Flight Suits and Fairytales

Totally 80's!!!

So...how do you like our new look?? The above picture is of me and my friend Meredith before our Totally 80's party!! The wives here get together every month as a group to go over the "schedule", snack on some fabulous food, and just catch up on each other's lives. Each month is a different "theme", and this month was a tribute to a decade of tight-rolled jeans, insanely high hair, leg warmers, & (my favorite) jellies!! Our friends Mhari & Emily went down to High Street and purchased some RAD clothes & accessories to complete our look. The funny thing is, we could all go out in Newmarket and completely fit in with the regular pub crew!! The party was great...complete with fondue...and though we didn't win a prize for "best dressed", I think we were definitely rockin' the 80's spirit! See for yourself....

Emily, Mhari, Me, Kelly & Meredith...mmmm, side pony-tails & spandex tights should definitely come back in style!!

The wives...We have 2 Madonna's & a Flash-dancer in the front row!!

Deep in the HEART of Texas

Chris and I just arrived back in England after a much needed, and wonderful trip back to Texas. We started off our trip in San Antonio to see Chris's dad (Mike) become the new Knight

Commander for Kappa Alpha Order. We drove down with Grandmama & Aunt Dianne on a Thursday morning, making sure to stop at all of our favorite fast-food spots! Gotta love Chick-fil-a! The hotel was incredible, and was right on the Riverwalk. Our room was amazing (thanks Mike!!) and we had fun lounging by the pool, catching up on sleep, and spending time with the family. There were all kinds of activities for the wives and family members...a riverboat lunch (complete with fab Mexican food!), a beautiful brunch, a shopping trip, and a tour of the churches in the area.

At night we both got to enjoy a mini-rodeo, awesome bar-b-que, a silent auction in a beautiful old train station, and of course the banquet honoring Mike which was just gorgeous and so much fun!

We left on Sunday morning and headed back to Arlington for a visit with the rest of our families. I got to accompany my mom to her new job, which she LOVES, and see her in action. It was so fun to see her so happy, and so excited about what she is doing now! I also went to NRH2O with my dad, Carlotta, Amy and the kids...which is a MUST if you haven't been before. It was hot, and the kids were ready to leave after just a couple of hours, but I had a blast chasing Landry through the "Splashatory", and racing him, my dad and Amy down the slides. What could be more fun than a water park in the summertime?? Chris and I also got to visit with some great friends while we were back in Tejas. We met three other couples out in Dallas at Cuba Libre (yummy!), and then headed over to the Old Monk to chat and catch up. We capped off our night at John & Erin's house where

Chris and John played Wii. Needless to say, the Wii is now a MUST HAVE at the Duncan household!! I visited the Modern Art Museum with my dad and got to see the amazing Ron Mueck exhibit. I highly recommend checking it out if you have a chance! Chris spent lots of time by the pool, and scoping out all the electronics stores that are so lacking here in England! On our last night in Arlington, we invited some other friends and family over to my mom's house for a cook-out. We grilled hamburgers and hot dogs, swam and laughed at all the stories that always come out when we all get together. It was a great way to end a great trip! Chris and I feel so blessed to have such wonderful friends and family who love and support us no matter how far away we are. It is always hard to leave again, and we are already looking forward to making the trip out to Texas again, and then Mexico for John & Erin's wedding in December!! Til next time...cheers!

Updates and Pictures....

So...a lot has happened since I blogged last! Chris & Jason flew in an Airshow in Duxford, which was pretty cool! I took a video with my camera; however, I'm not savvy enough to know how to upload it onto the blog yet, so you'll have to be patient until Chris can help me. I took a few pictures, but if you've ever taken Airshow pictures, the planes turn out looking like little flies on a big piece of blue paper....not exactly frame-worthy material, but here is one just so you can see that he actually DID fly :)

I went with the Wendy, her girls, and Miss Meredith (as Cara lovingly calls her). The announcer guy even gave a little "shout out" to Meredith's upcoming bundle of joy!! It was pretty cool :)

Then, last Friday we went to a Hawaiian Luau! Everyone pitched in, brought some food, and we all had a great time. It turned out to be a gorgeous night in England (haven't seen much of those lately), so we got to stay and enjoy our friends and their families. I love going to things like that...especially since we're so far away from our extended families back Texas. Getting to spend quality time with the amazing people here really makes it feel like home. It was unreal how many children there were...there were bouncy castles, a surf machine, and lots of land for them to run around and play on. It's so fun to see everyone having such a good time and relaxing...I love summertime!!

I'm happy to say that I'm still working out :) I've been inspired by my dad who has suddenly taken up running and biking! Sadly, I'm not sure I can keep up with him....but it sure is a good motivator!! When we go back to the States tomorrow (woohoo!!! Texas here we come!!), hopefully we'll have some time to run together. I'm going to have to do SOMETHING b/c Chris and I have already started mapping out where we want to go to eat while we're home. The list is long (and not so healthy), so I might running a lot more than I had planned!! We're so excited to be going back, 8 months is a long time to not see your family! I actually conquered my normal procrastination syndrome and packed this afternoon :) So, by this time tomorrow we'll be back in the States...well, in the air over the States, but that counts too!!

Til then...cheers!

Back Online!!

Well, it has been a long four days without the sweet convenience of the Internet and a home phone line. We've been living without TV, a dishwasher, or a washer/dryer for 7 months now, but the phone and Internet thing just about did us in!! Luckily they both got turned back on yesterday and all is well in the Duncan household once again.
We're so excited to go back to Texas in about 2 weeks. It is always so fun to see our families and friends again after such a long time. Hopefully we will have enough time to see everyone for at least a little bit before we travel back home. We'll be in San Antonio for 4 days and then in Arlington for 6...we're both really hoping to work on our tans a little bit before we come back (if you haven't heard, the sun just doesn't linger for very long in our neck of the woods!!). It will be interesting to see how we handle the heat (especially in San Antonio) after having a very mild (80 degrees MAX) summer over here....we might just melt! Oh, but being back in Texas again with the sun, the Tex-Mex, the accents, the right side of the road, and oh...did I mention the Tex-Mex?!? Who could ask for anything more?!
Chris is flying in his first Airshow this weekend! They will do two fly-bys...plenty of time to get some great pictures. The Hilburn family, our friend Meredith and I are all planning on spending the day out there enjoying the weather and watching them fly. Chris finished his last "test" last week (he did awesome!), so he's really looking forward to having some fun in the jet.
More soon....Cheers!!

Simple Things

The past few weeks have been fast and furious, and we're both starting to feel like the summer is just speeding past us! We had "first Friday" last Friday and it was so great to just relax and enjoy spending some time with friends. The theme was "Red, White, and Blue" (for obvious reasons) so I decided to try my hand at a flag cake! One of the things I love about living here in England is that the fruit is just wonderful. Since we have a tiny refrigerator (trust me, it's tiny) we have to buy really fresh food so that it won't spoil. Now, the old me (the one living with my nice dishwasher, my functional washer/dryer, and my splendidly cool air conditioning system) would be put out buy having to go to the grocery store three times a week. But the new me LOVES trying out the local markets and flower shops! The flowers in the picture above will seriously last 3 weeks! And the raspberries, strawberries, and blueberries that I used for the cake were absolutely marvelous. It's the little things like these that keep a smile on my face even when the largest fly I have ever seen is happily buzzing around my living room because apparently the English have never heard of window screens :)

We also went to a cook-out last weekend and I can't remember the last time I had so much fun!

They had a HUGE bouncy castle that was like an obstacle course and by the end of the night all the girls were competing in timed relays! There was amazing food, scrumptious desserts, and they even had a chocolate fountain! We started a fire, roasted marshmallows and just spent the whole night chatting and laughing. Chris had fun too...getting his truck stuck in a creek after taking some guys off-roading! It was probably more funny the next day, but I assure you we had some good laughs :)

This week was pretty hectic...lots of meetings for me, and tons of early flights for Chris...so, by the time Friday rolled around we were ready for a nice relaxing night at home. But Saturday was a different story! We successfully pulled off our first dinner party at our house!! I made Gayle's famous chicken spaghetti, and yummy brownies

for dessert. Two other couples and two "singles" came, so it was quite the crowd! All eight of us piled around our tiny 4 person kitchen table...it was cozy but so much fun! We played games after we ate and laughed until midnight. We will definitely have to do that again!

We have another busy week ahead of us, but next Saturday we're heading up to Wales to go camping with some friends, so it will be worth the wait!

He's Home!

Chris finally made it home a little over a week ago after some slight changes to the original itinerary :) Though the changes were a little stressful, I'm so glad that everyone made it back safe and had a GREAT time doing some really good work. I put an emphasis on their "GREAT time" due to the extremely dark tan that Chris was sporting when he came home!! After he mentioned the words beach, jet skiing, & the pool...I stopped listening! If you haven't heard, we're still wearing sweatshirts over here in jolly ole', and we lovingly refer to our pasty white skin tone as our English tan! Needless to say, a very tan blond guy looks a little out of place :) So anyway, they had fun, did some really great flying from what I hear, and got to see some of the most amazing places that the world has to offer. We're still waiting on the pictures, but I'm sure that they will be just wonderful!

As soon as Chris returned we started looking for a fun place to go for a long weekend. We headed out early Saturday morning, and after a somewhat shaky ferry ride (don't ask!), we were on mainland Europe making our way to Amsterdam. We were both so glad that we decided to drive because the scenery over there is just breathtaking. We drove into Belgium and took some funny roadside pictures. (See above) There's nothing like two Americans trying to balance the the camera on the top of the car, running down the side of the highway trying to pose before the timer ran out, trying not to think about the trucks whizzing by at alarmingly fast speeds! I'm sure we got a lot of laughs, and probably a few head-shakes too...but it made us laugh for at least 5 min after we got back into the car, and that's all that counts...right!?!
We made it to Amsterdam and just took our time wandering around the city. We had a great

dinner at a place called Cafe' November complete with white chocolate mousse'...what more could you ask for?! We sampled some Holland beer, enjoyed the scenery, and even ventured to the Red Light District just to say that we did it :) I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that we'll never return to that particular area again....I think Chris's exact words were "What is the fastest way out of this place?!" It was actually quite funny! The next day, we went to Anne Frank's house and did some more exploring before getting on the road to go to Brugge, Belgium.

Brugge is probably my favorite city so far. It is quaint and quiet, and the people are just so kind. We stayed in a little hotel about a 5 min. walk for the City Center. We spent the days wandering

around, shopping, eating, and taking pictures. At night we found some great restaurants and got to experience the town completely aglow in the lights of night. It looked like something straight out of a book, we just loved it! It was the perfect way to spend a 4-day weekend and we treasured every moment of it.
Yesterday was the 4th of July (one of my favorite holidays) and we had a church picnic in the afternoon. We played volleyball, grilled hamburgers and hot dogs, played dominoes, and met lots of fun new people. We then went to Feltwell for the fireworks...well, we WERE going to see the fireworks; however, my choice of shoes (flip-flops) combined with the immense amount of rain that we have had lately, just didn't mix. So...we left before the fireworks started, but I'm sure that they were magnificent! All in all, we had a fantastic weekend and we can't wait for our next adventure!

A Whirlwind June!

I was so blessed to get the opportunity to visit 3 different countries this month, and even more excited to be able to experience them all with my mom! I've picked my favorite picture from each place that we explored...what a great June!

This is of the river that runs through Brugge, Belgium. It is said to be the "Venice" of Belgium :)