If you were lucky to catch the Full moon last night .. which happened on the Fall Equinox, it is known as a Super Harvest Moon and it only takes place once every twenty years or so.
My moon pictures never turn out great so what I posted above is as good as it gets I'm afraid.
There's nothing like owning an expensive camera and knowing nothing about it as far as settings are concerned in order to take decent pictures! I need a Canon Rebel for Dummies book to guide me through it.
This afternoon was Rianne's first experience with story time at the PARL (Pictou Antigonish Regional Library) and as much as I was hoping and praying she'd sit and behave, the thought was always in the back of mind that we'd have to do the walk of shame out of the building , never to return. Thankfully she did very well and loved being in with other kids. I think there are only 5 or 6 other pre-school aged kids in the group.
After the story was read they got to do a little craft. Today it was a caterpillar bookmark and a coloring page:
She was never one for coloring anything (other than herself) so poor Raggedy Ann will continue to live life in black and white with a hint to purple hues. I thought the mutant caterpillar bookmark was cute though :)
Rianne's books of choice to borrow this week were as follows:
Her eyes lit up when I found The Black Stallion so I hope she enjoys the book. We'll see tonight.
All the other moms just sit around tables so here's hoping I meet someone to talk to in future weeks. I overheard one mom say she was moving out of Westville soon though because she doesn't like the small town life. She is originally from Halifax .. for me personally, small town life is just perfect! To each their own though. I do know that I'm not a big city girl at all. That's a proven fact.
So it looks like Rianne and I will have plans on Thursday afternoons all Fall and Winter which is good. It gets us out to socialize a bit ... even if it's only for 30 minutes a week!
Not literally though Rianne could have probably belted out some fine rendition of Hannah Montana if she wanted to.
I had errands to do today and the one rotten thing about not having a car is the rain. It's been raining all day with no sign of letting up anytime in the near future so I had to suck it up and get us dressed for the weather. Rianne was sporting her ladybug rain coat and rubber boots. She loves being out in the rain because she can take her red umbrella.
Me on the other hand. No cute ladybug rain coat and no rubber boots BUT .... I did have a red umbrella! Off we went on our errands looking rather stylish under our red umbrellas as I avoided the puddles while Rianne ran and or jumped through them.
By the time we got home our pants were wet. Mine wet from being too long and soaking the puddles up and hers wet from being a puddle loving 4 year old.
One of the first things on my shopping list when Jon gets home are rain boots because in theory, if you are all prepared for something and anticipate it to take place then it inevitably won't .. so, if I'm waiting to wear my rain boots outside to walk in the puddles, we will probably have a drought! (haha!).
Well it's been a long time since I updated the ole blog.
So, our Summer was wonderful and it flew by very fast for us which was great!
We went to Cape Breton on the 2nd of July and only came back to the Mainland on the 10th of September! That's how great the Summer was!
First of all the weather was great so that was an added bonus for us. We discovered the Chimney Corner beach. Apparently the tourists all know about it but we didn't. It's a little gem on the shore road that was enjoyed by myself and Rianne a few times over the Summer.
Inverness Gathering Days were fantastic for Rianne this year. She was old enough to enjoy it. She went on her first fishing boat ride during the Fisherman's Picnic at the wharf. Then there was Horseman's Day at the race track. She played games, won prizes and went on miniature horse rides courtesy of "Alf" who resides in Dunvegan. Rianne LOVED it and talked about it all Summer long! She renamed the horse and in her mind he's "Butterscotch". I wonder what he'd think of that :)
While in Cape Breton I picked up a job that lasted 3-weeks. I was traveling around hooking up computers in the schools of the Strait Regional School Board. Moving old systems, unpacking and plugging in new systems, throwing out VERY old systems. It was fun! Then I volunteered for a week at the local used clothing store because they were short handed due to vacations over the Summer. I loved being there and organizing everything. I managed to pick up some great stuff for Rianne and I while I was there because I had the time to go through everything.
I spent a lot of time "treasure hunting" at various used clothing places between Cheticamp, Mabou and Orangedale as well as Inverness. It's a great way to waste time and find some brand name stuff for cheap. My kind of shopping since we are a tighter than tight budget.
Then there was the pool and "slip and slide" ... Rianne spent many many hours in her Dora pool and the slip and slide this Summer. She's all tanned up like a beach bunny even with the thick applications of sun screen. Her Hannah Montana bathing suit was well used, as proven by her tan lines!
My cousin Brad came from Ontario for a visit in September. We picked him up at the Sydney airport on Sept. 5th. Rianne was excited to go to the Airport so we had to leave home at Noon and his flight wasn't scheduled to land until 6:30 so we spent time at the Mayflower Mall. That place really changed since the last time I was there. It's a nice mall with a good variety of stores. My favorite being Winners!
The mall closed at 5 PM so we had no choice but to leave and head to the airport. Brad's plane landed and we headed to Inverness where he stayed until the 11th.
Since being back in Westville I've been keeping busy with housework and yard work. It never ends!
Jon only has 2 more weeks of work in Edmonton and then he's heading East. It's going to be the longest 2 weeks of my life waiting for him to get here. I'm glad the Summer went by as fast as it did because that really helped a lot.
I took Rianne to the race track a few times over the Summer as well because she loves horses. She loves them way more than I do as a matter of fact. They make me nervous for some reason. Especially race horses. I had to get over that nervousness a bit and take Rianne into the barn where she made a new friend names "Sadie" (aka: Kilkerran Sonnet) who is owned by a friend of ours. Here he is introducing Rianne to the mare.
Rianne was in her glory being in with the horse. She must have worked with horses in a past life or something because she has a love for them like no other. Even before meeting a real horse she had a passion for them.
So that was our Summer. A very condensed version but a version none the less. I will have to remind myself to keep this blog more up to date in the future. Maybe it will be my 2011 New Year's resolution because we all know I CANNOT give up chocolate!
Today is the Fisherman's Picnic @ the wharf in town so Rianne and I went down. I put her in her wagon because there's no way she's be able to walk back up the hill.
We arrived at the harbour a tad bit late and missed the boat parade but we managed to get on another tour later on. I'm glad we waited because it was a longer ride and very enjoyable. I thought Rianne might freak out and have a meltdown in the middle of the Gulf of St. Lawrence but she really loved it and wanted to go again. So I guess I know what's on the agenda for next July.
I thought I remembered the events at the wharf as being more fun when I was younger than I found them today. Maybe because I was young and single and not a parent of a 4 year old. I used to stay later and listen to the bands and talk to friends. Today I was back home by 4 PM and I was tired!! Gotta love getting older huh? It's for the birds!
The ocean was beautiful today though and at one point before entering back into the channel you could see the sandy bottom.
Rianne played the little fish pond and got 4 prizes and she was thrilled to get a stuffed puppy. Well actually, she requested one after seeing another little girl with one. What a character!
All in all it was a great afternoon. They were predicting heavy showers with the chance of thunder and lightening but as you can see in the pictures it was beautiful! I would have actually preferred it to be overcast though.
Since arriving in Cape Breton we've been on the go quite a bit. Let me see if I can recap some events.
We arrived on Friday and then we were off to Cheticamp on Saturday. We started out at the church basement for their $7/bag clothing deal and then we moved on to the Bargain Shop before moving down the hill to Frenchy's. Before coming home we stopped at the ice cream shop at Mr.Chicken to cool off a bit with some chilly treats.
Sunday found us at the Inverness Raceway where we watched 3 or 4 races before going to visit some family.
I don't remember doing much of anything on Monday so we must have stayed in town. I think Mom took Rianne to the beach to play in the sand that evening so it was a fairly low key day for us.
Tuesday we went to Port Hawkesbury to the Walmart there to buy gifts for some events coming up this weekend. Rianne bought the new version of My Little Pony Cheerilee and she scored some art supplies at Walmart and the Dollarama among other things. The only thing I bought for myself was 2 jugs of water. How typical is that?? Parents are always on the back burner while out shopping.
Today (Wednesday) we were in Mabou to the Hope Chest (thrift store) where I found some nice tops. I should be set for the whole Summer now but will that stop me from looking around for that next big bargain? Probably not. Who doesn't love getting a great deal on good clothing? I live for thrift store shopping! All you need is time and patience and you are bound to find a gem buried in a bin.
When we got home I put Rianne in her pool where she stayed for about 2 hours or more. Loving every minute of it. Tishy even made her way in there with her .. fully clothed!!
I don't know what the remainder of the week will bring forth. I love being busy and being on the go. I wish finances made it easier to do.
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