Life at Oak Grove

There are times right now that I feel like I live in a perpetual tornado.   It isn’t that bad really just never ceasing activity around me.

First an foremost, we were a whole month in Toronto because hubby had a contract there.   Turns out the company wants him full time as their IT manager.

When we got back early June and it took about two weeks to get a firm offer which we accepted.   So we are MOVING!   Never thought I would move in the North of Toronto area but with the lack of contracts in the past three years or so, we have decided to see this as a blessing from God and follow the path He is directing us.

What are my thoughts about this?   Well I always thought that if we move it would still be around Ottawa.  Now we will be about 5 hours away.    All my homeschool contacts are around here.   All our immediate family (within about 2 hours of drive).    Most of our friends.

Moving means – finding new friends, a new church, searching for homeschool contacts…   

Moving also means packing… which we have been doing like crazy for the past three weeks or so.

I also left the kids and my husband for a week of training in Calgary and came back last Saturday.

While I was away, we have put the house for sale…

So far two showings – one last Friday and one this morning before lunch.

And two more to come… tonight.

Ultimately it’s in God’s hands.   He knows what we need – ie sell this house and get a new home.

I will trust Him as I know that He can do what seems impossible in our eyes.

Hubby starts his new work on Aug 7th.   

Honestly I think I am the luckiest woman in the whole wide world.  My husband is just the best because he is there no matter when I need him.  I seriously think I got the jackpot when he entered my life.   But I also know that God knew what was best for me.   Even after 14 years being together, I am amaze how we complete ourselves in various ways.

Let me explain.

In the past two days, I had on and off pain in my lower abdomen.   Thursday was the worst for the pain was constantly there.  Not a bit pain but it was bothering me.   I prayed about it and it seemed to somewhat disappear because on Thursday evening while we were having our date (the kids having Awana) I barely noticed it.   Compared with the afternoon sensations it was better.

On Friday morning I didn’t feel anything.   I thought it was gone.   But in the afternoon it was there – on and off…   I could feel it at times while other times I was fine.   That morning for some reason I woke up at 311am and couldn’t go to sleep.   No reasons in particular.  Just insomnia I guess.

So in the afternoon I took a cat nap for a short period of time.   I got up at 4pm because I needed to prepare supper.   At some point before we sat down to eat, I asked the kids to pray for mommy’s pain because I could feel it again.    We ate and my daughter kept complaining that her belly hurt.   We both knew that she dislikes the mixed vegetables she had in her plate so we encouraged her to finish her plate to get dessert.   We have a rule in our house – you can’t finish you plate then you don’t get dessert.  

After supper time, she kept complaining more again.    I thought she was doing so because I asked for prayer for my own abdominal pain and sometimes she copies other on that.   So I told her to lay down on the sofa and rest a bit.  She took off to play instead.

We went to bed at 9ish…   at 1115 or so I heard crying – more like whimpering.   We don’t have a dog and I knew immediately that it was Jasmine.

I got up and she talked to me with a whining tone saying something like “You didn’t give me a bowl.”   What is she talking about?   But before I opened the light the stench smell hit my nose.   NO!  Opening the light I saw the mess on her bedroom floor (which is carpeted by the way) and in her bed.   Even one of her Barbie's is dirty.

Poor sweetheart… her belly was REALLY complaining.   But at this point in time, maybe because I wasn’t in my plate myself due to the pain and the lack of sleep and also because of the smell, I felt overwhelmed.  Almost borderline going to cry.    I didn’t believe her…  Where should I start?   Somehow my brain was not thinking properly.

So I did something that usually I wouldn’t do.   I woke up my husband and told him I needed help.   You see my husband has trouble to fall asleep.   Oh he can but if I wake him in the middle of the night it can take hours for him to get back to sleep.   I knew he went to bed after me but I didn’t know at what time (he was working on his computer as he reformatted it).    So unwillingly I woke him up.   He got up rapidly and came with me.  He couldn’t believe his eyes.  I mean the floor was covered with it.   The bed, her favorite pink blanket, one Barbie, the bed sheets, even her PJ.   (For the sensitive hearts reading this I am sorry for the details… but it was overwhelming!)

His reaction was “Oh my goodness!”   We immediately kicked in geared both of us.   I took care of the bed sheets while he took care of the floor.   We picked up the mess, vacuumed, and even washed the carpet.  All this at 11pmish.   There was no way that she would be able to fall back to sleep with the odor in her room.    I gave her a shower, changed her pajama, put some clean bed sheets in her bed.   However I had to tell her she couldn’t get back her pink blanket yet has it was dirty.  She understood and asked for the one with princesses on it.   Within 30-45 minutes, we were able to put her back to bed.

At 12:15 her door closed quite loudly.   I went to check and she only had to go to the bathroom.   

It took a while for me to go to fall asleep.   But at 715am I was awake again.  Thought that I heard her calling me again but she was playing downstairs with her big brothers.

She seems to be fine right now.   She is back to her normal self.   Me?  Well I am a bit tired but happy that I had help to clean up.

Before going back to bed, I apologized to wake him up but my husband told me “Don’t worry about it.   I’m glad you woke me up.   Besides I had just went to bed.”    I told him I felt overwhelmed and he said “No kidding.”   

Last night I learned two important lessons.

Lesson 1:   When one of my kids complains that he/she doesn’t feel well – believe it.   I mean they don’t have the habit to complain so there might be something to investigate.   Though I have taken her temperature but she was fine.

Lesson 2: Don’t hesitate to wake up the husband when these kind of situations happen.    After all we are one and we can support each other through health and sickness.   We worked as a team last night.   It took less time than if I had to do it myself…  

So my question today for you is simple.   How does your husband rock your world in challenging times?

My sweet daughter is turning four TODAY!

Here’s a little something to celebrate her birthday.

I love you sweetheart!  Continue to grow and love God the way you do.

XOXOXO

Slideshow design generated with Smilebox

A photo slideshow by Smilebox

Happy birthday to my third son.

Love you lots.

maman

Today I decided to do something I saw on Pinterest.   Mummy dogs.

But I didn’t have the Pillsbury package instead I had a box Tenderflake puff pastry in the freezer that I decided to use for our lunch.

Take the puff pastry out of the box and cut the square in sections.

Slowly wrap the hotdog (we had chicken ones) as though you are making a mummy!

The older boys helped me making them.

Align the mummy dog on a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Cook 350 for about 25 minutes or so.

While the mummy dogs were cooking, I decided to make some spider web dip with ketchup and mustard.

Then Alexandre put the eyes on the mummies with mustard.

And voilà mummy dogs waiting to be eaten by my four kids…

A close up of one of the mummy dogs…    Don’t you think he looks scared to death?  Mmmmuuuaaaaahaahahahahaah!

The kids had a wonderful lunch.  I think they liked the idea…  This could also be a wonderful lunch ideas when studying Egypt and the pyramids….  

Next time, I am planning to use the Pillsbury package.   The dough won’t be as flaky as this one.  Still it was YummY for our tummies!

Have I caught your attention?

Well I was thinking how blessed I was to have found four bookshelves at the curb since the spring.

Back in March/April, we had decided to bring my craft area in the basement so I can have more place in my  office.   I needed bookshelves.  Hubby went to purchase some on sale while at Canadian Tire.   A day later, a person down my street had put two at the curb.    We picked them up and returned the ones we bought…

One had to be cut out but I didn’t care, it was doing the job.   Cookbooks can go on that one.   We had to buy wood to make shelves in it too.  That’s okay.  One had my scrapbook magazines in it.   Both contained some craft supplies as well.   They did the work finely.   No need to have new bookshelves when some people are throwing perfectly good ones!

About three weeks ago, after dropping off the kids at their VBS one morning, I saw a small while bookshelf and another storing module at the curb of the old emplacement of the Christian school (they have move since a year).    I remove the backing of the bookshelf which was destroyed and put both in the truck.    We had to buy a shelf and get it cut.  Price tag about 9$.   Result: a nice bookshelf on the side of the stairs which will contain reference books from DK Canada, New Leaf Publishing and other publishers.

As for the other storing module I picked up a wheel was missing.  But I am planning to remove all the wheels and use it to let craft projects dry like painting, glued ones from the kids and so on.  

Finally, last week, as I was coming back from a walk from Farm Boy – I had to buy some veggies on Monday – I decided to come back from another way and found this marvelous bookshelf at the curb.   Metal legs, wooden shelves.   Not broken.   I quickly went back home and took the truck to go pick it up.    It is now located in the basement and hold my French comics, reference books for comics like Superman, Batman, Spider-man, DC and Marvel as well as the cookbooks that got transferred there as we are in reorganizing mode.

I think I am set.  No need for more bookshelves in this household.    But I am pleased of my find to say the least.    Save a ton of $ and now the kids can finally read my French comics…  *grin*   Tintin, Astérix & Obélix, Lucky Luke and more here we come!

Source : ptitcrouton.centerblog.net sur centerblog.

I am in reorganizing mode…

Let’s face it.  My scrapbook area in the basement is barely used.    I was using it more when it was upstair in my office.   So we are re-organizing the office/scrapbook/basement.

First thing we did is bring the filing cabinet (a four drawers one) in the basement.    It is giving me more space in my office.

Step #2 = emptying the bookshelves in my office and moving them about a foot. 

Yeah I know I am crazy….    But this will allow me to bring upstairs the old change table transformed as a scrapbook storage unit.  Well I am hoping anyway.  Because as I was writing this I turned around and looked at the walls…   I am thinking it might not work.   *sigh*

Oh well.    We will move the scrapbook things upstairs and bring some of the homeschool things I have for older years/younger years not in use in the basement.   

And I will also go through the numerous books we have and determine which one to keep and which one to give away/sale. 

OUF!

I also want to organize the school room which is a major mess as we speak.    But the new year is starting soon and I need to be focused.    So much to do.  So little time.

So now my office is full of books in boxes and on the floor.  

The kids are chatting on the first floor.

Someone is coming to see the bed/mattress we have for sale this afternoon.

All is good.

Source : ptitcrouton.centerblog.net sur centerblog.

So yesterday, my husband and I talked about possibly going for a walk when the younger ones are in bed and our oldest would stay up later.

During supper time, my oldest Alexandre, who is ten, asked my husband in the kitchen “So are you and mom will go for a W A L K?”  (He did spell the word by the way to make sure his younger brother Jérémy, age 5, who was in the dining room wouldn’t understand.

To which you hear Jérémy say You mean walk?”

My husband just started laughing and Alexandre said “Ok….”

I guess spelling words is out of question for this bright child of mine.

I might have a gifted one here… what do you think?

As you might have seen, I have decided to revamp my personal blog.

But it is not the only thing that got changed in my life.

About two weeks ago, I went for an eye exam and apparently my eyes are better than they were two years ago.   I am 42 and I was quite curious about this as the same thing happened at the last eye checked.   It is quite common to have your eye getting better before slowing going to the bifocals world.

So as off now, my eyes don’t need bifocals… thank goodness.

But I had a new prescription.

Changing the lenses on my current pair was ridiculous in price.  I love the style but honestly paying so much just for the lenses and NOT having my glassed for two weeks was out of question.

So we shopped around…

First Laurier Optical – 3 for 199$ deal.

Yeah – you get three frames for 199$ but you have to pay 79$ per lenses (x3) to get the anti-scratch/anti-glare package deals.  And if you put the Transitions on them it was another 120$ or so.

Hakim Optical – 2 for 199$ deal.

So you get two frames for 199$ and get the anti-scratch/anti-glare/UV package.   Transition was 75$ per pair of glasses.

COSTCO

One pair of glasses was equivalent of two pairs at Hakim.

So we went back at Hakim…

Pick two pair of glasses – one will have the Transitions on it, the other one will be my backup.

Got the backup pair yesterday as the Transitions will take about 10 days.   Right away, I had the feeling something was wrong but since my prescription changed, I decided to test it for an evening.

I got an headache on the left side right away…  I close my right eye and saw that it was fuzzy – not clear.    Weird.  

Over the evening I had to switch to my old pair of glasses so that the headache would not get worse.

This morning I wore them to drive… 30 minutes and I had a splitting headache.  Went back to the old pair.   Headache somewhat reduce itself but was there still.   At 10am, I went back to Hakim and explained the issue…   He checked and discovered that the axis was slightly imperfect.   He was surprised that I had an instant reaction though as apparently it wasn’t very much off.   Well off enough for me not to see clearly and to have an headache within minutes of wearing them.

He re-did the lense on this side.    And now I see clearly.

Their service is fantastic if you ask me.    Some people would have been annoyed but I  know it was an error.

He gave us an amazing service when we went for my son’s glasses a month ago – we got transitions for free on one of his pair of glasses which were new from last August and needed new lenses. 

So if you need glasses – don’t hesitate to go to Hakim Optical in Barrhaven.    I highly recommend him. 

What do you do when you loose power in your house and you need to call someone (or you are waiting for a phone call?).

We have found that without electricity our phones are not working… loose power – loose your phones.

Fortunately, we have learned that it is wise to have a regular phone handy.

Not too long ago, we lost power in our area for many hours.  

When that’s happens, I go in the basement and come back with an older phone which is plugged into the phone line in our kitchen.

Imagine the surprise of the kids when they heard the phone ringing that day – I was waiting for a phone call…   What’s this mommy?

Then it dawned on me that they have never realized what type of phone existed back in the 80s/90s.   LOL

So we showed it to them and explained how to use it.   

We had a good laugh my husband and I but it also reminded us that our kids live in an age where technology is everywhere – iPhones, cellular, iPad and so on.

Both of us got introduced to electronic games with the ATARI, to computers with the VIC20 and Commodore 64, the internet without images only links.

Times has gone by real fast….  Not it is social media, ebay, news on the internet and so on.

What is the future has in store for us and our kids?  I don’t know.

What I know is that day my kids got a lesson on technology (science), discovered an older version of phone (history) and now my oldest knows where to find it if we loose power…

One thing I know for sure – we are not getting rid of the old phone.  Every once in a while it is very useful…

As I write this, my husband is on his way back home – up in the air.

No he is not Superman (even though he is a big fan of him – we collect comics).

As I am writing this, I know he is sitting in the plane to bring him back home.

He has been gone since last Sunday morning… and it was the first time we were apart for a week.

And I got my share of events – one child with a mysterious rash that disappeared in three days.

One child with poison ivy thanks to our camping from the previous week.  Now I know how to deal with it though.

A visit at the clinic on Monday to get them checked.

Oldest son went to dig the slip n slide in the shed at my request and came back with his shirt and shorts wrecked because of Javex which I didn’t know was there.

Kids missing their dad…

Courses to do assignment for – which is not totally done.

Missing church last week because I didn’t know what Jasmine had – still don’t know what she had for that matter…

A trip at the new Value Village in town with four kids… when it is packed.   Went pretty well but boy do I prefer going by myself…

A trip to the eye specialist for me on Friday afternoon – which gave me headaches because of the drops she put in my eyes to check my pupil.  DISLIKE!

But in the end – it went well.

I had one depressing day – on Wednesday yep the mid of the week.

I have good time too…. watching Little House in the Prairie with the kids, making spaghetti sauce, and other few things.

But I am looking forward to 4pm this afternoon.

I miss my husband.  Had the King size bed to myself for a week but it isn’t the same without him in the house.

Can’t wait to see him…

You know what’s funny.  When he left he embarked the place at gate 22.   He is coming back today at gate 22.  

The kids and I can’t wait to give him a HUG….

For the first time in thirteen years, my husband left the house for a week of training.

In the past, we went to training together – I’m thinking our church planting course a few years ago.

Not this time…   The opportunity was open for Rob.  God opened more doors to make it possible.   It is a perfect fit for him.

So on Sunday, he took the plane at 830 in the morning and won’t be back until next Saturday in the afternoon around 4pm.

Me…. I braced myself for being emotional.   I was – a bit.   The kids reacted differently… during that Sunday.

We couldn’t go to church because dear daughter woke up with a HUGE rash all over her upper body and face.   She had had fever a couple of days before.  I went to the Renfrew Hospital to get her checked.   They couldn’t do anything for a 24 hour fever apparently.

But last night, when I put the boys to bed I saw that Jérémy had some sort of rash – different than his sister however.  It was itchy…

So this morning, I braced myself and went to the clinic with four kids in tow as well as Nintendo DS, iPods and iPad.

We waited patiently…

Turns out that Jérémy has poison ivy.   Apparently he went to play in the bush either around the RV or around the zodiak.

Jasmine on the other hand – I still don’t know what it is.  

Both have cream as both are itchy.  Different rashes but same effect…

Both got swapped for strep.

Back home, the adventure of the Monday was not complete.   I had sent my oldest son to dig the Slip ‘N Slide for later this week.

He found it all right – along with manipulating a box with Javex in it… which cause wreck on his clothes.  A good pair of short and a t-shirt with iron man wrecked….   I loved these shorts.

So I send him for a shower….  He was singing a Christmas song on top of his long.  Yes it is July 4th by the way…

Then the mailman came with a box from one of the publishers from which I review with five books inside.  I’ve been waiting for them but Canada Post was on strike in June…  They arrived FINALLY!

Then I received an email from a new company I contacted, they want me to review some of their products – more games coming our way.

Lastly, I will receive a new DVD with art lessons from See The Light.  

Now my kids ages 3 to 10 wants to watch an episode of Little House in The Prairie with me.

The day started crazy… it finishes beautifully.

I was suppose to do work on my courses… haven’t find the time yet.

There is always tomorrow!

Since January I am back in the studying mode…

We have discovered that a College in my are is offering a Social Media Certificate which has five courses in it.

I already done the Introduction to Social Media course.   It was fun as I learned more about the world of Social Media.   Yes I know I have been part of this world for a few years now but somehow I managed to discover more about it during this course.

Last Friday the new session started.   I originally thought of taking only one course which is titled Developing a Social Media Strategy.   But after looking at the workload and talking with my husband, we agreed I should take another course.   So now I am also taking Monitoring and Measurement.  

Call me crazy if you want.

Yes I have four kids and I am homeschooling.  Yes I do reviews on my other blog – Canadianladybug Reviews!.   And yes…. camping season is opening this week-end.  Summer is coming faster that we think and I will have to read and prepare assignments. 

But I see numerous advantages for taking these courses.  

1) A better understanding of the social media world

2) Being a professional IT person and owning a business, we will apply this there too.

3) Finding ways to publicize LobsterNetwork.

4) Work opportunities in the future (we never know).

I think this is just for a period of time.  When I am done with these two courses, there will be only two more to do before completing the certificate.

So until August this year, I have two courses to tackle and have fun at the same time with my family.

Sunday.

This is when I will receive my new oven – partly paid by the extended warranty we had on the previous one. 

We upgraded the new oven for a convection one.

Wanna see what it will look?

It has many interesting features like:

A unique rack configuration which gives me more cooking space.

Apparently I will be able to bake 200 chicken nuggets in 10 minutes…  Shall I test this claim?  LOL

A chicken nugget button and a pizza button… Interesting.

A flexible rack that can be adjusted so I can cook multiple dishes in one shot.

The oven will convert automatically the cooking time for the convection.

5 elements on top with one that will boil water faster which is fantastic for canning season.

And to complete, we got a really good deal on a new frige.   A 17.7 cu. ft. capacity all refrigerator.   No freezer (we don’t need one since we have a standup freezer in the kitchen.

So yesterday as part of his homeschool, our oldest son helped to clean our current fridge and we moved it in the garage.   Yes we are keeping it and will use it as storage when we buy in bulk.   Being a family of six, I think we will use it quite a bit…

The only disappointment for me is that the delivery will be on Sunday… which means one of us will miss church.  SIGH

A few weeks ago, I was planning to make Pillsbury crescents for the kids at breakfast. I asked my 9 years old to put the tray in the oven when the oven is ready, program the timer for 11 minutes and take it out when it is ready.   Pretty simple instructions for a child who has taken cooking classes since he was 3 years old and now go by himself with his brother who is 7 on Fridays night every once in a while.

Bottom line.  He knew what to do.

In the meantime, I went to do exercises with my husband in the basement.   20 minutes later, I came back upstairs… to find the crescents still on the oven and not cooked.

“Alex – what happened?  Have you forgotten?”

“No mom.  It never beeped…”

Oh Uh.   Apparently the oven never indicated that it reached the level of heat required for the crescent.   I looked at the oven.   Still indicating 350F.  Mmmm!   I open the oven.   It’s cold inside.

*sigh*

Called my neighbor and I was able to cook the crescents there…  *grin*

Fortunately, we had an extended warranty.   So I called.  And someone came two days later to “fix” the oven.   After checking something, which apparently caused sparks according to my son and the guy had to go reset the electrical switch afterward, he proceed to check the element which was the problem.   He changed it for free because of the warranty.

That was the Thursday before Easter by the way.

I was planning to finish a cake for a get-together to my sister-in-law…  wasn’t sure he we could go since my little girl was coughing but I wanted to complete it just in case.

I didn’t touched the oven on Friday.  Saturday morning, I start to finish to cake and bake the 2nd part as the first section was in the freezer.

10 minutes later, the fire alarm goes on in the house…  Fire, Feu being said over and over.   Great!  What’s going on.

I go in the kitchen and quickly realize that the top of the cake is burned, smoke coming out of the oven and the inside of the cake is not cooked.   Sigh.

I called again… I have to wait 48 hours for someone to come and check it out.

When the guy comes back the following week, only my husband is there.    Turns out the regulator is the problem.

Apparently, when you set the oven to 350F, it will go over the 350 a little bit and the regulator will bring it back down to say 340F and then up again… until your cooking is completed.

Well mine wasn’t doing that anymore…   Kept going on… until it smoke the house and the fire alarm goes on.

Needless to say there wasn’t any cake that day.   Besides, the smoke made only matters worse for my daughter.  So we had a quiet Easter at home.

A few days after the technician came, I still hadn’t received any answer as to when the oven would be repaired.   So I called.   The piece was out of stock.   Great.   I had worked in a furniture store in my 20s and I knew what this meant…  Long time to wait.

So I decided to leave it in God’s hands and wait patiently.

Friends of mine couldn’t believe that I would wait so long…

Last week, we were told that it could take 2-3 weeks to get the said piece.   A quick calculation brought me to June 1st…

To be honest I realized that I didn’t use the oven that much.   But this past week-end, my patience reached it’s maximum.   We wanted to try something new but couldn’t because we didn’t have an oven.   But I have told myself that I would give them until end of May before calling again.

Yesterday morning we were out of the house due to dentist appointments.  Yes the six of us at the same time.   Now we are done for 6 months.  *grin*

When we came back home, there was a message on the voice mail from the extended warranty company.    Since it is taking so long to get the piece to repair the oven, it was decided that they will replace it.   I should expect a call from the store where I bought it to get instructions.   An hour after we got back, I got the call from Brault et Martineau.

The model I had is not available anymore so they are offering this one.

Self-Clean – Checked.

Ceramic top – Checked.

I liked the fact that there was five sections to cook…

But then my husband noticed that the two big sections were at the front.  uh oh.  No good.

After checked other stoves, I realized that many are like that. 

So we are heading to the store this morning to check them out.   Husband would like to have convection.   I tend to agree with him.   I think the cakes would look better.

I suspect that early next week I could get my new oven…

I will try to push for early delivery.  After all I had not had an oven for over a month and a half now – well almost.

In the end, I am impressed with myself for not having lost patience during this time of trial…

It does pay to be patient don’t you think?

I’ve been quiet the last few months.   I guess I am trying to juggle a course, blogging, homeschooling, and more at the same time.

Winter is gone and spring is here – even though it is quite cold still in our city.   But I see the end of the dark tunnel of winter and can hardly wait to smell the tulips in May.

Apart from that, I have finished my first course for the Social Media Certificate I am doing.   I got 98%.   WoW!   I wasn’t expecting this.

On another note, my oven is experiencing some problems.  Last week, I asked my oldest to put the croissant in it while I was going to do some exercises.   After 20 minutes, I came back up and it hasn’t been done.  So I asked him: “Why haven’t you put the croissants in?” He answered that the oven had not beeped to indicate that the warming period was done.  I checked.  He was right…   Grumble.

So I went to dig our invoice and we had an extended warranty on it.   So I called.   Someone came on Thursday afternoon and it turns out that the element was toast…  we got a new one.   Great now I could do the baking I needed to do.

On Saturday, I mix my cake and start the oven for the baking.  Within 10 minutes, the oven was beeping – code F10 – and smoke was coming out of it.   Great!  Needless to say the cake wasn’t cooked in the middle and the top was burned.

So I called again.

Monday I received a call from the company which will send the technician.  They are baffled.   So he is coming this afternoon!

We shall see what will happen with this.

Praying for a new oven… *grin*    but I am realist too.

Today is my 2nd son birthday – he is turning 7 years old.  Time flies I tell you.  

In honour of him, I have made this smilebox presentation.

Enjoy!

This free slideshow personalized with Smilebox

Have a wonderful day Dominic!   I love you.  mom xo

Recently I wrote about our adventures with a broken spring on one of the sofas…   See here for more details!

Well yesterday I haven’t heard about anything.  So I decided to call the service department and ask if they could tell me who I spoke with earlier this week.

He was busy.   But he did called me back!   Yeah!

And he was nice and took the time to listen to me.   

Because honestly we love our sofas.   Was there any way to just repair the damage?   We were not asking for a replacement you know.

He told me a director was going to contact the company who made the sofas to see what could be done.   He was open to my suggestions and so on.   

In the afternoon, the sale rep of SuperStyle called…  Ah!    He asked if I could send him a picture of the damage and also questioned me to where it was.    I answered him.   Apparently, the material of my sofas has only recently been discontinued.  So there is a chance that they might have some in the head office which is located somewhere near Toronto.

Now we are talking.

I won’t hear from him until Monday but at least it’s going somewhere…

As some of you might have seen from my post in January, a spring broke on my sofa… (see http://lifeatoakgrove.blogspot.com/2011/01/365-projectday-18.html for a picture). 

And when I called for service since according to the papers received with the sofa, the springs are covered for 5 years and the said sofa is not even 3 years old yet I received a cold shoulder response and got told that according to their paperwork the warranty is only 1 year.   Excuse me?  I asked to talk to a supervisor.  They are all busy I was told.  He took my name and phone number and said he will pass on the message…  Yeah right.

My feathers were ruffed and I didn’t accept this answer.

Called the company who had made the sofa.    First lady was nice and said “If it says 5 years then it is on warranty.  Call the service department of the store you bought it”.   I did and they won’t do it.  Now what?  She transferred me to someone else who wasn’t there so I left a message.  This 2nd lady was not very nice and pretty rude about the whole thing.  okay.

Next step, call my vendor to complain about their service.   Turns out it is his day off that day.  Got transferred to a director of the store.   I explained the situation and he says “Let this in my hands and I get back to you tomorrow about it.”   No problem there.

The next day come and goes.   And you guessed it I didn’t received a phone call… neither from him or the supervisor of the service person I had talked to the previous day as well.  

So the following day, I pursue the director and called again.  “I haven’t had a response yet.  I will let you know by tomorrow for sure.”   Mmmm!

In the meantime, I had called the Consumer Protection bureau which in turn told me the steps I should take.

I finally get an answer the Thursday from the director, asking me to send him a copy of the paper that came with the sofa.  Not a problem, I can scan them and print them.  He then suggested that I email it to him.  Fine and I will send you a copy of the damages done on the sofa…  Perfect.

I did that the following Monday.    Waited that whole week for a response.   I told my husband, if I don’t get an answer by Friday, I am sending a registered letter to the store on the following Monday.

Nothing…. No phone calls.  No emails.  No news.  So on last Sunday, I sat down and wrote the letter.  Made copies of all the paperwork I was going to send.  Prepared the envelopes because I decided to send a copy to the head office in Montreal.

All I was asking was to replace the spring and fix the damages on the material.   Fortunately it is in the back of the sofa.

Yesterday, Feb 8th 2011, the phone rang.   I have call display so I knew it was from Montreal.   First thought it was my mom calling from somewhere else but I doubted it because it rarely happens.

I picked up the phone…   It is someone from the head office.

We will give you a credit for the sofa.  Please go to the store and pick something.  

What?  You’re telling me you are replacing it? 

Yes everything is in place you just have to ask for a director when you go.  

Hummm?   What about the 2nd sofa.   We have two of the same sofa.   So what happens here?   I wanted only repairs not a replacement.   

What other sofa?

Well we have two sofa the same color and they got delivered on two different invoices.   If you change one, I don’t have to have mismatches…   What do we do here?

I got put on hold on this one…   When he came back he told me that he didn’t know about the other sofa and he will have to talk to the director again about it.  

He is suppose to get back to me about it.   I didn’t heard from him since yesterday afternoon….   I will give them a few days.

But honestly, I didn’t ask for a replacement.   I just wanted to get repairs and that they would pay for the time to repair it (originally they told me I would have to pay for that).

I suspect that they received my registered letter on Tuesday morning since I put it in the mail at 9am on Monday….   Hubby is impressed about it. 

We love our sofas.   We picked them because they were comfortable and loved the colors on the material.   The best part is that they didn’t hurt my husband back. 

*sigh*  

So  now we are in the waiting game again….   I wonder how it will finish.

Oh and the store is Brault et Martineau.

Have you gone outside today?

Bright and sunny… and then I smelled it.

Have you smelled it too?   Can your nose tell the difference today?

You could smell the spring season coming.

It was different than a winter smell.  It smelled renewal, birds coming, the Canadian geese invading our skies, the tulips coming out of the ground and the snow melting.

It was wonderful if you ask me.

I was walking with my coat unzipped.   Taking the smells in my heart and dreaming of spring time, RV time, walks in the woods and more.

Apparently the groundhogs have predicted an early spring!  

And after today, I believe it.  Becomes spring was in the air!