Our Adventures

Almost to Solids...wow

2011-07-05T12:01:00.000-07:00

My little man, my boy, dude, buba....

I am so in love with you...I sometimes tell you in a high pitched voice, "You are so cute that sometimes I have to talk in a squeaky voice because I don't know what to do with myself." And you always look at me and smile. I am a "Crazy Mama" as I sing! :) We have fun me and you.

And it's funny to think you are almost 6 months.

Right now you feel so much a part of me, my baby, by my side, in my arms, nursing, cuddling...You go where I go. You sleep when I put you down with bunny and a blankie and some pats on the back, and often you sleep with me in the big bed, that's your favorite spot. Often in the middle of the night I wake up and think "When did I put you in here?" oh motherhood! You are my boy and its funny to think you are becoming your own person-I mean of course! But wow!

And to think each day you grow towards independance, now your big thing is doing tip toes push ups! And sitting up, and trying to talk and say real words like "papa".

All this to say I can't believe you are going to be eating solids in a few days, right now you are made with 100% milk! And I am so proud of us! And in a few days we get to step out into the adventure of solids-new flavors and textures, I know you are ready. I can see it in your eyes, when I am nursing you and you pop off to stare at me eating my sandwich all the while licking your little lips! So buba I can't wait to see what you think of the world of food! Yum!!!

xo,

Mama

Four Glorious Months!

2011-05-27T10:09:00.000-07:00

Azariah Reed...

Our sweet boy, our pride and joy.

You are growing so big and strong!

At four months,

You started to notice texture, it was sweet at night seeing you scratch the netting on side of your cousins co-sleeper. And just the other day at a restaurant I caught you touching in wonder the brick wall behind me.

You got your first tooth at three months three weeks, on 4/1 and are getting a second one right next to it on the bottom middle. It was funny because in California people kept saying, "He looks like he's teething," you were so drooly. And after about the tenth person said that your papa and I felt bad that we didnt notice-we just thought you liked chewing your new found fingers. :) But sure enough on Monday a little tooth was sprouting up! Your papa immediatly ran out and bought you a teether and I got you some teething gel. But you haven't complained much-your tough! Why are you growing up so fast? We love it, but of course there are moments when we want to freeze time and remain in this season forever.

You drool a ton and now have found how fun it is to do zerberts on mama's shoulder, you love making that sound! And I think it feels good for your teething mouth!

You did your hugest belly laugh with me on 4/6, as I was pumping your legs (side note with a few of the scrunches you let out a little fart) and tickling your thighs...you screeched then went into this HUGE belly laugh. I got a tear in my eye. Ahh that was the best mother's day gift to hear that precious laugh. And earlier in the month you laughed with your friend Jen and your Aunt Steppo and Cousin Grace.

You just started to grab your feet. It's super cute to see you on your back with your foot in your little hand.

You reach more intentionally now and wake up reaching for your mama and papa's faces. And always with a smile. Just the other night-when you woke up right before I was about to put you in bed-I was leaning over you and you grabbed my face in your two little hands and started to talk to me, with your quite voice in little sweet low sounds. I love the way your little mouth moves with your quite voice, it opens small like the sounds you are making.

You still sleep half the night with me and continue to take up more and more of the bed!

You try to sit up by yourself. If you are leaning back on a pillow your lunge forward to try and get up, and then after a moment you tip over to the side then twist on your tummy and smile! And that's when I grab you and kiss you-again! Ahh you are such a mover sweet boy, you love to try and sit and stand.

taken 5/10/11 cutest photo ever-love your chubby leg and diaper! and sweet face...so handsome!

You still stand, in fact it's hard to burp you because as soon as I turn you around to give you some pats on your back you go to "pencil" mode and stand up on my legs-no longer sitting and leaning over the palm of my hand. I even like to take your hands and have you stand on the ground, you love that and always smile huge when we do that. People always comment on how strong you are!

You rotate your body like a clock. When on your play gym one early evening I was in the kitchen doing the dishes and came over to check on you and you had done a 45 degree rotation, I was amazed. I went back to my task and came back over to find you had moved a full 180 degrees from where I had layed you down. So I sat on the couch to watch you and figure out how you had gotten there, but you were done moving.

You roll, you rolled once from your tummy to your back, but its more that you roll from your tummy to your side.

You hold your head up strong when you are on your tummy. Tummy time is not really your thing though.

You scooch forward when frustrated during tummy time. You screech and dig your feet into the ground and move up to a foot forward!

You love your new vibrating froggie chair that your Cousin Jacob gave you-he has the same one. You laugh and reach for your toys. But like most activities you like it for about 15 min then your done.

Your current sound is "AHAHAH" - like a football player going in for a tackle! People say your voice is deep.

Another sweet sound is your happy little screeches. Those are new!

You are also loud. You don't cry a lot but when you do you make sure we can hear you. But I love that about you, you are opinionated and let your voice be heard-like your mama, people have said that about us. You don't like a wet or dirty diaper, you don't like to nap alone in your crib, you love to be held, you don't like your stroller much-I guess its like most things for 15 min you love it then you want in our arms.

You are still my little baby, while you are growing in so many ways. I love that one of the only ways I can get you to sleep during nap time is to hold you close and tight in my arms, either in the cradle position with your little face nestled into my armpit, or with your head resting on my chest and your feet in the palm of my hand. Or even sweeter is when we lay down together and I tuck your little feet in between my thighs and your face near my chest and hold your little hands. You will be crying and when you get close you start breathing deeply and slowly calm down until you are fast asleep.

You are slowly discovering the fun of bath time. You kicked your feet and made a splash in the water for the first time last week, and on Saturday when lying down in the bath you propelled your body backwards, by kicking against my legs, looking like a little torpedo or a fish. Then you turned your little face and half of your eye dipped into the water and when you turned back you saw me smiling and smiled back.

That's what I love about this phase, you always look to us for reassurance. Or just look at me with adoring eyes that fill my heart. Its like your saying, "I love you mommy."

Just the other day I was in the bathroom getting ready and I glanced at you in your froggie chair and you were looking for me and when we caught eyes and I smiled at you, "Hey bubba" You smiled and went back to playing with your toys.

Also you are looking more like me, your mama. Papa said it was in your expressions and your Mimi said it was your smile. And now when you smile I think I can see me too! I like that.

But you still look like your papas clone! And I like that too.

Me and you on Mother's Day-love that smile, and if you look closely you can see a little tooth!

I love dressing you. People say I dress you like a little man. My favorite outfit on you is all black-sounds funny but so "sophisticated" and urban and cute. But now with spring in full bloom I love to see you in shorts and a onesie but the best are your hats!

You love books more and more, and try and turn the pages of board books. And you talk to the pages now. And if you are fussy a book will surely capture your attention and calm you down.

The words people often use to describe you:

Handsome
Expressive
Smart
Happy
He looks like a little man
He looks like a thinker

I love that.

You took your first trip to the land of your forefathers-California. Everyone fell in love with you. And you had three parties. The first one at a cafe in Santa Monica-friends from college took half days off work to come see you-and the funny thing is you slept the whole time from 3:30pm-8am the next day (you were exhausted from meeting everyone)-but they loved the snuggling. The second one was at your mimi and grandpa's house, about 40 people came to see you-at one point you were nursing in the bathroom-where it was dark and quite-and before we knew it over 11 people were in there. Only you could bring a party to the bathroom! Then the third party was a bbq at your friend Cash's house-you guys have two sets of matching pjs too. Lots of old friends came to hang out with you there!
(note: there are a ton of pics with all these great people and great moments still on the computer! :) )

In California you also met your cousin Jacob and became buddies, and you bonded with your Uncle Ben over a basketball game. And all of your Aunties are in love with you. Adi fell in love with you, and Steppo made you do a huge belly laugh, and you told your Aunt Candice "I love you," and had a photo shoot with your Auntie Em, and Tia Molls loved mimicking you. Your Oma and Grandpa Cohen bought you lots of fun toys to play with. And your great Oma got attached to you, and loved your pacifier game, as did your great grandma Ruby, she called you a cutie and just fell in love with you and kept talking about how smart you are. And your mimi and grandpa were crazy about you and mimi even cuddled you in her bed-you liked that. Also your cousin Leyla fell in love with you, and as soon as you woke up she had to hold you (and she's only three). You saw lots of other people and had lots of photos taken, boy you melted so many hearts!

Also you had your first Passover-you slept through that, but still wore your kippah.

You also had your friend Jack-who is 3 months older-come to visit. His mom, Andy, is one of my good friends and that visit was our first reunion since your papa and I got married.

You have lots of friends in our building, Jen from upstairs especially loves you!

You still spend lots of time with Christine and Lydia and Teri and Nora. And you love those girls.

The other day we went to hang out with Nora while her mommy went to an appointment. And to entertain you I put on some music and while you were on the playmat and Nora in her vibrating chair I sang and danced for you. And I loved it. That memory will always bring me a smile. I was just being silly and you two were both looking at me with adoring eyes and full of wonder. If you had words it was as if you both were saying "Wow, look at her, that is amazing! I am having fun" You guys were so happy together, then both at the same time had a dirty diaper and near melt downs but after a change some food and a cuddle you both fell fast to sleep.

You love to talk during church, and I never know what to do, stay and listen to the sermon or go in the children's area.

Also your four month birthday was on mother's day. You and your daddy made me a nice card with photos and bought me a cute dress, and at church I got lots of flowers, then you guys took me to Brooklyn for brunch and an afternoon at the park and my favorite bookstore. The best part was just being with my guys!


in Dumbo, Brooklyn

Son that's you at four months. And with all these milestones, really we just love you just because your you and there's nothing you can do about it!

xoxo,

mama

Still Wearing Yoga Pants

2011-04-11T20:29:00.000-07:00

It's been over three months and I am still in Yoga pants, and leggings. And while people may think I am back in my jeans I am really only wearing jeggings!

Clothes-post baby! :)

I feel great about my body, but a body post c-section is no canidate for jeans, or really pants at all. It took me a week to wear any bottoms what so ever! I was in a robe for ever.

Now my favorite outfit is a nursing tank and fitted yoga pants. Some out there may think this is no fashion statement, but throw on a pair of camel colored riding boots and a long jean top or a flowy cardigan and yes you have fashion! Ahhh I am so comfortable.

But, even more than that, yoga pants remind me of this adventure I have found myself on-the joyous adventure of motherhood-and the friends I share it with.

I have two close friends in the city who also had their babies recently-just days from Azariah, and we are all still in yoga pants.

Often we see each other and ask, "Have you tried on your jeans yet?" "Oh, yes, but how did they ever fit? The closest the button gets is inches away from the hole. You?" "No not yet, still in yoga pants."

And I realized recently what an absolute blessing these women are in my life-of course I already knew that-but it hit me how amazing it is to have them to share this season of life, as new mamas!

I love that I can call them and talk about night feedings, nap times, and milestones, and we know what each other is talking about. And, even more than that they celebrate with me Azariah's little victories, his coos and smiles, and I in their daughter's. I love that we often spend afternoons chatting and nursing and feel totally free to do so. We have analyzed each other's babys poo to see if our baby's is normal...I mean with your first how do you know? :) I love that we know what it means to manually express milk into a bottle while in a car with a screaming baby! (yes I have done that) We know what a true success it is to take a shower and cook dinner-both in the same day! And I love that with them there is no pressure to perform-we can just be and enjoy being mother's together.

I also love that my son knows them and their babies. That he is already sharing life with people and that he is already learning about friendship-not only through our example-but that he is and will learn about friendship through being friends with these two babies. I mean they were the first kids his age he met, the first he reached out to touch-he reached out to touch Lydia's hand a few weeks back, ahh melt. They are the first humans his age that he has talked with, real baby conversations. I have him and Nora on video! In part he is learning about himself through them.

This is a gift from the Lord. It is rare-to have a friend who can celebrate your life with you and you in there's. Thank you God for these women and their girls.

I love that I am not the only one still wearing yoga pants.

Christine and Lydia first meet Azariah-Azariah just over one week

Teri and Nora and Azariah and I-the kids' first date-our first time out together post birth

Nora and Azariah vacationing in the Hamptons together April 2

Christine and I with our fine tuned cake pops!

Where have we been?

2011-04-05T09:30:00.000-07:00

Here!

I have been in babyland with my sweet boy, AZARIAH REED COHEN, aka, my baby, hersi, bubba, bubbalino, bubbsters, chunksters, mijo, mijito, Azizi

Starting each morning with smiles and kisses and now bear hugs!

My guy is quite a chunker, at two months weighing in at 14lbs, 10oz, and 24.5 inches long!

He can now hold his little head up, he has such a strong neck! And I can't even remember when it all happened I just noticed about two weeks ago that I didn't need to cradle his little face when I burped him-which by the way burping him is my favorite thing. His sweet eyes bug out and his cheeks shake and its just sooo beyond cute!

He now loves to do "crunches," when on his back you can see him stretch his little face-straining to get up-and try and lift up his shoulders, I remind him that I can't even do a crunch! : ) So we give him our index finger and he grips it lifting himself first into a sitting position then a standing position!

Also he talks a lot and totally mimics our intonations, it started at 3 weeks 5 days with "OaaOaa" and now "I love you."

He also loves his pacifier game, where I say "For baby, for mama" and back and forth. And as of Monday the 28th, when I say "Can mama have a turn?," he spits it out and gives me a turn! And I was just talking to him not expecting him to respond!

Ahh he is a cutie, I love sleeping with him and cuddling him, but as of late he has become quite the mover so at times I have to sleep next to him, not with him embraced on my chest as the early days!

So time is moving fast-as everyone says. At times I can't believe how fast, when he grows out of clothes, or stops crying during diaper changes-now he laughs, but the first five weeks were crying accompanyied by coughing! And when he makes a new sound or reaches a new milestone, I can't believe how fast he's growing! And I love it, while at times I am sad about how fast it's going, but I am embracing the now, and anticipating his next milestones.

Ahh but really I would love to stop time just for a moment...it's so amazing! To think I have been given the gift of this precious little boy. And upon reviewing videos of him-looking at his lil newborn eyes which were barely begining to follow our faces and looking at him now it really hit me how everything he knows he has learned from us. HUMBLING. And amazing. To think his little sounds and laughs and everything he is learning in the warm embrace of our love! Ahhh, I am so glad to offer my boy a sweet, safe, loving, fun, joyful home full of prayer and worship and peace!

So as of late we sleep until he wakes us up, that can be as early as 6am or as late as 8:50-but more like 7. And we play, often on the play mat-now grabbing the rings, and read and Mike takes him for daddy time-sometimes that means to Starbucks in the Ergo. And then he brings him back to bed with me where me and my lil guy take our morning nap together, then up and diaper changes, nursing, more play time, and-of course- sometimes a photo shoot, talking, reading, games, dancing, and singing happens...maybe eating for mama, and a shower with Azariah in his cradle in the bathroom-he loves the sound of water and really enjoys that time-and even chores, sometimes even baking! He loves to watch everything I do, so I found I can make the bed if I sing a song to him about making the bed and I can put away the laundry as long as he can see me in the closet, or I put him in the hallway so he can watch while I cook dinner and we sing away-he loves that, often throwing his hands up and laughing!

Azariah Wens the 30th laughing as I sang to him from the kitchen. I love his leg warmers, his dad-not so much!

I am in love...

A song I made up for my boy, "We are in love, we are in love, me and my boy, my pride and joy, he is my son, number one!"

One of our many photo shoots 3.30.11, 11 weeks old

My view during our nap time!

Then we usually have our friends over, or we go to a friend's house. We often hang out with our neighbor Christine and her daughter Lydia, eight days his senior, and my childhood friend Teri and her daughter Nora, born 21 hours before Azariah and in the same hospital!

Azariah, six weeks old, and Lydia, seven weeks old

Azariah and Nora, both 11 weeks

A recent adventure for us three mamas was making CAKE POPS! Ahh I was so impressed with us, with our three lil babes just under three months! I am beyond blessed by those ladies in my life, and for their babies-Azariah loves to hang out with his friends. At first they wouldn't make eye contact, they just couldn't capture each other's attention. But now that they talk, ahhh its adorable. One day me and Christine sat our kids on the table facing each other and they had a full on conversation, Azariah hunched forward looking intently at Lydia, crinkling his forehead while listening, then after she was done talking his face would light up his eyebrows arch and a huge smile would come out followed by "gees" and "gaas" ahhh, Melt.

We also love to meet up with friends for lunch or a walk, and all the ladies love Azariah-he gets lots of kisses! (I have to upload photos of all the people who love him and visit him). And we have had lots of out-of-town visitors, Oma, and Papau, and Mimi and Grandpa, and Tia Molly, Auntie Em, and Aunt Candice and Uncle-to-be Dominic, and our friend Julie! And other times we just have a little adventure. Our favorite spots are Bloomingdales for frozen yogurt or Alice's Tea Cup for scones. But recently we have expanded our journeys to include the West Village and Soho. And often I love to just stay in with my boy, soaking up the day together!

On the way home from an afternoon on the town! 3.24.11

Then daddy comes home and we all play and then get ready for bath time-putting on the humidifier, heating up the room, turning off the lights save a little lamp, and turning on the shower to steam up the cold bathroom! We found that if we don't get him in the bath by 8:30 its too late, he's too exhausted and just falls asleep-a few times while in the bath-ahh too cute! He gets so relaxed in the bath. I sit with him in the water and Mike washes him-of course perfectly we all know Mike and cleaning! :) Then Mike wraps him in a towel and does baby massage with him in his arms, then dresses him in his pjs, that is the hard part...the sleeves...ahh darn those things! :)


A smile after bath time, this was from his first bath that actually was full of tears on 1.30.11

Then we put him in his "pocket" aka, sleep sack, and lay him in his cradle-which we all love-and read him a book. Ok we started this routine when he was just shy of five weeks and since the beginning he loves it! He really looks intently at each page as we read and a few weeks ago started laughing and cooing as we read. He loves books-fewww-because we are book lovers in this family! I am obsessed with childrens books...I love the graphics! Our new favorite is "Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes" which reminds us the children around the world are all the same, they all have ten fingers and ten toes!

Reading before bed on 3.13.11, 9 weeks old

Then we each hold one hand and we pray over him, thanking God for the blessings of the day and praying for others, and the day to come, and of course for Azariah's sleep and his life. And sometimes he closes his eyes during that part. Then we turn on sleepy sheep (to the ocean setting) and say "I love you bubba" and give him a kiss on the lips. And almost immediately he kinks his head to one side and is out! He sleeps a good 3-4 hours and then wakes up around 1 am to nurse, and that's when I put him to bed with us, and then he nurses and falls back to sleep a few times throughout the night until about 6-8am, where he wakes up first by moving side to side over and over then slowly opening his eyes and with a huge smile! He used to wake up talking-I think that's when he first found his voice-but now he is more like his mama waking up a bit sleepy!

And this is our life...

The Best Life!

We love you bubbalino!

Nine Months!

2011-01-04T10:00:00.000-08:00

Baby A.....

Sweet Baby Boy!! You are going to make your appearance any moment now! We don't know when and are very excited...sometimes nervous...but always full of joy and anticipation. At times my heart skips a beat, like when falling in love...other times my heart beats fast and I feel a little overwhelmed and unprepared! But I think that is the beauty of motherhood..how God designed it. That ultimately we are not the ones in control He is! We are given the great responsibility to nurture you but ultimately our great God is our guide and voice of wisdom...everything good is from him. And from the start we have to completely depend on him, trust that God loves you more than I and that he will guide your daddy and I to take perfect care of you. It is God who has graciously entrusted you to us-our grace gift! He knows we can do it, from our first touch to dressing you for this cold weather, to nursing to raising you to be a young boy of integrity and a man of conviction and passion. God is here with us!

I can't believe this precious journey of us being so close-you in my body, my womb-is coming to an end. I am sure I will miss this special time we have shared, feeling your little kicks and twirls and little legs and feet...I am sure I will miss knowing you are so close and secure and comfy. And the tender moments me and your daddy share talking with you and waiting for you to react! :) But we must together make these first steps toward independence! :) Funny while you will be totally dependent on me in many many ways- I am excited to see the beauty in God's design-you will be a bit more independent than you were in the womb. And every day our job is to give you the love, nurturing, tools, encouragement, support and respect... that you need to grow into you-you a part of us but your own person! As dad says when I poke you in the womb, "Let him be he is his own person."

So sweet boy, we have prayed, prepared, and waited for this day-whenever you want we are ready for you, to hold you in our arms and hear your little breathes, to kiss your lips and caress your little rolls, (which I am sure you have) to look into your eyes. To be the first to expose you to all your senses! I pray the first sounds you hear are words of LOVE, the first things you smell are the comforting scents of your mama and papa, the first things you feel are the strong arms of your daddy as he passes you to me-then next the warmth of my chest, the first thing you taste-if you are a little licker-the salt of my skin! :) The first thing you see are the loving faces of your father and mother.

I am so full of joy that we are given this great gift to expose you to all the beauty of this Earth...I can't wait for you to see your little view kiddo!!!! World Class...you are our New York baby and who knows how long we will be here, but I pray that this city will always hold a special place in your heart-the city you were created in and born in...a city that is full of people who are praying for you and already love you...a city full of need, a city full of adventure and creativity, full of people and diversity...Son this is your city! Can't wait to welcome you into this place!

Also I can't wait for you to meet your grandparents and aunts and uncles...to share the joy of you with them...they are anxiously awaiting your arrival...Our lives will never be the same! Truly!

Our first born.

We love you son.

And I know we can do this, me ,you and your daddy-you will come out smooth and with ease! Its our labor and we can do it!

"From the Lips of Children and Infants He has ordained Praise!" Psalm 10

Love you to infinity,

Mama

Your Daddy Loves You!!!

2010-12-18T00:05:00.000-08:00

My husband is amazing. I am so in love more and more each day.

here daddy is spoiling us, cooking a yummy meal with saffron

Towards the early part of the pregnancy he began reading "The Expectant Father," and infact was reading it tonight...informing me of all our milestones...its so sweet-also considering he works so hard and doesn't often have energy to read before bed-but he is energized by you baby boy!

And here he is painting...while I rested on the coach-no toxic fumes for me! (But I did tape the walls and take down all the photos...) He did an awesome job, it is the perfect calming grey.

I love this last photo...here he stands as a proud Father, I can see it in his face as he stands over the crib he is putting together for his little man!

Wow, "We made a human," we say to each other often lately! It's hard to believe-what a gift!

Baby boy,

"He's so close, yet so far," your dad said recently as the doctor reached in and touched your little head! It's like you are right there- of course we can feel you wiggle in my tummy-but your still so far...we long to see your cute little face and hold your warm little body and soak up every part of you, breathe in every breath of you! (also you are in the perfect position for birth head down face back-your so sweet and so smart; you are getting ready to rocket out into the world huh!)

The room is getting ready, the drawers are filled-clothes washed, the furniture is set up...now its just the details...we-of course-want everything to be just perfect for your arrival!

Ok love bug...that's all for now.

35 1/2weeks

xo

Mama

(32 weeks) As I type...

2010-11-20T17:20:00.000-08:00

(note I had been awake for literally 15 minutes and your papa took these right before my last day of work! Hence, the wrinkled skin on my belly!)

Also my belly button is coming out now...not just flush but out! :)
As I type you are wiggling and rolling!!!

We had a photo shoot last week and it was great. Your daddy said I look like a movie star and I know he is so handsome-so you will be one handsome kiddo!!! But who knows will you have blond hair blue eyes and olive skin and be tall, or will you have brown hair, brown eyes, olive skin and be petite like us?

So you are 32 weeks in utero and the doctor says you are measuring more like 34 weeks!!! Because you are so big...and you are very healthy she said...the heart beat is perfect-after you wiggle it picks up speed which tells us you are healthy-so says the doc. And I beam with pride!!!

You know people on the street always, and when I say always I mean ALWAYS say:

"Wow, you must be due any day!"
"Are you having twins" (every day I get this one especially when I tell them we really have two months to go!) :)

And something unexpected and special about pregancy is everyone always compliments me and comments at how good I look, and I bring it back to you and God: "Thank you baby and thank you God" I say! Really I am glad to have been blessed to be "carrying so nicely"- as people tell me.

So at 34 weeks in utero you are weighing approximately 4 1/2 lbs, and are so sweet.

I know where most of your little body parts are...your head is down..and let me tell you I can feel it at times when I walk right in my pelvis! Which is great because you are head down the perfect place for a great exit from my womb! And I know your little butt is on my left side a few inches down from my rib, and your back is on the left hand side of my tummy, and then your little feet are right right under my right rib. Now I just can't always tell where your little knees and hands are. But I do try and tickle your feet to see if you will wiggle, but I think it soothes you like a little massage!

You are moving a ton-and wake me up at night-which is sweet!

And I am feeling great-settled into this new body-which is bigger and heavier and well just different.

And this Friday was my last day of work and your daddy took a pic of me pouring him an americano misto and in the pic you can see how you are resting on the counter! I never realized my little belly was sitting right at the cafe counter every time I poured milk! Too cute!

So love bug...I still can't believe its you-a whole human growing every moment in my body! While I see the changes to my body and feel you its still hard to wrap my mind around that you are a whole human in there! I am so excited to meet you-remember bud anytime in January ok! :) Well God knows the perfect time for you to make your debut but really I am praying you dont have to share a birthday with Jesus!

xoxo

Momma

Week 28

2010-11-03T16:35:00.000-07:00

We are actually now in the 29th week, but these are photos from your 28th week sweet pea!!!
See how big you are getting...or rather making mama!


linea nigra-it is a squiggly one, and notice belly button is FLAT! and quite nice-thanks doc, mom and dad-its like a little star.

Cuddle Pose

Papa's Creative Pose-what a photographer we have!

This week we enjoyed health-I was and still am feeling great! (the previous weeks I had bad cold sores that left me drinking all my food through a straw...that was not easy, but I thought of creative ways to make sure we got our calories-and in fact got some practice making baby food! Your dad took great care of us!!! He cooked and cleaned and was so kind)

This week on Thursday night you moved soo much right before bed I thought I could probably see your little body poking through my body...it was truly amazing! And I had a dream a few nights later that infact I did see your little foot poking out so far that I could see the outline of your tiny toes in my tummy, and I was showing everyone!)

This week has been great too...we have only 2 1/2 more weeks of work...hooray! You have gotten a lot of attention there at Joes, infact my other coworkers have been a bit ignored! You are the highlight! But you still have yet to move for people other than your mama and papa...I say it's because you are your own person and you will not perform on command! :) (although you did kick your friendty anna a few weeks back) But who knows!

I know that when I think about meeting you tears well up in my eyes...its hard to wrap my mind around the reality that you are my very own human...my sweet little baby to love and care for. And your dads too!! He is so excited about you...he put together your stroller last night, and yes you aren't due for 10 more weeks!

Today we went to prenatal pilates, we are getting fit for the big day where you will come rocketing out! :) And we made a new friend there who ironically lives next door and whose husband works in the same building as Daddy.

Also we had our first weekend alone this past weekend-Daddy was away for work. And while I usually love being alone, now that you are growing inside me it was not that same. I missed him even more-the one other person in the world who shares the same passionate love for you...I love sharing that with him. You are knitting our hearts even closer together...amazing how God designed family!

-friends and fam I hope you enjoy my love letter.

Week 27

2010-10-15T15:37:00.000-07:00

Sweet baby-

I want to write down so we always remember...you are a mover BIG time now! Its so cute, you even wake me up at night...your little body twirls and whirls all around inside my tummy! And sometimes you kick or move so hard to one side of my womb that I loose balance! You are so sweet...I love to feel you tapping me under my hand...and so does daddy...trust me he is your number one fan...well he and I are both your number one fans!

Shower, Europe-Baby Moon, and reality hits! ;)

2010-10-09T14:03:00.000-07:00

So I have a ton of pics from my super special and fabulous baby shower in California, where my sister, mom and best friend Barbie, blessed me with a day filled with friends and food and love love love!!!!

People came from all over Southern and Northern Cal and Bakersfield to share in the joy of this time in my life...to love on me and my baby BOY!!!

But those will have to come later....as they are just barely being downloaded now!!!!

So here is a pic from our time in Germany. One of the days, while Mike was at a conference, I went to Heidelberg- a small, beautiful historic University town along the Neckar river- and walked the cobble stone streets and went to a cafe where I ate and read and just relaxed! So here I am trying to get a pic of the baby and me together! And for some reason I love that the guy in the background is smiling on us! :)

There's so much more to share, of being pampered by friends, not one dish did I have to do in one week...to seeing Mike's cousins who also spoiled us-and who are super fun-(also now that I have my little baby boy I feel soo much more connected to Mike's family bc not only are they Mike's family and my in laws but my sweet son, who I am carrying in my womb, they are his family!) to meeting up with a friend, Ruth, who I had met while working in Africa-she drove 2 hours just to see me!

Then there's Paris...lets just say I LOVE being with just my husband...and I love Paris...it's like New York, the fact that its urban and diverse, but its way more charming, and old...and there are so many West African's there and you know how I love Africa....and all the pastries-my poor baby was on a sugar high I am sure! Mike and I rented a little apartment in a cute neighborhood and throughly enjoyed our time just us...two wait three! :) It was an amazing baby moon...more pics to come!

Now reality is just kicking in...pregnancy was a dream until...my back started aching, my legs too, then my breathing started becoming awkward, and my gums so swollen it hurts to eat, and now I have canker sores covering the inside of my mouth, and its seems more come every few hours! And that has caused my lymph nodes to inflame which in turn has caused pain to run all along my jaw! Ahhh so if you read this pray that I can have a good attitude, it is really hard! But I want to have a good attitude especially for my husband and my baby-who by now can hear everything I say..ahh! :)

Week 21 (just about a month ago)

2010-10-05T14:57:00.000-07:00

Week 21-

Thursday morning while daddy was praying over you with his hand on my belly you kicked him...your first "thump!"

Until then it was just little movements that felt like tiny bubbles popping in my belly but lately your are thumping me!

Then while we were at a Rosh Shashana service you thumped us-you enjoyed learning about your Jewish heritage! :)

And always when I am at the computer-and when you are moving I stop what I am doing and sometimes lay down and try and watch you-but sometimes you stop-its prob the laying down maybe that position is comfy for you and you just settle in and relax! :)

But I did see you thumping around a bit yesterday my skin moving up and down just a hair!

And today you kicked really high up in my torso-could you be way up there? ;)

2010-10-05T14:53:00.000-07:00

Babies first concert!

We went to support our friend and my coworker Luke at his show in the village-Luke Folger look out for him very talented!

Well the baby really enjoyed it he was flipping and flipping - he loved the intense beats and rhythms of the music! Go baby Go!

Beach Baby!!

2010-09-04T19:57:00.000-07:00

20 weeks!!!

They say he is the size of a banana-but the doctor told us this week he is actually two weeks advanced in size!! So he is way beyond banana now! ;)

Papa and Mama

Love...my two boys!

I like to hold my baby and move him around in there! :)

All belly! ;)

So we had an adventure at the beach last weekend...and adventure it was. We were excited to have one last beach day before fall comes-although it still feels like summer here-and were on the train headed to the sand and the waves when...the conductor kicked Mike and I off the train in the middle of NO WHERE, "Hey you and your girlfriend have to get off the train!"he growled. Why? Well I didn't know that they only accepted cash on the train unlike other railroad lines in NYC so I was 4 dollars short so instead of letting us pay when we got to our destination-which was the last stop, we were sent off in what felt like the middle of nowhere and no one was there, with the next train maybe coming in an hour.

What do you do when your pregnant and all you want to do is rest in the sun and tan your belly and swim and relax with your husband....you cry that's what you do.

We were told there were no more trains coming and some random bus could take us back into the city and we'd have to wait for an uncertain amount of time on a random sidewalk for it to come.

I cried and cried. Really.

Finally Mike-thank God-decided we should pray that God could redeem our day. May I add that we were already going on a late beach trip hoping to arrive by 2:45 so it was now the mid afternoon. So he prayed over us, I said I couldn't bc I was too worked up. And then woosh I train was on its way...and it passed us. "Dont give up hope," Mike said.
And then low and behold the next train to the beach arrived!!

And really God did redeem the day, yea we didnt make it to the beach till four but lets just say we didnt get home till ten-we swam and read and laughed and played and napped and ate! Fun Fun Fun.

So here is the evidence of our fun day!

Im having a BABY!!!!!

2010-08-24T13:40:00.000-07:00

*note these photos where from August 8th at 17 1/2 weeks or 4 months! People see me now and I think they are surprised when they hear my January due date, expecting me to say November-my baby is making an early debut is what I say! Oh sweet boy! Also note how cute my boy is with his little hand resting on his knee, as if he was tapping to the beat of music!

So as most of you know I am pregnant!

With a sweet baby boy, that's soo handsome, infact who looks like Mike-I promise!

There is so much that has been going on, but I will back track a bit and then start here at 19 1/2 weeks along!

*I started showing since I was 11 weeks-when I was offered my first subway seat-thanks lady on the cross town bus! And was congratulated by the pizza guy in the neighborhood-just by the size of my belly! Soon after people - total strangers- would start pointing to me and say "so boy" "your straight out" "you look boy", thanks Jamaican nurse, Chinese woman, and Mike's coworker...then my cravings followed suit, not sweet for this sugar obsessed woman, no no this baby like SOUR SPICY and HOT-lets just say that I stopped for fast food Chinese, which I haven't done in years, for Kung Pou Chicken and to top it off when asked do I want sauteed or fried...Uhhemmmmm FRIED, of course! ;)

And Mike spoils me and I am no longer Misha, I am Misha and baby (whose name you will all have to wait till the birth for). Mike seriously anxiously awaits to hold my belly and talk to our boy through the megaphone-aka my belly button-yes that can be awkward! I remind Mike that babies hear low deep sounds best-thanks National Geographic In The Womb-but that can turn out funny, the baby might be surprised when he realizes his father isn't Darth Vader! ;) Oh and even on my days off he cooks and cleans for me in fact he gets irritated if I do the dishes on my days off! Crazy man! And when we walk down the street he sticks out his hand, "Why" I say "I want to carry your purse," he says, not that I don't run the streets of New York with multiple bags in tow when I am alone but I love how he loves me so well. Hey with this kind of treatment I told him I am going on 10 kids! Really I love being a princess, Thank you lord for giving me a real solid glimpse into how you love me so sweetly.

Also our little sweet love is a mover and a shaker! From week 8 at like an inch big he was jamming side to side doing a jig-the doctor was like "Wow, look at your baby go!" Our babe was like "I have arm buds and I am going to move 'em!" (like his mother everyone said, and with pride I beamed!) And to be honest I thought I could easily become one of the moms with the bumper sticker that screams "My kids on honor roll...." bc hey I wanted a sticker that said "My baby moved at 8 weeks in the womb!" And then at the next ultrasound at 12 weeks we could hardly get the proper angles bc of his action, which started in a headstand and then multiple flips side to side and waves and clapping and non stop motion! The technician switched to check out my ovaries to which I said, "Oh, what are you looking for," and she replied "We are just waiting for your babies cooperation." To which I started laughing - ohhh to think my sweet baby could have a cooperation! ;) Then when we heard the heart beat at the 13 week appointment the rhythm was off, I wasn't concerned but I noticed it, then my doctor-who I love and is so fun and outgoing and maternal and who often high fiving me exclaiming, "You're having a baby!"- said "Do you hear those sounds that's the baby moving around!" Even the heart beat was muffled he was soo active! But at this time we didn't know if he was our little boy just yet, but we prayed for God to open our hearts to receive the perfect human he was and is creating in there!

So just 2 1/2 weeks ago at 17 weeks my doctor gave us another ultrasound where we saw our sweet baby boy..with a little carrot! "Its obvious" she said! Of course we cried. When I see this little person growing inside of me I always cry (and laugh too). The first time I thought "Wow, Lord you love me this much" and the second time I was just filled with joy and laughter and this last time I thought "Wow Lord really me a son, what a grace gift." My little grace gift so undeserved a reminder of Gods rich and deep love, I mean who deserves to have a human that God designs grow in their womb and then to raise it and be filled with life long unconditional love...wow Thanks God for giving us humans this treasure.

So Motherhood has begun, and one thing I have realized, I am not in control. Of course I can make wise choices and pray and love and nurture my son, of course-but everything is in God's hands he is in control-Thank God!

**Funny updates:

You know you're pregnant when your wearing compression socks-wait you didn't have to wear those, oh that's right cramps are supposed to go away after a stretch or two...opps...well after two doc appts and a $15 pair of socks which ripped after the first wear! I still have a leg cramp-going on the sixth day! Electrolytes it is for me.

You know you are pregnant when one morning you wake up and think or exclaim, "My back, my back!" Yes then I remember just like in Pilate's turn to the side and gently lift up!

You know your pregnant when you want to turn in your breasts for the night, yes take them off and lay them on the night stand please...and to think the milk hasn't even come in yet! Hey at least they look great! Well according to friends and of course my husband!

Don't Fade

2010-04-01T01:23:00.000-07:00

Africa Mercy-

My heart aches for you...its turned into a dull almost distant pain...

I hate that what absorbed my life only a few weeks ago now feels a world away...the sights, sounds, and smells, the work, the people, and friends- that filled my soul, that fed my soul- feels at times like a dream...I want to grasp that time again but it is past....ahh and I am left with a dull pain and a lifetime full of memories and experiences - my special gift from God just for me...that even now I have not been able to process...I don't know how to process...while I share with others I find it hard to express all you were to me Togo, all that you gave me lord and what I saw- the significance of it all that now in New York with life moving so fast seems surreal...but I don't want to forget...forget the need, forget the hope, forget the people, forget the gift...Oh lord help me hold this in my heart....and now here at home with no one who has shared that experience with me I feel at times alone...And now as I organize video footage for a short documentary I am scared...I want to honor my friend Kossi, his story, I want to give viewers a glimpse into his life, into a world unknown by many in the United States, I want to educate people and inspire people, motivate people through the story of one boy...but I am scared...Oh Lord my desire is for my video work to have purpose also to communicate to people with visuals and audio...this is your story...oh lord help me to tell it. So if you read this pray that by His grace and mercy I will be able to give others a glimpse into the life of one boy-Kossi DeLou. (pictured with me at the top)

You know many thought this longing I have had for Africa was a fantasy or unrealistic but a passion this strong is never random it is always a gift from God, and I am thankful he taught me to trust him and not the world, because I was MADE for Africa ;)

Oh Lord will you send me again to those living in hiding in shame those rejected or in fear to be your hands and feet and serve alongside others from around the world who also love you?

My Gift

2010-03-23T10:57:00.000-07:00

What to do now...

I have a little heart ache.

My gift from God...

Lord you gave me glimpses of how I was made.

I have never in my life used my natural personality, my spiritual gifts, my talents, strengths and passions in one point in time...and that was Togo, Africa Mercy for me. The Lord allowed all of those things to intersect at one point in time.

My gift from God...

The surprised sweetness of living single-on my own for a month doing what I wanted when I wanted, sleeping in a bunk bed, having roommates, late night movies, girls nights. Of course I needed the emotional connection from Mike and we talked and prayed together almost everyday but to be on my own was something I never thought I would do again after I was married so that was a little treat.

Living in a close community. Sure it was hard and at times lonely. Moving to Africa Mercy was like moving into a little town or village...it is home to about 350 people. It was unlike other missions trip experiences, I was not arriving in a foreign country with a small group of ppl that would be also departing together...I arrived with about 25 ppl from around the world to an established town. So bonding and connecting took time like it would in any new home...but the relationships were rich and deep and unforgettable. It was a joy to wake every morning to dozens of familiar faces over the breakfast buffet (if I in fact woke up in time to catch the 6:30-7:30 am breakfast ). It was a treat to, while passing in the hall to a meeting, greet a friend with a hug or the West African Snap handshake. It was my joy to sit with a small group of friends at lunch, from Nigeria, and the US surrounded by hundreds of Togolese and hundreds of others from around the world from South America to New Zealand. To sit with kind friends gentlemen who when my drink would get low would refill it with my ship fav pink lemonade drink. It was like nothing else to worship with these 350 from all around the world. A special treat to get little hugs from my little 7 year old friend from San Francisco. It was my joy to spend monday nights working out with about 20 other crew to the biggest looser where we would sweat our butts off and laugh our heads off at times, then run down to our starbucks for a 75cent frappacino then run back up, after our workout center turned into bible study zone, for Beth Moore Bible Study. It was a joy to always have a friend near. To know that around 9 pm me and the girls would all meet in the ships communal kitchen the galley to make late night snacks in the form of fresh mango smoothies...and for that same space to turn into a hip happen place when other crew would come in with music and fill the room with dancing and laughing. To know at 10 pm every night one of my sweet friends would be in his traditional spot, the international cafe, aka starbucks area, pouring his heart out in his email updates to family and friends afar...to know that if I wanted to play a game all I had to do was walk a few steps away from my office upstairs to find people playing card games, or board games from other countries, or all huddled around a lap top watching movies. It was a comfort to know that when I left my office at 2 am all I had to do was walk a few steps to down the hall and down the stairs to my room, always passing a kind face at the front desk and a small group of other late nighters-which usually included a few African guys watching football and young crew hanging out in the dinning hall...and to know that I could work in my office in my pjs!!! And to know that often these late nights would be accompanied by one of my two friends on my team. It was a joy to visit the hospital ward and to pass not one not two but three of my friends who were supposed to be all meeting for a girls night! But of course we couldnt get enough of the patients...or some of us had to work! Ahhh community I could go on and on well I did.

To work with people from cultures other than my own. My translator turned friend from Togo, when we were in between shooting we would find ourselves in my office having long talks and often laughing.

To use my gifts as an artist to impact others lives.

To sit by patients bedsides, patients who at age 15 were never able to go to school bc of club feet-the walk was too long- and read Zephaniah with them all about how God loves them and they are not covered in shame. To listen to the stories of how people had been living in hiding to ashamed to be seen but then there in the ward to talk with them freely unveiled!

To pray with patients each night before bed...

To hold patients hands when they are afraid or lonely

To hear their stories so different from my own journey...yet at the core the same, rejection, shame, struggle and hope...

To connect with people who didnt even speak the same language as me, but to be bonded so deeply that we wept as we departed.

To laugh and play and sing and dance...was there these things in abundance...I will never forget!

To eat local food with new friends...fufu and fish stews...

To drink sodas from the glass, and always with a straw bc the rim is not clean so I learned...

To learn about this culture which even now is a mystery to me...through tuesday night classess...

To explore. I walked through a little a farming community to a local beach greeting locals along the way and invited by children to peek into huts to greet their other family members and I swam under a waterfall in a lush area of the north...
...and there were little local explorations too when we needed to escape the heat we would go for a swim at a nearby pool, the funny thing is that the water much to our surprise was not cool and refreshing as we thought it would be rather it was like a warm bath but nice just the same, and at night we would explore local eateries-which surprisingly had food from around the world, there was a German restaurant, a Lebonese place, pizza was a popular menu item and it was amazing.

It was a gift to be on the communications team. I had the freedom, within reason, to document different parts of Togo from waking up at 5:30am to document the fishermen pulling in the fishing line in the mornings, to the hustle and bustle of the main market...I only long to have documented more, next up I was supposed to meet the chief of a local village and document village life...ahhh there was so much to see and hear and smell and know....

But it was often hard..sad...when I would realize that, while trying to document the fishermen, that the fishermen were comprised primarily of a group of young boys pulling in heavy fishing lines from the ocean with their bare hands from 6am - the afternoon, never having been to school just so that they could bring home, if they are lucky, $1.50 a day.

Ah....the children...I would always hug and kiss them.

Me and my friend Liz the ships photographer said we were "all access pass Africa Mercy" bc we were the only people that could docuement visually the work that these 350 crew, 200 day workers were doing in the country! It was a gift...and now there is no one to fill my position this year an AFM, so here I am in New York working at a cafe where there are hundereds dream of working and doing photography in a city where everyother person is a photographer. It just isn't the same. Not that I thought it would be the same, but I didnt imagine my heart ache to be so big...but it is big.

I realized while there I am made to work with people in crisis in the third world in Africa telling their stories with the public...as a photo/video journalist

Who knows how this will pan out but until then I am praying that the Lord will use me as he made me, my personality, gifts, talents, strengths, and passions here in New York for his glory. But it is scary....will there be another chance? My heart says yes that is God's character he doesn't put anything in us to waste it...so this passion in me will continue to be used.

So I could write on and one, but for now thank you Lord for this most perfect gift and for being strong enough to get me where you called me to be, while my heart ached for a journey such as this for years and many thought it just a fantasy you knew lord it was a call...lord and when I was fearful you were strong enough and big enough to overcome my fears and to carry me there through the support and love of many...

Aba show me where to do now...now that everything kinda seems well blaaaa....

But I know my life is sooo good I have an amazing husband and live in an amazing city surrounded my loving friends.

I know I have to have faith over my feelings..so here goes for faith lord!

Two worlds

2010-03-08T16:06:00.001-08:00

Here at times I feel I am living in two dramatically different worlds, that happen to inhabit the same physical space. This is Africa Mercy.

Just a few steps away from my bedroom is the operating room and hospital where patients and their caretakers stay, some for weeks, others for days-in and out they come and go.
I wander through the wards throughout the day of course for work, but also because I love these people. At times I find myself being caught in an African dance with beautiful women, women with tumors near the size of their heads, who outside of the hospital cover their faces with cloths but inside the hospital dance freely unveiled, hand and hand we swing our arms and of course booties-this is Africa-with the translators pounding on the tables creating a rythm for us to groove to. Heads usually covered in shame are lifted high with songs of worship, "I am so happy because of Jesus!" Then in the next room is a little boy moaning from pain, or from fear, who knows this is Togo, many people are deep into voodoo and sometimes we just don't know what is really happening after we've deduced that it's not medical-at best we pray that he is just upset...so I lay my head on Bobo's tiny chest with my arms around his back and begin to sing to him "Jesus Loves Me" and before I get to the next verse he is silent and asleep...but then the moaning starts again as soon as I leave. One night he repeated in Ewe, the local tongue here, "Take me with you." Others have experienced this with this sweet little guy, so please pray for the Lord to give us all wisdom to know how to help him. Then there are the moms...the amazing moms of the tiny baby's with club feet or cleft lip or pallet...there are three of them in a room...one mom has twin girls about 3 lbs each, one just had two casts put on to correct her club feet which were no bigger than a marker at best...The moms often dance and sing while their babies are asleep..what a joy..then over to the next room there is a 15 year old girl alone-her mother up country. She is here recovering from surgery on both of her legs, which were severely clubbed- so clubbed that she was kept from ever attending school, the journey too painful...and together we read the scriptures of how God made her beautiful and how he sings over her...

And then just a few floors up and I am in a different world...I am no longer in Africa I wonder am I in the States? I sit on the ships deck in a bathing suit, trying to catch as much sun as I can before heading back to Winter in NYC, listening to my ipod and reading while friends, other sun bathers, pass by....

Where am I...how can I reconcile these two vastly different worlds? It's so strange at times for ministry and life to be in the same physical space but yet be so separate.

So every day and every moment I pray, "Lord where do you want me now," because I have to be a part of both worlds but on my own I don't know how, so I go to the Father.

And with only a few days left I don't know how I will ever leave...I love you Togo...I love you, who will dance down the isles of church with me when I go home?

Togo

2010-03-04T04:34:00.001-08:00

there is soo much on my heart I have a hard time journaling its like I have been given a million piece puzzle and I am sorting through the pieces but I can't even fathom how to put them together...the stories here you can not wrap your mind around them...mothers with cleft lip babys are often abandon by their husbands and community and some are asked to kill their own babies in order to rid the community of evil spirits...people with disabilities and deformities are looked at as demons and witches they stay in hiding they have low self esteem and no friends they are lucky if their own parents support them...even christians here fear that the ppl with deformities have had a spell cast on them...so not only are the patients dealing with feeling uncomfortable from the pain of their tumors, and funny looks from others...they are dealing with being treated like a demon or a witch...I CAN NOT wrap my mind around what that must feel like....to be in hiding esp for young teenagers who for their whole hormonal development have not been able to know what their face really looks like bc all they see is a huge tumor that stretches their eyes and nose out of place...Kossi my boy here keeps looking in the mirror touching his face...I walked out of the room this morning and as I closed the ward door I saw him investigating his new face tumor free....I can't imagine the restoration that is happening in his heart...
I really can't put into words what is here...children who have to walk on broken crutches for very treatable problems who cry in their rooms at night bc they feel rejected .... poverty is immense: there are children who are 4 months and only 6 lbs their skin hanging from their bones, their are children with bone disorders bc they have never had a sufficient supply of milk...children who can never go to school bc they have to pull in heavy fishing nets at 6am every day all day just talk earn 1.50...There is joy here too parents I have seen three in particular hold their children and cry to God for their healing...with all their heart...father's tenderly caring for their sons wiping their mouths, spoon feeding them, reading them scripture, kissing them....things I will treasure in my heart...

TOGO

2010-02-14T16:22:00.000-08:00

…I am in Africa!

After a race to finish packing with the taxi waiting outside, a flight to Paris where I met a few other Mercy Ships volunteers, and a flight to Togo, I was greeted warmly by a torrential down pour! Hello Africa!

I am getting settled into my cozy cabin on the ship-no windows-with sweet roommates, and am excited to start my first day of work tomorrow!

Thank you lord for this incredible gift, and I can't wait to see the rest of it!!!!

2010 started with an adventure of a lifetime!

2010-02-11T19:47:00.001-08:00

Here are some glimpses of our adventure of a lifetime in India...
We planned, booked, packed and arrived in India all within less than 2 weeks! It was a spontaneous joy...filled with special memories, crazy moments, adventures galore, tender interactions, new friends, and an experience we will never forget...I still have the smell of Indian apricot hair oil and burning trash in my veins...I love you India!

Photography Joys

2010-02-11T19:38:00.000-08:00

I had the wonderful opportunity to talk with and shadow Todd Heisler Pulitzer Prize winning photographer and staff photographer for the New York Times...his photo project One in 8 Million is an inspiration:

http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/nyregion/1-in-8-million/index.html

...and here is a photo he took of me while out shooting for the cover of the Times, on one last fall day this past November! I almost made the cover but, didn't. But it was a magical moment I was under a shower of golden Ginko leaves!!!

love the giveaways on this site...

2010-02-04T20:25:00.000-08:00

Only the Best of Etsy Sample Packages GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!
Only the Best of Etsy Sample Packages GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

Love the trend in bloggy world to give stuff away....maybe I will be the winner?

November...a friend's wedding...a brother's wedding...turning 29

2010-01-30T22:23:00.000-08:00

Congrats to Mel and Gideon two close friends here in NYC-I thought everyone out there wouldn't mind seeing a few pics of us from that night...it was super fun and super special! This pic is one of our old bible study-Dawn(on very left) and I had led it for 2 1/2 years and just this past summer decided it was time to switch gears. We are all very close, and am so blessed to have them, some of whom have been friends for over 11 years-I love these women!!!! (dawn, me, mel, anna, veronica, maiko)

And here we are at my 29th bday a few weeks later...and in the next pic sean and colleen.

And while I am on the wedding thing shout out to my brother and new sis in law...Ben and Adi Cohen-what a beautiful wedding !!! And a HUGE shout out to my awesome hair! I mean really look at this I had to document it-way to pic out a stylist Adi!

Also we just got back from India and have TONS of pictures to share-stay tuned!!!

I think it's going to be a White Christmas!!!

2009-12-23T00:10:00.001-08:00

It snowed a few feet in only a few hours last Saturday night, and here is the snow on Sunday on the way to work! (this is just a few steps from our home)

2009-12-17T13:26:00.000-08:00

So a few weeks back Mike was out of town and I decided to have a girls night, or rather a girly night to myself.

The photo says it all: I had steak which we never have bc Mike is not a red meat eater, I bought gorgonzola cheese from Murry's Cheese shop in Grand Central (yum!), I rented a chick flick, and bought myself flowers..I love the life they bring into a room! And I had a tinie tiny glass of wine (I don't really drink but yea why not it was my night!).

Every woman has to spoil herself once and a while.

An Average Day

2009-11-22T21:35:00.001-08:00

So I thought I would give family and friends afar a taste in the life of Misha. Here is an average few days:

Tuesday a few weeks back: I wake up at 5:55 am (ahh so not a morning person, this is the worst part of my day) take the train a few stops then to save time grab a cab! (so worth the 7 bucks!) And I go to work at a a hip Upper West Side Cafe, which was ranked top 10 in the nation, Joe , finally make it to one degree of separation for those of you who know the game 6 degrees of separation to Kevin Bacon-well I recently arrived and only regret that I didn't high five him and say yea I made it!) Well anyhow then head down to Soho to a coffee lab where I sat with a few Brooklyn Hipster Coworkers taking a coffee test-really a coffee test, I mean I work in coffee but I rarely drink it!

Then I head home for a special traditional birthday dinner for Umu who just turned 20, who I mentored with the IRC for two years (Mike prepared the meal that night, earning over a million points in my love bank or is it love tank--we just read a book that talks about love tanks-thanks Dynamic Marriage!). Then the next morning I wake up and go meet the Timsina family's parents, who have just arrived from living in a refugee camp in Nepal for 20 years-after being forced from their home in Bhutan by the ruling party. On the way up to the Bronx, we all sat together on the train and to our delight enjoyed a performance by four young men that proceeded to do back flips and hip hop moves for 5 minutes while in transit, all without so much as even brisking a passengers hair.

Impressive, and to give perspective, I can't even stand on the train without holding something and to think they beboped their way around so gracefully!

Then we arrive at their new home. Surrounded by my adopted Bhutanese family the Timsina's, drinking the afternoon's tea and eating a huge helping of Batsmati rice and curried vegtables, I am on a grand adventure, yet at home. Then I race downtown where I meet Mike and head to our Dynamic Marriage class, where we of course, talk and talk with friends after. Then we grab unlimited toppings at Pink Berry, which always include strawberries and gummy bears, then head home and fall asleep to the empire state building twinkling in my window.

And when I look back on this 48 hour breath in time, I just love how random and yet not random God is...to think I am meeting stars, hanging out with hipsters- me the lone Christian-then to share life with people from around the world, Africa and Bhutan, all while enjoying the sights of this great city and sharing this with the love of my life! Ahh...New York I love you!

New hobby!

2009-11-22T21:29:00.000-08:00

Finally here I write...I am sorry readers, if there are any of you left. I have been working hard on my photography blog and well my life blog has just been thrown aside. And while I often have many things I want to share, for lack of downloading photos, I don't get around to it.

So here is a little post about a new hobby, embroidery!! It is relaxing and fun and gets my creative juices flowing in a simple way...so these a gifts I made for friends...enjoy!

Here's lookin' at you kid!

2009-08-19T19:17:00.000-07:00

To my best friend Barbie on her birthday!! Remember the times? :) She was the girl the kept everyone together and having fun!

ahhh...when we were younger! All of our good friends took one last group pic before we dispersed to college, and began new lives a part! And after all these years married and living thousands of miles a part me and Barb are still close as ever!

Love you girl

My Documentary

2009-07-27T22:18:00.001-07:00

From Exile to Refuge: link here

My Photodocumentary

2009-07-26T20:40:00.001-07:00

http://blog.theirc.org/

www.blog.theirc.org

Bye Michael, we wil miss you!

2009-07-15T23:04:00.000-07:00

So, I went to the Michael Jackson memorial service in Harlem watching the live televised memorial with one thousand others.

It was special to share that moment in history with others, cheering "Michael, Michael," dancing to old tunes, laughing and even tearing up, knowing that millions of others around the world were doing the same. It's interesting how strangers lives are intertwined by the life of another stranger.

I am glad that I was able to have that experience with so many fans in such a significant place.

(Another reason I love New York, is how strangers come together. Its amazing how fast things happen in this city, Michael Jackson died and that same night fans gathered together at the Apollo singing and dancing in his honor, and merchants quickly filled blocks and blocks of 125th street with merchandise...of course I had to buy a few tin buttons for old times sake.)

So here are photos of the event. *side note it was fun to see the publication in magazines/newspapers the next day bc a lot of the people I photographed were featured.

SHOCKED, SADDEND....

2009-06-26T07:46:00.000-07:00

MICHAEL JACKSON DIED!!!

too much for words...really.

We, grew up with him, he was the birth of Mtv...thriller, billie jean...I loved his music, and him. As a child he was one of the first artists that I liked, at age 5 I wore his buttons, little tin buttons with his photos on them, on my sweaters around Boston.

I know he is a wierd o, but truly I felt sad for him and intriged by him.

I loved the way he danced, to think into his 50's he had those moves!

And I loved his passion for performance and music...

His life was tragic, marked by bad choices but he was the "King of Pop."

He was a major icon of our time...without him is like saying "hey by the way there are no more hamburgers anywhere in america...the hamburger is gone!" Now there is something from our time, that played a huge part in our culture that at one time most of us adored be it 20 years ago, gone...wow. You know how people love Elvis, and James Dean...but we weren't around during there high time, while they were alive, but we see there impact...but for Michael we were around, and now he is gone.

Wow...I pray that the Lord managed to break into his heart and transform is soul at his last breath.

Things I Love

2009-06-21T21:10:00.001-07:00

note:Mike took this pic when I first got my camera, so its impromptu!

I love to READ...I love BOOKS...and I love displaying our books in our bookcase and the color and memories that fill the room with them.

My mom has always loved to read and has filled her home with books. My Dad, Michael, loves to read; I remember, as a kid, trying to keep his books organized, they were everywhere! :) Growing up I was surrounded by books...and they fill my heart with joy! With adventure, and wisdom, curiosity and knowledge with education and laughter, and even tears, and learning!

My all time favorites are: My hiding place, corrie ten boom and Dave Eggers What is the What...both so insightful and hope-filled while in the darkest of places..both such inspirations...and what is the what soo well written! -just in case anyone wants book ideas, I know I ALWAYS Do..oh and per a few friends suggestions...Severe Mercy was amazing!

June Gloom

2009-06-18T07:14:00.000-07:00

Are you guys experiencing crazy summer weather too?

Ok, so enough is enough. I have been in jeans and a jacket or sweater from last October till now, JUNE!!! That is officially 8.5 months!!!!

People this is rough..I remember last June was amazing, a little hot, but gorgeous we were outside with family, in the park, at the beach, I got tan...it was a blast...not another rainy day...I know our earth needs water, but please Lord we here in New York are yearning for SUN!!! (ok so we did get to feel the sun one week in spring...which out of my three years here spring is one week....and a few scattered days, supposedly when I wasn't here, in June)

Ok now that I have expressed that! On a positive note lightning storms are amazing, we did hear the most amazing thunder the other night!

2009-05-24T22:44:00.000-07:00

Friends here is a cute and yet random picture (in lue of more recent photos) of me from a few months ago when mike and I babysat one of our good friend's cute kids! We had a blast!

Ok really this is to remind everyone to keep checking out my photo project

http://blog.theirc.org/

And please pass it along, and write a little note!

Blueberry Pie Refashioned Frock GIVEAWAY!!!!

2009-05-24T18:57:00.000-07:00

Blueberry Pie Refashioned Frock GIVEAWAY!!!!

Another chance to win a great recreation of a vintage dress...maybe one day I will find my own moomoo to recreate into something cute!

Loose Teeth Vintage Inspired Sundress with Petticoat GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

2009-05-17T20:44:00.000-07:00

Loose Teeth Vintage Inspired Sundress with Petticoat GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

What a fun site I have come across...and an inspiration for sewing!!!

Moby!!!

2009-04-23T12:40:00.000-07:00

Oh I forgot I also met Moby the artist...last week...Mike reminded me that if I met him I would say something to him (I told Mike that like 2 years ago and I had a little speech in my mind of what I would say bc truly I have been so inspired by his music and his heart for the world which seems to be reflected in his songs...although they are not really word based but just listen to them you will see)...well anyhow I wasn't confident that it was Moby that we saw...we were in a huge restaurant just our friends and "Moby" and I had to do it (well first I didn't I left the restaurant and then I remembered that I always told myself I would do it so I went back in)...so I went over to him put my hand on his shoulder (I guess I am a physical touch person...I forget that that may not be normal for other ppl anyhow...but I think it is more human to touch ppl) so anyhow I was like "do you just look like Moby" he said "No its me I'm Moby" and I thanked him for creating and music..and then off I went into the rainy streets of NYC, but giddy from meeting Moby...if you don't know his music you should...I love his album 18

April

2009-04-23T12:19:00.000-07:00

Me and the Bride...congrats!

My hot husband!

Friends -

So here I am at my computer....

Life has been good...and it is a great joy that the weather around here is turning from snowy to sunny and warm!!!! :) Not that I am in my bikini at the park yet but hopefully tommorrow I will be!!! (note also I was sick for 3 weeks which I think was partly bc of the flip floppy weather it would be 65 then in the 30's and snowy!)

So in celebration of the season finally turning for NYC I had my nails done (like my friend Lara) it is one of my favorite things to do...get my nails done: first it is relaxing, second I love looking at my feminine and pretty hands all day after that (my mom always paints her nails so it reminds me of her too) third its cheap..10 bucks and you even get a little hand and forearm massage and at my place a little shoulder massage at the end! So I wish I had a photo but I am soo into nail color (a friend Rahnie and I are crazy about nail colors often envying each other's choice..I know that sounds so particular but I hate when my nails look completely diff than what I saw in the bottle..anyone relate?) so over time I think I have become an expert color selector and so far this season I have seen people with fun bright pinks...so I dove in and selected the perfect magenta shade "no boundries" by essie...ladies its soo important to remember the polish name! :)

Ok this is all kinda silly but that's me.

So lets see last week I had a ton of special friends in town a few from highschool, college, Africa and one from San Fran...that was super special.

Oh and we hosted our annual Easter Celebration! It was so fun I love celebrating holidays with new and old friends; it is special to have ppl to build traditions with especially since family is so far.

And our good friends Purim and Hoek got married...after a little over a year of dating..yeah!!! so here are some pics from that...and thanks to my sweet friend I am wearing this great dress...really those of you who know me well know that I do not really shop for clothes much but like most of us women I always want to feel great in my clothes...its just that I end up spending my money on travel and adventure and photography, oh and food!! But anyhow sometimes I can get insequere about my clothes...again another shallow thing but so true...but praise God I was blessed to have my very own fun hot dress!!! God even cares about the little tiny desires of our heart-the desire to feel confident and look beautiful (even though HE really cares about our inner beauty he knows that we like to feel beautiful in our outfits too).

Ok so that is that...

Also keep checking out my project

http://blog.theirc.org "From exile to refuge"

Here I am

2009-02-25T18:45:00.000-08:00

Hey friends...I know its been a while since my last post...almost three months...ok thats pretty bad...but you know the downloading and uploading pictures thing is a big job...but for now i will include a silly one of me, and of course its taken where the best things happen in this city...the SUBWAY!! Mike was using some new app on his i phone camera and asked me to move so I got up and swung around the subway pole!

Really life is good, so busy but good..I mean in what other city can you be in Africa, China, Nepal and America all in one day....in what other city can you actually say "Hey I know those guys" while watching the Oscars, a few top stars are my customers, in what other city can you have enormous fun doing something so simple as playing on the subway.
I love you New York...

Anyhow so I will update with photos one day but until then here I am!!!

Who's FUN!!!!

2008-12-04T22:21:00.000-08:00

So this is the most recent update-today I had a super fun afternoon with a friend that I hadn't spent time with in seriously 8 months and she lives in Manhattan-I guess life here can get pretty full at times-but there is no excuse! :) So today we went to her husband's photo studio and demanded a photo shoot! :) We were soo persistent that he even set up some studio lights for us...and here is the result! We decided since we weren't dressed up, I was still in my work clothes, and since makeup wasn't perfected, I was up at 6am, that we weren't going to try to do serious model shots but rather just fun shots! I think it was a success!!

2008-12-04T14:32:00.001-08:00

Friends...I will be posting photos soon from a visit to DC to Thanksgiving, my Golden Birthday and fun photo shoot sessions...but for now, Hi!!!! I am getting really excited for Christmas and have already watched 4 Christmas movies since thanksgiving, and am having fun preparing gifts!!!!

More New York Moments....

2008-11-18T12:20:00.000-08:00

Only in New York would you have the opportunity to study journalism under a writer for the New York Times, and only in New York would that teacher, when taking an assignment in South American, be replaced by an editor for Playboy magazine.

Only in New York would you be taking a morning stroll to find some middle aged man in sweats doing pull-ups on the bars of traffic lights.

Only in New York would you pay $30 at a Taqueria for four little tacos and a side of rice and beans and shared drink. This city can get you sometimes!

Only in New York can you wake up to the Empire State Building and moments later be walking in an ancient Egyptian tomb. And to think it only cost a donation of one dollar to tour the Met. :)

New York Moments

2008-11-03T13:28:00.000-08:00

I thought it would be fun to give you all a little glimpse into daily life in NYC, a city I love so dearly, and surprisingly with all of it's quirks has become quite familiar....

So here is a glimpse:

I was getting ready for a pumpkin carving party I was having and went downtown to pick up some last minute things, one of them was a pumpkin for Mike to carve. I walked over to Whole Foods after work, which is the best grocery store, for some reason it is inspirational for cooking, but as they say Whole Foods = Whole paycheck! -well I got out of there without breaking the bank but not my back! :) So on this journey to get a carving pumpkin for Mike (the day before I looked and looked but no one had a normal size pumpkin) so this day at Whole Foods I finally saw carving pumpkins...and for only 5 bucks!! Thats right, what a deal...the only problem was that the smallest pumpkin was 15lbs....so anyhow I had to get it, I needed to get home and frost the cookies and set up for the party...so there I was with my purse hanging off my shoulder, a grocery bag in one hand and cradling this huge pumpkin with both! I went down to the subway caught the first train and then was transferring to my next train. As I was walking down the stairs to catch my train home, I heard it coming...and if you have spent time in NYC if you hear your train you run for it..I mean really who wants to stand on a stinky platform with all that weight for 15+ minutes especially when you are on a schedule...so I wobble down the stairs after my train, yelling, literally, "Hold that train," and of course this is NYC did people move over for me to get through, no, but I yelled my way down and this teenage boy yells back "Maam he's got it, he's holdin it for you!" I then see this little skinny teenage boy holding the train open with his body wedged in between the doors trying to stop them from closing-he was also trying to get on himself. The doors kept trying to close and were squishing him and finally he took his body out from between the doors and just his hand was there trying to hold the doors open (note the train doors are not like elevator doors that spring open when something is blocking them....the driver has control over the doors and will keep trying to shut the doors until everyone is either in or out) and that's when I made it to the platform, determined I wedged my foot in between the doors imploring the train driver "Please let us on!" and finally "Ding!" the doors sprung open! It was my day, I exclaimed, "kid thanks, you just saved me 20 minutes!"...and we were laughing. And then this lady sitting across from me started laughing at me and I smiling back at her said, "You know this pumpkin is heavy, that kid just saved me 20 min." Ahh New York there are some great moments. If you could have only seen me with this thing! :)

2008-10-27T18:13:00.000-07:00

I am not sure if I should be updating this as there seems to be a lack of readers. :)

No really please if you read comment, its sooo satisfying, if you are not a blogger you may not realize it but its so fun to open and read comments from friends far away! :)

Ok updates coming soon...for now check out these cupcakes I made for a friends bday a few months back..I worked hard on them! :) (shes a baker so I had to make something top notch)

Babies

2008-10-14T14:22:00.000-07:00

So I thought it would be fun to post all the pics of me and my friends babies, from my Cali visit, and this isn't even all of them! I met many more for the first time that I just didn't have a pic of to post!!! So fun, it was fun to spend time with my friends and see them as new moms!

California Dreamin'

2008-10-07T13:03:00.000-07:00

Ahh, how I love being home, we had a blast seeing so many people we love and bc we hadn't been home in over 8 months I had every moment filled with spending quality time with people. Mike was cracking me up bc at one point he said "Misha, I can't keep up with your schedule, its just soo much talking!" I truly cherished his vulnerability and his heart....sometimes I forget that I am not in need of rest as much as Mike, bc my lifestyle here in NYC is balanced and full of me time, and Mike on the other hand works super hard and hadn't had real time away from work, since Christmas, until this trip...oh my sweet love, I told him I understand but that there are so many ppl to see that we only get a chance to see once a year and that his rest time will have to be our moments in the car! :) He was totally fine with that....so I guess next up is a vacation just the two of us so Mike can get his R&R :)I told Mike the most special part of the trip was that we were able to see on average three different people that we love dearly and who dearly love us, that we hadn't seen in almost a year or even up to four years for one friend! For those of you I didn't get a chance to see, next summer your it!!

Also after being away for so long living on couches, guest beds, and out of a suitcase, I came home and felt like a rich person! "ahh look at all this space, my big bed, my closest, my bathroom..." (ironic bc I have all of 600 sq feet) It sounds silly but truly in the little time away the Lord opened my eyes to the blessings of life here in NYC, from the details of a bathroom cabinet to my friendships here...We didn't get to bed till after 2 am bc I was soo hyper and I had to wake up for work at 5:30 but I was soo excited "I get to see my friends and coworkers and customers...yeah!" I thought. The next night after that 3 hours of sleep I slept like a baby, for 11 hours actually, and woke feeling like a princess in her palace, in her big bed looking out unto her beautiful view full of love. Ahh I trully love it here in NYC!

New photos

2008-08-31T18:55:00.001-07:00

Here are two photos from a recent photo shoot that I did in the Hamptons! I love the interactions between the baby and her dad...and I pray that other ppl do to so I can have more photo shoots.

New photos

Falling in Love

2008-08-28T19:51:00.000-07:00

I feel like I am falling in love again, not that I ever fell out of love, but you know that feeling when you are first falling in love.
The beginning stages of a love that's blooming: the excitement you have to be in each other's company, the way you constantly think about each other, the way conversations can last for hours-and you are always learning something new-totally focused and fully present absorbing all you can from the other. How the others simple touches send electricity through you-a hand hold, an innocent kiss. How new adventures seem to never end...seeing each other's environments, where they work, their favorite spots..., is even a thrill!

Well after almost six years of marriage love looks different than it did in those spring stages (which were technically for us in the fall-our anniversary of being together is November 14, 1998) Love is deeper, richer, there is a sense of knowing and being, a security and a knowing that begins to define you-being known is a huge part to feeling alive. (how many times have we all been stuck in conversations with people and we think "ahh this person just doesn't get me at all we are soo not connecting") After soo many years with someone the knowing is integral-in this place of security one can just be, be "unedited", you can be your worst but hopefully more often your best. Here in the passing seasons comes shared history and a wealth of memories; here our individual dreams have grown to include our dreams and passions.

Also with this time comes, different from the adventures and excitement of discovery, routine. Which can be good but can often be a bummer. Lost in the duties of everyday: work, chores, life, is at times intimacy, not forgotten just at times not fully evident-more specifically taken for granted. And now, here in this place after having walked so many of our youthful years together, come the questions and struggles of adults in this big world and big city, adults who have come from very different places. And here we chose to navigate the terrain together...at times the terrain is a green and lush pasture but at other times we are rowing hard as the waves are beating against us....those waves look like many things...fighting for our dreams in a tough city, overcoming resurfacing childhood fears....

But here and now we are thankful to be resting in the Lord's hands, in this "desired haven" (palm 107)

You know our first year in New York was fun and exciting but then we began to notice the isolation we felt as a couple living so far away from people who know us well...from the love of old friends and family..and from married friends. We had hardly any married friends here in New York, who knew that could effect your marriage? But we began to feel isolated and just wanted to share married life with other healthy happy married couples.

Recently we have been soo blessed by a new group of friends from our church; there are 12 of us who are in a marriage bible study together and we often find ourselves having adventures together...picnics in central park, musical theater in the park, late night dinners after church (like dinners where we don't get home till midnight and we all have work the next day!)

Just their friendship has been life giving.

So here I am falling in love again.

Mike and I have recently made it a point to share more time together, and have just been so present in this time, going out to dinners and even though we are "foodies" we find ourselves so immersed in conversation that we could care less how bad the food really is. We have also returned to old passions, things that bound us together so early in our relationship, kind of like returning to the roots of us... so in this end we have recently taken a back packing trip just us...which was soo fun! Although I felt like a pack mule with all that weight on my back the first day:) we had a refreshing time. I love seeing my husband in his element, he is an outdoors man that is stuck in the lab way to much for his kind :) I love the way he is so organized and confident with packing all the necessary elements that we will need for our 2 days in the wilderness, I love seeing him using all physical strength carrying the majority of the weight..."That's my man!" I think to myself...I love the way he even brought decaf lady grey tea for me to enjoy on the trail! I love adventuring with him!

Here are some photos I want to share, a glimpse of these moments...of falling in love.

* a little of my advice for marriage...always surround yourself with healthy happy married couples, and always explore together!!

Food

2008-08-18T21:08:00.001-07:00

So you all know that I love cooking, or even more its that I love CREATING..today I am going to try a recipe from the website 101 cookbooks..that rivals pinkberrys yogurt!!! So I guess I like to share this bc I am proud of myself-you know I NEVER used to cook...until the age of like 21 and not really until I got married so I am still coming into my own in this area...as a chef!! :P
Here are some picks from my recent work...a fig and prosciutto salad with toasted pecans on top of arugala-to add a bite to the salty sweetness. Last night I made fish tacos with a super yummy mango and avocado salsa, that I created! (I chopped yellow bell peppers for their mild spiciness and red onions for their bite and a dash of salt and sprinkle of new mexican chilli powder..such a nice compliment to those flavors) It was a great summer meal! Also we have been having meals on our roof top lately, its so refreshing to get out of the house and to enjoy our time together on the roof, when the city has cooled down a bit and the ocean breezes start to move it, overlooking the city as the sun sets creating a glow!

appearing:
*whole wheat scones with mixed berries
*mini oatmeal cookie sandwiches-about 2in rounds, with a cream cheese frosting center
*peanut cold noodles made with whole wheat soba noodles
*fig and proscuitto salad
*fish tacos with a homemade avocado and mango salsa

The goal for me is to create something new, healthy, seasonal and most important YUMMY!

Mom

2008-08-06T13:53:00.001-07:00

Oh I realized that I hadn't posted a pic of my mom nor of mike's fam...that's bc we really didn't take alot of photos. But that will be a problem no longer...we recently got a little dig camera, thanks to Mike's awesome research, that we can take in our pocket wherever we go. Funny everyone is writing about getting new big cameras, which is super fun and awesome, but what we had been craving for, for a few years, was a tinie digital one! So this is like the worst photo of me but its funny bc its one of four and not in one were me and my mom's eyes open; I guess the flash was just that intense! :) *note not taken with the new awesome camera! :)

Warts

2008-08-06T13:11:00.001-07:00

Ok so I had warts removed, they were tiny and flat but they kinda covered my hand like there were 15 or so and then recently they "jumped" to the other hand, so finally I was done with these things, I was like forget this! So here I am all blistered from the dermotologist burning them off...and the blisters got WAY bigger, I had to wear like sports tape to work so I wouldn't freak out the customers. I mean just look at the expression on Emily's face who wouldn't freak at the sight of my hand! I was trying to take one of those photos you know where you lean in and take the photo of yourself with a friend....so as I was doing this Emily freaked out and this is what I captured unbeknownst to me!

Anyhow I go back in tomorrow for a check up-pray that these things are long gone!! I am ready for fresh wart free skin!

2008-08-06T12:33:00.000-07:00

My new favorite color of nail polish! Purple, it is such a fun color and reminds me of a skittle!
I love how it pops against summer tanned feet.
*Emily's feet are with mine. I love getting my nails done!!!
*oh and I love this pic of us three

Summer in the City

2008-07-30T14:27:00.000-07:00

What I loooveee about New York in the summer is all the fun times I get to spend outside and all the free fun events that are offered! Let me tell you every night of the week there is something exciting to do here in nyc...constantly all over the city are movies in the park-the most special was when me, Mike and Emily saw "Stand By Me" in Brooklyn at the waterfront overlooking the Manhattan skyline and having this shared experience with thousands of other young adults who were also touched by this movie in their childhood....how many good scenes are there!! Ahh I love that movie! Ok so also summers here are known for the abundance of free concerts in parks all over the city, from no names to Miley Cyrus you name it. That is just a few things that I love about summers here...anyhow so here we are in Central park where we tanned...bc there is no private outside space here in the city, to tan we get in our bikinis and go to Central Park! Later that night we, prompted by a good friend, went to see Bon Jovi, (for free) at the "historic concert" in the great lawn (everyone was saying that...this a historic concert..I guess bc only 4 have been performed of that size in the park.)There were 50,000 ppl there...and who knew I even liked Bon Jovi, I mean I NEVER had a cd or anything, but its funny how much we absorb in our youth...because I could sing along to EVERY song..."shock to the heart", "bad medicine"....and on and on...so here are some pics that I love of that night...this one of just me because I look like I am having the time of my life..Mike took it soo funny! And this other one where Mike is singing his heart out! It was Emily's highlight of the trip!
It was nice to be able to share so many special and exciting memories with my sister...I know she will remember our summer together forever-I was so touched that she wanted to share half of her summer with her big sister.

Family Time!!!

2008-07-22T16:12:00.000-07:00

So what an eventful few months we have had...June started with Mike's family visiting for a week, which was fun-we got caught in a rainstorm 2xs each time getting soaked but as my sister in law Stepo says "When else would we be able to run though New York in the rain", true! Then we had Neil our good friend from SF visit, it was refreshing to spend time with an old friend, though we missed his wife Britt. And most recently my Mom and sister Emily were here. It was soooo good to see my mom, it had been over 6 months, which is way too long, and the longest we had ever gone without seeing each other. To be honest I am not a "missy" type of person, I mean I love my friends and family but even being this far away I don't often get homesick...well until I realized after about 4 months, then its been too long. So It was amazing to spend time with my moma...we spent the first week here in NYC and just doing regular stuff that I like to do, have picnics in the park, go to the beach...and then we spent a few days in Boston, where me and my mom lived years and years ago. It was nice to have that girl time-it was just me, my mom and sis, and my mom's old friend and her daughter, who we stayed with. It was nice to be in Boston and nice to reminisce-I saw my old preschool, which was surprisingly a bit emotional, not that I cried but it felt nostalgic in a special way. To be honest I think alot of the emotion was that Boston was the last place we lived with my dad (my biological father-for those of you who don't know I have 2 dads :), so it was kinda hard to remember some of those times, but good. It was good to have a new perspective of my childhood as an adult looking back.
So then after all that adventure my mom went back to Cali and my sister Emily stayed here for 2 weeks by herself, it was a fun and sweet time. Wow has my baby sister grown, she is now a "tween" (you know that phrase people are using for teenagers) anyhow so I was so impressed by her, she is truly growing into an independent beautiful young woman filled with personality and opinions!
I will share a few of our adventures on the next post for now enjoy this cute photo of us, me,em and my good friend dawn, chowing down on fries...that by the way we got for free..we had noticed them on the counter waiting to be picked up by the person that ordered them and were like "wow those look good" and the customer heard us and was like "take them we ordered two" of course we at first refused but then gave in, who could reject a huge bowl of fresh fries!!!

2008-06-23T07:43:00.001-07:00

Where are my readers :) Ok new posts will happen soon!
We are having fun with family and friends visiting this summer-yeah!!!

Tagged!

2008-06-04T08:47:00.000-07:00

My joys: (hard to limit to three but here are three that came to mind)
1. God's little surprises and sense of humor
ie. I was painstakingly trying to perfect some cupcakes for a few friends, not wanting to be late I forwent the vision and just slapped the frosting on the top-totally not cute but we had to go. When I gave our friends the cupcakes they immediatly wiped the frosting off saying..ahh too sweet! They wouldn't have apprieciated the vision anyhow! I started laughing and laughing, God knows! example #2...I was recently laying out by waterfalls, in the mountains with some friends-the forecast predicted rain so we went out as soon as we saw the sun (we had prayed we would have a bit of sun). After an hour clouds started rolling in so we began to walk back to the car, right as we reached the road we were hit by moonsoon like rains. Running up the road 10 min to the car totally drenched we were all laughing the whole time...only God..It was like he was saying "Ok girls I can give you a bit of sun but I can only hold back nature for soo long!"

2. Being with family and friends...just being...being myself with those I love..laughing till my side hurts, singing silly songs, having deep conversations...exploring together...just being able to be Misha!
3. Traveling overseas and being totally out of my element in a foriegn land, which ironically alwasy feels like my element-learning new languages, eating new food, seeing God's creation in a new place, and loving people who are so different from me.

I miss you Africa!!
*I want to add a few extras:
-being in nature
-the joy of creating...to have a vision/thought/idea and realizing it-be it cooking, sowing, painting...
-kisses in the morning from my husband
-serving others

My fears:
1. That I won't grow, that I will stay emotionally where I am right now-writing this is thereputic bc it sounds so stupid!
2. That I wont appreciate the blessings that are right in front of me-ahh that just sounds depressing.
3. That something bad will happen to someone I love (I guess that sounds like everyones greatest fear huh)

My goals:
1. To photograph for a major publication-to use my photography to bring awareness...
2. To complete my photo documentary project
3. To live overseas in a third world country

My obsessions/collections:
1. Reading recipes online...I love doing that its soo fun!!!
2. Reading...I love to read books...now I am reading "Walking with God" by John Eldridge, of course super refreshing
3. Eating out...often in China Town...I love to explore new restaurants or hole in the walls...I love food I love the experience of sharing a meal with friends in a new place.

Random Facts:
1. My first name is Andrea
2. Here is a good one, on an average grocery shopping day-I carry about 50 lbs of groceries in my two hands about 30 min home! (if I am thinking ahead I carry a backpack!)
3. My first memory is when I was only two years old! I don't forget anything! :)

I TAG:
Teri Gaines, Jill Warren, Diana D. and whoever else reads this blog! :)

Miss you Bako

2008-05-22T14:06:00.000-07:00

So I am listening to Country music on pandora radio (if you dont use it start). Anyhow I miss Bakersfield and miss home, I miss my family and old friends-people who know me in and out, people who know Mike in and out, people who know us. I miss backyard bbqs and swimming pools and driving around and being with family. I guess I am a bit homesick...California sick...its been five months since we were home.
I love love our life here, I love the big city and all the ways God is using us and all of our friends. But, there is "no place like home" :) Home is where your known and loved in a way that in part makes you who you are. I totally feel like NYC is our home, but I guess when I say "home sick" I mean family and old friend sick. In a city of a ton of new friends being around old ones keeps you grounded and refreshed...if that makes sense...anyhow for all of you out there in bako I miss you!!!

Mountains

2008-05-22T13:54:00.000-07:00

Ok here are the hiking photos...

a few things to note:

See me hiking up this icy snow pile...ok that was done in Pumas...if any of you have Pumas you know there is NO traction...we kept saying it was like I was hiking in ballet slippers...super funny-thank God it was funny and didn't turn tragic! :)

Also note the chipmunk eating a chip...so some lady on the trail gave us one and told us to feed this cute little thing-it was amazing, it leaned its tiny paws on my fingers and then took the chip....well a few hours later we saw a sign with almost this exact photo saying, "Don't feed the animals a fed animal is a dead animal." Funny, Mike kept teasing me "that was you, you killed that poor chipmunk!" Bummer but to be honest if that is my biggest action of rebellion oh well! :)

Canada

2008-05-22T13:42:00.000-07:00

So here are some photos from our awesome time in Canada...

Note my new hair cut!!!

It was soo nice to get into nature and to be near old friends...we were so blessed to be apart of our frinds' Brian and Michelles wedding. Mike was a groomsman and I read a scripture and Mike prayed over them towards the end of the ceremony-which was super special.

Also note in one of the photos the two guys in the balcony-that was Mike and the grooms brother leading the crowd in the macarena!! Hilarious...I love my silly man!!!

It was also soo nice to be in amazing country surrounded by one of our very favorite things..mountains..I have very fond memories growing up hiking with my dad and camping with friends (some of you remember those times) going to church camp, and working in a national park for a summer-I love the mountains they are fully of surprises...beach are awesome too-but with mountains every turn is a little surprise, a new view, a stream, lake, pasture...something..and then there is always a climatic ending with hiking...so enjoy these striking photos!

Oh and this is as photo of mike with his grad school friends...so far they have a group pic from every wedding!

Sweet Simplicities...

2008-05-22T13:35:00.000-07:00

There is something freeing about exploring alone; having an idea, a vision for your day and seeing it realized! And I am not talking about running errands but doing something just for you. So I had a vision- after work I wanted to treat myself to a little lunch out alone..nothing too modern, nothing too bland or too loud but just a sweet place with yummy food where I could sit and read and eat a nice lunch.

On my jounrney around town it started to rain and I stepped in a huge puddle..augh...My feet were soaked down to the socks, but that was not going to stop me. I think I must have been craving this alone time because I was in Canada staying with a big group of friends for five days, which was a blast, but I think I just needed me time.

So I actually prayed..."God please help me find a sweet place." Finding a place was also a bit harder bc by the time I started the journey alot of resurants had closed their doors until dinner...so I prayed and I came upon this sweet little asian place with pretty paper laterners and rustic wooden talbes there were only 3 other patrons there so I had the quiet I craved.

It was so freeing just to go out and explore and just do something new all by myself-I read for over an hour and ate some yummy noodles! I will have to do that again!

Work!!

2008-05-21T14:40:00.000-07:00

We have had a grand adventure since my last post...we were in Canada for our good friend's wedding-but I will post about that another time.

So I LOVE working, I LOVE waking up knowing what I am going to do with my time...it was getting emotionally and spiritually overwheleming to wake up everyday not knowing what to do...then spending my time looking for work and refining my resume and making calls...it was lonely and confusing. So working is a BLAST!

Also I had my a baby photo shoot today which felt great to be taking portraits!!

I got home and was a little tired and took a nap-it feels great to be tired from working!

Words of Wisdom

2008-05-05T08:49:00.000-07:00

Quotes from my pastor:

"Do you believe in God or are you in relationship with him?"

"And God is a God of celebration, our christian life is meant to be a huge celebration!"

Henri Nouwen "I realize that I am not used to the image of God throwing a big party. It seems to contradict the solemnity and seriousness I have always attached to God. But when I think about the ways in which Jesus describes God's kingdom, a joyful banquet is often at its center. Jesus compares the Kingdom of Heaven with a wedding feast offered by the King to his son..."Look my banquet is all prepared my oxen and fattened cattle have been slaughtered, everything is ready. Come to the wedding."...This invitation to a meal is an invitation to intimacy with God."

My question for everyone....Are you living joyfully in the secure intimacy of a relationship God? Do you realize that each day is a celebration-God is a FUN God who loves LAUGHTER!!!!

And my favorite new artist Jon Foreman: http://www.myspace.com/jonforeman
(who I also got to see perform at an intimate concert thanks to my good friend Amy!)

"Your Love is Strong"
"Why should I worry, why do I freak out, God knows what I need, you know what I need. ...Two things you told me, that you are strong and you love me, yes you love me...your love is, your love is, strong, your love is your love is strong......your love is your love is your love is strong.....your love is your love is strong....Your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven!"-jon foreman

And to add to that this was the last song he sang in his set to a group of film makers at the Tribeca film fest...what an inspiration!

Decorating

2008-05-05T08:44:00.001-07:00

Ok so I love decorating my home more than I love dressing myself! I had this specific vision and for those of you who know me you know I am particular at times! So I wanted this blue shelf for my birds, knowing that the blue would really make them pop! And loving saving, I updated an old shelf of my moms, and stained it! And next to the birds I placed a little spring color, freshly picked cherry blossoms...cute right! Well I love it, its a nice addition to our simple bathroom.

2008-05-05T07:54:00.001-07:00

Ok so here is a photo of myself, not that this is the best photo of me but I like it, I like that God gave me a "pointy nose" as my sister says and olive skin and brown hair. And I love flowers...to bad I am allergic to most! :) It's important to remember the that we are beautiful bc its easy to get lost in a world of comparisons.

I am a working woman!!!

2008-05-05T07:02:00.000-07:00

I am back working at a coffee shop and soo LOVING IT!!!!

As many of you know I was so against working in a coffee shop again...I mean I worked my booty off in college and graduate with honors and then spent four years in coffee and doing internships...now I am in NYC and I was ready to spread my creative wings and dive into photography. God is a mysterious but great God...so I have had a few amazing photo jobs over the past year and a half, I was a Bronx highs school photographer-that was super fun, and I photographed Authors and Rock Stars at a recent conference...and of course a few portraits in between...but the majority of my time was waiting for the next job...sending out resumes, making calls, praying for what to do next, doing interviews where photographers are asking me to give them 3 months of my time at 50 hours a week for free!!! ahhhhh. So this was stressful and at times boring...I mean I am a social person and alot of my time was staring at the computer!

Truly the past year and a half of not working consistently has been a huge blessing, taking time to really focus on my career and passion was something I never really did before...the Lord totally gave me visions and has guided me in a very focused direction...well that could change but as of now I am very confident in pursuing humanitarian photography/documentary photography/photojournalism. Basically I want to tell real stories about real people and share those with others. I have a strong proposal for a photo documentary that I am excited to start whenever the Lord releases me...I need funding and my last application was beat out by a Pulitzer prize winner augh...but I am very confident in this vision. When I first moved here I thought I would take baby photos and then when possible some documentary work...but truly I do not want to do baby photos, well I will do them, but I want to work full time in documentary and so having a year and a half to navigate was great; I have been in touch with non profits pitching my story ideas (the bummer is alot of them don't have money but are on board with my ideas) I have been in contact with other photographers and working in studios getting tips for how to do this.

Also in this time of not working consistently ( I like to say that bc this whole time although I haven't had a regular pay check I have been working hard toward this end) I have had time for just me...to do things that are so truly me and so truly God. Like mentoring a teenager from Africa and visiting a few men at a hospital weekly...I mean that is life...that is me I would truly give up photography to be an advocate of some sort...well but I hope to be an advocate through photography, but only God knows.

Anyhow so I could go on and on but recently I realized that I wanted a part time job (I am just working part time still giving myself time and space to fully enjoy and commit to the other things that I love and to pursue my passion in photography) and that I had to get out of the house and around people; I am so happy with other people! God has made us all relational so it is a joy to be working with people. (dont get me wrong I love my alone time but all day every day was just too much for this chicky).

So I am super blessed to be working at the trendy West Village cafe, Joe.
And people have I met people, after only working a few very short shifts at Joe I have served Reese Witherspoon's high school sweet heart in the movie "Sweet Home Alabama," Josh Lucas and Julianna something from the old ER days...but even better than seeing the stars was seeing my friends on my first day of work. On my first day three of my good friends came in throughout my shift, I felt like a teenager at my first job when my parents and family all came to see me, it was soo sweet to be supported and loved so well! Oh and the funny thing was that I saw one of my regular customers from Reverie my cafe in SF, Craig Newmark of craigslist, he said Joe is his NY spot, funny huh! It was nice to see a familiar face, actually this is the photo he took of my on my first day of work! (Also how blessed am I by tips..yahhooooooo!!!!!!!) Thank You Lord

Cupcakes

2008-05-02T15:15:00.000-07:00

Ok so I have totally gotten into baking...there is this baking supply store downtown and stepping foot in there would make anyone want to bake....so I had this inspiration for pretty cupcakes...pretty good huh...took about a dozen before I got to this nice swirl (it took a lot of sugar to make the frosting keep its shape...who knew?!)...yum!

2008-04-28T17:24:00.000-07:00

Emily who is 3 yrs old took this
Mike whistling with a blade of grass, acting out what he would do in an emergency-which was funny bc the whistle a blade of grass makes is more like a bird song than an emergency sound!

So how I love sharing life with other people...as I don't have a normal work schedule I have a lot of alone time, which I do love, but to be honest it can get a little lonely and boring, so I was so blessed to have been asked to babysit my neighbor and friend's daughter for two days of her spring break! I was truly blessed, we had a blast...first we biked for over an hour...I love how kids love to explore and that the little things are so exciting, like trying to find the tiniest bloom on the tree or throwing wishes into the river. Then we had a picnic in Central Park-for those of you who don't live here in New York...come in the Spring-its so special and romantic and amazing and happy here in the city! So we packed up lunches and headed to the park where we sat amongst tons of other sun seekers under a nice tree (it was 78 degrees...and after a long long winter this was so exciting!! Finally warm weather) and we played go fish while a sax player played music down the hill from us and tons of happy and laughing people biked, walked, skated danced by...such a quintessential NY moment. Then the next day we watched a girl movie "Ella Enchanted" and I set up a "professional" nail salon, and did her nails, I did a sea salt scrub a hand massage and even put gems in her nails..just like a real salon-oh and we had popcorn for breakfast. Then another picnic. Thank You Lord for such beautiful weather and for little friends! Oh I forgot we made home made ice cream too...we put on our aprons and everything..she said "This was the best Day ever" so sweet huh!

2008-04-28T17:10:00.000-07:00

Marriage...how I love it!!!

So Mike and I were both in the kitchen last night (and we don't work in the kitchen together....its just us...we have two different ways of doing things...and thats fine) so he was getting ready to cook and I just wanted to put something in the fridge and he was like "why are you in the kitchen" and I am like "I just want to put this away it will take 1/2 a mila second" and he was like, and so seriously too, "I don't have half of a mila second" He wasn't mad just serious...and with that I sat on the kitchen floor and started laughing and laughing...I mean what is half of a mila second...and why half...and how hilarous that that tiny amount of time was so serious!!! Ahhh I love being married! So we both just stopped and started laughing at how silly we were!!

Ahh how I love love...Mike and I had an amazing weekend, it started off with friends at the brooklyn botanical gardens..and then sunday moved to church and explorations...we happened upon two street fairs, which took us to four different countries...eating food from around the world, and one street fair was full of free stuff, and everyone knows I love a free bee...so we had free icecream got a free tomato plant and a free starbucks coffee and three coupons for more free coffees and a frisby! WE racked in in! Then how sweet is my hubby he knows I love craft fairs and he was so excited to take me to one in Brooklyn, so it was awesome lots of cool stuff and for me, bc I am crafty, I got a lot of cool ideas! So there we were me and Mike, one of three men there :), at the "Bust" craft fair...(Bust is a magazine for "women who want to get things off their chests" basically a womans magazine)...isn't he awesome!!

We had such a full day that I soaked in the bath with a good book for like an hour when we got home! Oh I didnt mention that me of all people motivated my hubby to get up early before church to go for a run in the rain!!! It was soo fun, and gorgeous to be out with no one else out and the views...so funny! A tip for marriage, keep doing activities together!!!

Lattes, Hotties, and Spring

2008-04-13T14:36:00.001-07:00

Here is a photo of the sweet and perfect latte, vanilla soy latte that is, that Mike made for me. I was a bit nervous as he likes STRONG coffee, and because soy can be watery, but it was perfect, full bodied, smooth, slightly sweetened and yummy!!! Even the foam was a nice texture. And to top it off he put it in this cute little cup.

I am sure you have wanted to see photos of us, as lately I have just been posting food...so here is my hubby...looking very modelesque so handsome and cute...we were going for a "mature yet cool scientist shot"

Oh and Spring has Sprung...we have a gorgeous line of Cherry Blossom trees near our home, and sat under them for a picnic as the weather reached a peak of 70 yesterday...finally...flip flops here I come. I got a little too ambitious bc I wore filp flops again today and it was back to cold.

Ok all signing off with love.

Photographing Rock Stars!? :)

2008-04-10T21:31:00.000-07:00

So I have been photographing the Q conference and I am pretty proud of myself...it has been great fun, but a lot of work.
And in this I have been super blessed, I have had the opportunity to meet great people, Francis Collins, Chuck Colson (if you haven't heard of them wiki them) and I was able to photograph one of the leading rock bands of today, The Fray.
Here are a few picks from the intimate concert! Enjoy!!

Easter and thoughts...

2008-03-23T21:01:00.001-07:00

Happy Easter!!!

What really stuck out to me this year in the Easter story, was in John 20, how Jesus chose to first reveal himself to Mary Magdeline, a (former) prostitute, and I love the intimate way she recogonized him not by his look, she thought he was the gardiner, but by the way he called her name..."Mary." The word says how he calls his own by name in John 10; How there are days that I wish in the stillness of my heart to hear my name too... "Misha." I am sure there are times he is calling out to me but I am just not listening...maybe like Mary I too need to be looking for him..as Paul writes..."Fix our eyes on the author and perfector of our faith."

Anyhow that part of the story touched me this year...and I was able to read it to some new friends who we brought Easter lunch to, and I think they too saw a glimpse of the deep love that God has for us individually.

So we had a different yet great Easter, it started with going to church with new friends, and how I love corporate worship; I love singing and praising the Lord with hundereds of others who love Him. Then we brought food to some friends, which was special. Then we met some friends for a late dessert...there is a group of us who have spent every holiday together (except Christmas, we are all usually home then) for the past year...so it was nice to end the night with them.

Oh and I made my first cake for Easter, it was a small goal of mine. Here in New York bakeries are everywhere and I hadn't thought of myself as a baker until recently-I have started baking for friends weekly-and every time that I pass those windows full of big cakes flowing with waves of white frosting on sweet cake plates I think "I want to do that." It seems so warm and inviting and old fashioned, to make a home made cake and have it resting on a cake plate ready for family and friends to partake of its goodness...anyhow so I made a carrot cake! It was amazing..though I have to work on the presentation...my frosting wasn't flowing across the cake as beautifully as I had imagined it would but hey it was my first time..and everyone loved it so in short success!

Oh and on another note last week Mike and I went to the Bronx Botanical Gardens for a "hike". There is an area of "natural forest" there, it is beautiful but funny that our hikes are now on a few acres of city land, anyhow we saw an old man feeding birds...he would hold out peanuts, and birds from the wild would come and pirch on his hand, of course I wanted to get in on this experience and prompted by Mike I began talking with this bird feeder and he proceeded to give me a few peanuts and showed me how to get the bird's attention...so there I was slowly waving my hand to these chirping creatures hiding in there trees and after a few false alarms, a sweet little bird pirched on my hand. I thought he would immediately take the food from my hand but he just stood there investigating me, looking at me in the face checking me out for a moment...it was a very special experience..I will post pics soon.

March Update!

2008-03-11T21:34:00.000-07:00

Hey all,

I am a little over due with a new post, but here is a photo that I am proud to share, not so much bc of the photo itself but
of what is in the photo...my valentines day cookies, that I made from scratch from my own recipe! Over the past year I have really gotten into baking and after baking so much I combined a few recipe ideas together and created these raspberry linzer tarts, soo yummy! I made about 4 dozen total...lets just say that took some time.
Also about baking I made this past week some AMAZING pecan bars from a recipe from the barefoot contessa the only down side was that about 24 large bars consisted of 9 sticks of butter...wow so I chopped the bars into bit size pieces, I mean we calculated that each bar alone was 3 tbls of butter soo yum but who needs that tummy ache.
Ok and here is a beautiful photo of the one big snow we had in NYC 10 days ago, gorgeous right, and that's down the block from my home-infact from the very spot that many ny movies film the view from...Zoolander, the movie with Don Chedal and Adam Sandler and basically every movie that has a manhattan skyline..pretty nice huh.

Thoughts...

2008-02-04T12:48:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone, its been awhile since we have or rather I have posted anything, and I realized that I get a bit bummed when I go to other blogs and find nothing new realized I should just post something!
So right now I am at home, getting ready to prepare for the first meeting for a women's bible study that I co-lead with a good friend. I am really excited about this as all of the women in the group are all good friends, and this time we have 9 women, compared to 4 last session. I know this will be a very fruitful time. We are reading Henri Nouwen's "The Return of the Prodigal Son" and so far I am realizing how we each carry qualities of the three; and although I often see myself as the older son relating to the "good kid", which is actually not a great thing-the older son was a son that did the right thing by duty but didn't truly see his fathers heart (if he had he would have rejoiced with him), I am actually often the prodigal in the rebellious sense, looking for things other than God himself that will satisfy my heart-that plays out in many ways each day, maybe its r trying to find my identity in some sort of career, or searching for validation from others-all those things are just idols in the way of the Lord. I am also learning and how the Lord longs for us to be both the returned prodigal, desperate for the true love of the Father and the Father alone, humbled before him, and the Father, a comfort to others (as a Christian the Lord says, his spirit is in us and with his spirit we can be an extension of God's heart here on earth)...hmmm...so that is that.

An another note I have been and am very prayerful about my photography career, currently I am working on two photo documentary projects which are exciting but until these take off and get turned into books etc.. I would love to get paid for my photography work-I would love your prayers on this one. Right now I have my resume out at two of the most influential human rights organizations-hopefully they will have a position for me-if not I trust that God is leading me in some direction-the hard thing is that often I only see the first few inches in front of me and am desperately wanting to see the next turn. But I know God better than that he desires for us to hold unto him and follow his lead, and in that position we are protected and secure and in the humble position we often see only the Father, which is his desire, but boy is that hard. I often want to see more. So pray for confidence in this time of waiting.

Here is one of my documentary photographs that I love-its a group of neighborhood kids on the basketball courts, where many kids spend all their time during warm months.

Cookie Party!

2007-12-20T14:37:00.001-08:00

So we had an amazing night full of fun and excitement!
We had a Christmas cookie decorating party for friends in our building and we also had a few friends over in early celebration of Mike's 29th bday, so we also had a bday cake too-thanks Dawn!
As I was looking out at the cookie table at the seven joy filled children excitedly decorating their cookies, I thought how funny we are having a total kid party and we don't even have kids.
Well I guess until we do we will continue to enjoy blessing other people's kids-which is a joy to our hearts.
One of our neighbors Nell who is about 10 she came over early to help me prepare everything-thanks Nell!
Now we are preparing to go to California where friends and family await us-we can't wait!

THANKSGIVING

2007-12-03T07:53:00.000-08:00

dressing the turkey
Good job Mike, he carved it after following the techiniques of an NYC butcher-online

I am so into decorations-I love cooking but the most fun part was creating the table. The vision was leaf cookie place makers, each individually scripted with every guests name. So the vision was challenged when the cookie cutter that I had went across town for went missing-it must have hoped to freedom on the F train-ahh I was soo bummed. But being the problem solver that I am I decided to fulfill the vision through a longer route-I hand cut each cookie into a leaf! So as you can see the results are soo cute! I attached a paper leaf on the back with a thanksgiving scripture and then why we were thankful for that person. I am mooshy too.
Jumping in and almost didn't make it!
Everyone thinks silly photos are the funniest but as you can see serious ones are hilarious!
another example of how hilarious we are
we just couldn't stop with the photos-too fun!
Mike with the girls...too cool!

It was a day of JOY!!!

I was so honored to host my friends this year. I love that friends anticipate me hosting holidays, it really blesses me that people feel home here. So Mike and I and three of some of my closest girl friends, Anna, Dawn and Kay, shared this special holiday, along with Umu and her two brothers. There was opposition against Umu and her family coming, after a conversation with the eldest brother and then Umu a few times she was allowed to come (as a conservative Muslim family they don't celebrate holidays, not even birthdays so sometimes events like this can be a point of discussion). So praise God she was here with her brothers, who are soo sweet.

We had a great time together filled with friendship, fun, laughter (always), and good food. It started off with Anna filming me cooking as I call it "free form style" then we ate amazing food. And then of course quickly moved to photo shoots as you will see, then we cuddled up on the couch and watched Elf moving into the Christmas spirit. It was so special to just be!

Then we went to the hospital down the street from our house and brought our new friends thanksgiving dinner (I had made double everything that day in preparation for this-I made four pies! Unfortunately no sweet potato pie as I learned was their staple, next time guys! :P ) The men there that we have grown to love so deeply are truly a joy to my heart-(there are a few that I have built a relationship with who have been living there for over a year, some even four years. I have been going weekly bringing them yummy treats and just sharing life with them). There in the hall of the hospital we ate and laughed and talked; one of the men shared a bit of his life's story-powerful. They especially loved the hand cut leaf cookies they said "Misha you went all out this time, how do you expect us to eat something so cute!"

I am filled overflowing with joy that the Lord has chosen me to be his physical hands and feet to this group of men that from the outside are so different from me-The Lord has a way of connecting people deeply. Please join us in covering our time with them in prayer.

So the day was soo blessed from beginning to end. I am thankful for the life the Lord has built for me, every detail of it!

Fall in New York-Central Park

2007-11-25T18:32:00.000-08:00

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!

2007-11-24T16:53:00.000-08:00

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!

2007-11-15T12:47:00.000-08:00

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!!

2007-11-15T12:46:00.000-08:00

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

2007-11-15T12:45:00.001-08:00

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

2007-11-15T12:42:00.000-08:00

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

2007-11-15T12:25:00.000-08:00

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!

Apple Picking

2007-10-26T20:21:00.000-07:00

We had a blast a few weeks ago picking apples with our new friends Michael and Elizabeth-a young married Christian couple who actually live literally down the street. It has been so nice getting to know them and to just walk over for a bbq or a visit. This time we made our way to New Jersey for some fun! The apples really sparked some romance, and as you can see boys will be boys-they had to explode a few apples on the fence posts.

And for the final results….a rustic apple tart. Done all by hand, from stratch. I was really excited about this as I am more of a cook than a baker, and it was nice because we had our dear friends Matt and Teri over for dinner that night!It has been such a blessing to share this season of my life with my highschool friend Teri; who knew that two friends from bako would end up in the big apple.

City Kids

2007-10-26T20:14:00.001-07:00

What have we been up?

Lots..

Enjoying the city for one. Here we are exploring our beautiful and wondrous city!
This morning we were out for an adventure in one of our favorite neighborhoods the West Village-and of course on this journey we had to do a mini photo shoot-look how handsome Mike is! We had a yummy brunch at the Owl (if your in NYC check it out).

Then here we are heading down to the San Geronimo Festival in Little Italy, to be honest I still don’t get the whole saint thing, but the festival was fun, there was a lot of good candy and interesting sites…some actually disturbing...we will get to this later.

2007-10-26T20:10:00.000-07:00

Anyhow on our way to Little Italy we passed through China Town, I don’t know about you but the last thing I want to do is buy fish from these sidewalks-and look carefully at this next photo do you see my arguing with this vendor-so his fruit stand said 2 lbs of bananas for a dollar-and I was like yes!!! So because we were still adventuring through the city I only wanted what I could fit into my purse so I asked to buy 2 bananas and this guy said that it would be a dollar. Ok for those of you who know prices, that would be the most expensive bananas ever. I tried to explain to the guy that the sign said 2 pounds for a dollar not 2 bananas!!! But he wouldn’t listen, so I was out of there.

2007-10-26T20:08:00.000-07:00

Ok lets take a vote-there is a way to set up voting on blogs, I will have to figure this out later..but talk about upsetting. ..

We were having a blast at the San Geronimo fest, walking through blocks and blocks of non-stop fun, then we turned and came upon a 19th century freak show booth-maybe I am naive or just a HUMAN being, but I though those were outlawed over one hundred years ago. OK actually I just wikipediaed it: “Today, freak shows are outlawed in a number of U.S. states,” I guess I am not soo extreme.

So there was this booth as you can see in the picture and an audio track announcing “Little Thumbelina, a real live woman, two feet tall, smallest woman alive, little Thumbelina” And I was like “Ok Mike they did not just say this, it’s probably a scam to get everyone’s buck and its probably like a little doll.”

So I had to go in, NOT to gawk at the smallest woman alive but to really see if in this day and age in, what ppl call the “center of the world,” New York city, where there is a huge concentration of non-profits and human rights groups, if right here in front of my eyes this could be real-that it could be acceptable to exploit a woman’s deformity/disability in this way.

So I gave this Caribbean man my dollar bill and walked behind the booth to find indeed a two foot tall woman sitting on a little chair propped up on a platform like a display. Wow it was unbelievable; it was true. I stopped and said, “Do you travel around doing this, do they think this is really ok, is this ok to you?” And she pointed to a sign that read, “ I am from the Caribbean and speak only a little bit of English.” Soon after I walked right back to the man collecting the money and said, “Are you her friend, do you think this is ok to exploit this woman in this way.” I wanted to go back in and take a photograph to somehow expose something that as the police later told me was “ a New York norm” and the man said “no my boss could fire us.” So I sent Mike back in with a scripture that I had happened to have in my pocket.

Wow…Even if that woman is ok with that, I mean she is there and she probably does make a ton of money, is it ok? How many of us have friends and family who do things that they choose to do but that is damaging to their body, mind, soul etc…All I can say is that is not ok-it is never ok to exploit a human being.

5 years!

2007-10-12T14:48:00.000-07:00

Today is our 5 year anniversary!!!!!

I created a special gift for Mike-rather a few gifts (which by the way turned out amazingly, just as I had invisioned them-all praise to God really, because I wasn't exactly sure how to realize the vision, but he is in the details) -and upon doing so I came across this photo from our wedding day...wow what a special day, to enter into a life long union bound together with the Lord excited for the adventures ahead. I remember how happy we were and giddy. Celebrating with family and friends, on our day!!!

And now here we are five years later-from San Francisco to New York, we are in new soil expanding our roots deeper-growing more and more in the Lord and allowing his purposes to have his way in our lives-which has been exciting so many of our dreams are unfolding in unique ways!

It has been amazing to be apart of eachother's lives for soo long 9 years now!!! And to watch eachother grow and mature, and just the gift of being able to share so many amazing memories along the way. A special part of marriage has also been the added family-for me to be apart of the Cohen family and have more people who love me and know me and care about my life, and me there's.

I am blessed and honored to be Mike's wife-Thank you Aba Father for selecting such a special man to love me just as you desire. He is an amazing husband, with a servent's heart, a gentle nature and a strong spirit...and he is filled with million gifts and talents that are expressing themselves in new ways every day!!!!

I can't wait to see what the Lord would have for us in this new season-our fifth year of marriage!
(some are praying for a baby...especially mike....but don't hold your breath):)

P.S. for those of you who are wondering what we have been up to I will be posting some photos soon of our nyc adventures!!

CALIFORNIA-start at the bottom (my sisters grad)

2007-08-31T11:57:00.000-07:00

Now for the final leg or our journey we spent time in San Francisco with friends and my sister.
First stop was lunch with Diana and Jill. Diana is a very good friend of mine and we used to meet weekly and go to lunch and coffee and walks, but now we just have to limit it to once a year:(. Jill is a friend from Cole Valley that I met when I first started working at the cafe.
Next was a visit with another baby-man this is the season :) This time it was Victoria's precious Paloma-which means dove, a perfect name, dove is the symbol of peace and the symbol of the spirit of God. She is definitely a blessing from God. Since I have known Victoria that has been her desire to fall in love and to be a mother-God answers prayers! She is doing great and will continue to be a great mom, she is super nurturing and present and fun and loving. I miss you Vic! :) Congrats Vic and Gary!
Then it was a fun filled weekend with Britt and Neil-we went to our fav restaurant fresca and unfortunately got served our favorite dish but burnt, so we returned it and the second one fixed our craving! Then it was up to the river for a party-how special that they through us a party with some of our friends from church. Thanks gusy. It was nice to see everyone and to catch up, eat good food-like pear pie, and canoe, and laugh our heads off. Ahh all I know is when me and that girl get together all we can do is laugh and the boys are always saying "all we can hear is you guys laughing your so loud." Don't worry that never stops us.
Of course we went to Cornerstone sun morn and it was good to get alot of hugs, and then we spent the day with my sister-we went to our traditional breakfast at the boulangerie and then for mani/pedis at lavande-It was soo good to see her, and yet a bit sad to realize how much you miss those little traditions, the reality that weekly has turned into yearly. But praise God for technology bc we always have text, cell phones and emails and oh blogs to keep up with everyone. So we also got to meet her new boyfriend. As a big sister I want to one day meet a man who just adores her and loves her as much as I do, so I am praying for her match.
So that is that, that was our adventure.
It feels good to be in NYC-you all can pray for me I am really pursuing photojournalism and am working on some of my own documentary projects, the Lord is really blessing the work of my hands, I am excited to see what he will do, I have a feeling God has a BIG surprise up his sleeve, and I am trying not to get discouraged in the waiting.

2007-08-31T11:56:00.000-07:00

Straight from there we drove to Nana’s house in Palm Springs for quality time with the Cohen’s-lets just say I love palm springs, its so relaxing and I love being with family-and I love how nana treats me like I am one of her own-sitting on the couch together she took my hand and said “I don’t know why but I just love you.” Then we were off to LA for a few days of fun, lets say we experienced the LA trend “krav maga” basically a killer workout class, as steppo said I was walking like a penguin for three days. Again no pictures, I am a photographer but it takes so much focus that when I am doing other things I don't often like to take pictures. Oh here is one from our joint family lunch. I like when everyone gets together, its funny because we see everyone so much we forget that they never see eachother.
OH I FORGOT TO MENTION MY NEW HAIR CUT- so cute, and it was so a funny LA moment, the salon I got it cut at was the same salon the britany spears shaved her head at, random right?!

2007-08-31T11:49:00.000-07:00

Then we made our way down to Long Beach to see our long time friends, from the college days, Mark and Missy and their little cutie Jordan, unfortunately we went crazy taking pictures just not with our camera. Then it was another UCI reunion, at our friend Knowlton’s wedding we were reconnected with our Campus Crusade friends-it was really special like a flash back to 1998-there were lots of memories and hugs. And here is a picture of us with Risa and Anders. I was super touched when after over 5 years of not having seen nor talked with each other, they said “we were hoping you would be here.”
That was a special night, congrats Knowlt and Lisa.

2007-08-31T11:37:00.002-07:00

Then we were off to Bakersfield, and spent time with family and friends. As you can see in these photos, we got to spend time with Barbie and Justin's cutie Aubrey, who is turning one in about a week!-there is a much cuter picture of us together on barbs blog. And here we are with Kate, in high school everyone said we were attached at the hip; how time has flown by, now we are all married ladies starting family's (well kate is getting married and barb is the only one with a little one, but you get the point:) ).
Also we spent some time with Dustin and Angela long time friends that have known me since I was like 12-and after all these years we had our first double date-so sweet.
A highlight in Bako was when we went to the mountains, to this cabin my dad is working on, for a day of dirt biking-of course I tried the what they said was "safer" three wheeler-after I learned that they aren't produced anymore bc they are so dangerous I didn't feel so silly for almost running over my foot and down the mnt. But mike and my sisters had a blast, they flew up and down that horrendous dirt road for hours, I wish I had that kind of fearlessness. Mike came back with a "war wound" a huge scar from a fall, but boys will be boys.

CALIFORNIA

2007-08-31T11:37:00.001-07:00

So we had a blessed and amazing time, from the five-hour delay on the runway and the 3am arrival in so cal to the goodbye in sf.
Really the 3am drive for 3 hours to Pismo was actually refreshing, Mike's license has expired so I was the driver-which was fun bc I hadn't driven in a year and I was finally in control-Mike never let me drive :)! We arrived at the Bako favorite Pismo Coast Village greeted by my family and cinnamon rolls. Then we were off to Emily’s ROTC graduation-basically boot camp for kids-intense, glad my parents didn’t hear about that when I was in high school! I can’t believe she is now in Highschool-ahh memories! And look how cute my grandma Ruby is in her hat-hi grandma!!!

Imagine This

2007-07-16T21:13:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to share with everyone the amazing night that we had on our Island this past Saturday....
So New York is full of activities the whole summer, I mean every night week nights included you can find a movie in the park or a concert or something, usually you can find a few huge events each night to attend-and the best part they are all free!!!
This is an amazing place to be for the summer, and honeslty the heat hasnt gotten to me yet-let's just say being raised in Bakersfield has helped!
SO imagine this, its 10pm when Mike and I begin our treck to South Point, a rugged undeveloped park area at the very tip of the island. To get there we pass under the Queens Borrow Bridge walk pass a hospital and down a rugged trail to our destination. The crunch of rocks beneath our feet and the smell of trees quickly remind us of being in the back country hiking (you know how bad we miss hiking when a little gravel leaves us longing for the mountains!) There we were walking along the "trail" beside the river as we pass a CASTLE that is lit up beautifully for all to admire, really it is the ruins of a small pox hospital from the 1800's but it really looks like an ancient castle with ivy climbing up its towers-gorgeous! We continue our journey arriving at our destination were we are welcomed by warm popcorn...it was "date night" at Roosevlet Islands movie in the park. Unlike all of the other movie in the parks that New Yorkers enjoy this one was a little "secret"- we had plenty of room to spread out our blanket and cuddle up to the classic love story from our "generation" Jerry McGuire...there we were enjoying the warm summer night that graced us with its gentle breezes, behind us we could see the castle, and to the left of us the industrial city scape of queens, the river surrounded us from all angles and the beautiful Manhattan lights scattered across its waters, the Cyrsler building, the most beautifull in NYC stood proudly beside us, and the Manhattan Bridge skated across the waters in front of us, it was truly a moment that is etched into my memory forever! Ahh how I love this city, we are where we are destined to be, we have only just begun our journey and we wait in anticipation for all the Lord has for us.

"Summer Time!"

2007-07-10T22:05:00.000-07:00

So we aren't in California-but the beaches are just as fun, white sand, hot sun, cold water, fun friends what more do we need!
I took the Long Island Rail Road with some friends for a beach adventure on Saturday.
We had a blast (poor Mike he was working on a big proposal! I have such an awesome guy!)
Anyhow it was awesome, we layed out, played football-yes I did-swam, or rather got tossed around in the ocean, and laughed alot! Aren't we so cute here, Veronica, Marissa, Anna, Me and Naomi!

Fourth of July at Mike and Misha's

2007-07-10T21:31:00.000-07:00

Let's just say we had an amazing 4th!
Mike and I hosted a huge party! We rented out the community room on the first floor and the back patio that had umbrella covered tables-which was perfect because it was raining off and on all night, which was nice bc it cut back the New York heat :).. 50 of our friends celebrated with us, which was super special-to think we have only been here 8 months and already the Lord has provided us with a solid community of awesome friends. We had ppl from church and Mike's work and the building etc.., and we all just had a blast (as you can see in one of the photos one of the guys, Cyril, was scheming in the bathroom preparing water balloons to attack ppl with! ) We had a ton of food, thanks everyone, and as you can see a ton of desserts too.
And the most eventful moment was when our friend Nii proposed to Nana on the roof top during one of the huge NYC fireworks shows, during the show Mike called out the signal "I love fireworks!!" and Nana turned around to find huge signs spelling out "will you marry me" held by all of our friends! Can you see the surprised look on her face! So sweet! We were all cheering for like ever! It was special to have been apart of their special moment. Congrats guys!

The Lab

2007-06-30T12:49:00.001-07:00

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

2007-06-30T12:33:00.000-07:00

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

2007-06-30T12:18:00.000-07:00

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

2007-06-30T12:05:00.000-07:00

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)