Forget about the backburner

I was thinking the other day about how MS is truely appart of me, it doesn't control me, I am still very much capable of being my active and busy self. I just need to be more aware...esspecially with my lack of ballance, falling sucks! LOL Everyday I feel like I am improving and to keep that going I can't just forget I have MS, I need to be active with staying healthy, sticking with my tight medicine schedule and dairy free diet (which I also learned the hard way I CAN'T cheat on....that leads to numbness in a surprise area lets say...could be my knee, could be part of my stomach?). So far I am doing very well with never missing a day that I need to give myself a shot, good thing I don't mind needles, I think my tattoos already showed that :) which I'm wayyyy overdue for another one.

My dairy free diet has led to some fun kitchen experiments; I now make my own dairy free cream soups to use in casseroles and other recipes. I've also had fun creating new recipes for healthiER desserts like brownies and other bars. Its actually quite easy to substitute dairy in recipes, I'm not really deprived of too many flavors at all.

I wish cookies could fix everything

So today was a very very long day, my Grandma is in the ICU because of complications from a recent surgery on her lungs. She started having problems Saturday night and I was at the hospital along with family all Sunday. I also had an MS check up with my Dr. today so after my appt. we headed back to the ICU to visit my grandma, who was sedated for her comfort and to make sure recovery goes smoother. Actually when we arrived today things were waring off so I was able to show her pictures of the boys and give her an update on random things which she seemed to enjoy as she was very alert to the pictures but then she was given a larger dose to sedate her again :( but I did enjoy the small amount of time she was kind of awake with me. As I said the day was long, we were at the hospital for 7hrs and then I came home to a disaster which always overwhelms me, I enjoy what I call "controlled chaos" LOL yup I'm a freak and I came home to everything OUT of my control. After reclaiming what I could of my home and the spew of toys all over the place I made butterscotch chip cookies (after I put the kids to bed :) and here I am now, cookies fixed my day and I would like to share the recipe with you....(whoever that may be LOL)

Butterscotch Chip Cookies

2 sticks (margarine or butter softened)

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup DARK brown sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla

3 cups flour

1 cup butterscotch chips

Cream together sugars and margarine til smooth; then mix in eggs, baking soda, salt, and vanilla. LAST add the flour and chips. Drop dough by tablespoons onto UN-greased cookie sheet and then flatten dough w/ your palm a little bit (so the cookies aren't puffy), bake at 375" for 7-8 minutes or until edges are light brown. Cool and enjoy!

*forgot a ME update, the appt. went well, nothing new which is great, I am feeling very good, my eyes have adjusted to the prisms in my glasses and my diet is still going strong; my mom actually asked me durring lunch today "What is it about Alfredo Pasta you can't have? " LOL my mom needs a cooking lesson...the answer to that EVERYTHING about it! I can eat it if I make it w/ soy milk but that's not your regular Alfredo sauce :P

"normals" change, you just need to adapt

My husband commented on my balance last night as I was just standing and that he can really notice the improvement..."You just have a little sway going on".....I then reply, " huh, I didn't even notice that, I guess I'm just use to it. But I do feel quite normal again."

I have also gotten use to tingling and numbness in my fingers its pretty much constant and worse at night, sometimes if I wake up in the middle of the night which happens when you have two 16 month old (hard to believe I know LOL), I can't feel my fingers at all! So when that happens, it just is what it is and maybe I am gambling with the thought that things will will be fine by morning, lets say I am use to it and I'm calling my body's bluff :)

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.