If Time Stood Still

You know how God stopped time for Joshua and the Israelites while they battled the Amorites? Well, I wish He would stop time for me today. I'll try not to give too many details just because I know how long I can go on, just giving the details about something. Here's the deal, I work in an office environment. My job is to support the sales representatives of my company. I only have four actual reps that I personally deal with on a daily basis, however, these four reps provide me with more work than what some of my coworkers receive from their Six or more reps. Anyway, on top of the work from the reps, I also have to answer an untold number of emails each day (my daily average of emails I send is around 30), fill out spreadsheets, and assist my coworkers with work that I may know more about than they do. This all said, I'm busy from the time I begin my work in the morning until 3:30pm when I leave for the day. I do work a full eight hours each day, if not more since I am at my desk each morning by 5:30am. Those are the details of my job. This is my problem: Two of the reps that I deal with are all from one group known as Seattle because the group originated in Seattle. This group does an enormous amount of work and should technically have their very own dedicated operations (that's me) person. They are also VERY picky. and Impatient. They seem to forget that they are not the only reps in the world. They want all of their billing and new orders taken care of the very day that they are sent in. Unfortunately, what they don't see is all of the other work that I have to do each day. This past week, it came to light that I was two weeks behind in my work and let me just tell you that my supervisors have NOT been happy. At the same time, neither one of them cared to listen to my side of the issue. The side that deals with a massive amount of work each day. Now here's where it gets fun. These Seattle people are very on top of their orders. Not a bad thing in the least unless you're already bogged down with other work. There are only eight hours in a work day and no matter which way you push or pull, twelve hours of work is not going to be completed in eight hours. No way. No how. So, because I got behind, Seattle went to the Vice President of my company and complained to him. And you wanna know who is getting all the blame for this mess? Me. The person who has more work than there are hours in a day. And what did my direct boss have to say about it? "I realize you have alot of work, but how are you two weeks behind?" I really didn't even try to explain. It just would have sounded like I was trying to make excuses for being lazy.

So, what would I do if time stood still? Depending on the time that God gave me, I'd get completely caught up on my work then I'd go look for another job and I'd quit my current one before time started again. And I would NOT look back.

Teaser Tuesday

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

Grab your current read

Open to a random page

Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Here it is from The Saints' and Angels' Song by John Fischer:

"How do you know her again?"

"She's a retired nurse who knows everybody over at St. Mary's. She's the one who helped out a lot with Ben. That's how we met her. He ran into the back of a Pontiac right in front of her house."

I know I have more than two sentences there, but it makes more sense and is quite funny to finish the entire statement made by Jonathan about Mrs. Fitzpatrick.

Vanity Tuesday

Welcome to the third installment of Vanity Tuesday. I've got so many plates up for the choosing today that I don't even know which ones to pick right now. Let's see...

VT-B4-VA ~ Think states. Vermont before Virginia. I'm pretty sure the driver of this particular car used to live in Vermont.

HER WISH ~ Is My Command? or was the CAR her wish?

APPL3S ~ Apples, of course. Must be the driver's favorite fruit. OR, maybe the driver is a fan of Ever After

SITN HI ~ Sitting High: I think this was a jacked-up truck or a Hummer, but I didn't make a note of the particular type of vehicle for once.

2 D MALL ~ This driver is a shopaholic for sure! "To The Mall!" she exclaims on a daily basis.

Now, here's yours:

ASA FDLE ~ This one took me a few minutes to figure out, but I'll give you a clue. Ready? "If you are in really good physical shape, you are what?"

Good Luck!

Dogs may Stink, but they are SO Cute!

Behold! The two cutest dogs in the whole wide world. This cuteness totally makes up for anything mentioned in the previous post.

Rocky and Mason

Mason is under my chair and Rocky beside it. Since I took the picture with my phone it isn't the best, but you can still see that the cuteness factor is out of this world!

Oh! and I should have put a disclaimer at the bottom of my last post as well. I was not, in any way, really complaining. I just thought it made a great, funny story to share here on my blog. I promise, it's really not a big deal. :-)

Dogs Stink! (or Why I am stuck at home instead of being at work today)

My husband shook me awake this morning. "Hannah. Do you Smell that!?!"

"Huh. What?"

"Do you smell that?" It was more a demand this time instead of a question.

I sniffed. Just barely. For my trouble, my nose was assaulted by the most disgusting smell. "Oh, no. I'm going to kill her!" I rolled over while Joseph told me he was going to turn on the light so I could check on Mason.

"I don't have my contacts in so I can't see a thing, Joseph."

Joseph crawled over to my side of our king sized bed and peered through the shadows of the bed stand lamp at Mason's kennel. "Oh! Man! It's on the carpet!" He let loose a string of a few choice words that definitely let Mason know how he felt about her accident. It was 3:59 A.M.

We both got out of bed and as I went into the bathroom to put in my contacts, we discussed what we were going to have to do. I told Joseph that I would wash her off, but that he should just throw the bedding out since it wasn't the first time she had had an accident on it. I just wasn't feeling another long day of laundry related to dog bedding. Not to mention the fact that I had to work today. I've missed way too many Mondays lately. This was NOT going to be a good day. As if to emphasize my thoughts, Joseph walked into the bathroom with Mason in his arms while I had only one contact in and the other on my finger poised to be placed on my left eye. "Joseph! You're gonna have to stand there and watch her, cause I have to get my second contact in still!" He had placed her in the bathtub.

Thankfully, Mason had mostly avoided her poop, (yes, poop) so I really only had to wash her back half of her body. By the time I finished bathing her, Joseph came to the bathroom door and stated that he was going to lay back down for the next twenty minutes. That was so not going to happen. My alarm had already gone off. I needed to get in the shower and get ready for work. Joseph was just going to have to watch her. "Take Mason and Rocky outside to go to the bathroom." I said. Amazingly, Joseph complied.

Once I was finished with my shower, I got dressed and completed my morning routine. Then, I took over watching the dogs while Joseph got ready. When he finished his shower, I gave him the only two options I could come up with for today. 1. We call Mason's owners (our good friends that went out of town this weekend) and ask them to come get her this morning or 2. I stay home and work from home while paying close attention to Mason.

We opted for the second choice. Unfortunately, what I had forgotten is that my work computer doesn't have a power cord. Well, it does, but I can't find it. Anywhere.

I would have gone back to sleep after my decision was made, but Mason decided that she didn't like the carpet just inside my back door anymore than she liked her kennel this morning. Another mess of crap to clean up. I called Joseph who was already on his way to work. "You know how we were just talking about getting a new carpet for inside the back door yesterday? I'm glad we had that talk because I'm throwing the one we have out with the trash this morning." Can I just say, right now, that I am ever so glad that our garbage men come twice a week? The first day each week that they show up is Monday.

While Mason hasn't had another accident since that second one around 6am, I've been watching her like a hawk. I've got my kitchen timer set for 38 minutes at this very moment. Mason is lying under my chair as I type this, her small body pressed against my legs. Rocky is passed out lying next to my chair, his body angled towards the back of the chair. I thought until just a second ago when I checked, that Rocky was probably face to face with Mason, but I was wrong. She's actually curled up under my chair with her nose smack dab against Rocky's back. Dogs are so cute when they sleep.