4/6/15 We just couldn’t figure any way to stick with taekwondo at this time and had to quit. Hopefully it will be something Luke can pick up later. I am sad to see him end. He is good at it and I enjoy watching him learn and improve. Soccer season has started and the first practice for Luke was Monday. An hour of running and kicking. It was 48 degress and he was layered in warm clothes. By the time he was done, his head was sweaty and cheeks red. He was so tired.  One day this week,  Spillmans came over, the girls rode horses all day. Jake and Alex rode the 4 wheeler and gator, played video games, and did boy stuff.

 We invited my parents and brother’s family to join us for our church’s Easter service on a Saturday night. Carina had to milk cows, but Wade and Alivia made it. This was the first time he has been to our church. He was very overwhelmed at the size and number of people. He did not care for it. All month our pastor has been encouraging people to attend Saturday night service because the Sunday services will be jammed packed. It turned out Saturday night was the buiggest crowd with over 1500 having to bring in folding chairs. Cornerstone once again left me amazed at the talent of the people in the church. They put on a spectacular performance of the gospel. They started with creation, then the fall, to the redemption through our savior. All on a giant screen with silhouette images, lights and music. It was awesome to say the least.  The gospel was demonstrated in a way you could not miss.  After church, we went out for dinner at El Azteca in West Ames.   Easter morning was more r