Fall in New York-Central Park

Fall in New York...ahhh...and by the way do you know how much Mike and I like photo shoots!!!
We do! Or maybe me more than Mike:)

An intimate moment in the home of a legend!

Wow-

So we went to Corona, Queens today, to tour Louis Armstrong's house, the one he lived in the last 30 years of his life. I was determined to get there; I had the "vision" and although we weren't sure if we would make it for the last tour we made our journey there. I was feeling a bit bummed bc the journey was taking longer than we had hoped, a few of the trains weren't running their normal course, but I said "ok it was the vision and at least we can see a new neighborhood and Louis' house if not the tour".

So the Lord truly blessed us...

To our so special surprise we, after arriving 20 min after the last tour was supposed to have left, were warmly greeted by very enthusastic staff who genuinly loved their jobs working at "scatchmo's" house, and we were immediately introduced to 84 yr old Gale, Louis' wife Lucilles' best friend and neighbor; then they said they would love to take us on a tour! And to our great pleasure we were touring with only two other people--one who happened to be Louis Armstrong's great newfew, Ray!Although that may not seem like a close relation, it was. Ray's mother was "adopted" by Lucille, and raised by her, and Ray lived in the Armstrong home for a few years in his youth. As Ray said he and Louis were the only two guys in the house, and Louis would often take him upstairs to his den and teach him about jazz, other times Louis would sit at the piano while his aunt would sing before dinner, and other times Louis would step out of his den onto the balcony trumpeting for the neighborhood so that all the kids would know he was home. He was a people person they said, you knew you were loved when you were in his presence. So there we were Mike and I in Louis Armstrong's house with his own newfew. Funny because we have all listened to his music, danced to it...I mean "what a wonderful world", "give me a kiss to build a dream on..." and there we were absorbing the personal stories of his life from his newfew.

It was a rare intimate moment into the life of one of the greatest legends of all time-jazz great foundly known as "satchmo."
Truly special. At one point in the tour Ray began to cry; it had been his first time in that house since his aunt Lucille died 23 years ago. He was so excited to share his story and be apart of carrying the legacy of his uncle he kept saying "tell people you were here with Ray, aka. bull boy."

Well that was a blessing from God, reminding us he is in the details of our life!

Then we went and explored the nieghborhood a bit, quickly discovering it is "the mission" of nyc. There were some amazing Mexican, and Dominican cafes-one cafe even had pasole, and tamales and fresh tortillas. Lets just say Corona is so me and Mike.

Now we are home...you know what....listening to Satchmo!!!

Lots and Lots of Good Stuff!

Oh also the week after our arrival from our anniversary trip we had some dear friends visit-first Ellen Park a good friend from SF, then our friends from Tanzania, Africa, Patience and Peter Mitiminigi! We had a great time, it was there first time to NYC, and they loved it. I met them at their hotel and took them to Central Park, Upper West side for lunch, then to Times Square a short zip through China Town then to Ground Zero, which they were so excited to share with everyone back home, and to Battery Park to see the Satue of Liberty. By the end we were tired so Patience and I enjoyed conversation back at the hotel while the guys continued exploring.

It is amazing that we have such a strong bond to these people, bc the foundation of our friendship was a short two week visit to Tanzania last summer...but the Lord really binds people-they are kindered spirits. They are an encouragement-a story that touched our hearts was one about there son Precious we are guessing that the new one which is due in two months is going to be named Peace. Ok so an encouraging story is one about their son who is now 7 but at the time 5. One day at school all the kids and teachers started running bc they saw a posinoussnake but Precious ran to the snake with the scripture playing in his mind "you will kill snakes and they won't hurt you..." So he ran towards the snake and trampled it to death! Wow the faith of a child, as the Lord says, we need to come to him with that kind of faith-really holding him to his word...but with discernment! Way to go Precious!

Check out the photos, what an NY moment, Peter and Patience' first time on the subway and they were approached by singing Mariachi's!



Another recent and exciting thing has been my writing! I have found a lost love-the love I have for writing! In pursuit of developing my photography career I have published two articles with photos for our local paper-the Main Street Wire-the cool thing was that I thought I was volunteering, but then I recieved a small check! This is a photo that I took for an article on Thom Solokoski's Encampment, an art installation that was erected on the south point of Roosevelt Island. This image is of Yvonne, a woman who has been living at one of the island's hospitals for 13 years; she was pushed off of a train and lost her legs in the incident-now she dedicates her life to painting. She painted six paintings for this collaboration. Check out this article online at: http://www.nyc10044.com/wire2/2007/10/thom-sokolowskis-encapment-takes-walk.html



I have also had a few photo shoots, which is a huge blessing. After six months, I had three in one weekend! You will see the cute photo of the two year old I photographed-he was so excited in the begining but after a few shots he had a melt down, but don't worry God provided me with a large selection of images for his mother; the life of a two year old :) I am also working hard on my documentary project which you can visit through my website: www.mishacohenphotography.com clicking on "projects".

Love Falls on Vermont!!

And of course we went on a romantic surprise anniversary trip-thanks to my romantic Mike. This year was Vermont (in the begining we decided that we would go to a different state every anniversary and by the time we hit 50 years we would have experienced a bit of each state! Mike started this off by taking me to Orgeon the first year; so far we've celebrated in Orgeon, Cali, New Mexico and now Vermont)-ahh gorgeous and how good it felt to be in nature!

So some favorite things, the "quiet trail" nature walk, the hot tub under the stars, and all the food: the maple syrup making place, the cider mill-fresh cider!!!, choclate shop and ben and jerrys ice cream factory...so super fun, oh and mike's favorite the Burton shop-the birthplace of snowboarding.

Baking with Umu

A whirlwind of a month-the day after I arrived home from my fabulous visit I spent an amazing, festive afternoon with Umu making pumpkin bread and carving pumpkins. It was here first time baking and carving! It is such a joy to share my life with her.

Hilarious

The day after our friends left I took off for a trip to Cali, for my good friend Kate's wedding. We have been friends since 2nd grade when we were in browniew together but our friendship really developed in Highschool, people said her Baribe and I were attached at the hip...
More stories and photos to be posted soon

Another update-as the last one was over a month old. We have been doing alot!

About a month ago our good friends Britt and Niel came to visit us all the way from SF.
We are so hilarous when we are together and we did what we, Britt and I, thought was the most hilarous thing. We went to a vintage t-shirt shop and bought eachother funny shirts that we agreed we would all wear the next day. Lets just say Britt and I went for the over the top hilarious shirts. For her hubby I picked out a Backstreet Boys t-shirt, and Britt picked out American Idol's Clay Akin for Mike to strut the next day in! To our surprise when we unvield the gifts the guys were mortified. They had thought the game was to be fun not funny-so they got us sweet shirts, lets just say mine was carebears.haa haa!!! What a great visit we had!