Review of OnStar FMV

When asked if I’d like to review the OnStar FMV mirror (a nav and communication device for your car), I was dubious. Not about the device, but about my ability to even do an automotive-related review. My husband was going to be traveling out of the country for weeks (so he wouldn’t be around to help or answer any questions), and I am NOT by any stretch of the imagination, a car person. But actually that’s what convinced me to do the review in the end. Because the OnStar system is supposed to help people just like me -- and it did.

I got the mirror installed and activated (both were surprisingly easy), and took my kids on a solo road trip to Tahoe. And you know what? The mirror worked like a champ!

Here’s what I liked:

• A Real Live Person: I could press a button from anywhere (and believe me I tried it everywhere) and a bonafide human came on the line and helped me with any problem I was having.
• Worked Even in Nowheresville: The OnStar mirror got service on even the most remote dirt roads at the very tippy-top of mountains in Tahoe. Places where my sad little in-car GPS threw up its hands and pathetically stuttered “Uh....... not on a digitized route...?”
• Directionally Challenged Help: The operators (who gave me a thrill each time they answered with “Hello Mrs M, how can I help you today?”) would answer any questions (where’s the nearest gas/bathroom/icecream shop/etc) in person and then send the directions to my mirror. I got clear turn-by-turn directions every step of the way. And if anything was confusing, I just pushed the button again and the operator would clear things up for me. (Yeah I was a pest.) There was no possible way I could have been typing and retyping all of those things into my car GPS while I was driving those twisty mountain roads.
• BlueTooth You Won’t Want to Chuck out the Window: The mirror has a built-in BlueTooth connection, which never has to be charged up. (My other BlueTooth device, an ugly, unreliable box clipped to my visor, is ALWAYS running out of charge at the worst times.)
• Emergency Response During the Unthinkable: If, god forbid, my van is in a crash and I’m not conscious, the FMV mirror can automatically alert an OnStar Advisor. She’s immediately connected into the vehicle to see if we need help. This one function alone made me rest a little easier and feel more confident when tackling those skinny mountain passes with only my kiddos in the car. I also immediately taught them how to press the emergency button if they needed any help and I couldn’t do it.
• Stand-in for Husband: Ha, just kidding on that title, but the OnStar actually does the things my husband normally would on a road trip -- get a tow truck, or get gas if we run out, or fix a flat tire -- basically fix any roadside snafu. And the cost is covered in your subscription. For someone whose husband travels all the dang time, this is so valuable.

The Particulars:

The OnStar FMV mirror is available in a bunch of retail stores now (Fry’s and Best Buy near me) for $300 and can be installed for about $100 on almost any vehicle. You buy a yearly subscription to either Directions & Connections (navigation plus emergency and roadside assistance) for $300 a year or Safe & Sound (emergency and roadside assistance) for $200 a year and then you’ve got a live person there with you wherever you drive. To find out more, visit the official OnStar site or your local Best Buy or Fry’s store. You can also check out the other bloggers' OnStar reviews and enter to win $100 by visiting the BlogHer Prizes and Promotions section.

Disclosure: I received an FMV mirror and trial service from OnStar in order to complete this review and I was compensated by BlogHer for writing this review. All opinions are my own.

New winner drawn in ARM & HAMMER $100 Visa giftcard giveaway

The previous winner that was drawn (see below post) never responded, so a new winner was drawn by BlogHer, and it was #114:

fuzzandfuzzlet said...


Visit a park with a lot of trees, make a point to visit during all four seasons and note the changes.
I wish they had a product to make pre teens rediscover the joys of brushing!

Congratulations fuzzandfuzzlet!!! I'll also be emailing you with this notification.

Winner in the ARM & HAMMER $100 giveaway

Thank so much for entering our giveaway and for all of your creative ideas!! Loved reading them all and Ro and Ree will enjoy doing so many of those suggestions. BlogHer has drawn a winner at random from the entries, and the winner is commenter #175:

Amy said...


I love the ideas posted here. My kids love playdough. They love using scissors to cut with it. They also love putting their superheros and Star Wars toys into the playdough and trying to dig them out again.

Amy, I will be emailing you shortly. Thanks!

Review and giveaway: kids toothbrush and toothpaste

This month we were asked to do a family review of a kids’ toothbrush and toothpaste that you can customize with stickers:
ARM & HAMMER® Spinbrush® MY WAY!™ battery-powered toothbrush and Orajel® MY WAY!™ Kids Toothpaste. I have to tell you that Ro and Ree were pretty excited for this review, especially because they had spotted these toothbrushes in the grocery store just last week and begged me to buy them (kudos to the marketing folks).


Toothbrushes: The customization concept is a great one for kids, especially siblings, and here’s why: it’s FUN to use the waterproof stickers to decorate your own stuff, and (this one makes me stand up and cheer) the custom decorations mean that no more fighting takes place over toothbrushes. You think I’m kidding? About once a month in this house Ro and Ree get their toothbrushes mixed up, lay claim to the same one, and fight (loudly -- with much dramatics and even more tears).

Well now the girls have tried out Spinbrush toothbrushes and truly enjoyed decorating them and using them. The neat spinning technology makes the toothbrushes “funner” (their word) to brush with, so they brush WAY longer and do a much more thorough job. Always a plus in this house, where we have one enthusiastic brusher and one extremely haphazard one.


Toothpaste: Now for the Orajel® MY WAY!™ Kids Toothpaste. We give this one a mixed review. The sticker customization was creative and fun, and the girls appreciated having their own toothpaste containers that couldn’t get mixed up (see aforementioned bathroom fights), but the mechanisms didn’t work well for us. We got two tubes of toothpaste to review, and the push button on one tube was inoperable straight out of the box (we never got any toothpaste to come out) and the working one is hard for our kids to operate (they don’t have the finger strength to easily get enough toothpaste out). The fruity flavor got huge, enthusiastic thumbs-up from both girls, and they prefer it over the brand we were using.


The giveaway: Enter our giveaway from 5/12/11 to 6/9/11 to win a $100 Visa giftcard, provided by BlogHer and ARM & HAMMER. To enter, just leave a comment sharing something creative to do with kids (we love anything creative, crafty, or family-oriented around here and are always looking for fun ideas).

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 about this promotion and leave the URL to that tweet in a comment on this post
c) Blog about this promotion 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 conducted by BlogHer, and will be notified by e-mail. You have 72 hours to respond, otherwise a new winner will be selected.

For more information, please see:
• BlogHer.com Round-up Page: Visit the Exclusive Offers section
• Rules : Visit the Official Rules
• Sponsor URL Spinbrush: Visit the Official Spinbrush® MY WAY! ® site
• Sponsor URL Orajel: Visit the Official Orajel® MY WAY!™ site

Disclosure: I received two Spinbrush toothbrushes and two Orajel toothpastes from ARM & HAMMER in order to complete this review and I was compensated by BlogHer for writing this review. All opinions are my own.

Winner drawn in HomeGoods giveaway

Thanks for all the great gift suggestions, you guys are awesome!! We had entries from #2 through #219 for the $50 HomeGoods giveaway, and I used random.org to pick the winner, which was commenter #5.

Congratulations to Kay’s Mommy who said: “My sister in law takes the most beautiful pictures that I could never compare to. Picture frames are always a fool proof gift because I know she always has something waiting for a frame. Your girls are adorable! My 5 year old is also on a fairy kick!”

I’ll be emailing Kay’s Mommy in a sec. Thanks everyone and Happy New Year!

Two winners in the Hallmark recordable storybook giveaway

Two winners were chosen in this giveaway, by generating random numbers at random.org.

Congratulations to Becky, who was commenter #98 and said “I would give a Hallmark book with my voice to my nieces who live several hours away.”

And congratulations to commenter #17, Susan, who said “I would love to have our daughter record the book for my mother, who lives in another state.  Last year we sent her a mother's day card with our daughter's voice on it, and Mom keeps it by the couch where she can replay it whenever she wants to hear her voice. But that thing is going to wear out soon!”

I’ll be emailing both winners in the next few minutes. Thanks everyone for entering!! Loved reading your comments.

Review and giveaway: Hallmark recordable storybooks

Does your family have a Hallmark recordable storybook yet? We do, actually we have two. One that we bought last year and one that Hallmark just sent us to review. These books have built-in voice recorders to let you personalize each page and are just the neatest things!

We give the books two thumbs up, and actually plan to buy a few more. They’re perfect for the holidays and make wonderful gifts. You can record your own voice, your childrens’ voices, or (our personal favorite) grandparents’ voices reading these classic stories. My folks recorded The Night Before Christmas for Ro and Ree last year, and when we head to Texas for the holidays, we’re going to have TubaDad’s folks record Frosty the Snowman. That way Ro and Ree will always have their grandparents’ voices reading to them. What a treasure!

Ro and Ree love these books and carry them everywhere. They’re a special part of our holidays. They listen to the stories over and over and giggle and cheer with every page turn.

The giveaway: If you’d like your own Hallmark recordable storybook, please enter our giveaway. Two salsa readers will win a Hallmark recordable book, which will be mailed to you before Christmas. See the full selection of books here. To enter the giveaway, fill out this form:

Giveaway entries can be viewed here. Comments on this post are closed so that all giveaway entries will go to the above form. If you’re planning to do any shopping at Hallmark this weekend, by the way, bring this $5 coupon with you.

The rules: Promotion begins 12/3/2010 and ends 5:00 p.m. (PST) 12/8/2010. 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 in the above form
b) Blog about this promotion and leave the URL to that post in the above form
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.

Disclosure: I was given one Hallmark recordable book in order to write this review. All opinions are my own.

Review and giveaway: HomeGoods holiday gift hunt

This is a compensated review by BlogHer and HomeGoods.

I was recently invited to review the HomeGoods store by participating in a $50 gift-shopping challenge. As a veteran HomeGoods shopper I know that the store carries practically everything under the sun at crazy affordable prices, so the answer was easy: CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!!

The girls and I set out one afternoon and breezed into the store.

We kept an open mind and figured we’d know the winning gifts when we saw them. Hm, perhaps not the best strategy when the absolute first thing we saw was the BIGGEST LOLLIPOP IN THE WORLD. Ro and Ree screamed and ran over to it hopping and gasping and trying to convince me that they might perish on the spot if they didn’t get this gift.

Steering resolutely away from the giganto pop (which I suspect TubaDad is going to get for his sweeties the second he reads this review), I managed to refocus them on our task, and we went on find some really cute gifts. We found some adorable soft, sparkly sugar plum fairies for the girls’ friends (I think their whole gang is nuts about fairies this year).

We found an entire aisle of pink stuff – oh the squealing and twirling and leaping. I was laughing so hard I almost forgot to take a picture. Pretty much everything in that aisle was perfect for Ro and Ree’s buddies:

And we found really affordable stocking stuffers around every corner! I may or may not have grabbed a few chocolate snowmen, and one of them may or may not have been devoured already during the writing of this review. There’s really no need to discuss it any further, right?

Let’s see, what else? Oh! We found the best frames and mirrors. I was so tempted to walk out with a wall-sized mirror for my living room (oh man it was gorgeous), but left that one for another shopping trip and picked up a few of these fun, brightly colored iron frames instead. Nice price!

In the end, our $50 gift challenge was met with the following seven gifts:
2 sugar plum fairies: $14
2 Nutcrackers: $18
3 iron picture frames (to fill with pics for the grandparents): $18

Oh, and can you guess who the Nutcrackers are for? Hee. Yes, Ro and Ree each got to pick out a gift for themselves.

One of my favorite things about the store, by the way, is the check-out system. You get in a single-file line, and once you get to the front of the line an automated system calls out the number of the next available cash register. Such a relief for someone like me who ALWAYS picks the slowest line if given a choice. We went to the store in the middle of Black Friday weekend, and the huge line you see in this picture took us only 4 minutes to navigate (yes I timed it). Sweet!

If you need any gifts this holiday, head to your nearest HomeGoods and I’ll bet you’ll find plenty of neat stuff for everyone on your list (and you’ll even have money left over to buy yourself a few gifts!).

The giveaway:

You can also enter our giveaway to win your own $50 HomeGoods giftcard. To enter, just leave a comment with a great gift idea for someone who is hard to buy for (I have so many of those on my list!). For more chances to win, see the other bloggers’ reviews.

(Comments on this post are closed so all entries go to the above form. View form entries here.)

The rules:
Promotion begins 9:00 a.m. (PST) 11/29/2010 and ends 5:00 p.m. (PST) 12/29/2010. 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 in the above form
b) Tweet about this promotion and leave the URL to that tweet in the above form
c) Blog about this promotion and leave the URL to that post in the above form
d) Read the official rules for 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. Full text of the Official Rules is available here.

Disclosure: I received a $50 giftcard from HomeGoods in order to complete my gift challenge and was compensated by BlogHer for writing this review. All opinions are my own.

Psst, want a cool site for Christmas presents? (review of Novica handcrafted art web site)

I always have the hardest time finding great presents for friends and family. I am just not a very creative shopper (unless you’re talking about little girl clothes, hee!). So when the folks at Novica contacted me about a product review, I checked out the web site, was very intrigued, and instantly saw a solution to my gifting dilemmas.

Novica is associated with National Geographic, and they provide a global web site for artists around the world to sell their handcrafted art. They have the most beautiful products, from ceramics and furniture created in the Andes to apparel and ornaments from Thailand to baskets and instruments from West Africa. And each item has a fascinating description of the artist.

I browsed for almost an hour (not even kidding) before selecting an Alpaca Wool Wrap in Brown Tweed from the Andes to review. It was designed by Alfredo Falcon, a third-generation weaver whose life has been changed by Novica. His story is typical of many of the artists.

I’ve been wearing the beautiful wrap for a couple of weeks now and love it!

It’s kind of become my go-to cool weather accessory. It’s warm, cozy, fun to wear in different ways, and SO much more stylish than my boring old cardigans. Now if I was on America’s Next Top model, I’d figure out a stunningly awesome pose to show the wrap off, but I’m just a mama, so the pic to the left is what you get.

And here’s the back view – isn’t the wrap fun-looking from any angle? Thanks to TubaDad for taking these photos, by the way:

Here’s a close-up of the yummy browns:

And here’s one of our littles, who just had to try it on. Can you guess which girl this is?:

The Novica web site is chock full of interesting artists and art that would make a perfect gift (for a friend or for yourself!). If you want a wrap of your own this winter, check out the amazing selection here. They've also got jewelry, corporate gifts, green gifts, unique gifts, holiday items, and even a microfinance section where artists can get loans without interest. It’s just plain neat. And I’m planning to do a whole bunch of my Christmas shopping there.

Disclosure: I was provided with a Novica product of my choice (the Alpaca Wrap) for the purposes of this review. The opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. No additional compensation was received.

Winner for PlasmaCar giveaway!

Oh my goodness, thank you for all the fun entries in the PlasmaCar giveaway!!! This was BY FAR the most popular giveaway we've ever hosted. Wow. We had over 400 entries (see them all here), with 394 entries in before the giveaway cutoff time. I used random.org to draw the winner, and the winning comment was at 8/24/2010 15:40:21 from ali, and she said simply "RED". Heh.

Ali, I'll send you an email shortly. The winner has 48 hours to respond or I'll have to draw a new winner.

Thanks everyone, and thanks PlaSmart.

Have you tried a PlasmaCar yet? (review and giveaway – now closed)

You know when you see something and wish like crazy that YOU had been the one to invent it?! Well that’s how I feel when look at the PlasmaCar.

It’s seriously one of the neatest toys I’ve ever seen (and boy oh boy have we seen a lot of toys at this house). The PlasmaCar is a ride-on car that magically moves forward when you twist the steering wheel back and forth. No batteries, no lights, no noise -- just pure coolness and unbridled kid power. Wow!

Awhile back, I contacted the maker, PlaSmart, and asked if we could do a product review and giveaway, and they agreed! Whoooohoooooo! A few weeks later, Ro and Ree and I opened the front door to find a big ole box that had us dancing with glee.

On review day, Ro (left) and Ree (right) picked out quite interesting riding outfits (a weird layered combo of PJs, leg warmers, and who knows what else) and ripped into that box, even though I tried and tried to get them to wait for TubaDad (the chief toy-and-furniture assembler in the family).

To my surprise, the girls and I could easily handle the assembly by ourselves. Basically the toy comes in 5 parts (body, two back wheels, front wheels, steering wheel) that easily snap together.

They were ready to roll in a matter of minutes and I just stood back and watched the fun.

Oh the giggles!! They instantly figured out how to move the little cars around. Ree also quickly figured out she could propel the car with her feet and was smug smug smug:

The design of these futuristic cars just makes me grin. Aren’t they neat-looking?!

We’ve had races, time trials, different courses all over the house, and hours of fun, fun, fun:

And, being the twinados, they immediately figured out how you probably aren’t supposed to ride it:

Then we had a house full of kids (8 visiting cousins, ranging in age from 2 to 10) here for a week and those little cars were the most popular toys in town. I don’t think those wheels stopped moving even once. By the way, PlaSmart says the cars aren’t recommended for hardwood floors, and ours did start to show some marks after we had 10 kids riding them inside for four straight days.

The bottom line:

The PlasmaCar gets high marks from everyone in our family, the bigs and the littles. We adore these little nifty cars, and know that they will continue to be popular around our house for years to come. When I asked Ro and Ree for a quote about the cars, they said (almost in unison): “Mama, we YUV them!!!”

The giveaway:

PlaSmart is giving away one PlasmaCar to a lucky salsa reader!! Just check out their website, then leave a comment using the form below telling me your favorite PlasmaCar color. Entries will be accepted from 1:30pm on August 24 2010 until 5pm on August 31 2010. You may receive an additional entry by blogging about this contest and leaving another entry with a link to your post. This giveaway is open to US and Canadian residents only. Winner will be selected via random draw, and will notified by e-mail. You have 48 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be selected. View entries that have been submitted so far here.

NOTE: THANKS FOR PLAYING EVERYONE – THE GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED.

Disclosure: I was provided with two PlasmaCars for the purposes of this review and PlaSmart is providing an additional PlasmaCar to be offered in a giveaway. The opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. No additional compensation was received.

Winner in McDonald's giveaway #2

I used random.org to draw the winner tonight, and out of 42 comments that were submitted before the close, #25 was the winner:

sunniejane said...
I pledged 120 minutes to chalk with my family!

Congratulations sunniejane! Please email me back and I'll get you set up with your family fun prize pack.

Thank you everyone who pledged time with your families and helped the Ronald McDonald House Charity.

How do you make the most of family time?: introducing the new McDonald’s “Every Minute Counts” widget

This is a sponsored post from BlogHer and McDonald's.

This is the second and final part of our McDonald’s trip review and I’m excited to talk about family time and charity. Y’all know that TubaDad travels quite a bit for work. Oh so much traveling… So when he’s back in town we do the happy dance and make THE MOST of our family time. We’re not picky about what we do, as long as we do it together. Seriously, the tiniest little things make us grin. Like giving each other makeovers with cheap Claire’s makeup the other day. Oh man this made us laugh (and yes, we took the girls out of the house looking like that).

  

 

We hang out together and do slightly more conventional family time activities too:

• Traveling at the drop of a hat: say it with me, ROADTRIP!! 
• Listening to music (lots of tuba, of course), dancing, and singing
• Playing at parks, amusement parks, or the beach
• Watching movies
• Or just hanging out in the backyard or the pool

   

Yeah, we enjoy spending time together. That’s probably not a shocker to anyone reading this, is it? Heh. Now, though, there’s a simple way to turn this family time into a charity donation. We learned about this when our family visited McDonald’s corporate headquarters and a Ronald McDonald House Charity^® back in June, and were all pretty psyched for them to roll it out. Here’s the deal: McDonald’s has just introduced a new online tool to promote family time and raise money for Ronald McDonald House Charities^® (RMHC^®). Basically, this widget collects family-time pledges. And McDonald’s will donate 1 penny to RMHC® for every minute of time a person pledges to spend with his/her family, with the goal of reaching 1-million minutes. This widget is part of a new national fundraiser the company launched that also includes their Happy Meals. For each Happy Meal® and Mighty Kids Meal® sold in the U.S., a portion of the sales will be donated to RMHC – McDonald’s “Charity of Choice” for more than 35 years.

Now you might be thinking (like me), that a penny is a teeny amount that won’t make any difference. But these pennies and minutes add up fast. Last year, those little spare-change-donation boxes that you see on the counter of every McDonald’s raised nearly $20 million for local RMHC Chapters. Not bad! So make a family-time pledge today, and feel good about spending time with your family and helping charity. Shoot, do what we’re going to do and tell your kids about the RMHC and get them to pledge what they’d like to do as a family.

The giveaway: 

One winner will be chosen to win a McDonald’s Family Fun Prize Pack, which includes a McDonald’s smile tote bag, surprise set of Happy Meal toys, $25 McDonald’s Arch card (can be used for any purchase at a McD’s), McDonald’s Vintage Character T-Shirt, Pen-Buddy notebook, Organic Lip Balm, McDonald’s Stainless Tumbler, and a Just-Give gift card for any charity of the winner’s choice.

To enter the giveaway, pledge family time on the McDonald's “Make Family Time Happy Time” widget (above) and let us know what you pledged in the comment section for a chance to win! (You don’t have to sign up, register, or give any identifying info in the widget.) We’d also love to hear if you have a favorite family memory tied to McDonald’s.

1. Giveaway opens at 9:00 a.m. (PST) August 11, 2010 and closes at 5:00 p.m. (PST) August 24, 2010.
2. To get one extra entry, either blog or tweet about this promotion and leave an additional comment with the url of your tweet or blog post (two entries allowed per person).
3. You can view the BlogHer.com special offers page for 9 more chances to win or to read their awesome reviews.
4. Check out the full text of the official rules.
5. Entries/comments must be on topic and not offensive or derogatory.

UPDATE AT 5pm 8/24/10 – THE GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED. I’LL DRAW A WINNER TOMORROW. THANKS!!