The Muench Bunch

9/25/16 Here is a recap of our week, ending summer and starting fall. Monday was a hot day in the upper 80’s. We went to Ames for Luke’s taekwondo class. He is doing a very good job and is always fun to watch. It gets pretty hot and stuffy in his class without A/C. Tuesday I took Jayden to Boone where she joined her friend Erica and Paige and headed to the American Royal youth rodeo invitational in Kansas City. The rodeo is based on an application of your rodeo achievements and academics in school. There is an entry process and not everyone gets selected. Erica’s Dad, Jim drove the girls in his giagantic trailer. It turned out to be a very hot day in the 90’s and even hotter in KC. All three girls did not have the run they hoped, in fact the all had troubles. Ace knocked the first barrel and ducked out of second, not turning like he did at IRCA finals. That is so frustrating and hard to know what is going on. Looking back, she is certain her horse is sore in the shoulder. She loves her

9/18/16 The TMRA rodeo finals were held Saturday and Sunday. TMRA is a youth rodeo group holding numerous rodeos throughout the summer, some out of state. Jayden went to the bare minimum required to qualify for finals, that being 6 rodeos. The two other girls in her division traveled and had a huge point lead Jayden could not even come close to. IRCA was sher priority this summer. Saturday morning the kids and I were up early, loaded and ready to go by 8AM. The boys were excited to hang out with all the rodeo kids like they did last year. Mark drove over separately and watched the evening performance. The rodeo was in the super nice indoor ISU Hansaon arena in Ames. I helped with ticket sales all three rodeos for the first half. The first rodeo was at 10AM. We told Jayden to make these 3 runs like practice runs and just focus on fine tuning Ace and figuring out what works best so she can keep all three barrels up. It should feel like a low pressure rodeo and just have fun. She only ha

9/16/16 The weather was great and ideal for a bike ride. This time we headed to Madrid to ride to the high trestle bridge. We had heard about it and I had wanted to go for a couple years. Today we finally made the trek. It was a nice easy path, no hills just flat and along a nice paved path. It was a few miles to the bridge and the bridge was high and long. It was a beautiful sight and we stopped to enjoy it before heading back. 

One of my favorite things about Wednesday nights is hearing the kids talk about youth group on the drive home. i always ask Jake and Jayden to tell me about their night. Not only are they going and having fun hanging around kids their age that want to know Jesus, they also are being fed the word of God in a way they can understand and use. I love hearing all they learned and understand. Tonight they each described their version of what they learned regarding "The Jesus Box." We can chose to have our Jesus box and know Jesus, open the box on Sunday mornings and youth group nights, then set him on a shelf. Or, you can keep your Jesus bow with you and open it it all day long and teach others about the Jesus box. They each had so much more than that to tell about it.   Riding lessons this week were fun with Luke riding along with the girls in the lesson. We set up obstacles and played follow the leader. I think they all have fun and it give Luke a reason to ride. He likes T

9/12/17 Here are a few extra happenings in the month of September. Both Jayden and Jacob did their annual 4-H presentations and snacks. Jacob talked about the Vietnam Veteran flag, Jayden took her dog Tuff . Jake's been enjoying his laying hens, each one laying a daily egg, and all so colorful. My little kitten Skippy just keeps growing, getting sweeter and cuter every day. Yeah, he is spoiled.

9/10/16 We got to the arena at 3:00 and Blue was in our stall, Jayden kindly asked for her stall back and all was fine. Some contestants pre-paid for stalls, however nobody regulated stalls and once it rained everyone put horses everywhere. It was pretty frustrating for those of us that paid. With all the puddles and wet ground every stall was spoken for. The barrel racers all got together for a gift exchange. They randomly drew names and exchanged. During that time the girls had a meeting and everyone voted for horse of the year.  When they made the announcement, "Jayden Muench and Ace",  we were shocked and excited.  It was such a cool feeling and awesome moment. I would vote for Ace, and I think her horse is great, I just didn’t know if any of the other girls thought much of Ace or even noticed him. 15 girls voted and Ace was chosen out of them all as the barrel horse of the year. What an honor. That right there made the whole weekend a whole lot better. Rookie of the year