Where I have been

Like I mentioned in the previous post I finally decided to read Harry Potter. I started listening to the audio books in July and finished on August 23rd. I felt a lot of pressure reading since so many of my friends are HUGE Harry Potter fans (especially Mimi). I was afraid that I wouldn't like them enough or maybe too much. Does anyone else worry that you might steal a friends thing? I enjoyed the first few I loved Harry but a motherly kind of love. I teared up when he had his first Christmas at Hogwarts and got his sweater from Mrs. Weasley. I have a very soft spot in my heart for Mrs. Weasley since she reminds me of my mom. But my mom is way better, my mom would never have had a crush on stupid Lockhart. But she is the mother of six sons, two redheaded children and has always welcomed friends into our home and family. But it wasn't until the last three that I actually started to get really hooked.

I did accomplish operation Trifecta on my birthday along with reading Mockingjay. I went to Joe's Farm Grill for breakfast, some of my sister in laws along with some nieces & nephews, my brother & sister Debbie were able to come. We had fun and I had a delicious waffle with strawberries & blueberries.


While there I also got these amazing pillows from Debbie & my sister in law Ashley, they made them! I love them a lot, they remind me of pillows my grandma had & they have Debbie's vintage touch to them.

In case you don't speak French this say yes (think we).

I love the French & British pillows since they fit in nicely with my London & Paris theme I have going.
After breakfast Debbie came over and we both sprawled out on my couches and began reading Mockingjay. Soon we had to break to grab some lunch at Liberty Market
where Debbie and I split a picnic salad & a favorite the best chicken sandwich (I think that is what it is called). We were joined by our friends Jenny & Mimi both of whom we knew had finished Mockingjay so we were free to speak about what we had read so far.
After we went back to Debbie's to read and had a hard time pulling away from reading to go to dinner. Here is a picture of me reading & Gracie watching Peter Pan. We went to Joe's Real BBQ with my parents. Mark, Ashley & Sam, Russ, Debbie, William & Gracie. It was really nice and my parents brought me a present from Mary MONSTER COOKIES!!! It not only made me really happy but everyone else it was a great treat. Thank you to Joe's for the free breakfast, lunch & dinner I was full for days.

In between reading I have been trying to listen to the new Arcade Fire



and She and Him




I also discovered that Stars & Metric sound a lot a like when my ipod played these back to back

You say HBM I say UK all the way!

It has been way to long since I have posted and it is not like fun things haven't been happening, I went camping with some of my family (see Debbie's blog) which was really fun. I have been listening to Harry Potter. Wait what, YOU HAVE NEVER READ HARRY POTTER!?! You have no clue how many times I have heard this and I don't have much of an excuse other than the first few movies didn't really hold my attention so I didn't think the books would. But for some reason after seeing the trailer for this next movie I decided I wanted to read but ended up listening instead. And I am loving it, hello Jim Dale who I loved already from Pushing Daisies. I love the Weasley's they remind me a lot of my large family with six boys and a couple of red heads and a mother who welcomes friends as their own.

But I am not up late at night blogging for any of those reasons, no I am blogging because you know that book I have been raving about Anna and the French Kiss (see post below), well Stephanie Perkins the author is giving away a copy on her blog. And she is giving everyone chances to sign up more than once and one of those ways is to leave a link to a picture of a Hot British Male in her comments. Some might say but Connie you already got a book why are you posting about HBM's. Obviously I am not doing it to get another copy, I love my copy way to much, because hello it is signed and now lovingly used. I am doing this because I LOVE HBM's and have for a long time. It is one of the reasons I knew Stephanie and I would be friends she called it HBM's I called it UK all The Way! And I just have a ton of pictures just sitting on my computer waiting to be shared. So with out any further ado here are some HBM's...

Hey Jude...you are so pretty sometimes I forget that you are jerk.
James your Scottish charm makes me swoon just thinking about it.
Oh Henry, I have kept an eye on you since I first saw you in Count of Monte Cristo. I knew you could not be so beautiful for nothing.

Christian some think you are crazy but I think we can all have bad days and let's not forget what is written in my high school yearbook "We Hail Christian Bale"

Matthew you are new to my boyfriend list but what a lovely addition you make.

Jim this picture makes me think of a certain boy I read about in a book with lovely messy hair, beautiful brown eyes and he also liked to bite his pinkie nail.

Colin, Mr. Darcy enough said.

Alex you are to young and yet I found myself watching Wild Child on ABC Family last week just so I could say "Hello Freddie".

Rob what can I say you are a mess but sometimes you can be a Beautiful mess, with a fantastic jaw line.