Our new family member

Here he/she is: Spike our new Bearded Dragon. The girls have been fascinated with him ever since we brought him home yesterday. He has eaten well and seems to have adjusted well. He doesn't shy away from me or is agressive when I go to put him in a seperate tank to feed him.

When Amanda and I went to the pet store to get Spike, we stood there and watched the two bearded dragons they had. One didn't give us the time of day and pretty much ignored us. Spike looked us up and down then came to the window where Amanda was standing and looked at her. That is when I knew the Spike was the one going home with us. He is pretty active and I saw him doing the arm waving thing earlier today.

Amanda and Kendra are not too thrilled about the crickets and Mckenna thinks they are bees. Of course any bug is a bee to Mckenna right now. They do like to watch him eat. They think its neat to watch him catch the crickets. I say "him" but I don't really know if it is a female or male dragon. I want to say that from nose to tip of tail he is about 4.5-5inches long. I haven't handled him much yet. I am waiting for him to get a little more comfortable in his new environment.

Bearded Dragon

Amanda has always loved things like snakes, lizzards and turtles. We have decided to get a bearded dragon. This is a lizzard. I included a picture. A friend of mine at the Sacramento Bee gave me a 50 gallon tank and I am in the process of getting all the supplies and making sure we have everything we need. I hope to get the dragon in the next couple of weeks. I really want to make sure we have the set up right since they do not do very well if they do not have the right lighting and heat.

Quilted Diamonds

On the Yahoo DJRetreats list Linda Franz author of Quilted Diamonds and Quilted Diamonds 2 is restarting a DOW or Diamond of the Week. This weeks diamond from Quilted Diamonds 1 is #144. I did it today. I have not worked on my Quilted Diamonds in a long time and am hoping the the DOW will get me going. I also included a picture of my diamond medallion (center of the quilt).
I hope to maybe work on this quilt some this summer while it is too hot to have a quilt on your lap and be hand quilting. I forgot how many diamonds I have done, but I think it is close to 100.

Arthritis Walk

On Saturday we participated in the Arthritis Walk in Sacramento. It was a great event. I organized a group of 12 walkers and we managed to raise $1300.00 for the Arthritis Foundation. The walk was 3 miles and we were glad to see that Amanda made it the whole 3 miles. She even ran some of it. She had a great time, but was a little sore in the afternoon. That was to be expected and some ibuprofen took care of the pain. A lot of charity organizations are having their fundraising walks at this time of year. The Make-a-Wish foundation is having one later in the month too. I am not sure we will walk in that one, we will have to see.

Welcome to my first entry in my blog. Here I will let everyone know what is going on with the family and also talk a little about my passion for quilting. The picture with this blog entry is my oldest daughter, Amanda. She is now 8 years old

So to start things off, I will update everyone on what is going on with Make-A-Wish and Amanda. Amanda is being granted a wish from the Make-A-Wish Foundation. This is exciting for us. A few weeks ago they came out and talked with Amanda and she told them her wish was to go to Disneyland and ride the roller coasters. She also wants to get there by train. They said that sometime this summer Amanda's wish will come true.

On to Amanda's health. She is doing well. Amanda is finally off Prednisone and only on Methotrexate once a week. The Dr. might stop that at the end of the month. Her Juvenile Dermatomyositis might actually be in remission this time. She still has a few problems with her muscles in her legs and her hip rotation. She will most likely get xrays/ultrasound to see if there is damage that can/can not be repaired. She has calcinosis in her left thigh that might be limiting the ability of the muscle to stretch much. She has also lost a few pounds in the last few weeks, that has us a little concerned since it is so hard to put weight on her. Her weight is very much below average for her age (not necessarily a bad thing). She eats plenty, so I don't think that is the problem, I have a feeling that because she has no fat for energy, her body is using most of what she eats for energy and not much left over to put some weight on her. It may be a matter of upping her caloric intake with nutrition shakes like pediasure.

That's all for now....Mckenna is awfully quiet, so she is probably into something she shouldn't be.