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Hey, Hey, welcome back to We Are the Hands Ends,
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where chaos is just another word for love and there's
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always a missing shoe or three. I'm your host, Maya Hansen,
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mom of a big, wild, wonderful bunch, and today we're
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diving into something near and dear to my heart, the
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cork joy and hilarious realities of life in a big family. Now,
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if you grew up in a big family or you're
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raising one, you already know it's a whole different world.
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I'm talking shared bedroom, constant snack wars, chort charts, and
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a never ending game of who left this mess that
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no one ever wins. So today's episode is called you
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know you're in a big family when? And I've got
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a whole list of moments, stories and little nuggets that
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paint a picture of what it's really like to live
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with a full house, whether that's five kids, ten kids,
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or more. Let's get into it. Every meal feels like
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you're feeding a small army. Forget dinner for four. We
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cook like it's Thanksgiving every day. We've got crock pots
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running different shifts, three pounds of past boiling, and someone
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always yelling is there any more garlic? Bread? Even though
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we made four loaves, and Heaven forbid we run out
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of ketchup or ranch. That's a family crisis. I mean ranch.
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In our house, we can go through a huge bottle
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in three days. Ketchup same way. Ketchup is always gone quick,
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so is mail. So in our family, I try to
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keep that stuff stocked up because God forbid we run out.
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The other thing that we run out of is soy
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sauce or steak sauce. Those two are another thing that
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goes bye bye real quick. In our house. Laundry is
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never done. I swear laundry in the monster that lives
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in the basement. We feed it constantly and it grows.
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There's always a mystery sock always, and tolls. We have
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like thirty of them, but somehow they all disappear. Oh
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and don't even get me started on trying to fold
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close without a young one around and tearing through it,
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making a mess out of it, trying to find a
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different shirt. It's always a nightmare. But like I say,
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I would never trade that for anything. I know some
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parents get aggravated. I don't get aggravated anymore. I just
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make them help refold and clean up the mess, because
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what's the point and getting aggravated. It's going to happen
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over and over again. Eventually they'll get sick of having
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to refold and they won't do it anymore. There could
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be six bathrooms and we'd still have someone banging on
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the door yelling hurry up. It's like an airport runway
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scheduling trying to get everyone showered before school. It is crazy.
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Our house is chaotic, that's all right. Packing for a
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trip imagine playing tetras with duffel bags, coolers and whatever else,
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all before anyone even gets in the car. And someone
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will forget their shoes every single time. One time we
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got halfway down the highway before someone yelled, wait, I
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forgot my toothbrush. Like we didn't pack a dozen. I mean,
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even if they did, we'd go get some more at
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a store. No, biggie, it's a toothbrush. One of the
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beautiful things about a big family is that your kids
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always have someone to play with or argue with, or
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both within a span of five minutes. One minute they're
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giggling under a blanket for it, and the next it's mom.
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He's breathing too loud. But at the end of the day.
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They've got each other's backs fiercely, and that's something I
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wouldn't trade for anything. My kids have always been close,
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and I cherish that, regardless of the bickering and arguing
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and fighting. If anybody says anything bad about them or
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does anything to them, them other kids jump in and
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put an end to it. It's rarely quiet in our house.
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It's never perfectly clean, but it's full of life. There's
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always singing in the kitchen, someone telling a joke that
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makes no sense, and someone climbing furniture they're definitely not
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supposed to be. We've got fingerprints on the fridge, toys
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under the couch, and a family group chat that's ninety
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five percent memes and can someone pick me up? Messages.
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But when we all pile into the living room to
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watch a movie, or when the younger ones crawl into
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bed for snuggles, you realize this madness it's magic. There's
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something incredibly grounding about life in a big family. Yes,
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it's a circus, but it's our circus. And even in
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the chaos, there's a rhythm, a love that runs through
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the middle of it, and you learn to let go
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of perfection. To laugh at the unexpected to see the
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beauty in a full table, even if half the cups
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are mismatched and someone spilled the juice. Again, that's normal here.
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When something gets spilt, we just clean it up, no biggie.
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You also know you're in a big family when you
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call roll like a teacher just to get everyone in
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a car, or you buy milk and bulk and it
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still disappears in two days. My kids love milk. Our
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milk goes through our house like water quick. Another thing
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you know when you're in a big family, you hear
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not it and instinctively know someone's avoiding a chour. There
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is always a waiting list for our bathroom because we
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have two, and just about the time you go in
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and shut the door, somebody's pounding to get in to
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use the bathroom never ends. I usually try to take
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a shower late at night or early in the morning
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because if I do it late at night, everyone's in
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bed and I don't get disturbed and I can get in,
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take a shower and get out without someone banging on
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the door that they need to use the bathroom. You
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say things like who's underwear is in the ceiling fan?
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And it feels normal. You need a group chat just
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to keep track of what's going on this week that happens.
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People have asked us if we are a daycare because
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of how many kids we have. No, we're not a daycare.
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These are our crazy bunch of kids. Family game night
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turns into full on chaos. Someone is always singing, someone
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is always yelling, and someone is always napping, usually not
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the same person. You've had a serious debate over who
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gets the last chicken nugget. That happens quite often here.
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You need a calendar just for birthdays, and you still
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tend to forget until that morning, and you're rushing around
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trying to make sure that you have dinner for that
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child that night and a birthday cake and a gift
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because things get chaotic in a big family and lose
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track of what day it is. You can tell which
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kid is crying by how they sound. Always know which
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little is crying when they cry. We have assigned seats
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in our car and having help anyone who breaks that
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order the kids. No clean means just not a biohazard.
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You've used laundry baskets as playpens, toy boxes, or even
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a sled someone always has a science fair project due
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the next day and forgot to mention it until bedtime.
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That has happened so many times in our home. I
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don't know how many times I am getting up bright
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and early to run to the store to get the
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supplies and get the project done before my child goes
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to school. You know, I've had to do that multiple times,
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where I've ran to the store, got the supplies, came
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back and let the child do the work, but I
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helped him glue everything down because it just was a rush.
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When Walmart was open late. I used to go super
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late at night get the stuff, and we'd wake up
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bright and early and do the projects so that they
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were done. And my share of help was gluing everything down,
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or you know, telling them where to lay the stuff
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on the science board. You can cook for twenty without
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breaking a sweat. Hand me downs are practically a family hairloom.
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I mean that's a dead giveaway our kids. From the boys,
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it would go from the oldest all the way down
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to the youngest boy. Same with the girls, from the
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oldest all the way down to the youngest. Needless to say,
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some of the stuff has turned holy and we'd just
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pitch it out. It's not worth keeping, you've said, because
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I said so seventy three times today and it's only noon.
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Someone is always grounded, someone is always losing a tooth,
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and someone is always hungry. I'm gonna tell you that
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is a never ending battle at our house. The whole
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hungry thing. My girls can eat and ten minutes later
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they're scavenging for more. They eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner,
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and it's within ten minutes after they eat they're hungry.
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I always tell them that they're eating me out of house.
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At home, someone is always grounded because of not listening,
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and it's usually the little ones. They either don't listen
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or they go outside before cleaning up their mess, and
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they usually get grounded for that and then losing a tooth.
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That has been quite often in our house, and the
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tooth fairy has mistakenly left quite a bit of money
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under a few pillows because it's usually very late when
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the tooth fairy comes, or very super early in the morning,
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and so the tooth fairy in our house accidentally has
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left a twenty under a pillow, and the needless say,
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the kids were super happy when they woke up to
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a twenty dollars bill under their pillow because the tooth
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Fairy has left them a good chunk of money. So
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that is what. So if you're listening to this and
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your knee deep in laundry, stepping over toys, or trying
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to answer three questions at once, know that you are
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definitely not alone. There's joy in this noise, there's grace
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in the mess, and there's a whole lot of love
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in the middle of it all. Thanks for hanging out
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with me today. If this episode made you smile, laugh,
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or just feel a little more seen, do me a favor.
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Go subscribe to our YouTube channel We Are the Hansens.
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You can also send us a Facebook message on our
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We are the Hanson's Facebook page, or you can send
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us an email at We arethe Hanson's Show at gmail
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dot com. Until next time, I'm Maya Hanson and this
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has been We Are the Hansens, where big families make
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for big stories.