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.

Healed & Girls Night

You may have heard me mention Muse & it's lead singer Matt before. Well yesterday I saw a blog post about a gossip magazine running a story with a picture of Matt on a "date" with Kate Hudson.

How could he have forgotten he was mine... See Shannon Hale even said so. After posting the story on Facebook I had friends offering their condolences and even offering cookies & ice cream. Ok maybe I asked for the cookies, but I was just joking. But my sister in law Alison was so sweet she asked her mom to make me THE BEST COOKIES in the world. They are called Monster Cookies....
See how the love of my friends & monster cookies can make everything better! (sorry for the lack of makeup) But I think if you have friends who make you feel better when your fake rocker boyfriend starts dating someone else you are lucky indeed!

Friday was the Father & Sons camp out so with William & Russ gone Debbie & Gracie came over for a girls night/sleepover. After dinner I painted Gracie's nails.

See how happy/excited she is! And man I look so white next to her, well probably anyone.

Then Gracie painted my nails

And Debbie's nails as well...
Still excited!

She is telling Debbie she can't move, she needs to hold still.

After Gracie went to bed Debbie & I watched Leap Year. Debbie had not seen it after it was over Debbie said "It is like P.S. I Love You but he does not die at the end." Matthew + Ireland = Swoon!

Also I would just like to say that Gracie said to Russ when he came over "this is Connie she is my bestest friend." Victory!!!

Eleven ~ Feb 26th

We got back to London very late the night before or very early this morning (by this morning I mean Friday Feb 26th) and settled in our new hotel. We woke up to a rather warm morning, or just not very cold with the sun breaking through the clouds. Being from Arizona and finding very few occasions to wear coats we were very tired of ours. So before going out Chelsea and I stepped outside to test the weather. I decided it was warm enough to wear two sweaters and leave the coat behind. We headed off to our old hotel because Mimi had left her heavier coat in the closet. After picking up her coat we headed to McDonald's for some breakfast then to the tube and off to Abbey Road.

Once we got off the Tube the sun was shining more now but the wind had picked up and I was getting cold, thankfully we had Mimi's coat otherwise I would have died. After putting it on I was wondering how I looked, I don't like not knowing how I look in, it just feels weird to me. So I asked Mimi to take a picture of me so I could see, but her and Chelsea did their commentary bit. "Oh it looks great on you....it brings out your eyes....I love that on you." They would do this if I ever asked their opinion or expressed concern on my appearance. They never did take a picture, so I could see. They apparently thought I believed them, or thought that was sufficient.
I grew up listening to my parents radio stations that played golden oldies so the early Beatles music was always familiar to me, even if my parents aren't fans. But in high school I began to get more familiar as friends & a cousin put songs on mix tapes & Cd's. Not to mention how I love a good Beatles cover, I Am Sam soundtrack anyone? So although I am not a die hard Beatles fan their music has and does play a big part in my life.

Abbey Road is rather busy but the drivers are use to pedestrians and just stop to let you go. I actually followed Chelsea across the street but was not even thinking about how the pictures would look. But thankfully Chelsea has her wits about her and timed it better and kept her steps in time with me so we got some good looking photos.

I then went over to get pictures of Mimi & Chelsea, I love this one because Mimi looked back at me and had such a great smile on her face.

We then went to get a look at Abbey Road Studios.


After seeing what people had written on the wall I thought it would be great to write something for my nephew William who calls The Beatles song I Will, his special song. So I pulled out my pen and began to write. We had seen a camera guy & a reporter getting footage and interviewing, but after almost two weeks with Mimi and her camera I was good at just going about my business and pretending they weren't there.

But what is funny to me is earlier when Mimi was getting shots of the studio the guy was filming her and she had no clue. I kind of wish she had noticed her reaction would have been great. I got pictures so I could prove to her how close he really was.

After I was done writing I gave the pen to Mimi so she could write & she gave me her camera to get pictures.

After she got up I still had her camera around my neck and my camera in my hand when the TV reporter and camera man came up asking me about my thoughts on Abbey Road being sold. It was a Japanese station, I don't know which one or if it was ever used but a funny experience all the same. Even if I was uncomfortable, I just tried to pretend I was cool & new what I was talking about. I am sure I said um or ah a hundred times though.
Mimi was upset that she couldn't get a picture since I had both cameras. I have this vision of me being on the TV screen and seeing two hands reaching in and taking the camera off from around my neck. And me never missing a beat with my interview because I am a professional.


This shot makes me think of celebrities being stocked by the paparazzi, at least the expression on my face does, you know the face of being annoyed of getting caught on camera unexpected.
After doing a little shopping at the gift/coffee shop we headed to Leicester square to go see if we could catch a showing of Leap Year. I know, I know it didn't look that great and it was all me, I told the girls they could drop me off at the theater but I wanted to see it. When I saw the previews I did want to see it despite it looking cheesy. And mostly for two reasons it takes place in Ireland & second Matthew Goode is in it. It also didn't hurt that Amy Adams was in it, I love her. Right before I left I watched Chasing Liberty a movie I had never seen and feel in love with Matthew Goode. I had seen him in other stuff and thought he was cute but Chasing Liberty moved him up to boyfriend category. As soon as it was over I remembered Leap Year and wanted to go see it, sadly it was only playing in one theater in the valley with only early showtimes. So when I was in London and I saw Matthew's beautiful face on the side of double decker busses proclamining it was coming Feb 26th the Friday before we left I knew it was fate.

We found a theater where it was playing huzzah!!! I don't remember who suggest we get a picture of all three of us by taking a picture of the mirrors, but this is in fact the only picture with all three of us from our trip. Mimi & Chelsea like that I appear to be glowing, you will have to ask them why it is a funny story but to long to explain here.

The first 10 minuets or so of the movie were pretty painful but once she was in Ireland and Matthew was there, I enjoyed myself. Beautiful Ireland & beautiful Matthew with a beard!!
After the movie we headed over to Westminster Abbey to get a better look. By this time the wind was insane. Mimi explained that it was because the clouds and trapped the warm weather and now that the clouds wear all gone the heat was rising and pushing the cold air down. So although it was a beautiful sunny day, the wind was killer. Chelsea & I sat on this bench to try and hide from it while Mimi got some pictures.

Here you can see Westminster and London passing us by again.

It was a beautiful day but the wind soon drove us back to our hotel, where we were going to get ready for the Jack The Ripper that night. We decided that there was no way to get ready for how cold it was so we scrapped Jack and headed back to our hotel to start packing up.