The Big Day (also known as the longest post ever)

I'm going to apologize in advance, this is going to be long! I want to write down as much as I can so I can look back and remember it!

As I stated in my previous post, my bridesmaids and I stayed at my parents' house the night before the wedding. My brother still lives there. I also had Isabelle and Zoe. It was a packed house!! Mary and I shared a bed with Isabelle and Zoe. Mary was really excited that they were going to sleep with us. And they were pretty good, woke me up only once to go to the bathroom at around 4 am.

I think I woke up for the first time (on my own) at about 5 am. I kept trying to go back to sleep, and I did sleep off and on until like 7:30 or so. I finally gave up and got up. Everyone else was asleep, including my dad who, on a normal day, wakes up super early, I'm talking 4 or 5. (he usually goes back to bed a few hours later for a little nap and then wakes up for the 2nd time around the time a normal human being arises) So I took the girls outside in the backyard and sat in the rocking chair. I was already nervous. Well, not nervous, but just kind of like, Okay, I'm getting married today, shouldn't I be doing something?? Finally around 8:30 everyone else started waking up. Mary informed me that Isabelle and Zoe were not fun to sleep with! She said they moved around so much and that kept waking her up! Oops, I guess that either I'm used to their moving, or they don't usually do that when we are at home.

So, anyways, my dad had left a little earlier to go and get my requested breakfast! I requested Cosi bagels and fruit. If you have never had Cosi, you HAVE to try their bagels, even if you don't like regular bagels, you will like theirs, I promise! When he returned, we cut up lots of fruit and made coffee and mimosas and I sat with the girls at the table to eat. But I couldn't eat or drink or really even hold a conversation!! What was wrong with me?! I did not feel normal. Finally after breakfast, I gave in and took a xanax. I have to take it from time to time for anxiety because I get worked up about little things (I'm kind of high strung), and I'm so glad I had it because it totally made me feel like a normal person for the rest of the day! Mary even told me that she was worried about how I was acting at breakfast. I really think it was just because we weren't really doing anything productive, you know? We literally had nothing to do until makeup at 2 pm.

So after some chatting and getting showered for the day, Mary and I left to run by my house to get the wedding rings (Lee and I realized at the rehearsal dinner that neither of us had remembered to get them and neither of us was staying at the house that night!) and then we were off to get our makeup done! There was kind of a fiasco the week before about who was going to do my makeup bc the girl I'd had a trial with moved to Chanel plus she wasn't working on my wedding day. After lots of confusion, I finally had an appt with someone else and I loved her! Her name is Shannon at Laura Mercier and she is fabulous! So sweet and did just what I wanted! And it was actually really relaxing to just sit there and have someone else do my makeup!

Makeup was at 2 and we were supposed to be at hair by 3, but we were just leaving Saks at 3 so we were running a little behind, for my liking anyway. Anyway, we arrived at the hair salon and the other 3 bridesmaids were there waiting for us. They had gotten their hair and makeup done one hour ahead of ours so that the salon could accommodate us. Have I mentioned how much I love my hairstylist? I do love her. She's totally cool, laid back, and does exactly what you ask for, and she's excellent at what she does! While I was getting my hair done, the other girls who were finished and went to get us some lunch, and they brought back champagne!! I sort of mentioned it in my earlier post, but the chapel surprised us when they told us that we couldn't drink at the chapel before the wedding. It was not allowed in the bridal/groom rooms. We were bummed because we wanted a champagne toast before we all went out! So this was their solution! Fun getting ready pics:

Trying to eat something:

Enjoying their champagne:

All ready to get dressed!

They were all really sweet about how they wanted to wear these shirts that I made for them!

Almost finished!

Yay! Exactly what I wanted!

From the side:

Curls that stayed in for approx. 47 minutes :)

So we ate and chatted and were ready around 4:30, I think, I actually don't remember exactly, but I know that we were supposed to be at the chapel at 5 and I remember feeling rushed, because there was not a quick or easy way from the salon to the chapel. So we packed it up and got on the road. Mary was driving me, and had needed to get gas since we had left Saks, so there was no option but to pull over and gas up. Even if I had driven, I found out later that we still would have had to stop, my dad said that all of the cars (his, my moms, etc) were out of gas when they left the chapel after the reception! Anyway, we arrived to the chapel just fine, maybe 5 minutes late, no biggie. BUT, I was feeling rushed because all of the girls, including myself had to get dressed and we had to take pictures and I had to see Lee and then take group pics, etc. all before 6, so we only had an hour, which I was assured would be plenty of time.

When we walked into the bridal room, all of my girls were there, and the bouquets had been delivered. I'm not going to lie, I was a little disappointed in the bouquets. I specifically said no light pink and they were mostly light pink and for some reason there were a couple of dark purple flowers. And not very many orchids, and there were supposed to me lots of orchids. That was okay though, I looked at them, thought that, and immediately got over it. The photographer was also in the room. She introduced herself to me and I was basically like, okay, let's get the show on the road. Tell me what to do, you can boss me around, whatever, we need to get started.

Well, let me just tell you that I was very disappointed in the photographers that we got. The girl was like, off in her own little carefree world. She had no idea what was going on. A few weeks before, I had filled out a sheet that was very detailed and specific about what we wanted, including seeing the groom before the ceremony. She kept saying oh you aren't doing this or that, and I was like, Um, yes we are! She didn't even think we were seeing each other before!! And I saw the sheet on the counter, so I know she had seen it, even if she hadn't read it. So basically, the girls got dressed, then I got dressed. Then she asked when I wanted to see the groom. I was confused because I thought that she had some kind of timeline. So I said whenever. She took us out of the bridal room, I'm thinking we're going to see Lee, and she took me out to the back of the chapel! There is nothing back there and the bridesmaids were still inside bc they thought I was going to see Lee. The photog said that she wanted to take pics of us out there, so Mary had to go get them, then the photog realized it was way too windy and the sun was hidden behind the building (duh). Mind you, during all of this, it was like 95 degrees outside and my hair completely fell, but whatever. It was utter chaos and no one knew what was going on, least of all the photographer. She kept asking when I wanted to see Lee so finally I said, let's just do it now. So she acts like she doesn't know what to tell us to do so I said, tell him to turn around and I'll walk in and tell him when he can turn to see me. Geez lady. More utter chaos as they (there was also a man who had been with the guys who was now with us all) tried to figure out how to pose us and who was going to be in the pics. THEN people started coming in and it was even more chaotic. Judy (the chapel owner, who I love and is fabulous) came in and was stopping people from coming into the chapel. Finally I just said forget it, let's go back to the rooms and do the rest after the ceremony.

About 20 minutes later, the ceremony started and then it was just me and my dad. They had a tv in the bridal room so that we could see what was going on in the chapel, which was fun. I told my dad that i was really nervous and just ready to go. The plan was for my dad and I to go outside, walk across the front of the building and enter the chapel through these huge double wooden doors. So we're outside waiting for the wedding march to start and the wind is practically pulling my veil out of my head!! AND it was hotter than haites out there! The wedding march starts and Judy and the other girl go to pull the doors open for us. But Judy couldn't open hers! She goes "Oh crap it's LOCKED!!" Haha. The look on her face was sheer panic, and I know that she felt so bad. She had locked it when she was trying to keep people out for the pictures! Oh man. I said that's fine, we'll just go through the one. My dad tried to make me go through first by myself and I didn't want to so I made him squeeze through with me! Haha!! I was just focused on getting down that aisle, and not by myself!! I am a little disappointed only because I wanted a picture of us coming through the double doors, but it's okay. None of our guests even knew that anything went wrong, and the only people who actually saw were in the back rows anyways.

My dad and I are both fast walkers. Even when I'm not in a hurry, I was really fast. So the whole time we were waiting to start walking, we were like, walk slow, walk slow. Um, apparently we did not walk slow! When we entered the chapel, Aubree was about halfway down the aisle and by the time we were at the altar, we were right behind her! We didn't notice, my mom told us later we were really fast. I also did not look at any of the guests, I kept my eye on Lee so that I didn't get distracted and fall or anything. Oh, and speaking of Aubree, everyone said that she was so adorable. She walked really slowly and dropped one petal at a time and watched it fall, then moved on to the next one :) And she stayed up on the stage with us the entire time! I was so proud of her! She is so quiet and shy that neither her parents nor I was sure what she would do! Later on, she also wanted to stay with us and be in all of the pictures :) Precious :)

So my dad, Lee and I were there with Tom, the pastor. When Tom asked who gives this bride away, instead of simply saying "her mother and i do", my dad launched into this thing about how I had given them permission or something basically to the effect of I'm bossy and let them give me away! It was embarrassing. Usually even when my dad does dumb stuff like that I still think it's funny, but that kind of ruined the moment for me. Anyway, we went through the whole ceremony and everything. Neither one of us cried, which I was happy about, because I had been crying a lot lately and I thought that he might just because that's how he is. I think we were both so nervous to be up there in front of so many people that all of the other emotions fell to the wayside. Lee and I were both excited that our voices didn't crack or sound weird and we didn't mess up when we said our vows! The vows were fun to say :) Then he said you may kiss the bride and Lee told him "thank you" haha! I laughed and we kissed. We actually were told by several people that they liked our kiss, which I thought was weird but nice. And that was it! I grabbed my bouquet and ran back down the aisle! I told Lee yesterday that I was so thankful that I didn't fall when we walked back down the steps from the stage (altar?) because those steps were kind of weird and wide and I had tripped the night before at the rehearsal.

We went straight into the brides room so that we could have a little time to ourselves and then we went to take more pictures. Ugh. I will not go into it again (I apologize for going on and on about it earlier) but it was just complete and utter chaos. Finally I said forget it, and I started telling people what to do, where to stand, what we were doing next. I asked for a couple of just me up there and the lady just stared at me so I said okay, we're doing some of only me to the other guy (who was really hard of hearing so that made it even more difficult). I posed myself so we will see if there are any good ones. I was very disappointed with them. It was Storybook Photography, who have done several wedding that I know of and have been amazing every time! Who knows, they might be the best pictures ever, I'll just have to wait and see.

Finally after like 45 more minutes of pictures, we got to go to the reception!! I was kind of overwhelmed at first because I didn't know what I should do. There was supposed to be a reserved table but we couldn't find it (later found out some of my extended family had sat at that table!). So Mary got me a glass of champagne and I just went around to talk to as many people as I could! I made it to most before the cake cutting and toasting and dancing, but I know that I missed a couple and I feel bad. I'm sure they understand or don't care. After the Lee danced with his mom, he and I went outside to get a couple of shots of us outdoors that we couldn't do earlier because of heat and guests and time.

I was a little worried because people were starting to leave and I thought that they weren't having fun. All I wanted to do was dance, so I just said forget it to trying to talk to all of the guests and I stayed on the dance floor for pretty much the rest of the night! Pretty soon after I went out there, most everyone else got out there too, and we all danced. That made me really happy, because I really just wanted one of those receptions where everyone's dancing and having a good time! The only thing is that Lee does NOT dance so he was not with me! haha! That's okay, he said that he had a really great time not dancing so that made me happy. Suddenly it was 10pm and time to go! I think it was a success, everyone I've talked to said they had tons of fun, and that's exactly what I wanted!

We got in the limo to take us to the hotel and just sat had had some champagne and unwound. Literally I think I felt myself physically unwind! The whole day was a whirlwind and I was just so happy that it was over and nothing really went wrong. We laughed because there were tv's in the limo and it was playing Horton Hears a Who or something like that! All in all, it was pretty much the best day ever for both of us! For a couple of days after the wedding, I just remember thinking that I was so happy that it was over with and I didn't have to worry about it anymore. Then, about 4 days after, we were at dinner and I told Lee that I kind of want to do it all over again! Haha! Oh how soon you forget all of the work that goes into it :) Totally worth it though :)

At the hotel, really excited to eat out little to-go's made by the caterer

Little Italian Cream cupcakes!

Kind of disappointed that this is all we got! We did not eat one thing during the reception

Those potatoes we possibly the best thing I have ever had!

Haha! Really excited to eat! I didn't even wait to change out of my dress!!

Pre-wedding Festivities

We're back from Jamaica!! We had a good time there, and trust me, you will get to see 23981248 pictures from the trip. But first I want to tell/show you the rehearsal and the wedding! Most of the pictures I have are from friends (thanks Jackie :) ) and from a girl that my mom had taking pictures for some project of hers. So if you have seen pics on facebook, these are pretty much the same.

Oookay, so my bridesmaids arrives at different times throughout the week, and it was so great to finally have everyone in one place again! It was fun to just hang out and chat and catch up. On Wednesday night, we went to Sonoma for dinner:







And a wedding shot! (which was more like the size of a drink but whatever)



Obviously, this pose was in order:



On Thursday (June 19), I spent the morning and part of the afternoon with my lovely bridesmaids getting our nails done and going out for lunch. I know someone took pictures but I don't have any. I really need to get better at using my own camera!! Then, I met Lee at The Bistro (the location of the rehearsal dinner) so that we could set up the gifts for the bridal party. It was so hot and gross outside and the rehearsal was starting fairly soon so we tried to hurry as much as we could. After we finished there, he left to go meet his parents at their hotel and I went home to try and get ready. I was sad because I didn't have much time so I didn't look my best at the rehearsal. My hair was terrible from the humidity but there was really not much I could do about it. Anyway, these first couple of pics I stole from my mom's album on facebook, so I couldn't get them to be any larger.


The most adorable flower girls ever! Aubree was so cute and she did such a good job at the rehearsal! Her momma told me that they had been practicing lots :)


If you look closely at this one, you can see the horrible shocked look on my face, and Lee patting my hand. I'm not sure, but I believe this is when Judy, the owner of the chapel, told us all that there was to be no drinking before the wedding and that alcohol was NOT allowed in either the bridal or groom's rooms. I was very sad about this. I laugh because it looks like Lee is patting my arm saying, "It's okay sweetie" haha!



Apparently I got over it because here we are laughing.



And on to the dinner!! Doesn't Lee look so cute? :)

One of about 25 that Mary and I took together :)

Bride and Bridesmaids!

After several drinks :)

It was really funny because all of the parents and older people left at some point, I think right after this last picture was taken. So then it was just all of us hanging out for a little while longer. After the dinner, the guys went to one of their houses and hung out, and Lee stayed there for the night. We searched around for a place to sing karaoke (random for me) and finally found one. We went in and got a drink. Then I realized how tired I was. There was also a really creepy guy in there that would just come over to our table and stand there and stare. Like right there! We sang one song and called it a night! We all stayed at my parents' house that night.

Mr. and Mrs. Lansford!!

We are married!!!

The entire day was perfect perfect perfect and I couldn't have asked for more!! I think everyone else had a great time too, and that's all we wanted!

We're just hanging out today and getting packed for Jamaica :)

I don't have any pictures yet, but I will post them as soon as I have some. If you can't possibly wait, I'm sure that Jackie has a couple that she might post :)

I have lots and lots that I want to blog about but it will have to wait until after the honeymoon. I will miss all of my blog friends until then!!

The Home Stretch

Lee and I are getting married in five days. FIVE DAYS people!! That is less than one week, in case you were wondering and could not count or did not know the days of the week.

Number one question I get asked these days: are you nervous? Well, not really. Not yet anyway. This morning while I was running around at work, I think I got my first butterflies about it. If I'm nervous about anything, it's walking down the aisle in front of 150 people and messing up the vows, but other than that, I really don't think I'm going to be nervous about anything else.

Tomorrow is my last day of work until June 30 :) Woohoo!!

We got our wedding bands last week (!) and, as I expected, my band was so shiny and new looking that it made my engagement ring look dull. Luckily, the ring place does this deep cleaning thing and dips it in something that I can't remember the name of. So, I dropped it off on Friday. The only thing about it is it takes several days so I won't have my ring until Wednesday! It is sooo weird to not be wearing it! I have worn it every single day for the past 18 months and I don't like not having it on my finger! But it will be well worth it when I get my ring back and it looks brand new!

This weekend, I felt like I should have been doing something for the wedding. Honestly, I have been so controlling and overbearing focused on getting everything done, that this weekend there wasn't much to do. Since I couldn't just lay around and do nothing, I ran several unnecessary errands. I randomly went to Old Navy and ended up purchasing the entire store a couple of items because i can't control myself I really needed them. Then I went to the mall and talked myself out of buying things at Express. Even though that cardigan was super cute and I have 2 of those tanks and wear them every day after work. Then I went to Target and talked myself out of buying about 80 things. I have no idea why I love swimsuits so much. I hate to wear them, but I always want to buy them!!

Last week, Sandals called us and said that we could upgrade to some luxury suite for less than half of the price it usually costs. Yes please! We also decided to do this canopy tour. Basically, it's where you go sliding across those rope things way up in the trees all over the jungle. Well, I'm sure that it's not really called a jungle. Forest maybe? Whatever. :) I am excited to do it but also nervous. I am deathly terrified of heights!

Work today had been one problem after another. I arrived only to discover that my hard drive had crashed. Mind you, I got a brand new computer less than 4 weeks ago. So, 5 hours later, I have another brand new one! Then Lee and I went to get out marriage license and the 180 year old lady messed up like 3 times and restarted her computer twice! We were there for literally one hour. It's supposed to take 15 minutes, max. I felt bad after because she was so apologetic and sweet and old, but it was annoying to have to wait so long when everyone else getting their marriage license was in and out. We probably saw 5 couples come and go. But we have it now and that's all that matters.

Speaking of work, I'd better get back to it since I'm only here 2 days this week!

Happy monday everyone!

Poor Baby

Isabelle was really sick last night, she was throwing up lots :( She had been doing that pretty often lately, despite getting her medicine regularly. You might remember a couple of months ago, she was throwing up constantly and the dr said that she has acid reflux (just like her mommy), so she takes a pepcid twice a day. Last night she threw up like 5 times in the middle of the night and then she wouldn't lay down. I think it's because the reflux acts up when she lays down, just like in humans. She loves to lay right between Lee and me so we tried to coax her up there with us. She tried to find a spot, stood there for a minute, and then she climbed up on Lee's pillow and laid down right next to his head! She slept there for the rest of the night, which was really only about and hour and a half. :) Isn't that the sweetest thing ever?! I just love her, she is so cuddly. She didn't eat breakfast this morning, and she never misses a meal, so I'm taking her to the vet in a little while to find out what we can do for her.

We have been trying to pick out songs for the reception. It's hard! I never knew that you had to pick out a song for each event, like the cake cutting and the garter/bouquet toss! We listened to about a million last night and finally figured out what we wanted. But of course, my over-analyzing self can't just leave it alone and today I've been looking at other songs to see if they are better! Why do I do these things? No one will even really notice!!

I'm really excited that it's finally Thursday, that means I only have 1.5 days of work left!

Another failed attempt!

I had every intnetion of posting a picture for WBW today, but I couldn't find the one I had in mind. It was the very first picture that Lee and I ever took, about an hour after first meeting! I'm pretty sure we both knew then that were perfect for each other, as crazy as that sounds!

One thing I am definitely doing after the wedding is FINALLY getting all of my pictures together, in one place, and organized! That is something I have been trying to do for the last year and a half and I haven't accomplished it yet. One thing I think will really help me is finally getting a portable hard drive. There is one that I have been wanting, I just haven't been able to force myself to fork over the money for it.

Last night we went to look for a new rug to replace the one that was ruined by us and the dogs. We went everywhere, and eventually ended up at Target to look at one I had seen online and loved it! I loved it, I think Lee was just like, whatever you want :) I think we are going back tonight to get it. (Even though I loved it, we still needed to sleep on it before we decided to commit!) I think it looks brown in the picture but it's actually a dark gray

It has been sooo hard to focus at work this week! It doesn't help that I don't have much to do these days. We just wrapped up our "busy" time so it's really slow for me. So I have plenty of time to sit here and count down the days until the wedding, or better yet, the days until I'm off work for the wedding! That would be 4 more work days!

One thing that we both keep forgetting about is the honeymoon!! It's like, oh yeah, after all of this stress and planning, we actually get a vacation!! We are going to a Sandals resort in Jamaica called Sandals Whitehouse European Village and Spa! I can't wait! This is the best picture I could get:

Ahhh it will be so nice to relax and just layon the beach for 6 days!

Only 10 days until the wedding!

Am I supposed to call my old hs teachers by their FRIST NAME?! weird

hi!!!! It's been forever since I've been on here. I'm not gonna lie, it's because I'm lazy :) Here's a recap of the past several days:

* on thursday we went to utica square for summer's fifth night. it was my first time ever going which is weird because i've always wanted to go! we took beer and chairs. i thought about taking food, but i wasn't sure about it. boy, was i wrong, people bring their entire dining room to that place! haha. it was so funny. the people behind us had a little table with a tablecloth on it! others had wine and wine glasses and picnic baskets and everything you could imagine! lee and i laughed about it and next time we go, we're bringing food! but probably not a tablecloth :)

* last week i started working 9 hours m-th so that i can have the afternoons off on fridays! it's the best thing ever!

* mary came into town on friday afternoon and we spent 7 hours a little time running errands for the wedding. we were pretty successful with everything except earrings. i found a pair of earrings i loved at dillards and just when i was about to get them i realized that they were way more than i am willing to spend on earrings i'm probably only wearing once.

* saturday afternoon, we went back out for more wedding stuff. i didn't realize that you could spend that much time in one weekend on wedding errands! but yes, you definitely can! by the time we got home late i the afternoon, we had to immediately start getting ready for my dad's retirement party. the party was in my parent's backyard and was really fun. i didn't realize until sunday that we didn't even get a family picture at the party! :( oh well, we did get these:

* on sunday i convinced lee to go do a couple of things. we went to target, bed bath and beyond, and michaels, of course. no day is complete until we have gone to michaels! the people that work there know me. seriously. we also went to books a million and i got twilight! i am not going to read it until we get on the pane for jamaica. i also go another vampire book, dead until dark. you might be more familiar if i called it the sookie stackhouse series. i have already started reading that one and so far i really like it!

* i decided that i am obsessed with the new shopping area in tulsa called "tulsa hills". that's where lee and i went sunday, and we have been going there for about a month now and i will no longer go to any other micheals because the one out there is so fantastic! seriously, it is huge and so nice!! there is also a target and bed bath and beyond out there that i love and soon there will be an ulta.

* oh, and also on sunday, lee and i decided to clean 2 area rugs that we have. we had noticed that they started smelling like pee and suspect that the girls have been peeing on them when we are gone. i read up on cleaning area rugs (they are just from target) and one place said to take them to the car wash. that would have worked really well, but it doesn't get dog pee out of them! we learned the hard way! i do believe that it made them smell much worse! lee already threw out the small one and i think we may just cut our losses and get a new larger one too. the girls are not allowed to stay out of their cage anymore!

* the wedding is in 11 days and i really don't feel like it's hit me yet. i try not to think about it because i don't want to get all nervous about it.

* omg, the wedding is in 11 DAYS!!! wow, so weird! i only have 5 more days of work! yippee!

I'm already wishing it was Friday again!

It's June! I'm getting married this month! In 19 days to be exact. Not that I'm counting or anything! :)

This weekend was pretty low key for us. We had our last meeting with the chapel on Saturday. Have I ever mentioned how much I love the ladies at Vesica Piscis? Well I do. They are awesome and so nice and so so helpful! I always feel much better about everything after our meetings!

Later on in the day Lee was bored so we went shopping for some clothes for him! He never buys himself clothes so it was fun. He found a pair of linen pants that he had been wanting for the honeymoon. They are really cute :) er, manly.

Then we went to see Aubree's first dance recital. Aubree's parents are very close friends of my family. Aubree and her brother, Paxton, are my parent's pseudo-grandchildren until we have one! Haha Anyway, the recital was hilarious! I mean, she's 3 so of course the teacher was over on the side doing the dance and they were all watching and mimic-ing her. So adorable! I may be biased, but I think that she did a better job at remembering the dance than most of the other girls ;) Here she is after in her little ballerina outfit!


And here's a pic of Pax. He is getting so big! He looks like a little man! He's holding his ear because later that night, we found out that he had an ear infection :(

As I said last week, Aubree is our flower girl. I really wanted Pax to be our ring bearer, but my parents said that he'd be too young :( I'm wishing now that I hadn't listened to them!

On Sunday, lee went with me to all of the 3 Michael's stores in Tulsa! I'm sure that he hated every minute but he was a really good sport about it and didn't complain once! Then later on in the evening, we realized that ABC Family was showing Harry Potter all day! Lee and I watched half of the 3rd one and all of the 4th! I loved it! I am so ready for the next movie in July! I think I'm going to have to read the book again!

That's about all of our exciting weekend!

Oh, and now I need shoe suggestions for the teal dress!

I need your opinion

I want this dress from Banana. However, I cannot decide if I want it in teal or the print. When I saw it in the store, it was in the print and I thought I had to have it right then!! But then I looked online and saw the teal and couldn't decide!! Argh!! What should I do? Please help!

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