Home Renovation Time

We have loved our simple, comfy home for almost 10 years and have been grateful for the protection and peace it has provided us and our family. Our home was built in December of 2008 and we moved in June of 2011. The home was only lived in for 6 months and then the family foreclosed on the home and it sat vacant for almost 2 years. Although a sad situation for the previous owners, it has been a huge blessing for us. The timing, the price, the location, everything. With that said, after almost 13 years it has been time to do some updates. We have been planning projects for a while, but with the pandemic taking its toll on our income and building supplies and contractors and such, we had been waiting. Somehow the stars all aligned and aligned a little too well :) All of the people we had bids for things on the home could do it all at once. So, great for just knocking it out, not so great on the bank account! 

We started with the fence. It has been knocked down for a while and with the past storm it took its toll. We have townhomes behind us, so getting all three neighbors behind and to the sides to agree was a little tricky, but thankfully it was a success and we have a new fence!

This was before....

After!! It looks great and I love having a pretty, secure fence to look at as I type this post!

While the fence was being installed, we had our contractor Godofredo renovate our upstairs bathroom. The vanity was falling apart, and I could not clean the bathtub no matter how much I tried. As you know in Houston, mold is an annoying fact of life. So, since the kids no longer need a bathtub, we converted it to a bigger shower. 

Before...

During...

After!

I love it! It was hard to choose what I wanted in there, but I like it and am happy with my design choices!

Finally, we remodeled the dining room to make it an office. When Ragnar works from home, it is hard cause he has no where to go that is quiet, so we wanted to add some doors and transform it from a dining room to an office!

During..

After..

They did a great job and I am happy with how it turned out.

We added a few new rugs and we are almost finished!

I am grateful for the chance we have had to make some updates and am happy with the companies we chose to help make it what we invisioned!

Ella's First Homecoming Dance!

Saturday night Ella went with a big group of friends to her first Atascocita High School Homecoming dance. She has a great group of friends and I am so grateful that she has people who she can surround herself with that are interested in her, support her, and have similar standards. 

She looked beautiful and I am proud of the girl she is becoming!

There were 19 kids. Only a couple of them are 16 years old and had dates, but most of them just went together in a big group just to have fun!

Who knew you would have to take as many pictures on a homecoming dance night as you would for your wedding day!!!

Beautiful girls!

This is her good friend Cayden. 

They took pictures, went to dinner at Italiano's, then went to the dance. Some of them went to watch a movie afterwards, but she came home. I am glad she had a great first experience, and even happier that she says she much prefers church dances :)

Quick visit!

My sister Marisa came to town for a few days with her youngest son Grayson to celebrate my mom's 65th birthday! I hardly took any pictures, but we had a fun time catching up and talking. On my mom's birthday we went to lunch at CeCe's and I had the biggest pancake ever! Then we went for a pedicure and shopped for a minute. Afterward we met my family, brothers family, and sisters for a nice dinner at Acadia grill. It was delicious! 

This was the only picture we took of us!

My mom really doesn't love having her own picture taken, but memories mom, memories..they have to be documented sometimes! We sure love her and I am so grateful for the endless sacrifices she has made for me. She is a wonderful support to me and an awesome mother and grandmother! Love you mom!

Houston Interactive Aquairum

The kids had Fall break a couple weeks ago. It seems like our kids are never in school, haha. Our district has SO many breaks. We tried to make the most of it and went to Rocket's games, played kickball, games, and went to this new Houston Aquarium with my parents and sister. 

We had a fun time trying out this new adventure! There were sting rays, sharks, fish, bunnies, turtles, so many things!

Grandpa paid for an interactive experience with the Lemurs and the kids loved having them all around them and petting them. 

There was a space for birds and reptiles and all sorts of things. 

They got to feed the camels. This one was only 5 months old. 

The warthogs and pigs kept eating all the kids shoelaces :) haha

We had a fun time and it was nice to try something new!

Ragnar turns 44!!

Ragnar celebrated another birthday a couple weeks ago. He turned 44 on September 25th. We love him and were happy to celebrate with him! We went with several couples to go bowling and to dessert the weekend before his birthday and we had a lot of fun! We also celebrated with my parents and brothers family and sister here in Houston. 

On his birthday morning we had a full day of soccer! We got in a quick donut and song and off to the fields we went!

Soccer and Germany are the other loves of his life..besides me of course ;)

He coached and refereed most of the day and then we went to dinner at Sharky's for dinner. 

He loves chocolate bundt cakes and so he got his very own. We had a nice day celebrating his life. 

This year he has been working hard to transition to a new job and work hard at making extra money where he can. It has been a tough year, but I am proud of him. He is a devoted husband and father. The kids love having him around and spending time with him! We hope this year is another year of growth for him and success. We love you Rags!

Sports Again!

This season of sports has begun at the Hartzheim home and we are excited. Cavin began his middle school Timberwood football season and is playing #99 as an offensive and defensive lineman. He is getting stronger and braver each game. He is still our gentle giant, so aggression doesn't come naturally, but he is getting more courageous and understands the game well. I am proud of him for working hard and being part of a team.

He is always to the side of the coach and watching the other players if he is not in, he is very attentive to what is going on. 

He is a cute kid!

Cavin also decided during football season he would earn his first paycheck and become a referee in the fall soccer season. He and his dad are doing it together. His first week went well. He just needs to be louder, but he made good calls and loves soccer. Ragnar and he get to do their first game together this weekend on Ragnar's birthday. 

As for Channing and Deacon, they are playing soccer with the Heatwave again. Channing's coach took a season off, so Channing really wanted to have Ragnar coach her. This would require Channing to play an age group up and with much bigger girls in the U12-U14 division. After much hesitation, he finally said yes and he has a great group of 18 girls. 9 of the girls go to our church and Channing loves being on a team with her friends and absolutely loves having her dad coach. They are the silver bullets. She plays mostly on defense, but she is learning and getting more and more aggressive with getting to the ball. As for Deacon, this is his 5th season with Wes Brown coaching. They changed his age group, so he is almost playing two years up as well. He really thrives with older kids though and made 3 goals the first game. He is a good player and just smiles the whole time he is out there. Soccer runs deep in his German blood! He is on the Blue Tsunamis this year and also has 5 kids from our church on his team and 9 of the 12 are returning, so he knows a lot of players and enjoys it. 

I just LOVE to watch my kids play sports and look forward to each game. I love watching them work hard and grow and do something that is healthy and makes them happy. Let's go Timberwood, Silver Bullets, and Blue Tsunami! I hope it's a great season for them all!!