Summer boredom and sunrise runs

I know I haven't written in awhile, but since its summer I now have a lot of time on my hands. Maybe too much. I'm working at Target which takes up some of my time, but its not very exciting or enjoyable. Normally when I have free time I like to read books. Well this summer I have already read 11 books and I'm not done yet. I also have been watching a ton of episodes of Psych with my brother and mom. We are slightly addicted.
I thought that with all this time on my hands this summer that I would be able to get back in shape and start eating healthier. Well the beginning of my summer was filled with a family vacation, graduation, and wedding. I really struggled to workout consistently and eat healthy food. Once things settled down though, I realized I was wasting all my time planning my healthy eating and workout routine and then not actually carrying through with it. It left me feeling frustrated and I was ready to make some changes.
 I read a book called Made to Crave. It was a great book that helped me put into perspective how my healthy eating habits are not just bad for my health, but that its also not glorifying to God. So I started to write down what I ate, my workout, and how I thought I did that day. I also started praying throughout the day when I was struggling to wake up to go run or if I really wanted some ice cream (which in my house is an every night sorta snack). I had never taken this approach before and it seems to be really helping. I still am struggling with my late night snacking and my sugar addiction, but I think its getting better.
I was really struggling with my motivation to run, or for that matter get my butt off the couch and do anything but read or watch tv. I realized that I didn't like running at the park in the morning because there were too many people (mainly old couples, which is kinda cute to see). The other route I usually run was just getting old. So I decided to try getting up earlier so that I could beat the elderly crowd at the park. So a couple of days ago I woke up at 5:30 and went for a run at the classy Azle park. Suprisingly there were a couple of people there, but it was a lot better than usual. It was wonderful because I got to see the sunrise for the first time in awhile. It was totally worth it. So I think from now on, on running days I'm gonna wake up bright and early and go on sunrise run.

So it is sort of a tradition that whenever all three Propp children are home together, we like to interegate my mother and find out what she thinks each of our special talents are or what is unique about each one of us. This always makes my mom nervous because when we were younger this is normally how one of our conversations would go.

Mom-"Nathan, I think you are really artistic and very outgoing."
Me-"So your saying I'm not artistic?"
Mom-" I didn't say that."
Me-"You didn't have to."
Mom-"Justin you are a great athlete and very responsible."
Nathan-"So I'm not responsible?
Mom-"Oh gosh, I knew this was gonna happen"

I would like to say as we got older that we matured and didn't continue to do this to our mother, but then I would be lying. The most recent time we had a discussion like this it was just me, my mom, and my older brother Justin. She was really hesitant to compliment us, but in the end she caved. She told my older brother that he was a good husband, responsible, and other great qualities that are actually useful in the real world. Then when she got to me, this is what she said. "Becky, hmmm. Hmmmmm." I'm so glad that my talents are so obvious. Oh the beauty of being the middle child. But then she told me that I was very introspective. I didn't know what she meant by that, so I asked her and she replied with, "Look it up!" Thank you Karen Propp. I love my mom and how elegantly she put things. Whenever I got home I followed her advice and googled it. Here's the definition.

to examine (one's own mind or its contents) reflectively
to engage in an examination of one's thought process and sensory experience


Ever since we had that conversation, I have been thinking a lot about how right my mom was. I love learning about myself and why I do certain things. For example, when I found out that I don't smile very often and I speak in an almost monotone voice. I learned that while working at a camp this summer. People always thought I was angry or that I didn't care about stuff. When I got home I asked my mom if I actually do this. She said that I haven't always been like that. When I was little I was super outgoing and smiley. She said as I got older, I got quietier and chilled out a lot. No one had ever told me that I looked like a gloomy Gus all the time or that I talked like a robot. This fascinated me and now that I'm aware of the fact that I look like a bassett hound, I can work on being more approachable and friendly.

Other interesting things I do that people have pointed out to me:

• I watch tv with my head tilted awkwardly to the side, which is super uncomfortable for most human beings.
• Whenever I'm thinking, I chew on the sides of my cheeks, which I must say makes me look like an idiot. My mom can always tell if I'm in deep thought because when she looks at me, my face is contorted in a weird way. Great.
• Whenever I don't understand what someone is trying to tell me I blink a lot. Which happens a lot. I now have the nickname Blinky.
• I tend to make weird noises randomly, especially when I trip (I make this noise that kinda sounds like that grunt thing Tim Allen does on the show Home Improvement).
• I smell like syrup. I have come to the conclusion that my body has a maple syrup gland where a sweat gland was supposed to be.

These traits aren't that exciting, but I love these things about myself, even if they aren't winning me any points with the fellas. They make me unique, and I love that I learn something new about myself all the time. Learning about myself helps me attempt to become a better person. I also love knowing that I do these strange things because that's how God made me. He designed me to have the same interests of a 3rd grade boy (dinosaurs, Ninja Turtles, dragons, etc.), but still act like an old lady, too. He knew before I was born that whenever I was in college, that while other girls would want to watch Say Yes to the Dress I would rather watch Texas Rangers games or hockey or soccer. And for some strange reason I feel a connection to Native Americans and lumberjacks. He also created in me a desire to one day get married at the Rangers Ballpark in Arlington and to have a ring pop instead of a diamond one. Now that is a God with sense of humor.
I know this is a super random blog post, but I just love thinking about how God didn't take a short cut and create us all the same. He gave us each unique personalities and quirks that showcase how big of a God he is. So I guess what I'm trying to say is, don't hide your quirks. Celebrate them because you have them for a reason, and that reason is to bring glory to a God who loves every little thing about you.

Gotta love lazy weekends

I went into this past weekend knowing that I was gonna watch a ton of movies. I had to first get all the mandatory things done first like doing my laundry, vacuuming and homework. I finished all of that by Friday afternoon, so that meant the rest of the weekend I coul just chill. I began my movie marathon. By the end of the weekend I had watched around eleven movies. I watched some that were on tv, some I rented, and some I got on Netflix. I watched Moulin Rouge, Amazing Grace, Stone of Destiny, You've Got Mail, Dirty Dancing, Titanic, Sixteen Candles, The Wedding Date, August Rush, and Squanto: A Warrior's Tale. A few of these movies I had seen before, but I also watched quite a few new ones and they were legendary. This list of movies makes me laugh because all the movies are so different. Probably my  favorite movies of the weekend were: You've Got Mail (one of my all time favorite movies), Titanic (A movie that I'm pretty sure everyone has seen before except for me. It was so good and I have always loved learning about the Titanic), August Rush (such a good story and I couldn't pry myself from the tv to eat until it was done, which if you know me at all you know how big of a deal that is), and Squanto (I always love watching movies like this with Allison Post. Usually we like the same movies especially if they are historic in any way. We both found ourselves falling in love with a friar from this movie.)
This weekend had some other high points other than movies. I got to hang out with Granny E, or Elizabeth Hopkins as everyone else in the world knows her. I made some blueberry and cinnamon pancakes that were super delicious. Then after watching August Rush, Allison, Ali and I headed to Chicken E for dinner. We all ate until our stomachs were full, but at the end I still had two pieces of chicken and fries on my plate. Allison reminded me how I had once said something about me being an awesome eater and that if we were in an eating competition that she wouldn't be able to keep up. She knew that I was very proud of the fact that I can eat more than most grown men, so this little reminder just pushed me to eat the rest of my food. I almost exploded. It probably didn't help that I had drank my healthy share of sweet tea. I also am quite the ketchup lover and at the end of the meal I had used 11 ketchup packets. We then had to go to Hastings after this, and yes I waddled every step of the way. I know it sounds crazy, but when I eat too much I feel like I have a limp. So I walked around Hastings limping and burping. It was quite a sight. Sadly this very boring retelling of my weekend does not portray just how fun this weekend was. Yes I did spend the majority of it alone in my room, but by golly it was a hoot! There is nothing better than spending a whole weekend hibernating in my hermit cave.

"Will you answer my dinosaur mating call?"

My valentine's day was quite unique. It was pretty boring for the most part until Audrie and I headed over to our friend Elizabeth's house. We ate some stuffed crust pizza, fruit, and cherry limeades. Then we proceeded to stuff grapes under our upper lips. It sounds childish, but it was a hoot and a half. Then Audrie and I tried to teach Elizabeth how to do a dinosaur mating call. It is funny enough by itself, but then Elizabeth just couldn't get the hang of it. So we sat around for a good 20 minutes trying to coach her. It was a hilarious and gassy event. Audrie and I then went to United to buy a cake pan. We danced in the bathroom to the stellar music and continued to do so, pretending the cake pan was a tamborine. It was a very fun evening spent among friends.

New semester

I know I haven't posted anything in a long time, but I guess nothing really substantial has happened to me. So I guess I will catch you up on what has happened since the last post. I finished up the fall semester with all A's which is quite surprising considering I completely slacked off and was a procrastinator. I finished my first semester as an RA. I'm not gonna lie, it was quite stressful at times. I think I have grown accustomed to all the changes and my responsibilities. Over Christmas break, I went home and was a complete sloth. I sat around all day while the rest of my family went to work. I pretty much watched tv, read books, and hung out with my dogs every single day. It was amazing. Christmas was lots of fun, and I got some great gifts. Some of them are a How to Train Your Dragon poster, a Texas Rangers World Series jersey, a giraffe heating pad, and so on and so forth. I went to a wedding in Missouri, which was not the best but I was sorta tricked into going. I went to visity my brother,sister-in-law, and my dog niece. I also went to Las Vegas. Las Vegas is the nastiest place ever and I didn't like it at all, but I liked certain parts of the trip. Like we saw the Blue Man Group, went to Hoover Dam, and I had a celebrity sighting. I saw Katy Perry and Russell Brand. My brother and I were completely star struck and I looked like a bag of crap, but I don't care cuz I will never see them again. I'm now back at school and have completed my second day of classes. RA-business-such-things are stressing me out a little and I already have a ton and half million gallons of homework. So I have a feeling that I will be living in the library and HELC this semester.
I have decided to make some goals for the semester because I was such a slacker last year.
1. Get pumped about programs. Come up with some award-winning ideas and do everything I can to get residents to come.
2. Get healthy. Last semester, my eating habits were out of control and on I was not motivated to work out at all. So this semester I will try to get everything back on track. I don't necessarily have to be an extreme runner like I was, but I want to get back in shape. I have already started trying to eat healthy since I got back to school and I havent been doing too shabby.
3. I also have really slacked off in reading my Bible and doing my devotional. I pretty much put my faith on the back burner for a whole semester. So this semester I want to get my priorities back in order and make my faith the most important thing. So this is the #1 goal for the semester.
4. Stop being a procrastinator. I need to just buckle down and get all my homework done instead of doing it the night before. I am going to be studious and an all star student. Haha ok probably not but its worth a shot.
5. Find a boy with a grill. This may sound silly to some, but it's something that has to be done. Not just for my benefit, but for my Level 2 family.

Ooooklahoma where the winds go sweepin down the plain! (Part 2)

So Allison and I started the second day of our road trip to Oklahoma off early in the morn. We packed up our stuff and went to Starbucks for me and Sonic for Allison. When we were leaving Sonic, a bigger vehicle started backing up. Allison didn't see them right away, and they did not make any attempt at stopping. I started to panic, so I just pointed and grunted to get Allison's attention. She screamed and then honked continuously at them. They had a huge dent near their bumper, so it was obvious that they have had issues with this "not looking where they're going" sort of thing before. Luckily there was no collision and we were able to continue on our journey. After we had been driving for a little bit, we came to the realization that we were going to run into a toll booth. Crap. Neither of us had any cash or change on us. So we pulled up to the booth and Allison politely told the lady our situation. She said we could pay in pennies or with a check. It makes no sense to me why you should be able to pay with a check but not a credit card. Anywho, a check was the only solution. So Allison had to write a check for $1.15. Sad, I know. The lady informed us that we would have to pay another toll in a few more miles. So I began the desperate search for change. We were both completely frantic. Luckily I was able to find enough change in Allison's purse. But then when we got to the toll booth, for some reason it didn't work and we just had to drive away. We didn't have any more change and there was a huge line of cars behind us.
With all that craziness behind us, we headed to Red Rock Canyon. On the country road to the canyon, we saw a sign that read a little something like this, "Don't pick up any hitchikers in this area because they could be possible escaped inmates." Praise the Lord that we didn't pick up any hitchhikers like Allison wanted. Then when we got to the canyon we were pleasantly surprised by the scenic drive through all the trees with beautiful autumn leaves. We got out and walked around the park. At one point we looked up and saw a family walking on a rock higher up. Allison wanted to go up there and started walking in that direction. I thought she was expecting me to scale that giant rock to get to the top. There was no way. So I said to Allison, "There is no way we can get up there. I mean there are kids up there. There is no way that they climbed up that. There must be another way to get up." Allison stared at me with a bewildered look and then said, "Why don't we just take the stairs?" I didn't understand, but I looked over to where she was pointing and sure enough there were some stairs. I don't know how I didn't see them, and I felt like a dummie. I tried to make an excuse about how I didn't see them because they were covered in leaves, but it was too late. I already had made an idiot of myself. So we climbed the stairs and started exploring on the rocks and through the trees. Later on, we started out on another trail. There was a sign that said stay on the trail. I started taking pictures off to the side, when all of a sudden I heard Allison yelp, "Becky!" I looked over and saw that one of her feet was completely submerged in mud. Never go off the trail: lesson learned. She was able to pull her foot out of the mud, but it made this suction-like gurgling noise. Her shoe and the bottom of her pants were completely soaked with mud. We had fun hiking and climbing trees. We came across an old man and his grandson. Allison, being the social person she is, carried on a polite conversation with the old man. Me, being the shy unsocial hermit that I am, just stood there and had a staring contest with the little boy. We then left the canyon and headed to some Indian trading posts. They were legit. They had a teepee, buffalo, totem pole, etc. It was better than my dreams. I was not happy with the shirts available for purchase, so we decided to just stop at the next one. At the second one, I found a wonderful Indian wolf shirt that I just had to buy. Then we stopped at Lucille's Roadhouse to eat. It was an adorable little diner that touched our hearts. Allison bought a tshirt from there, so that she would always remember Lucille and her wonderful food. We stopped in Shamrock real quick, but then before we knew it we were back in good old Canyon. Once we got settled back in, we watched 7  Brides for 7 Brothers, a lumberjack musical. It was a perfect finish to a monumental road trip weekend.

Ooooklahoma where the winds go sweepin down the plain! (Part 1)

So last Thursday night, my friend Allison and I decided last minute that we would take a road trip to Oklahoma that upcoming weekend. We both did some research about things we could go see. She was totally pumped about this road trip because she had never been to Oklahoma before. Many people had told her that Oklahoma was boring and that there's nothing to do there. Allison Post did not want to believe this, and she wanted to prove them wrong by having a great time in Oklahoma. While on this trip, she thought it would be fun if we slept in the car, took showers at truck stops and picked up a hitchhiker. I knew right away that this was going to be a legendary road trip.
We woke up early Friday morning to hit the road. We ate at the caf before we left. While we were there, we witnessed a guy who was still drunk from the night before. How classy. We then packed up the car and started our drive. Allison really wanted to take a picture with the "Welcome to Oklahoma!" sign. It's hard to miss this sign but somehow we did. Along the way, we saw another Oklahoma sign, but we didn't see it in time to get off the highway. So we decided it was important enough to turn around and try to get back to it. We somehow ended up right where we got off, and decided to just try and catch it on the drive back.
We stopped in a small town called Sayre. We parked and took some pictures. People driving by stared and waved at us, and truck drivers honked at us. It was awkward, for real. We had fun walking around the town and looking in a Christmas store. We got back on the road and drove all the way to Oklahoma City. We went to the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum. It was quite a delightful experience. It had the coolest Cowboy and Indian stuff, and there was a beautiful outdoor garden. They also had a little town in there called Prosperity Junction that was quite quaint. There was a little chapel and schoolhouse. There was a guard in there, that tipped his cowboy hat at us and said, "Evening ladies." We decided right then and there that  Prosperity Junction was the place for us.
We then went to Toby Keith's restaurant in Bricktown. Even though we were so tired and almost fell asleep at the table, we enjoyed a good hamburger and as usual ate too much. We decided to walk around Bricktown after our big lunch. Bricktown had such a great atmosphere, especially with the canals and plethora of brick buildings. We found a part of town near the train tracks where there was Indian mural and some buffalo statues. We had fun attempting to take a few jumping pictures, too. We then tried to find one of the trolleys that drive around downtown. We sat on a bench and waited for like 15 minutes. We occupied our time by talking like we were British and saying things like, "Hello trolley people!" We were acting like eager beavers and we had our quarters ready to pay. Then when the trolley finally got there, we were pleasantly surprised to find out that the trolley was free. Some of the other passengers were quite interesting. One was a homeless man, who kept acting like he was shooting stuff. It was quite entertaining. We however didn't know how to alert the driver when we wanted to get off. Luckily we were watching the homeless man, who got off before us and we saw that he pulled a cord when it got to his stop. It's sad that we had to learn this from a crazy homeless man.
Then when we got back on the road, it was around 5 and the traffic was pretty bad. We both heard a noise that sounded like a flat tire. So Allison pulled over and I got out to check the tires. None of the tires were flat and everything was fine till we tried to get back on the highway. There were so many cars that it was impossible to find an opening to merge. So we sat on the shoulder of the road for 15 minutes waiting. And we waited, and waited. Finally we were able to get back on the road and then we headed to POPS on Route 66. It had a big coke bottle sculpture thing outside that was really cool. They had a ton of different flavors of sodas, and it made it very difficult to decide on just one. We took our sodas to go and headed to Stillwater where we would be staying with Allison's friend. It was pretty chill after that, but we were completely exhausted. It was quite a fun-packed day, but there was even more excitement to come the next day.