Beersgiving

"Hillary, would you mind checking on the pumpkin pie cooking in the oven?" My mom asked as she frantically ran around the dining room table. It was the first time our family was having Thanksgiving at our house and my mom wanted everything to go perfectly. I checked on the pie and went into the family room to watch football with the boys. Although I love eating Thanksgiving dinner, I definitely don’t like cooking it so I was glad to get out of the kitchen. As I approached the family room I could hear chaos. “TOUCHDOWN!" my dad and uncles shouted as they clanked their beer bottles together and simultaneously took a drink. "After this want to play beer pong?" my cousin Craig asked. Craig was 19 years old and just started college. He is one of four boys but he is definitely the craziest. "What’s beer pong?" my dad and uncle asked. The younger boys laughed and shook their heads in disbelief. "It’s a drinking game I learned at the frat house” my cousin Craig replied. “Yeah sounds like fun” my dad said. After the football game the boys moved the party into the basement and my cousin Dana and I, followed.  They set up a table with 6 cups in a diamond formation at each end. The younger boys found some ping pong balls and showed my dad and uncles how to play. After a few rounds everyone was getting really into it. I enjoyed watching the boys that used to tease me as a child chase a ping pong ball rolling around on the floor. They all looked extremely dumb and Dana and I couldn’t stop laughing at the boys. Good thing my Grandma Bishop is extremely hard of hearing because she might die if she heard what was going on downstairs. “Dinners ready!” my mom yelled down the steps, into the basement. The boys froze and Dana and I ran upstairs to start eating. When we got into the kitchen my mom asked “What’s going on down there?” We both looked at each other. “Nothing.” We replied as we both started laughing.  Just then the boys came stumbling up the stairs and into the kitchen. My mom gave me the eye and I stuffed my face with mashed potatoes to avoid the conversation. I would definitely say the first Thanksgiving at the Bishop Household was a success.

Chocolate

"Thanks Aunt Pam!" I said as I ripped off the pink wrapping paper and uncovered a teddy bear. "I love it!" I forced out, hiding the look of disgust from my face. Honestly, I was in the eighth grade and she was still buying me birthday gifts from Baby's R Us. What would a 14 year old do with a teddy bear? I was hoping I would get money or maybe a new cell phone for my birthday but it looked like Aunt Pam had missed that memo. I held out the bear as she snapped my picture. "I knew you would love it, Isn't it cute?" she replied. "HA. cute?" I thought to myself. I cant believe she had gotten me a teddy bear. As I set it down my mom handed me a few more presents from my grandma which consisted of clothes, a new cell phone and a DVD player. Finally, something I can use. After unwrapping my gifts I carried them upstairs. I connected the DVD player up to my TV, hung my new clothes in my closet and threw my new teddy bear on my bed. It's brown fur stuck out on my bright pink comforter like a sore thumb. It was a little smaller than my pillow and had a navy sweater that said 'AE' on it. Its eyes were glossy and it had a cute little nose and a small smile. Later that night I was laying in bed watching The Ring on my new DVD player when the face of a dead girl popped up on the screen. I yelled and grabbed the teddy bear I had just gotten. Its fur was smooth and soft which was perfect for hugging. I held it up close to my face to cover my eyes from the terrifying movie. It smelled like my aunts house and reminded me of my family. The bear fit perfectly in my arms and I was surprised to find that it actually made me feel safe. Later that week I had slept with that teddy bear so I wouldn't have night mares from the movie. I also found is useful as an extra pillow since it was so soft and I began sleeping with it every night. I started to refer to the teddy bear as Chocolate and I brought him everywhere with me, on family vacations, sleepovers and even to summer camp. I was surprised to find that I actually enjoyed the teddy bear I had received from my Aunt on my 14th Birthday. Chocolate is still sitting on my bed today and every time I look at him I am reminded of my loving family.

Best Babysitter Ever

It was Friday night and my brother and I had just gotten home from a boy scout meeting. My mom and dad were going out to dinner and they had arranged for a babysitter to come watch us. Whitney is our normal babysitter but she was sick so her cousin, Hillary was going to watch us. I've never met Hillary before so I was a little nervous. Would she let me stay up past 9? Or eat candy before bed? I wondered what she looked like too. It was close to 7:30 and Hillary was supposed to be arriving soon. I waited behind the curtain in the front window so she couldn't see me. As her car pulled into the driveway I waited for her to get out and slowly peered around the curtain to see what she looked like. I was expecting her to look like Whitney but she didn't at all. Hillary is really tall with short blond hair and Whitney is short with curly brown hair. As I opened the door for her to come inside she greeted us with a big smile. She was really nice so right away I knew she would let me stay up past my bed time. I introduced her to my younger brother Jason, and showed her my room and my favorite toys. As we played with my trucks she asked me about boy scouts and school. The more I got to know Hillary the more I liked her, and I even let her play with my favorite blue truck. After playing trucks with Hillary and Jason, I wanted to watch Home Alone but Jason started crying because that movie scares him. He is such a baby sometimes, Home Alone isn't even scary. He was probably crying so Hillary would let him watch whatever movie he wanted. Dumb five year olds. After listening to my little brother cry for 20 minutes Hillary put Jason up to bed. When Jason was asleep Hillary and I watched Home Alone. It is such a funny movie. I was so glad Hillary made my brother go to bed first and I convinced her to let me stay up until the end of the movie! When I went to bed Hillary read me a story called The Little Engine That Could. She said it was her favorite book as a child and I really liked it too. I was glad Hillary was our babysitter that night and I hope that she will come back again soon.

Summer Shenanigans

School had just gotten out and my friends and I wanted to plan an adventure before everyone left for college. We decided camping would be alot of fun so we called a few friends and asked if they would want to come. We had a group of 6. All girls. Camping. Maybe this wasn't a good idea. The first night we arrived we decided to cook hot dogs. Sounded easy enough, all you have to do is cook them in the fire for a few minutes right? Wrong. First you have to make a fire. Although none of us had gone camping before, I had watched Man vs. Wild enough times on the Discovery Chanel to have an idea of what to do. We went out and found a few branches and some small leaves and headed back to camp. We put the branches in a TP formation and after struggling for a good hour, we had finally gotten a fire going. We were able to cook the hot dogs, make smores and tell a bunch of dumb camp fire stories. Camping over the summer was defiantly one of my favorite summer adventures. Another fun summer memory was when I met Carrie Underwood. For my 18th Birthday my friend, Katelyn gave me tickets to see Carrie Underwood. The day of the concert she told me she had a surprise, we weren't only going to Carrie Underwood's concert, we had back stage passes and we were going to meet her. I couldn't believe it! As we were waiting in the line to get her autograph we met a bunch of crazy fans. A few of them were going to all of the concerts, following Carrie around on tour. It was crazy. After waiting in line one of the bouncers told Katelyn and I to wait in a room. A few minutes later Carrie walked in. Carrie Underwood. In real life. After getting her autograph and talking to her for a little bit we went down and found our seats for the concert. It was awesome! Carrie Underwood's concert was one of the best concerts I have ever been to and It defiantly was a highlight of my summer. A few weeks later my family had planned a trip to the Outer Banks in North Carolina. After driving 15 hours I was so glad to get out of the car and onto the beach. My cousins, brother and I spent the whole day playing in the waves and making sand castles like five year olds. We spent the whole week shopping, fishing and going to the beach. While we were there we even rode bikes up to the Hatteras light house. It was so cool to see a light house for the first time in my life. It was so tall and inside there were so many steps. We spent every night in the Outer Banks playing Cranium. We would end up laughing over all of the funny skits and humdingers. It was defiantly a great trip and a lot of fun to spend time with my family. As you can tell, I had a pretty awesome summer. Unfortunatlely I did not go camping with my friends this summer which was my lie. I did however go to North Carolina and saw Carrie Underwood, which were my two truths this summer.