Thank you Lord-- for our Sump pump--

We moved into this house about 3 years ago.

The one big reason I wanted to move was that we didn't have a basement before. Imagine this-- 3 boys, we home school, and inclement weather. Yes, one could go crazy with allowing them to get out all the wiggles with no place to run around.

Now I can say, "Go to the basement!" and they love it, too.

I grew up with a basement and we played in the basement on rainy days. We never had any issues with water in the basement in any of my growing up houses.
When we moved in here there was this interesting circle in the floor and a dehumidifier. We never worried much about it. Well, except we would say- "that dehumidifier looks so old we should probably buy a new more energy efficient one,"-- but we never did.

Well, winter 2010 has been quite wet. The retention pond across the street is at a record high- the water table in Delaware is at a record high. Someone said we could advertise that we are a waterfront property. (Not that we are for sale or anything like that)

Since the melting of the snow- we have a "new normal" sound that sounds like --
hmmmmmmm guuu shshshsh .

For a couple of weeks it happened 24/7 about every minute. If all that water had settled into the basement, we would have an indoor pool and a big mess!!
Thankfully this little pump(inside the circle in the basement) has been waiting for the day when he would be the hero that has saved us from a big disastrous mess.

Thank you Lord for our little sump pump!

Pizza Anyone??

There is a great new concept that I recently heard of-- it is called "House Party".

It is a marketing website that wants people to be able to try new products. If you like to try new products and/or get coupons for these products-- you may want to look them up.


It uses the age old idea of having parties in a home to introduce a product-- except the great thing about these parties-- there is nothing for your guests to buy! I have always liked the idea of friends getting together for a party-- but have always felt awkward about the expectation that they were being invited to buy something, so you could earn free stuff. (i.e. Pampered Chef/Tupperware etc.)

House Party actually sends you a box of the product and other types of things to help you have a fun party. All that is expected of you is to take pictures, post on a blog and give honest oponions about the products. This however, has become a very popular website and so you need to fill out applications to "win" the party.
When I first heard of this website I signed up to win a Wii Fit Shape-Up/jello mousse snack party. Shortly after the application was filed I got a rejection notice. I got a few other notices by email of other available products to have a party with. Either the date of the party did not coincide with our calendar or the product did not work for us-- ie we don't have a potty training child so we did not apply for the Pampers party ;)

About a month ago I signed up to win the Digiorno Pizza/breadsticks party. It was scheduled for the first weekend of March Madness. Last week I got the notice that I won the party. This idea is great because it will also force me to invite all those people over that I have been meaning to have over. Not that I don't want to invite them over- I just always think that I need to paint the room, put up new curtains, and get some projects done first. We are excited to have people over in spite of the "projects" that I want to do.
Here is the link to the site.

Pizza anyone??