The girls made Christmas cookies with Elizabeth today. They had such a good time! I am NOT calm enough to have been able to do this...there were sprinkles all over the place, although honestly not as bad as I thought it would be. We had to leave 6 for Santa :)
24 December 2008
Christmas Cookies
20 December 2008
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19 December 2008
Look at the tree
So here are some MORE pictures of the tree that has been driving me crazy!!! Here is a picture of what it looked like last time I said it was finished...
With all the newly added glitter, here it is...
So as of today, December 19 I declare the tree officially decorated. I won't add anything else...this year ;)
18 December 2008
All that Glitters
Okay, George finished painting the kitchen on Sunday. It looks great! We will eventually replace the cabinets but the new paint color makes them look much better. I haven't had anytime to take pictures because I've been so busy trying to get the Christmas tree done. I thought it was done last week but it just kept looking, well, not quite right. Paula gave me 2 beautiful glass ornaments this year, they are much larger than the others I have. I won't lie, at first this worried me. I wasn't sure how they would look. OH MY GOODNESS! They are wonderful!! Their size was perfect, they filled in holes and looked pretty at the same time. You know me, I ran to the store to get more ornaments that size. I found giant red and gold GLITTER balls. I also found red and gold GLITTER snowflakes! Then there are the red ice skates with gold GLITTER all over them and the red GLITTER balls covered with gold leaf! I also found gold GLITTER stockings! And red ornaments with gold GLITTER designs on them. The tree is 7 1/2 feet tall and is currently covered with over 200 red and gold ornaments, as many with GLITTER as I could get! I have also hung shiny red and gold giant shiny balls with the red and gold GLITTERY stockings and on the entertainment center (I wonder what George will think of that???...It really was the only way to make a 57" TV "festive") Let's just say if it was GLITTERY, I suddenly had to have it. What can I say, I become obsessed easily :)
14 December 2008
Wooden Houses
We went to Lowe's on Saturday and built wooden gingerbread houses. The girls really love going and building something. They love getting a patch after they build each project...now if I would just sew those patches on to there aprons! Anyway...have a look, George's carpentry skills are really improving! (Please note: there are more pictures of Ella than Emily because the room we were in was packed and I couldn't get at a good angle to get more than the back of Emily's head. Also, this note is mainly to alleviate my guilt)
In other "house" news, we were planning on finishing up the kitchen painting Saturday afternoon and then move on to our bedroom on Sunday. It was all planned out (shocking I know), we'd go build in the morning, pick up the bedroom paint on the way home, and then while the girls played Jon & Kate or The Duggars (my little girls are so weird!), George would paint the bit left in the kitchen and I would scrape the horrid floral border off of my bedroom walls. So here's what happened...We went to build (obviously), we picked up the bedroom paint color, we got home and the girls started playing, I got the ladder set up and hot water in my spray bottle ready to scrape. I sprayed the wall and then I hear "Elizabeth???!"
"Yes, George"
"You need to come here please"
"okay"...BIG SIGH... "I'll be down in a minute"
"NO! COME NOW!!!"
When I got down stairs (5 seconds maybe) the kitchen window was open. I asked what he needed and George said "nothing now, the gas is off." THE GAS?!?!? "What happened?" I asked. Well, apparently George was pulling the stove from the wall, got it about an inch away when the hissing started. He leaned down to get to the shut off valve and "whoosh" the fire ball blew bast him. Luckily it mustn't have been very big because he still has eyebrows and our house is still standing. So he had shut off the gas but we called the gas company anyway. When they got there they noticed that the supply line had cracked, basically dry rot...no wonder we didn't want to buy an old house! George put a new supply line on so I could cook the rest of the weekend. The home warranty people said we still have to have a repair man come look at it...no active leak when he is here = no new stove for us...how sad. Anyway, we didn't get to do what we had planned so there are no pictures of the kitchen. George just finished that a few hours ago and I've been busy with 2 quasi-sick little girls, dinners, baths, bed-time and more dinners. I did get to whack some bushes yesterday while we were not allowed in the house but with no before pictures to compare to, you would not be adequately impressed. George will paint the bedroom next weekend...if we can agree on a color.
12 December 2008
"Season of Giving"
So this has nothing to do with my girls in particular but kids in general. K.I.D.S. , Kids in Distressed Situations, is a charity that helps kids who are ill, living in poverty or who have been impacted by a natural disaster. Robeez, the best baby/toddler shoes in my opinion (the girls wore them), has a fantastic campaign going on right now. Follow the link at the end of this post to send e-cards to your friends and family. Every time you do, Robeez will make a $5 donation to K.I.D.S., that's all you need to do. You don't have to buy anything. You can register to win a set of Robeez and socks, but you don't even have to do that. So go ahead, click and send some holiday cheer!
http://seasonofgiving.robeez.com/intro.asp
10 December 2008
The tree skirt
I also finished the tree skirt for the girls tree in the playroom. I am sooooo not Martha I wish I was, but I am just not. So here is the whole thing, skirt and all...no close-ups, the stitching is not good...
Decorating
Trying to decorate for Christmas this year has been trying to say the least. It seems simple, I have a simple theme Red and Gold...at Christmas my Italian comes out...(at least I don't have flocked wallpaper!) It was anything but simple for me this year. First, as you may know, my house was not built with a Christmas tree spot. I though I could put it in the living room window in the front of the house. Our old house had the living room in the back of the house so you couldn't see the tree in the window, for some reason I want the tree visible from the window. So I put it there and you couldn't walk by the tree to get to the playroom very easily. I could just see the girls crashing into the tree a billion times with strollers, buggies and anything else they were pushing or carrying. So I decided I would push it into the corner. It would be near the window and at least partially visible from the window...this blocked the entire doorway to the playroom. Back to the window it went. There was another corner in the living room I could have tried but it 1) wouldn't have been in the front window at all and 2) it would have partially blocked the doorway to the kitchen, so it wasn't going to work. I pushed the love seat into the room more and now we can walk by and get to the playroom...of course there is no escaping Charlotte's tail but oh well. Second, there is the fact the there isn't enough room between the actual door on the house and the storm door for my wreath. We have a red and gold wreath made out of giant jungle bells. As our last house was not able to have a storm door I never ran in to this issue before. It is also not advisable to hang it on the storm door as they are giant metal bells and I can't see it being a good idea for them to bang on the glass of the storm door all month. So I had to get a new smaller wreath. Not as easy as it sounds, I bought and returned several until I found one that was the right colors and the right size, it reminded me of something a woodland fairy from A Mid-Summer Nights Dream would wear. I really like it but it just didn't look right against a mauve door (imagine that) so I moved that inside. So I had to keep searching for this "perfect" wreath. Then I found a smaller gold jungle bell wreath...I tried to add red jingle bells to it but, come on, I'm just really not crafty. It looks okay, it will be better next year when the door is black. Third, I apparently had no recollection of what Christmas stuff I had to put on my mantel (I hadn't seen it in 2 years remember??). I thought I had a bunch of nutcrackers...I had 6. I thought they were all different...they were either Uncle Sam or Beefeaters. I had gotten 2 new ones this year, little princesses...they went with nothing. I put it all up and it was so bare...I added lit garland, that didn't help. I added tiny sparkly gold balls...you couldn't even see them. I added giant gold and red sparkly balls...it helped a little. I added more sparkly things AND hung my woodland fairy wreath over it and it was better. I got new red and gold sparkly stockings and now it looks pretty nice. Finally, there is outside. THERE ARE NO OUTLETS OUT THERE!!!!! How are you supposed to hang lights with no outlets?!?!?! Okay, I exaggerate, there are outlets...in the backyard. I don't want to run 4 million feet of extension cord to get lights to the front. George hooked the lights together so we can plug in in the garage. We couldn't get them up on the roof but that was more of a timing issue than anything else (at least that what George said). I don't remember decorating being this way. Of course the last time I decorated my house both of the girls took naps eliminating the need for snack/homework/hug/read me a book/craft breaks. When they are BOTH in school next year that should help. So it took over a week and there were many moments when I thought Xanax was in order but I think it came out okay...
07 December 2008
Gingerbread Art
Emily saw a gingerbread house kit in the store the other day. She asked if we could buy one, just like Grandma did last year..."except could we make it this time?" So we bought it with the promise we would make it this weekend. They were too tired after the parade yesterday so we made it this morning, at 7am this morning to be precise. Imagine my delight when I actually read the box and realized that the house was all together, all we had to do was decorate...the girls and I were so happy...we could skip to the "fun" part. They decided, together, that they were going to make it look just like the box...in their little heads it DOES look just like the box. (please note, I had NO help in the decorating, it was all them)
06 December 2008
Christmas Parade
I had never been to a Christmas parade until we moved to Helena. It was about 30 minutes long, local businesses, girls scouts and boys scouts had floats, churches and some schools, if I remember correctly. The first time we went, Ella was in her stroller and someone from a church gave her a penguin...we know her as "Penguino"...Ella still sleeps with her. There was also some strange custom that I was unaware of, they throw candy at you. Some of the little ones in the parade really pelt you with the candy. Anyway, Emily thought that was great and so did Ella when she was a bit older. I thought that that was just an oddity in Helena. Then we went to a Christmas parade in Springville, Alabama with some of our other friends and they did it there as well. So I had decided it was an Alabama thing. I was wrong. We went to the Dallas Christmas parade and apparently this is done in Georgia as well. The parade was fantastically fun for the girls, even if Ella was begging to leave after 45 minutes because she was frozen...it was only 41F!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (grey and damp too!). We stayed for the whole 1.5 hour parade. We were at the beginning of the route so we had a TON of candy thrown our way. Emily and Ella only picked up about half, they didn't want the gum or hard candy since they know I won't let them have it. A stuffed puppy was thrown to Emily. This little boy was on a float and I swear he did a double take and then started tapping, hitting almost, the adult with them saying "can I throw the puppy? I want to throw the puppy! Can I throw the puppy to HER? I am throwing HER the puppy"...it was very funny! Ella got a green teddy bear thrown to her about 20 minutes later. I promise you, this is almost more candy than they got at Halloween! Look what they did manage to stuff into Mommy and Daddy's pockets...
(There is a green bear behind Ella's head)
(There is a green bear behind Ella's head)02 December 2008
Birthday phone call...
My birthday is tomorrow, December 3rd. I get a phone call every year on my birthday. My grandmother calls and sings, not says...sings, Happy Birthday, the whole song, and then apologizes for her voice...then we both laugh. Last year she called and she sang "Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you Liz" and then said that was enough, she apologized for her voice but neither of us laughed...we just chatted for a moment. That was it, the last time I spoke to her. She passed away 17 days later...December 20, 2007. I will miss her call this year.
01 December 2008
My issues and the house (not related)
Okay so you know me right? I like order and symmetry. I think that there is a place for everything and that everything should be in its place. I like order and rules for everything I do, I like rules a lot :) I do not like chaos, I do not live on the edge... I like predictability, otherwise I just don't function well. I have issues and I am okay with them. That said, my children actually asked if they could help me decorate the Christmas tree this year. My heart started pounding, I think I even started to sweat...children, decorate my tree?!?! No, it can't happen they won't do it right. I remember I didn't do it right. I used to put like 5 orn
aments in one spot, normally a light wire, and thought it was pretty. How could they decorate the tree without me being nauseous all season long...you all remember Ella's room right??? I have to just not look at it, I can't handle it at all... it makes me need Xanax!!!!
So I had an idea, I would get them each a little tree for their rooms like they had last year, except that one melted because I had to put a tree skirt on it which apparently made the motor over heat and the tree tipped over about 5 times a day ...I can't do that again and NO I can't just not have a tree skirt, this is me we are talking about and I think that tree skirts are made for a reason, you NEED them. So plan B, I got a tree for the play room. I tried to be as whimsical as I could stand...it is a pink tinsel tree. Then I took the girls to the store, showed them the ornaments for a tree the size of theirs (4ft), and told them to pick out what ever colors they wanted. I was going on the theory that if I had allowed a 4ft pre-lit pink tinsel tree in my house, how could their color selections really make it any worse. My little girls scoured all the ornaments. They picked them all up and inspected every last one. In the end Ella picked 2 boxes of gold ornaments and Emily picked 2 boxes of red ones...red and gold, just like the big tree. It sounds weird to have red on a pink tree, at least to me, but it actually doesn't look awful...that's as positive as I can be :) Anyway, I think it looks cute, you be the judge...
In house news, we are well on our way to completing the projects that need to be completed by my self-imposed deadline of Christmas. George fixed the horribleness that was the kitchen wall...the border ripped off about 50 layers of paint and wallboard yesterday and then painted a bit of one wall only to discover that the color we wanted was not the same as the color we got. The current wall is way too green and not nearly grey enough...I got more paint today and we'll try that out after the girls are in bed. He was able to remove the "guardrail" that was decorating the tops of my kitchen cabinets, I was so pleased. The long term goal is to replace all the cabinets but for now, we'll just live with them. Here is his handy work...
30 November 2008
Thanksgiving
Sorry it took so many days to update this but the girls were still a bit sick and then I was lucky enough to catch their crud! Anyway, we went to our friends house for Thanksgiving...they wanted us sickness and all :) The girls had a blast playing with the 3 boys. After Thanksgiving lunch, we played kickball...I'll just pretend that my lack of skill at this game was due to overwhelming sinus pressure...
Then they jumped on the trampoline for a bit...
When were outside, Ella got annoyed at someone or something for a bit...
We spent the night with the Land's and then ventured out into the drizzle to the Birmingham Zoo. This was a lightening fast trip for us, I think we were in and out in 2 hours...when Paula and I used to take the 5 kids to the zoo we'd be there at least 5 hours. We tried to get as many pictures of the kids doing the things they used to do when they were smaller as we could, just to see how much they have grown...I think that was more fun for the moms than the kids but they had a great time just the same.
25 November 2008
Today is Tuesday
The girls have been a bit under the weather the past few days. Emily woke up today with 102.4 fever, Ella was 101.6... HOORAY! Once they had some Motrin in them, they were all about our original plans...Santa and a haircut. It was supposed to be in that order, the girls had other ideas. Ella was in desperate need of a trim so I couldn't take the chance that she would change her mind. Here is a look at what we did...
22 November 2008
Since it is Saturday...
We went to Lowe's to build today. It was a football goal, totally useless as I see it but so is most of the stuff we've built. The girls have fun and since that's why we go, we went. We got to Lowe's a bit early and ended up getting a great deal on a 7' pre-lit Christmas tree (we got rid of our old one when we left Alabama). The girls got to ride on the giant cart we pushed the tree out of the store on.
Then we built. Things were much easier with George there, I am not a good builder :) After building we were on to story time at the bookstore. There weren't any special visitors there today but they did get to make hand turkeys AND decorate them with real feathers. The day ended with books with Daddy. All in all, a perfect Saturday, just look...
21 November 2008
Ouch!
Emily and Ella were making "picture books" in the living room (cutting construction paper then gluing or taping on to other paper). They were sort-of watching High School Musical and just generally being happy and pleasant with each other. George and I were sitting at the kitchen table discussing the many joys of home-ownership. Then the quite was broken..."OW!! OWWW!!! OUCH!!!!" I turned to look and I could see some blood on Emily's hand. I immediately thought scissors. I went to get her, asking what had happened as I looked at the blood (not a lot but at the time I thought she would hemorrhage!). As we were going up the stairs to clean up and get a band-aid I get the story...
Emily... "I was trying to use the stapler to make a book"
Me..."Why? You had tape to use..."
Emily... "I thought it would be better with staples!"
Me... "How did you get the staple in your finger?"
Emily... " I wanted to see how it worked. It hurt when I pushed the staple in, it started to bleed when I pulled it out..."
Me... "So, what does that mean, do you think?"
Emily... "Next time I should get a Band-Aid BEFORE I pull it out!"
Obviously she wasn't traumatized!
16 November 2008
Leaves!
So here is how the day went...
This morning the girls woke up Grandma..a little earlier than she would have liked I'm sure!
We went out to breakfast...Santa happened to be there, not officially he was just having breakfast, and came over to talk to the girls. They were thrilled!!!!!
We took Grandma to the airport, ran a few errands and then well, just have a look...
Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com
They were asleep 2 minutes after their heads hit their pillows
15 November 2008
A Whole Week...
Just so you don't think I forgot, here I am. We've just not really done anything this week, nothing very note-worthy anyway.
The girls baked brownies on Sunday...
Emily had her third book club meeting this past Monday. She was given first grade books this week and read them and did the mini-book reports in record time. She is really enjoying it!
While Emily was busy at her book club, George was busy blowing leaves.
Ella had a great time playing outside!
Even Charlotte came outside with us...
Ella and I were in search of a Cinderella costume for Lily this week, we were not successful but Ella had a great time at the mall anyway!
Today the girls had another surprise visit from "Grandma in New Jersey". She was in Georgia for a dog show, about 2 hours from here. For the past week the girls have been asking who was coming to visit but I just kept telling them it was a "guest". They were thrilled when we walked into the hotel lobby and there was Grandma!
We'll try to have a more exciting week this week :)
08 November 2008
A fun-filled day...
This is day 3 of George being gone. The girls {and I} miss him. We don't do well when we're apart... okay I know but come on, you all know me and know it's true :) So, I had to fill the day with as much as I could so the time would pass quickly.
Emily must have been excited about all we were going to do, she was up at 4:30am!!!!! {This is the second day in a row... I'm too old for 4:30am!!!}
So first, we went to Lowe's and built a race car and hauler...we forgot to take an extra kit home for George, {Sorry George!!}. I am not good at building! Emily's hauler looks fine buy Ella's is a bit less than square...oops! Luckily she doesn't seem to notice :)
Second, we were off to Barnes and Noble for story time with Clifford. Ella was less than thrilled when Clifford first appeared but when she saw most of the other kids weren't afraid, she got over it.
Lastly we were on our way to Chuck-E-Cheese!!! This was certainly the high point for me ;) We were there for 3 hours!!!!!!!!!! The girls actually wore themselves out by the end of the "outing" portion of our day.
We left home at 9:15 this morning and got back at 3:30 this afternoon. The car ride home was just enough time for the girls to recover so the could start preparing for the "tups" birthday party {in case you don't know, they each have 8 kids, 1 set of twins and 1 set of sextuplets, you know Jon & Kate +8?!?!?} While they were busy shopping, wrapping and hiding the 'tups gifts, I was able to get most of my bathroom painted. I hope to have that finished before George gets home on Monday. Anyway, here is what we did today...
{By the way, if you tried to see the Halloween slide show and all you saw were Ella's pictures, do not worry, I was experiencing technical difficulties but they have been resolved and the regular Halloween pics are ready for viewing, again!}
06 November 2008
Art Show!
So Emily is an artist! She will be featured in an art show no less...the Nebo Elemnetary Art Show that is (yes, so is every other student there, so what is your point ?!?! ;) ) Anyway, since I would think that none of you will be able to attend check out her Masterpiece here:
www.firstartworks.com and enter the code 2008770489. At the bargain price of $29.95 (+7% tax) you can own a framed "reproduction" of this lovely "hand" painted strawberry. On the other hand, Emily could paint one for you, we could mail it to you and you could hang it with magnets or thumbtacks, which are our preferred methods of diplaying artwork! I honestly can't believe this, an art show...for the elementary school...kindergarteners have participated...do they not know I throw out page upon page of artwork everyday, so they really think I'm going to pay $29.95 + 7% tax when I can get it for free?!?!?!?! They are crazy!
On another note, it was brought to my attention that Ella's slide show was a tad short so here is a longer look back at 4 years of Beanie :)
03 November 2008
Ella's turns 4!
I can't believe it's been 4 years!!! I remember the day she was born..Election Day 2004...a wonderful day (not politically of course)!! After Ella was born George went and picked up Emily and my mom... I couldn't go a day without seeing my little Emily :) Once they left it was just me and my bean...and of course, Tom Brokaw!!!!!
01 November 2008
Halloween
The girls looked super cute on Halloween!
We went around the entire neighborhood, it took 2 hours. Ella kept saying "I''m tired, I want to go home." So I would say "okay, Mommy will take you home." I was always met with "maybe one more house" followed by a grin and a sprint to the next house. Emily kept telling me she was so strong she could walk all night. They were both in bed at 9pm (late for the girls you know) and I was hoping for a bit of extra sleep, nope...5:30am Emily was up!!! UGH!
We didn't have much planned for today. George was going to our neighbors to help frame and drywall a room they are adding. He also had an "emergency" home improvement project. He put his foot through one of the front porch steps last night, thankfully after most of the trick-or-treaters were done, that HAD to be fixed. See all that he did :)
The girls and I were hanging out across the street while George was working on their house and ours. They had been jumping on the trampoline for hours while I failed miserably at Guitar Hero. I looked out and saw an unfamiliar car fly into my driveway. I could not figure out who it was as we were with the only people we really know in Georgia. Then I saw my mother and 2 aunts get out of the car. They flew her, secretively, to surprise us for Ella's birthday...Mission Accomplished!
30 October 2008
We are crazy :)
Ella and I went a little crazy today...we went food shopping a day early!!! That's right we threw caution to the wind and just went ahead and bought food...I told you our life is exciting!!! Ella entertained EVERYONE at the store. She was her usual self up a couple of notches! She spent the entire hour and a half dancing, twirling, galloping and talking. She told me a story about her kids and the trip they were taking. It started when we pulled out of the driveway and wasn't done until I had paid for the last item on the belt! A few people saw us more than once and just laughed because she was STILL talking. She fell flat on her face once (due to a less than graceful twirl) that stopped her for a few seconds. She said she needed medicine, I reminded her that I had given her Motrin before we left the house (the other time she hit her face today) and that it would help now too...OKAY! she said and went on about her way. One of the gazillion times we walked from one side of the store to the other she asked about voting and the president and why it's a big contest and everything else she remembered me saying about it. I tried to explain it the best I could so that she could understand. Then she wanted to know if I was going to be the president. I said "no baby, mommy doesn't have time to run the country, I have a house to take care of." She said I did have time, that Daddy said it doesn't take that much to be president!! (I doubt that he said that because I doubt she's ever interrogated him about this...)
Everything was pretty calm, even after the other Little Miss Chatty came home from school. I gave them some glow bracelets. All was good, they stopped climbing all over me and asking me 10,000 questions (they only asked then because I was on the phone.) I went to put the Kindergarten Halloween treats (whole other story) in the car when I hear footsteps running down the hall and Ella saying " Mommy! Emily is glowing!!!!!" This could NOT be good! When I got up to the bathroom, the freshly painted bathroom (with a new rug, remember?) Emily said " I just cracked it to get it to glow better and then I started to spin it around".... I turned out the bathroom lights and all I could hear was "Twinkle, Twinkle little star". It was actually cool to see the splatters of a glow stick all over the place, for 2 seconds anyway. It was on the walls, the ceiling, the shower curtain, the towels, the rug, the sink, 1 toothbrush, Emily, Emily's hair and last but not least...the potty! Emily said "LOOK!!! the water glows in the potty!!!!!". I called Ella upstairs, the whole way up she was proclaiming her innocence ;) "Ella" I said, " I just wanted you to see me flush the glow streak, it might look cool"...and it did look neat as it swirled around and then went on down the road. (I have a very un-interesting life, have I made that clear????)
In other, non-glow stick news, I am pretty sure that I am now officially NOT a room mother anymore. I emailed the lady today and told her I was not able to do it anymore. I didn't go into to details with her (are you proud Kelly??? I didn't give to much info!) The truth is, it isn't what I wanted. I wanted to go have fun with Emily and her class in school. I never wanted to hound people for money and I did a lot of that in September to get ready for Fall Festival. I so didn't want to ask for money that the "Special Snack" (no , it can't be for Halloween) that they are getting tomorrow, I bought myself, (I'm broke by the way) I just didn't want to keep hounding. Then a parent called me and said (in, what I feel was, a rather condescending way) "my fourth grader is even going to decorate cookies, can't we do something like that????" SO i told her I was bringing my treat in at about 10am and she was more than welcome to go but everything for all the kids in the class to decorate a cookie but that I had done what I was going to do, I'd help the kids but that was all. (Wanna bet she doesn't have an extra cookie for Ella?) I kind of feel like I am being one of those kids that doesn't get her own way so I'm taking my ball and going home. HOWEVER, what I want to know is if this is such a bang-up idea, why did she wait until the day before Halloween to ask me what we were doing? And I'm sorry but , as it has been pointed out to me, I am not the teacher! I am just a parent, like she, is who wanted to have fun with the kids in the class. If this chic wanted to help, where was she when I asked a million times in September if there was anyone that wanted to be room mother with me? No one wanted to "help" me then...no just now, the day before Halloween because I obviously don't do it right...oh well, I won't do it at all then....(I really need a life)
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