Christian Boys:

 Why We Love Them

Yes, yes, yes, this is another dating post which is quite funny for me because I am as single as single comes. One of these reasons that I started this blog is so that I have something to do to fight the loneliness I have developed after leaving most of my friends and moving for school and to be with my family. 

But enough about me, let's get to the real topic of today. 

For Christians dating is a little bit different from the dating world of, well, the world. If you don't believe me then maybe you are doing Christian dating wrong. 

Now, there are some things that Christians guys do that Christians girls think is- I'll outright say it- sexy. And by sexy I mean "oh my word, please marry me now" sexy. 

So, I talked to my girlfriends and together we have complied a list (yay! lists!) about what Christian girls find sexy in Christian guys. So, without further ado...

Top Six Things Christian Guys Do that are Sexy:

1. Say a prayer before you eat on a date. When I was younger, I'll admit that I got a little embarrassed about and would wonder what other people thought when we bowed our heads. Now that I have matured a whole lot, it's completely sexy. When you are with a guy who loves the Lord enough to stop and pray before a meal despite who is around or where you are at shows you the type of husband and spiritual leader of your family. 
2. Give a public talk. Whether is be at a devotional or in front of the whole congregation, something about seeing a guy up there spreading the word of God make everyone young woman drool. And he doesn't even have to be good at it. If he up there stumbling over his words, he adorable and cute and you can't wait for him to come down so you can tell him that he did wonderful and fawn over him, just a little bit. If he's a veteran at it and does wonderful, then he just looks hot. No need to sugar coat that. 
3. Holding the songbook for the both of you during church. Here is my qualm with this whole "paperless" approach for church: no one uses a book any more so there are no guys holding books. :( I loved it when my boyfriend or any boy for that matter would hold the book for me in church. He would hold the book with his big strong arms and veins popping out all over the place, really showing off that he's a man. Love it. So, we might have to bring back song books just for me and my love of forearms, okay?
4. When guys hold you hand during a prayer. Though I'm really not a big hand holding person during a prayer, I don't understand the purpose of holding hands of complete strangers or the little squeeze after Amen. I mean really, what is that? I'll admit it , I have spent more that one prayer focused on the hand that is clasped in mine wondering if he/she can feel my head starting to sweat or that little dry spot that I can get below my ring finger and if they now think that I'm gross. Yeah, not the best thoughts during a prayer. However, when it's your boyfriend or the guy you are dating, it's like a sense of togetherness, together you are offering up this prayer. And, hopefully he has held your hand before so you are worrying less on what they think about your hand and are focused more on what they are saying. 
5. When guys roll their sleeves up. Okay, I know that this doesn't apply only to Christian guys, but I feel like I see it more in them since it's kinda the "dress-code" for church. Guys, every girl loves it when you unbutton your sleeves and roll them up a few times. It makes us go wild! And then, when they hold the song book and they have their veins all popping out...well, it's just an amazing amazing thing.
6. And the last, when a guy leads singing. Now, this is a special one because not every guy can lead singing- some think that they can, but they can't. But when a guy gets up there and leads and knows what he is doing, there is probably nothing hotter. Add that to holding a song book and rolling up his sleeves and you might be in love with him by the end of the song, it's true. But remember ladies, to pay attention to the words of the song, no matter how good he looks. 

So, there you have it. This post may of not been as entertaining as the last too, but I hope you enjoyed in nonetheless. Have a wonderful "hump day" and I'll post again soon!

Lots of Love-

Catherine

My first time...

I kissed a boy.

Okay, admit it, you got all excited thinking that I was going to write about something completely personal? Shame on you ;) 

I got the idea of this post from English Youtubers, Zoella and Sprinkle of Glitter, and I thought that I would maybe share some of my first times with the world. However, I only think that three people actually read my blog-one of them is probably my mother-so I guess I'm only sharing it with a very small percent of the population. Well, no matter how many or whoever is reading, here we go.

*Catherine Note*: All names have been changed to in order to protect the parties associate. I have decided to change them all, possibly including my own, to Disney character names because I'm fun like that. 

My first kiss,

A tale by Catherine 

Once upon a time, when I was in kindergarten, I kissed two boys in one day and I got in trouble. 

Though that story is very true, I don't that kissing before puberty counts. So here is the true account of my true first kiss. 

Once upon a time, in the kingdom of Alabamaistan, I was forced to change high schools. My parents thought it would be best for me to attend a small, private Christian school along with my brothers. On my first day of school, I saw him- Philip for this stories sake- in band. He was the cutest boy I had ever seen, and that's saying something. Naturally, as was accustomed of my fourteen years old self, I was determined to make him my boyfriend, despite the fact that he was sixteen. I was a lot more forward back in those days, in case my kissing two boys in kindergarten didn't tell you that, so I immediately wrote a note to my only friend at my new school casually about the unknown cute drummer. And by casually, I mean with the subtlety of a bull in a china shop. She told me that he was named "Philip" and that he had a nice family and that we could use year books to figure out more about him. You see boys and girls, this was 2003 and we didn't have Facebook or Twitter to stalk a boy through. If I did have it, I would have been unstoppable!

 So, Aurora- me- pursued Philip through the only forms of communication we used in these ancient days, AIM and notes. We wrote notes and IMed but, despite my best efforts, my attempts were all met with failure. This was unusually for me but, after a while, I backed off and decided it would never happen. However, everything changed one afternoon , on the band trip or tennis trip- I still don't know which one. This trip isn't important, however, the simple fact is that he suddenly liked me and it only took me a whole school year- it was May at this point- for him to come around. We officially started "going out" on whatever day my brother graduated from High School...I think. I was around that time and the official date isn't important to this story. 

Now, here is what you have all been waiting for, the story of the first kiss.  By the end of the end of the school year, something magical had happened that only happens one it probably 10,000- me and my best friends were dating, going out, with three best friends. This was highly convenient because we always had another couple to hang out with. Things were pretty great. The beginning of June brought Rapunzel's birthday so we all headed up to a little amusement park to celebrate, Rapunzel and her man, Belle and her man and me and Philip. I remember what I wore, khakis capris  and a pink v-neck shirt with white flip flops. Looking back, I wish I had been kissed in a lot better outfit but what can you do? We spent our day riding various rides, as couple of course,  and having alot of fun. Well, we were having alot of fun until Belle's guy broke up with her- as he purposely planned to do- and everyone else felt awkward. Nothing like you best friend crying in an amusement park after be broken up with by her boyfriend to put the happy in "Happy Birthday". 

While Belle and her now ex-beau talked. Rapunzel and her guy and my and my guy decided to go on a little ride together. I would describe this ride as Splash Mountain's dull grandmother. There were no singing animals or whimsical drops or colors. Basically, it was a tunnel that ended in a drop. Exciting, I know. Well, we get on this ride with he and I, strategically or not so strategically,  sitting in the back and we started going through this tunnel which continued to get darker and darker as we continued on. Soon, it was pitch black and we were all snuggled up in the back row with his arm around me. It was so romantic. Next thing I know, he kissed my cheek. Naturally, I turned to look at him in the pitch black dark. Then, it happened. Honestly, I don't know if it looked like the movies because I was involved in it and was not having an out of body experience at that moment. In fact, I didn't realize that was happening till about half was through the kiss. 

This was the conversation going on in my head at the time.

What, was is that? Are those lips? Are they his lips? Moron, he is kissing you! He's kissing me and I'm missing it. Are you eyes closed? No, I don't think so, are they supposed to be? Yes, that's how is it done in the movies. Oh yeah, right! 

Unfortunately I never closed my eyes so I'm sure that I looked like a proper idiot. When the kiss ended, I remember smiling and saying something about his six months since his last kiss being up, because I'm smooth like that. For the rest of the afternoon, especially about the time my mother was supposed to come get me to take me home, I was completely terrified to be alone with him for fear that he would kiss me again and I would do something stupid again or worse, my mother would see. 

And that's the story of my first kiss. It wasn't movie-esque or perfectly time to a song. Instead, it was just me and the boy I liked in the back of a boat- but it was perfect. 

The first kiss is one of the most pivotal moment in a girls life. It doesn't require the perfect place and moment, just the perfect person. And it doesn't have to be a big, elaborate kiss. I can just be a sweet little peck, a chaste kiss if you will. Leave a comment below and tell me about your first kiss, how magically it was or if was slobbery, I would love to hear your storied especially if you had made it this far into mine. 

Now, this was only my first simple, innocent kiss. My first real kiss, and if you don't know what I mean by real than you probably should go back to watching iCarly, was later that month and doesn't have a cute story that accompanies it. It was still pretty hot, though,

Well, I hope you enjoyed a little look into my life. And, if you are my 13 year old daughter who somehow found this on the world wide web, your mom was just like you once. Now, turn off your computer or whatever internet capable device you are using and go to bed!

Love to all-

Catherine

When in doubt....Ben Barnes.

Second blog post this week, I feel like maybe I should get a medal or cookie or something like that. Tonight's blog post is going to be different from all the previous ones, or at least I think so- it's not going to be on dating or weight loss or girl power but, about a boy.

Who is this boy that, I feel, deserves a whole blog post on unto himself. Well, ladies and gentlemen, it's a little man named Ben Barnes. 

Ah, Ben Barnes, just the name itself gets me excited. Now, if you have been with my blog from the first post, then you remember this glorious name. If you have never heard of Ben Barnes then, a) I feel sorry for you and b) Don't worry, Auntie Catherine is about to enlighten you. Yay for you!!

Now, as this is America, I can not force you to love Ben Barnes as I do, but I will share as to why I love him and maybe you will love him too. If you don't, it's okay because that will just leave more for me.

Okay, first things first, here in a picture of the man in question. Benjamin Thomas Barnes- first off,  great name- first entered my life in the fall of 2007. Me and two of my best friends when to see the movie Starlight in which Ben is the main object of the first 5-10 minutes. Being the big nerds that we are, Katie and I recognized his face as being the star of the next Chronicles of Narnia film "Prince Caspian" so we spent the first 10 minutes frantically whispering back and forth like proper fan girls and probably earning some harsh looks. It's safe to say that our obsession of this British man gem began that night when we realized how good looking he was. I mean, look at that face up there ^.

For the sake of this blog, I have composed a list, along with the help of my little sister, of the attributes of one Benjamin Barnes and why we love him. 

The Shining Attribute of Benjamin Barnes

as complied by Catherine and Molly:

1.) The face. For years, ancient sculptors and painters have tried to capture the angelic face of man in classic works like David and The Thinker. Look no further, Michelangelo, that angelic face is the face of Ben Barnes. From the sparkling brown eyes to the regal nose to the most perfect smile- he has it all. The fact that two cells combined in such a perfect way so that their combine DNA could produce the creature above baffles my mind. For good measure, here is another picture- and get use to them, it won't be the last. 

Who could resist this face?

2.) He's versatile. In my 24 years I have walked on this earth, I have never seen a man able to pull off more facial and head hair looks than this man. Short hair and no facial hair- hot. Short hair and facial hair- hot. Long hair and not facial hair- hot. Long hair and facial hair- hot. This is not true of all men. Guys who look good with short hair usually look homeless with long hair and guys who look good with long hair usually look like a prepubesant 7th grader with short hair. It's a basic fact of life. (Facts of Life- great show) Ben Barnes has basically surpassed all of these social norms by always looking amazing not matter which way the hair is growing on his head. Now, for examples.

   Do you see what I mean? Versatile!

*Catherine's Note* : Despite his Achilles/ Herculean appearance at all facets of hair, he can not pull off just a moustache without looking a little creepy. This, however, is true of ALL men under the rip age of 45- but he looks a lot less like a pervert than them. 

*Another note* There are no images on Google of Ben with a moustache like in the movie The Words so you will either just have to take my word or watch the movie for yourself. 

*Another another note* I only looked at the first page because I'm lazy and it's late.

3.) I don't think that he ages, I really mean that. Tuesday was this gorgeous boys birthday and how old do you think he turned. 27? False, he turned a beautiful 32. I can see your face now, you probably look like Macaulay Culkin in Home Alone in the bathroom scene with disbelief. (That's oddly specific but, hey, it works) Yes, he turned 32 which raises a few questions. A few years ago, Benny Boo did a little movie called Dorian Gray where he played the title character. Now, in the unlikely event that you no nothing about the synopsis of Dorian Gray, I will give you the Catherine's Notes version. Dorian Gray is a beautiful, vain man who basically sells his soul for eternal youth. As he becomes more corrupt and evil in this world, his beautiful portrait decays and corrodes, truly depicting his inner man. Spoiler alert, he eventually destroys his picture which kills him and restores his portrait to it original, unblemished state. 

I beginning to think that this story is true and that Ben Barnes sold his soul for eternal youth  because I don't look that good and I'm only 24. Either that, or he found the fountain of youth.

4.) He's British. I don't know what it is, but a British accent on a man immediately increases his attractiveness by 26.3%- yes, I did the math. Now, this also applies to Australian's but there are far less known Australian men than British men so, the British accent wins by default. I wish I knew why this magical spell of the British accent has so much lure over us. Is it because we think they are automatically gentlemen because they talk like James Bond? I don't know. Is it because they, according to social convention, sound smarter? Again, I don't know. The world may never understand the British accent but, until then, we American women will have to fight the urge to not grab every British boy we meet and kiss his cheeky cheeks. 

5.) He's not only an actor, but he's a good actor. That's probably why you haven't heard of him before today, he actually has talent and we can't have that in our major motion pictures- no sirree. He spent to first few years of his career performing on West End. West End! For those Anglo-illiterate out there, West End is London's version of Broadway. Now, you've got to have talent to work on West End because you don't have multiple takes to get it right. I don't understand why his movie career hasn't boomed off the charts yet. He's brilliant in whatever he's in and with a face like his, he should be packing the theater with women folk. So, Hollywood, get on that. And check out the trailer for his upcoming movie Seventh Son. 

6.) He can sing. And I don't mean you average, Disney channel "actor" turned "singer" sing. I mean, HE. CAN. SING. Like an angel that fell from heaven and has decided to share his magical song with the world. He grew up doing musical theater and in 2004 perform with a boy band on a popular European show representing Britain. Unfortunately, they didn't win with their song "Leading Me On", which I will link to below, but that hasn't stopped him. As of today, he has sung for two different soundtracks: Easy Virtue, which features 30's style Big Band/ jazz, and Killing Bono, which is basically 80's pop/rock. 

Leading Me On- Hyrise. Warning: This video contain cliche boy band dancing and early 2000's clothes. Viewer discretion is advised.

7.) He's Ben Barnes. Part of a professional fan girls job is the research her featured celebrity to the point of stalking. From all that I've seen and read, he seems like a great guy. Sometimes, you project these ideas of how you think the guy really is and then they come up quite short, shattering you paper mache heart shaped hopes and dreams in their wake. But I don't think he's like that. From what I have gathered from my fan girl research, he seems like he would be the type of guy that would joke around and be silly with you then end the night cuddling on the couch watching the Princess Bride or Star Wars. I don't know about you, but that sounds like fan girl heaven to me. 

So, here you have it, these are the reason why I love good ole

 Benny Boo. If you love him now too, great! If not...well, we don't need you anyway. 

I can't make any promises, but I'm going to try to blog again Saturday and I hope to see some of you there. 

Love to all- except the none Ben Barnes lovers, we don't need thei

negativity here-
Catherine

*Another Catherine Note*: The title comes from a little phrase/motto between myself and my best friend Katie. It means nothing really and I can't remember how or when it came to be, but when in doubt, Ben Barnes. 

*And Another*: This post is purely for entertainment and giggles. I am not a paid Ben Barnes' spokeswomen or PR representative though I think he should hire me because I feel like I did a FANTASTIC job.

*Last one, I promise*: Ben, if you are reading this, I promise I an not insane, just and admirer so, call me ;)

What I did on my summer vacation-

So school has begun, well at least it has in Alabama, and with the beginning of school comes along the cliche "What I did during my summer vacation" essay that ever student supposedly writes every year, if you believe popular pop culture. I, however, have only written one, nearly ten year ago on my family's vacation where we all got the stomach virus. Such happy memories. So, since it's been a decade, I have decided to write my own essay on my summer vacation..well, what I have observed on my summer vacation.

First off, I have really had no summer vacation. I decided, in a whim of stupidity, that I needed to take summer classes that occupied most of my time this summer. That, along with my computer deciding to die a horrible death of horribleness, explains my long absence. But, nevertheless, I am back to infuse the world with my off handed humor and wisdom. You're welcome. Okay,back  to the task at hand. I have been on summer vacation for a grand total of 2 weeks. For 10 days of those two weeks I have been on a family vacation to, surprise surprise, Disney World. So, as I walked around the happiest place on Earth-usually with some sort of sweet or salty treat in my hand- I began to notice the crowd around me....it was all couples. I felt as in everyone I came in contact with was either celebrating an anniversary or engagement or their wedding or just simply taking a trip together so that they could suck face in the queue of a popular ride- like the couple in the Soarin' like where the guy was playfully biting his girlfriend's nose three feet away from me. (The worst part about that wasn't the cannibalistic public behavior but the fact that there were wearing practically the same shorts...Daisy Dukes. *shudder*) Nothing can bring a girl down faster from a cupcake induced sugar high that realizing that you are all alone in crowd of 100,000 plus couples. Yeah, happiest place on Earth all right. After I got through the emotional turmoil, I really began to look at these couples. Now, what I am about to say may never happen again, but I have to say it. *Deep breath* I was wrong. There I said it, I was wrong and I hate admitting that. For years I have believed that we, single people, were each in a dating league and we only dated within our league with very few exceptions that only manifest in the celebrity world. (Catherine Zeta Jones and Michael Douglas, seriously, how did that happen?) But, from what I observed in my ten days at the happiest place on Earth was that there is no rhyme or reason under the sun or sea when it comes to matters of the heart. I saw in all, gorgeous guys with average guys, average girls with gorgeous guys, big guys with skinny girls, skinny guys with big girls. See what I mean, no rhyme or reason. Now, don't get me wrong, I saw plenty of gorgeous couples and average couples, couples that would have fit my now invalid theory, but they seemed to be few and far between.

So, what's the point of this, you ask. Well, besides me growing as a person by admitting that I'm wrong, it also restored my faith in the human race when it comes to the WWI battle trenches that I believe dating to be. (Love in a Battlefield- Pat Benatar. Not my usual 80's forte, but I think every female has jumped on her bed screaming the lyrics like in 13 Going on 30) Maybe, instead of it all being physical, as I have come to believe, the human society is looking at the heart first and not the head...or face. Isn't in the person inside that we need to be in love with and not the fun candy coating. The personality is what we should desire about the person, not the gorgeous eyes or strong jaw line or, my weakness, great, muscular, vein popping out forearms. (What can I say, I'm a freak)  But, should I throw myself (haha, like I could ever man up and do that) at every great pair of arms that comes my way and ignore the vein-less sweet guy that will flirt and make fun of me and laugh at my poor attempted jokes? As mentioned several times throughout the Bible, "Certainly not!"  Personality makes a person and, from what my limited dating knowledge is that personality can also make the face, so to speak. I have been in a relationship where I was not at all physically attracted to the guy, but, as I got to know him, I found myself more and more attractive to him. This is apparently what everyone else has figured out, except for me. I have been limiting myself to going after guys that I feel are on my level physically. And, when you feel like the only good feature on you face are your blue eyes and sometimes tamable hair on your head, you don't have much to go on. (No, I'm not fishing for a compliment- this isn't Facebook or Twitter- I'm just brutally honest with myself) But now, after my revelation, I know that love doesn't work like that. I could end up with a dorky guy with glasses and a bachelor's degree in compute science just as easily as I could end up with a gorgeous baseball player- I'll let you guess which one and, no, it's not Dan Uggla. It's all about chemistry. With the right guy (or girl if you are a guy and reading this) it won't matter what your jean size is or hair color or eye color or skin color, for that matter. The right person will be right. So, maybe, instead of working so hard to make over our outside, we work on making over our insides. And I'm preaching to myself here. I don't know if Blogger has a limited on how much you can write but a list of all of my personality shortcomings would probably test that theory. Luckily, these are things we can work on and change, unlike our physical appearance, unless you have a butt load of money cause insurance won't cover that... maybe under Obamacare because that's important. 

Now, after saying that, I do feel like that I have to added a little side note to all of this. Though personality is very important in our travels across this globe to find the proverbial  "One", physical attraction still plays a role in all of this. No matter how wonderful or compatible a personality is, if he/she can't curl your toes with a kiss, then it's probably not going to work. And it doesn't even have to go as far as a kiss to realize this. We all have friends, male or female, that have the greatest personality but, not matter what, you can't make yourself attracted to them. These individuals are usually the ones that we make our "If I don't get married by..." pacts with to assure that we won't be alone for the rest of out lives and that we can have children...though they will probably be adopted. 

So, what am I trying to say in all of this First, I was wrong. My whole system of dating that I developed roughly around the age of 18 is an utter and complete lie...please don't tell my best friends who already told me that I was wrong. Second, the person inside is the person worth looking for. Don't tell yourself that someone it "too attractive" for you or "not attractive enough". Give them, who they really are, a chance- you might just be suprised. Also, no matter what he looks like, he's (or she's) not worth it if he doesn't love the Lord or you the way you should be. From what I have seen of the world, some "10"s have really crappy personalities and some "5"s can make you heart sing.  So, find someone that makes you heart sing or laugh or whatever you are looking for in life. 

Love,

Catherine