Even though life is pretty much normalized, I've noticed in the past week that when Anna gets up from sitting (watching a movie or something), she spends about five minutes going lunges and deep knee bends. I asked her why she was stretching (I knew she wasn't "going out for a run" like her brother . . . she's not old enough to go for a run without one of us being with her!). She said that she gets a little stiff after sitting. But she was adamant about it being "no big deal, Mom! This is normal for me!" She's just a little stiff; not in pain. No big deal (although it's something I'll personally file away in my mental notes.)

Injectable Methotrexate hasn't always been readily available, but I'm very glad to have found another supplier, and one that's closer to home! When injectable Methotrexate was first prescribed for Anna, the only pharmacy in the area which could obtain it for me was the very last independent pharmacist (on our side of the river) listed in the phone book . . . I had tried calling all the others, with no success---none of them had any wholesale supplier who could get it for them. I've been driving into the worst part of Camp Hill (traffic-wise) once a month for several years now, and the pharmacy's hours are limited. Well, I tried calling the new Wegman's store, and they can order it in for me---no problem! I am SO very happy about that!

Life has seemed fairly normal lately, and this is "normal" at our house! We've worked to achieve family camaraderie, and because Anna looks up to her siblings, they can usually get her to eagerly help them when it comes to interesting tasks like the one pictured. Joel built this roller coaster for his Independent Project at school, and then he had to get it to the school. He decided that it was too big to fit into the van, so he thought he and Anna could just walk it up to the high school! They did (and I followed along with the camera and the little bucket to collect pieces as they fell off), although they had to stop several times to stabilize the contraption! Joel and Abby brought it home today (they used the van to bring it home! I took pictures of that, too, but I'll post them some other day on one of my other blogs!)

I know this has nothing to do with JA---but maybe it shows just how normal JA kids can be when the disease is relatively under control!

(I did pick up Anna's blood test results, and they're relatively normal. She has an appointment with the pediatric rheumatologist tomorrow, although I'm anticipating an uneventful appointment).

Happy New Year! Anna managed to stay up past midnight to go downtown (in our small town) to participate in the festivities with parents and siblings and cousins and aunt and uncle, and Gran, too! We love that we live close enough to walk downtown for New Year's Eve, and we like sharing the time with family, too. Once we arrived home (Anna actually chose to ride home in the car with Scott and Scott's mom, instead of walking back with the rest of us---it was really cold, and it's about 1/2 mile walk home), she was about to "hit the wall," so she gave hugs and went to bed!

Anna had a blood test on Monday morning (checking her cyclosporine levels as well as her CBC and other things), and she will have appointments with both the rheumatologist and ophthalmologist this month.