Happy Halloween Friends!

Annual RC Willey Company Picnic

Today was the Annual RC Willey Company Picnic. This is one day I look forward to every year. It's fun to see and chat with Jason's co-workers and their wives and families. I've been attending these with Jason for the last few years and every year is just as fun as the previous.

Last year, Jason got second place (though it should have been first) in the pie eating contest. This year, he tied for first. I did my wifey duty by cheering him on and telling him, "Don't taste it, just swallow it whole!!!"

They always have other activities for kids of all ages and employees, and this year it was tug of war. They had Henderson Store kids against Summerlin Store kids. Summerlin won, so then it was Summerlin kids against NDC (Nevada Distribution Center) kids. Summerlin won, but the NDC kids put up a good fight. Then it was the adults. Again, they started with Summerlin against Henderson. Henderson won. Then they brought in the NDC adults. All of us wife's were laughing cause when you think about it, NDC is where they haul furniture, move furniture, it has all the delivery guys, lift drivers, and basically all the buff guys, so us wife's knew our hubbies (and the few chicks that work there) were going to win.

The ref said go, and the NDC workers were nice to let Henderson think they might get a chance, but within 5 seconds it was over. There were so many guys (and girls) on the NDC side that you couldn't really even grab the rope! The Henderson side probably had 1/2 as many people on their side. I couldn't help laughing when the older people next to me started complaining about the match not being "fair". Let me just say this...

1. Just cause your job doesn't require you to be physically fit doesn't mean you can't work on your body.
2. If this were 20 years ago, you'd be next to me laughing at the George Burns' trying to beat the Dwayne Johnson's in Tug of War (yum... Dwayne Johnson).
3. Your husband chose to work at the other store.

All the other matches were so close they did best 2 out of 3. After the first win, they asked Henderson if they wanted to go again and they all were shaking their heads and saying "no". Ha ha ha good times.

The weather was perfect. The food was good. The company was great. Can't wait for next year!

Roller Derby

My sister in law, Katie (aka The Force), is involved in many different things. Tonight we were able to support her and the Sin City Roller Girls at their opening season bout tonight. Katie is part of the Tommy Gun Terrors. She is usually a jammer, which is the girl that makes it through the pack to score points. When she's not a jammer, she's a pivot/blocker who are the girls that try to take anyone and everyone out.

Gretchen and the girls and their cousin, Briana, were able to go with Jason, mom and I as we met up with Mike, Bobby and Jenny to watch the game. Mike and Bobby saved front row seats on crash corner (the corner that gets the most action). Jenny, the little girls and I sat on the floor in front of them which the little girls loved cause they got to see dog piles and crashes right in front of us!

The first half of the game TGT was down by half the points. It was 52 to 24 and then it was 67 to 36. By the end of the bout, TGT got back in gear and was able to makeit a very close bout. The final score we're not sure of cause they kept changing it, but it was 92ish to 94ish. So, it was a close game if they did win or lose (I'll have to ask Katie for sure who won). There were many crashes, a dogpile up and a lot more fun and most importantly, nachos.

Their next bout is November 14th at the Sahara Event Center (Sahara and Maryland) at 7 pm against the Notorius V.I.P.'s. Tickets are $7 when purchased in advance, otherwise they're $10 at the door.Kids under 10 and EMT's are free as long as they can provide proof of being an EMT. Go to their website to learn more about tickets and the team http://www.sincityrollergirls.com/joomla/ Oh! Their colors are florescent green and black. So represent!

I saw this on a friends site today...

Sometimes it's hard to be patient.

Pom Picking

As most of you know, my mom loves to garden. She use to make us help her weed, and in Vegas, sometimes it was fun, but due to my deep hatred for bugs, I generally HATE gardening. I don't care if it's a small avid, a pumpkin bug or a HUGE Tomato worm, I hate bugs! The only place they should be is at the ugly bug ball!

I was at Kiki's house yesterday, hanging out, taking tests and helping editing when I saw a random man with a box heading towards the orchard. I asked Kiki who he was and what he was doing and she said that it's pom picking season so people are coming over all the time to pick some. Before I went home, She, Kylan and I went into the orchard and picked 3 boxes full. I wasn't too sure about getting under trees and climbing around in them cause in Missouri, there is generally all kinds of bugs in the trees, not to mention all types of spiders and ticks and other creepy crawlies that give me the hee-bee gee-bees. Surprisingly, it was not bad at all. Kiki found one that had bugs in it, but that was because it was 1/2 eaten by birds and bugs found their way in. I found some that had tiny spider webs in the flower part, but overall, it was bug free. The only thing on them that grossed me out was the bird poop, and that's easy to grab around.

As we were back in the orchard, Matt picked the ones off the hybrid tree outside their front door. Those ones look amazing because they are HUGE light pink pom's. I went home last night with a large box filled with pomegranates ready to be picked apart and made into something wonderful!
At volleyball last night, I told Gretchen about how I had picked pomegranates at the house and felt very cultural (by picking fruit off a tree - lol). She said she wanted to pick some, so I cleared it with Kiki to go over today. Gretchen picked me up at about 9 and we headed over. We had cleared quite a trees last night, and looking at the orchard, there wasn't much red left on the green trees. It almost seemed as if the only red left were the pom's that the birds have been eating. HOWEVER, we went to the trees on the West side of the orchard and we found PLENTY!

Izzy and Kaya were so excited to pick their own. These little girls are tough! Kaya was a little hesitant to go where Gretchen and I told her to go cause she was small enough to fit and we weren't, but for the most part, they would get right in the branches and be picking away. I didn't pick nearly as many cause I didn't want to pick one that had bugs crawling on it, or a spider on the leaves or spiderwebs around it. You could say I was quite envious of their attitudes of picking.

After a while, Izzy was ok with playing "dumper", as in we hand them to her and she dumps them in the box. I tried to hand Kaya some to dump in the box, but every time I asked her she said, "But Jessica, I'm picking my own!" It was so cute how they loved doing it. Gretchen was cracking me up because 1. she made a similar "cultural" comment like I had the night before, and 2. I told her the boxes were full and she still wanted to keep picking. "Seriously Gretchen, the boxes are overflowing." ha ha ha

October

October brings such fun good times. I love that it is Breast Cancer Awareness. I became a huge supporter of Breast Cancer awareness in college. It is the philantrophy (yes I said philantrophy not philanthropy) of the sorority I was in, ZTA. So, I love Breast Cancer Awareness for the good it does for millions of men and women, but it also reminds me of the wonderful women I got to go to school with and raise money with for the philantrophy.

I love that it is colder. September sometimes brings cold, but then it still gets hot towards the end of the month. Some of my favorite Halloween's I remember trick or treating in cold, sometimes rain. I hate the heat and if it weren't for most of my friends and family being here, I'd be outta here in no time.

I love pumpkins being every where! Fresh pumpkin in stores means there will be canned pumpkin on sale so I will be able to make pumpkin bread, pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, and other pumpkin type food. =) And, it's nice to be able to get $5.99 pumpkin pies at Costco.

There are also the other fun things like Ren Fair, Brewfest and Jason's Company Picnic. Last year there was a pie eating contest. The pies were frozen and though I think Jason actually ate more of his pumpkin pie, the other guy won cause his creme pie was lighter. He still got a "That could've been first place" parting gift. LOL I also get to see Melissa from high school. =) At least I know I get to see her and her cute family at least once a year.

I also love October because I gain an hour of sleep from Daylight savings, which prepares me for the next two months of wonderful holiday madness!

**Thanks Melissa for the photo!