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Jul 1, 2013

Cleaner Air Inside The Car With FRAM (Giveaway!)

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When I was picking the kids up from their first day of summer camp (for real this time!), we were stopped at a light on the way home and Mira noticed a huge dust cloud go across the road as the cross-traffic went by. “Mommy, why is there so much dust?” she asked.

“Because it’s summer in Columbus, sweetie,” I replied.

I wasn’t kidding. We have four major seasons in Columbus, with several minor variations within each major season:

1. OMG, Leaves Everywhere!
2. Gray and Cold
3. Gray and Wet
4. Construction

The Construction season is a little bit of a misnomer. We have construction in Columbus year-round, but during this season when the weather gets hot and sunny, our orange barrels reproduce like bunnies and traffic slows to a crawl when three lanes are reduced to one.

The result? Dust clouds mixing in with exhaust from cars and trucks crawling along at the mercy of the orange barrels. It doesn’t exactly make you want to roll the windows down.

But is the air in my car any better? I recently learned that air inside the car’s cabin can be up to six times dirtier than the air outside. Seriously? And then I looked a little closer at my interior. There’s always a fine layer of dust that I’m forever trying to get rid of. If it was coming from the outside, I wasn’t doing us any favors by keeping the windows closed and letting the dust in, but not giving it a way out.

I had the chance to try replacing our cabin filter with a new FRAM Fresh Breeze® filter a few weeks ago. To begin with, I didn’t even know my car HAD a cabin filter! I thought the air filter that they recommend changing with every few oil changes was the same thing. Nope! FRAM Fresh Breeze cabin air filters filter 98% of dust, dirt, and allergens and are the only cabin air filter that uses ARM&HAMMER® baking soda to remove odors from the air entering your vehicle through the ventilation system.

When I received the filter, I wondered how hard it would be to install. I don’t change my car’s oil – putting air in the tires and using the vacuum at the car wash is about as complicated as it gets for me. However, the FRAM® website makes it easy to figure out with step-by-step instructions, and video installation instructions for many vehicles.

For my SUV, this involved unhooking the glove box (not as hard as I thought it would be), and then reaching past it to unclip the filter assembly and pull it out.

Cabin filterThe rectangle in there is the cabin filter.

When I pulled out the filter that had been in there since the car rolled off the assembly line in 2006, I suddenly wondered why this wasn’t covered in routine maintenance:

Old filterOld filter next to new one. Notice the old one is black and full of icky stuff.

Disgusting.

The hardest part of the entire process was having to touch that nasty old filter. The new filter popped into place in the frame, and within a few minutes the filter was back in the car, the glove box closed again, and all was ready to go.

So, how well does it work? I’m happy to report that the air within the car is fresh and I don’t notice as many of the odors coming from outside. But how do I really know it’s working? I’m not seeing that layer of dust come back on the dashboard as quickly. I haven’t needed to wipe the dust from the console in over a week.

Going back to the visual of the dust cloud in front of us on Monday – less dust, dirt and allergens coming in means I feel much better about the air that my kids and I are breathing in the car on our daily trips through the traffic and construction. I’m completely sold on changing the cabin air filter regularly now, and wish I had known sooner that this sort of thing existed in my car and needed to be changed.

FRAM Fresh Breeze cabin air filters can be purchased online at Amazon, or at your local Meijer, O’Reilly Auto Parts, or Walmart. FRAM is currently offering a $3 mail-in rebate on their filters – find the rebate form on their website. To learn more, follow FRAM Fresh Breeze on Twitter and Facebook.

Giveaway!

Now that you’ve read why I love FRAM filters, how about a $100 VISA card to get you started on buying new cabin air filters for yourself? (And plenty of other goodies for yourself, too!) I’m giving this awesome prize to one lucky reader, but you have to enter to win.

How to enter, you ask? Easy! Leave a comment below with the answer to this question:

What are your favorite simple tricks to keeping the air in your home and car healthy, clean, and fresh?

Good luck!

Rules:

No duplicate comments.

You may receive (2) total entries by selecting from the following entry methods:

a) Leave a comment in response to the sweepstakes prompt on this post

b) Tweet (public message) about this promotion; including exactly the following unique term in your tweet message: “#SweepstakesEntry”; and leave the URL to that tweet in a comment on this post

c) Blog about this promotion, including a disclosure that you are receiving a sweepstakes entry in exchange for writing the blog post, and leave the URL to that post in a comment on this post

d) For those with no Twitter or blog, read the official rules to learn about an alternate form of entry.

This giveaway is open to US Residents age 18 or older. Winners will be selected via random draw, and will be notified by e-mail. You have 72 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be selected.

The Official Rules are available here.

This sweepstakes runs from 7/1/2013 – 7/31/2013

Be sure to visit the FRAM brand page on BlogHer.com where you can read other bloggers’ reviews and find more chances to win!

Filed Under: healthy living, sponsored · Tagged: ,


May 31, 2013

Making The Most Of The Good Life

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This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Allstate. All opinions are 100% mine.

I remember when I first became a mom, someone told me that I’d now “forever carry my heart outside of my body” or something like that. You’ve probably seen a similar sentiment in Mother’s Day cards, engraved photo frames and sentimental artwork. At the time I dismissed it as a sappy quote said to all new moms, not realizing how true it could be. [Read more…]

Filed Under: sponsored, Sponsored-AF ·


Apr 23, 2013

Daughters Aren’t Always Hair Models

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For the past two weeks, I’ve noticed Cordy putting her hair in her mouth. This practice drives me crazy and I’ve asked her to stop as soon as I see her do it. A few times I’ve threatened to have her hair cut super short so it won’t reach her mouth. Of course, this is an empty threat – she’s grown to love shorter hair, and I’ve become fond of fewer screaming fits over combing her hair.

Cordy has hair that many people would pay a high price for. It’s super-fine in texture, and her mane is super-thick. There’s so much hair that it takes effort to part it, then keep parting it, and then push even more hair out of the way to finally find her scalp. You could say she’s got the Rapunzel effect with hair follicles instead of length, and it easily tangles.

It’s not fair that a child with such amazing hair would also have such amazing sensory issues related to her head. I had to distract her and secretly trim her hair until she was six. Years of hair combing still haven’t made her accustomed to it and she still fights against the comb.

I miss this hairI miss all that hair from when she was little – but I don’t miss combing it.

I’d love her to have gorgeous, long locks of hair that we could style and put in ponytails or curl, but I know it’s unlikely to happen. For both our sakes, I will take her to the stylist right before summer to take more length off to get us through the warm, humid summer. She hates having it cut, but she hates having longer hair combed even more.

Mira, on the other hand, does not have her sister’s hair issues. Her hair is also fine, but there’s not nearly as much of it. And her head isn’t as sensitive. She loves to play dress up, loves hair clips, and loves to look pretty. She can be my little hair model then, right?

Nope. Turns out, this kid LOVES having short hair. She thinks it’s cute.

Cute short hairOK, she’s right. It is super cute.

When I asked her today if she’d let her hair grow out so we can put it in ponytails and braid and curl it, she agreed at first, then later came to me and said, “Mommy? I don’t think I want longer hair. My hair is too cute when it’s short! But I’ll help style your hair, OK?”

Ummm…I don’t know if I feel so comfortable with that.

I’ve had long hair for most of my adult life. (With one very bad period of short hair.) Despite having long hair, I’m not very skilled at doing anything with it. That’s part of the reason I love longer hair – it doesn’t need a lot of styling, and the basic ponytail requires little effort.

If I can’t play with my daughters’ hair, maybe it’s time for me to learn how to do more with my own hair. This video is where I’m starting: learning to put hot rollers in my hair. Maybe I should let Mira watch it, too? She’d be great at handing me the pins for the rollers.

Other bloggers are choosing their favorite hairstyle tutorial videos and asking for your opinions on which you love most. Each week, BlogHer is giving away prizes to 3 lucky winners: one grand prize viewer will receive a $250 Visa gift card and two more folks will each receive a $100 Visa gift card! Visit the Prizes and Promotions page on BlogHer.com for more info!

Hair Sweepstakes Official Rules.

Filed Under: Cordy, Mira, sponsored · Tagged: ,


Apr 5, 2013

Spring Cleaning: Time To Let In The Fresh Air!

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It’s Spring Break for us, but the weather has yet to act like Spring yet. I was hoping that with the break from school being so late this year, we might have warmer weather to give the kids more time outside. The days have been sunny, but they’re still wearing their winter coats to go out.

Now that the week is nearly over, I hear our weather is supposed to warm up to real Spring temperatures. If it holds through the weekend, I might get the chance to throw open the windows to let the first fresh air of 2013 into our house.

Our house has been stuffy for the past few months. With a dog, cats, four humans and carpeting, it’s easy for the air in our house to seem stale and dusty. I’ve given up on dusting for the moment, honestly. The last time I dusted (using a product that traps dust), everything had a new, light coat of dust on it within two days.

 Exhibit A: Two of our dust creators.

Of course, I can’t ignore the dust. We’re an entire family of allergy sufferers – even the dog and one cat have allergies! It’s just exhausting to try to keep up with making our air better to breathe. Dusting and vacuuming regularly help, but getting all of the dust and allergens out of the air requires a transplant of fresh air.

I love that first day of opening the windows, too. Feeling the cool, fresh air fill the house is exhilarating. Sounds silly, I know, but after having dry, recycled air pushed around the house all Winter, I’m ready for a change of air. I’ll often dust and vacuum that day, too, hoping the fresh air will carry some of the airborne pollutants out a window with it.  This is also the time for us to clean out the furnace filter.

Opening the windows and forcing some new air in here will be a good temporary solution for us, but it only lasts so long. As soon as Summer is here, the windows are often shut to keep out the heat, and in the fall (Aaron’s worst allergy season), our goal is to keep the outside air OUT of the house to keep his ragweed allergies to a minimum.

We used to have an air purifier, and with kids and more pets now, I think it’s time to get another one. They’re not nearly as expensive and huge as they used to be, and they’re a lot more efficient than the ones of 5-10 years ago. They also aren’t as loud as my old one, which sounded like a cross between a fan on high and a jet engine. (Thank goodness.)

Best Buy is having a sale on their air purifiers, with something for everyone, from small rooms to whole-house. I’ve got my eye on this one for the downstairs. It’s small enough to not take up a lot of space, it has a washable filter, and it’s energy efficient. All I hope is that it’ll keep the air a little cleaner and let me dust a little less often.

If you’re also trying to keep the dust and allergens under control, you might want to check out this 20% off coupon they passed along for me to share with all of you. (Note: I’m using the coupon as well!)

Disclosure: The reviewer has been compensated in the form of a Best Buy Gift Card and/or received the product/service at a reduced price or for free.

Filed Under: healthy living, home, sponsored ·


Mar 24, 2013

The Things I Do For Awesome Hair

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Last summer I decided to do something fun with my hair color and dye the ends purple. The ombre look was fun, even if it was a little difficult to achieve. The most common way to do an ombre color is to tease (backcomb) the hair so that when you bleach out the ends you don’t have a solid line of color change, but more of a gradual change instead.

Then after bleaching the ends, you comb out the tangled mess before applying the color. It’s not comfortable, but the first time I didn’t find it too awful. The whole process took about four hours, including an all over color on the top 3/4 of my hair, too.

So when I felt my hair was drab last week and needed a lift, I made an early morning appointment for another ombre color. I decided to go with the darker brown on top again, but thought red sounded fun for the ends of my hair.

This time wasn’t as smooth, though. I had the all over color and a color correction, although the stylist chose to do the all-over color on the ends. That part alone took over three hours – longer than I had planned. Then the backcombing began – I worried that maybe she was a little bit too overzealous with teasing my hair, as I quickly had hair that looked like I had electrocuted myself.

Beauty can look super ugly at first.

It took longer than normal to bleach out the ends, because she had just applied the top color to my hair, including the ends. It was now mid-afternoon. I was tired and hungry and really wished it was all over.

When it was time to rinse out the lightener, the worst part of the process started: combing out the tangled mess that was my hair. She really did go too far in backcombing my hair – it was locked into a giant knotted ball. It took one hour, two stylists – one working on each side of my head – and a bucket of conditioner to get my hair combed out. One hour of tugging and pulling and yanking and sharp pain and holding back tears. Near the end of it I was shaking from the pain. (I have a tender head, too, which doesn’t help.)

At that point I had been there for over six hours and wanted to go home. But I still had to get the color on my ends. I slumped in the chair, exhausted from the ordeal and hoping this would all be worth it.

Eight and a half hours after I first sat down in the chair, my hair was done. I have to admit, it looks really good. I love the ombre look – it’s subtle while at the same time being a bold, fun choice.

It looked even better after I had it styled this weekend:

(My new headshot – cute, no?)
The view from the back.

I hated the process to get hair that looks this awesome, but I have to admit I love the finished look.

I also took notes on how my hair was styled this weekend, too, so I can try to create my own gorgeous curls at home. This BlogHer TV video below shows one way to do it, creating Selena Gomez inspired body and soft curls with a wide curling iron, a comb and some hairspray.  What do you think – does it look easy enough for an amateur like me to do at home?

It looks simple enough, although the backcombing has me a little scared after what I went through last week. I may have nightmares about teasing my hair for years to come.

(PS – BlogHer and Olay are giving away $100 or more with this video – if you watch and answer the question at the end of the clip, you could be a winner!)

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Filed Under: fate laughing at me, me me me, shameless bragging, sponsored ·