Sun, surf, and sand...

Happy Birthday to Rob!! Happy Birthday to Brigid!! We hope you both have an outstanding day!

We seem to have birthdays coming out our ears these days... Last night, Mom Sheryl stopped by Austin on her way home from Mary Kay Seminar in Dallas. She took us to Chuy's to celebrate Brad's birthday from last week. Yum!

Can you believe August starts TOMORROW?!? What happened to the summer?!?

Monday again, after another fun weekend. Blech.

Friday night, Richie and I had a date night and tried out a new ribs joint near us (Tony Roma's) and rented Just Married. Both were good, if not outstanding.

Saturday, we dragged ourselves out of bed early and headed out to Katy. Richie played in an informal King of the Beach volleyball tournament while I went to Courtney's parents house to visit with Courtney (now living in Kansas City) and celebrate the first birthday of her daughter Andie. Richie didn't play as well as he would have liked to, and ended up placed 5th out of 7 in the tournament. After that, we all cooled off in Lisa's mom's newly remodeled pool, and then had a laid-back evening (pizza and the board game Taboo!) at Lisa and Geoff's place. Much fun! See pictures on our pictures page if you're interested.

Sunday we headed back to Austin fairly early, so that we could get in some lake time. Brad, Richie and I got Knight Boat in the water, but it was too crowded and the water too rough to do any skiing or wakeboarding, so we just anchored and floated. We were chased in somewhat early by a thunderstorm and spent the rest of the evening grilling out and otherwise recovering from the weekend.

Good morning, and a Happy Birthday to Mom David!!

The concert last night was fun, although I have a feeling that it would have been a lot better if we had chosen a better spot for our seats... they wound up being in a high traffic area so that not only could we not see anything due to the people standing in front of us, but our feet were in constant danger of being crushed by people trying to make their way through the area. Oh well, it was a nice evening with good music and good company. And Richie sold his coveted old-school Astros hat, modeled by Brad in the picture below, to a guy whose girlfriend just had to have it! (At a decent profit, of course!) Who knew Richie was a fashion trendsetter?!

The best picture from the evening:

Good morning and happy Monday!

It's always tough to be at work after a good weekend! Richie, Dan (aka Gomer) - Richie's v-ball partner, and I headed to Houston Friday evening. We picked up Viet and Chris and trekked to Galveston Saturday morning for the GCVA volleyball tournament. The weather was gorgeous - sunny and clear with highs in the upper 80s and the occasional cooling breeze. There wasn't a huge turnout for this tourney, so they had to combine all the men's divisions (B/BB/A) into one. Viet and Chris pooled out and lost in the first playoff round to Richie and Gomer, who wound up finishing 2nd overall, and first in their division! Yay!

Saturday evening, Joy joined us for a late dinner at Carino's and then we all hung out/goofed off the rest of the night at the Davids' house in Katy. Stayed up way too late, but had a good time. Sunday we got up relatively early, grabbed breakfast and headed back to Austin to spend the rest of the afternoon trying to recover from the past few hectic weekends. A Freebird's burrito, a long nap, a walk around the neighborhood, and few wedding scrapbook pages (yes, I am still working on it, and no, it is nowhere close to done!) later we felt more ready to face the coming week.

On a sadder note, we got word from Dad that Brigid's father passed away Saturday night. He was diagnosed with a incurable form of cancer a couple of months ago and had been in hospice care since. He was almost 82. The funeral is Wednesday in Dubuque. Please keep Brigid and her family in your prayers during this difficult time.

This weekend, it looks like we are headed out to Houston/Galveston (apparently no longer underwater from the storm) for Richie's sand volleyball tournament. Wish him luck!

We'd also like to send our congratulations out to Ted and Jill, who are tying the knot today in Iowa! Best wishes to you both!

Have a great weekend!

Also this week, Hurricane Claudette took a last-minute turn and landed on the front porch of our loved ones in Port O'Connor and Port Lavaca. Luckily, the Port Lavaca crew was still in Concan and decided to wait the storm and its aftermath out in San Antonio. Grannie and Papa Berger left Port O'Connor on Monday to take haven at the farm in Victoria.

Damage reports are still trickling in as they all make their way back home. We've heard that tin roofs were blown off, high winds uprooting and/or breaking almost all of the trees in the area, and power's been out for a few days. However, none of our families' homes and properties seem to have sustained major damage so we feel very blessed by that.

A few pics from POC, courtesy of Brad, who found them on chron.com:




Anyone else find it odd that amidst the damage they're taking pictures of couples making out on the pier?!? ;)

So, last weekend we were at the annual Selph gathering in Concan, Texas. The weather was gorgeous, but hot. The river was a little low, too low for an "adult" tube trip, according to John, who attempted it. (We did not.) The river looked a lot different from last year:



Notice the new volleyball courts across the river? We made good use of them, as team Winner (Natalie, Blake, Blake's gf Jennifer, Marcie) took down team Loser (Richie, Brad, Katie, Paige). ;) Unfortunately, our attempt at a rematch was foiled by some guys who broke the net down so that they could play soccer. Sigh. It will have to wait until next year.

A couple of other differences from years past - we went to a dance on the Pavilion at Neal's on Saturday night. We went to another dance at Garner (not like this was new to Concan trips, just new to me!). So we danced our booties off. It was lots of fun.

Hello and welcome to our blog! This is going to be a spot where you can keep up with what's going on with us, if anything! Check back soon for updates!