Day 100: whoop whoop double digits!

Okay…I know I know I haven’t updated in a long time. I’ve been super busy and yet not busy at all but I’m going to get back on this and update again! Currently, Benjamin has been gone for about 3 months now and that means we only have 3 more months to go! I’ve been trying to keep myself busy so last weekend, Celeste, Ryan and I met up in London to see Sister Act the musical and Whoopi Goldberg starred as Mother Superior…or Mother Theresa as I told someone at work!

We had a great time and it was fun to hang out in London for the day. After the show, we went to an Indian Tapas restaurant with the best Nan bread I’ve ever tasted. I will definitely be going back and will have to take Benjamin because Indian food is his ultimate favorite!

Here is a quick recap of what I haven’t been blogging about and what you haven’t been reading, because I pretty much stopped blogging when Ben left:

May happenings:

Ben left

Birthday - Legally Blonde the Musical

June happenings:

Baby shower for Laura

Welcoming baby Tristen!!!

July happenings:

Got a new job – and it’s awesome!!

Saw Anne Boleyn at The Globe in London with Celeste

August happenings:

Went to Holkham Hall with Laura and her friend

Benjamin moved to a safer location

Never fear, I will blog all about these happenings, current and old.

Hadrian's Wall

Benjamin and Ryan are going to walk along Hadrian's Wall this weekend. Get ready for a little history lesson here: Hadrian was the 14th emperor of Rome. He built a stone and timber fortification to define the Northern frontier of the Roman Empire in England.  (Thanks Google search!) Hadrian's Wall is 84 miles long, one end of England to the other end, and they plan to do it in 4 days. Now you see why I didn't join in on this lovely outdoor excursion. :) He'll be back on Tuesday!

26 years old

Happy 26^th Birthday Benjamin!

Nick, Michael and Ryan joined us for dinner at a fantastic Indian place in Bury St. Edmunds. After dinner we came back home and ate some cake, cracked a bottle scotch (which Ben said tasted better than the scotch we had in Scotland…go figure) and played a trivia game on the PS3.

Car fun continued

We went to IKEA with our friends, Michael and Laura! Ben and I had never been to an IKEA before and we were very excited to go. Benjamin was having way too much fun or maybe he was just taking a break, either way we had a great day with some great friends. 

We ended up buying an accent table, wine rack and mirror for our bedroom. I'll post pictures of that later.

More car fun! *rolls eyes*

Ben hit another curb and the tire blew out!

We fixed the tire that night and in the morning, when it was time to get Ben to the airport, the car wouldn't start. We had a new battery but could figure out how to change it due to some heavy duty bolts holding it in place. Needless to say, Ben missed the bus and I had to drive him all the way to Heathrow. 

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas!

Haven't had a chance to update so here we go:

Benjamin is back from Survival School, which was in Washington state. He was gone for three weeks, our third TDY. I'll have to get him to write an update (if he can) about some of things he went through. Air Force Survival school provides survival, evasion, resistance, and escape training. He had to kill, skin, and eat a bunny! Enough about that...

I convinced Benjamin to let us put the Christmas tree up early!! The British start decorating the day after Halloween. Just a few days before Thanksgiving wasn't going to hurt anything :)

I picked up Benjamin from the London Heathrow airport and we met Ryan for a few hours before we had to head back home. Here we are in front of the Christmas tree in front of an ice skating rink. It reminded me of the ice skating rink in front of Rockerfeller Center in NYC.

Benjamin had not slept in about 24 hours at this point!

Here are the boys looking at some memorial in London...they would be mad that I didn't remember what it was a memorial for.

We would like to wish our families and friends, both near a far, a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Another present on the doorstep

We got another present on our doorstep yesterday! This time, it was a broom with a poem attached:


Paint me, decorate me - do what you will
I'll stick around until I've had my fill
Watch me close, keep me near
On Halloween night, have some fear.
Unless they choose not to be wise
Kids beware of neighbors in disguise
I'm a witch's broom seady and true
On the 31st I may fly away from you!




Here's the game:
We decorate our broom and put it out in front of our house. Once Halloween week starts the stealing begins! We can steal as many brooms as we want but only one broom from any one person at a time. At the end of Halloween night, we get to keep the brooms we still have. Whoever ends up without a broom has to host the group.



Here is our broom before we decorate it!! This is going to be fun! We'll have to have it decorate by Thursday because we are going out of town on Friday night :)

The boo got booed!

We got booed!! It's a game our neighborhood plays in October. We found a bag on our doorstep with a gift, ghost and instructions inside:

This treat is for you, We hope you enoy
this idea is simple, one we hope you employ.
You pass "boo" along to 2 other neighbors
Along with any kind of Halloween favors.
If we all do our part and spread the good cheer
by Halloween night it will be very clear.
We're a friendly bunch, we like to share fun
So please do our part and keep "boo" on the run!







We got a spiced pumpkin reed diffuser from Yankee Candle!

Ryan's Visit

We went to eat at the Halk Moon pub in Mildenhall. It was great catching up with a good friend!

On Saturday, we went to Emily's Tea Room! It was very delicious and we plan on going back soon. I got lemon tea with honey, which was just lovely. I really didn't know that British people put milk and sugar into their tea. I guess it depends on the kind of tea you get. I didn't put milk in my lemon tea because that just seemed wrong!

Here are the scones at Emily's Tea Room. They are several different jams to use from, these have blueberry jam. These scones had cherries and raisins! These were different the best ones I've had!

Operation Ryan in a Refrigerator

Players: 

Ryan Jenkins - Ben's best friend from HS and college, groomsman in our wedding

Kristen Secrist - can, but hates, keeping secrets

Benjamin Secrist - unsuspecting victim

Background:

Ryan got accepted to graduate school at King's College in London. Benjamin thought, because Ryan told him, that Ryan was attending NC State. Meanwhile, Ryan and I had devised a plan to get him to our house to surprise Ben. 

Operation Ryan in a Refrigerator:

After work on Friday, I met Ryan at the gate, got him a visitors pass and headed to the house. Benjamin had to work late so we had about an hour to devise our plan: Operation Ryan in a Refrigerator.

This video is the sequel to Operation Ben in the Trunk and Pip in a Box.