Diane’s World

Ok… so, I’m adding two songs of the week. The first is Iron&Wine’s “Boy With a Coin”. It’s a good song. You should listen to it. Sarah, you might even like it. It has a great music video… with dancers. Woopie! I want to learn how to dance, and I’m trying to convince my brother to take swing dancing lessons with me.  Here’s the video:

If  you still aren’t convinced, the second song (“Another Saturday Night”) is per my sister Sarah’s request, because all she listens to is oldies and celtic music. Now you have something to listen to. I sing this song to the old folks all the time… usually met with the response “Ohhh… it’s not good.” Yep. I definitely don’t have the vocal skills of my mother and two oldest siblings. Darn. I have a feeling that I’ll survive.

Anyways, it’s been quite an eventful few weeks!

Let’s start with the painful part: I got a really really bad sinus infection. I had to run 6 miles anyways, and felt like I was going to die the entire time. Yeah, it was that bad. I became quite fond of Sudafed.

I went to work the next day, and I felt my eye growing redder and redder and pus-filled. It was nasty. Yes, ladies and gents, I contracted a wonderful case of pink eye. Wanna see?

And this picture was after it had healed for two days, so this is really REALLY  good compared to what it used to be!

Here, have another picture!

The nice thing though is that the redder my eyes are, the greener the iris looked! So hooray, I had extra green eyes this week!

Well I was dying from pink eye, I decided to take a day off from work, so that I wouldn’t infect my elderly friends. Then I got this crazy idea to cook a really nice meal for myself, my sister Rachel and her fiancé, Alex.

I made… Beef Stroganoff (I found a really good recipe if anyone wants it! And I made it without mushrooms, per the request of Rachel. And me too, I guess! Yukkus!):

a delicious cucumber, onion and tomato salad with homemade dill vinagarette (this is an actual picture of it! Be proud!):

And a great Blueberry, peach and blackberry fruit salad with lime juice (also a real live photo! Woopie!):

So yup, I’m all being gourmet and everything. I was spoiled growing up with a wonderful cook for a mother, I only hope to be half as wonderful as she is!

The marathon training has been going really well! I love to run, and I look forward to my runs everyday! This Thursday my Nike+ came in the mail and I got to try it out for the first time!

I finally bought some new running shoes!!! Meet my new friend: The Air Max Moto+ 7, Livestrong editions! Aren’t they PRETTY??

Nike claims that they were made specifically to “take a beating” and feel something like running on a cloud! In the 24 hours after buying them I ran a total of 16 miles, and had no more knee pain, my arches were no longer swelling, my mile times were speedier, and I stopped a whole lot less often. They are amazing. I’m in love.

And plus, 100% of the profits went to the Livestrong foundation (go Lance!), so I can feel like I did something good for the world.

Also, this Thursday my Nike+ came in the mail! I tried it out for the first time, and I am absolutely in love with it as well.

My first run with it was a 6 mile run. Here are my stats for that run, according to the nike+:

Yup yup! If I’m running 8:41 minute miles like it says, I’m standing pretty good for a pace… in fact in marathon terms I need to slow down a bit so I don’t die by the end of the race! So that’s happy stuff.

Anyways, the Nike+ has an option where you have a “power song” – a song that when you are having trouble being motivated during your run  you push a certain button, it will play your “powersong” to help you be motivated. I’m still deciding on my own “powersong” but here is a list of possiblities. Anyone want to add to the list?

Also what happened in the past few days is the 4th of July weekend! (dang you are all getting spoiled…)

There was a cookout at Dave’s house. He had fun blowing up bottles with fireworks. Here’s Dave:

Here’s a video of Dave trying to kill everybody:

Yeah. It was great. Kind of scary, though… here’s Jeremy hiding behing his blast shield aka the garage door:

And then another friend who has keys to Dordt’s science building got us on the roof, and we watched fireworks from one of the highest points of sioux center.

And then we went back to my place and lit up Rachel and My bonfire pit:

Yup. So it was a sucessfully fun 4th of July weekend.

Anyways, I plan to finally choose and register for the marathon next week! I was for a while deciding between the Sioux City and Des Moines marathon, but I think I ultimately chose to run the Des Moines Marathon. It’s a much higher quality and organized event, and even though it’s 4 hours away, and… I now have a new motivation!

And that is… I have someone who wants to go and support me! Dave called me up and told me that he’d take the days off of work, drive with me to Des Moines, and be there at the finish line for me! I am so excited to run now that I know there will be someone who loves me at the other end!

Hooray for having such a wonderful friend! I can’t wait to road trip with him!

He’s been really supportive to me the past few weeks as I’m coping with a few personal issues. I feel like I’ve grown a lot (emotionally and spiritually) the past few weeks, and I hope that the growth continues.

ALSO a huge shout out to my BFF Michaele! Who I don’t have any pictures together with! Which is really sad! If my phone bill is really high this month, she’s the one to blame!

I bought this book on her suggestion:

Apparently she thinks my problem is that I’m too nice when it comes to relationships. So I have to learn how to be more of a …. *achem*…

Oh and I also bought this book while I’m at it:

So I’m excited to get reading. I’ll let ya’ll know how good they were once I’m done with them.

Finally (yes I’ll wrap up this post, finally)… I rearranged the decorations in my room. Yes, this is a big deal to me. But I realized I hadn’t posted any pictures of the inside of Rachel and my new house, so here are a few for those who haven’t visited us!

In the living room looking into the kitchen (I love my table. And you should too):

In the kitchen looking into the Living room:

My room from Rachel’s Room:

and from the other direction:

My germany paintings look really nice all framed and positioned together. I’m so glad that I made them:

Anyways, I officially feel like I’ve been talking for two years. I feel like there are enough pictures that some of you just might have made it this far. Congratulations if you are one of them!

So yes, life is good. I feel great.

Or as my brother would put it:

Honestly there aren’t too many things I would change about life right now. I think all the running I am doing is pumping in a very high level of endorphins into my system. So that is good. I like it.

I hope all of you are having good weeks… I’d love to hear about them if you have the time!

Much love, The Deedles

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