Day 269: Showcase

I was driving around today and saw an Army wife with some stickers all over her car. One was a family sticker, you know the kind... they show the mom, dad, kids and animals. It showed the dad as a soldier and showed the basic ages of her kids, showing she had a child, toddler, and baby. Then she had a sticker that said support our troops, which is definitely okay. Then there was a sticker showing a rank of Staff Sergeant. Lastly she had a sticker that said "Half my heart is in Afghanistan." She basically made me want to pull my car over, get her out of her car, and slap some sense into her. With all those stickers on her car, I was able to make a few conjectures that a common criminal could do and could easily exploit it. First, I know that her husband is a Staff Sergeant in the Army which means that even if he is home, he is an NCO that is responsible for a lot, meaning late nights at work. I also know that she has three small kids. Lastly, I saw that her husband is currently deployed. I got all of this information off of the stickers she has on the back of her car.

It is a scary thing to think of what information you are giving people just based off the stickers on your car that are meant to show pride in the life you have, but it is a real threat. I just don't understand putting that kind of information out there for everyone to see, especially when your husband, and defender, is halfway across the world at the moment. It is why I cringe every time I see those stickers on the back of a car. I try to tell newer wives that it may seem like you are showing pride in your husband/life, but really you are giving out a lot of information. I even try to avoid talking about Ian being deployed when I am out in public just because I don't want the wrong person to overhear and know that they can follow me home to an empty house. It may sound a bit paranoid, but I see it as more of a personal security thing that helps to keep my kids and me safe. So, think twice before you buy those cutesy stickers and think of the story you are telling people who look at your car.

On another note, this has been the busiest spring break ever. And not in the fun way, the work way. I decided since I was off that I would take on a few cakes, but then ended up taking on two more. It wasn't a bad thing, because I haven't decorated in a while and it was fun to get my creative juices flowing. So, I worked on one cake last weekend and three cakes this weekend. All of my cakes turned out pretty good, though three of the four were volunteer cakes made for an organization I volunteer for. The fourth one, and the hardest, was for a friend's kid's birthday. I let my creative side outdo reason. Basically, the cake was a pot of gold with a rainbow coming out of it. Well, it looked really cool, only problem is that the rainbow didn't stay together. So, I had to take it off and improvise. It still looked good, but I really wanted that rainbow to work. The upside was that my friend wasn't made and still loved it, plus I learned a thing or two from it. Here are some pictures of the cakes.

With the Rainbow intact.

How I salvaged it...It looked better in person