So it's been a minute since I last posted and so I wanted to catch you up on all that's been happening. Our family life over the past couple of months have been rather crazy! Illness, injuries, music and happy announcements but just not a lot of time to put brain space to other things. There really is only so much I can juggle at one time!

Let's start at the end of June

So back at the end of June, Soul Factor presented a fabulous concert which was condensed versions of the favourite musicals we have put on through the years. If you are new to this blog, Soul Factor Gospel Choir, is a choir that I sing with and is in it's 25th and final year. (other posts here) It was a fabulous weekend, a lot of work but it went so well and the full crowd just loved every minute. What I loved was revisiting these musicals, and working with some of my favourite people and I remember saying to my sister and some others, how I was really starting to feel like myself (remember this as its a little bit of foreshadowing). Performing again like that (not just singing) was fabulous.

So by the end of this weekend, I was happy but exhausted and also confirmed that I was pregnant again by starting to feel sick that very night haha!

Happy Announcement!

So this leads me to my big announcement, we are pregnant again!

Bagel #2 due in February 2025.

Oscar will be a Big Brother which is exciting and I can say that now at 15.5 weeks where I am not throwing up everyday and feeling sick pretty much 24/7. We are very blessed, we had a miscarriage earlier in the year and I was surprised I got pregnant so quick again and so I am very grateful for that.

From week 5 I was really sick. Now with Oscar, I felt nauseous all day from week 5 to 12 but only threw up once. With this one it was much worse. I do understand that every pregnancy is different and there are different factors that come to play, I also think it's because I've got a toddler and I am tireder and he doesn't let me rest, throwing up with your other kid standing next to you is not fun. So now as you read the rest of this blog, you can view it with the understanding that I was pretty sick through all the rest of the things that happened and it wasn't fun but that is ok we are on the other side of it now.

Trip to Perth

At the start of July, my sister Olivia, Oscar and myself flew to Perth to visit our other sister Lauren and her family and to sing of course as the Raymond Sisters. It was a lovely weekend full of family time, singing, beautiful weather and watching Oscar playing with his cousins. A little marred for me as I was pretty sick but everyone took care of me and Oscar and so there was some wonderful times.

Then the next part happened!

Coming back from that, Oscar caught a couple of viruses which as you can imagine was fun for us all. My husband and I, caught a much milder version but Oscar was pretty sick for quite a while. And then just to add to it all, in the height of that I had a tea cup break on me and dump the contents of freshly brewed green tea over my legs, giving me rather large and bad burns on the calf and the inner thigh of my left leg.

Look, honestly you do not think that tea could do that to you but it is bad. The miracle, thank God, was that Oscar didn't get burnt as he was sitting right next to me. Trying to calm him, find out whether he had been burnt, while trying to get my leg cooled down was an experience I will not soon forget. But again, thank the Lord that my mother in law lives close and could come straight away and that I eventually got the right treatment.

Now almost 8 weeks down the track, I have now bandages on. The skin has healed well and although discoloured at the moment, it will not scar and I'm very thankful for all the help. There was a lot of back and forth to treatment, no sleeping, pain and just over all grossness all while feeling sick, so I would not wish that time on anyone. It was the an exceptionally hard month. But I am so much better now and healing at that is what is important.

So that led us into August and into another Soul Factor Concert, this time our favourite gospel music numbers. I love all this music as I have been singing it for the full 25 years and I so wanted to be able to do this concert. Well two weeks out I was finally able to sing the songs with out throwing up or crying (pregnancy hormones wow!) and it was so good to be back to singing and with the choir fam. The concert went so well, it was so wonderful to sing those songs and the audience showed their appreciation with a standing ovation.

Conclusion

Phew! so that is the catch up! Crazy times and tough times but also some fabulous times and amazingly we all got through and just did what we had to do, Oscar did exceptionally well and is his funny, happy self. Looking forward to this next trimester being hopefully a little less chaotic haha!.