The Newest Family Member

Meet the Newest Addition to the Allen Family! Introducing Walker. (yep, you guessed it, named after Walker, Texas Ranger, by Clif, of course!)


Walker is a mixed breed Beagle/Jack Russell Terrier. He is 7 weeks old and we just picked him up tonight. He was my Christmas present from Clif. He is such a cutie, isn't he. We couldn't be prouder parents!! He's absolutely tiny right now, just a little bigger than the palm of my hand. We're very excited to have a puppy! We'll see how things go!

The Next Step

So, today is the day that the inspector is coming to check out the house. I really thought all the feelings of nausea would be gone by now, but man am I feeling it this morning! Here are some pics of the kitchen and dining area of our new home! One of the selling points was the cabinet shown in the second picture. It stays with the house. Now, this may not seem like much, but I LOVE THAT CABINET! Maybe in a year I'll be able to afford a dining room table that will match it! :)

Movin' on Up.....

If you're a child of my time or before, then right about now you're humming the theme song for "The Jefferson's". Oh, that Weezy! Well, our first post was about our despairing temporary living arrangement (which has actually been quite great, minus the scorpions), and this post will be about our first permanent home. We have put in an offer on an old classic that has been accepted! We are very excited and nervous all of the same time. We know that nothing has been finalized yet, but we are so optimistic that this is God's will for our lives, and that we will be able to bless Him in incredible ways through this new step into our community. The home is an early 1940's A-frame that is in immaculate shape (or so we believe before we've had it inspected) It has been completed remodeled. It's a smaller home, but it has such a feeling of warmth to it! We can't wait! Check out the pic below for a look into our (fingers crossed) soon-to-be home!

Laundry Time

So, one of the other downsides to our lovely little rental is that we don't have a washer and dryer..... YET! We had four loads of laundry that needed to be done, so we headed to the local laundromat. As we were leaving the laundromat, this is what we saw:

Here's the sheriff....


And here's the inmate!
I didn't know that they still wore black and white stripes, but apparently they do. He was zip-tied to the grocery cart rack smoking a cig. Man, small town livin' sure is different.

Needless to say, Clif and I are going to Lowes TOMORROW to buy a washer and dryer.

Happy Trails til next time!

The Ups and Downs of Bar Livin'

So... in our first week in the bar we've had some ups and downs.

We'll start with the downs:
1. Bad Pipes - I noticed that the pipes beneath the kitchen sink were leaking just a bit, so Clif tightened them, which was just enough pressure to make the entire bottom portion of the pipes rust out. Don't worry, Wal-mart carries a full line of kitchen sink replacement pipes. Only took a little while for Clif to have them all replaced and in good shape.

2. Bad Breaker. On our first night in the old saloon, the air went out. I called my aunt the next morning (because we're subleasing from her) and she called the owner, who sent a repair man out. Turns out the air conditioner is fine, but the breaker it's connected to had a short in it. The one problem, the air man isn't allowed to fix. So, when Clif got home from work, we headed to our local Ace Hardware for a breaker. 10 minutes later, a new air conditioner.

3. Bad Scorpions. Now, I can't talk much about this, because it gives me the creeps. But yes, 3 scorpions have been spotted/killed since we moved in. I sprayed the entire inside and outside perimeter with bug killer. We'll see if it doesn't any good.

So here's a summary for the downs of living this week.

Replacing the bad pipes............... $14.73
Replacing the bad breaker............. $19.97
Spray to kill scorpions................ $6.98
Living in a bar.....................Priceless

Ok, time for some good news. The ups of living in a saloon...

umm, give me a minute, umm, oh yeah, the rent is only $350 :)

This week's favorite Sheriff Report Incident: "Couple on Big Lake going through a Divorce. All major stuff named by Judge during Divorce Trial as to who gets what…Apparently forgot to mention the electric blanket. Both had an end, pulling in opposite directions."

No folks, this stuff is not made up, these are the people our officers are spending their time with... Oh brother!

Happy Trails 'til next time.

Our New Home, Another's Old Bar

Well, we've started moving in to a rent house that was once an old bar/saloon. I'm pretty sure the original hitchin' posts are still out front. Our first order of business was tending to the yard. So, Clif mowed, but not like he would have in Kingwood. See the fun below....

Umm, yes Cindy, he is wearing his new work attire. For those of you who might doubt that this old place was once a bar, just take a look...

I asked Clif if we could put C&K Saloon up top, but he thought it might attract unwanted visitors.

More news later...