F: Farley the Frog #AtoZChallenge

Max the Monkey skipped along the creek shore. The water splashed over rocks and gurgled in little gullies. He laughed seeing a leaf float along.

"Ribbit!"

Max stopped and stepped closer to the creek's edge. In the mud next to the shallows two eyes peeked out at him. The eyes were followed by a light green body as the frog landed on a rock. "Hello I'm Max," Max said. He had heard of frogs before from Tammy his turtle friend. He had even met a few before. Not this one though.

"Farley," The frog introduced himself. "Fine day we are having, no?"

"Fine fine indeed," Monkey replied. "It would be even more fun if we could play. Would you want to?"

"Sure. How about hopscotch?" Farley leaped up to the bank sitting right at Max's paws. He looked up at the monkey.

Max had to ask what that was. The frog croaked again, his call sounding through the trees around them. Farley took a large leap back into the creek. He landed on one rock, then leaped to another. In a few moments he was on the other side of the creek. He paused before returning to Max.

"Like that. Stay on the rocks and don't get wet." Farley smiled at Max.

"I am in," Max replied with a grin of his own. He jumped into the creek, paws landing on rocks. Farley followed finding other rocks to leap onto. They both laughed while jumping around.

(Today was almost F for frazzled - it's one of those days)

E: Ellora the Elephant #atozchallenge

On a fine sunny day Max the monkey wandered into the grass lands. He liked seeing different places. The air was warm here and he could see for miles. A slight breeze ruffled his fur.

Sounds filled the air, shaking rattling in rhythm. Max looked left and saw a heard of elephants standing in a circle. He grinned and scampered off in the direction.

"Hi there," said the elephant closest to him. She held a coconut by a stick which rattled as she lowered it. "My name is Ellora. Want to join in our song?"

Max introduced himself with a bounce and agreed to join in. He grabbed the offered coconut with both paws. The stick stuck out off to the side. He jumped and the coconut rattled. Oh what fun.

"Keep in time with us," Ellora said shaking her own coconut.

Max followed her lead shaking in time with her and the other elephants. He jumped, he moved his arms up and down. Why he even spun around a few times.

Ellora laughed with a trumpet sound. Max squealed along with her not missing a beat. He moved along with the group dancing with coconut held high.

D: Della the Duck #AtoZChallenge

Max sat on the soft soil on the creek bank watching the water slowly flow past. What fun could he find today?

Max jumped up and stretched his legs. "Eeee eeeee" he said and scampered along the bank.

Reaching a bend a voice called out, "What is with that racket?"

Max looked closely and noticed a duck in the reeds on the creeks edge. Her brown feathers gleamed in the afternoon light. "Sorry," Max said.

The duck laughed, quack quack quack. She swam out of the reeds into open water. "Pulling your feathers pal. That is nothing compared to a good quack. Della is my name."

"My name is Max," he grinned and jumped up and down a few times. "You are on. OOOOHHH AHHHH EEEE" Max threw his head back and chest forward in his monkey calls.

"Nice to meet you" Della replied once Max finished. She flapped her wings smacking the surface of the water. "QUACK QUACK HAAA HAAA HAAA"

Max laughed Della's quacky laugh joining in.

C: Charlene the Chipmunk #AtoZChallenge

Max had fun playing with Bianca the butterfly earlier even though she was no match for him in a race. He had waved goodbye to her and headed north into the forest. He swung through trees and landed in a clearing his paws landing on soft moss. He glanced around enjoying the cool forest air and hearing the birds.

"Chirp chirp chip chip," sounded from nearby. That's a funny bird Max the monkey thought. Wait he had heard that before. Max scratched his head while thinking. Chipmunk! That's right, it was a chipmunk.

"Hey there chipmunk," Max called. There was no response aside from the chirping quieting. He called again.

"What do you want," a little face followed the voice. He could just see it peaking out from behind a fallen log.

"I wanted to say hello," Max replied. "I'm Max."

"Charlene, but only to my mother," The chipmunk replied. "Char to everyone else." She crept up to the top of the log and looked at Max.

Max smiled at her. "Would you like to play a game?"

Char started to shake her head but paused. A soft smile spread across her face and she nodded. "Sure, how about hide and seek?"

Max agreed, and they decided that she would hide first. Max covered his eyes with his paws and turned away. He counted to twenty before turning back to the clearing. He first checked the log. Nope. He then looked up the tree next to it. Nope.

Max laughed and looked under some leaves and around the moss. The longer he looked the more determined he grew to find her. Finally he spotted a hole in the ground partially covered by moss. He peaked in and saw movement.

"Come out come out," Max said and watched Char pop up. "You didn't say anything about going underground," He said when she crawled out.

"We didn't say it was off limits," Char replied with a grin.

They both laughed and repeated the game. This time with Max getting to find a hiding spot.

B: Bianca the Butterfly #AtoZChallenge

Max sighed and swung past the empty rock. Tammy must be somewhere else this morning, silly turtle. Sometimes he had to wonder. Wanting someone to play with Max swung through the trees for awhile and soon found himself at the edge of the meadow.

The meadow. Shades of red, yellow, orange, purple, and white speckled the green grass. Monkey took a good sniff, it smelled different than his usual forest hangout. He glanced around and had to blink when a speck of orange moved. He watched it grow closer and flutter before landing on a bush near the tree he was in.

"Fine day isn't it," The butterfly spoke, looking up at Max with small eyes. "I'm Bianca."

"Max," he smiled at her. Now that she was closer he could see black lines at the edges of her wings and little yellow spots. The whole wing shimmered in the sunlight. "You have pretty wings."

"Why thank you," Bianca smiled back at him. "I did not always have them you know."

Monkey dropped out of the tree, paws softly hitting the ground. He sat next to the bush so that she was at eye level with him. "Really? Well then how did you get around?"

Bianca laughed. "I crawled. I don't remember it to much because I was young. Us butterflies start as caterpillars and crawl around before we grow our wings."

Max's eyes grew wide as Bianca described what a caterpillar looked like, all long and round and fuzzy. With no wings. Yet here she was now all pretty in the sunlight with wings to carry her to the sky. "Wow," he managed.

"I'm sure you changed to," Bianca said. "Everyone does. When we are little we don't know yet what we can grow to be." She flitted her wings to make her point. "I bet your tail wasn't as strong when you were young."

Max grinned, remembering his childhood. He was so glad now that he could swing through trees with ease. He could go where he wanted and see all sorts of places and creatures. "Ya, and it is fun to swing through the trees."

"Race you to that bush," Bianca said motioning toward one with red flowers farther along the tree line. She started off right as Max nodded and he gladly swung after her.

A: And here we go #AtoZchallenge

Yes, plenty of A animals out there but our story needs an introduction. Even though these are mini interrelated stories.

Once upon a time... because its a fun way to start a story... Once upon a time in a place far away lived a group of special animals. Normal animal rules don't apply in this place. Food chain what's that? The smallest animals can live without fear of being eaten by larger ones. A monkey can be best friends with a turtle.

That's right a monkey and a turtle. On many a fine morning Max the monkey can be found hanging from the tree branches over the shallows of mirror lake chatting away with Tammy the turtle. She likes the morning sun on her rocks don't you know.

Max is a friendly sort of monkey and likes to visit with other animals. From the forest, to the lake shore, to the grassy meadows just wait to see who Max plays with.

A to Z possible: Stories for Baby Girl #AtoZchallenge

I took part in the A to Z blogging challenge last year and have been debating about it this year over the past few months. With having an infant in the house my schedule is not my own. But then the other day I figured it might be fun to make up short stories for her and I could write them down to use for the challenge. I'm always looking for ways to interact with her and this will double as a way for me to still do something creative. I may use the text from speech function on my phone, which works halfway alright. That way it would  be less typing for me. With having her here I'm getting very little time on the laptop. My phone has been so handy.

I think I have a theme in mind for the stories. Well at least a way to interconnect them. Baby Girl has one of those infant play mat/gym things which is an animal theme. She also has a monkey on her bouncer and the light switch in her nursery. As I've been playing with her I've been making up back stories for the various gym animals. I'm thinking those animals can be my A to Z stories, each animal can have a letter. Depending how many animals I add into the mix some of them may have more than one story. And Max the monkey will probably be the main character.

These would be fairly rough draft stories. When she's older I might have fun revising them and drawing pictures to create a book for her to read. The gym is just a starting point, I'm not limiting myself to the animals on there. I'm also still thinking of a cute little setting still. The gym is a rainforest, but I may do something different.

Anyone else doing the challenge? What sorts of themes are you all doing, or just winging it?

This is it: Baby day

Well this is it, today is the day my daughter will be here. I'm packing up a few last things then I'll be heading into the hospital to deliver her. I can't believe she'll be here this afternoon. Once the two of us are settled into whatever routine she determines I'll be working on posting here a little more often. I figured today is a nice quick post day.

Side note: I am going to be putting together my 2012 to read list, using some things I already have on Goodreads and other books. I'd like to have books on said list by fellow bloggers, so if anyone has suggestions feel free to point them out.

And I packed a few baby books in my hospital bag so I can read to DD while we are in the hospital.

If you could live anywhere...

If you could live anywhere where would you choose?

I was thinking about this the other day after talking about a close topic at my work place holiday party. For me I would love to live in the mountains near a lake. I've always been fond of mountain scenery and I would love a place off the beaten path a bit. I could envision myself sitting on the back deck in my pajamas enjoying an early morning cup of coffee while watching the sun rise over the surrounding peaks and listening to the birds and other wildlife. Long vision is long.

I grew up in a small town, a mile from Lake Erie. I lived in a house on a small side road with woods and fields directly behind the yard. With the spacing between us and one neighbour and a privacy wall on the other our back deck was a nice quiet spot. When I would be home on college breaks mom and I would have our morning coffee on the back deck. On days off I love bumming around in my pajamas for awhile.

Not that we were antisocial or anything. There was also a nice front porch to sit out on and say hi to our neighbours. Where I live now there are some really friendly people. It's fun going out walking and chatting with everyone. I do like having the option of backyard for quiet time and front yard for being social.

For my mountain retreat the Adirondacks are the spot I have in my minds eye. They are in upstate NY and have many lakes. At least they are in the same state as me. Sometime I would love to rent a cabin up there for a week.

Fun Prompt

"It's in my purse!" Patrick eyed the black bag warily. He learned long ago going into a woman's purse was dangerous. #storystarters --  (@jcrosen)

I thought it would be fun to share this story starter I saw on Twitter recently. I'm really tempted to write something with it.

And yes, this isn't my tweet. @jcrosen wrote the prompt. I had retweeted it, so I think that's why Twitter tagged me when I hit the share button. I edited the shared tweet to fix that. So we will see how that formats/links as I post this.

In sharing said tweet here I also figured it would be a good chance to mention the #storystarters hash tag. Writers can look for prompts and / or create some for others.