The Muench Bunch

Headlines... In August, Hurricane Harvey hit HOUSTON (AP) — Floodwaters reached the rooflines of single-story homes Monday, August 21 and people could be heard pleading for help from inside as Harvey poured rain on the Houston area for a fourth consecutive day after a chaotic weekend of rising water and rescues. The nation’s fourth-largest city remained mostly paralyzed by one of the largest downpours in U.S. history. The Coast Guard said it also had rescued more than 3,000 by boat and air and was taking more than 1,000 calls her hour. CNN-Hurricane Irma is the  strongest Atlantic basin hurricane ever recorded  outside the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. It lasted as a hurricane from August 31 until September 11. The storm, which stretched 650 miles from east to west, affected at least nine US states, turning streets into rivers, ripping down power lines, uprooting trees and cutting off coastal communities. On September 6, Hurricane Irma left a string of small Caribbean

We didn’t really plan a vacation for summer and wanted to getaway before the school year and harvest. We didn’t want to travel far and Mark and I both agreed on a weekend trip to Omaha. Our timing would be ideal because every other kid was back in school. We stayed in a hotel with a waterpark and spent one day at the zoo and one day at museums. While in town, Jayden met up with her friend Kara that she met in California on her Racing Days trip. She lives in Omaha and works at a boarding stable. Jayden went and rode horses with her. The zoo was fun and we walked a ton explored until everyone was too tired to go on. We rode the train and the skyride. We saw all kinds of fun animals. I have always loved the tigers and got some good pictures of them. It was a beautiful day for it. Our hotel had a big water park attached with big slides and lazy river. Luke didn’t hesitate at all to go down the big water slides on a tube. I was so excited that he is finally braving them. It seemed like I h

8/20/17 Tuesday Luke wasn't feeling the best and had a headache. I didn't think much of it and took him and Jake to their dentist appointments. As the day went on Luke kept feeling cold and his head continued to hurt. By evening he had a temp of 102. It was a 24 hour bug and by Wednesday he seemed to be fine. Wednesday Jayden had her friend Brianna come and stay a couple days. They  spent most of their time on a horse.  Thursday, the kids went with Mark to the Iowa State Fair. I was glad to stay home and have a quiet day to myself. When you homeschool and are with your family all day every day, sometimes a day home alone is wonderful. I did some major cleaning inside and out. It was a great day outside and I gave a riding lesson. Friday was another day home. Jayden took her friend home, Jake mowed for Karen, Luke was bored and buggy. In the evening I took the kids to Spring Lake. The weather has been outstanding and I have been wanting to go back to Spring Lake on a Friday for

8/17/17 There isn’t much worse than girl drama, but there is one thing, mom drama. A year ago, Jayden and I each lost a friendship and I am honestly not sure what all happened. A friendship of many years, then one day they just gave us the silent treatment. I have made attempts to resolve things and apologized even though I am not sure what for.  I have made attempts to meet them and work it all out. It was so sad to me and I wanted to fix things. I am a person that does not like conflict, I like to make things better and never want to have bad feelings between anyone. I prayed many many times over the broken relationships between her and our kids. It effected Jacob so much too as he lost his best friend for no reason at all.  Over and over she has stolen our joy many times. We have not spoken face to face in a year. On the phone and through text, she can get pretty angry and mean. In January the mom sent me a long message about forgiveness and wanted me to know she had forgiven us. I

I have never seen Mark spend more time on his phone than the past month. He checks it every few minutes. He checks the markets, checks his emails, checks his texts, checks Ag forums and websites. It stresses me out just watching him. He also listens to every update on the radio and analyst talk. He reads forums and watches the markets on tv. It is overwhelming and controlling him. Mark was certain that we were going to be in a drought last summer and made some major marketing choices that did not go in his favor. This year he watched the markets and watched the weather. He has been riding the roller coaster markets this spring and summer. He was sure the summer would be under a drought which most of the Midwest is. Traveling down south we saw it for miles. Fired corn, shriveled, small corn. Beans that looked small and thin. Sadly the markets just arent following. USDA comes out with reports that don't seem to factor this in. It hurts the farmers so much the way the USDA controls th

The end of May, Mark took Jayden and Ace to the vet at ISU to figure out what is going on with his odd behavior. Jayden suspected pain and wanted to get to the root of it. He passed the lameness exam and they couldn't find anything. As problems continued at rodeos, sour at the gate, raring, turning, backing, and blowing by barrels, Jayden kept researching. She took Ace back to ISU for further exams. They had him scoped to see if he had ulcers. Another trip to the vet later, he was checked with blood work, palpated, lameness, stress test, and more. Nothing was coming up a red flag. It is really heartbreaking for Jayden. Last year was like a dream. She had such a good season. We know Ace has it in him. We have seen him make amazing runs, have times near the PRCA girls. When he puts everything together and has a flawless run, he is in the money. This year, it has been trouble at the gate and many blown barrels. Jayden had goals, she was excited, she was going to have an even better

Sunday July 28, Larry Ferrari passed away. He had been in the hospital with lots of complications. Orrie had been at the hospital many times to see him. That very morning Orrie left the hospital to drive to the church to tell the pastor and so others could pray for him. In those few minutes, Larry passed away. Mid-week we attended Larry's funeral and burial. Larry is Troy's Dad and Grandfather to Torrie, Jossie, Jaynie, and Rylie. Larry farmed and ran cattle just on the north side of Pilot Mound. Friday Jake had one of his friends from his Ames youth group come and spend the day. It started out with a fun plan to have two boys from youth group spend the day, go to Spring lake in the evening for supper, roller skating, and ice cream. I offered to pick the boys up and take them home because I knew Ames would be far for them. We had been planning this for a long time. Both boys parents said it would work and we were excited for the day.  I love going to Spring Lake and I thought

Sunday evening Jake and I took Luke to Kid's camp. It is a Cornerstone run camp with all Cornerstone church counselors. Luke was very excited to go. We got all packed and ready, heading to Hidden Acres at 4:00. Luke was not going to camp with a friend or anyone he knew and this was his first time at camp. I was a little worried about that, but also knew Luke meets and makes friends easily. We got Luke checked in and took him to his cabin deep in the woods. The A frame tree toppers were a long long walk to all the activities. Luke would be doing lots of walking this week. We found his cabin and right away Jake knew one of the counselors, known as Perry Platypus. He was excited to see Jake and get to have his little brother in his cabin. He was very outgoing and friendly. There were boys in the cabin, parents setting up, and only space to walk single file. It was beyond tight. In fact they had over packed the room. The cabin was to sleep 10 on bunk beds and they were squeezing in

Tuesday through Thursday we all went different directions and had different plans. Luke was still at kids camp. Jayden stayed home to take care of all the many animals and invited friends over. With Brianna and Morgan over, the girls had a great time with the house to themselves, eating munchies, watching movies, and being girls. Mark and I went to St. Louis to an Agrigold conference. They always put us up in a classy expensive hotel and pamper us for the 24 hours we are there. Mark and I went a day early to have a short vacation. We arrived Tuesday night and went out for a great dinner. Wednesday morning we walked down to the St. Louis Arch and Mark rode it too the top. Because of motion issues I did not want to attempt it. We also met Mark's cousin Doug and he took us to a unique restaurant that was formerly a prison. We actually sat and ate inside a prison cell. The food was BBQ so we enjoyed it. Mark had Agrigold meetings and I went with the ladies for canvas painting. Most of