Where to do I start? I’m so far behind that these fine folks have already written about our trip to Karen’s place in PA for a mom/parent-blog get-together (which also included these folks as well). Go to their sites; all have great posts about the visit.

We had planned to leave our house between 8am and 8:30am, figuring that should give us enough time to drive up to the outer ‘burbs of Pittsburgh by noon. After a lot of panic and whining and carrying-on, we left at 9:30am, but still had to fill up the truck and score me something remotely resembling coffee because I was up later than expected making my Almost-Famous apple pies to bring. It seems now that I’m paying at least 50% more for a 3lb bag of apples, I’m also paying that much more for apples of 50% less quality than before. I did not come across even 1 apple that didn’t have a bruise the size of my thumb! And since those big bruises trip-up the peeler on my apple peeler-corer-slicer, I had to manually peel 6 lbs of apples (yes, I used all six pounds since I had to cut out so many bad bruises). Thankfully I could still core and slice them quickly.

So anyways we stop at the gas station, fill up, I cry about my missing sunglasses, and stomp inside to get some coffee. As we’re getting on the highway, I call Karen and apologize for holding the soda and juiceboxes hostage since it didn’t look like we’d be there until around 1:30pm.

After about an hour and a half, we stop at a McDonald’s off of the highway in West Virginia. Yes, I know. Between the two of us we have three degrees, including in the soft sciences. But we figured how bad can a West Virginian McDonald’s be when it’s (1) a McDonald’s, and (2) located only a few miles away from Virginia state lines? Man were we WRONG! It was pretty bad! Besides being an old building, it was one of the smallest restaurants I’ve ever been at. Then there were some stereo-typical West Virginians patronizing the joint. Justin was pretty certain the dirty guy in line by him was going commando and only had possession of the four teeth Justin could see while the guy smiled and leered at the girl behind the counter, whom he apparently knew. While I was in the bathroom changing Cooper, not one, but TWO women (at separate times) used the stall next to me and did.not.wash.their.hands afterwards. Ew. I know there was water and soap and paper towels (the dang dispenser had dust on the lever!) and the dryer worked. So we’re just talking about two disgusting women, one of which may have been an employee, but she appeared to be off the clock (especially since she walked out of the building afterwards).

And the stall I was in? Yikes!!! As is the case in many bathrooms, the changing table was installed in the handicap stall. This stall might’ve been six inches wider than the standard stall next to it, which made it a whopping about 3 feet wide and 4 feet deep. So not a lot of room to maneuver a wiggly 1 year old who panics anytime you lay him on those flimsy plastic tables. Oh, and did I mention HOW said flimsy plastic table was installed? I was installed on the wall behind the toilet and folded out towards me so that Cooper’s head was towards that back wall and his feet in front of me. Anything that fell off, including the baby, would fall directly into the toilet. And it was installed too high, such that when unfolded, the surface was just below my sternum instead of closer to my waist, and when unfolded I had less than 12 inches of space between the end of the changing table and the door to the stall to try to manage a panicking, thrashing Cooper. So I sang “I’m a Little Teapot” as I struggled to change a (thankfully) pee diaper on my 23-lb octopus-boy a few inches below my face with no elbow room. It was a great learning experience.

At least I can say I washed my hands afterwards, even with Cooper in my arms!

The rest of the drive was fairly uneventful, until we got outside Breezewood, PA, where they were resurfacing the road. By the time we finally got through all that and got to Karen’s, it was about 2pm. I was really excited to meet everyone in person, and they were all so nice and pleasant and funny and just.like.their.blogs! Who knew?

Karen and Sam, thanks so much again for your hospitality. We had a great time and Gavin loved playing with Micah and popping bubbles with Luke. To everyone else there, I’m sorry we got there so late and we didn’t get to spend as much time getting to know you in real life. Hopefully we’ll have another chance to get together. But just think, at least you missed Cooper showing Justin and Sam how he likes to eat the coffee table.

Technically, the person attributed to the quote “Vote early and vote often” is Al Capone, but since there was that one Google source that seemingly misled three of my participants, I accepted Chicago mayors Daley Sr. or Thompson as answers as well. Especially since I wasn’t alive when any of these men were alive to truly know who said it first (although I can guarantee it probably wasn’t Daley Sr. since he had a worse command of the English language than our current President…really, he did…go look it up).

So out of the six final participants, the winner is: Marti from My Life As Momma!

Marti, please be sure to email me your mailing address at colleen @ colleenrummel . com! And thanks to all of you who participated and all of you who voted for me over at Burgh’s site the other day. Or even if you voted for Flea cuz I like her a whole lot and she totally deserved to win.

Folks, I have the distinct pleasure of announcing to all of you that I have been nominated by Mr. Husband over at The Burgh Baby for my astute and thought-provoking comment regarding a photograph of his lovely daughter, Alexis, (taken by Burgh Baby’s Mom).

Now it is up to you, lovely people of the blogosphere, to vote for the winner. However, if you vote for me, I may send you blackberry jam should the berry bush every cooperate. Or I might send you a partially-eaten almost-famous apple pie (what? you expect your mail carriers to NOT take a tasty bite before delivery?). Or I just may plauge shower your own blog with my crude comments sweet thoughts regarding bodily functions parallels in my own life to yours, forever rendering us BFFs.

So please, stop by Burgh’s place by Monday, 7/28/08, 9pm EDT, and vote early, vote often (just go do it from another PC or change your IP address since someone won’t let you flood the ballot box…not that I tried or anything).

Meanwhile, if you’re looking for me, I will be heading up to terrorize Karen and her family with my own family! At least I will be coming bearing my almost famous apple pie.

p.s. can anyone name the person I’m quoting in my title? All correct comments received on this post by 10pm EDT on Tuesday 7/29/08 will be thrown into a random generator with the winner to receive a $10 Starbucks giftcard.

I forgot. I’m sorry. And Justin, who usually does this, has been ridiculously busy and hasn’t gotten a chance. So thank goodness Trannyhead is on the ball and posted Sumo’s pics (happy b-day, by the way!), which reminded how neglectful we’ve been.

These pics were done over the span of two different photo sessions because Cooper was just not in the mood to have his portraits done. On the first day I’d set him down and he’d start crying immediately.

I even tried sitting him with Gavin, whom he adores, and he’d still start bawling!

So Portrait Innovations saved that photo shoot for us and we came back two days later to try again. This time I brought Justin. And this time instead of crying (although he was a little crabby), he just kept crawling away.

But we begged, pleaded, bribed with milk and poofs, and managed to get some decent shots of our little tempermental toddler:

THE END.

Okay…not quite.

But we have a TOOTH!!!! Twelve days after his first birthday; this child of mine even surpassed my late toothedness…I got my first tooth a week prior to my first birthday.

I don’t have photographic evidence yet, partly because anything that comes close to Cooper’s mouth goes in it, including cameras; and partly because I found it as I was putting him to bed this evening. Plus, Justin is way better at those close-ups and Lord knows he needs to get in on some of this teething action cuz I am about up to my ears in fussy kid stuff.