Tag Archives: Isaac’s List

Big Bands and Brisbane

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Um… excuse me… but did you know Brisbane is beautiful? Seriously it is amazing… and that’s not just my frosted Melbourne heart talking. 23degrees in winter, beautiful buildings, incredible public spaces and it’s so clean. I love Melbourne, but Brisbane, it turns out is pretty great.

Dave, Isaac and I have just spent the long weekend up in Brisbane with the Salvo Big Band, Dave playing his Alto Sax (and a little bit of Clarinet) and me singing. We also had my Mum come up with us to help us take care of Isaac when both Dave and I were needed in the band… she was a total life saver. This trip not only crossed number 8 off Isaac’s list but it was also my first proper band tour. Previously I had travelled with the band to Sweden for the Salvation Army’s World Youth Convention in 2010 where the band performed but we also attended the convention. Since then we have missed a couple of trips due to our untimely trips into hospital, so in the lead up to this weekend I had been playing it very safe… determined not to end up missing out again.

The weekend was full on, with back to back gigs, but just like any camp or trip when you get to spend more time with people than you usually would it was also wonderful. There is something really nice about seeing people all day everyday, experiencing new places and events with them and getting to share your gifts and talents in combination with theirs and present them to people for the first time.

I find it really hard to write blogs like this without it quickly becoming my dreaded grade 5 journal piece… so in an attempt to avoid that I have summed it up into 5 little highlights… 5 might seem like a lot, but it was actually pretty hard to do.

1. Catch ups with family
I am lucky enough to be part of a big family… my mum is one of 6 kids and for as long as I can remember I have had at least one uncle/auntie living interstate or overseas. My Uncle Ken and Auntie Marg live in Brisbane, so it was the perfect opportunity to have a quick catch up between sets.

2. Singing in public 

Before our first performance on Saturday morning I hadn’t really given my role in the band a lot of thought. I had spent the week worrying about what I needed to take for myself and for Isaac. What the days would look like and what I needed to have ready for mum so that taking care of Isaac would be as easy as possible. I hadn’t thought about what I would be doing or where it would be happening from a personal performance perspective. I love to sing, really love to sing… and I love to sing with the Big Band, but I am often very quick to dismiss my contribution. I am not a trained singer as such, but have spent my life singing in church. Getting up in front of people I know and singing is usually more daunting that singing in front of those I don’t know… but when you put me out in the open… that’s another kettle of fish. Our first gig was in Queen Street Mall, right in the heart of Brisbane CBD. We performed after the Navy Band which made me a little more nervous than I would have liked, but I got up there and I sang, and more importantly I held my own. At the end of the weekend, after I had sung in the city, at a concert Fassifern, sung and lead worship at Carindale Salvation army and performed at both Westfield Garden City and Nudgee Secondary College, I was reminded that even just getting up to talk at many of these places is a huge deal for lots of people, for lots of reasons. Being able to sing, and sing well, is huge. I didn’t sing it all perfectly, and thankfully in jazz you can get away with some of that, but even just the fact that I had the courage to perform in such a public place is pretty amazing… and to my amazement, people seemed to enjoy it… I am pretty chuffed.

3. Isaac
 and his Nanna
Where do I start with this? A couple of months before we left my mum made a through away comment about coming to Brisbane with us to help with Isaac… Dave and I heard her and thought that actually that would be really helpful and rang her to find out if she was serious. Turns out she was… so up to QLD she came and my goodness me, was it great to have her there. One thing about having a baby that I haven’t quite adapted to yet is the fact that they need someone with them all the time… which means on a trip like this if Dave and I are both performing we need someone to look after him, or one of us doesn’t perform. Believe it or not, I can get very distracted by people, especially when I am in performance mode… which is not ideal when your husband is packing up his instruments and you are supposed to parenting. But having mum with us to fill the gaps, and more, was beyond amazing. Plus it was really nice to watch Isaac and her together… Isaac really loves his Nanna.

4. Nudgee College
NudgeeOn our final day of the trip the band spent some time at St Joseph’s Nudgee College. While we were we put on a concert and workshop for the grade 5 students. In the workshop the instrumental musicians from the band were dispersed through the schools grade 5 band to help them learn the new jazz techniques they were learning. It was so nice… actually I think pure joy is a better description to hear the difference in the band and watch the faces of the students as they achieved things they didn’t think they would be able to. Watching kids learn is one of my all time favourite things to do… wonder is an incredible gift.

5. Remembering why  

This weekend has also been a really good reminder as to why I am in the big band. The Salvo Big Band has a really unique opportunity to meet people in places that other salvo groups may not be able to go. To witness and bring the gift of music to people from all walks of life and to share in worship with corps and salvationists in places and in a style that is different from the everyday. The Band’s purpose is to shine light… and that’s what I think we have done this weekend… shone light, in both dark places and light places, but still light.


So that was my long weekend… now I need some sleep… well at least I can hope for sleep… I still have to parent 🙂

Our Curious Life: Week 20

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Week 20 has been intense… not a constant, full on intense… just an undercurrent of lots happening. It started with Mother’s Day… this Mother’s day wasn’t my first mother’s day but in many ways it felt like it. This time last year we had one angle in heaven and baby Isaac secretly growing. Last year we spent the day telling our mum’s about our new little one on the way, and to be honest it was a nice distraction from the reality of the day. I found it hard to feel like a mum when Josh wasn’t there… I received lots of well wishes but for most of the day I just wanted to pretend that I wasn’t a mum, because it was easier and I didn’t feel like I was. I know that having a baby earth side doesn’t make me any more of a mum now, but last year I just felt like a bit of a fraud… like I was celebrating a day that wasn’t really for me. This year it felt a whole lot more real… being able to carry Isaac around, almost like a badge of honour on the day.  It was such a different experience from before. We had brunch together, I got thrown up on a few times, and we had dinner with my mum.  Isaac also made some Keepsake for His Grandma, Nanna and Nanna Naz.

Monday was Dave and I’s 7th wedding anniversary… 7 years… and so much adventure. It’s crazy to think that we are still only really at the beginning and there will be hopefully many more lots of 7years to come. I have told you all many times how wonderful Dave is and it is still true. Marrying him is still the best decision I have ever made and the last 2 years have just proved this over and over again. On Monday we received some pretty scary news that my Grandmother was very very unwell and that she needed a miracle, so instead of meeting him for lunch at school, he came home in his lunch break and played with Isaac so that I could have moment to myself, shower and work out what to do next. Over the last 7 years I have truely learnt the meaning of many of the vows that we made 7 years ago… in sickness and in health, in good times and in bad… he is my go to, my best friend, my greatest supporter and the love of my life.

So all that happened in the first 2 days of week 20… the rest of the week remained busy… with a undercurrent of anxiety and fear that I couldn’t quite shake… but we did make time for some fun things, like ramping up our efforts on getting Isaac to try solids… I still haven’t mastered my home cooking yet and everything that I do make for Isaac is usually rejected in a generous display of fake gaging… so I am thanking Jesus for pre-made baby food at the moment because he loves it… well most of it… we will work on the home made stuff once he progresses past the puree stage. We also took a trip to costco which is always fun. We had a couple of appointments for Isaac and the biggest small thing we did this week was get the light fixed in our bedroom. We broke the light fitting when we tried to upgrade it… and while Dave was in Mt Gambier I broke the blockout blind and it has been stuck fully down… so our room has been very dark for what feels like forever… but has really only been a week and a bit… but now the light is fixed and it is magical… such a simple thing… so much joy… now we just have to get the blind fixed.

We finished the week with a 6km walk which was a fundraiser for World Vision held at Dave’s School. Why 6km… because that’s the average distance people in the developing world walk for water that is usually contaminated… While we weren’t so great with the fundraising ourselves the school did a great job and our registration fees provided clean water for one person each which is pretty great. We walked 6km so they wouldn’t have to anymore. It’s only a small thing, but again it brings a heck of a lot of joy to me… and the person with clean water.

Oh and Isaac graduated from the capsule to a real car seat… which doesn’t sound like a big deal, but it means my tiny baby isn’t so tiny anymore.

So we made it through week 20… let’s hope week 21 is a little lighter on the soul.

Our Curious Life: Week 15

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It’s my birthday week! Woo Hoo! There has been a whole heap of listing, my actual birthday, some brace free time, family catch ups and an Ikea building day… what more could a girl want?

You know its going to be a good birthday week when it starts with an alpaca themed gift… including a matching alpaca wool alpacas with your alpaca loving sister. This was apparently meant to appease our desire for real alpacas at my dad’s place, but I think it has probably just fanned the flame.

On Monday we celebrated my actual birthday with brunch at the Hatter and the Hare, which is brunch winner and a half and then spent the afternoon enjoying my gifts… making way for the new cabinets because we are renovating the laundry and building my new compost bin. Dave thinks these might actually be the worst presents he has ever brought me, but I am very excited about both. We also learnt that Isaac really likes fire.

I have always really liked the idea of composting, but had never really done anything about it until now, so we will see how it goes. The laundry reno is also something that I have been wanting to do for a very very very long time. Our current laundry set up is just not very practical, there is limited storage, we can’t fit both the dryer and the washing machine in there… which really just seems silly. The reason we have decided that it’s time now now though, is not just because I would like a prettier and more practical one. It is also going to give us a lot more space to store all the things we don’t want Isaac to be pulling out of the kitchen, laundry and bathroom cupboards, like our cleaning products and medications. Last week we ordered all of the cabinets which meant that this week we could pick up them up and start assembling. We managed to get all the cupboards in and attached to walls and floor and now we just need to finish the bench and splash back and get some plumbing assistance… which is actually a lot, but I feel like we’ve made quite a bit of progress pulling the old laundry out and making the cabinets.

Birthdays are also a good reason to catch up with people, and this birthday was no different, After Sunday nights birthday dinner we also went out for dinner with Mum and Andy and spent the day at the park with my Brother, Sister in law, Nephew and Brother in law, thanks to the school holidays and some annual leave. It’s going to be a lot of fun having park dates with those guys as the boys get older.

Isaac and I also got to cross some pretty big things off our lists this week too. On Sunday, I didn’t express any breastmilk for the first time since Isaac was born… I have officially hung up the pump and crossed no. 88 off my list. Now that it is finished I am both a little bit sad that it is over, but also totally relieved that is done and that I never have to look at the pump again… well at least for a while. I am also really proud of how long I was able to stick it out for. As a mum of a preemie, there isn’t actually too much you can do for your bub while they are in NICU and but expressing is one… so while it’s probably not the way I would have imagined feeding my baby… it worked and I am very thankful that I was able to do it for as long as I did.

On Tuesday the three of us went back to the hospital with Isaac for some appointments, but also took the opportunity to take a gift up to NICU, to thank the staff for all that they did to help all three of us survive the first three months of Isaac’s life. The team up there on level 5 at the Monash Children’s Hospital are incredible, they are not only excellent at their jobs, but they are also kind & compassionate and they take you and your baby in your most vulnerable space and make you feel like things are going to be ok and that you are safe. I am convinced that they are actually angels living on earth

Our Curious Life: Week 10

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Week 10 has been MASSIVE… listing, family fun, MASSIVE…

On Sunday Dave, Isaac and I participated in our first fun run for the year (no. 38 on the list), the Monash Children’s Hospital walk at Jells Park and for some unknown reason I decided we should sign up for the 10km… which is much further than I have walked for over a year and a bit… I think I when we were signing up, I had had grand plans of a glorious Parkrun return that would have been in full swing weeks before and that if we were going to do a fun run we should push ourselves… so 10km it had to be.  We made it, just… I might have been a bit slow for the rest of the week, but we made it… and Isaac was pretty proud of himself.  It was also nice to give back to the hospital that has given us so much.

We also finished the week with more things being crossed of the list, we are currently down at Inverloch for the long weekend with the Salvo Big Band for the Inverloch Jazz Festival and being in Inverloch is no. 9 on the list and I touched the ocean (no. 95) when we took Isaac down to the beach for the first time.  In fact I even went for a swim.  I am not sure Isaac loved it, but he didn’t hate it… which I think for a babies first trip to the beach is a win.  It also crossed no. 19 of Isaac’s List.

Between our listing expeditions on the weekends we spent a lot of time back the hospital for follow up appointments, physios, respitatory teams, and neonatologists.  We also went back to the Maternal Child Health Nurse.  We also had lunch with Grandma Meg which is also fun.

Oh and last week we reached the magic time in parenthood when Isaac started sleeping through the night (no. 15 on his list)… but in fear of jinxing it I kept it to this week to tell you all… it’s magic.