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3 Reasons Why Your Direct Message Didn't Get A Response
I'm not quite sure what I think of Twitter's Direct Messages (DMs). Are they annoying? Sometimes. Do I let them sit unread? Quite often. But I've also received great tips for articles on AllTwitter and insights into things that I often tweet about in my DM inbox.
The DM is an enigma on Twitter. It can be a useful way to reach out to someone on a more personal, private level and connect with them in a more meaningful way. Or it can be used to promote yourself, annoy your new followers, and otherwise poison a potentially great relationship on Twitter.
If you're using DMs as a way of reaching out to new followers, great. But if these DMs aren't getting any responses, chances are you're doing it wrong. Here are 3 reason why your DM didn't get a response.
It sounds like a canned message
Automation is enemy #1 to anyone who sends out Direct Messages on Twitter. If your DM sounds at all like it came from a cookie-cutter template, it will be tossed aside like the junk mail it is.
Sure, you might want to thank someone for following you or offer them a way to learn more about you, but in my opinion, these things should be done publicly on Twitter via @replies and @mentions. Someone new to following you doesn't want to find "Thanks for the follow! You can also "Like" my Facebook page!" in their DM inbox as their first correspondence with you. It's bland, boring, and will likely not only get ignored, but it will also get you unfollowed by some tweeps.
No call to action
So you've kicked the DM automation habit (good for you!), but you're still not getting that many responses to the DMs you send out. It could be because you lack a call to action.
If you're not giving your follower something to do – by asking a question they can answer by responding to you, asking for their feedback – they will simply read your DM, mutter a little "mmhmm" and move on.
A call to action can be anything from a question to a link (although make sure it's not just a link to sign up for your mailing list, give them something useful), and will increase your chances of getting a reply – if it's useful.
Too self-serving
People hate overzealous vacuum salesmen. The ones who come to your door, shoulder their way into your living room, sprinkle some dirt on your floor and show you how their product is the only thing on the market that can suck it up.
And just like in the real world, virtual salesmen have to watch how they interact with their potential customers. It's fine if you're using Twitter to sell something, but if someone opens their DM inbox and the first message they've ever received from you is a sales pitch to buy, buy, buy, they're likely going to ignore it… and quickly unfollow you.
(Email image via Shutterstock)


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Not all notifications are created equal! Styling, animation and position all matter when pushing a notification you want to be read.
I've collected some of my favourite, versatile (and mostly lightweight) Vue.js Notification, Alert & Toast Components in this article!
I'll keep the list updated if I stumble upon a new awesome library! If you think I should include one in particular, just email me (firstname.lastname@example.com).
last updated: 06.02.2020
Okay, this first one is actually not a notification library, but it may be useful for some of you nonetheless! vue-notifications 623 is a bridge between your app and notification libraries.
You can use it to make sure your code is library-agnostic, meaning you can replace the UI library you're using without having to rewrite your code.
Sweet Alerts 21188 has been my go-to library for JavaScript alerts forever and it continues to be with Vue wrappers like vue-swal 171.
This library is so flexible! The alerts can be configured with buttons/actions, text, icons and various closing triggers. But besides simple alert popups Sweet Alerts also support more complex use-cases like nested alerts or the use of AJAX functions.
The design of the alert popups fits many project styles out-of-the-box - I rarely have to customize heavily. But you can of course use your own styling and content templates.
The default animations of the popup box and the icons included are timed really well but can get a bit annoying if the user will see these notifications a lot (or for you when testing your code...).
From a usability perspective, I usually use Sweet Alerts for actionable and more important notifications, like when I need the user confirm the deletion of an item in a CRUD view.
minified & gzipped: 8.5KB
For toasts (informational notifications), I love the Vue Toasted Library 1826! The notifications can be configured with custom actions, duration, text and icons (Material Icons, Fontawesome or Material Design Icons). Besides 3 available styles you can also choose whether the toast should be displayed full-width.
Browser support is awesome, as well as touch- and mobile-compatibility.
Vue Toasted also is officially used by Nuxt.js!
minified & gzipped: 17.8KB
Noty 6735 is a dependency-free JavaScript notification library. It's the first alert library I found that supports Web Push Notifications additional to "normal" alerts.
It provides 11 layouts (= positions on the screen or in a container), 5 notification styles (= alert / success / warning / error / info), and 9 themes (= colour palettes and overall styles). It's also highly customizable, so you can create custom templates and use your own animations. It also supports using animate.css, mo.js, bounce.js, velocity and other libraries.
To manage your notifications, Noty offers a named queue system, API methods & Callbacks.
vuejs-noty 145 is a Vue.js wrapper for the library.
minified & gzipped: 10.3KB
vue-notification is a simple and pretty lightweight notification library.
You can choose between CSS and velocity-Animations for your notifications and customize duration, speed, positions and size. It offers 3 styles for success / error / warning alerts, but custom templating and styling is also possible.
Despite being a bit more limited than f.ex. Noty, this library covers everything I usually need in notifications without unnecessary overhead.
minified & gzipped: 4.2KB
Vue Snotify 734 provides many configuration options while still being pretty lightweight.
You can choose icons, a backdrop, timeouts, positions, 3 different styles, progress bars and more. Templates include not only simple alerts, but also input prompts with validation.
The default styles tend to be a bit too particular for me to use this library out-of-the-box in my projects, but can easily be customized with styles and custom CSS animations.
Snotify also provides a built-in system for asynchronous notifications which might come in handy!
minified & gzipped: 5KB

subset: commoncrawl


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The magnetic ink character recognition (MICR) market is proving to be tremendously resilient in the face of daunting challenges. Despite declining check volumes around the world, millions of MICR documents continue to be produced on centralized, distributed and desktop machines, and vendors continue developing new MICR printing hardware and solutions. In their recent study, "Digital MICR Printing," INTERQUEST reviews the current state of affairs of MICR printing.
Although checks are still the leading form of non-cash payment in the US, the Federal Reserve documents a steady decline in market share to electronic payments. Between 2003 and 2006, checks dropped from 48% to 33% of all non-cash payments, and this scenario is playing out in most regions of the world. INTERQUEST estimates that, currently, about half of consumer and small business checks produced by large check suppliers are printed on conventional equipment, and about half are printed on digital systems. Declining check usage has surprisingly not taken a toll on check producers. INTERQUEST expects check volume in the US to decrease from 32 billion in 2007 to 21 billion in 2012, and that an increasing percentage of checks currently produced with lithography will migrate to digital platforms.
A great deal of MICR printing occurs on desktop and distributed units. TROY Group and Source Technologies together account for more than 90% of the installed base of secure desktop and distributed MICR printers in the US. However, electronic delivery is having an impact. Check 21 provided a boost to desktop and distributed MICR prints as the volume of image replacement documents (IRDs) produced by banks and financial institutions grew very rapidly. As of mid-2009, however, nearly 90% of receiving institutions in the US were accepting check images, and IRD volume is declining. In the future, INTERQUEST expects to see faster desktop units and more MICR MFPs on the market.
Recent surveys of major commercial and in-house transactional printing operations find that only about one-quarter of the respondents expect MICR volume to decline over the next few years. Yet many third-party providers are gaining volume from failing competitors, and in-house operations face outsourcing decisions as volumes level off. Consolidation in the market has been a boon for faster continuous-feed systems from vendors such as InfoPrint and Océ, while Xerox continues to dominate the cut-sheet segment. It is estimated that the overall volume of MICR printing produced on production equipment to decline from around 13 billion to 11 billion impressions by 2013.
One of the most interesting and exciting developments for the market has been the MICRenabled inkjet. Printing MICR ink with these devices present difficulties for users since the magnetic particles in the ink tend to clog the ink nozzles and are difficult to maintain in suspension. Kodak worked around the issue by offering an inline Nipson magnetographic unit with its VL and VX presses, but the Holy Grail has been an entirely inkjet solution. A solution was first achieved for desktop inkjet units, and solutions for production equipment have followed. Océ has added a fifth print head and an additional MICR ink tank to the JetStream family of fullcolor inkjet presses, and InfoPrint unveiled a MICR version of the InfoPrint 5000 at Print 09. Other vendors offering MICR-enabled inkjet production equipment include RISO and the French company, Impika.
DAVID DAVIS [email@example.com] is the director of INTERQUEST Ltd., a market and technology research and consulting firm in the field of digital printing and publishing. More information on the "Digital MICR Printing: Market Analysis & Forecast, 2008-2013" study is available at www.inter-quest.com.


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A local radio station has a program on Saturday mornings where people can call in the show to buy, sell or exchange...well, there's no other way to say it...junk. It's called "Swap Shop", and there are a bunch of rules of what you cannot buy or sell. Like firearms and real estate. But I guess everything else is fair game, because last Saturday someone called in stating they wanted to buy a wench. I was shocked, quite frankly.
The last time I listened to the song "Lady" by the group Styx, I was amazed at some of the high pitches that song attains. But I could have swore some of the instruments reaching those high pitched tones were power tools.
Has anyone who wears glasses ever forgotten to take them off, and gotten in the shower with them still on? And then you're looking around in the shower and thinking, boy everything seems brighter in here today? And then you see the crud on the floor of the shower that you've never seen before, and start wondering what the heck that is, so you bend over and immediately realize you still have the glasses on as the large drops of water pour down upon them, so now you can't see anything? And now a decision has to be made, do I get out of the shower dripping wet to put them away, do I just work around them and keep them on, or do I take them off and put them somewhere in the shower and hope the don't get crushed by something? Yeah, me neither.
Who had the more unique voice- Freddie Mercury or Barry Gibb?
I think a great guitarist who is all but forgotten is Gary Richrath of REO Speedwagon. Before they sold out to sing pop songs, they were a great rock band. If you listen to their early stuff, he was really awesome.
Speaking of REO Speedwagon, if you want to have some fun at the next school event you attend, sing the National Anthem like you're imitating Kevin Cronin. Like, "Oh, say can you see-YAH, by the dawn's early light-AH..."
I always try to sing like Tom Jones myself. And I must be getting pretty good at it, because people at church, even those who are sitting several rows in front of me, are always turning around to look.
If a house divided against itself cannot stand, why celebrate diversity? In fact, if we don't stop this diversity crap, it's going to be American Civil War Part 2 in this country before the end of the 21st Century. Why can't we all just be Americans?
Hmmm.....now that I think about it, maybe that radio guy actually meant a winch.
Is there a more obnoxious commercial than that Citi ad with the middle-aged foreign guy you can't even understand? Exactly who is this supposed to appeal to anyway?
I know this has been expressed elsewhere, but why does the country of Holland call itself 'The Netherlands' and its people 'the Dutch'? Makes no sense. So in that same lunatic spirit, I propose the country of the United States call itself 'The Uberlands', and its people be called 'the Hootch'.
I know NASA has been struggling in recent years to remain relevant. I have an idea. The fastest growing sport is NASCAR, right? I propose NASA join forces with NASCAR to make a little something called NASACAR. Fly rockets into space for racing purposes. The international space station could serve as the pit stop. If people tune in now to see the car crashes, just wait until NASACAR starts. The carnage factor would be spectacular.
I hate the tail wagging the dog all the time in this country. Which is why, although I am not a big fan of the University of Illinois, I am disgusted by their decision to bow to the kooks who wanted to get rid of Chief Illiniwek. I think it was the faculty of the university that was the biggest factor in this. Everyone knows the Chief was not a demeaning personality, and people loved him. He was always respected and honored, around these parts at least. No one laughed at him or thought to themselves, "That's hilarious, get a load of that Injun Boy." On the contrary, most people thought it an honorable nod to a bygone era of this locale. It was all just a political power play. Once there are no more Native American team nicknames, I predict within the next 50 years someone will start complaining that there are no Native American team nicknames.
In that spirit, I propose we change the nickname of the University's sports teams to "The Fighting Highlanders," as many people who settled the state's Southern area were originally of Scottish or Scotch-Irish ancestry. I guarantee you no one would complain, and might even be flattered by it. Or, if that isn't pleasing, you could choose one of these nicknames.
I keep hearing that blacks won't vote for Obama because he's not black enough. What tone do they want? Have we stooped so low that me must now classify ourselves, not by race, but by flesh tone? Should we have meters to measure such things, so that on surveys we can start using a number instead of a color when it asks our race? By the way, I'm #DDBD63.
I heard somewhere that 'Saturday in the Park', a catchy tune popularized by the musical group Chicago, was actually originally titled 'Saturday Nights With Spock'. Don't believe me? Just substitue the title or the name Spock in the lyrics where appropriate. It fits perfect.
Ashkenazi Jews are my favorite ethnic group. Why? Because I like to say "Ashkenazi".
Official state things (like State Flower, State Bird, State Animal, State Insect, State Motto, State Rock, etc.) are all noble ideas. But they are hardly reflective of the harsh, fallen world we live in. To even it out a little bit, I propose each state who has one of the above should come up with the following:
State Disease
State Criminal
State Crime
State Pollutant
State Drug
State Rodent
State Alcoholic Beverage
State Fast Food.
Finally, why don't we have the US Olympics? You know, have Olympic competitions, open to US citizens, only the athletes compete under the banner of their home state? We could hold it every four years in a different city. I'll get it started. The 2007 US Olympics will be held in Winnemucca, Nevada.


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Designing a feature staircase within existing confines is always a challenge. This property was particularly restricted in terms of available space for a staircase with limited headroom. The final design however is simply eyecatching. This staircase combines a central carriage style structure in mild steel, with substantial solid oak treads and a clear toughened glass balustrade. A hand made oak handrail caps the glass balustrade.
The resulting staircase was a huge success, and we continue to work with renowned coastal architect Brian Haward of Southwold on a number of interesting projects.


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'this business laptop is fairly spare.'
'powerful ultraportable laptop'
'truly portable system'
'Data ports are scarce, however: You get just network and modem jacks, a VGA port, two USB ports, a headphone port, and a single PC Card slot.'
'Add together the CD-ROM, floppy drive, docking unit and mains adaptor and you have three hardware extras to carry around in addition to the main unit.'
ReviewGist helps you find the best products to buy by making sense of online reviews.
We are currently aggregating 376,500 reviews
covering over 29,474 products.
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Reduce weight Rapidly Bellvue Colorado
The number one thing to start with is removed all refined carbohydrates. You have to get insulin controlled and minimizing carbs is the best means to do this. As long as the body is draining insulin you will never ever transformed into a weight loss device. As insulin degrees drop your body will certainly begin to excrete salt as well as you will shed water weight as well as shedding fat. Research study after research study has actually shown that a high fat diet is a lot more effective in weight management that a low fat diet regimen. Insulin resistance is one of the major elements of chronic disease today and decreasing carbohydrates will help you obtain control of this.
Professional fast weight loss Bellvue Colorado
Weight Loss & Diet Tips
It is essential to have fats and also healthy proteins in all your meals. Believe it or otherwise carbs are not important because your body could make them. It is very important to not exaggerate the protein since your body can additionally transform that to sugar. Likewise, high healthy protein consumption and cancer are associated. Keep in mind that pet elevated today in big business operations have lots of anti-biotics and hormone and both will prevent you from dropping weight.
Professional fast weight loss Bellvue Colorado
Fats likewise add to systemic swelling if you are eating the incorrect fats. Basically eliminate all veggie oils in your diet regimen as well as you will certainly be much healthier. Healthy fats leave you feeling overfilled as well as will certainly minimize snacking so make certain you eat lots of healthy fats. Your carbs must be originating from veggies. Quit consuming starchy carbs and also your body will certainly thanks. Another take advantage of vegetables is the high fiber content which makes your web carbohydrates even lower. Like your mother always stated "Eat your veggies".
Slimming down is 80% diet plan as well as 20 % workout. While you can lose weight without workout, I do not recommend it. Weight lifting as well as doing high intensity interval training seems to give one of the most bang for the buck. Muscular tissues melt power as well as the even more you have, the a lot more calories you burn. Cardio workout could be detrimental due to the fact that you wind up being hungrier as well as eating extra. Do not believe the misconceptions of losing muscular tissue. If you get on a low carb, high fat diet the ketones you will certainly be creating are muscle mass sparing. Take advantage of that.
Weight Loss & Diet Tips
If I were to decrease weight management into my top 2 pointers this is what I would do. Very first point is I would reduce the amount of carbohydrates I eat. Simply eliminating all refined carbs would suffice. That implies primarily nothing that comes in a box. Grain, rice, pasta, as well as bread are instances of this. In the initial I would stop consuming starches also. You can reintroduce them after you have gotten to your perfect weight. My 2nd leading suggestion is remove all vegetable oils. The processing involved with these oils make them harmful. If you cook with them you will be getting trans fats. I believe at this moment everyone recognizes that trans-fats are incredibly harmful to you. All vegetable oils have a minor quantity of trans-fats in them. When you cook with them the trans-fats can go from around 1 %to 20 %. Simply don't do it. Rather chef with health and wellness saturated oils such as hand oil, coconut oil, or perhaps butter. Butter is a staple in my life currently and I am healthier for it.
Eat This Not That Bellvue
Alzheimer's is called Diabetes Type III currently. Diabetes is a nutritional disease and if you wish to control or reverse it you need to alter your diet plan. The Loveland Medical Clinic enlightens people on diet regimen so they could get control of their health without having to take tablets. We reveal you what foods you need to be consuming and also just what foods to stay clear of. The federal government as well as big company agriculture has lied to the American public for decades which is why 66% of the American public is now obese or overweight. Exactly how about we do some preventative medicine as well as get control of our health and wellness currently before we go damaged as a country.Weight Loss & Diet plan Plans Bellvue There are many healthy diet plan plans there.
Any person should have the ability to drop weight on any diet regimen strategy. Whether the plan is good for your general wellness is debatable. You have actually become aware of all the plans. Weight Watchers, Metabolic Research Center, Slimfast, as well as the listing takes place. Some use hormone treatment and others aim to sell you on their supplements. I am sorry but infusing HCG as well as consuming a 800 calorie diet plan is just not healthy and balanced. If you look at the ingredients of several of the supplements these firms are selling you will certainly see that there is a lot of junk in them. You can not simply decrease calories, you need to alter your diet plan. The Loveland Medical Clinic transitions our patient to a healthy and balanced lifestyle and diet regimen that will certainly allow you to age beautifully. It is not just how long you live, it is exactly how practical you go to your age. I still intend to have the ability to ride my bike up a mountain at 80 years of age. How about you?
Mission of Loveland Medical Clinic
The mission of the Loveland Medical Clinic is to teach individuals ways to maximize their wellness so they can live and also age beautifully.


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Gears 2 avoiding Germany, possibly Japan
[UPDATE] Microsoft confirms Epic Games sequel won't be released in violent-media-sensitive central European country; island nation plans still up in the air.
Many gamers are counting down to the November release of Epic's sequel to its 2006 Xbox 360 hit, Gears of War. The game is due for worldwide launch on November 7, but not every territory will be part of the global release. Today, Microsoft reps confirmed to GameSpot that, the ultraviolent Gears of War 2 won't be released in Germany.
"Microsoft works closely with retailers, ratings organizations, and other partners to determine the best approach for our titles in markets around the world," the company said in a statement. "[As such] Gears of War 2 will not be released in Germany."
The lack of a German release would not be a surprise; the country has a strict classifications system for games, and the original Gears of War game was refused a rating. This led to Microsoft canceling the release of the game in the violent-media-sensitive country, in accordance with its policy on unrated games.
Web reports say that the central European nation won't be the only one missing out on hero Marcus Fenix's second assault on the Locust horde. The online edition of Edge magazine reports that Japan will also not receive the game, which bears a hard M for Mature rating the United States.
However, Microsoft would not confirm nor deny that report, saying only that is has "no announcements to make about Gears of War 2 releasing in Japan at this time."
Skipping Japan might be a bit of blow for Microsoft's efforts to crack the Japanese market, where the Xbox 360 has lagged far behind the Wii and PlayStation 3. Released in January 2007 in the territory, the original Gears went on to sell more than 33,000 copies in its first week and made the sales chart top 10, despite being a 360-exclusive shooter from a Western developer.
One thing that is for certain, though, is that Gears of War 2 will not be available for the PC. In a recent interview for GameSpot UK's Start/Select show, Epic president Mike Capps responded to the question "Are we ever going to see Gears of War 2 for the PC?" with a flat "No." That sentiment was seconded by design director Cliff Bleszinski in an interview with GameSpot's San Francisco office.
GameSpot may get a commission from retail offers.
Got a news tip or want to contact us directly? Email firstname.lastname@example.com


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Where to Shop in Dallas this Weekend
Shop Dior Fall 2013 Ready-to-Wear Collection Today: Highland Park Village's new Christian Dior store is taking its last order for its fall 2013 RTW collection. Even if you can't buy, you'll want to see Raf Simons' artsy Warhol-inspired dresses, cable knits, and full skirts in person.
Nordstrom the Half Yearly Sale: Womenswear is seriously discounted at Nordstrom this weekend (and through June). I have my eyes on a pair of Vince sandals that I'm pretty sure will have a new home come Saturday.
Etsy Handmade Gifts & Mini-Market at West Elm: The beloved online artist mart has a few local Etsy vendors displaying their wares at the Mockingbird Station home store tonight. Head over between 6 pm and 8 pm for handmade gifts, accessory workshops, refreshments, and gift bags. A $5 raffle to win a West Elm price package benefits Genesis Women's Shelter.
Memorial Day Sale at Melanie Gayle: Shop through Monday for a little discount on all your upcoming summer staples: maxi skirts, flirty dresses, colorful minis, etc. Buy one item for 10 percent off, two items for 20 percent off, and three or more items for 30 percent off.
Memorial Day Benefit at Piermarini: Shop through Monday and 10 percent of all purchases will benefit Miracle Players Foundation, which raises money and awareness for children's cancer research.


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Lyrics Depot is your source of lyrics to Hallowed Ground # 5 (Acoustic) by W.A.S.P.. Please check back for more W.A.S.P. lyrics.
Hallowed Ground # 5 (Acoustic) Lyrics
Artist: W.A.S.P.
Album: Dying For The World
Come and take me down the dark beyond
And take me there where I come from
Take me down to the place where I'll kneel
And let me lay my shadow down
In through the eyes of a child's inner me
No pain to heal my bloodied brow
There is no rain to save this silent town
There is no rain to save at all
There is no place to save this silent ground
There is no place to save at all
Oh Father take me unto where I'll lay me down
On Hallowed Ground
Oh the sky is falling
And I don't know where my home is now
My Hallowed Ground
Oh and can you take me
For I have tasted Hallowed Ground
Oh all around
Father - do you hear me
This pain I will not cry aloud
Father - I know you hear me
My head is bludgeoned but unbowed
[Repeat chorus]
W.A.S.P. Lyrics
W.A.S.P. Dying For The World Lyrics
More W.A.S.P. Music Lyrics:
W.A.S.P. - Drive By Lyrics
W.A.S.P. - Hellion Lyrics
W.A.S.P. - Hold On To My Heart (Live Acoustic) Lyrics
W.A.S.P. - I Am One Lyrics
W.A.S.P. - Me And The Devil Lyrics
W.A.S.P. - Restless Gypsy Lyrics
W.A.S.P. - The Real Me Lyrics
W.A.S.P. - Who Slayed Baby Jane? Lyrics


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With the availability of chickenpox vaccine the incidence of chickenpox has reduced significantly. This vaccine has become a required part of the immunization series in Virginia.
Chickenpox is caused by a virus. Usually the child will have a low grade fever (101-102°F) for several days and an itchy rash that starts on the chest and spreads to the face, back, arms and legs. The rash itself starts as a reddish mark that quickly becomes a little clear blister. Each blister then pops and scabs and crusts over. New blisters form as the old ones crust over. The child is contagious from one to two days before the rash appears and until every blister is crusted over. He may then return to daycare or school. Incubation period is 2-3 weeks from exposure.
Treatment is directed toward making the child more comfortable: Acetaminophen (Tylenol or Tempra — never asprin) to control the fever. Control the itching with Aveeno (oatmeal) baths several times a day, and use Benadryl every 4 hours as needed for itching.
Most children with chicken pox are miserable and do not want to eat. However they do need to drink lots of fluids to remain well-hydrated.
Old chickenpox sores may discolor the skin temporarily, but normal skin color will return in several months.


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The one word that keeps coming to mind whenever I think of Jen's birth is peaceful. I'm not sure if that would be the same word she would use to describe it, but when you're the one going through the pain of labor, you're experiencing something different than everyone else in the room 🙂 For the most part, though, everything about Jen's labor & birth was very calm and relaxed.
On Friday, Donny and I planned a somewhat impromptu dinner with Jenny & Dan that evening. Dan was craving Dewey's, so we met up, ate some delicious pizza and had a great time. Jenny was telling me how she thought she was in labor the night before, but everything stopped for the most part and she was kind of bummed. Well about 2 hours later I got an excited call from Jenny saying her water just broke. She wasn't having super strong contractions at the time, but she really wanted her family & doula to come to her house and be with her while she labored there before going to the hospital. So Donny and I got all ready and got to her house about 11:30pm. Just as we walked in the door, they made the decision to head to the hospital because her contractions were about 5 minutes apart at the time.
I think the hospital staff was probably pretty amused at the caravan of people that all arrived with Jenny & Dan. (Jenny's parents, Dan's parents, Dan's sister, Jenny's doula & best friend Ashley, and Donny & I were all there!). By the time she got all checked in and settled in the delivery room it was about 1am…and nothing much was happening. She was checked in at 3cm, 80% effaced which was the same as she was at her doctor's appointment 2 weeks ago. I think she was a little bummed that all the labor she had the night before hadn't made her progress any further, but took comfort in the fact that her water broke so that meant her baby would most likely be here in 24 hours or less!
All of the guys except for Dan of course ended up going out to their cars to sleep while the rest of us tried to sleep back in the room with Jenny. The only one who got a good nights sleep was Dan's sister Haley 🙂 Jenny tried to sleep at first, but she was just uncomfortable enough that she couldn't sleep. Things were going fine, just slow. She was checked again a few hours later and hadn't made much progress and that was really discouraging to her. She didn't stay discouraged for long, though! She decided that if she wasn't going to be able to sleep or rest anyway, she was going to do anything she could to move things along. She walked, showered, sat on the ball, switched positions…and guess what – it worked!
By 6am she was over the hump and at 6cm and from there things progressed fast. Luckily, she only had about 4-5 hours of really hard labor and the slow building all night gave her body the rest that it needed. Jenny went all natural, so of course it didn't feel like rest to her because 4-5 hours is still a LONG time to be in that much pain. But when it comes to labor (and especially for first time moms), 4-5 hours is awesome 🙂 She pushed off and on for about an hour, and Kynlee Jamison Hauer made her debut at 12:26pm weighing in at 6lbs, 10oz and 19.5″ long. Pure perfection!
Jen handled her labor so gracefully – you would have never known she was in as much pain as she was. All you could really tell was that she was totally exhausted…which was to be expected because she hadn't slept since Thursday night – and that was the night she thought she was in labor. She never once complained or asked for an epidural! She fully trusted God and her body to let things happen naturally and there really are no words to describe what a touching, beautiful experience it was to witness. She and Dan worked together like a well oiled machine and brought Kynlee into this world with ease, patience, and love. What a great way to start out as parents, huh?
I am so proud of you both and over the moon in love with my new niece 🙂
Love, Kelly


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Spring is the time for new life and rebirth. It is filled with warmer weather and beautiful flowers. Personally, I think spring is the perfect time for a busy mom to treat herself to some new goodies as well. There are a few spring must haves for moms that I really believe every mom needs in her life! We all deserve a little treat once in a while, so go on girl treat yo self!
*This post contains affiliate links. Please refer to full disclosure policy*
Mom's Spring Must Haves
Fab Fit Fun
I have been subscribed to Fab Fit Fun for well over a year now, and I have never been disappointed. They are a quarterly subscription service, so you get a box four times a year. Each box is filled with awesome full sized products perfect for the season. The value of the box ALWAYS heavily outweighs the subscription cost. Right now, if you go click HERE and use the code SPRINGTIME, you will get $10 off of your first box! Fab Fit Fun is probably my all time favorite subscription box and number one spring must have.
New Clothes
Out with the old and in with the new! I love doing a wardrobe upgrade around springtime for myself and the kids. The problem is I don't want to spend a ton of money. Enter Thredup, an online consignment shop for women and children. I love to get one of their clean out bags, stuff it full and send it in. Once I have my payout, I will go on my own little shopping spree. Their items are all like new and brand name, many of them still have tags on them! They have everything from clothes to shoes and even designer handbags! Check them out, HERE and get $10 towards your first purchase!
A Good Book
A recent discovery of mine has been the Book of the Month Club. It is another subscription box, but you get a book every month! You can sign up and pick out one of their books they have available each month. If there isn't anything that tickles your fancy, then you can simply pass for a month and you won't be charged. To me, a good book to relax with is a definite spring must have.
A Food Subscription Service
Look, not every mom wants to cook every night. It can become tedious and it is easy to get uninspired. Thankfully, this is where food subscription services can come into play! There are so many services out there, but my two favorites are Sun Basket and The Home Chef. Both of these are awesome. They send you everything you need to make some delicious meals without the hassle of shopping and meal planning. Both of them are easy to customize as well based on any dietary restrictions. Sun Basket is also offering three free meals right now to new subscribers!
Every mom deserves to be pampered and feel special. That is what this list of must haves aims to do. Everything mentioned will make mom feel that spring time joy and relax a little on top of it.
Now I want to hear from YOU. What are your spring time must haves?