Friday, January 3, 2025

Football & Calendar

There is still no snow here, so if the sun it still up, you'll find Owen practicing football in the backyard. 

Corey got him a football stand to hold the football, which you can see in that video. It's the orange thing in front of him. But he's using a black thing instead - a plunger mute for his trumpet. I guess he likes how that works better? Hopefully it will still work when/if he ever needs it for trumpet. 

I'm sick with a headache and cough. This morning, after a hard night of coughing, I was still sleeping on the loveseat couch in our room with a rice bag on my head. I hear Owen walk up next to me. I squint open my eyes and see he is dressed in his football uniform and helmet. He didn't sleep in them, he just wakes up and gets ready like it's game day every day. "Mom, you forgot to put Peter's birthday on the calendar." That was how he said good morning to me. I replied "No I didn't. I wrote it down last night." "Oh!" and he happily left. I thought that was funny. 

Peter has been waiting for months for January to get here, so that he could see his birthday and now how many days are left until his birthday. So there is still a lot to unpack and clean, but putting up our January & February calendars was a priority. I got it done yesterday, except for writing down events, and then I walked away and left it on the ground, with scissors close by. And markers. And a few moments later, Natalie found me to tell me that K had written on the calendar. I went to see the damage, and the writing wasn't bad. I was worried she'd scribbled across the whole thing, but instead she carefully colored on a few of the dates. I can deal with that. 

I was able to cut out the numbers of the old calendar and glue them on. And I taped the cut at the bottom. Then I put it up on the wall to keep it away from her. Peter was sad I didn't put his birthday on, and so last night after scriptures, even though I didn't have colored markers to make it cute, I wrote his birthday, Joseph's birthday, and our anniversary on in pencil. I was lucky I put it on there before Owen called me out this morning! 

Corey and I did go climbing yesterday. He went to his dad's to work, and I drove out there in the evening and and we met up to do some top rope. After that, he headed back to his dad's to work, and I ran into Savers for a moment. I found a "Simple Abundance" book and got it for Mel, and gave it to her and told her we are going to do it together. :) Giving it another try and hoping I can keep with it. We did through Jan 3rd today and are going to check in with each other every Sunday. Mel and I also went for a short bike ride. I was coughing a lot last night and today my voice is scratchy. It felt better in the afternoon, well enough that I decided to brave the winter air. As soon as we were outside and breathing hard, it was killing my throat for the first 15 min. I was worried I was undoing any repair/healing that had taken place, but then it felt ok and I was able to breath hard and it didn't hurt. I hoping I'm on the mend. 

Wednesday, January 1, 2025

Travel Home From Florida

We are home from Florida. I fell on the ground after we arrived. I could have stayed longer, but I had to get K out of her carseat, so it was just a brief 20 seconds of exhausted relief. I'm very grateful to be back and be done with that. It was hard, but good. I'm feeling sick now. Have had a bit of a headache tonight.

Yesterday after we landed in Las Vegas, I thought that, with the hardest parts all successfully completed, we were on the down hill. Just needed to gather our luggage and head to St. George. We were at the back of the plane and so we were the last few people off the plane. We gave Mel and Hyrum the van keys and they ran ahead to get an Uber and go get the cars. We took our time walking to the baggage claim, thinking that would give Mel and Hyrum time. We found a play area for the kids and Corey stayed there as I went ahead with Lily to find a bathroom and then we went to get the luggage. We went to carousel 16, where the baggage screen said our luggage should be, but there was no sign of it. No one else was there waiting either. I looked around, walked around, was confused but didn't see anyone to ask for help. After 45 min of waiting, and another walked around, I finally noticed the Delta bagged help desk. I went over there, and hooray all of our luggage was there. It had been put on a different flight, and it arrived in Vegas before us since our flight out of Atlanta was delayed. So mystery solved, but it did put us another hour behind. Plus we forgot about the loss of an hour by returning from Pacific coast time to Mountain time. As we were finally getting our luggage, Corey came over and had poop all down the back of his shirt, from carrying K on his shoulders when she was poopy. We opened a luggage and found Hyrum's clothes. Corey put on one of H's shirts and we called it good. Lily got a smartcart and we began our balancing act.

Mel and Hyrum had been calling us and we'd been calling them, they had some trouble finding their way around, but we had been having trouble too, so it was all working out. I went to change K, didn't give her a new dress though, so she sat in a little bit messy clothes. We called Mel and H again and we figured out where they were and where to go meet them. As we got outside and when we were crossing the busy Las Vegas airport road with all it's New Years tourists around, our smart cart full of bins tipped and almost toppled over a Las Vegas lady goer who looked dressed for the occasion in a short skirt and very high black heels. Luckily all of our crap didn't totally knock her her over. Lily was guiding it, Corey was there with Lil and sincerely apologized to the lady, she was gracious about it, but that was embarrassing in front of everyone. So I thought we were on the home stretch, but we had to really top it off with that extra hour not being able to find the luggage, poop on Corey's clothes, and having everything fall over in the street. We took a deep breath, slowly kept walking and hallelujah we found Hyrum and got our stuff to the van. I took that car with Lily as my copilot and the 4 littlest kids and the majority of luggage while CAHSN went to find Mel in her car. Corey told me to go find a place to eat and they'd meet us there. I didn't want to go eat. I wanted to start our 2 hour drive out. I drove, Wes called, Joseph and Eliza told him their baby news, I wasn't in a good spot to take a call, maybe I'd be ok to just get pizza the kids could eat in the car if we could head out. On the phone with Corey's car, kids suggested going to golden Corral. I did a big vote no. We met up in a Dominos pizza parking lot, which was close to Smiths, and instead of pizza they all went into Smiths for some snacks for the drive tonight and cereal and milk for tomorrow. I waited in the car with these 4 who were asleep.

I sat there feeling tired and done and like I never wanted to travel ever again. Perhaps food will be good if it wakes these kids up though? I was feeling sad about the thought that they'd probably be all rested and wake up early in the morning and I'd still be exhausted. I hoped they would not wake up after we arrive in St. George? I guess it is midnight Florida time... so maybe they really are just exhausted too. We arrived in St. George after midnight. The guy at the front desk gave us a late check out time of noon, so that was comforting. We plopped the kids in bed and all fell asleep pretty quick, except Corey told me this morning that he wasn't able to fall asleep and didn't fall asleep until 3, he wasn't able to breathe. When he told me that I wasn't excited about driving again, but I was grateful to have gotten sufficient sleep. I was starting to feel like I was getting sick though - headache. The kids woke up this morning at 8, which wasn't too bad. I got them breakfast and we watched Bluey while Corey slept a little longer. I love Bluey. MHASODP left for home in the van at 11, I took a little power nap but didn't really fall asleep, and while I did that, K was playing with the room plunger. And she took my airpods and ripped the little ear tip. I was glad she didn't throw them in the toilet. She's really upping her game. 

The drive home was good. LNK were with us. I drove slower in Mel's car. It was a much better drive than last night. I'm grateful for daylight. I talked to Nicole, Corey researched Brandon Sanderson stuff as he talked with Lily, then turned his interest to research on the Boston Red Socks. 

I'm so glad to be home. We unpacked a little, mostly to start laundry. I'm sure I'll be on recovery for a few days. A few pics from the trip - K was the last one we woke up yesterday morning before we headed out to the airport. 

Oh I forgot to report on that travel day. Let's see. Joseph & Eliza and Ethan & Bella had earlier flights out, so they all left early. J&E dropped off E&B at the Ft. Lauderdale airport, then they drove to Miami. They had a direct flight back to Ohio, so that is good for them. I spent Monday night rearranging baggage, cause we were not going to have as much room in our cars on the way home as we did on our way here (cause we wouldn't have E&B and their extra room for people and luggage). So I packed the bins and the small suitcases, and then put the small suitcases in the medium suitcases and then put that in the big suitcases. It barely worked out and fit. We loaded up yesterday morning, headed out in time, I went straight to the rental car return, which was a mistake, cause then I had to walk with all the kids and luggage. Thankfully we didn't have bins, so it wasn't that bad. Corey didn't make that mistake, and he dropped off Mel with the kids in his car and the bins and luggage. They tagged the luggage while he returned his rental car and he was able to take the shuttle over with just him. Me and my shuttle goers were a little slower, but again, I was glad we didn't have the bins. 
Corey caught up, and we got bins all checked. 9 luggage and 2 carseats. 
That's where I was thinking the hardest part was over. And I guess it mostly was, but we still had hard things ahead in vegas. Kids liked riding the shuttle train to Terminal D.
We had some food to get us through. They took our jelly, mustard, and peanut butter at security, drat, so we just ate bread with meat and lettuce. I ate 3 heads of lettuce. We only used 1 of 6 heads of romaine during the week, so that was pretty optimistic of me to think we'd use them during our trip home, haha. But I did eat 3 of them, and they used 1 for their sandwiches. That was breakfast. I also ate two bell peppers. Flight to Atlanta was good. I watched Bluey with Katharine. Had a 4 hour layover in Atlanta. 

K wanted me to hold her the whole time. So Corey's been sick a good chunk of this trip, so I had to step up my game, and K was super needy and wanted me to hold her and ONLY me, so yeah, I have good reason to be exhausted. At the airport layover yesterday, kids ate candycanes, apricots, Corey did get some fries for NODPK. I opened a thing of gluten free wafers that I bought for Bella that we never used, and then this happened. That didn't happen with the dried apricots or prunes that we still had with us, lol. I finished my highlight of 2024 post. Mel and I decided to watch a movie together on the flight to Las Vegas. We watched The Fall Guy and it was so funny. I really really liked it, haha. Corey recommended it, so I watched it. Lily had recommended it months ago, but I thought she was talking about Free Guy and I wasn't interested. I still thought that was what it was, but when the movie started I realized it wasn't what I thought, so I didn't know what to expect and it was just all so new and fun and I watched some of it twice. Our flight was delayed departing AND they had to take a longer route because of whatever wind stuff, so that also added 30+ min I think. We ended it with a little more Bluey with Katharine. 

The Bluey episode "Rain" is soooo cute. I watched that several times. Ok, that's good enough for our travel log. SO glad to be home. Hyrum and Mel were helpful around here. They arrived home before us and when we arrived, they had unpacked the van AND Mel was vacuuming it out! Our poor van hasn't been cleaned for years. Thank you Melodie! She's a lifesaver. Our teens left to see friends that they've missed, and the boys have been busy playing with toys. They were especially surprised by the box of toys and costumes that was in the car from my sister Patrice. That's kept them busy.
K was happy to sit in her chair and watch princess movies. Corey and I were going to go climbing after we unpacked a little bit. I called to make sure they were open on New Years Day. I called at 5:40. The lady who answered said they were open, but that they closed in 20 minutes. Drat. We should have gone before we unpacked. Probably better this way, since I am feeling sick. We'll go tomorrow. When we were unpacking, I just happened to look at the clock at 4:28 (my bday) and I felt like that was God giving me a hug and telling me good job and that he loved me. We did it. We gave our kids a good experience, I didn't murmur out loud, and God watched over us on our flights and drives and we are back home. Thank you Lord.

Tuesday, December 31, 2024

Highlights of 2024

I am in the Atlanta Georgia Airport right now. We have a long layover (still 2+ hours before we board) on our trip back home after spending the holidays in Florida. Since I have free time (kids are all on screens) I thought I'd finish up this highlights of 2024 post. I began this post a few weeks ago and started by looking at our 2023 highlights from last year. When I saw our family photo taken in September 2023, I immediately thought "Shoot, we didn't get family pictures taken!!" but then my brain looked through some files and remembered "Oh duh, yes we did! We had two weddings!" 

Ethan and Bella's wedding in March above, and Joseph and Eliza's wedding in June below.
We didn't get individual shots, so I'll be sure to do that sometime in 2025, but a big family photo with coordinated colors take a lot of work, and that counts. Wow, we're at the end of 2024. This whole year is such a blur now... I'm glad that I do these recaps for myself. It's nice to take time to look back and remember that yes it was busy, but it was great. We did a lot of wonderful things together! Sometimes in the day to day rush of life, I think and feel like there's no time for anything - it's just carpool and lessons and dishes and dinner. OR we're busy with skiing, wedding trips or traveling (like right now) and Corey and I are both so busy and interrupted that we go a week without having a one on one conversation. Life takes 100% no matter your work or how many kids you have. My advice - write it down. Record it for yourself and for your family, cause soon it will be over and you won't remember what happened to your time. If you keep some highlights for yourself, I think you'll be impressed with all that you do. I'm glad I've still been able to mostly keep up with blogging here, even thought lots of it is mundane info. I like to have details to trigger memories for me and the kids (Hyrum and I were just talking about the stuffed animals that he and the older kids had in Costa Rica and he couldn't remember the name of his Webkinz gecko, but I found it on the blog - Ben!) But big or small stuff, it's the brick and mortar of your life story. Kids, I hope you are reading this - write in your journals! Today is NOT your final destination, but it could be a pivotal part of it! So write it down or you'll forget what happened on your journey. Ok, I'll get off my soapbox. As for our journey this year, yeah, two weddings, one missionary, lots of birthdays, and a few dozen more wonderful memories ~

March - Wedding dinner, Ethan & Bella est 2024, wedding photos, Ethan is 22, Abi in New York

May - Natalie won 2nd in a state debate competition, The Wride House: World PremierOwen trumpet recital, Daniel First Grade ProgramSkyline Super ReunionNatalie Young American AwardKatharine is 2


It's been a full year with many blessings. We look forward to the ways God will guide us along this new year, to help us learn and grow... er... thrive in 2025!! (haha, yeah, ya gotta make it rhyme!) :) 

Happy New Year!

Friday, December 27, 2024

Cocoa Beach

It is 8:45 pm here in Orlando. We're back at the Grande Vista after a fun beach day at Cocoa Beach. 

Last night Joseph made ambitious plans to leave between 5:30 and 6 am to go there to watch the sunrise. Younger siblings wanted to come. Then he sent a text around midnight saying his plans had changed and he and Eliza didn't want to get up that early. I didn't tell the younger siblings, but I didn't wake any of them up this morning. For J&E that would mean only 5 hours of sleep, and they did that  Christmas eve and then had headaches Christmas Day. I still got up early to make oatmeal for any early departure-ers, but then I went back to bed with K and there wasn't any stirring in the house until around 9. I knew I wouldn't be going to the beach early, cause Corey had gone to bed early with K, and I didn't know his plans, and I didn't think I could get out the door with everyone without his help. Little K got whatever sickness Abi had on the plane. Katharine had a fever yesterday and still sick last night and slept with us. It was fun to snuggle her. I usually don't get to cause she wants Abi.

Right now she only wants me. Her fever went away after I gave her some tylenol last night after dinner and she slept well after that. Around 9-10, kids were debating what to do and costs. Still might be fun to go to he Kennedy Space Center. Hmm... As we talked about options, Mel made ham sandwiches for lunch, we packed up a bin full of dried fruit, I grabbed some chips and other stocking stuffer leftovers, and we eventually all agreed on the beach and we left for that around noon. Iy was an hour drive. We all got free 90 min parking spots that we went and rotated after our first round of time was up. The older kids got their first game of spikeball going (Owen's one of the big boys now)...
Peter was excited to bring his t-rex wood skeleton puzzle to bury in the sand "So I can be a paleontologist!"
We'll find out later if any of the pieces got left behind in the sand. Hyrum set to work creating the Star Wars scenes he envisioned.... Can you tell what this one is?

The little umbrellas and a hotel kitchen cloth made a good beach towel for the clone troopers, enjoying a day off at the beach.
And Hyrum recruited his siblings to help make the space port Mos Eisley
We ended up creating some fun scenes that I'll share in a second. As the afternoon progressed, Lily dug a hole and we put Peter in it. Once he was helplessly stuck, we pondered what to do with him. Hmm - Ethan decided to go for a field goal.
Then Mel had the idea to change him into a spider. Most of us were squirming "gross!" 
Our imaginations are a little too real so we all thought that was disturbing and yucky, but he felt cool to be Spider Man. After a few pics, the girls got to work creating something sweeter.
Aww, baby sea turtle just hatched out of his egg! Hurry to the ocean before the seagulls get you like they did yoda!
Katharine still wanted me most of the day. I held her, carried her to the water a few times, but she didn't want to touch it. Mostly we just sat and I rocked her and we listened to the waves. Good grounding time. 
"Can you see the world in a grain of sand?" - (We listened to the killers on our drive Christmas Day, to help me stay awake) Was just as well K needed me, cause I didn't have a place to change into my swimsuit anyway. I would have gotten in the waves to play with the older kids, but there was no public restroom where I could change. Or for any of us to use for the bathroom. I held it all afternoon. I hope the kids did too. Cocoa Beach might want to provide some public restrooms unless they are encouraging ocean wees. I walked around quite a bit looking for a place, but every restaurant said "restrooms for Dine in customers only" - boo. Once I got her curious about sand, I was able to leave her. 
And that's when we did the Star Wars photo shoot. Hyrum was up for the sunrise, cause he wanted to photoshop it and make it a double sun photo of Luke on Tatooine. But instead they made this -
Han and Chewie read to fly out of here, if they can get past that giant pink dressed monster past the ship hanger... 
C-3P0 and R2-D2 escaped from the Jawas. The kids had fun.
And that was my vision when we decided to give most of the Star Wars toys to Hyrum. I knew he'd make some magic happen, and he did. Thank you Hyrum! Pic of the kids is at the top of this post and I did a selfie of us with K, cause she didn't want to get in the pic with her siblings. 
If you look at the sibling pic, you'll see Luke on the top of a building, and he just shot a clone trooper, so there's some live action falling, but Luke better hurry cause he's got a trooper ready to get him. Corey looked ok at the beach, but he's been horizonal since we got back. He probably got what Abi had on eh plane. He slept and the rest of us went swimming while E&B made dinner, Jungle Cruise playing on the jumbo screen (I don't love having a huge movie screen there by the pool). Ethan came and told us dinner was ready. Spaghetti and meatballs with broccoli. Then I stayed and cleaned up with Bella and Eliza, J&E went to play fooseball and ping pong, and MHWLSODP went swimming again. Joseph and Ethan came back and now they are playing chess and Bella and Eliza playing Bananagrams.

Corey is in bed, Natalie is asleep too, she has a fever, I'm here blogging, K talking to herself in the other room, I'm glad she's feeling better.

Ok, kids all came back and we had Ferrero Rocher chocolates for dessert and we just finished a few rounds of Secret Hitler. We all had fun playing this last night, so everyone was up for playing it again tonight. On one round, the fascists ended up being JMEH and E was Hitler, but then H put down a winning Liberal card (it was his first game, I made him chancellor, I gave him a choice for fascist or liberal and he didn't feel he could lie about his mother so he put the liberal card and that gave the liberals the win, and his fellow fascist Ethan explained to him why that was not the right move. "Sorry, it's my first game..." It's also fun playing with Owen cause we could not tell the difference in how he acted. We were pretty sure he didn't know how to lie, or if he was lying he was very good but more likely he was still learning how to play the game. On one round, I was Hitler and I didn't know this but Owen was one of the fascists, he put down a fascist card, cause he "had to" (aka only got two fascist cards to choose from) then looked at my cards and totally outed me "She's a fascist! And she's Hitler!" We debated whether to keep playing or stop, since me being Hitler was now known to everyone. Joseph said he'd like to see how it played out. Turns out at the end, Owen plays the final liberal card to give the Liberals the win, THEN we find out he was a fascist! Which adds to the curiosity of why he outed me! Funny, so then Ethan explained the rules of the game again "Owen, if you get a fascist card, you want the fascists to win... which means if someone is a fascist (like mom) you lie and tell everyone she is liberal..." "Ooooh!" It was funny. After that round, Owen got a fascist card again, and I was a fascist and Joseph, and Abi was Hitler, and that time we won it! Owen put down a liberal card, people were suspicious, I was President, checked him, and lied and said he was a liberal. Eliza tested me later and gave me a choice between fascist and liberal and I put liberal as a strategy and got a little bit of trust, then later I was President again and this was near the end and people were campaigning hard, I was able to give the chancellor position to Abi, Mel was the the final "yay/ja" vote we needed, and wit that fascists won! That was Joseph's 4th or 5th game as a fascist and he was glad that his fellow fascists finally got it, haha. Good job Owen!

We are doing a game of Skull King now but it is very late and we should go to bed soon. Don't know what the plan is for tomorrow. It's ok - that relaxing flexibility has made this feel like a real vacation!

Wednesday, December 25, 2024

Florida Christmas

We have survived another day of traveling and get to take a break now as we stay in the Marriott Grand Vista. I just woke up from a major nap and now it does look like Christmas to me, cause kids are playing with presents and legos on the floor.

Hyrum and Ethan enjoyed working on Peter's lego set.

I'm glad we're here and that we can relax for a few days. We had an early morning and a great Christmas morning, then a 3 hour drive up to Orlando. It all went off without a hitch. I sent J a text to wake me up this morning, which he did, and I went upstairs and we found the tree and Christmas lights. Went back downstairs to set out the sibling gifts to each other with some lights... There! That's better!

That looks more festive than it looked last night. Ok good. Little kids were knocked out cold.

Hyrum helped me move the Christmas presents up to the 4th floor to their room. 

Mel had finished blowing up the tree, trimmed with lights. H put out the presents from Santa (Corey and I)

Joseph Mel and Eliza were all up and working on breakfast.

We were kinda making it up as we went. When they were done with the crepes and fruit, they sent a text that they were on their way and we woke up the boys. Well, we moved them from the pull out couch where they slept and put them in chairs while we put the sofa back together for everyone to sit. Peter looking very snug.

We left Katharine sleeping in the bed until we went upstairs for breakfast.
Kids looked in their stockings and ODP ate some, but I recommended they save the treats for the car ride to Orlando, esp since Joseph had a fun breakfast waiting for us. We had a little devotional. We watched "The Christ Child" and then Corey shared some good thoughts about how maybe traveling on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day could actually be a very appropriate tradition. Just think about it - it was a 70–90 miles journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem. That likely took them between 4 days to a week of travel. They were out of their comfort zone, not in circumstances they would have chosen. But unlike us, they were not traveling in fast cars and airplanes. We got tired sitting on around watching tv, vs. feeling tired from riding a donkey for 4+ days, yikes! They were not prepared with everything they probably would have chosen to have for when their baby would be born, just as we did not have everything we would have liked to have on Christmas for our "traditions" but it was good enough and we should be grateful. Corey said "So we should be able to handle a hotel without carpet..." (The Worldmark had tile floor) haha, among other things that we were griping about. We still have it very cushy compared to Baby Jesus. Good things to think about. Then we exchanged "secret santa" gifts. The little boys had gifts for everyone. To "Kafrin" from Peter, cute!
Abi was feeling better this morning. Mel got Joseph a "The Earth is Flat" shirt, which she made last minute over at Wayne's house, which was why she was an hour behind us on the drive to St. George on Monday. He loved it! He's always thought that it is so weird that people actually believe the earth is flat. 
There was a logo on the front too that said "Members all around the globe" haha. Very funny. 
Some of the other memorable sibling gifts were the custom Cat Noir blanket that Lily got for Sophi, which inspired the blanket that Natalie made for me with pics of my face all over it and a quote saying "No one can compete <3" "Natalie, where did you get that?!?" She replied matter of factly "Amazon." It was really fun and around 9am we went upstairs to the 4th floor where the college kids slept, for breakfast and more gifts. 
We had called and asked for a had a late check out, and they said they could give us until 11. That works. So we had two hours now. Joseph and Eliza had planned a fun breakfast of Christmas Tree crepes. The green crepes were all ready to go and he gave a little "Joe's Cooking show" demonstration on how to make them. 
Fun, this could definitely be a new Christmas tradition.
And then it was time for Santa's gifts. 
We had a roaring fireplace on the tv, so relaxing.
So the most memorable gift will be these announcements from the marrieds. First Joseph and Eliza gave Katharine a gift of a shirt (they didn't finish but the print is ready to go) that says "Aunt Kathy's Homestyle cooking" (from a meat place in Canada)... Peter then opened some spiderman underwear with a post-it that said "A cool gift for a cool uncle." People looked a little confused, and it took a few minutes., and then Daniel said "Wait! Is someone pregnant??" The ultrasound pic with the gifts were the clue he needed. And then a reply came "Two people in this room are pregnant!" 
Then Ethan had a gift for all the kids and it had a dice in 

Then for the gender reveal, J&E opened a gift from Eliza's grandma with some cute PINK pajamas. They are having a girl! And Ethan planned ahead and had Daniel wear some BLUE underwear, and gave him a wedgie in front of everyone for their reveal, in true Ethan style. So they are having a boy. They are both due in May, Ethan and Bella at the first of the month, Joseph and Eliza at the end. Exciting things coming in 2025!! And what a fun surprise for everyone for Christmas! 

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