(Um.  Oops.  You may have received a notice that I posted already then it disappeared.  Don’t ask.  Just know that I’m getting used to the new photo-posting doohickey AND Josie decided to pull two handfuls of Nellie’s hair at the very moment my clicker was hovering entirely too near the “publish” button.  Just pretend you didn’t see it.

Now let’s see if I can do this the right way…)

Of course, there were menacing clouds as we tried to leave Oklahoma.  Lots of rain.  Lots of mud.  Lots of really bad things that I’ve since crammed into some dark, musty corner of my mind in hopes of forgetting it all…

For those who were asking about the animals:  We brought both dogs, Rocko and Kong, and four of this spring’s kittens, Tom, Jerry, Blackberry, and Tiger.  Also joining us were about a dozen chickens.

The goats were sold at auction shortly before leaving.  The new van did not yet have a hitch for the trailer at that point so the kids and I enjoyed a ride to the sale with several does and one very rutty buck.  Good photos of such events are just not possible without seven extra hands and a gas mask.  And elephant tranquilizers.

So Monday night, Charlie decided to make life just a little more exciting by having his head swell up from his jaw to his eyebrow. Off to the ER we went. He slept through most of a CAT scan, didn’t blink when the nurse drawing his blood had to fish for a vein repeatedly, and bravely took the world’s most painful shot in the thigh — awaking him from a dead sleep. He came thiiiiis close to being admitted. His head was crammed full of pus from a massive sinus infection.

You can’t really see the swelling in the above pic but, below, you can better see what remains of it after four days of antibiotics. It’s gone down a lot and he’s starting to feel much better. He still can’t really chew much so he’s been living off of applesauce and whatever else he can gingerly chew.

And, yes, we’re still here in Oklahoma. Don’t ask. I promise you I’ll say bad words if I have to tell you about it. Just a few more days….

Nellie wanted a haircut. She wanted her hair cut to look just like her cousin Noora and Dora the Explorer (a cartoon for those of you not yet subjected to her). Okay, so I got the scissors and went to work.

(Her bangs aren’t really crooked, she just had them pushed wonky.)

She’s really happy with it and that’s what matters. (That, and not having three thousand knots to brush out any more!)

…that Isaac was recently eaten by a giant, fuzzy head.

Then the large, fuzzy head decided he tasted like stinky teenage armpit and had to spit him out.

The only logical thing to do after that, of course, was to smoosh the stink out of him with giant, fuzzy butt.

It didn’t work.

The four middle needed tetanus shots so I figured I’d just get them done before we left. Plus Isaac, the barefoot freak, stepped on something funky.

It’s been so much fun punching them all in the arm the past few days!

It took a little help to get them up the drive.

But the trailers are here.

Now we just have to wait for the magical moving fairies to load them with no effort on our part.

More trip fun!

While everyone else was playing, Grandpa Steve and Cody enjoyed some time chatting about… I don’t even want to know. They were probably scheming to take over the world or something manly like that.

On the trip, we for to hang out with Grandpa Steve, including a trip to the Y pool.

Aunt Rosie and Denny came for a short visit while we were there, although Rosie was hiding behind the camera.

And dinner with Grandma & Grandpa Chrisman while we were visiting Grandma Kaye.

Bonus: Check out Bree’s blog for a chance to win an uber-cool water bottle! While you’re there, check out some of her scrumptious recipes. Yum!

As some of you already knew and the rest of you gathered from the last couple of entries, the kids and I went roadtripping to visit Steve in Illinois. Highlights include:

The van dying and having to buy a new one. The new one even has air conditioning! The ride back home was nice and cool.

The trip up there in the old van, not so much.

There was much zombification through melting.

Until we hit a cooler latitude in the northern half of Missouri. We actually got goosebumps from the chill in the air! Oh, joy!

Saw some groovy skies.

And might have found our new home.

More later…

It’s a law that vehicles die while on road trips, right? Meet the newest (unexpected) member of our family.