Happy Anniversary to us!

Number 4 - March 15, 2007

It’s a Revolution!

A Dance Dance Revolution to be exact! I’ve always been fascinated by this game, and even though I’ve never tried it, not even at an arcade, I mentioned that wanted one and Bobby bought it for me! It’s been a lot of fun so far, even though I’m still trying to figure it out. So even though I’m not good at it yet, I definitely am still getting a good workout. So all you Atherton girls (and guys?) out there, c’mon over if you want to try it out!


Yes, the Griffiths are big kids… Bobby got Country Music Karaoke on the same day. It looks really fun, but I’m still way to scared to do it. I tried, but I can’t even bare to sing in front of Bobby, let alone in front of people that I’m not related to!

Here are Bobby & Currie on open-mic night. (see me there, on the couch, looking very comfortable as a spectator)

How was your weekend?

My long, agonizing week was followed by a short week – I love short work weeks! When I work on a Saturday, I automatically get the following Thursday off, so then I decided to take of Friday too so that I could have a four-day weekend, and it was great. My parents also took the time off of work and came out to visit us. Here’s a recap of our weekend…. Thursday we ate hamburgers grilled by Chef Bobby and then when he went off to work, my mom and I went shopping at the St Louis Mills (outlet mall). When we all got back home we watched Talladega Nights (the third time for Bobby and me). On Friday, Bobby had to go to school for a little while, and my parents & I packed up some boxes in the basement – I think we have total of about 30 boxes packed now! Then we got cleaned up and drove towards the MO/IL state line and stopped at the Chain of Rocks Bridge. Here’s a short history of the bridge…


The Chain of Rocks Bridge spans the Mississippi River and was the most famous crossing of Route 66. It is a mile long and has a 22-degree bend in the middle. The name is derived from the “chain of rocks” in the river just below the bridge. It was built in 1929 as a toll-road and closed in 1967 because the NEW Chain of Rocks Bridge was built. The reason I became interested in it was because I read a book called “A Rip in Heaven” a couple weeks ago which tells the story of the murder of two girls on the bridge in 1991. It is now part of a state park and carries walking & biking trails (aka, it’s safe… supposedly…) When we arrived, the parking lot, which usually has an attendant, was locked, closed off by a chain. But we decided to park just off of the road and get out a walk over to the bridge to see it anyway. Well, just as we were getting out of our car, another car pulled up, then as we were getting further away, another car, then another car, to the point that it was getting really sketchy! So rather than be a victim of a car jacking (and yet, another chain of rocks bridge crime), we decided to skip the walking tour of the bridge and run back to the car and high-tail it out of there! Besides, it was really cold and windy. We do hope to make it back there another time before we leave the Lou.


After that excitement, we went to another St Louis landmark, Fast Eddies Bon Air in Alton, IL. We’ve been hearing about this place on the radio for nearly 4 years now and we finally made it. To be honest, it wasn’t at all what I expected, but it was still fun. The fascination stemmed from the fact that they haven’t raised the prices on food in 19 years, so I was excited to try the 99 cent ½ pound burger and 99 cent order of French fries, and Bobby was excited to get the 29 cent shrimp and $1.99 Big Elwood on a Stick. But when we got there, we found out it’s a bar, with a food line! It was kind of funny, we sat down and the only things the waitress could get us were drinks, and we tried to order food, the waitress said, “you have to go up and order at the food line and get it yourself.” We were a little concerned, but once we got the food, we were hooked - it was AWESOME! And our bill for 4 people with a ton of food was $12!!! You certainly can’t beat that!


After dinner we went and saw Wild Hogs, which was hilarious! My parents are casual bikers so I think they could easily relate with the guys in the movie, but even Bobby and I really enjoyed it.

Saturday we ate at St Louis Bread Co and attempted to go out shopping at Crate & Barrel, Target, and Trader Joes (we felt so urban) but it was miserably cold, snowy, and windy, so that was a short trip. We were happy to come home and enjoy the comforts of our space heater. Bobby and I were invited over to celebrate our neighbor Aiden Hathaway’s 3rd birthday. It was a really cute party and we've loved watching him grow over the last couple of years – I can’t believe he was only 5 months old when we met him! I feel like he has always been running around Atherton and charming us with his funny little quotes. (His family’s blog is listed in my links.)

After the party, the four of us had FONDUE! Most of you know that I love fondue (we have 6 fondue pots) and now, thanks to an anniversary gift from my parents, we now have a chocolate fountain too! We cooked venison steak and chicken in our wine sauce (yum), dipped bread & pretzels in the Melting Pot’s recipe for cheese sauce (very yum), and then dipped anything & everything we could find in the chocolate (super YUM)! Following dinner, we nearly all passed out in the living room because we were so pleasantly stuffed, but then decided to peel ourselves off of the couch & floor for a vicious game of Sorry! It was a great way to end a very fun weekend.

Long week

I have to work 6 days this week, it's going to be torture, plain and simple. Our department is on a 6 week rotation to work on Saturdays and this is my week. Now, it may not be too bad on a normal week, but lately work has been draining! I work 11:30-8 Tuesday thru Friday (9-5:30 on Mondays) and most nights I've been staying until nearly 9, if not later. The travel agency I work for is a "travel redemption agency." So you know when you see commercials for credit card companies that you can earn points towards travel if you use their card? Well, once the points are earned, the cardholders call me to redeem them for travel. Fun stuff, huh? It's actually a great way for us to earn business though, I mean, if they want to use their points, they HAVE to book their travel through us. Guess it is a pretty good idea... Well anyway, we also offer service to some companies that offer travel awards for their salespeople, and in one particular instance, an unnamed pharmaceutical company. Well, these overachievers have a bunch of points expiring at the end of the month and so you can imagine how extremely busy that makes us. But hey, I guess I shouldn't complain, those pill-pushers are paying my bills.

Am I a redneck?

Bobby asked me the other day, "Are you a redneck?" We both laughed and agreed that I probably wasn't, but it got me thinking. So let's review the facts: according to Wikipedia, rednecks are largely descendants of Scots-Irish, which I am, I listen to country music, I go to Boat Shows, I own a Bass Pro shops hat, I enjoy fishing every once in a while, I'll be spending my anniversary in a cabin on a lake in Kentucky or Tennessee, in the next couple of months I may be moving to either Arkansas or West Virginia (enough said), and I'm married to a guy who currently has a semi-mullet. Hey, maybe I just married a redneck! What do you think?

Only in America

As all of you know, yesterday was Super Sunday, which is a day of food, fun, and football in nearly every household in America, and you can bet that we wouldn’t let a day like that pass without a grand fanfare! Bobby got to make a variety of “dips” – red salsa, salsa verde, and guacamole – I heard they were good, I could smell them too, but that’s as close as I got. We made some other yummy snacks and of course, I made my semi-famous Super Bowl cookies. And this year I added a Super Bowl cake. The cake wasn’t my best work, but I really did put some thought into placing the spice drops. As you can see, I have the Colts on offense so that I could have Peyton Manning on my cake, and the Bears are on defense, in a 4-3 formation (or so I’m told) – I just made sure I had 11 for each team! We all really enjoyed the game, halftime, and commercials. We need to get better about taking pictures of the people at the party, but once again, we only took shots of the food. Congrats to the Colts, Tony Dungy, and MVP Peyton Manning!!!

(the palm trees are for Miami - where the Super Bowl was played last night - I guess I should have made rain drops instead)

Blessings in hard times

You know how people say that they never would have experienced or received the blessings they have if they hadn’t gone through trials and hard times? Sounds like a bunch of bunk, doesn’t it? Well, you heard it here… it’s true! Most of the readers of this blog know that just a little over a week ago, I had a miscarriage. I am happy to report that physically I am healing just fine and as far as we know, I have no reason not to believe that I won’t go on to have a perfect pregnancy in the future, which is wonderful. Emotionally, the healing is taking a bit longer and I expect to grieve over this for a long time, maybe even forever, even if just a little bit. What I’m trying to say is that I’ll never forget it, and I know that is normal.

But what I’d rather focus on in this blog post is the love of our friends & family we’ve received during this tragic event. We really debated whether or not to share the news about this, but in the end, we decided we wanted our good friends to know and we needed the prayer support. This is a corporate thank you to all of you who have been thinking about us and praying for us, your kind words in your emails, and for those special few who sent cards, flowers, and made meals for us. You are greatly appreciated!!

And even more important than our dear friends, is our loving and caring Heavenly Father. Through this He has been faithful to us, comforting us, healing us, providing us with hope and grace. I know that we as God’s children experience these things daily, but they seem to be much more evident in difficult times like these.

2 Corinthians 1:3-7 (look it up!)

Ringing in the New Year - in Oklahoma!

This past weekend we got to celebrate Christmas #2 with Bobby’s family in Oklahoma. We arrived late Friday night and came back to St Louis Monday afternoon, so it was another quick weekend getaway. The plane tickets may have been $314, but being with family on New Years was priceless. How about that for cheesiness!?! It is true though.

Saturday afternoon we got to eat lunch with Bobby’s aunt, uncle, & two cousins at our favorite Mexican restaurant, Ted’s. Ok, so normally I don’t really get that excited about Mexican food, but even I love that place – they completely lavish you with chips & cheese dip (and salsa, but who cares about that?!) and keep refilling them to your heart’s content. The service is great and the food is better. And to top it all off, we got sopapillas! Yum!! Saturday night we had a big turkey dinner and opened presents. Sunday morning was a wonderful church service at Heritage PCA, followed by family portraits at Walmart. The rest of the day was spent eating, visiting, playing games, and of course watching the ball drop in NYC at 11:00 pm central time – that anticlimactic event I’ve had to deal with for 4 years now.

Monday afternoon we were all dressed in our official Fiesta Bowl t-shirts

but Bobby and I had to fly back to St Louis to watch the game. And that is what we did – until after midnight! I still can’t believe OU lost, but wow, what a game!!

Christmas on the farm

We had the great privilege of spending Christmas weekend in southwestern Pennsylvania at my Aunt Traci & Uncle Jack's farm. We arrived Saturday afternoon and Bobby was whisked off to Hunting Hills where he got to enjoy shooting some birds. Meanwhile the ladies went to a candlelight service at a little country church. Then we all met up for dinner that evening. Sunday was nice and relaxing, and I was excited about getting to see the Steelers play, but the game was a major disappointment. Monday morning was a blast, more family & friends arrived, we had a delicious brunch and opened a bountiful amount of presents! Then we left the farm, drove two hours north to New Castle to exchange more presents and visit my mom's side of the family. The bad part was getting to bed late and waking up at 5:00 am (yes, that's 4:00 central time) to fly back to St Louis so that I could go to work... but hey, let's not focus on the negative! Here are some pictures from the weekend:


Bobby and his birds


















The Hammond family Christmas photo


















One of my favorite presents this year - my mom had my wedding gown preserved. Only to be taken out of the box when I have a daughter to try it on someday. Or if I have a mid-life crisis and get determined to fit back in it!

















And this picture is just to prove that we really were on a farm... Pattycake the Pig, running up the steps because it's feedin' time! Isn't she adorable?!

Party Season

'Tis the season for parties & open houses, and fortunately other people have been hosting them so I haven't had to! True, I do love entertaining, but it really is nice when we can go to other people's houses and enjoy their clean, inviting homes and eat all of their food.

This past Saturday, our neighbors that live on the other side of our ceiling, Currie & Abby, had a fun little gathering. Unfortunately though, only one picture was taken all night, but it's a good one!

Here is Jessica, me, Abby & Joy - all seminary wives. Jess and her husband, BJ, don't live in Atherton yet, but they hope to soon.

Last week we got to go to another party. Technically it wasn't a "Christmas" party, it was actually a going-away party for our dear friends, the Zellners. We are very sad to say good-bye to them. Eric & I worked together at my first job here in St Louis - while I was running errands & doing laundry all day, he got to do all the cleaning - lucky guy! It was great to get to know him, his wife, Susan, and their two precious girls, Olivia & Emma Frances, well over the past 3 1/2 years. Wow, has it been that long?!