well I don't have quads just bad eyes :P

I had an opthomologist appt. today, I was warned that it was going to be long (approx 3 HOURS!) I should've been warned that doctors underestimate, it took 5 HOURS :( it was crazy boring and annoying. My 1st wait in between Dr's was the longest; I am always busy thinking about thing but this was nuts, I had the questions going through my head "Did they forget about me?"..."Did I miss something?"..."Am I supposed to know to go somewhere else? ect... and it didn't help that I heard busy commotion outside the door like a well timed intricate system that I WASN'T apart of :( I'm sure your curious on why I was there in the first place? I have been having lots of vision problems and my eyes seeing double at random and the distance on which doubling starts would fluctuate too, sometimes I could see well 15ft before I saw double, others times I only had 2ft. So by the end of this appt. my eyes were more tired and irritated than ever; they put dye in my eyes, dilated them, numbed them, did an ultrasound and took pictures! My eyes are now adjusting to a prism in my left lens of my glasses in hopes to get my problem corrected; the Dr also reviewed my MRI pictures and believes that a lesion in my brain (due to MS) is affecting my left eye. My wonderful husband came along for the appt. as well, cause driving is practically impossible for me right now unless I cover one eye (that's a little dangerous don't you think?), I felt so bad for him waiting and waiting for my endless appt to be over AND to top that off he made me dinner tonight too, he's amazing and I love him so much.

Eggnog Cream Pie

Eggnog Cream Pie

1- 9" baked pie crust (if you have extra pie dough, cut & bake a festive shape to decorate the top of the pie)

3/4 cup sugar

1/3 cup flour

dash of salt

1/4 tsp nutmeg

2 cups milk (regular OR soy)

3 egg yolks (beaten and sitting aside)

2 T butter

1tsp vanilla

In sauce pan mix together sugar, flour, salt, and nutmeg; then stir in milk, stir constantly over medium heat (regular stirring makes for a smoother filling). Once the mixture starts to bubble cook for 2 more minutes. After the 2 minutes, remove from heat and stir a little bit of the hot mixture into the egg yolks then add egg mixture back to the sauce pan; return to heat and once the filling starts to bubble cook for 3 more minutes, remove from heat and mix in vanilla and butter til smooth. Pour filling into baked pie shell, chill for a few hours before serving, ENJOY and Happy Holidays!

Apple Pumpkin Pie

Apple Pumpkin Pie (preheat oven to 400degrees)

single pie crust pressed and pinched into 9" pie pan

Apple Layer

2 med apples peeled and sliced

1/4 cup sugar

2 tsps flour

1/4 tsp cinnamon

Mix all the apple layer ingrediants and place in bottom of pie.

Pumpkin filling

1 cup pumpkin (fresh or canned)

6 oz evap. milk OR use soy milk like me if you can't have dairy :)

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 eggs(beaten)

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp ginger

1/4 tsp nutmeg

dash of cloves

1/4 tsp salt

Mix all pumpkin filling ingrediants until well combined then pour over the apple layer. Bake @ 400 degrees for approx. 40 mins or until pie slighty jiggles and knife comes out clean. Enjoy this festive combo warm or cold!

Winter is here yet it is not

Officialy it will be winter on Dec.21st BUT it sure feels like winter has come in full force. We just had a big snow storm and got up to 15" and today's high is 16, we have yet to get to todays low even, they say the low is 6 degrees but we've been at about 2 all morning LOL.



Holiday baking has begun! In the last 2 days I've made 7 pies for the freezer, 3 apple and 3 apple pumpkin (which I'm very excited for :) recently I also made an eggnog cream pie, very yummy! My goal is to make my Christmas pies ahead of time when I have the ingrediants on hand, can you tell what I've had an abundance of LOL.



The boys are doing well, Korvin is working his way on to Santa's good list and this Saturday he will see him, Korvin is very excited about all things Christmas this year. Although he's a bit confused, whenever it snows he thinks that it must be Christmas day; we are counting down though with our mouse advent calendar, which is one of my favorite Christmas traditions cause its the same calendar that was at my Grandma's when I was a kid. Blake amd Barrett are doing well, Barrett is more of a talker and Blake is so generous, he's always bringing his brothers their loveys, so sweet.

There's lots of hope

Lately I have felt great! Things are improving everyday, I am now up to the full dose of Rebif as well as taking Gabapentin for current symptoms. I am following through with my goal of hitting MS at different angles, I've changed my diet, do yoga everyday and take medicine. I can break down how all of those help and work together; yoga keeps me flexible and stretched and the areas that may be numb respond in a positive way; I ve cut dairy out of my diet and in the times that I cheated proved that my MS is set off by dairy; and meds...the rebif is a long term medicine that doesn't help with the symptoms I already had but I have noticed LOTS of improvment cause of the Gabapentin, my walking and balance has improved soooo much which was what was bothering me the most.

I feel confident that I will be back to myself if things keep improving like they are. What is "myself"? Answer: very active! I feel that I've figured lots of thing out and lots of little things I can do, I just need to stay on track.

too many symptoms!

MS is too damn complex! I continue to be surprised by symptoms and things being affected that I would've never considered. I get false skin sensations like hot/cold patches and terribly itchy areas & then actually going to itch makes it WORSE and makes me shiver, its so hard to describe; I could deal if this would just stay at random numbness....I can deal w/ that :P





My balance is still off, my vision is weak & double at times BUT on a good note I am now on medicine which obviously isn't helping anything yet and I am sticking w/ my dairy free diet pretty well.





Blake and Barrett turned 1 one 9/14, we had a nice family party w/ their favorite foods, cupcakes and presents.





Korvin is very excited about turning 3 on 11/17, he wants to have a football party and is looking forward to a football cake too, that will be fun :)


Haven't been out enjoying fall as I normaly would be but the fall harvest has been enjoyed in the kitchen; it has be fun to bake with fresh pumpkin (recently I made pumpkin pancakes !)

We had a good run at it

In a way I am slowly getting my body back, not anything related w/ MS anyway, that will always have me but what I'm talking about is my babies Blake & Barrett who are weaning from breastfeeding. B&B only nurse at bedtime and take sippies during the day; they are almost 1 years old and I went with child lead weaning....just so happens that they have the same thing in mind with each other...maybe its twin thing weird! LOL

I have mixed feelings because they are my last babies :( I feel very proud that I breastfed twins for 1 year and I am selfishly :P excited to reclaim my body, no more annoying nursing bras, looking forward to smaller boobs, and I won't have to watch what I eat for their sake...only my own.

Maybe the timing is perfect because soon and FINALLY I will be meeting with a neurologist to figure out treatment for my MS and not having to figure out medicine around breastfeeding might be easier.

4yrs of Marriage!

Happy anniversary to the love of my life Tom :) We've been married 4yrs now and WOW look at where we are now.

I expected that we'd have a kid or 2 but 3 in 4 yrs kinda blows my mind a little, although we did hit a buy one get one free special with Blake & Barrett LOL . I never expected that I'd be dealing with MS either and now I have my days where my body feels way older than it is and now I just look back at how healthy I use to feel 4yrs ago or even 1 year ago. Still very positive though and still coping naturally, no meds yet, which has me curious if whatever I end up on will make me feel much different than what things have been like lately.....numbness/ tingling in random spots, joint weakness, and fatigue. Heat takes its toll on me and I notice a big change on the cooler and breezy days. Today is pleasant, we had light rain in the morning just like on our wedding day, which brought smiles and great memories.

Some multiple are peaceful

No lie, unlike MS with its random little surprises, my twins Blake and Barrett deserve a little bragging. I like to call them B&B for short and they are such great and amazingly GOOD babies! Soon my babies will be 1 and its been a very smooth ride with them. They're very curious boys that love to just crawl around and explore at home, they sleep well and wake up so happy, and when were out and about with them in the stroller they are are very patient and content. As I was nursing them before putting them to bed last night I couldn't help but think how they see their older brother Korvin, I picture him as a CRAZY reality show to them and I hope they're thinking "I won't do that when I'm his age". LOL

Most people would probably think that its twins that keep me on my toes but its actually my toddler, honestly he is a tight ball of energy that is going and going non stop and that direction he's going in is usualy to something naughty. Korvin is so smart and advanced for his age, I'm proud to say he knows his alphabet, numbers, colors, shapes and all those other basics but only if he could learn from all the naughty things I have to stop him from doing alllll the time, things would be fantastic!

Savory Zucchini Pancakes

2 cups shredded zucchini

1/4 cup green onions

2 eggs

1/2 cup flour

1tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp dried basil

1/2 tsp dried oregano

1/2 tsp seasoned salt

pepper to taste

1 T olive oil

Place shredded zucchini in a clean and dry dish towel; wringe out as much of the juice as you can. Combine all ingrediants, mix well. Cook the batter just like any other pancake on med. heat on a greased griddle. I scooped out my batter by 1/4 cups and made 6 pancakes. Flip pancakes after a few minutes, each side should be golden.

Since I don't eat dairy I enjoyed mine with ketchup, but it would have been nice for me with a dollap of soy sour cream.

Figuring things out

I've been figuring things out, well not completely, no one has done that :P

I'm still going strong with my dairy free diet and it seems to be treating me very well. I've also found that reg. coffee tends to set things off for me, a major bummer to a coffee lover; so with that I now start my mornings with tea AND I only treat myself to coffee once in awhile.

I have been having so much fun in the kitchen lately, changing recipes to dairy free and using my harvest of zucchini :) I froze some zuchini to play with another time and I've also made more bread, zucchini brownies, cookies, savory pancakes, and this weekend we will have sweet zucchini pancakes for breakfast.

Mastered my Zucchini bread!

I wanted to share this bread recipe cause I finally perfected it and its so moist and yummy :)

Makes 2 loaves
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
3/4 cups veg. oil
3 eggs
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cloves
3 cups flour 2 cups grated zucchini

preheat oven to 350 and grease (2) 8x4 bread pans
Mix together sugars and oil then add eggs. Mix together dry ingrediants THEN add to the wet mixture. Stir zucchini into batter and then pour into prepared pans. Bake @ 350 for approx 60 minutes or until bread tests done with a toothpick. Bread cuts best when completely cooled, enjoy!

Summer go away or just the heat

Slowly figuring things out on what makes me uncomfortable; near the top of the list is this hot, humid, and sticky weather! I know lots of people who were bummed about our unseasonably cooler summer weather, I was LOVING it :) Fall is my favorite season and I can't wait for it to get here. Fall means Blake & Barrett's 1st birthday, football Sundays with my boys, and the fall harvest.

Something I've found that keeps me cool and symptoms a little tamer is wearing a cold herbal pad on my shoulders.

Dairy isn't my friend anymore :(

So I've been experimenting with foods to see what kinds of food bug my MS and I decided to go dairy FREE, its been a pretty easy switch, the hardest part is cheese! C'mon, I am from Wisconsin, giving up cheese is tough but I did it! Over the weekend I had plans with friends and I thought it'd be fine to treat myself, I made a cheesecake for a mini baby shower for my friend Kate (had a slice of the brownie swirl cheesecake) and then my family and I were invited over by friends for a cookout (where I also enjoyed some cheese)......my 2 treats ended up being a bad/good idea....it was bad that when I went to bed my MS was acting up but it was GOOD that I now know that dairy does bother MS for me.

Like I said, its really not a hard switch, I have been playing in the kitchen and testing some of my recipes to see if they still taste as good when using Soy Milk instead of whole milk; I have found that I really enjoy my homemade chocolate pudding (pictured) when using soy milk (tasted like warm brownie batter, YUM) and I can still make my homemade alfredo sauce using soy!

How do you tell a toddler you have MS?

Well I don't have the answer to this yet.....

When I first got the news I had MS I started crying, my son Korvin comes up to me and asks "Mommy what's wrong"

I said "mommy's upset"

he replies "Are you upset with Korvin?"

I say "no, honey"

he asks "Are you upset with the babies?"

I reply "no, honey"

he continues....."are you upset with Daddy?"

and once again I say"no honey"

Then finally he asks "Are you upset with yourself?"

I say "I guess I am"

That conversation with Korvin really made me realize that there was no one to be mad at and I needed to take control of how I see my illness and I do have the power to turn my attitude around.

It was a genuine conversation but he is still too little for the facts to "stick" all the time and he has made it clear in his peak of madness that there's no MS card for mom to play, he's still a toddler and I'm the mom.

Not as graceful as I use to be :P

Another common symptom for me is I am off balance.....sometimes I feel that its very obvious and wonder if I just look tipsy/drunk when I'm out walking with my boys but little do onlookers know...this mom isn't gonna wake up with a hangover its just MS LOL. That feeling is one of my "new normals" that I am getting use to, my mind is completely there and not spacey unlike someone who might actually be drunk, sorry I love that comparison, it cracks me up :)

Also before I knew it was MS I'd sometimes get dizzy when doing my pilates, that really bugged me because I really enjoyed doing them and it brought me comfort but I didn't know what was going on; I didn't know if maybe I was about to pass out, so I started not exercising as much. Its a lot more reassuring now cause I DO know what I have and whats going on with me. I am able to continue doing what I do and I just take my time now and I'm more aware of my body. My pilates will continue because I have done research that yoga and pilates are GREAT for MS, its very important to keep exercising and those types of exercises keep the mind and body in check and the controlled stretches are great for muscles; some people even keep their symptom at bay with pilates and yoga.

my plan and diet changes

Now I plan to hit this at multiple angles (there's that mulitples word again LOL) I feel that successful managment of my MS will come from a good balence of a healthy lifestyle and medicine. I'm not taking any medicine as of yet because it has yet to be determined what the best would be for my situation AND breastfeeding would need to be considered as well for Blake and Barrett (it would have to be safe for my babies too :)

I have done TONS of research on natural approaches to managing MS and alot of people make very big and strict diet changes. Now the connection of "you are what you eat" makes a lot of sense to me, I've always been a very healthy eater but I do have a sweet tooth because of my passion for baking. So I've started experimenting on what I eat to see what may causes my MS to flare up and what diet makes me feel the best; right now I am cutting out dairy because of reading some interesting research connecting dairy products to MS. Now that may not be for everybody that has MS because the illness is very complex and everyone has different cases. So far I am thinking my recent diet change is doing me some good, I am also trying to eat as basic and natural as I can, who says you need to add a bunch of stuff to your fruits and veggies....call it going back to a stone age style diet :)

NOW this doesn't mean I'm gonna stop baking, I am just going to be creative and lean to the healthier side. I am determined to make a good cheesecake that I can still enjoy.

The begining...

Is it really the begining who knows? Yes I was recently diagnosed but who knows how long I've actually had it, I can recall before my first pregnancy having tingling in my finger tips but that went away and they say that MS goes into remission often durring pregnancy and well I've had my fair share of that cause when my 1st son was just over 1yr we became pregnant with twins.

What led to me digging deeper was random symptoms that I was experiencing. For awhile I was feeling numb and tingling on the bottoms of my feet, which led me to a chiropractor who showed me I was EXTREMELY out of allignment...OK I can deal with that and it made lots of sense to me cause durring motherhood, I beat my body up pretty bad. After a few adjustments my feet were doing great BUT then along came the tingling sensation in my mouth which then spread to the lower left portion of my face; was this the reaction from the rest of my body being realligned? The adjustments continued and they did nothing for my new problems so back to my Dr I went for more blood tests to see if something more serious was going on. The blood tests all came back normal BUT I was feeling far from normal. I had an MRI done and you can figure out the conclusion of that.

Now I know that MS is serious and you may think I sound like it hasn't hit me, but it has, I've done my crying and now I'm moving on. What good is it going to do me to stay in a "the glass is half empty" state, that would do more bad than anything.