Friends,   

Last week was a fun week, wasnā€™t it?  Iā€™m not even sure where to start.  I think Iā€™m going to start with sharing the progress Wendy has been making lately.  Do you know how we always say we need to put something on our calendars?  It helps us stay motivated.  Wendy has a big event on her calendarā€¦her sonā€™s wedding.  What does she want to do?  Walk down the aisle instead of being rolled down the aisle.  If she keeps working hard like she has been, sheā€™s going to do it.

Wendy has been making a lot of progress lately.  Why?  First of all, sheā€™s working really hard every day.  She also gives a lot of credit to the e-stim therapy that sheā€™s been doing for quite a few months now.  This is some very promising technology for us living with MS.  Dr Wahlā€™s is also promoting it as she feels it really helped her and many of the people that follow her protocol.  Wendy went to this place in Texas in case you want to check it out.  https://www.neu.fit/     

Thanks, Wendy for sharing your progress and what you feel is working for you.  We all get really excited when someone makes the type of progress youā€™re making.  Keep up the hard work!

It was awesome being able to share Rhondaā€™s excitement of finishing her final run of running 365 consecutive days and finishing on her 50th birthday while living with MS.  Thatā€™s an amazing birthday present! 

Rhonda decided to run for a cause and chose our group as the cause.  Rhonda and her husband Scott were very generous and donated $1.00 per day that she ran.  Scott also ran this journey with her but he said he missed a few daysā€¦Rhonda did not.  Rhondaā€™s Mom also made a very generous donation to us.

Thank you, Rhonda and Scottā€¦Mom too!  Weā€™ll put the money to good use to help keep people with MS moving.

I asked Rhonda if sheā€™d be willing to share her journey with us.  Sheā€™s excited to do that and will join us on Friday and share her experience.  Weā€™ll get together @ 11:30 Friday and listen to Rhonda as she shares.  Letā€™s ask her any questions and learn as much as we can from this inspirational runā€¦amazing!  Thanks, Rhonda for being willing to share this journey!  Please join us.

Our friends at the National MS Society brought art supplies and some tasty valentineā€™s day treats last Friday.  They brought paints and mats and asked everyone to paint a picture of what life looks like as we beat MS.  I was inspired by how much artistic talent we have in our group. 

The most inspiring thing to me is how Linda and Joan helped Donna and Joan through listening to them and doing what they described since they canā€™t do it themselves.  So much love shared!

Thank you to all from the National MS Society for making this event possible!  Weā€™re looking forward to seeing some of these paintings wherever you decide to use them.

Cal and Mike have been working hard on our website.  They continue to add events to our calendar and stories to our site.  Chrissy shared a really inspirational story about what it means to her to be part of our group.  Have you read that yet?  Hereā€™s a link  http://msjustkeepmoving.org/2020/02/12/chrissy-aukofer/  Thanks Chrissy for sharing this!  Thanks Mike and Call for posting it and for all the work youā€™re doing on our website.  Itā€™s nice to be able to share some of the awesome things happening.

The indoor triathlon training got off to a great start last week even though we had a slippery, snowy morning.  It was so good to see so many of you there!  I always love to see the progress people make during this training and the event.  I hope youā€™ll join us!  The next training session is Thursday morning at 10:00 at Westwood Health and Fitness in Pewaukee.  Thanks to all the volunteers and to Westwood for making this event possible again this year.  This is the event that started this group 7 years ago.

Weā€™ll be getting together again Wednesday @ 11:30 for our prayer group.  Weā€™ll be giving thanks to God for our blessings and praying however God leads us.  Wow!  Iā€™m hearing some powerful comments about this time together.  Prayers are being answered weeklyā€¦thank you God!  Feel free to join us.  If you need to come in a little early to get your exercise in before this starts, feel free to do so.

Iā€™d highly recommend you sign up the MS Bike ride August 1st and 2nd.  You can do that by clicking here.  Once you sign up, thereā€™s a motivational factor that kicks in and helps us get prepared for it.  We want you on our teamā€¦we have fun!

Letā€™s ā€œJust Keep Movingā€.  It doesnā€™t matter where we start.  We can all start with laughing which is great exercise in itself.  Other than that, we start with the body parts that will move and keep moving them as much as we can.  Let them rest and then move them again.

I know there are still many of us going through other life challenges in addition to our challenges with MS.  Letā€™s stick together, keep our chins up and keep sharing our journey.  Better days are ahead.  For those of you who havenā€™t been able to make it by us on Wednesdays and Fridays lately, please know you are missed and in my thoughts and prayers.  I hope youā€™re able to make it back soon!

I hope youā€™ll join us both Wednesday and Friday again this week.   Rememberā€¦consistency is key.  With MS, it takes a lot of consistent effort every day to make small improvements.  Yes, itā€™s frustrating so be patient and consistent and youā€™ll be amazed how your quality of life will continue to improve.  Itā€™s been about 17 years of exercising just about every day for me and Iā€™m still making improvements (encouragement, love, support, nutrition and proper rest help immensely too).  It takes time so please be patient.  It sure is better than MS getting worse.  I really donā€™t know what my life would be like if I didnā€™t do this (nor do I want to find out).  Iā€™m so thankful you are all joining me on this journey of making progress with our MS and quality of lifeā€¦THANK YOU!  Weā€™ll continue to learn togetherā€¦thereā€™s so much power in the love and support we all share with each other.

In the past, Iā€™ve been telling you to bring a friend.  Unfortunately, weā€™re going to need to start a waiting list for new people.  Please feel free to continue to share your experience and what weā€™re doing together.  Let me know of anyone who would like to join us.  Iā€™ll communicate with these people through e-mail or phone and help them any way I can.  When we have room for them to join us, Iā€™ll encourage them to do that.  If youā€™ve joined us in the past, please continue to join us.

We are here to help you and anyone with MSā€¦no strings attached (well maybe an occasional story about the progress youā€™re making, smile, high five or a hug).  I remember how challenging life used to be when my MS was bad.  I get great joy sharing what Iā€™ve learned and feel blessed with the progress Iā€™ve made.  I hope you make progress in some way too!

Place:  W228N791 Westmound Dr.
Waukesha, WI

When:  Wednesday morning from 9:30am ā€“ 12:30pm (open gym concept, come for all or part of it)
Friday morning from 9:30am ā€“ 12:30pm  (open gym concept, come for all or part of it)

Dan Erschen