Category: Pets

Been trying to update all day and of course, never got a chance. Oh, what I’d give for wireless internet and a damn laptop. I’m gonna start saving for one, dammit (a laptop).

Anyway, my birthday was lovely . Thank you all who wished me a Happy Birthday…I’ll get back to you all individually soon!

My birthday was so totally not what I expected for some reason…and that’s good. I didn’t think we’d do anything to begin with, but we did, and on my actual birthday, not on the weekend like I initially thought.

I woke up and got Eenan ready for school then dropped him off. The first thing he said when he woke up was “Happy Birthday, Mama!!” Then, when I left him at his class his teacher wished me a happy birthday too. I thanked her and asked how she knew and she said, “He’s been talking about it non-stop since Monday”. My baby! *tear* When I got back I just sat on the couch and idly watched TV. Mario woke up, wished me a happy birthday and then asked me what I wanted for breakfast. I was craving an omelette and so he made me one. It was the cheesiest, tastiest omelette with ham, jalapenos, and cilantro I’ve ever eaten and although I may have gained 5 lbs. that morning, OMG it was SO worth it!

We plopped ourselves on the couch after our gluttonous breakfast and after flipping through channels, Mario decided to cancel the Starz package and got Showtime. After a few seconds of flipping again, I found one of my favorite 80’s movies, For Keeps?. Mario, being the wonderful husband that he is, sat through it and toughed it out to make me happy .

We picked Eenan up from school and I see him bringing a cupcake with him. Ms. O. told Mario (since he’s the one who got off the car to get him) that a little boy had a birthday party and Eenan refused to eat the cupcake…he said he was keeping it for me since it was my birthday . How freaking sweet is THAT? He even brought me a party hat…aww!

I took my time getting ready when we got home. We’d be meeting at Yadira’s for my birthday. We had lasagna, spaghetti and salad and everything was delicious. Bless Mary’s heart for cooking everything . They also surprised me with an ice cream cake from Dairy Queen! I’d told Mario I’d love to have one and they got me one! It was delicious. Mario ended up having two slices LOL.

After cake, I opened my gifts. Mary and Big Mario got me a gorgeous heart-shaped ruby necklace (that I’m dying to wear somewhere!) and Cata, Annie and the kids got me two cute T’s–one with Tinkerbell and one with the Pink Panther. Yazmin wrote me a letter on a Hello Kitty card and gave me two Hello Kitty Uno cards with a 2 and a 3 on them…too sweet . I was a happy, happy girl.

My nose was red-raw because I was constantly blowing it. Egh! I’m just glad I wasn’t as sick as I thought I was going to be. I think *knocks on wood* that I may have actually skipped the cough part of this thing!

The next day was the usual. Jaylen and I just chilled out here. I had cleaning to do, so I was kind of relieved that Sonia would be picking Eenan up for me. John came over since he’d be spending the weekend here for Jaylen’s party. Mario got out of work a little early and took me out to a movie for my birthday. We watched Beauty Shop. Mario was cringing at the thought of watching a “girlie movie” but he actually enjoyed it. My favorite line in that movie’s got to be “It’s hotter than a jalapeno’s coochie out there.” That’s how I’d describe a south Texas afternoon . The only thing I didn’t like was that we once again sat in front of a bunch of annoying little kids who were constantly kicking our seats. I refrained from smacking the little girl behind Mario and instead yelled at her to quit her shit. What is it with these morons? I don’t pay almost $8 to have my damn seat kicked .

After the movie, we went next door to Wal-Mart and Mario bought me two DVD’s I wanted, 50 First Dates and 13 Going on 30–both make me cry like a baby at the end . We tried looking for Independence Day for him, but had no luck.

The next day after we ate breakfast and Mario left to work I got ready and went to town with Mary to run errands. Eenan stayed with John. First thing we did was pay bills. I paid all of them and it felt so nice getting everything out of the way. Then we went to Target where I bought a cute brown shirt with embroidered flowers on it and my favorite bras which were on sale. We went to Pet Smart for rat food and I saw some red eared sliders–they were HUGE. My babies are going to (hopefully) get that big one day .

We went to the new Wal-Mart, which was extremely crowded, to get a few things we needed for the goodie bags for Jaylen’s party. I also found Pocky sticks! I’ve never seen them at the other Wal-Mart, or anywhere else for that matter.

When we were on our way home there was this green truck in front of us. It suddenly stopped in front of the drive thru shaped like a 6 pack of Cokes so we stopped too, naturally. Then we felt this huge smack that jerked us foward. Someone hit us. Since Jaylen had been moody, I’d reluctantly sat him on my lap and he fell asleep. I’m so, so grateful that nothing worse happened. I couldn’t sleep that night thinking, “What if he’d taken his seat belt off if he was in his seat?”, “What if it would have been much worse and he was on my lap? What if he flew out the windshield?!” “We were in the van, what if we were in one of the smaller cars?” I’m extremely anal about them being in their seat belts and I couldn’t believe we get hit when he’s not in it. Instinctively I wrapped myself around him when I felt the van jerk foward and immediately afterwards I felt my back start throbbing. When we were getting off to check the van, I hear Mary say, “Oh my God, he’s leaving!” Asshole . I asked the men that were standing nearby if they saw where he went. He’d reversed and then made a U-turn and sped off and according to the men, his whole bumper was hanging off. There was glass everywhere and it wasn’t from the van. All that happened to the van was a piece of plastic fell off of something, the bumper got scratched and the license plate fell off. May karma strike that man and his car .

After calming down and shaking it off, we came home. Mary made broccoli rice for Mario’s Grandpa Leo’s birthday party and I cleaned up and then bathed the kids. I took an Advil after bending over the tub to wash them because my back was killing me. We left to pick Mom up from work–she’d be spending the night also for Jaylen’s party. We went to the other Wal-Mart afterwards to pick up a few more things they didn’t have at the other Wal-Mart and to exchange a gift Mom bought Jaylen since Andy bought him the same one. THEN we went to Grandpa Leonel’s party. The food was awesome and they even sang Happy Birthday to me LOL. The kids had fun running around with the puppies and all their cousins. On the way home, Mom gave me my birthday present from her–a beautiful silver heart-shaped necklace with lots of little pink and white stones on it .

When we got home I fed everyone and then we worked on the rest of the Ninja Turtle centerpieces–just touch ups here and there. I got everything ready for the next day and finally finished around 12am.

The next day we all got ready, had breakfast and then got ready to leave to town since we had lots of stuff to do before the party. Mom and Eenan would go with Mary and John and Jaylen would go with us. We went to JCPenny to leave a payment and get Jaylen some new shoes and a shirt for Mario. Then to Payless to exchange some shoes Mom had given me…I got some cute, brown Airwalk flip flops to match my blouse. Then we went to Pet Smart to get the filter for the turtles’ tank, some crickets for them, water conditioner and some new, bigger pebbles for their tank since we removed the gravel ones (they might think they’re food and eat them). I still want to get them a background for their tank and a cute ceramic/resin? palm tree they had there .

We went to Wal-Mart again to get Jaylen a new gift from Mom and John needed some stuff so he got them. Then we went to Best Buy to get Independence Day for Mario and then to Home Depot for heaven-knows-what that he needed and then to Dairy Queen, which was right across from the party, to get Mario some food since he was “starving” and said the pizza wouldn’t fill him up. I got a yummy caramel Moolate *swoon*.

When we got to the place, Eenan was already playing and Jaylen quickly joined him. John watched them for us while we got stuff ready at the tables.

Aunt Nora and Tio Arturo were some of the first to get there. We mingled while we were waiting for them to bring out the pizzas. Albert’s wife, Jannette, got there with her two nieces and her baby, Alan. I sat with her for a good while and we ate and talked. She’s nice . Jaylen had a blast. We brought everyone together to sing to him while he and Eenan poked at the cake as usual LOL.

After we ate cake, it was time for him to open his gifts. I think he needed a nap by then because he was quickly becoming irritated. He was grunting when I’d ask him to take pictures with his gifts.

He opened a few presents and then got to Andy’s, which was the Rafael (or Rafayeld, as Jaylen calls him) set with the bandana, sai (?), belt, and elbow/knee pads. He didn’t want to open anything else after that. Then Eenan wanted to play with it so all hell broke loose LOL.

They played a little more and then the party was over. We thanked everyone for coming and then dun*dun*dun…it was time to pay. We were SO surprised to find out it was only $281 this time. We’d given $100, and Mom had given $100 for the deposit, and Mary put in the $81. I’m so glad they help us out each year and I’m so glad it wasn’t so pricey this time (there’s usually a whole lot more people). One year it came out to $725…yeah, heart attack .

We dropped Mom off at home and she noticed she didn’t have her shoes–she’d left them at our house so I said I’d go drop them off. I cleaned up while Mario set up the new stuff in the tank for the turtles. Then John, Jaylen and I left to Mom’s. I wasn’t too nervous driving all the way over there, which surprised me since it was my first time driving all the way over there without Mario instructing what to do and where to go. The off-ramp made me nervous, but I did okay, and when we passed by the big Coke drive-thru I got nervous too, because I remembered when that idiot hit us. Other than that I did good. I sat and had a chat with Mom and Aunt Nora for a good hour and then we left.

John stayed over again that night since he didn’t have to go into school till noon on Monday. I cut his hair that morning after dropping Eenan off and then helped Jaylen open the rest of his presents, when he finally remembered there were some (he was still clutching on to his sai sword thingy Andy got him though!). I cleaned the house most of Monday…it was chaotic. Sonia picked Eenan up again for me that day since I wasn’t going to use Noelia’s car. I went to the Dollar General with Mary for a few odds and ends and got some scrapbooking stuff. I want to start scrapbooking so badly, but need more supplies first. I’ve got so many ideas! When we got home, I started on Jaylen’s cake. Since the 18th was his actual birthday, I was baking him a cake to celebrate. He wanted green frosting, so I used up 1/4 of a bottle of green food coloring to do it. Then I drew Rafael on it LOL. He liked it. He blew out his candles, then we ate cake and he opened his presents. Later Yadira stopped by with the girls and they had some cake too. Yadira said she didn’t like yellow cake (all we had) but she tried it and ate it all. She said, “And I really don’t like this. Dammit, Yajaira!” I guess it was good cake !

We talked about the kids’ first days of school and then she mentioned maybe putting him in Head Start next year, since he’s already 3 and is potty trained. I’m not sure if we’ll qualify, or if I even want him to go there (she took Angela out since the teachers or whatever they are were being sort of negligent). But then I really want to start school and get a job and all that jazz…so ugh, we’ll see.

After everyone left, we came back here and Mario got home. He ordered Flight of the Phoenix…very good movie.

As for today, it was spent cleaning once again. After picking Eenan up from school we went to the Family Dollar where I bought 3 stacking shelf things for them to put their toys in. Jaylen’s Ninja Turtle box became too small after all the Ninja Turtle gifts he got this weekend and their Dinosaur boxes are overflowing. I got them to help me clean the room because it was a disaster and I painstakingly scrubbed crayon off the floor since Jaylen decided to scribble all over . I got all my chores done early and still got to enjoy American Idol and I Want a Famous Face, or whatever it’s called. It’s already 12:23 though, which sucks because I actually thought I was going to get to sleep early. I forgot to wash Mario’s work clothes during the day and had to stay up for that . I’m ready to crash right now.

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Thank you all for Eenan’s well-wishes . He stayed home from school on Thursday because he couldn’t stop coughing the night before and his fever would come and go. He felt much better Friday so he went. Sunday, he spent laying on the couch all day, except to eat or go to the bathroom. He was completely lethargic, so I kept him home on Monday, too. Monday morning, around 6am, was also when Jaylen’s flu started…he had a fever of 101.6 and was coughing badly. Eenan went to school today; I hope he’s doing alright. I gave him his medicines right before I dropped him off, so he should be alright till he gets home.

Jose, Elda and the kids all left on Saturday afternoon. Elda didn’t want to leave and that’s because she was having a hard time with the fact that they’re moving over here during summer. That’ll be cool. Then all we’ll need is for Jorge to move over here from California and all of Mario’s side of the family will be in the Valley.

I can’t believe all the stuff that’s been on the news. First, the inhumane way Terri Schiavo died, then the Pope’s passing and then yesterday while watching the news at 5 I heard about an 8th grader at a school in McAllen had stabbed another 8th grader in the back with a pocket knife. The victim lived and is back at school and is okay, thank goodness. I can’t believe that happened over here. I tend to stay away from the news because I’m afraid of what the hell I’m gonna see. I’ve said it a million times: I fear for when my own kids are in middle/high school. Some kids are terrible these days. Then I heard about how a Judge (who’d served the county for 10 years) resigned, then I watched the news again at 6 and they had breaking news about how they found him dead at his home with a gun shot wound to the head. I know he’d been under investigation by the FBI due to allegations he was accepting bribes, but why would he leave a wife and 5 boys behind? It’s sad.

My birthday’s in 9 days and it doesn’t even feel like it. I’ve been too busy thinking about Jaylen’s birthday party which is coming up on the 17th (his birthday’s on the 18th). We haven’t even discussed what we’re getting him for his birthday. We still haven’t even gotten the ceramic Ninja Turtle piggy banks (which will be the centerpieces), or the candy (which we mostly get in Mexico), or the party favors and goodie bags. I have a feeling the next two weekends will be madness.

Oooh…forgot to mention. Saturday night we’d gone to Wal-Mart and Eenan had $.50, so he got two goldfish; Goldie #2 and Indigo and I bought a little Ghost Shrimp–cutest little thing. Well, we got home, I arranged the tank–even got them a portable filter/pump this time and the damn fish ended up dying before we went to bed. My shrimp was okay–till the next day. He died too. I did some research online and found out that if there’s even one sick fish in the tank the rest will get sick–and most likely–will die too. We went back to Wal-Mart to look for a filter for the turtles’ tank and looked at the tanks where we’d gotten our fish and there were at least 4 floating at the top. I wonder how many people have bought fish there that have died already. How crappy. Poor fish .

That night Yadira called us and asked if we wanted to adopt Squirt, Angela’s turtle. They had two, but Shelly had passed away that day and she didn’t want the other one to die so they gave him to us. So now we have three happy little turtles . They’re so fun to watch…I need to make a page for them soon and show off their cuteness. I think Mario and I get a kick out of them more than the boys do!

Mario got out of work Sunday and we went shopping for a few things. John actually came by this weekend (only because he missed his bus Friday after school ) and stayed with the boys while we went since they were sick. We went to Target and got Eenan a Gamecube game and a CD player for Jaylen since he didn’t have one yet. We were looking around for a new shelf or something for DVD’s and while looking at the furniture I fell in love with this tiny table and chairs that would fit perfectly in the kitchen. I want it so badly. The table we have right now a foldable one borrowed from Mary, since our wooden one was wayyy too huge for our space and our chairs are old, ugly chairs we used to use outside. My table and chairs embarrass me. One of the reasons I don’t like having company over…really.

After we went to Target, we got some drinks at Starbucks. I finally went to a real Starbucks and man was my Caramel thingy good! Usually, we’d only buy the Frappuccinos from Wal-Mart or H-E-B…the ones in the little milk bottles? But yum…I can’t wait to go back.

We went to Wal-Mart after that to get house necessities and found a new DVD rack. It wasn’t exactly what we were looking for, and it’s not black, but it fit all our DVD’s. Now Smokey, the gerbil, is tucked nicely in one of the shelves in the entertainment center and I still have to move all the electronic junk (Xbox, Dish Network receiver, Game Cube, VCR, DVD player, and the surround sound thing) around to make it look neater and utilize the empty shelves. I wish I was craftier and more creative so I could figure out how to make things fit nicely in this small place. I realized something while watching HGTV though…you need $$ to be organized, and sadly, I don’t have any extra $$ right now .

Okay, I’ve blabbed enough. Gotta finish with laundry *yawn* and help Eenan with his homework (Sonia just picked him up for me since I didn’t have a car today). Then I gotta try and catch up with online stuff. My inbox is ripping at the seams .

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Hope everyone (who celebrates) had a Happy Easter :).

As for our weekend (man I really need to update more frequently!)…on Friday, while getting ready for when everyone got here (Jose, Elda and the kids were arriving that day), the mail got here and Sonia presented me with a package from Vic! I was so excited…my initial thought was, “I thought she was sending a thank-you card?” LOL. I frantically opened it and was so surprised to see 2 10″ Care Bears and 3 10″ Care Bear Cousins, Hello Kitty stickers, a cute bag that says ‘Visit España’ on it, a Rainbow Brite ‘Star Sprinkles DVD, cute pencils, some little parachute guys and little goodies for the kids, some Strawberry Gum Tape, a teeny Hello Kitty Plush, Rose Petal Palace rings, and finally, a letter . All that for helping her with Greymatter. She’s so sweet. I feel guilty for not sending anything to her when she hosted me, or helped me get my domain and all the other awesome stuff she’s done for me. Gotta send her a *cough* thank-you card, too .

I finished getting ready and a few seconds later, everyone got here. We went in and said hello and gathered around and talked. Noelia had come home the day before and had a bad, bad virus, probably the flu. Poor Angela caught it that Friday, so she was miserable all day. Then Saturday, poor Sammy ended up catching it. I’ve been Lysoling everything like crazy–I’m so scared the kids will get it. The fever accompanied by that flu, or whatever it is, gets really high and they can’t keep anything down, not even medicine.

All the kids naturally gravitate towards our bedroom since there’s a plethora of toys…so you can imagine the condition of the room. I left for about 20 minutes, and when I came back, the room was turned completely upside down. Natalie ended up getting stuck in the rungs of the bunk beds–which have no mattresses on them because we’re going to disassemble it and put/give it away. Jaylen’s little tool shed thing was completely taken apart…and I have no idea how they did that since you need to UNSCREW everything. Mary got them all to clean since I was about to lose it (I’d just cleaned earlier that day LOL). As for outside…the canopy of the swing is torn in half and the slide was separated from the rest of the swing set. 9 kids=madness!

We went to Yadira’s that night and just talked and laughed. Noelia invited Andy over so he could meet everyone and everybody liked him. I’m so happy for her . He treats her so well and she’s just really happy. It’s about time she found someone who suits her.

Mario got there from work that night and while everyone was in the breakfast nook I helped Yadira wash dishes and then I made some break-apart Easter cookies. It was a nice night. Oh yeah, and Eenan punched Jaylen in the face…but other than that, it was a nice night…

At the moment, I can’t remember much from Saturday but I doubt we (the kids and I) went anywhere. Oh yeah, no we didn’t go anywhere. Yazmin spent the night with us so we were here all day…she on the computer and I was cleaning and then making two pans of flan the rest of the day. We had a birthday party for Albert to go to and I was taking flan. The one I made for the party ended up breaking apart completely when I flipped it because I didn’t have my flan-pan (it’s at Maggie’s). I didn’t even bother flipping the one for “here” for Easter because I was afraid it would break too. I got ready and felt uncomfortable and “rolly” in everything I had so I just wore a Strawberry Shortcake t-shirt and jeans. I knew everyone would be all “fancy” but I was frustrated and couldn’t have cared less. On the way to the place we took a sharp turn and the cajeta split all over my leg. Niiiice! I was so embarrassed, but when we got there Mario said we took a sharp turn and it spilt on me, and not only that but he blamed the broken flan on the turn. I looked at him with an extremely thankful look on my face and he stayed outside with some of the guys and their wives and I stayed inside with Albert’s sister and wife. I drank a yummy wine cooler and then we went outside and joined the husbands. We all got our plates when the food was done and as soon as we sat back down, it started pouring. We ran inside and ate there. It turned out to be a nice night aside from the rain.

We got home at around 12-1am that night, so we were super tired Easter morning. We had our 6th Anniversary cuddle time and then I took a shower while he went out to get the fire ready for the bar-be-cue. We had a whole bunch of dyed eggs that needed stuffing and covering, so after I got out of the shower I took everything to Mary’s and got started. I only got to finish about 1 1/2 dozens, and the rest stayed without stuffing since we ran out of confetti. Sonia, Jaylen and I went to the Dollar General and Family Dollar stores and they were closed. H-E-B was closed for sure and so was Wal-Mart, so we didn’t even bother going. Andy’d come over to spend Easter with Noey and said that on his way over he saw people coming out of the other Family Dollar store, so Elda, Yazmin, Sonia and I went. Either they’d been open and we’d gotten there too late, or people were just stopping by and checking if it was open. We went to Joy Dollar, which was the only place open and found a whole bunch of cute, cheap stuff Elda needed for baskets and prizes for the egg hunt. I found confetti and some jumbo crayons and a coloring book since Jaylen’s basket didn’t have one and we came home.

When the food was finally done, we all ate then went outside to do the egg hunt and crack the eggs. Eenan started crying because he didn’t find an egg with a number on it (which means you get a prize) and Brandon gave him one since he found two…awww . There were prizes left, so even Jaylen got one. They had so much fun with the egg hunt and even more fun cracking the eggs on everyone. After that, we got all the kids in line to hit the egg-shaped pinata Annie brought. I quickly ran in to empty my other memory card and the darn thing wouldn’t erase the pictures because it was supposedly write-protected. Took forever, but I got it to work and I hear Mario yell, “Kids…get in line from smallest to tallest…Yajaira, you first.” The short jokes will never get old…

The kids opened their Easter baskets and were in love with everything in them. The main gift in Eenan’s basket was a Bionicle DVD and Jaylen got the Spongebob Squarepants movie. The boys got a basket from each of their Ninos (Godparents) and one from us. Since Jaylen has two sets of Ninos he got three baskets in total…so he had fun LOL. It was a really nice day. I loved that we all got to be together. I didn’t get to see Mom, John and Gramma though, so that was really depressing for me, but I got to talk to Mom and we’ll hopefully see Gramma on Thursday. Poor Mom had to work from 3-9 that day . Mario watched the Bionicle movie with the kids while I helped clean the mess outside. When I came in, he took a nap and the kids happily played with their toys. I don’t remember much from that night. I know we got together to have dinner, but I don’t remember what we ate, or who was here or what we did .

The next day the kids and I just spent the day here and I tried cleaning as much as I could. I tried spending as much time with everyone as I could, but since Eenan had school the next day I had to get him ready and I also had to make Mario’s lunch for work. The hectic-ness starts again!

Jaylen woke me up Monday night (early Tuesday morning) at around 2am asking for some milk. So I gave him a cup and straw and he finished it, then started rolling around in his bed groaning that his tummy hurt. I was so scared he caught the virus I couldn’t sleep because I was afraid he’d throw up. Then MY stomach started hurting. Needless to say, I didn’t fall asleep till almost 4am. After dropping Eenan off at school and making Mario breakfast and seeing him off to work, I took a nice, long nap with Jaylen. Then I cleaned. Mary called and said she was going grocery shopping and asked if I’d like to go along and I needed to so I said yes. Noelia would pick Eenan up. We came home and I helped Eenan with his homework, then everyone got together and we ate dinner. Andy came over and brought his little red-eared turtles with him (I think that’s what they’re called?). So now we have two little turtles named Jackie and Daniel…aww . Mario said he was going to kick my ass for taking more animals in but I told him he doesn’t take care of the other animals anyway (I DO) so I’d take care of them and he didn’t have to worry about it. The kids are excited…maybe it’ll heal the pain of losing their dear Goldie. Yes, I forgot to mention it above, but Goldie died on Friday, I think. I was going to change out his (her?) water and when Eenan passed by the tank, he yelled “Oh NO! Goldie’s DEAD!!” I ran over, and sure enough, he was floating sideways in the tank . He had been totally fine in the morning when Eenan fed him. His water wasn’t even cloudy. I think it’s because he needed a filter and stuff…and the man at Wal-Mart said all he needed was purified water. Grr. So anyway, I grabbed a little cardboard box and stuck him in it so we could bury him next to Hamtaro’s grave and Jaylen went crazy. After I taped up the box, he grabbed it away from me and just wailed that he wanted me to open the box and put Fishy back in his tank. He kept screaming, “Open it, Mama, open it!” I felt so bad and swallowed the lump creeping up my throat and told him we’d bury him and then he could visit him whenever he wants and take him flowers like they do to Hamtaro. That made him feel a little better so we went out there, buried him and they brought him little weeds and flowers LOL.

When I dropped Eenan off at school today he remembered it was Pet Day so I had to come back and get the turtles and gerbil and take them to his class. Jaylen woke up to help me LOL. Hopefully the animals are okay and not poked and prodded too much. I don’t think Ms. O. would let them mess with them too much anyway.

There were two other pets there: a teeny goldfish (with very cloudy water ) and an adorable Siberian hammy like Pecan. I would have taken Pecan but man, he’s a meanie! He’ll bite the kids for sure if they stick their fingers into the cage. I can barely feed the lil’ fucker without him trying to attack my hand .

Welp, gonna hang/fold clothes and then change out the animals’ sheddings. Then I’m going to watch Medium .

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