The "Happs"...

Since it's been awhile since I've posted (to myself, who am I kidding?), I thought I should write a small update on the happenings in my life.

About a month ago, a customer at work dumped a load of lumber onto my wrist. At first the doctor's thought I had broken my scaphoid, but now they've realized I have ligament damage. I should be finding out soon if they can repair it through surgery. I might add that this was my right wrist. And I am right-handed.

My work didn't take this so well. So without getting into details, I am currently on stress leave. I may or may not be returning in December. That's still undecided.

So while I'm at home, healing (in more than one way), I have decided to write a story. A children's story, for my niece and nephew. It all stemmed from starting to look up Christmas gift ideas for them. I was looking at the Playmobil website, thinking a set from there would be great idea for my three year old nephew. I was asking different people if they thought the Pirates, the Knights or the Egyptians were cooler. Unanimously, Knights was deemed the best.

I showed the set I was thinking about getting to my mom, and she made the comment that I should probably start reading him stories or showing him movies about Knights so that he would know what to do with the set when he got it. This got me thinking... wouldn't it be awesome if I could show him and my six year old niece all the great story characters? Kings and Queens, Knights, Indians, Cowboys, Pirates, and on and on and on...

So rather than researching all the best books and movies to show them, I thought maybe I should try writing them a story with some of those characters myself. So I started. And I have to admit, it's taken on a life of it's own. I've always written on the computer, but this time I'm writing it by hand on loose sheets of lined paper. I started by deciding what kind of characters I wanted (A princess, a witch, a pirate, etc), and then I sketched quick little drawings of each character, and cut them out. Then I laid them out on the table, and rearranged them in the order that I thought they should be introduced. And then I just started writing.

My little story has become a book. I've already written over six chapters, and I feel like the most exciting parts are still to come. It's definitely going to be a book that an adult will have to read to them, but I think my niece and nephew will like it. I hope they do.

The writing is reeking havoc on my poor wrist, but I've found if I keep it well wrapped, and take lots of breaks between writing bursts, I can manage.

So that's the "happs" with me at the moment. Oh, I should also mention that my sister is expecting her first baby in February!! I'm ridiculously excited, and am having fun helping them look up old-fashioned names.

And that, as they say, is that.