Photos from the wedding!

I was finally able to finish up all the photos from the first wedding I shot back in July. My awesome sister-in-law, Emily, shot with me. Here's a glimpse of some of the final photos for anyone interested!

Frankenfinger

**WARNING - Not for the weak stomached! (no worries, I spared you the pictures... even I haven't looked at all those yet!)**

I'd like you all to meet my worst enemy....

We actually have a love-hate relationship. It's truly probably my favorite kitchen utensil. I love the awesome spaghetti sauce and guacamole this thing makes, but I hate what it does to fingers when you stick them in it.

Nevermind that you shouldn't stick your fingers in there to begin with...

What happened was this: I was making a dessert for a girls night and since I don't have a food processor to crumble the crust with yet, I was using this handy little device. It usually works great, but my butter was still a little hard and was clogging up the blades.

I decided in a moment of sheer brilliance that I would just stick my finger in there and unclog it. For a split second, I thought, "ya know, this is stupid, you shouldn't do this" but then I remembered how smart I am and decided I could handle it. I carefully moved my other hand off the "on" button and began swiping but butter out.

Out of nowhere, my right hand decided it had a mind of it's own and went for the "on" button while my left hand index finger was mid butter-swipe.

You can guess what happened next.

As one who has had major issues with fear, anxiety and panic, I am amazed at how well I handled the situation though, quite honestly. I immediately ran it under cold water and told Josh to come quick because I needed to go to the hospital. This is before I even looked at my finger. I just knew. I wrapped it in a huge wad of paper towels (which it had bled through by the time we got to the ER!) and we were on our way.

Thankfully, now that we've moved, we're much closer to the hospital than we were in our old house. The entire way there I kept say "what was I THINKING!?!" I mean really, what WAS I thinking!? Who DOES that!?

Anyway, they got me back to a room fairly quickly where I waited to see someone. Ok... even though it was just a fingertip, it hurt so incredibly bad. I handle pain pretty well, but this? Oh man... You don't realize how many nerves are in your fingertip until you mangle it! I'd say the throbbing rivaled kidney stone pain. Yes, it's a different type of pain, but it is still pain!

I take it back... kidney stones are still worse...

So, after about 2 hours or so they came in and gave me the shot to numb my whole finger. I will spare you those details, but trust me... the way they finagle that needle around is not pretty or comfortable. The shot itself isn't so bad... it's what they do while the needle is in there.

I finally saw the doctor and he stitched me up good. Only 5 stitches on the 2 side lacerations, but I probably could have easily had more. He didn't want to stitch the tip up because it was so mangled and really, wouldn't have done much good anyway. Basically, the very tip top of my fingertip is shorn off. It's lovely.

After 4 hours, a few more bandages, some silver nitrate to try and get the bleeding to stop, and a 'script for some Vicoden and we were on our way home!

I was feeling pretty good at this point... I was numbed up and ready to go home.

A week after, I was bored and had a little fun with my finger when changing the bandages (don't worry, I covered up the nasty part so you can't see that!)

Meet Frankenfinger!

So anyway, it was an eventful evening. It's healing up just fine as far as I can tell. My super rad aunt removed the stitches for me a little over a week later, saving me a trip (and co-pay) to the doctor's office. She rocks. I'm finally getting some feeling back in parts of my finger so that's good, but I have a feeling it'll still be quite a while before I can play the guitar again!

I'm just hoping I get a sweet scar out of this deal! And no, I threw the dessert away. I didn't think the gals would like "cherry flavor" in their crust ;)

So remember friends, immersion blenders are not toys. Do not under any circumstances stick your finger anywhere remotely near the blades. Ever.

Hello? Hello? Is this thing on??

I realized I haven't written anything in over a month. How sad is that? It's just that Josh and I have been pretty busy this summer and, well, we're pretty boring :) I figured I better write something though or else I'd never get around to it!

We went on vacay to LBI in July and it was faaaabulous! I seriously think I could live there year round. Josh says "NO WAY" so sadly, I will only dream about living on the beach. For now. It's on my list of things to do before I die though! If you haven't been to LBI, you should go. It's awesome. Yes, it's the Jersey Shore, but it's NOTHING like the Jersey Shore that is publicized everywhere.. NOTHING at all like that. That area is further south I believe and I have no desire whatsoever to go to that type of environment! This area is much more family friendly, laid back and has a small town type feel to it.

We had a really great time up there, as usual. My folks were there and Daniel went up with us. Unfortunately, Emily had to work so she couldn't make it up this year. We got into Philly really early on the 3rd so we hung out around town for awhile. We stopped in at Jim's Steaks and got some Philly Cheese steaks. They're supposed to be one of the best ever and it definitely didn't disappoint. Josh and I both got Whiz on ours. Yum...

Look at all that deliciousness. It was gone in like 2 seconds.

In front of Independence Hall on July 3

Seriously, my dad can't go ANYWHERE without seeing someone he knows. This is a friend of his that lives in Philly and plays near the Liberty Bell on a regular basis. We stopped and dad played a song with him.

Once we got to the island, we pretty much stayed on the beach all day, every day. The water and weather couldn't have been more perfect. The water was unusually warm for early July and crystal clear! I mean seriously, how gorgeous is this place?! Even with a lousy iPhone picture it's beautiful!

The boys even surfed with sharks!!

Just kidding... they're just dolphins :)

Here's Josh and Daniel boogie boarding

Like I said, the water was amazing except for the last day we were there. It was still warm, but it was ANGRY. The waves were big and constant... it just looked like the water was boiling. Hardly anyone was going out, even the surfers. They were getting beat to death just trying to get out and decided it wasn't worth it.

Luckily the bay side was still pretty so the boys took the wind surfer out for a bit.

This is the day we had to leave, July 10. We're standing on the exact spot where Josh proposed to me 6 years ago that day! (except he proposed at sunset and not 10 AM!) It was fun to be there again on the same day!

So that was NJ... Great fun and I so wish I was still up there!