An Honor

This past weekend I had the tremendous honor of singing in my wonderful friend Jennifer's wedding.

Jenn and I met when I lived in Miami and have been great friends for 10 years.

She is a true friend and when she asked me to sing, I was so honored I nearly cried.

The song was "Bless the Broken Road" by either Selah or Rascal Flatts.

The lyrics are so touching and it was the perfect song for their journey.

I have never seen Jennifer so happy and so beautiful.

She and her new husband Kory are made for each other and will have a joyous life together.

Of course I took my camera so here are just a few of the hundred or so beautiful moments I was able to capture.



By the way, today is Jenn's birthday so if you would like to tell her what a beautiful bride she was and wish her a Happy Birthday you can visit her at her blog here.


For more Wordful Wednesday posts visit Angie at:

Pumpkin Turkey Chili

Okay, I know this may sound a little weird, but trust me on this one, it's good!

This has become my Halloween night meal. The pumpkin is not recognizable and is a great, healthy addition to an already yummy dinner (or lunch).

Pumpkin Turkey Chili

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 1 cup chopped red bell pepper
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 pound ground turkey
• 2 (14.5 ounce) cans diced tomatoes
• 1 (14.5 ounce) can whole kernel corn, drained
  
• 1 (14.5 ounce) can cannellini beans, drained
  
• 2 cups pumpkin puree (canned pumpkin)
  
• 3 tablespoons chili powder
• 2 teaspoons cumin
• 1 teaspoon oregano
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne
• 2 teaspoons brown sugar
  
• salt and pepper to taste
• Toppings: shredded cheddar and sour cream

1. In a dutch oven or similar pot, heat oil over medium heat. Add onion, bell pepper and garlic. Cook until tender, about 5 minutes.
2. Add turkey and break up with a spatula as it browns. Once it is evenly browned, mix in tomatoes, corn, beans and pumpkin.
3. Season with the next six ingredients.
4. Reduce heat, cover and simmer about 1 hour.

This makes a thick chili. If you prefer a soupier consistency add chicken broth until desired thickness is reached.

Top chili with shredded cheddar and sour cream. Enjoy!


This recipe was adapted from the following recipe.

For more Halloween themed recipes head over to Our Lives in a Nutshell and:

Are You Still There?

I know....I know!

I have been really slacking on posts in the last few days...I mean week...but I have been busy.

Really busy!!!

I have been playing outside, selling jewelry, apple picking, rehearsing to sing in a wedding, singing in a great friend's wedding, having a great time at that wedding, visiting the pumpkin patch and much more.

Thank goodness Nana is here!!!

So, I will try to do a better job of blogging this week, but can't make any promises.

I am thoroughly enjoying the built in babysitting and mommy freedom.



I will leave you with a little story from our visit to the pumpkin patch today.

Warning!!!

It has been awhile since I did a story that had poop in it, so here I go again.


After taking a tractor pulled hayride (the highlight of his day), Austin had to pee pretty bad.

I didn't think he would make it, but Mark rushed him to the bathroom in hopes of avoiding an accident.

When they entered the bathroom there was a young man of about 12 years of age attempting to change the diaper of his approximately two year old brother.

The toddler was buck naked on the changing table and had a hiney full of poo.

According to Mark, it was a shocking, smelly sight.

His poor brother was desperately trying to clean him up, but there was a quite a mess.

Austin walked in, took one look at what was going on and said, "Nope, nope, nope. I'm good. I no need to go potty anymore."

Mark giggled under his breath feeling bad for the kid, tried to avoid the poopy mess in his path and whisked Austin into a stall.

Austin started to cry and pleaded with Mark to take him out because he didn't need to go potty anymore.

Of course all the while he is holding himself.

Lately, he has become quite a bit more particular about the places where he will or won't go potty.

If there is the least bit of odor, strangeness, automatic flushing toilets, dirty toilets, tight quarters, or really anything he deems out of the ordinary, he refuses to go potty.

So, Mark tried to calm him down knowing that he had to get over his issues and pee.

He finally decided to tell Austin that he (Mark) needed to go potty and he calmed down and said, "Okay Daddy...go head, go head."

He then convinced Austin to go, by holding him up in midair and saying, "One, two, three...GO!"

He peed on demand and as they exited the bathroom the young man was STILL trying to clean up the poop.

Poor kid!

My question was...Where were the parents?

Getting It In While We Can (WW)

This week we seem to have lost fall and barreled right into winter.

We have had frost the last two mornings and I finally had to give in and turn on the heat over the weekend.

Our high temps the last few days have been in the low 50's...brrrr!

Our days of playing outside for extended periods of time are headed into hibernation.

But, while we still can, we will enjoy as much time outside as possible.

Especially when we have the sun to warm our faces!

Mia is enjoying watching Austin play and taking little walks.

Next Spring, when the weather facilitates long periods of outdoor play, she will be a walker and things will be so much different.

So, right now, this Mommy is enjoying the "easy" life.

Austin has been taking breaks from his tricycle riding, dog chasing, mad-man running, car pushing, jeep driving and froggy jumping to push Mia in her stroller.

She seems to enjoys the attention and erratic driving.


However, sometimes I swear she is thinking, "Uh, Mommy! Do you really think this is safe?"

So, if I am not posting as much as usual, assume that I am outside with the kids.

Hoping that they will both get their fill of the outdoors.

So that when true winter hits, we won't all go stir crazy.

For more Wordful Wednesday posts visit Angie at:

It's Nana to the Rescue

Oh yes!!!

I have been singing a little song in the last couple days, "It's Nana to the rescue. It's Nana to the rescue." (To the tune of Jim Dandy to the Rescue)

My mom is here, and will be for the next two weeks.

She is thrilled to get to spend some time with the kids.

I am thrilled that she will get to spend some time with the kids while I spend some time getting things done, going on a date with Mark and hopefully relaxing a little bit.

We have a busy week ahead, but who cares....Nana is here!!!

Nights in Rodanthe

Does this house look familiar at all? What if you attached some blue shutters?

According to Google Analytics I am getting a lot of people on my blog from searches related to the new hit movie Nights in Rodanthe.
It stars Richard Gere and Diane Lane, and is based on the novel by Nicholas Sparks.

Why you ask would they land on my blog?

Well, we vacation there and I have written about it before. In particular, I wrote about my brother-in-law and sister-in-law's wedding. It was a beach wedding in Rodanthe and it was beautiful. To read more about that go here. My in-laws actually have rental homes on the island that you can check out here, here and here.

But, what many seem to be looking for, is information on the house in the movie. Is it a real house? Is it a bed and breakfast? Can it be rented? Etc.

Well, I am about to unload my wealth of information. (wink, wink)

Yes, it is a real house and it is the Northernmost beachfront house in Rodanthe.

No, it is not a bed and breakfast and never was.

Yes, you can rent it (if it hasn't fallen in the ocean) and all the information you need is here. The house is named Serendipity.

A little more about the house:

Every year we expect to go down and see that it is gone. It is VERY close to the water (actually IN the water during high tides as seen above) and the dune has actually moved beyond the house and "eaten" the driveway. It was condemned for awhile, but I guess it has been uncondemned.

Though I don't surf, I have heard that it is a popular house for surfers because the surfing near there is really good.

Only parts of the movie were filmed in and around the house. There are no wild horses on Hatteras Island, so that part of the movie was either staged or filmed somewhere else. Wild horses can be found in the Outer Banks, but not in Rodanthe.

Other facts about Rodanthe:
The local pizza shop, Lisa's Pizzeria, provided the pizza that appears in the movie and they felt very famous for it.

Rodanthe is a very laid back, quiet place. Not very commercialized AT ALL. There are a few pretty decent mom and pop type restaurants. The only chain is a Dairy Queen and they only have vanilla ice cream. There is not much to do except surf, windsurf, relax, hang out on the beach, swim, fish, read, etc.

We love it! Some of our favorite family memories have been made there.










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Frozen Fetish

In yesterday's post I prompted you to guess what Austin was eating. The tint was a clue that I didn't let you know about, not that it would have helped.

Frozen peas.

Yes, that is what he was eating and he was thoroughly enjoying it too!

Austin has a thing with frozen stuff.

Maybe I have created this situation.

I give him frozen grapes, frozen yogurt bars, popsicles, fudgesicles, and even frozen watermelon once.

I honestly think the kid would eat his turkey sausage frozen in the morning if I let him.


Oh well, frozen or not, the kid eats a great variety of foods and that is enough to make any mommy proud.

This N That

Sorry I haven't been around the blog world for a few days. It seems that a black cloud of illness is somewhere over my house.

Mia is doing much better. Her fever is gone and now she is only battling with the fact that the antibiotic makes her sick to her stomach so she doesn't want to eat very much. Of course, when the medicine wears off at about 4 am she is starving. So, Mommy is not getting much sleep these days.

On Sunday night, not only was she up at 4 am, but since Austin has had a dry cough we have a sippy cup of water in his crib so he can take a drink instead of crying for us and that means more peeing. Unfortunately, his monitor receiver had fallen face down on the floor and when he cried that he needed to go pee pee we didn't hear him in time. So in the middle of the night I was changing crib sheets and comforting a toddler as well.

Needless to say, on Monday morning, working on about 4 hours of sleep, I was not doing well. About 11:30 I was gathering up the kids to head to the grocery store and I felt a little nauseous, but attributed that to lack of sleep and possible hunger. The longer I was at the grocery store the worse it got and I decided to stop and get Austin a cheeseburger on the way home so that I wouldn't have to make him lunch and could get the kids and myself in bed as soon as possible. Before laying down, I ate a little bit of lunch thinking that would help me. Big mistake!

Laying very still was about the only thing that was helping, but seeing as how Mia decided to only sleep for an hour, that was not happening for long. I tried for about half an hour to get her back to sleep, but when she made it clear that she didn't like that idea, I put her in my bed with some toys so I could continue to lay down.

You know what her favorite game was? Patting Mommy tummy.

Thankfully, Austin was taking his usual long nap and around 5 he was still sleeping and I knew I was truly sick. I called Mark and begged him to come home and relieve me of the torture.

Before he made it home 20 minutes later, I had already put Mia on the floor with some toys and was in the bathroom violently vomiting. In my book, there is nothing worse in the sickness world than throwing up.

The next 20 hours or so were not pretty or fun. Mark stayed home from work yesterday and took care of the kids, but due to the nighttime situation we have going on here, he was only working on 4 hours sleep as well, so I tried to help as much as I could. I should have stayed in bed.

By dinner time last night I was feeling well enough to help out more and cook dinner. However, I was nowhere near 100%.

Today I am feeling much better and will try to conquer the mess my house has become with Mommy being out of commission for a couple days.

*************************************************************************************

On a good note, Austin has started to share even his beloved cars and trucks with Mia. Tractors are a different story.
I hope it will continue when she starts crawling in the next few weeks. Right now it seems like the sharing is totally on his terms and timing.

***********************************************************************************

Last week when Mia was sick I was on my way to put her in her bed and Austin proclaimed that he needed to go potty. I have become quite good and unbuttoning and pulling down pants and underwear one handed, so I did just that and got him on the potty while I ran upstairs to put my little sicky to bed.

When I came back down I checked in on him and he said he wasn't done. I went into the laundry room which was right next to the bathroom to switch the loads. A couple minutes later, I hear him say, "I make a car wash Mommy!"

I cringed. What could that mean?

I went into the bathroom and discovered.

Due to a old pull up style faucet, he can't turn on the water for himself, so while standing at the sink he decided to use the green foamy soap to wash the entire sink. Inside and out.

My white sink had a lovely shade of green with a nice apple scent.

I would have taken a blog picture but I was just too exhausted to go and get the camera. Sorry!

************************************************************************************


Would you like to venture a guess as to what my son is eating in this picture?

I tinted it so as not to make it too obvious.

But, he has some in each hand.

Answer provided tomorrow!

Searching for Tractors

Austin and I love to play a version of I spy when we are in the car. Either he, or I, will name something as we are leaving, and for the remainder of the drive we try to spot as many as we can. His favorite thing to look for is tractors. Thankfully, they can be "tractors" of any variety including riding lawnmowers, otherwise we would likely not spot very many.

He is really in love with all things tractor related and his favorite thing is when the field below our house, that surrounds our development, is mowed. Because, this is what mows the field.

It takes hours for the tractor to mow all of the open space around the community, and that is exactly how long Austin would happily sit there and watch.
He watches it come and go.

It used to be when the tractor was out of sight, he would cry. Now, we talk about listening for the sound of the tractor coming closer so that he will know when he is about to see it again. He waits and listens, often asking, "You hear that Mommy? Where is a tractor?"

Every time he sees the tractor coming it is like the first time. He jumps up and down and says, "Look Mommy a tractor, a tractor!!"

The guy who drives the tractor has noticed that Austin stands on the deck and watches him. He waves to Austin every once in a while and that is definitely the icing on the cake. It makes me laugh when he tells me "the farmer" waved to him. I guess in his mind, if you drive a tractor, then you are a farmer.

He has actually gotten to sit in the tractor before. Our neighbors, whose family owned the farm the development was built on, still live in the original farmhouse. The tractor is stored in their barn. They have a son a little younger than Austin and he is equally tractor obsessed. One day the dad let Austin sit in the big tractor and then took both boys on a ride on his little tractor, otherwise known as a riding lawnmower. He told me that one of these days he will arrange for Austin to get to ride with his friend who does the mowing of the fields. That will be the highlight of Austin's year.

But, for now, he enjoys the simplicity of watching and listening for the tractor.

It is truly one of his favorite things and brings him pure, simple joy.

I know that when he goes to sleep at night he dreams of...



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Update

Thank you everyone for your WELL wishes!

Yesterday was a long day. Mia woke up and still had a high fever. She was pretty much inconsolable, which was a new development. I gave her a bottle and she went right back to sleep. When she woke up nearly two hours later, she was burning up. I put her on the changing table to change her diaper. She had the chills from her fever and was fussing. Within a few seconds she got a weird look on her sad face and then started projectile vomiting. It was everywhere and I was covered in it. Mark came in and held her while I cleaned myself and everything else. I called the ped's office and the nurse told me I could bring her in but it would probably be for my peace of mind because it was likely something that just needed to run its course. However, I had talked to the doctor, my friend and neighbor, the day before and she told me that if Mia still had a fever in the morning to bring her in because she suspected it was a urinary tract infection. I got an appointment for 11. It was her third day of having a steady fever between 101 and 104. If nothing else, I NEEDED peace of mind.

While Mia was awake she would just lay on me. She had dark circles under her droopy eyes and she looked miserable.

At the doctor's office she registered a temp of 102.3 and I had given her Motrin an hour before. She was checked out and they decided to "bag" her for a urine sample. Basically, they have a small bag that tapes over part of her bottom and hopefully collects enough urine for testing. I was sent home to feed her and await her pee. I was given another bag in case the first one didn't work for some reason. Good thing, because the first one didn't work. Most of the pee ended up in her diaper and not the bag. So I replaced the bag and had to wait again. Meanwhile, I had a very sick and lethargic baby on my hands. She wouldn't eat and only wanted to be held.

I was feeling progressively worse as well, but knew that I was only dealing with a cold.

I laid Mia in her bed to wait for the urine sample. I prayed it would work because if not they would have to catheter her before the end of the day. I went to lay down and before my head even hit the pillow I heard Austin saying that he needed to poopie. I got him out of his bed and took him to the bathroom. He only peed. Back to his bed, back to my bed. It wasn't meant to be! 2 minutes later I heard him saying he really needed to go poopie. Thank goodness I listened and didn't suspect an attempt at not napping, because he literally filled the toilet with diarrhea. I asked him if he felt bad and he said no. I prayed it was only a fluke or that he was getting my cold. I put him back to bed and prayed as I walked down the hall that I would manage at least a little rest. Like I said, it wasn't meant to be.

Mia started fussing and I knew that she had peed and was uncomfortable because with the bag on the pee would stay close to her skin. I went in and collected the urine, hoping it was enough for testing. I heard Austin and knew he wasn't asleep and a nap was not going to happen for him because we needed to head back to the ped's office. I packed them up and we left.

They did the initial testing when we got there and said there was both protein and blood in her urine. It was suspicious enough to qualify for an antibiotic while they sent the sample out for extended testing which would take 24-48 hours. The pediatrician said she wanted to see Mia's fever gone within 24-36 hours. She will be on the antibiotic for 10 days and then they will do another urine sample.

Before I left to go get the prescription she told me, as she put her hand on my shoulder, that after the antibiotics and the end of her UTI, they want to send her to a urologist because they don't like when babies under one year of age get a UTI. That has me a little nervous, though I am sure it is just a precaution to make sure that everything is properly formed and functioning within her tract.

Today, I am tired, but hopeful. It appears that Austin has my cold too and maybe even Mia, poor thing. She still had a fever this morning, but not as high. She will take a bottle but clenches her jaws if I try to feed her. I am praying that the next 24 hours will bring about a lot of positive change.

Thank you for your prayers!

Fall's Unappealing Feature

This picture is a good portrayal of how I feel. (Old picture of Austin.)

My week is not going how I planned.

I don't feel good.

Mia feels worse.

She has had a fever for almost 48 hours and it has spiked to nearly 104 several times.

If it hasn't broken by tomorrow the doctor will run some tests to see if she has a UTI or other infection.

We have been stuck at home.

Austin has watched a lot of TV.

I love fall, but I DO NOT love the colds and other illnesses it brings with it.

My bed is calling me, but the kids are louder!


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8 months

Here you are a whole eight months old!

This month has brought you:

your first two teeth (with more currently on the way)

a desire to crawl (though as of yet you are only managing to roll around and stretch forward)

a discovery of our dog, Beau (Hopefully Mommy can get a picture of how he puts his head in your lap.)

more independent playing

a serious growth spurt

your first cookie

a desire to spend more time with Daddy

and lots of jabbering and giggles

I know your ninth month will be filled with many new achievements, firsts, great memories and other things that make our hearts overflow with love for you.

Happy 8 months Mia!!!

Tagged

I was tagged by AVT Coach to tell you seven quirky, weird or random things about myself. I have been following her blog for a few weeks now. She is a relatively new blogger, but she shares some great stuff. My favorite part about her blog is that at the end of every post she writes a different definition of abundance. Those are always really great.

Now on with the quirky randomness.

1. I really love football. Part of the reason I love fall is because it is football season. I know a lot about the sport. I used to keep statistics for the football team in high school. I played football in college. Not with the big boys, but on an intramural flag football team. We were undefeated and the other teams did not like us. We were coached by two of the players on the actual West Virginia University football team. That caused just a little bit of jealousy. Because we were so hated by the other teams they often were quite nasty on the field. It was rough play, but I loved it. I often miss those days.

2. I LOVE chocolate, but I don't like mint and chocolate together. I have tried so many times thinking that maybe my tastes will have changed, but so far I still really don't like it.

3. The smell of movie popcorn makes me nauseous. Not when I am pregnant...all the time. When I go to the movies I usually carry something that smells good like lotion, body spray or hand sanitizer so that if someone near me has a big barrel of popcorn I can put something sweet smelling on my hands and just keep them near my face to combat the nausea.

4. I have been in eight car accidents, but I have never been the one driving. I used to fear that I was bad luck to other drivers. I still feel much more comfortable if I am the one behind the wheel.

5. When I took piano lessons growing up I didn't find the task of learning to read music very interesting, so I would always ask my teacher to play the song for me first. I learned to play songs by watching and listening. It took her months to realize that I was playing by ear and not reading a single note.

6. At my wedding reception I got a rather large amount of steak au jus on my dress when I foolishly used a regular knife to cut my steak instead of waiting for a steak knife. In struggling to cut the steak the meat slipped on the plate and splashed au jus onto my dress. I rushed to the bathroom with a couple of my bridesmaids and the reception hall wedding planner. We removed the dress and came up with the genius idea to use baby powder to cover the stain so that it wouldn't show up in the remainder of the pictures (cake cutting, etc.). While my dress was being attended to I was standing in the bathroom in my very pretty underwear. One of Mark's relatives, who I had not yet really met, came in and happily introduced herself to me and gave me a big hug. I could not have been more embarrassed that her first time meeting me was while I was half naked. By the way, the baby powder worked perfectly and my dress came out like new after taking it to the dry cleaners.

7. I am a nerd. I graduated fifth in my class in high school and summa cum laude in college. I have always loved school and pretty much always wanted to be a teacher. Sadly, I wasted a few years in college as an accounting major because my high school teachers convinced me that I didn't want to be a teacher because I was better than that. What??? It frustrates me to this day. I now realize that they must not have respected the profession or liked their jobs very much.

I would love to completely follow the rules on this tag, but I know that a lot of the blogs I read have already done it. So I will tag a few people and let anyone else who wants to do it, jump on board on your own. I tag:

Tyne at The White House
Kristen at Loving Our Simple Life
Jenn at Times, They are a Changin'
Jennifer at If you're happy and you know it
Lindsay at Our Lives-In a Nutshell

Can't wait to read everyone's quirky randomness!!!

Just for Fun

I have come across a few blogs lately that have done this and I thought it was so funny. So, I did it too!
The above picture is apparently me if I had graduated in the year 1958. Sort of reminds me of my beautiful Grandma. What do you think Grandma?

This is 1966. Makes me wonder how much time I would have had to spend on my hair each morning to get it that big. Wow!

1968. I don't look very much like my mom, but this is probably the closest I could get myself to looking like her actual high school graduation picture. What do you think Mom?

The 1972 look is very similar to the 1966 look with just a little less poofiness and hairspray.

1976 attire and accompanying hairdo. Wow, really not a good look for me.

My favorite of all is this 1978 picture. I might be biased, but I think I am totally rockin this fine afro. I wonder if cool dance moves come with this hairstyle. That would be awesome!

Bye Bye Binkies!

Last Saturday, in between rain squalls, Austin agreed it was time to send his binkies off to the Binky Fairy.
Well, he may have been more excited about the present than relinquishing his binkies, but nonetheless the binkies were going.
We had been prepping him for days and he was ready. Of course, we hadn't counted on the nearly constant rain. But, shortly before the sun set there was a break and we headed out with his four binkies and six balloons to send them off.
I tied the binkies to the balloon ribbons and immediately knew we had a problem. The binkies were an effective weight to ground the balloons. I removed one. Plunk! Right to the ground. I removed another one. Same story.
I looked at Mark and asked him what we were going to do if six balloons wouldn't even raise one lone binky. He shrugged and said, "I don't know try again tomorrow with more balloons." No way! The current balloons would be deflated by then and I would have to go and waste even more money on balloons.
I was determined to make it work.
I removed another binky, leaving one, and prayed that it would float.
Float would be a loose term for what was happening when one binky was tied on. I looked at Mark and he just shrugged. Thankfully, during all of this time Austin was busy stomping in puddles and didn't realize that we had thrown the other binkies in the trash. We decided to pray for a breeze and release the balloons from the top of our hill.

Shortly after releasing them they were hovering, though moving, just a few feet above the grass.

Austin took off after them saying, "Uh oh! I get em Mommy, I get em." We were cracking up laughing at our luck. Our plan was failing miserably! Austin was chasing the balloons and was only a few feet from catching them. What would we tell him if we couldn't get this to work? I was sick of the guilt I was feeling over the fact that he would be three in a few months and was still using binkies to get to sleep.
Suddenly, God heard my prayer and a lovely breeze swept through.

Up went the balloons and one little binky. Austin waved bye bye and cheered the balloons to go higher.

Success!!!
Well, until that wind died down and the balloons started heading for the tree line. Mark pointed out the potential for disaster and I quickly called Austin to come back up the hill to distract him. When he reached the top of the hill the balloons were about to find a new home.

I pointed high into the sky so that he wouldn't see them get stuck in the trees. I told him to tell the Binky Fairy to take good care of his binkies and send him a good present. He asked for tractors, waved to the sky and went back to playing in the puddles.
That night he did fine. He didn't even ask for a binky. Though it took him a little longer to fall asleep, he didn't shed a tear. I anticipated a much harder time, but it was no problem.
In the morning, he found a note attached to a gift outside his bedroom door. It read

Dear Austin,
Thank you for sending me your binkies. I will take good care of them.
Hope you enjoy your present.
Love,
The Binky Fairy

In the box were a few new miniature John Deere tractors that he had been eyeing at Target. He has played with them non-stop since then. He now sleeps with tractors instead of binkies. What a relief!

This morning I went out on the deck to check on the balloons. Yep, still there nearly a week later.

However, thanks to some very windy weather today, this afternoon they were finally gone. Whew!!!


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