The Lab

Here we are at Mike's lab; a few weeks back Mike and our friend Alessia showed Umu some experiments! I think she was inspired! I know I learned something, funny after all these years of being married to a scientist I still have a hard time understanding science!
Thanks guys.

Yeah more visitors

Yeah more visitors. Here I am with my friend and former customer from Reverie, Catherine. As a friend recently told me, "Misha you don't have time to work you're all booked up!" Praise God really, I am fully enjoying my time developing my dreams here in NYC-the Lord has given me time to not only fine tune the vision but to cultivate relationships, really spending quality time with people both new friends and old. As some of you may know "quality time" is my "love language." I love being with people! Before my visit with Catherine I was having another picnic in Central Park with Umu, and then after my time with Catherine I met up with Mike and our friend Purim to see "The Devil Came on Horseback" a documentary about some of the events happening in Darfur-you all need to be aware of the genocide that is happening there, and really pray for the Lord to rain down his Peace among those people effected. (about half a million people have been killed-really it's partly an ethnic war, the arab ppl in the north want the "black" africans out-muslim and christians both-its very complex but that's a part of it). savedarfur.org.
The reality is that the majority of the people on our planet are suffering from things that we here in the US never have to experience or even see if we choose not too-it's really important to remember ultimately we are the minority and people need our help. helpotherseverywhere.org. Isaiah 58. "Clothe the naked, feed the hungry, provided the poor wanderer with shelter, and never turn away from your own flesh and blood, then your light will break forth like the dawn and your healing will quickly appear."

Thanks Grandma

Time for Tortillas. Thanks to my grandma Tina in New Mexico I was able to prepare an amazing mexican feast! Complete with homemade tortillas-as you can see they are even round! My grandma was really impressed as I made them from measuring to cooking all while on the phone with her as she was guiding me-really thanks to her for being such a great teacher.
We had our friend John over for dinner, a friend from Mike's work and fellow Cali native. We had a great time enjoying good food and getting to know eachother better. Here is the evidence and the boys being silly!

UCI Reunion

Last week we had some dear friends come for a visit! Julie and Darin are friends from our UCI, Campus Crusade days. We have become very close, really mostly over email because for the past five years we have lived in different states and even countries-so this was our first time to hang out with them in five years! We had a blast, lets just say we didn't even hit the pillow until after 4am almost every night that they were here. Also our friend Daniel was in town for work, so we added another member to the UCI reunion. It was a blast to reflect on old times. Praise God for friends!
(So in the photos are me and Julie-doing our 25 minute tour of Ellis Island "amazing race" style-we had places to go and people to see! The best part was the boat ride, amazing views, and just catching up on eachother's lives. The second photo is of Daniel Jules Darin and I, Mike had work that morning bummer, but we had an amazing bruch...Sarah Beth's in NYC)

ManiPedi

As some of you know, one of my favorite things to do is get a mani pedi (my sister and I would go once a month and have a sister date in SF), but due to pursuing my dreams in NYC I have not been able to do so until recently thanks to my dear friend Rahnie! Thanks Rahnie. Also for those of you who know my weak fingernails this is HUGE-don't they look fantastic! :)

Nana

Just a few photos from the Nana photo shoot! :)
My sweet husband and his, now our, Nana, his beautiful grandma who turned 85 just last month! And here I am with the girls, Birgit, Mike's mom, and Nana. They came to visit us in our new home a few weeks ago and we had a blast!!! We explored new parts of the city together: took a boat ride around Manhattan, went to the Brooklyn Botanical Garden (which is a must see) and were totally spoiled, being taken out to nice restaurants. The most special part though was just being together, as Nana said "I am here to see you kids, I don't care about New York." It was nice to really have that quality time and hear stories about the family history; for example Nana's grandparents were I think Hasidic Jews (don't quote me on that) who kept separate dishes for meat and dairy, "God forbid I mix cheese and meat," Nana said laughing referring to eating with her Grandma. It was sweet to hear her love story, how she and "papa" met years ago and were engaged after only a few dates! We laughed and laughed the whole time. I can't wait for more family and friends to come...mi casa su casa :)

Retreat In CO

The blessing of friendship. I was in Denver over the weekend for a little reunion with college friends to meet my friend Jonne's new baby boy, Ryder. Its amazing how close our hearts have been weleded bc we see eachother so far and inbetween; our friendship started five years ago during a four month long Bible study and soon after we graduated college and I moved away and got married, but we have intentionally had reunions throughout the years, and it has been amazing to see the way the Lord has grown each one of us, stronger and stronger each year-praise God! We had what we called an extended slumber party sitting around in our pjs for two days catching up, laughing, and crying (of course we get deep when we are together); it was a blessed retreat. (Thanks to my sweet Mike who knows my heart so well-he surprised me with the ticket to get there, and Praise God bc on the way Anna and I bumped flights and got a voucher for a free flight to anywhere in the US!!!)