Chris and I are happy 
to announce that addition number 2 will be joining our family mid October, 21st to be exact. Well that’s what the doctors predict. We are pretty happy with the news. I’m sure Charlotte’s going to find it fascinating having a brother or sister to play with. I am 14 weeks pregnant (20/4/06) and can’t wait for this trimester to be over with. I must have forgotten how tired and nauseous 
I was with Charlotte and I managed to work full-time. I barely manage to work 2 days a week now. I guess having a 11 month old to chase after can be tiring. On my bad days I think 2 kids is enough, on a good day I think 3 might be doable. I don’ know how Baka Jelica did it with 11 kids. The thought of going through 33 months of tiredness and nausea and 99 months being pregnant is unreal.
I’ve ordered curtains for the south side of the house (bedrooms and bathroom). Having the morning sun or even the light of the full moon shining in your eyes for the past 10 months was driving me insane
. I like my bedroom to remain dark while I sleep. So I bit the bullet and started curtain hunting in last 2 months.
I thought I would make them, as I did for mum’s house and a couple of windows at Margaret and Peter’s place, than I assessed the number of windows I had to do and the time it would take to make them with Charlotte hanging around, I soon ditched that idea. So I started getting “free measure and quotes” and found the Geelong Blind Company to be the cheapest but the easiest to deal with and most helpful in choosing the type of curtain and colours.
I’ve chosen roman blinds for the entire house. I didn’t really have much choice with the type because the way my windows operate. If you’ve been to the house you would know what I’m talking about. I’ve gone with an off white colour (chalk) for the bedrooms, thought I would stay neutral in the bedrooms and accessorize with colour. The living area, which hasn’t been ordered yet will either be some sort of brown or white. It’s hard to image how it would all look installed and you have to think about the overall look you want. Chris is pretty good. He basically lets me chose what I want with some minor input. I reckon building the house is much easier than trying to decorate it and making sure you’ve got all the right colours complimenting each other.
(Photos will be posted soon)
Finally after 10 months we have installed a bathroom mirror. 
We’ve been using this gold oval ornate mirror that I bought from the market many years ago thinking I would do up one day. Well, that day never eventuated. Marijana said that the mirror looks like the one they used in the movie called “The Ring”. See picture below to judge for yourself.
We’ve started rendering the mudbrick walls on the outside. What a job. We’ve started on the north side and hoping to have that completed by the end of April and than we’ll start on the west side. We’ll move along a section at a time. The sections of the outside walls are badly eroded so we have to apply 3 coats of render. The first one is really thick and the other two are applied with a broom head with a runny mixture of mud. Quite fun if you like getting muddy. So if that sounds fun to you, sign up for our next working bee!
(Photos will be posted soon)
Pam and Michael Warrick were married on the 9th March 2006 at St. Monica's Catholic Church, Moonee Ponds. The reception was held at Quat Quatta.
On a sweltering Sunday of 42 degrees in Anakie on the 22nd January, DSE and Park Victoria were fighting hard to contain a moderately-sized (100-hectare) fire in the Brisbane Ranges National Park that had started on the Friday evening by a lightning strike. A constructed mineral-earth containment line around the fire was obviously insufficient in preventing the fire from escaping at about 10am on the Sunday morning, when the temperature has already reached the high 30s.
The fire raced away, fanned by a north-westerly wind, consuming highly flammable fuel of predominately Messmate and Red Stringybark. The crowning fire soon threatened residents along the southern edge of the fault-line, including the residents of Jollys Track, living amid a ‘pristine’ wilderness environment. From the rooftop of our house, we watched as flames leaped from canopy to canopy across the opposite side of our deep gully. Four helicopters buzzed about, dropping copious amounts of water, which appeared to all but vapourise before reaching the ground and only stir the fire into a greater frenzy. We watched as a neighbour’s house was engulfed in flame and surrendered to the unforgiving fire-front, not being able to see the house, but only the thick black smoke pouring forth. The fire marched further south and trickled out from the western flank like walking fingers. Another puff of black smoke in the distance, signaled an additional victim, and then another. ‘Elvis’, the formidable Air-crane flew overhead and with precision dropped a half-load of 11,000 litres of cool water over the most intense edge of the fire. A quick circle-maneuver and the other half of the pay-packet was dropped, sending a trillion molecules of water vapour into the sky.
At approximately 7pm the wind ceased and an eerie silence swept across the valley. It was some minutes before a cool southerly breeze could be felt against our sweaty backs. The fire virtually stopped as if it had run out of puff, resting at the bottom of the gully less than 100-metres from the house.
During the night, the fire-spread was slow, still lethargic after an active day in the sun. By Monday night, the edge of the fire had stopped moving and even a few spots of rain could be felt. But it was on Tuesday afternoon that all the real damage happened on our place, with the dozers moving in to make a statement – just in case!!!…. All in all, we are thankful that no lives were lost during the fires at Anakie and our newly-built house still stands. The community has rallied together strongly to help those most affected, including the Ranger in Charge of the National Park, who lost his house and his treasured bushland (at least temporarily). Thank-you to everyone who sent their best wishes – it is certainly a day that will not be forgotten easily. Oh, and in case you were thinking…yes, Charlotte was on holidays with her grandmother, well out of harm’s way!
We have finally got our carpet laid after 6 months living in the house. 
We have moved out of the loungeroom and into the bedrooms, which has been a great relief. I can start to get some order in the living area. We ended up buying a 100% nylon carpet, colour almond. It is a cross between a plush carpet and a patterned loop. We had it laid 4 days before Christmas, so I was frantically moving and cleaning up, getting ready for Christmas but also for a dinner party that we were hosting on the Thursday evening.
All the doors to the rooms were hing by my Uncle Joe who was down with his family in October. It took me a good 3 months to stain and varnish all the doors and architraves and skirting boards ready for the carpet. I still have the hallway skirtings boards to do. It ’s a challenge to paint when Charlotte ’s around.
We have a few minor things to complete inside the house like; a mirror in the bathroom, build an entertainment unit in the living area, curtains and sliding doors for wardropes. We don ‘t know what type of doors to get. The outside needs a lot of work. We still need to render the walls, put the decking down and landscape. This project has been going on for 3 years, if we include building the shed. I ‘ve definitely mastered the art of patience; building the house and being a mother and wife.
Day One: Monday 26th December We arrived in Canberra in the late afternoon and checked into the Ibis Caravan Park. We had a pretty ordinary cabin but a great spot for international tourist or city folk that haven’t seen kangaroos before. They were all over the caravan park.We drove around Parliament House and checked out the embassies; interesting buildings. Day Two: Tuesday 27th December Day Three: Wednesday 28th December We stopped at Furgeson’s Falls for lunch. Another great stop. The falls are in the Mortons National Park. It’s nestled in Kangaroo Valley which reminds me a little of Rowsley Valley in Bacchus Marsh. I guess the only similarities is the land form. It stops there. Kangaroo Valley is sooooo green with huge trees, a bit of a contrast to Rowsley. We stopped at Kmart, Nowra to stock up on supplies and we were about to head off to Callala Bay (20 minute drive) until Dad's car wouldn't start. Dead battery. So you can imagine dad was cursing. But we couldn’t have planned this better. We were a minute walk to the Kmart auto service centre. Not too long we were off again. We finally arrived to Callala Bay. Photos below are of Uncle Josip, Aunty Jasna and cousins Antun, Jelena and Luke. Day Four: Thursday 29th December Day Five: Friday 30th December Day Six: Saturday 31st December (New Years Eve) Day Seven: Sunday 1st January (New Years Day)
We started our first trip to Canberra today with the parents (Mum Barica & Dad Branko). The 4 of us haven’t been to Canberra before but Chris lived there for 3 months as part of a forestry scholarship.
We headed off to the Telstra Tower for a great view of Canberra and than to the Botanical Gardens. Chris and I couldn’t help ourselves, we needed a botanical fix. The Australian Botanical Gardens are beautiful. A must see. After a hot and exhausting walk we had lunch and headed to the National Gallery of Australia. Amazing architecture. After the gallery tour we raced to Parliament House. We missed out in joining an organized tour by 15 minutes. Dad loved having a look at “Johnny Howard’s” work place. That’s another amazing building with a beautiful tapestry hanging in the Great Hall. I guess we need to impress the international visitors. After visiting Parliament House we were all exhausted, hot and sticky. We headed back to the caravan park. I must mention that the last photo we took in Canberra before Chris' camera died was at the Telstra Tower. So sorry about the lack of photos in the next couple of holiday entries.
The weather man predicted a 33 degree day and he wasn’t wrong. It reached 30 degrees by 10.30am. So we decided to head to Callala Bay and leave discovering the rest of Canberra for another holiday. Chris and I are keen to come back and spend a good few days there. There are heaps of things to see and do in Canberra; a great holiday destination for the family, especially for older kids.
BEACH, BEACH and more BEACH…That what Callala Bay is all about. We went to Callala Beach in the morning, came back for lunch and then went to Callala Bay late afternoon. A couple of glasses of homemade red wine in the evening with BBQ cow, sheep, pig and fresh fish topped off the day nicely. Photo of Uncle Josip's backyard
Chris and my Uncle Joe headed off fishing early in the morning while the rest of us slept. We met up with them at Callala Bay at 9am for some tubing (2 inflatable donut shaped tubes towed behind the boat) at Long Beach. We had a ball tubing and the beach and water were amazing; crystal clear water. We spent the morning there and headed back to home-base to feed Charlotte.
My cousin Veronkica has a holiday house opposite my uncle and aunty and they Came down to host their New Years Eve party. I must amit that I was in bed by 11pm while Chris and the rest of them partied on until the early hours of the morning.
Everyone felt a bit groggy from the night before and to top it off it reached a balmy 43 degrees. So we didn't do much besides, eat, drink and sleep. Trying to find a cool place in the house was a challenge. We would like to extend a big THANKYOU to my aunty and uncle for inviting us over for a few days at their holiday house.
This Christmas was a special one for myself and Chris because we shared it with Charlotte for the first time. She loved all her presents that she received from family and friends (thankyou) but especially loved the wrapping paper that they came in. Seeing her play with her new toys and wrapping paper was priceless.
We did the usual thing for Christmas – went over to the Lindorff's for lunch.
We have just come back from a week up at Ned’s Corner. Ned’s Corner Station is 80km west of Mildura. It is the largest privately owned property in Victoria. It fronts 35km of Murray River. It was brought by Trust For Nature in 2002 for conservation protection. It was a cattle / sheep station many years ago and this type of management has led to the degradation of the landscape. So now that it’s protected, the land has a chance to repair itself. For more information visit Trust for Nature’s website: Neds Corner Station
So Chris and I were interested to go up there and see the wildflowers. They’ve had a good year with the rains and things are looking very colourful. So we packed the car and we were off to Ned’s Corner. This has been the first real holiday since we started building the house 2 1/2 years ago and a holiday with Charlotte. I can’t believe the amount of stuff we had to take with us, especially baby stuff. We had no room to move. I said to Chris that we would be in trouble when the second baby arrives and we want to go on a hoilday (don’t get too excited, no baby news) I think Charlotte would be old enough to sit on the roof racks.
We stopped at Swan Hill to visit Chris’ colleague and stayed there the night. A big thaks to Greg and Terry Ogle for their hospitality. Than we were off on Tuesday to Ned’s Corner. 3 hours later we finally turn off onto Ned’s Corner Rd. And wow! what a driveway. See picture below. Fancy a 15km driveway.
We met the new caretakers of the station, Elaine and Ken. Wonderful people. A huge thanks for their hospitality and yummy dinner. We stayed in the homestead with two other ladies, Katherine and Jill who were up to do some historical research about the property. It was very interesting what Katherine discovered about the past owners and land management. I think the Trust want to put together a book about the property in the near future. After talking with Katherine it seems like a huge job.
We went touring around the 30,000ha property and only saw a very small section of it. I’ve included some photos of wildflowers that we found. Pretty spectacular country. One thing that I found annoying were the flies. The flies were unreal. Hundreds of them were continuously bugging you. 
Trying to get up your nose, mouth and eyes. Poor Charlotte, didn’t know what hit her. The flies loved her. She just didn’t know how to shoo them away (evethough we were doing that, the next second they would be back).
The caretakers house, the homestead and the shearers quarters are powered by a large noisy generator that operates all day. So that spoils it a bit. The Trust are currently investigating a solar system. One of the reasons why Chris went up there, to help size up a system. So the generator gets turned off at 10pm at night and back on at 8am. So no late nights for us only early ones because our beautiful alarm clock (Charlotte) goes off every morning without fail at 6.30-7am.
So if you are ever going up that way it’s worth a visit. Drop in a say hello to Ken and Elaine and camp along the Murray or ask if you can sleep in the Shearer’s quarters. Very basic / rustic accomodation.
We travelled home on Sunday along the Sunraiser Hwy. That was a nice drive. We left early in the morning without breakfast hoping that we would stop in a bakery for breakfast. Well, that was a big mistake. Trying to find a bakery in the towns along the the Sunraiser Hwy was impossible. We found one in Birchip which was after lunch but it was closed. We finally found a true bakery, not cafe in Avoca. Worth a stop but I was very hungry by than 2pm.
So now we are at home resting, I’m planning our next hoilday in November. Berry NSW is our next stop. That’s for a wedding. We’ll be staying a couple of days at my uncle Josip’s holiday House in Callala Bay. So now is the big question. Will the house ever get finished???? 
I never thought in my wildest dreams that such a tiny bundle could bring so much love and joy into your life. I've never been much of a 'baby person' and I was wondering what my emotions / feeling would be like towards my own child. Well…it's blown me away. The things I use to get so worried about and found really important, seem so trivial now and definitely on the low priority list.
Charlotte has been such a wonderful baby (touch wood), that it has been a relatively smooth transition to motherhood. I've had my bad moments with sleepless nights and not been able to read her tired / hungry signs but I think I've got that down pat for the time being. Her smiles and giggles are priceless. Love you lots Charlotte Elizabeth. Love Mum xoxox
