Sometimes it's the little things...

Sometimes the littlest choices have significant impact. I had been debating whether or not to run around the neighborhood Sunday morning (because it was so hot already) but boy, am I glad I decided to! Upon returning to the house, I saw something hanging from the porch ceiling - I thought it was a dead leaf and thought that it was pretty strange place to be hanging.

Here's my amateur bugologist looking at it, from the top of a stepladder. Do you see it? It was about 3 inches long.

Looking straight up at it from the ground, here it is! Isn't that amazing?! I've never seen such a large (and brown!) praying mantis in the area. Usually they're small and green.

From the top of our stepladder, I was able to get this shot. His eyes followed me everywhere I went. I kept expecting him to jump on me, which was going to make me scream like a girl (even entomologists don't like it when insects leap for their faces) and fall off the stepladder. But, he was calm and cool, and politely posed for the paparazzi. =)

Yup. It's little things like this that make my day. =)