Good company and beautiful dresses

Last night I went to my wonderful friend's apartment to eat dinner and watch the Oscar's and had a great time relaxing and enjoying the night. It was so nice to just watch something and not be worried about homework or anything else for a little bit of time. And of course it was wonderful getting to spend time with one of my best friends at school. I am so blessed by her and sometimes feel like I would go crazy without having her around.
After watching the show I wish that I would have seen more of the movies that came out this year. Especially the King's Speech! My favorite part of every award's show is the red carpet and getting to see what everyone is wearing. Forget the awards, I want to see the dresses ;) One of my favorites last night (not just her dress, but as an actress too) was Natalie Portman.

She looked beautiful! Especially with her adorable preggo belly :)

Life feels like it is finally winding down a little bit, even though there are still 3 more weeks of school, I have definitely gotten over the majority of work for this quarter. I am counting down the days til Spring Break and praying for a warm week home! 19 days to go...

Praise the LORD

My life lately has been focused around a huge project for my curriculum class... I'm writing a 4-week Sunday School curriculum for kindergarten and first grade students. It is currently around 60 pages and still has a weekend's worth of work to go. Truth be told, I am LOVING putting this thing together. We were instructed to write about Psalm 117...
Praise the LORD, all you nations;
   extol him, all you peoples.
For great is his love toward us,
   and the faithfulness of the LORD endures forever.
   Praise the LORD.
I don't know how many hundred times I have read this verse, but I will forever be learning what it means. What does it mean to praise the LORD? What does it mean that praise has been commanded of ALL people? What does it mean that God loves us? Why does God love us? How is God faithful to us? Why does God continue to be faithful to us when we are so unfaithful to him? These are just some of the questions I have attempted to answer in my curriculum lessons (in a way that 5-6 year olds can understand...) As I have been focusing so much on how children understand these things, I realize that I have been learning all of these things too. How do I REALLY bring praise to God? Am I glorifying God every day? The more I study the more I question how I live my life every day. How do I practically apply the things that I learn in class, chapel, church, or devotions to real life? As I struggle with all of these things I look back to the second part of the verse and am reminded that no matter what, God is LOVING and FAITHFUL. He is my all in all through every up and every down. How undeserving I am of a God who is loving and faithful forever and ever.
All these thoughts, and I still have a project to get done. I've been working on it constantly for over a week so now I just have "finishing" details, but anyone that knows me knows that the details will take me all weekend to finish! :)