Charlotte’s Web

Bethany was baptized on the 10th December at the Anakie church. Father John had trouble with the pronunciation of Bethany’s middle name ‘Jelica’ (said, ‘Yell-its-a’), so her reverted to the Australianized version of ‘Jelly Car’.

Many relatives and friends joined us in Bethany’s celebration and we had lunch at the Staughton Vale Hall just up the road from the church. The day was stinking hot, reportedly the hottest December day since 1953. It reached 38 degrees before the ceremony at 11am, and rose to a little over 42 degrees. The cool change came to bring some relief at about 4pm. All in all, it was a great day – the food was plentiful and yummy, and Bethany slept through the whole afternoon!

We would like to thank Marijana Medjumurac and Claire Lindorff for accepting a very important role as godparents to Bethany. A thankyou to those that were able to join us on this special day,the beautiful gifts and monetary contributions Bethany received, those that brought sweets on the day and a special thanks to Marijana, Katarina and Justin for helping to set up the hall the day before.

After nine months of patiently waiting, the day finally arrived for our new baby to be born. Arriving on her due date, Bethany came into the world at 1:14pm on the 21st October 2006. She weighed 3320 grams and measured 49cm long. Both mother and child are doing splendidly and both arrived home on Tues 24th Oct.

Charlotte is thrilled to have a new sister and I’m sure Bethany will love growing up with a sister. Thanks to everyone who sent their congratulations and well-wishes. We feel very blest and look forward to watching our family grow (….up).

5 weeks to go before the big day arrives. Yes as some of you may know baby number two is on its way. Another 5 weeks in the oven and hopefully not a day longer. I must say that the big speed hump is giving me a bit of grief, especially with bending down or just sleeping.

Charlotte's completely oblivious to my growing stomache and the reason why she gets carried everywhere by dad and not mum. However, today was a different story. Charlotte and I went for an afternoon stroll to the top of our driveway with the rubbish bin. It was a very slow walk, but Charlotte finally made it all the way to the top without being carried. A pretty good effort for a 16 month old, considering the length of our driveway is ~500m. We started our journey back, checking out the wildflowers. I had to give her a bit of a lesson of looking, touching but no pulling on the nice orchids that dad loves to photograph.

You see, when she's at mum's place she picks the flowers from the garden, has a smell and kindly gives them to anyone that's close by or if she's visiting one of mum's friends than she patiently holds them until they arrive at the house. Mum has the nice cottage garden that when anything flowers, it flowers in abundance and no plant is rare or endangered. A bit different when you're out in the bush. So Charlotte's lesson on native flora went down well, I think. There were only 2 casualities from the whole trip, a Wax Lip Orchid and a sundew but we wont tell dad!

It didn't take long on the return trip for Charlotte to stop in her tracks, raise her arms wanting to be picked up. There was no dad to pick her up this time. I picked her up but not long after that she started tapping me on the shoulder. I finally got the picture, she wanted to get up on my shoulders and there she stayed for the next 400m. Boy was I tired and in need of a shoulder massage. A request I'll put in this evening I think.

On Monday 21st August at 5am, Pat Nolan peacefully passed away at the St. John's Hospital in Ballarat. Family and friends will miss her unique character and the joy she brought to our lives. Auntie Pat is actually my great auntie (sister to my mum's mum), although she has always affectionally been known as Auntie Pat.

The youngest of 5 girls, Auntie Pat never married, but instead enjoyed a worry-free life in sleepy Creswick. Not having any children of her own, Auntie Pat would always spoil us when we visited as kids. She worked in local government administration and as a secretary in various other roles, including a historical society.

I went to uni at the Forestry School in Creswick and I lived not far from Auntie Pat and her sister Auntie Tess. I enjoyed popping over to say hello and sit down with a lemonade and a cream biscuit.

Her funeral was on the following Wednesday, where family and friends filled the church in Creswick to reflect on Auntie Pat's life and bid her farewell. The reception at the Bowling Club was a good opportunity to chat with others about Pat's life and celebrate her achievements and personality.

Sadly missed, Aunite Pat will now be enjoying her 'reserved' spot in heaven. I say reserved because Auntie Pat has reserved a burial plot in both the Creswick and Clunes cemeteries, not taking a chance in missing out! The photo of Auntie Pat was taken at our wedding in Meredith.

Justin and Katie are proud parents of Matthew John Lindorff, who arrived on Tuesday 8th August at 7.36pm at the Bacchus Marsh Hospital. He weighed a healthy 4.16kg / 9lb 3ozs and 54cm in length. Mum and baby are doing well.

Matthew is the 1st grandson on the Lindorff side of the family and a brother to Lillian, Alison and Chloe. That's right 3 older sisters. Justin and Katie will have to try for another boy so he wont get pushed around too much by his older sisters.

Well, the day had finally arrived, we got our driveway done. No not concreted or paved just 84 tonnes of crushed rock spread and rolled out. 84 tonnes! Can't believe it took 6 truck loads to spread around the house and along a small section of drive from the house to the shed.

It's been over a year since we moved into the house and we have had to contend with the mud, jump strategically placed drainage lines and not to mention the dust in summer. We had been waiting for over a month for the contractor to finish some track stabilisation works in the Brisbane Ranges following the fire. So I was glad when I received the phone call on the Sunday night saying that they would be here the next morning. So much for a few days notice as I requested, but I wasn't going to mention that to them. I was happy that Chris was able to be around that day. I had my baby check up that morning but I was able to make it back after lunch to help with the supervision.

So I've added some before photos of the area including the house. So those that haven't seen the house here's your chance for a close up. As you will notice we still have plenty to do. The deck needs to be laid and a bit of landscaping would be great. I'm hoping that the deck will be laid this spring / summer. House building never seems to end. Since starting the project 3 years ago, and still not completed, we have come around to the maintenance period. Oh joy!

Charlotte, Marijana, Mum and I decided to go and visit the animal farm enclosure at Woodgrove Shopping Centre on the 25th June this year. Charlotte gets pretty excited when she's around animals, so we thought this would be a good opportunity to get up close. Well, I think Marijana and I were more fasinated with the alpacas and goats than Charlotte was. She was more interested in the kids around her than the animals.

Happy 1st Birthday Charlotte.

I can't believe my little baby turned 1 today. It seemed not long ago that I was taking her home from the hospital and the many sleepless nights, which have improved. She still has very little hair, something of a Lindorff trait. Has 6 teeth and isn't walking yet. She's taken a couple of steps but still woobly on her feet.

It was a nice sunny day, so Chris and I decided to go for a walk with Charlotte around our property in her back pack. We went for a walk down in the gully checking out the burnt areas from the January fires. The little adventure sure enough tired her out and she went to sleep the second her head hit the pillow. 

In the afternoon we went to Baka and Djeda's house to celebrate her birthday. She was showered with presents and most importantly lots of kisses. Which if you get her in a good mood she'll give you lots of kisses but when she's not in the mood, don't even think about asking.

Charlotte had another birthday celebration on Sunday 21st May with the Lindorff's. After 8am mass we all ended up at 25 Jollys Rd for a birthday breakfast. Can't believe how much I ate for breakfast. As they say "breakfast is the most important meal of the day". Well, I didn't have to eat anything for the rest of the day.

On behalf of Charlotte, we would like to thank everyone that sent her well wishes, cards and lovely presents for her 1st birthday. The clothes have been tested in all environments, books have been flipped open and close 100 times and toys pushed, thrown and tasted.

The whole Medjumurac family travelled up to Sydney to see the my Cousin, Antun get married. He finally decided to tie the knot. They got married on Saturday 13th May 2006 at Sacred Heart Parish, Luddenham Sydney. It was a traditional wedding with all the trimmings.

We spent 3 days up there and did a lot of drinking and eating, as you do before, during and after a wedding. The reception place, which I can’t remember the name of was gorgeous and so was the food.

During the main course they had live entertainment, which was something different, but very enjoyable. First up were the Flamingo dancers.

Very impressive but my favourite and I think this goes for everyone were the marshall arts guys. They threw bunches, kicks and back flips all over the dance floor. But most entertaining was when they got Chris up on the dance floor to do a couple of moves. Everyone cheered on and clapped. He was Mr. Popular after that. Had all sorts of people coming up to him congratulating him on a great performance.

Just like to thank my cousin Katarina and her husband Tom for inviting us to stay at their house during our trip to Sydney.

Jean and Sara Summers were married on the 22nd of April 2006 at Queens Park Gardens, Essendon. The reception was held at Melton Civic Centre.

Jean’s an old high school friend of mine and it was great to be able to share his special day. We wish Jean and Sara all the love, health and happiness in their life together.