The Muench Bunch

Jayden rides once a week sometimes two and three times. There has not been one full 7 day week this winter that she has not ridden. Ace is priority and gets ridden the most, Tex and Traveler get rotated in to her riding and get ridden often too. In fact her horses are in such good shape that they rarely work up a sweat and she rides them hard. Sometimes she goes out and gets on Ace bareback. She still runs him through a trot and lope. She is quite the little rider. She is where I was at about age 20. Recently Loree and Marlee S. have asked to ride in our arena and have been coming 2 to 3 times a week. They are loving the use of the arena and feel so blessed. I think it is a win win, because I like that Jayden has someone to ride with. It is always more fun to ride with others and gives me peace of mind knowing she has someone out in the arena. I still have her text me when she is riding alone. 1/30/16 We arrived home by noon after our overnight getaway. It was a super nice day out r

1/29/16 With my upcoming surgery and knowing for the next month I wold not feel well, I wanted to go on a special outing with Mark. I made reservations at the Hotel Patte in Perry Iowa. I took Mark there for his 40 th birthday and requested a similar room. I knew we had stayed in some type of musicians room and all of their rooms are themed. When we walked into the room, thinking it would be the same as before, I was in awe. This room was stunning. It reminded me of a civil war era mansion. This defiantly was not the same room we had before, this was a suite. I wondered why the price seemed higher. It was two separate rooms with vintage furniture and very elegant. I felt like a queen and king. We enjoyed the restaurant for supper, then the hot tub. We also went bowling in their one of a kind bowling room. Mark and I kept score and Mark being so competitive could not stand to lose to me. He kept looking back at the score and trying to figure out how that could have happened because he

1/27/16 There are days lately when I feel like I am failing as a wife, mom, and teacher. I need to have more patience, not get angry, not be short, and praise my family. I most certainly need to improve and have been praying. Each morning I start out with the kids happy and in a good mood. Its not long after and I am repeating myself over and over, telling the kids to get back to their desks, stop making noises or talking, focus on your work, worry about yourself, quit messing around, and the list goes on. After so much of that I get pretty angry and my mood is ugly. After we finish school around 12:30, then I have to get lunch,  do dishes and clean up. I am tired at this point and have the house to try and get back to order, laundry, return phone calls, and usually we have some place to get ready to go. Then its supper, more dishes, go over papers and school work and if I am really on the ball I get the next days work planned out. It is exhausting!  These are the days I pray a lot an

We have been flooded with  presidential  candidates. We are so lucky as to have the Iowa Caucases so we get to hear about it 24/7. The commercials on television and the radio are non-stop. It is enough to make you crazy. We do not have anyone good in the lead. So far it looks like Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are the favored. I am a fan of Ben Carson. He is a black man that is a christian and a pediatric surgeon. He is  knowledgeable , biblical, kind hearted, but he is just too soft spoken. So that leaves arrogant obnoxious in your face Mr.  Billionaire  Trump. This country is doomed. Only God can lead this country and until people put  there  trust in Him, we are just going farther and farther down the wrong path.  For a laugh, Luke told me that he was worried if Trump gets to be president he hopes Alice will get home first or once Tump closes the borders she won’t be able to get home. He has New Mexico confused with Mexico. Cute.

My good friend Michelle brought up the idea of going to a spa together. She said she was in great need of a spa day and wanted to go all out and go for a 6 hour full spa indulgence. We settled on a 3 hour package, getting a massage, peel, and pedicure. I had to go down to Des Moines for my pre-operation check-up and we decided to go and make the day of it.  It was not a lovely day.. The farther north, the worse the roads and snow and ice. My mom was the substitute teacher/babysitter today. Jayden had to work a very long day at the grocery store from 11-6. She was not looking forward to it. The schools near my mom were closed and in our area late starts. The roads were bad until we got closer to HWY 141. In Des Moines it was all clear.  At my doctor's appointment, I asked the doctor some questions and she basically told me the first 2 weeks would be rough and the fatigue will be the hardest part. My body has a lot of healing to do and it makes you weak and tired. Ugh, I think I wil

Jayden and Makenna have been excitedly planning for the TMRA rodeo banquet in Dayton. Both girls got asked to go to a winter formal dance with a friend that just wanted to go as a fun group of girls. I was not big on the idea and told Jayden to get excited about the banquet and go all out for it. The banquet had awards, dinner, and dance. Makenna no longer has her serious boyfriend, which makes for a lot more fun friend times. Jayden and Makenna went shopping earlier to find cute outfits.  Jayden spent the night at Makenna's so the girls could spend all day getting ready. To them it was like going to a cowboy prom. They primped and curled every inch of their hair and put on make-up, wore extra jewelry, the whole deal. Thankfully this only involved boots, belts, and jeans. The girls looked beautiful and my boys were dressed for the occasion too. The banquet was at 3:00 with dinner to follow. Mark came late in the evening for the dinner. He went to the funeral today to support the So

 Our baby boy is growing up and today he turned 8 years old. It is the hardest to see your youngest grow up. With all that has gone on in the past few days, we had to try and focus on making Luke's day special. He woke up to birthday banners and a cake. He told me he wanted a go kart cake like they have at Fort Frenzy. He got some soccer and swimming gear, along with a punching bag. Later in the day was the TMRA rodeo banquet.

In the evening we celebrated Luke's birthday at Fort Frenzy in Fort Dodge It was a good distraction to have Luke's birthday to think about. It was not easy to try and be happy and celebrate, I still felt numb. Luke was super excited to get to celebrate his birthday at Fort Frenzy in Fort Dodge. We went for Jake's birthday and Luke could not wait for his turn. He got to invite a couple freinds, Alex L and Kinnik H. Both boys went to school in Dayton with him. We also had 6 year old buddy Cash, who we all enjoy. Wade, Carina, and Alivia also joined us and Mawgee and Peepaw. The kids bouced around the entire night from bowling, bumper cars, roller skating, and arcade games. They aslo got in on a couple games of Lazer Tag. Even I got to participate in one game. The virtual roller coaster ride was pretty entertaining too. As the kids sat double in the seat it would jiggle and lurch. It was hilarious to watch their faces and everything jiggle. It was all pretty cool and fun. T

1/22/16 On Thursday Mark and I were discussing what to do for the weekend memorial. We talked about whether to go to the funeral or the visitation. I dread the thought of either as it would be so heartbreaking and sad. The visitation is hard because you have to see all the family in person and talk to them. I can’t imagine what to say and to look into such sad faces. There will also be so very many many people we would likely be in a line for hours. The funeral will be the hardest funeral ever and to see those little caskets with those precious children, I just didn’t think I could do it. There will be so many people family and school classmates. To see the kids crying for their friend and teachers for their student. It just breaks so many heart. The funeral will be huge at the Burnside school which does not hold enough people and is always a problem parking. It will be overfull. Then we got a text that Larry Sorenson asked that our families, meaning Mark, his parents, and sisters fa

1/18/16 I didn’t even know them, not one. I saw their faces and the beautiful children’s smiles in a facebook picture. On Sunday evening at 1;00AM there was a house fire in Boxholm. The fire took the lives of the mother and her three children while the husband was at work. I didn’t know them, yet it breaks my heart. I do know the husband's father and Grandparents. It was so close to home, too close. My heart is acheing and heavy. I cannot stop thinking about it, even after 2 days. It is on my mind constantly. My mind takes me there, takes me to the house, puts me in the mom’s shoes, then the Dad. It is horrible. My thoughts are everywhere, my heart ache’s for them. What if that were me and I lost my husband and children. I am beyond sad for the families. I look at the family photo taken in November. I am so glad they had thatfamily photo taken. It looks like the only one they have had done and it will be cherished like gold. The kids are precious with big happy smiles. They are so

1/9/6 It is 9 and dropping. The wind chill is -13. I just went out to take care of pets and it is bitter with strong winds. Jayden has to do horse chores. Mark has been doing cattle chores, left the house at 7 and has to feed and bed. Brrr. These are the days I do not like to live in Iowa. I do like having to stay home, stay in and stay warm. I am really enjoying our nice fireplace! 1/17/16 This month has been very cold. We got to enjoy two days this week enough to go outside and not freeze. Wednesday hit 30’s and Thursday hit 40’s. Jayden has been riding her horse a lot this winter. She rode Friday, Sat, and Sunday. She was determined to ride on Thursday after she did school all morning, and worked 1-6. She got all three horses groomed, tacked, and rode each one for almost an our. It was 10:30 by the time she fed them and came inside. She is a dedicated cowgirl. 

Jayden has a job and gets paid. It is a weekly one to two hour job of cleaning at the shop in the office. She cleans and dusts. The bathrooms are never much fun, especially the mens. A couple times she has recruited Luke to help and guess what job she is training him on? Toilets

1/8/16 We have been preparing to have a Salford meeting.The hired guys have been working on getting the shop and equipment spic and span. The kids and I spent some time cleaning the office nice. Cleaning, mopping, dusting. Today, Mark had the Salford meeting. He advertised like crazy with radio and mailings. He was shooting for a turnout of 300, his Heartland Marketing helper was estimating 150. In reality there was a less than 50 turnout. He told Linde and Julie our caterers to plan for more rather than less, planning for the 300. Its too bad he did not have a better turnout, but you just never know. The sloppy snowy roads did not help matters either. The shop was clean and very professional with equipment and information. Mark does such a good job putting on meetings and he talks very confident and does a good job. I thought he did a much better job than the Salford rep who gave the presentation. The kids were part of the day supporting Dad too.

1/6/16 Oh my heart is happy. Jake started youth group last August. He liked going to the large group worship and lesson time. He wasn’t too thrilled with his small group. He was placed in a group with mostly homeschool kids. He tried talking to the kids and tried to get to know people, but he never felt comfortable. He had some awkward kids in his group, one that liked to glare at him, and one that was super hyper and fidgety. He stopped going to the small group. With the new semester, I thought it would be a good time to talk with the coordiators and see if Jake could try a new group. I also encouraged him to go early and help with the setup crew, just to try and and see what he thought. I also thought it would be a good way for him to meet people. They also feed the helpers after setup. At 8:00 when I picked up Jake, I asked him how the night went, his exact words, “Awesome!”. He was all smiles and pointed out his new friend he made, Cayden. The boy looked familiar to me and turned