bLiZzArD

i am a little behind, but wanted to share our holiday card with my blog world friends. :)

 

i hope that you all had a magical Christmas this year.

things were a little different for me, because i spent my first Christmas EVER away from my beloved familia.

getting back to idaho just wasn't in the cards for us this year....let's just say that spending over a grand per person for a flight wasn't going to fit in the budget. 

sad.

we ended up spending our Christmas time in maryland with mr. larsen's awesome aunt and uncle.

they were so sweet to invite us, and welcome us into their home and Christmas festivities.

we feel very blessed to have some family fairly close.

we ventured to maryland this last weekend on a bus.

why you may ask?

i know you asked.........because i asked, when mr. larsen informed me of our transportation.

well...the reason is because it only cost us $20 per person!!!

yes. 20 bucks.

i wish that was how much a plane ticket to idaho costs.

the trip to maryland is only about 3 hours and 45 minutes away from manhattan.

we loaded up all of our things, and headed uptown to penn station for the bus stop.

we were booked on the 7 o'clock bus and got there at about 6:15 to get two seats by each other.

when we arrived a bus was at the curb, but little did we know the bus sitting there was the 5 o'clock bus.  

yes...the 5 o'clock bus hadn't left yet, and it was after 6pm.

obviously punctuality is not a priority for MVP bus company.

we went and had dinner at jimmy's burgers...mmmm.

and waited for the next bus...because we lucked out due to our punctuality and got ourselves on the 6 o'clock bus that was going to arrive at 7:20pm. 

whaaat????

yeah, annoying.

finally the 6 o'clock bus arrived and we boarded and set off for the beauty that is maryland.

we spent a wonderful, magical, merry Christmas with mr. larsens relatives.

THEN.

on Sunday, mr. larsen began a conversation with "i have some bad news"

nothing good ever comes with those words. obviously.

he informed me that our bus home to manhattan scheduled for that evening at 6 pm had been canceled because there was supposed to be some snow that night.

haha. some snow.

after a bit of stress mr. larsen was able to get us on a different bus line that left two hours earlier.

we went and hung out with his other uncle for a few hours, and then he drove us to our new bus stop.

the bus was right on time, 4pm on the dot.

we boarded and talked about how the earlier time was going to be better for us.

we would get home and have time to unpack, unwind, and relax that Sunday evening before our crazy schedules picked back up the next day.

it had been snowing a little that day.

nothing much.

just light puffs of white floating around.

it was beautiful.

anywho.

we started on our trek back to the big city.  

we would be home in no time and i couldn't wait.

if you have been watching the news lately you will now know that we did not make it back in time to unpack, unwind or relax.

our bus ride did not take a short 3 hours and 45 minutes.

it took a long 8 hours and 30 minutes.

yeah. i'm not joking.

that means that we got home at 12:30am.

there wasn't just "some snow" 

there was a TON OF SNOW.

like 20 inches measured in central park.

the roads were so bad that i kept saying little prayers that we would get home safely.

this would be us. outwardly unhappy about the current situation we were stuck in.

we obviously hadn't planned for the long ride, so to pass the time we took turns tickling each others backs, talking, laughing, complaining and sleeping. well, mr. larsen slept (shocking)....not me though.

i was WAY to freaked because of all the wrecks and cars i saw that had gone off the road every 20 feet.

our bus driver was a champ.  we may have only been going 10 mph and stopping smack dab on the freeway here and there, but we made it home in one piece.

that was a first for my "day after Christmas" events, i can assure you of that.

i think that this little trip home constitutes as a Christmas miracle. :)

 this is our bus, which holds our spectacular bus driver. i was happy when i took this because we were off the bus.

i was not too happy here as i was blasted with snow and 40 mph winds. 

real cute. i know.

this is down in the subway after we arrived near our home. the blizzard blew the snow underground!

-and this is mr. larsen lovingly trudging through the snow with our over sized suitcase.

you can't really tell by the picture, but here we are walking home in the midst of the blizzardy downfall of frozen water molecules.  it was windy and frigid. ...and 2 feet deep.

so as many of you now know, NYC was hit with the 6th most intense blizzard of all time for the city.

 and the larsens survived it.   

i think this is why we are supposed to be here in NYC.

we are having so many adventures and we love it.

we love you all, and hope you had the merriest Christmas ever.

much love from the big city.

xoxo

done.

i thought i would report back after the Hunger Games trilogy was completed. 

all i know is that in my mind, Hunger Games = SUCCESS.

i am irrevocably in love with the series, and i am so sad that i am done reading them.

never fear...my hubby bought me the trilogy to keep in my little library.

i love books.

i have a library.

it's small

someday i want it to be HUGE.

 not unlike the library in beauty and the beast. mmmm.

anyone have any suggestions on the next book i should dive into?????

<3

wingardium leviosa.

so as some of you know i love to read.  like..really love it.  

lately mr. larsen has been studying for a few tests dealing with work certification.  unfortunately we live in a spot the size of a nice hotel room. yes...our living room and bedroom are THE SAME ROOM.  oh the joys of studio apartments and manhattan. we seriously love it...but anyway. 

back to nate studying...there is no way that i could survive in my home while he was there studying...every move i made was too loud, and every time i turned the t.v. on i was asked if i could mute it and read subtitles....umm ya, that happened. bless his heart... :)    %$#@ ^%$@ #%$#@

SO-since i was apparently acting like an elephant in a china closet and disturbing the peace, i decided to resort to what i love to do best. READ!

the place that i read the best is of course my bath tub.  some say this is the weirdest thing they have ever heard..i say that it is pure genius, and the best thing everrrrrr.
i have been known to sit and read in the bathtub for hours. seriously.....hours. when my bath water gets cold i empty it out and refill it with warm, toasty, goodness and pretend that i am far far away..not in my little studio.  i think everyone needs a refuge...mine usually and definitely as of late has been my tub. <3

---side note---

since my personal library was cut in half and some left behind in Idaho when we moved to New York, i usually resort to my classics....you know the really old ones that have inspired and moved nations.

you know.......harry potter and/or twilight. hahaha. i'm totally being serious though...i love to read any kind of book.  buuuut the fictional amazingness of the two aforementioned series just hit the spot on any occasion. 

they are in no doubt my guilty pleasures of literature.

---moving on---

i decided to start reading a book that i borrowed from the small library selection in our building..a book called homesick creek by Diane Hammond.  let's just say it was a good story, but i only made it 1/4 of the way through...bottom line?  

IT WAS RAUNCHY, and not that great either.

so i was telling my friends about it at church, and i said that i really wanted a good book to read that didn't have anything to do with witches, wizards, werewolves, or vampires...but still had all the similar magical qualities that would enthrall me until the very end.

this is when my friend taylor cannon spoke up and told me that i HAD to read.....drum roll please.

THE HUNGER GAMES.

and so i started them.  she loaned me the first book in the series earlier this week, and i was done in two days.  i started in on the second book last night, and i wont lie...i am almost halfway done with it.

i don't know what it is about fictional stories...i want to be in them. most think i am super-de-duper-de nerdy..but i love it.

so..in review:

• i am a sucker for magical fictional amazingness
• you should not read homesick creek
• you should read the hunger games
• you should all try to read while in a bubble bath because...well...it's the best
• nate is not a fan of his wife being locked in the bathroom for hours reading...actually the part he doesn't like is that his wife is racking up a bill with her excessive tub water usage. :)
• and lastly: if you aren't a reader, you should give it a try. reading is definitely one of the best ways to relax and unwind..and enter a different world for a little while. :)

i plan on finishing catching fire today or tomorrow. stay tuned friends.

 

the birthday girl.

i have been MIA in regards to my bloggy blog. oops!

i have lots to share...and will do so in the near future. (fingers crossed)

i do, want to get on today to document one thing that is currently happening...like right now. and that one thing is my beautiful sissy ALEXA MESHON ATHAY's birthday!!!!!!!!!!!!!

this is alexa.

a.k.a. franny

a.k.a. lex

a.k.a. lexy

a.k.a. lexica

a.k.a. sissy la la

a.k.a. middle child

a.k.a. leonard

a.k.a. chachie

a.k.a. lecker

annnnd. she is my sister...and carly's sister. annnnd. we both love her.

today is the day of her birth...which happened 21 years ago in Nampa, Idaho. 

bless this day.

she can now partake of the alcoholic beverages...but we don't drink, so nevermind. 

she can now....well, i guess she can now say she's 21 i guess. :]

shes freaking cute. and now she's a double, U, O, M, A, N.  bahaha. i crack myself up.

me and lex are only 19 months apart...so as you can imagine we grew up fighting. and now that we are older we LOVE each other. i wish that me, lex and carly would have had our older selves from the future come and talk to us when we were little and growing up. i wish they would have said.."listen little brats. one day you will all three be each others best friends...so make it happen sooner than later, because you will not want to waste precious time with each other!" yeah...that would have been a good pep talk.

even though that didn't happen, we still made it to the best friendie stage with little bloodshed and lots of time to spare. <3

i love my sissys, and i am pretty bummed that i am in nyc on the day of franny's birth.

i hope that she has an excruciatingly WONDERFUL day, because she deserves it.

p.s. this is my other sissy carly. she is also a hottie and a junior in highschool.  

we have SO many a.k.a. names for her because she is our baby. and thinking that she is our baby, makes me think that we are all old now...because she will be in college soon. yuck.

anyway...i think i will write out all of her a.k.a's for her birthday...which is september 14th....when she will turn 18.

ahhhhhhh.

what would i do without my sissys? they are amazing and super duper gorg...which clearly means gorgeous.

<3

Happy Birthday LEX.  i love you to the moon.

im hoping to get our recent happenings on here soon! 

until next time.

<3