Happy Anniversary

Two years today I married the most wonderful man! I can't believe it has only been 2 years...life has gone by so fast! What a perfect day it was--straight out of my dreams. Daniel was the one who I waited forever for...literally, ha! We both started at Liberty in 1997 and we finally met in Jan 2006, engaged in Oct 2006 and married in June 2007. There is much more to the story--ha, but I will save you from the drama details. :) We could have met in 1997 (we were in the same class at one point), but God had different plans for our lives. Daniel went off to serve in Moscow, Russia for two years and I travelled back and forth to India for a few years and moved all over the east coast before meeting him in Charlotte, NC.

He truly is my best friend...we are having the time of our lives and look forward to the many years ahead...especially this year of moving to Malawi. Whether we are in Malawi or Charlotte or wherever, our life together will always be an adventure that we pray will always be honoring to God. I love you Daniel!




I know I posted this video a few weeks ago...but I just love this Jason Maraz song...Taryn even sang it for us at our Fundraiser Event 2 weeks ago...Love it.

the TODAY Show

I might have mentioned Daniel's work before...he LOVES his job. (It has definitely been an act of faith for him to walk away from it for a year.) Daniel works for NPower Charlotte, which is a non-profit that helps other non-profits in town within the realm of IT and websites. One of the reasons we love Daniel's work is because it allows us to know about the non-profits in town and the work of so many that are giving back to the community.

One of Daniel's clients is "Community School of the Arts". He has been working on several facets of IT for this organization. About a month or so ago he found out that they had been chosen by the Today Show and Al Roker for Al's summer series called "Lend a Hand". Maybe you have seen him do this? He has been traveling around the country highlighting a non-profit in each city. How exciting. The producers visited a few weeks back to take footage of CSA and their work. Then we found out about a week or so ago that Al was going to be LIVE last Friday doing his part of the show and interviewing LIVE Daniel's client and executives. I was already planning to be in VA, but had I not been in VA I would have been there with a sign that said "My Husband Made the Website!". :) Just kidding.

So long story even longer....the whole thing got bumped due to Michael Jackson's death on Thursday and the media frenzy that circled that event. Al Roker was still here in Charlotte but they didn't show anything about our beautiful city or interview any of the CSA peeps.

So with Al Roker back in NYC this morning, they only were able to show this 5 minute video...feel free to watch it. It is a great non-profit that serves many children and adults alike here in our town. We are so proud of Charlotte's non-profit community.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Making Memories

My brother, sister-in-law and two nieces came for a visit to Charlotte this past weekend. My brother left on a Sunday to get back for his work week and my sister-in-law and nieces stayed for a few extra days. We had such a great time together--doing something different each day. Then on Wednesday, I drove back to northern VA with Sophia and the girls, stayed a few more days up there, celebrated my other brother's birthday and came home to my husband on a Friday night flight. This is a little schedule of what we did each day.
Friday Night: Justin and Sophia (and girls) arrived and checked into the brand-new "Great Wolf Lodge" here in Charlotte (well, its actually Concord). For those that don't know GWF is a hotel + an indoor water park. Its pretty cool. So we did the waterpark pretty much all day Saturday.

Bella and Daniel in the hotel room.
Saturday: GWL waterpark pretty much all day!
Saturday night: All 6 of us camped out at our house. What a sight!! Keep in mind that Daniel and I live in a 1 bedroom condo in the city. Ha. It was a great time! Loved every crazy second of it. The girls "camped out" in sleeping bags on the floor in the bedroom. I should have taken pics.

Daniel "wrestling" with the girls on the air mattress.
Sunday: We went to our church, Watershed. Anna was in the "Diggers" class...she loved the name and told me all week, "Remember when I was in the Digger's class at your church...I never did that before." Daniel and I took Anna out on his parents boat with our other niece, Emma. Emma is our niece from Daniel's side. They had a blast together!! Later after dinner we took the girls to Ben and Jerry's for ice cream w/ sprinkles and a trip to the neighborhood park to get some energy out.

Daniel and Anna in the lake.
Monday. Daniel went to work in the morning. Sophia and I took the girls to the Lazy 5 Ranch in Mooresville. It was awesome. I had never been to it before, but what a great place. It is a "safari" that you ride through in your own vehicle. You can feed the animals too from your windows with the animal feed. We tried to "feed" the animals but ended up rolling up the window pretty much every time an animal got really close. What can I say, we were a bunch of girls. Ha ha...except the one time that the deer's head was all the way inside the van trying to eat the food.. We were all screaming and laughing so hard....later Anna said, "that was la-larious (hilarious)." She cracks me up with her expressions. The Safari and a trip to the mall wore us out.




I forgot to mention that we all went to Amelies (the local French bakery up the street) after dinner for desserts...here is Bella wanting everything in site...like Auntie, like Bella.
Tuesday: We rode the Light Rail train in Uptown Charlotte to the Children's theatre/library for a time...then rode the Light Rail again to meet Daniel for lunch at Pike's. Anna loved riding the "frain" (she can't quite say her t's yet...so cute). She kept saying, "I never rode a frain before!" We LOVED meeting Daniel for lunch. After lunch it was to Latta Park, a great playground in the city that has a "spray ground"...we changed the girls into their swimsuits and let them play in the water.

I had some throw-away cameras for Anna to take pics throughout the week (a Blog-girl in the making). She loved taking pics, but I think this camera was accidently left on the train...oh well.

Anna and Daniel at Pike's.



Wednesday: We packed up and headed back north to Virginia. The girls did great--I drove and made it in 6 hours flat with only one stop! :) Sophia and I planned it perfectly. We stopped at Dunkin Donuts for coffee on our way out of town around 10am, and a donut for the girls. That kept them occupied for a while. Gave them a little snack around 12:30pm and then stopped for lunch around 2pm, we were home at 4pm. Perfect!
Thursday: Thursday was Jeremy's (my older brother) birthday. The fam came over for a birthday dinner. It was great to see Jeremy, Teresa and Chloe too. I love seeing these three nieces interact together! They are going to be quite the Three Musketeers one day.

the best pic of all three of them that I could get.

Playing dress-up with Auntie on Friday morning...here is "Snow White" helping "Cinderella" put her shoes on. :)
What a week it was! I loved every minute of it!

Matt's Blog

Not too much longer and we will be on our way to MALAWI. Last week marked Daniel's last Lead Team meeting...he has been a part of Watershed's Lead Team the past 2 years (?). Our Lead Team is something like an Elder team, a small team of 5 people that help the pastors lead, direct, confirm and help with the decision-making process of our church community. It has been an honor for Daniel to be a part of this group of men and women. Matt, one of our co-pastors, wrote about Daniel leaving on his blog...there are two parts...read part 1 first. Click here

Prayer Answered

Daniel just called me....we rented our condo!! Thank you, God. It has been something we have purposely prayed for for many, many months. We had originally hoped to sell our condo, however, I don't have to tell you twice that the housing market STINKS right now especially condos in Uptown Charlotte...there are WAY too many of them to compete. That is true for renting too. But thats ok...at least we won't waste anytime with it being empty. :) Thank the Lord.

I'm in northern VA now with my family--leaving today....so its back to my packing when I get home tonight. Thanks for praying with us as we make this progress to preparing for Africa.

Reality Check

Ok...So I have been having some fun-times in Charlotte these past 5 days with my sister in law and two of my little nieces...and Daniel reminded me tonight that we are moving out of our condo in 10 days!! HOLY STINK (yes, my choice of expletive)...10 days is not very long! I have a LOT to do in 10 days...in fact, we have a lot to do in 39 days before we leave the country. So forgive me if my blogs in the next month have a tendency to be laced with panic and capital letters of urgency!! I CAN'T BELIEVE WE ARE MOVING TO AFRICA!!!

Oh, so some of you might be scratching your head wondering about my math skills. If we aren't leaving for 39 days why is it that we have to be out in 10 days. Well...its because we go for mission training at SIM (the mission agency that we are going to Africa with) on July 11th...and we figure that it would be easier to get people to help us move things out of our condo into our storage unit on a weekend rather than a weeknight...so our moving day out of our condo is July 5th. YIKES!!

A Good Tio

Portuguese lesson of the day: "Tio" pronounced "tee-u" means "Uncle".

Since my sister-in-law is Portuguese my brother's and husband are called "Tio's" instead of Uncle. Aunt is "Tia"...but my nieces just have always called me "Aunty". It melts my heart when they call me...

This picture also melts my heart...isn't it so sweet? Two of my niece's...Bella and Anna...came to Charlotte to visit this week. Boy do they LOVE their Tio Daniel...especially Anna. He is such a good TIo!!!

Making Progress

We sold our car.....yahooooo!! We still need our condo rented or sold...but at least selling our car helps us feel like we have made some progress in preparing to leave the country! Ha. This was our FIRST purchase together right after we got engaged (like the following week)...so it was kinda bittersweet. It was a good car and I am sure will give Vinod (the buyer) some good memories. It is kinda funny being a one-car family now. Our other car is an older Honda Accord (Daniel's had it since college--yes, my husband is very frugal), which we are going to let our friends use for the year we are gone.

picture worth a thousand words

You remember in my previous post I talked about our friend Steve's trip to Malawi, Africa. He is still there but was able to post his pictures on Flicker for us to preview. (Isn't technology amazing? It makes the world seem so much smaller to me.) I still can't get over the fact that this new Equitas (Steve's non profit) well is giving clean water to 450 people (3 villages)...if that isn't Good News I don't know what is. So incredible. Here is his picture...Please keep praying for us and our preparations for our move to Malawi...we sold our car (yahooo) but still have a ton to do.

"An Evening for Africa" pictures

What a night! It was such a fun party, with great art, music, food, wine, desserts, friends! It was a huge success--we don't have the money counted yet, but it was a success just because it was a fun evening! The only downside is that I didn't take pictures of everything. I really need to drive by the house today and take a pic of the outside--just that in itself is impressive enough, not to mention the marble staircases, painting ceilings, indoor pool with flat-screen, fountains, gardens...this house is nothing like you have seen before. Crazy! And it was generously ours for the evening--our event was mostly outside but it was beautiful.

So here are some pictures. Hopefully one of our friends will let me copy his pics too, as I am sure they are way better.

Jami and Colleen--our "Raffle girls" for the evening. They did a great job selling tickets.

Stefan Duncan's display. He is a local Charlotte artist--isn't his stuff awesome?

The one and only, Taryn Hofert. She is pretty much the most talented person ever! Thanks, T, for playing for us for the evening. We love you!

Our good friends, Tony and Becky, talking with local artist, David French. He does great work!

Friends and Guests enjoying the evening.

Chris and Kelly won the David French print in the raffle drawing.

The Santoro's won the "Child Soldier" painting--I love this one. It was donated by another local artist who couldn't make the event. Truly a print that fits the African theme for the evening.

Kayla and Jonathan George.

Daniel and I.

The four of us shared what we will be doing in Malawi. Notice the beautiful gardens behind us.

Jami and Zach won the Stefan Duncan painting. Zach left early and didn't make the pic, so Colleen stepped in.

One of the most sought after raffle prizes--Coldplay tickets! Ryan and Ashley won!

It wouldn't be a great night if it wasn't for great friends--too bad we didn't take pics with everyone, but here is one of us with Ashley and Ryan!

Clean Water

Can you imagine a life without clean, pure water? Think about how many times you turn on your faucet everyday--brushing your teeth, cleaning your dishes, making coffee, running the dishwasher, washing machine, the sprinkler for the kids, not to mention showers, baths, and flushing our toilets.

In Malawi, the 3rd poorest country in the world, clean drinking water is a precious commodity that nearly four million people do not have access to. Lack of safe drinking water is the second largest killer of children, and hinders education, health and economic development. Only 32% of the rural population of Malawi have ACCESS to water within less than a mile's walk. Women and children have been known to walk as far as five miles to get water.

Equitas (see button to the right) is a non-profit org that Daniel and I are involved with on so many levels. Mainly, Equitas is the heartbeat and dream of our dear friends, Steve and Rachael Cook. (By the way--it is because of Steve and Rachael's contagious passion that we are moving to Malawi for the year!)

Steve is actually in Malawi as I type. His purpose is to get footage of the drilling and construction of 3 CLEAN WATER WELLS! Equitas has been raising funds for these wells this year and now (because of the end of rainy season) are able to finally drill these wells. Steve has been able to update his twitter by cell phone over there in the villages, so this morning Daniel told me that there was another update. I logged into Daniel's twitter---my eyes filled up with tears as I read Steve's brief update. He drank a cup of water from the first well--this CLEAN WATER well will help 450 people from 3 villages!! AMAZING...thank you God for your provision and hope for these people. I can't wait to hear all the stories, the pictures and hopefully see these wells for myself sometime soon.

An Evening for Africa

We are super excited for our final fundraiser event tomorrow night! Just got back from the house where we are having it...it is beautiful and huge. If you are a Charlottean you will know what house it is when I say its the BIG house on Queens Rd and Princeton. Now, for those that don't live in Charlotte...ALL the houses on Queens Rd are BIG but this one is the BIGGEST house in the whole area. AMAZINGLY BIG...like castle-esque. Long story on how we got the connections to have our fundraiser there, the event has really been due to our partners in crime, Jonathan and Kayla George. The George's are going to Africa with us....more about them in a different blog, the are the best and deserve their own post for my love and admiration.

Anyway, the event promises to be so fun and entertaining. We have a local wine vendor that will be sharing his wine knowledge and different wines. We will have 3 local artists that will be painting on site, selling their own pieces (with a percentage that will go to our cause) and raffling off a few pieces as well. I think even one artist will be walking around doing sketches of guests. (How cool?) We will also be having our dear friend (for 10+ years) and worship leader...the one and only, Taryn Hofert, playing the keyboard and doing what she does best. (She rocks!) A local Italian restaurant, Mama Ricotta's, is DONATING all the appetizers (Holla'). It is going to be a great evening....so if you are reading this and are in Charlotte please come...if you are reading this and live elsewhere, please pray that it is a successful evening! We need the prayers!

I'll post tomorrow night with lots of pictures!!

It Has Begun

This picture should say it all! It has begun...the packing that is. I have prided myself over the years with my packing style (note: color-coded labels)...I've learned to be pretty good at it. Since I moved back from India (10 years ago...holy cow, that was a long time ago)...I have moved 10 times...that's an average of once a year (good math, huh?) And that's just my adult years! I am SO OVER moving...really, I am. But the packing needs to be done in order to get to Malawi. 6 weeks in counting...can you believe it?

Please pray for us as we are working hard (on top of the packing) towards our last fundraiser event! There is still so much to do...but it will be a great evening. Check our website for the information and if you are in the Charlotte area, please feel free to come. I promise to take a lot of pictures, so expect a great post on Friday morning!

MIP

Watershed (our church community) is sneaking up on its 4th anniversary. WOW! There is so much to be thankful for when it comes to this amazing community of believers. Our lives have literally changed because of it on so many different levels...I hope to share more as I would like to focus and share on how this community has impacted me the following Sundays before we leave. Daniel and I met at Watershed, dated, broke-up (ha, my bad), dated again, engaged and married these past years at Watershed...and so many other countless experiences.

Anyway, MIP means "Movies in the Park". Watershed started this the summer before we launched our first service in September 2005. It was such a hit that each summer the Park's and Rec department asks us to come back to Freedom Park (Charlotte's version of Central Park)--back by popular demand. So, every first Friday of the month throughout the summer, Watershed volunteers set up a huge movie screen, speakers, and projector and wait for the crowds. Meanwhile more WS volunteers are armed with bug-spray and info cards and greet people as the pour into the park. It's such a great time...literally 500+ people come and gather on the terraced green. It's the perfect place for a free movie night. The kids of our church sell glow bracelets for the education sponsorships of kids in Malawi--its awesome.

This month's movie was "August Rush"...ever seen it? The weather was great until about 30 minutes into the movie and then the downpour happened...everyone scattered. It was great because Watershed shows a "commercial" on our church before the movie started for advertising purposes. It's crazy how many people have come to our church because of MIP each summer. So yeah it poured the other night...the first time that has happened in all 5 summers we have done it. Oh well...it was bound to happen.

Kayla and I before the rain.

Kayla and I after the rain...what can you do?

Not a great pic...but you see the movie screen...there were a ton of people all over the hill.

i heart vegetables

I love this time of year for many reasons...but one of the reasons definitely has to do with yummy fresh vegetables! Anyone else with me on this? Charlotte has several farmer's markets, and I love when I am able to go to the BIG one on Saturday mornings. Oh, for the love of slow food! Now, its a bit disappointing when I can't make it to a FM and have to buy tomatoes for the week at the grocery store...not the same, in fact, very boring. Daniel and I aren't "vegetarians" but we do try to go vegetarian when at all possible. In fact, I don't think that I have bought chicken in like a month!

Anyway, one of our favorite dishes this time of year is from Giada's "Everyday Italian" cookbook. I have no idea who reads this blog...probably like 3 of you. But I was thinking of all three of you today when I was making dinner. I just had to share one of our favorite summer dishes. Maybe some of you will do the same, I would love to see pics and get new ideas of what to make for dinner. I sure hope I am able to make this in Malawi...I think we will be able to. Enjoy! Let me know if anyone makes this at home and how you liked it.

This is the before picture!

This is the after picture...I forgot to take a pic right after it came out of the oven.

Tomato Vegetable Casserole
1 med. potato, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 med. sweet potato, peeled and cut into 1/2 in pieces
2 carrots, peeled and cut
1 red bell pepper
4 TB of Olive Oil
1 3/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 red onion (I don't usually have red onion so I use yellow onion)
1 large zucchini, cut crosswise and into 1/4 inch slices
2 large red tomatoes
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
2 TB Italian-style dried bread crumbs

Preheat oven 450 degrees. In a glass casserole dish toss the potatoes, carrots and a bell pepper with 2 TB of OO, pepper and salt. Arrange the onion evenly on top and then top with zucchini. Drizzle with 1 TB of OO and salt and pepper. Arrange tomato slices over the zucchini. Drizzle with the remaining TB of OO and salt and pepper. In a small bowl, stir the Parmesan and bread crumbs and sprinkle over the vegetables. Bake uncovered until the vegetables are tender and topping is golden brown, about 40 minutes.

The Latest and Greatest

Here is the thermometer that we have on our McCollumsinMalawi.com site...you can see how close we are getting...won't be long now! Can you believe that we have only been "fundraising" (really sick of that word right about now--wish there was a better word to use) for 8 months now! God is good and continues to provide and confirm this decision for Daniel and I to move to Malawi! It is so amazing and touching that so many, MANY people have supported us in sending us off. To say THANK YOU doesn't seem big enough.

3 on 3 Tournament

Our Malawi fundraiser is going strong. If you haven't clicked over to our Malawi website, please do...click to the right. We are gearing up and are about T-minus 2 months right now. It won't be long.

We had our 3rd Fundraiser Event this morning! We are on a roll and the momentum of these fundraisers is really strong right now and actually lots of fun! So last month it was a dessert fundraiser that our friends Rachael and Ashley help put on. Last Sunday was a Cookout at the Abare's house that we recruited our friend Laura helped us with. This morning was a 3-on-3 Basketball Tournament that our friends Ryan and Ashley helped us coordinate. Ahhh, how we love our friends...they have been WAY to good to us during this time!

To tell you the truth, I don't even know how many teams there were this morning...I was actually having my own fun of socializing with the girls and holding the babies that were present! Ha. But it was a lot of fun for all...we had enough give away prizes for everyone who played. We raised about $700 towards our trip..we are getting really close to meeting our goal for going to Malawi. More to report on that later! Our next fundraiser is this coming Wednesday. Another group of our friends are leading that one up too! I'm sure I will have some things to report after that!

Daniel starting the morning with an explanation for what we are going to be doing in Malawi.

Ryan and Daniel--these two are always up to something.


Ashley, our bracket girl.

Brazilian Resturant

Yesterday was Tim, my brother-in-law's birthday. He wanted to go to Chima's, the Brazilian steakhouse restaurant in Uptown Charlotte (for those non-Charlotteans...thats really downtown Charlotte). It was so YUMMY! So, basically its an all-you-can-eat type of place. A huge buffet of all kinds of sides and salads...and then the meat. Like 15 types of meat...not kidding...these men carry skewers of meat around to each table and ask if you want it...they slice it there for you. Apparently this is the Brazilian way. I failed to take a picture of the little disc that you flip over if you want more meat, or you flip it over to the other side if you don't want meat. It was incredible! So good...if you ever get a chance to go you should...its an eating experience. I think that in about 6 months Daniel and I are going to be dreaming of it...not that we are big meat eaters, we actually tend to eat more vegetarian-style at home, but it was very, very tasty!

A Different Kind of Birthday

I attempted to post this last week but wanted to get parental approval first. This is a video of one of my students who is getting ready to have her much-awaited 5 year old birthday party! I think its when you are around 4 or 5 years that you start realizing that birthday parties are, like, the biggest thing compared to Christmas morning. Everything that you ever want gets either put on the "for my birthday" wish list or "for Christmas this year" wish list, am I right? I see this with my students throughout the year. So, you can imagine how touched I am that Mary Kate has decided to use her birthday party to collect toys for the children in Malawi rather than collect toys for herself. I am so incredibly proud of her.

The last couple of months of school we have talked a lot about the children in Malawi and what they have/don't have. We even did a toy drive (per the request of the missionaries in Malawi) to collect toys for the Orphan Daycare Centers. (More to come about those centers in another post). It was during this time that Mary Kate really came to the understanding that she could also help in a significant way. Her generosity speaks volumes to me, as I hope it does to you.



**Something is wrong with the You Tube setup, it is blocking the left part of the screen, I apologize...but at least you can hear Mary Kate's message. I'll try to fix it.**

Fruit Fly Trap

I hesitate a little to post this in case there might be some out there who might perceive my house-cleaning abilities as less than par. This post has no reflection on my cleaning style...trust me, I have been a cleaning fool these last couple of days since school has been over. Nevertheless, I have had a problem since Friday with fruit flies in my kitchen. Ewwwww...I know. I HATE them, and by the word HATE I mean they drive me crazy. So crazy that every time I see one sitting so comfortably on my countertop I want to get a gun out (I don't own one) and shoot it. Ha Ha...I can see the news headlines now. :) Anyway, instead of a gun, I took my frustration to ever-faithful Google page. I found a great trap...and so I am passing it on. Just in case there are others out there suffering from fruit-fly craziness this summer. (I think it all started from all the yummy fruit I bought for a gigantic fruit salad for our Cookout Fundraiser.)

The Trap: Take a small glass dish, pour a little red wine, cover with clear plastic wrap, poke a few small holes and WAIT! If you don't have red wine handy, I think red vinegar will probably work. The flies are attracted to the sugary smell, fly in and get trapped in the liquid. It works!! You can see a few flies in the dish, but the reflection doesn't allow you to see all 5 of the flies!! Ahhh....and now I can get back to my previously scheduled to-do list. Hope this helps someone.