Stop Online And Cell Phone Spying!

Last week Trevor Eckhart, a security researcher, found secret software from Carrier IQ running on his android phone. It tracked and logged his keystrokes, text messages, emails and even encrypted information. "The software is programmed to be as undetectable as possible, ridiculously hard to take off one’s phone, and if that’s not already bad enough—it’s installed and run on smartphones without the owner’s knowledge or permission." For more info, read this article from Open Media and this article from PC World.

With secret software tracking your every text, email and web browsing move, the spying has already begun. Though who is doing the spying right now is a major question that is being investigated (internet service providers or cell phone manufacturers?), soon it could legally be the Canadian government. If the government passes their online spying bills they will have the right to legally track and monitor wireless information and wired internet usage without a warrant, your consent or your knowledge.

We, as Canadians citizens, have a fundamental right to privacy and that should not be taken away from us. Please help stop mass surveillance from becoming legal in Canada. Do your part and get informed. Open Media has a petition that you can sign to let the government know that you do not agree to online spying.

A New Chapter Begins

Well summer is almost over (in a couple of days) and with a new season, also comes a whole new stage of my life. Both of my kids are now in full time school! My daughter started kindergarten and my son is in grade two, now both of my kids are no longer at home during the weekdays, and it feels so weird. They are growing up! I get a little verklempt every time I think about it. I got especially emotional on my daughter's first day of school last week. They had the gradual entry system for the kindergartners, so the first day was only an hour, but I still got all choked up (I had to put my sunglasses on so no one would see my tears, luckily my husband was with me, so he could drive us home). Her new school is so big, and she is still so little, and full, six hour days seem so long for a five year old. My son had half day kindergarten when he first started school and I though that was perfect, but now the whole district has switched over to full days. I know she'll get used to it and she's getting bigger everyday, but it's still hard to think about. Certainly I will enjoy the time off and am looking forward to getting a lot done around my house, but hearing my daughter tell me in the morning that she misses me when she's at school, is hard.

I feel like so much has happened over the summer and I was just too busy to write about it. I felt burnt out and couldn't bring myself to post anything. I needed a break and I also wanted to focus my attention on my kids and not the computer. But now that I have some free time, while the kids are at school, I am going to try writing again. I do miss it and it's a good outlet for me to have some creativity in my life and have something that is all my own.

So I'll play a little catch up here and tell you about what's been going on with me and my family. My daughter finished preschool in June and my son finished his program at a special school for kids with behavioral difficulties. It was bittersweet having them both leave their schools. The preschool that my daughter went to was so great, and we had been taking our kids there for four years (my son for the first two and then my daughter for the second two). We will deeply miss the teachers that nurtured and cared for our children, they so were amazing! I can't say enough good things about them, and I feel like my kids went to the best preschool in Vancouver, that's how great they were! And then my son's school, they really helped him a lot. He was in a one year program to help him with his behavior and though some people might not understand what it's like having a child with behavioral issues, and might judge him (or me), I have seen so much improvement over the last year and I'm so happy about that. It's like night and day really, and though I know he's not perfect and certainly still has some things to work on, he's on the right path to success in his life, and I owe it all to that school.

After school finished we spent the summer at beaches and lakes and spray parks and outdoor pools and playing with friends and family, it was so much fun. We went canoeing, and peddle boating; we went camping and to Playland (my son was tall enough to go on all of the big rides this year and he loved it, he even went on the big wooden roller coaster and exclaimed when he got off "That... Was... AWESOME!!!"). My husband started a new job, my kids had both of their birthdays (now my daughter is five and my son is seven), and we got a new kitten. My son learned how to ride his bike with no training wheels and fully dunk his head underwater, and my daughter learned how to swing on the swings with no one pushing her and to climb to the very top of the climbing web at our local park. There has been so much growth and change this summer it's almost unbelievable to my husband and I, and we both welcome it.

Now my kids are at a new school together and it seems like a good fit for both of them. My daughter's kindergarten teacher seems really nice and my son's new special program seems really great too. I'm happy with the new changes life is bringing and I feel like things are heading in the right direction.

Here's a bunch of pictures from some of our fun, summer adventures.

These are from our annual camping trip at Manning Park, when we got to go canoeing for a few hours, it's one of our favorite things to do as a family.

These are from Playland, the kids always have a blast there!

These are from our day at the beach with the cousins.

This is when we went to Alouette Lake with friends, we got to go peddle boating and the kids loved it.

Here is my daughter on her birthday and she was very happy with her present!

A new kitten!!!

And here we are at a birthday party in the park, gotta love face painting!

So how was your summer? Did you get to do all of the fun things you wanted to do? Feel free to share, I'd love to hear about it : )

Rockin' The Baby

First there was Rockin' The Bump and now there's Rockin' The Baby, which is another great link-up by Shell at Things I Can't Say. Thanks Shell for having such a cool link up. I always love having a chance to show off my cuties, and it was also great taking a walk down memory lane and looking at all my monkeys' old baby pics. I miss the days of tiny fingers and tiny toes, and boy does time ever fly by fast!

Here is my son at five weeks

Here he is at six months

And here he is at ten months

Here is my daughter at eight weeks

Here she is at eight months

I couldn't decide on which one of these to have here, so I put them both.

Here they are together at two and a half years and nine months

And again at about three years and fourteen months

And here they are just a few months ago at six and a half years old and four and a half years old, wow have they ever grown!

So thanks again to Shell for doing this fun link-up, I really enjoyed it. Go on over and check out all the other beautiful babies at Things I Can't Say and even join up if you want. You'll be happy if you do, I know I am!

I Am Joining The Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup

Have you ever heard of the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup (GCSC)? I hadn't, until last year. It's pretty much what you would expect from the title. People join together to cleanup shores around lakes and rivers and the oceans, all across Canada, for a few weeks in September. After reading about it, I thought it would be a great thing to participate in. It would be good for me and my family, good for my community, and especially good for the environment in this wonderful and beautiful, coastal city I live in, called Vancouver. I thought, wouldn't this be a great lesson to teach my children? It would help me to teach them about giving back to mother nature, the way that she gives to us everyday. I always tell them about how lucky we are to live in such a beautiful place, with mountains and the ocean and so much to do outdoors. But isn't it also great to teach them how to take care of this place and not to take it for granted?

Photo Credit

 I was really stoked to do it last year, but then life stepped in and changed my plans. Not to make excuses, really it was just that a bunch of other things came up. Two birthday parties and an Aunt that wanted to see the kids on the particular day we signed up for. It ended up being a crazy day of driving all over and visiting and kiddie party madness, but it was a great day. I was really bummed that we didn't get to do the cleanup though, especially because I was telling everyone that we were doing it and I was asking friends if they wanted to participate too. So I made a promise to myself that we would do it next year.

And next year is here. I just signed up today. I am going to do it right this year. I was even contemplating being a site coordinator and taking on a whole area to organize by myself. But I decided to be realistic and just participate this year and see what it's like. If it's something I think I can handle on my own, then maybe I can be a coordinator next year.

Doing this kind of thing is important to me. I took an Environmental Studies program in college and it was really eye opening. I learned so many things in those two years. One thing that really shook me up was seeing a picture of a lake that was turned into a dumping ground for electronics. People would come there to find parts to sell, or scrounge for copper or other metals in the stuff that was dumped there. It was so filled with junk that it didn't even look like a lake anymore, it looked like a garbage dump, but it was just filled with electronics. I was looking on the internet to see if I could find that same picture (which I'm sure is really old, I saw it at school, about nine years ago), and I couldn't. But I did find some other horrible pictures. Like this...

The Citarum River in Indonesia

Photo Credit

And this...

Photo Credit

I really don't want the beautiful place, that my family and I call home, to end up like these places. So I am doing my part to help. If you feel inspired too, and you live in Canada and want to join, click here to find a cleanup site in your area. If you don't live in Canada, but want to help out where you live, here are some other shoreline cleanup programs:

• International Coastal Cleanup
• California Coastal Cleanup
• Clean up Australia!
• Project Aware
• The Daily Ocean

This list is from the Other Resources page on the GCSC website, which has tons of useful info if you want to know more.


"You must be the change you wish to see in the world." - M. Gandhi

Rockin' The Bump

Thanks to Shell, at Things I Can't Say, for having a Rockin' The Bump link-up. I've never done one of these before but I thought it looked like fun. So I'm joinin' too, why not?

 Here is me rockin' my first bump, at five months along.

Here I am posing with my nephew, who is now eight years old. How time flies!

Here I am during my second pregnancy. I'm holding my son while we were on a family outing at the Aquarium.

And here I am almost a month before I had my daughter. I was so huge, people would ask me if I was having twins!

So go on over to Shell's page and see all the other mommies rockin' their bumps. There sure are a lot of cute bumps out there!

Bring On The Summer!

Spring and summer are my favorite time of year. A whole six months (sometimes a little less, in this climate) of warm weather and being outside and really, just not having to stay in, makes for wonderful days. These are the days that memories are made of. I even love the smell. The fresh, sweet, spring night air is intoxicating to me. I breath it in deep and just feel better about life. I hate being stuck inside, but during the winter it rains a lot, so I find myself to be a bit of a hermit for half the year. I know lots of people still get outside in the winter here, and we do to some degree, but the rain makes it so hard (for me) to get out and be active. Also the short winter days just make me feel a little depressed, and if it's constantly raining (which sometimes it is) and grey, than it can feel a bit like perpetual dusk.

I am not trying to bad mouth Vancouver, or our climate, because if you can get through the winters, the spring and summer certainly make up for it. Vancouver is gorgeous in the summer, everything is green and people are out everywhere enjoying life. It's like the city wakes up. There are so many more things to do and it brings on a level of excitement that you just don't feel in the wintertime.

So, with that being said, bring on the summer! Bring on beach days, and carnivals, and barbeques and the water slides. Bring on camping, and birthday parties (both my kids have summer birthdays), and weddings and water parks. Bring on days at the lake, and car-free street festivals, and Playland and spending time with friends and family. I want to do it all!

This weekend finally felt like summer, it was hot (not too hot) and we got out and really enjoyed it! We went to Jericho Beach, with family, on Saturday and a carnival for my daughter's school on Sunday. It was a great, full weekend.

Here are some pictures of our beach day with the cousins. The weather couldn't have been more perfect.

 My daughter and niece are the same age, and will be starting Kindergarten in the fall. How are they that old already? Where did the babies of the family go?

I love how my son's eyes are peaking out behind his sunglasses here. It's almost like he saying I am wise beyond my years, and I know things you don't.

What beach day would be complete without a child trying to bury themselves in the sand?

 The sky seemed extra blue that day.

 My nephew was excited to show me this crab leg he found.

My daughter was saying "come on mom, hurry up, lets go down to the water."

But then, as soon as she realized I was taking pictures, she started posing. I wonder where she learned that from?

I found this teeny, tiny, little pink shell on the beach and gave it to my daughter. She was so happy, she loves pink and she loves teeny, tiny, too. 

 I told my nephew to start flexing for the shot, and he did a superb job I think.

I had to take a picture of this tree, the way it looked in the light, it was just glowing. It was begging for me to take it's picture.

So what kinds of things are you excited to do this summer?