The Muench Bunch

The fall Dayton Wranglers youth rodeo was held over a two day weekend this year. Jayden was excited to run both Tex and Ace. She did poles, barrels, flags, and goats. She didn't have the best luck with her goat breaking loose to early, even though she did great flanking and tying. Poles got knocked, but flags went well and she placed. Luke was so excited to participate in the little kids events. He had even been practicing roping. Sadly there were no other kids to compete with Luke, he was the only little kid. That didn't stop him, he ran as if there were thirty kids running against him. He roped the dummy, did a stick horse race and goat tail untie. He didn't care that he had no competition. He is such a good sport. He waited patiently for his ribbon or treat, which there were none. The rodeo seems to lack in help and participation little by little. Sadly it isnt going to make it much longer.

9/24/15 Tuesday I called in a substitute teacher, also known as Grandma Mawgee. I needed a day. A day to run errands and a day to get out without my kiddos. Not that I don’t love every minute with my kids, but it is refreshing to have some time alone. I had lunch with Angelia and took some maternity photos of her. She is getting so close to having her baby. She is at 36 weeks, but has had several instances in the hospital thinking the baby was coming. I did some shopping and loaded up on field food at Sam’s. The day ended in rain. Wednesday was the usual taekwondo and youth group night. CHURCH NIGHT-Jadyen’s small group is kind of struggling to keep together. Donna, Jayden’s leader is trying to figure out what to do next. Jayden is feeling sad. It took her a long time to get comfortable with the group of girls in her small group. Since high school, they are so hit and miss and their priorities are everywhere else. Jayden told me she feels like she just doesn’t fit in anywhere in

9/23/15 Today I woke to the sound of heavy rain at 6AM. Mark was already gone and I laid there listening as it poured. It is not the sound you want to hear this time of year. Each day is a day we need to be in the field harvesting and rain makes mud. Harvest has not been flowing very smoothly from the start for Mark. Last Tuesday, September 15 th ,  he got in the field and his dryer was giving him trouble day after day. It will run a few hours then quit. Then it quit all together. He had a service man out numerous times. Day one with a full day of combining, he filled 22 semis. On Thursday, we got some early morning lightning and rain. That delayed him in the field until afternoon. There were other breakdowns too.  It rained again on Friday, so no combining the rest of the weekend. On Monday he had a major chain break on the combine, then a belt on the grain cart. Tuesday morning started with a broken bearing in the combine and ended the day early with rain. Each day has been somethin

9/20/15 Final day of TMRA finals started at 10AM. Up early and on the road at 8 with Spillmans. My parents came back to watch Jayden on this day their 47 th wedding anniversary. It was another beautiful day, except for a few honey bees that liked to buzz around us. The rodeo took longer as each of the little bull riders had to pick their bull for the final ride. The spectators were down, likely they were only the family of participants. Jayden did not have her best run today. We were all hoping this one would be her golden run. After coming around the first barrel, her horse went wide, then swayed out. She had to dig her spur in his side and that caused him to kick out. That I had never seen before. He did it to the tune of the music, at that very moment the song was saying, “Now Kick” and he did. It was disappointing and frustrating, because she knows what Ace is capable of. All in all it was a good weekend and she had a blast. The girls met new people and enjoyed every bit of the w

                                                      9/19/15 The TMRA (Tuff N Nuff Miniature Rodeo Association) National Finals were held in Ames Iowa over the weekend. They were held in the Hansen awesome indoor arena. Makenna hauled with us and Michelle, her mom, and Alex followed with his Grandma. I had Jayden, Jake, Luke. I wanted the boys to be there and not only support their sister, but also enjoy the sport with all the kids. Everyone was up early, before 7, horses fed, trailer loaded, and on the road at 8. The morning temperature was a cool 50, but the sun was shinning and made for a perfect 70 degree day. We set up lawn chairs and camped out for the day.  Registration  started at 9:30, a concert at 11:30, and the first rodeo performance was at 1:00 and the second was at 7:00. It made for a long day. I enjoyed just sitting watching and sitting outside visiting, not having to run around at home doing laundry and cleaning. Michelle and I made lunch and dinner runs and brought

9/18/15  Karen and Orrie have been on a vacation in Montanna for a week or more. This week the days seemed to be full to the last hour. Not a moment of extra time. School each morning 8:30-12:30. Monday , Jayden was really sick with sore throat, fever, and extreme tired. was taekwondo and Mark took Luke. That gave me some free time. I had Jake help me clean out the garage and wash it. That was a big project. Tuesday we got in the field for the first day of harvest. It snuck up on me. The guys put in a full day with 22 semi loads. Mark, Mike, Cory, Tony, and Linde are the start up crew. They worked in the field just behind the house. That was rough on the boys. They could hear it running and see the semis haul right past the front window. It was hard, yet motivating. They worked hard on school and could not get out in the field fast enough. It was a very windy day of harvest and warm temperatures. Jayden was still sick and I took her to the doctor. She had all the symptoms of mono and

Mother, daughter, grandmother photo.

This Iowa weather is going to make me crazy. The week before the Dayton Labor day rodeo was cool in the 70's. The week of the rodeo it got hot and humid up into the 90's making it a very unpleasant weekend. The following week it cools back down and we are feeling very fallish, 70's and lows getting down to 40. I love fall weather and the cool air with sunshine, just wished we could have had that for our rodeo weekend. We took the day off from school to enjoy a trail ride. Mark and I take an annual ride and have to go when we can. Mark anticipates getting in the field next week, so we thought we had better get it in. Jayden gets to do horse stuff all year long, so today we took Jacob. He is our little trail rider. He enjoys trail riding and did love it last year on Winnie. We knew Tex would behave and do well for him and would be the best to ride. I rode Ace and Mark rode Traveler. We took two short rides, each an hour or so. It was a gorgeous day, sunny with big clouds. Wh

9/12/15  Sinec Ace got injured in March, it has been a long slow road to recovery. For the past couple months Jayden has been riding more and gettting him back into top shape to run. She has been wanting to barrel race in a competition for over a month. She had a couple shows lined up but got cancelled due to the weather. Today she finally got her chance to run Ace. She has been anxious to get him back in the game and to see how he would run. She also needed to get some runs in before her big finals weekend of TMRA next weekend. Boone was holding an NBHA. I love when they are close to home. I saw several of the gals I used to run with. Nikki I. and Kathy G. are super nice talking to us and asking how we've been. Most of the others that I know walked by with their nose in the air. It all reminded me why I am not a fan of NBHA. There are so nany loud mouth, smoking, swearing, hard riding cowgirls that I do not enjoy being around. Jayden took both Tex and Ace and did a warm-up run on

6/12/14 At first our neighbor’s fascination with his yard and driveway was kind of entertaining. Our neighbor is quite meticulous about his driveway. When you live directly across the raod and your bay window is facing  his house, you can’t help but notice what he is doing. He started late winter by  pulling a harrow through his driveway round and round and up the driveway, unhooks it, turns his truck around, and rehooks it then goes back and forth some more. I have never seen anyone put so much time and effort into ones driveway in the country. He also spent many days  out with shovel, pitchfork, hoe, broom, and rake leveling. Somedays he would park on the road, rake and level his driveway before driving in. I have also seen him with an axe and a leaf blower. He works on snow piles trying to chip away ice or even help it melt. He takes his broom and sweeps bits of rocks out of his grass into a dust pan. As the weather  got  nicer, he spent more and more time raking and leveling. Late

9/7/15 It is Labor Day, I am home resting after a shower and a good grilled meal. It has been a whirlwind of a weekend and I am glad it is over. We have worked all summer for this weekend and I am happy to say it went well. I am most relieved that everyone was safe, no accidents, no collisions, no one angry or upset, no drama.  Today was the morning parade at 10AM. Traveler took it like a pro. It was fun, relaxing and your face hurt from smiling. We just went along with flags in one hand and waving with the other. Yeah that was a little awkward while trying to hold reins. I rode along side Belinda and we talked about making shutterfly photo albums. She is so excited to see my albums and make her own. As we rode the parade route and waved at hundreds of people, I was surprised at how few people I actually knew. After we tied the horses, we went to Danielsons in Dayton for a quick lunch. They invite Karen and Orrie and other friends and family over every year. There wasn't much ti

Saturday we took a quick little trip to Ames to pick up a couple kittens. It was a nice diversion from all the rodeo chaos. I saw the fluffy little cuties on a friends facebook. It was someone from Cornerstone I only knew of, and now got to finally meet. Jessica has 5 children, two of whom are adopted. The youngest is two and they had only had her home for 2 weeks. She is a cute, tiny little ball of energy. She jumps and dances and loves to pick up the kittens. She even gave our kittens kisses before we took them home. I love adoption so very much and it warms my heart to see families who adopt out of the love for Christ and not because they could not have children of their own. The two kittens we picked out are so adorable. We haven’t had a cat with white on it since Mikey. The kids had fun on the ride home with kittises crawling all over them. Names- Buttercup and Pumpkin.

>Saturday at the rodeo I was much more relaxed. I had a chance to work off some energy with my horse by trotting and loping in the ditch. Dayton does not have any place to warm your horse up during the big rodeo and nobody is allowed in the arena until it begins. I have also been giving my horse peace cookies. I don’t know if it helps, but it sure can’t hurt. The crowd was gigantic for the Saturday night show. There wasn’t much grass showing on the hill. It was a great night and serpentine went much better for me. I actually enjoyed myself. I was a bit nervous about event flags. Jayden and I were running flags tonight and do every other night. This entails running a sponsor flag in a larger fast circle in the arena between events. Jayden was worried as she had to run a flag after barrels when the barrels were set up. Tex did just fine for her. I ran my flag after team roping when there was a steer in the arena. I think Traveler was excited and thought he was going to chase that