Everyday Chatting & Waffling {2025} Let's get to know each other!

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FormbyGirl

FormbyGirl

Sugar Cookie : GingerScraps Praise
Sorry, I got a late start.

Here's a new thread for 2025 - I hope to see us all here chatting. Welcome back to the familiar faces, and I'm looking forward to seeing some new faces!!

As always, we started the year well with our family traditions at home. This year was no different for us.

I baked Mincemeat Pies (not mince, not meat; I have no idea how they got their name!) for the second year. This has always been my mother's task, but now she is gone, it rests on my shoulders to carry on the tradition. I struggle with a good recipe for pastry. If you have one, let me know. I think I have a decent one; although it is a tad crumbly, it is delicious.

My daughter surprised us by turning up out of the blue with her boyfriend, Jon. It was quite a drive, and we were delighted to see them.

At midnight, my husband takes the old year out at the first stroke of 12, runs around the building, and brings in the New Year on the last stroke. This time, Jon accompanied him. I think Jon secretly thinks we are a little crazy. He brings in silver so we will never be poor, coal so we will never be cold, and bread so we will never be hungry. We always greet him at the door with mincemeat pies and Grand Marnier, then toast the new year and take our pictures in front of the tree. Then, after sending the family Happy New Year wishes, we toddle off to bed. This is the third year we have done it without my mother. I still set her out a glass of Grand Marnier and a mince pie.

Cheers all, this is our New Year thread; I hope to see you all here, along with some new faces.
 
We had a lovely Christmas. We had friends and family over and opened our gifts under the tree followed by a delicious ham and sides.

New Year's was as above.

I am married to a delightful man, Rand. We live in Southern California. I had five children, Chris, David, James, Karen and Steven.

James is married to Hannah and lives in England. They have two children, John who is 8 and Luke who is 5.
Karen is engaged to Jon and they are planning a wedding this year (THIS IS NEWS, it happened on 1st Jan)
Steven is married to Vanessa and lives about 45 minutes from me. They have two children, Bruce who is 5 and Scarlett who is 1.
Chris and David are no longer with us, but David left me a grandson, Mark, who is now 28.

A few Highlights of the year:
My friend, Karen, visited from England, we have been friends since we were four or five.
I turned 70
I was elected to the state board of the Daughters of the British Empire (an American charitable organization)
I visited Washington DC over the holidays and managed to injure my face and wrist. I am still feeling the effects.
I am sure there was much more, but that is most of it.
 
It's been a while since I have posted. My life is so dull in so many ways! LOL! Not much has been going on with us. Kent joined the ELKS and we have been spending a lot of time at the lodge helping out in the kitchen and I have been taking my 90 year old mother to play bingo there. She loves it so much and it gets her out and about for a little while.

My oldest grand daughter, Alana, and her husband, Mark, are expecting their first child (a Girl) any day now! They made the move to Indiana in November and are living with Marks sister until they can get settled into a place of their own. Mark went to work right away so we are thankful for that. She has the nursery fixed up so pretty. Now we are just waiting for word on the grand arrival!

We had a wonderful Christmas. Our two youngest grand children were able to come and spend a few days with us and their Dad. The youngest, Brentley, has been playing soccer and is loving it. His sister, Abby, also plays but is not into it as much as Brentley. I am anxious to see how well he does this next season.

That's about the size of it! We are all healthy and happy in our little world. Now I have to go take down the Christmas tree because Mr. Ware tells me that I cannot leave it up all year and because my cat, the big Lion looking one, keeps wanting to leave his mark! hehe

PS: Lynnie, I love Mincemeat pie!
 
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Hi everyone! Thanks, Lynnie, for starting the new thread. You are our glue! :)

I am Ane (pronounced like Ann) and am married to Brent. We just celebrated our 30th anniversary in December! :) We live in Illinois, just across the river from St. Louis.

-Our oldest is Zack (28), and he is married to Annette. They have 2 children: Lena, 4, and Adonis, 1. They live in Ohio.
-Our middle child is Nate (26), and he is married to Mariah. They live in Utah.
-Our youngest is Eren (20, non-binary) and they have a serious boyfriend, Michelangelo. They live together in St. Louis and go to Saint Louis University. They are talking marriage, but as Eren is planning on med school, I'm not sure when this will happen.

A few highlights from last year: Zack moved his family from Utah to Ohio. They are now only about 5.5 hours away from us! We've visited them 4 times already. :) We went to Utah in July to celebrate my FIL's 80th birthday and see Nate and Mariah. I started a Master's degree in humanities and will graduate in September 2026 (I think). Zack brought his family here for Thanksgiving and we went there for Christmas.

So for Christmas, we went to Ohio for a week. I had plenty of time with the grandkids, and all 3 of my children were there. It was so special and merited family photos. We also did an adults-only gift exchange (no x-rated gifts, thankfully) and visited some old friends of ours for dinner and games.

For New Years, Brent and I shared some sparkling grape juice and went to bed early. I had a migraine, but we rarely stay up until midnight anymore anyway. New Year's day we had Eren & BF, plus one of their friends over for brunch. Brent made chocolate chip pancakes, with fudge ripple ice cream and chocolate sauce. Mmm!
 
If you have goals, resolutions, or even just intentions for this year, come share with us in the Spicy Motivators thread! We update ourselves weekly, but you can do it more frequently if you wish. We share our progress, a little about our lives, and motivate each other to keep going. We'd love to see more of you there! :)
 
Thanks for starting us out for another year together Miss Lynnie!!!


Oh Lynnie, my Daddy would love you and your family.
He adored mincemeat pie and Grand Marnier. Never did the running around at New Year's, but that sounds like a marvelous tradition!
Congrats on the news. What a fun event to look forward to.


Can't wait to hear about your new GREAT-grandchild, Carla! So much fun. Glad you were able to have a good Christmas.


Congrats on 30, Ane! So silly. I've heard so much about Eren and their exploits that I guess I didn't even know you had other children. HA! What wonderful names they all have. How nice that you all live close enough to make the trips to see each other.


We do have a fun, LITTLE group over at our Spicy Motivators!


Soooo... I'm Carla. Freddy and I live in Lakeville, MN which is just south of the Twin Cities. We've been here for 37 years and married for 43. We're guardians of a fierce Chug, with the heart of a Great Dane, named Harley. He regularly saves us from postal workers, salesmen, delivery people, fireworks, thunder and the occasional blowing leaf!


Our oldest is Lacy (35), who is married to Nick, and has a son named Kolten (14). We lost Kolten's dad, Shawn, a mere 28 days after they were married, when Koltey was 5 years old. Lacy was Blessed enough to find love again and Nick is an amazing man. They're foster parents and hoping to adopt Baby D.


Our youngest, Anne, is 31. Her two children are Caddie May (12) and Hunter (10) who are totally super. Unfortunately, Anne suffers from BPD and we haven't spoken in about 8 months. She hasn't spoken to her sister in over 16 months. We're still able to chat with the grands over text, but it's just not quite the same. Any prayers you have available would be greatly appreciated. Sorry if TMI.


However, as my email signature says...
Dum Spiro, Spero: "While I breathe, I hope".
I'll never give up hope that someday we'll be a complete family again.


Love and Blessings
Carla, in MN
 
Thank you Lynnie for looking after our chatting and waffling.
I am not promising to visit here often but I will try and pop in from time to time.

My husband, Ken and I had a good Christmas with my older sister. She enjoys having in her home a she is outnumbered by her husband, son and grandson. New Years day Ken and I drove to a small town where there is the Coomba Waterfalls and because there has been lots of rain there was a fair amount of water coming over the falls which are not very high ones. We had a nice picnic lunch.

Two and half years ago my husband and I moved to a country town ( Crows Nest, Queensland, Australia) with a population of 3,000 to live in a small retirement village. Our unit is only one bedroom and it suits us well. We could not afford anything bigger as we lost our home in 2022 when the town where we lived was flooded. We could not afford to repair the house so sold it as is.

I only have one daughter, Ruth ( I was an unmarried single mother when I met Ken). Sadly that one daughter after her husband died tragically last February has shut me out of her life. She sends the occasional very brief email and sometimes a photo. She did speak to my older sister before Christmas so I know that her and the 4 children ( Imogen 18, Kirra 15, Jasmine 12, Andreas 10 ) went to USA for Christmas to visit her husband's relatives. They were to have Christmas in New York. I write and send things to the Grandchildren but receive no response which hurts. The oldest is 18 and quite capable of phoning or writing to me. The hurt and pain is easing. I just accept that this is life and live in the hope that a reconciliation will happen sometime in the future.

That is enough waffling from me. Off to read those before me now in this thread.
 
How lovely to hear from everyone! I sort of knew most of this stuff, but sometimes I get mixed up with people and can’t remember who has which children!
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What a wonderful group!! I am so thankful to have been invited.

I'm Robyn, married to Roger, and we live in Kentucky, though we are just across the river from Cincinatti, so we live in a little world of not really KY, not really OH. We both work full time, he is remote- the company he works for his based in Utah and he misses his coworkers fiercely. I went from being a full time stay at home mom to working full time. I've been at my job for 2 years now and luckily I love it.
Roger and I have 6 kids
Xander is 20 and lives in Washington state. He had joined the Navy, but learned quickly that the submarine life was not for him, so he has left the Navy and now works at a casino. I haven't seen him in 2 years, but he is coming home in March and I can't wait.
Jules (Julius to her friends) is 19 and lives in Utah. She's also coming home in March and seriously, I've never looked forward to a specific week so much in my life. Jules has a boyfriend and I've never seen her so happy. I'm kinda hoping he comes with her in March.
Vaughn is 16. He's super tall, works at walmart, loves drama and D&D.
Paisley is 13 and is my calm between all the storms.
Abraham is 10. We're in the process of finding out if he has autism. I find answers on the 7th.
Lorelai is 6 and is a tornado trapped in a little girls body. Before she was born, I told God I'd have has many kids as he needed me to, but that I was tired. So tired. And my body hurt. I would need a 2x4 to the head type answer to know YES I'm done or NO there are more kids. And so he sent Lorelai Patience..... a daily 2x4 that I am too old for any of this, but also this girl just makes me so happy.

Lorelai's the reason I started scrapping again.. I used to be very active when Paisley was little, but I burned a hard drive (at the retreat for Scraps N Pieces no less!) and was also so sick that I just lost all drive to digiscrap. I made a handful of pages for Abraham just after he was born, but then just kinda fell off the face of the digiscrap earth. Then Lorelai noticed that she had zero pages. So here we are! Back in it full time!

We didn't decorate for Christmas this year. Husband and I were both just so tired. This coming year, I want to start in November and do a little bit at a time. Our tradition is that on Christmas Eve, the kids exchange gifts with each other (we draw names) and if the kids happen to have gifts for mom and dad, that's when they are given. Christmas morning is gifts from Mom and Dad and Santa. Also, the kids always get bandaids and a protein filled snack in their stockings.

For New Year's Eve this year, we watched Wicked. Paisley was at a friends and Vaughn, Lorelai, and I had already seen it, but we're obsessed so we had to show the boys. We had lots of snacks and had a great time!!

My heart is with you mamas who have kids that have gone no contact. This world seems to push that so much lately. It's my greatest fear....
 
Happy New Year, everyone!

My name is Shana (pronounced Shay-na). I live in Kansas with my hubby, Randy. We have an adult daughter who lives a couple of towns over. We had a son who we lost in 2010 when he was in college. We also have a TRIBE of nephews and two nieces, as well as 8 grand-nephews/nieces and one more grand-niece on the way! My career involves a lot of travel, so I make time to play tourist as often as possible. Randy's job is such that he is able to travel with me often, so that's a delight.

We spent Christmas at home in bed as we had caught that oh-so-trendy upper respiratory crud. So every single family, work, and friend event was cancelled. We had planned to get together with our daughter, her boyfriend, my father, and his wife today for a dinner theater... but Mother Nature is sending a huge ice storm our way, so that has also been rescheduled.

Highlights of 2024 include an amazing bucket-trip vacation to Europe (a first for both of us) where we went to London, Paris, Lisbon, Vigo, the Canary Islands, and all the way south as far as Casa Blanca! Also in 2024, I decided to become a Disney Adult (LOL) and we visited both parks at Disneyland Paris and all four parks at Walt Disney World in Florida. We already have a trip planned for February to visit both parks at DisneyLand in California. Eventually, I would also like to visit the three Disney parks in Asia: Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Tokyo!
 
Happy to join the Wafflers group again, THANK YOU Lynnie for organizing this for 2025.

I am Karen, live in Manitoba, Canada (yes it is cold here!) I have been happily married to Doug for 39 years and we are both retired. We have 2 sons, Brian (38) married to (S) with a 14 yo son (A), lives in Manitoba and Jared (35) lives in Alberta.

My hubby has recently been diagnosed with cancer in the kidney and has spread to his spine and brain, he is now at home and doing really well. I am praying for all the time with him that God will bless us with (we have been together since 1977, 48 yrs and is the love of my life)!

I am addicted to cycling and travelling and have recently joined a seniors group that does cycling, hiking and cross-country skiing. We have visited the US extensively for years, travelled most of Canada and US with the family when the boys were growing up. I recently joined Brian on trips to the UK, Scotland, Wales and Netherlands, Italy and Japan, a few years ago. I now have to travel with Jared.

Christmas was low key since hubby was in the hospital but he was released from the hospital new years eve so we did an early celebration with the boys. They have been very involved with helping me and organizing Doug's care. I am truly blessed!

I used to paper scrapbook but switched to digital many years ago, loving the smaller books and less house clutter. I do still have a ton of supplies which I have been using up with card making.

I have had the pleasure of meeting a few scrappers via Zoom and met Lynnie (in-person) on a trip to California last year. Thank you Lynnie for starting us off for 2025 and I hope to join in as much as I can when time allows me.

Welcome back to all wafflers and new comers, I look forward to getting to know you all just a little more.
 
So GOOD to hear from you Anne-Marie. I miss you. Sorry about Ruth, but glad I'm not alone. Prayers and hugs to you, my friend. We still have Caddie and Hunter's Christmas gifts in the closet. sigh...


Robyn, it is what it is. As I said, I hope. My prayers are with you, my dear. When I started working again, outside the home, it was 26 years (OMGosh... 27 this year!) with ASD students in Lakeville Area Schools. They're amazing kiddos and I have a soft spot in my heart for them still. You can do this, no matter the results. Patience and programming.


Shana, my love! You and Lynnie amaze me. I wanna be YOU when I grow up! To have your energy and drive and just... enthusiasm. It truly screams from your writing and I love it. I don't think I have ever seen a picture where you are not grinning from ear to ear and that just makes me smile! You are a contagious person.


Nothing new here.


Love and Blessings
Carla, in MN
 
Karen! I'm so sorry I missed your post. I'm praying for you and hubby daily and I've added you both to my Bible Study prayer group. argh! Cancer sucks! Sending love and hugs!
 
Happy New Year everyone!

I'm Rae (known as bcgal00 around digi-land). Hubs, myself, my youngest daughter and our 3 dogs live in Alberta Canada. I'm retired, am a retired photographer and had a medical stenography biz for years. Our other two daughters live in BC. I was on the CT team here but recently stepped down. I keep busy, spending my time on photography outings, reading, playing games at the local center (mahjong, mexican train, canasta, euchre and cribbage), as well as creating bead jewelry.

We were busy with lots of holiday get-togethers and events during Dec but Xmas day was relaxing, we had a smoked turkey, watched movies and ate way too much. We had a few friends over on New Years, we ate appies, drank wine and Bailey's, and played mahjong until long past midnight.

Xmas decorations and tree are put away now for another year.
 
Happy New Year everyone.

I follow this thread. I've never been much of a chatter but I've become less comfortable over the years having personal information on the internet so I'm even less chatty now than I used to be.

I'm in New Zealand and was lucky enough to meet Lynnie when she visited. It seems like a lifetime ago now.
 
Like Julia above, I often read this thread but don't post here much, I recall last year I made a resolution to post more but that didnt happen...oops. Julia, Lynnie, Carla (not minicooper) and I are all old pals from Digital Scrapbook Place. Happy New Year to all of you, maybe last year's resolution will be achieved this year.....
 
Every year I try, and seem to fail, with keeping up on here. But alas, I will give it a try again.

I'm Dorann and I live in Lexington, KY with my family. I have two amazing mostly grown children.

Kathryn is 22 now and a senior at Transylvania University here in Lexington. She has a long-term boyfriend that she has been dating for four years who lives in Virginia, near the place where Virginia, Tennessee, and Kentucky meet. Kathryn is hoping to go to veterinary school after she gets her bachelor's degree and is looking at Lincoln Memorial University, which is right down the road from where Chris lives. I suspect the two of them will be engaged before too much longer and I will have to let my little girl go.

Paul is 18 and a senior in high school, so we are going through all of the college preparation stuff. As of right now he is planning on going to University of Kentucky, but wants to live on campus. So he will be home, but away all at the same time. He will be going into engineering.

As for me, I am a non-traditional college student, working toward a bachelor's degree in addictions counseling and then hopefully a master's in social work after that. This desire is born from the fact that I see where there is a major hole in the treatment of addicted families as my husband (long story on this one, we are still married but have not lived together for many years) struggles with addiction and there are few resources for families that are trying to work through the disease together.

In addition to the kids and myself, I live with my mother, sister, and little 4-year-old nephew Oliver. I really like having the opportunity to be close with my family as we are. It takes a village to raise a family and I feel blessed to get to be such an intimate part of my nephew's life. We also share the house with a plethora of pets. The most notable of the pets are Ripleigh, my 7-year-old Australian cattle dog and her children Brownie and Sweet Pea (5 years old). Kathryn also has a rabbit, Oakley, and a one-eyed cat, Genevieve, that she adopted last April.
 
Waffling...


Rae, I just LOVE your photos! Please never stop taking them!


Totally get that Julia. You're more than welcome to lurk around here. We still love you! How lucky to have met Lynnie in person. We're on the same continent and I haven't met her yet!


Love you too Jill!


Wow Dorann! Good for you to identify a need and work towards your goal. And how wonderful that you have a family village. We've often talked about how great it would be to win the lottery and buy a HUGE "ranch" with several "homes" on it so each of the girls could have their own and we could all be together. Of course, that was when we were all speaking... but I digress again. Sorry.


Happy Sunday all!


Love and Blessings
Carla, in MN
 
Thx Carla. Taking photos is in my blood. I will be exploring with a camera for as long as life lets me :) I never get tired of photo walks.

I'm off today to go play canasta with friends. I'm happy that the weather will warm up for the next week, giving us a break from the -16 C (3 F) weather.

We are watching The Day of the Jackal limited series and it is very good. Two more to finish it off. I'm enjoying a few days of quiet before our usual routine starts up again next week with all our games at the center and lunch outings.

I've been working on my jewelry beading designs and having fun. I'm going to work on a piece this morning before we head out for the afternoon.

HAGD everyone.
 
bcgal00 said:
I've been working on my jewelry beading designs and having fun. I'm going to work on a piece this morning before we head out for the afternoon.
Click to expand...

I just bought a perfect little charm for a necklace I need to make myself today. I tend to hyperfixate on one or two loves at a time, then get tired of one and put it away for a few years. Photography, jewelry, polymer clay, watercolor, making tiny things, crocheting. They all take turns here.
 
It is so lovely to see everyone on here :) It does my heart good. I am hoping I get to scrap more in 2025. Babysitting my grands makes scrapping a little difficult, but I am very excited :)
 
So interesting to read about you all. It has prompted me to post a little bit about who I am as well....
I am an oldie...will turn 80 later this year, have no idea how I got to this age, I was 60 only last week!! I have never paper scrapped but landed on digital scrapping after completing a farm book in Microsoft Publisher for my Dad who was selling his farm after 100 years of family occupancy. I enjoyed the project so much, I went searching for something else to do on the computer. That was a lot of years ago now. I had a cake decorating business for many years, creating wedding and all occasion cakes, taught the art at the local technical college for 10 years. I gave it up when my youngest daughter had premie twins and need help. I have dabbled in many different crafts, jewellery, resin, acrylic flow painting, macrame, crochet, embroidery, but digi scrapping is the mainstay. I met my husband when I was 15 and he 19, we married 4 years later (I would have freaked out if our children committed at such a young age). We had 3 kids, girl, boy, girl. Oldest girl was born with cerebral palsy, she is now in her 50s, married a not nice man who gave her two wonderful boys and now she is single again. Her mobility has decreased dramatically during her years of being under coercive control and subsequent reduction of self confidence, she lives in a little unit on her own and manages quite well with disability carers helping with things she cant do on her own. Her boys live a long way away but are very committed to their mum and visit as often as they can. Our boy works in sports science, and travels the world with his work. He and lovely wife have three gorgeous boys, all in their 20s, the youngest two are twins. Our youngest child is married with three beautiful girls, a set of twins there as well. One of those twins has provided me with a gorgeous little great grandson now 3. I lost my beloved husband unexpectedly in 2018, he had been ill but was recovering when all of a sudden he was not here anymore. It was devastating...and still is...so hard to make a new life alone after all those years as a pair. I am blessed that my children, inlaws and grands are a big part of my life and feel sad for those of you who suffer from family breakdowns.
 
Robin, yes, we are getting some of the crazy weather. Started the day with 5.5 inches of snow, and now we have a fairly heavy layer of ice over that. I have to admit I am not thrilled with the ice situation, would have much rather had all snow. Both of the kids don't have traditional school tomorrow. Paul is on NTI and Kathryn's classes are all virtual meetings (what a way to start the last semester of her last year).

Carla, you mentioned a family ranch with homes for everyone. Sometimes I think about hitting the lottery and what I would do. For me with my life aspirations, I think about a sober living type facility for intact families. What I would love to do is have a community of tiny homes where families that struggle such as my own could have both unity and autonomy while also being immersed in a supportive community.
 
It's been a joy to read more about all of you, so thank you for those who have shared a peek into your lives!

Robyn, yes... we did get that crazy "thunder snow" over the weekend, and we are STILL snowed in. Every single road was closed yesterday and our little town is still completely snowpacked. I'll be working from home today and may venture outside to see if I can clear our driveway. The snow is the powdery kind, but I know there is a sheet of ice under that snow. Yikes!

I spent yesterday working on my annual scrapbook album. It's a process I do each year where I take allll of the layouts I made and pick my favorite 110 (that's the number of pages in a Shutterfly Book) to upload. We did have two amazing vacations in 2024, so they each will get their own album, and the rest will go into our Year 2024 album. I do this each year and it's funny how often I have to refer to past volumes to remember when we did a certain thing. I guess my albums are a good stand-in for a diary! LOL! After reviewing the 2024 pages, I think I only need to craft about 8 more layouts to complete the book. So I may see if I can tackle some of those between my virtual meetings today.

Hope everyone has a lovely and warm week! :)
 
I don't post very often but do read the column. I do wish all those who are going through tough times to have peace with you. I am doing great and am hoping this year will be better than last year.
I was married 52 years before losing my husband. We have 7 children, 30 grandchildren and 12 great grandchildren with the 13th arriving this month. My oldest child is 54 and the youngest is 43. Three live within 5-45 minutes from me in Idaho, one lives in Utah, 2 live in Washington State, and one lives in Arizona.
I started working with Family Search as a missionary last year. I answer phone calls for 12-15 hours a week and have a couple hours of study time so I will be able to answer the questions. Some questions are hard but we generally get them the help they need with a few of us trying to find the answers. It has been good that I get to speak to people and most of the time help them find the answers they are looking for in finding their loved ones that have passed on.

Once a month I have a zoom meeting with all of my children together to find out about what is happening in their families and so their siblings can also know the information.
 
Happy New Year to all. I've not read through [yet] but I will get there.

We did something - new- for us over New Year's. We took a New Years Cruise! [Tampa - Cozumel - Montego Bay - Grand Cayman...and back to Tampa.] Photos eventually....they are downloading.

m
 
Dorann, Michi, Katherine, Jill . . . it's good to see you here! Dorann, thanks for your sweet comments on my layouts. It is appreciated!!!

We were caught up in the winter storm too, but it didn't hit us as hard. It was predicted to snow over a foot, but we only got a few inches. We did get some ice though. Church was cancelled yesterday and hubby's working at home today. I think he's going stir-crazy though--he's not used to being at home all day, LOL. Later we will go out and shovel the snow for our workouts as the gym is closed. I don't know where the snowplows are but they sure don't seem to be working near us.

I started my 3rd class today on the Renaissance. It's going to be fascinating, with only a few short essays and a final short paper. I'm all for that! :)
 
Church was not cancelled yesterday, but it might as well have been. Rumor has it about 15 people attended. Kids have another snow day tomorrow. I actually have tomorrow off from work.

I love learning more about each of you!
 
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