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Love at the Dry Cleaners

This past Tuesday, Emily and me and some other fabulous bloggers were invited to attend the grand opening of the Tide dry cleaners in nearby Mason, Ohio.  That’s right, you heard me.  A TIDE Dry Cleaners!  I’ve made no secret about the fact that I love, love, love Tide, and Emily feels the same way, so we were happy to attend. I mean, a Tide Dry Cleaners seemed like the BEST idea in laundry ever to me!

Of course, after we got the grand tour and saw how they did things – we were blown away by how cool the Tide Dry Cleaners is. If it’s from Tide, I expect it to be great and it WAS!  Here’s a few things that “wow’ed” us:

Cortney and me listening intently during the grand tour. It was fascinating!
  • There’s a DRIVE-THRU.  You don’t have to get your kids out of the car to drop off or pick up your dry cleaning.  The heavens parted and angels began to sing at this miracle!! Ok, that is a slight exaggeration, but really, EVERYTHING should have a drive-thru and Tide Dry Cleaners does!!
  • You can pick up your clothes 24/7.  That’s right, if you want to pick up your suit at 2:22 a.m. cause you are freaky like that, you CAN!  Or on your way into work at 7 a.m.  Twenty-four-flippin’-seven, people!  Now that’s convenience!
  • Pricing!  The pricing was very reasonable, and y’all know how cheap I am. ANY SIZE comforter for $20.  Twenty bucks!?? That’s a steal!
  • Special services: Tide Dry Cleaners can restore your garments to their former glory. Got faded blacks??  Try the “back to black” service for just $5!! Again, SO worth it to make that key black wardrobe piece look like new again.
  • Tech-nol-o-gy.  Tide uses Green Earth dry cleaning process to be the most environmentally-friendly in it’s dry cleaning service AND super high-tech machines to get your clothes done beautifully and quickly.  The efficiency of the conveyor belt and the combination shirt dryer-and-pressing-machine were really impressive!!
The computer-operated conveyor belt moves at lightning speed!

Drying and Pressing your shirt at the SAME TIME!

The Tide Dry Cleaners in Mason (check it out at 8100 Mason-Montgomery Rd.) is the training center and flagship store – but Tide is franchising these fabulous stores SO hopefully there will be one coming near to all of us soon! Emily and I were excited to hear that the Dayton franchise has already been sold, which means we should have a Tide Dry Cleaners in our backyard next year! WOOT!

Thanks to our friends at Tide for inviting us to this great grand opening.  We wish you ALL the success as you bring Tide standards to dry cleaning!

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Tide is compensating Emily and I for our time in both attending the event and posting about it. All opinions in this post are ours, and we were honored to be a part of this event!

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Things I Love: U-Play Mat (and a giveaway!!)

A few weeks ago I was searching Amazon for toys or games that would help me work on speech therapy with Sophie at home, and I stumbled across the U-Play Mat. And I knew instantly that I HAD to have it for her.  I checked out the website for Play This Way, makers of the U-Play Mat, and discovered from there that they were on Twitter.  AND that I was already following them!  So, a few tweets later, and I had the opportunity to review the U-Play Mat Starter Set. I was totally stoked!   And, I would like to say, my expectations were totally met and exceeded. This is a FABULOUS and fun tool.  Sophie and I have been having a great time with it!

So what IS the U-Play Mat, anyway?  Well, it’s too simple.

U-Play Mat
U-Play Mat Starter Set

The mat’s U-shape makes a nice place for your kiddo to sit in the middle while you sit across from him or her and ask questions about the cards that come with the mat.  The starter set comes with two decks of cards, and you can do 10 exercises with each deck.  You can purchase additional decks or you can purchase the Professional Set, which comes with everything.  I received the starter set to review, and loved it so much that I have already ordered Sophie all the additional card sets (ok, fine Grandma ordered them for her birthday, but I ASKED her to!), so I think the Professional Set is a good investment!

Sophie and I are really loving playing with the U-Play Mat together.  Not only is she having fun, but we are working on goals that her speech therapist has set for her AND we are spending precious time together! She is always excited when I tell her it’s time to play with her U-Play cards!

The U-Play Mat can also be used with family photos, and I’m ordering up a bunch of our family snapshots to help Sophie work on her pronouns, and answering “who” questions.  That way I can ask her questions (and get answers!) about what the people she loves are doing in the pictures. Sophie LOVES to look at family pictures so I think this will be a lot of fun as well.

If you are considering purchasing the U-Play Mat, you should watch the video of it’s inventor, Dr. Jen, a Pediatrician and mom of two sets of twins, demonstrating how to use it.  It’s what sold me!

But first, you can enter to WIN a U-Play Mat starter set!!  I am so excited to be able to give one of these away to our readers!  Here’s how to enter.  Please note you MUST do one of the first two methods to have a chance to win.

1) “Like” Play This Way on Facebook and leave them a comment saying “I want to win a U-Play Mat from Mommin’ It Up!”

2) Follow @PLAYTHISWAY on Twitter and tweet “I want to win a U-Play Mat from @PLAYTHISWAY & @jennyitup & @momminitup!”

optional additional entry:

3) Leave a comment on this post telling me why you want to win a U-Play Mat!  (Remember you MUST enter by either method #1 or #2 for this extra entry to count!)

One winner will be chosen at random on Wednesday, October 20th. GOOD LUCK! I am so excited already for whoever wins!

I’m linking this post up to Things I Love Thursday at the Diaper Diaries.  Go visit to see what things everyone else is lovin’!

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I solicited and received a U-Play Mat starter set from Play This Way to review.  All the opinions on this post are my own!

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It’s Like the Body Pillow of Laundry Machines

I know I’ve shown you these babies before (really, I like flashing them!):

But I’ve discovered a new feature on them that’s really helping me with THIS baby (and he’s not even here yet!):

Leg, Leg, NOT A LEG

Ok, it’s not really a “new” feature: it’s just the simple front-loading design of the Frigidaire Affinity washer & dryer.  The design makes it SO much easier to transfer laundry from one machine to another when you have a big ol’ pregnant belly.  Back in the day, when I had my old machines and was pregnant with Sophie, it seemed like my ginormous stomach always got in the way when I was pulling laundry out of my top-loader washer.  Making one of my least favorite household chores that much more laborious.

Now, as I am getting ready to enter into my THIRD TRIMESTER (can you believe that??), I cannot tell you how much I appreciate the front loaders!   It’s such a simple thing, but since I already have to haul my big self down to the basement to do my laundry, any energy the design of the machines saved me is much appreciated and put to good use elsewhere!

So, I’m digging the design!  As well as the stain clean setting, the sanitize setting, the quick setting, and everything else I’ve told you about!   These Frigidaire Affinity machines are making this mom’s laundry life so much easier!

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This review is part of the Frigidaire Test Drive campaign through Mom Central.  I gots me a washer & dryer in exchange for my honest (and refreshingly candid, right?) review posts!

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