miscellaneous ramblings

1. crape myrtles. I love 'em even though they scream "East Texas suburbia". If you've ever been in subdivisions anywhere in East Texas, you know what I'm talking about. It's probably because it's practically the only thing that will grow in the sticky, humid climate. 

2. Germany. I can't believe that less than two months are left until we leave on our trip to Germany (50 days, to be exact. I just counted.). When we my mom bought the tickets early this year, the wait loomed so far ahead of us. It felt like it would never come. And here we are, 50 days away. Wow. Be prepared for an overwhelming amount of pictures on my blog in September. (I wish I would have had my camera in the previous 10 times I've been to Germany. Think of all the memories I could have captured!)

3. estate sales. You know, those old homes that are full of treasures, usually last inhabited by old ladies.

We went to one this morning...and saw this.

Um, what? "Weird looking Mother and Child"? Could they really not come up with something better than that? And in the painting's defense, it didn't look "weird" at all. It's called art, people. 

I walked away with this little number...

A vintage metal box, the loveliest shade of green, for fifty cents. Right now I'm storing my camera things in there - memory cards, cables, batteries, etc.

4. blogging stats. (And I really, truly don't mean to brag. I'm totally humbled with all that's happening on my blog.)

I recently published my 500th post. 

I'm getting an average of 106 visitors a day (an average of 227 page views a day). Y'all make me feel so special! ;)

137 followers. Wow is all I have to say. 

None of this would have been possible without you - I'm giving you all the credit. 

Also, I have a favor to ask. On a scale from 1-10 (1 being the slowest and 10 being the fastest), how quickly does my blog load for you? Of course some of it depends on the speed of your internet connection, but if you could do that, I'd greatly appreciate it. If it loads too slowly, I'm going to have to reconfigure some things. Thank you in advance!

5. twitter. I've been sort of thinking about getting an account. Thoughts?

6. new life. It amazes me. This flower was in full bloom about 18 hours later. God's creation is so wonderful!

7. elephants. Some missionary friends of ours doing work in China came for a visit this past weekend. (Because of the delicate nature of what they're doing, I can't post anymore information.) With them they brought these adorable stuffed elephants and a beautiful carved vase from Cambodia. I love the elephants to death (the blue one's mine ;)). 

-carlotta