Diaper Cake

I'm going to share about a diaper cake I made for my niece's shower. I will write on Thursday about my Citizen's academy. I decided to research on the internet on how to make the diaper cakes and there are plenty of ways to make them. All the decorations I used was on my niece's shower list. Even the brand of diapers she wanted. So no guessing games for me. Below are my stages of making the cake.


1ST Layer


2ND Layer

3RD layerPutting on the ribbon
Final stage decorations-then I used shrink wrap to cover this and used one of her blankets as a presentation for the wrap

Citizen's Academy-Media and County Attorney

This week the first subject was Media. The sheriff's office appoints one person to handle the media because when the officers go out to the accident scene they need to do their job. The media is their asking questions and if they can get close to the scene as possible the media will do that. So the department has one person who handles all the media response. He tries to answer questions the media asks but can't always say everything in detail because the story is still be investigated and unfolding. When the accident tends to be serious and involves quite a bit of the community that is when they release a press conference so everyone can be informed.

Our second speaker was the county attorney. He did a few scenarios just by adding different facts into them. Suppose you were walking down the street and you see someone grab someone's purse would you run after them as a citizen to catch them? Do you have rights to do that? If so how would you stop them? Suppose the scenario is now you just hear about the incident and didn't see the person snatching the purse and this person yells "Stop him he just took my purse". Would you still have rights as a citizen to stop the person who is running and try to arrest them? How would you do this? Suppose now that the same thing happens you hear about the purse being snatch, but this time you know the person has a gun, what would you do? The last scenario is you know the person has a gun and you see a cop ahead what would you do then? Your rights as a citizen is the 4th amendment and if it's violated then you can take that person to court. In the first scenario if you saw the person who snatch the purse and tried to stop them in some way in which you injured the person who was running. Then the victim can press charges on you for injuring them. That's when the lawsuit becomes civil and the county attorney steps in. I found this all interesting because if just one fact changes the whole scene of the crime changes. Makes you think what rights as a citizen you do have.
This weeks food menu was our Chicken and rice casserole, mixed canned fruit, lettuce salad, buns and cookie.

Citizen's Academy-DRE/Traffic Safety

This past week has been very interesting as well as exciting on the academy. On Thursday the topic was traffic safety and talking with a DRE. Do you know the top 3 traffic fatalities? The number one death is no seat belt. The second one is speed and the third is OWI'S. I would of never guess that. Then we had Sgt. Belz talk to us about his job as a DRE. Do you know what that stands for?
Drug Recognition Expert. He is like an investigator. He gathers all information when someone is picked up for OWI and then he is the one to question them to see if they are on other drugs besides alcohol. It was very informative. I had to do one of the Field Sobriety Tests in front of the class. Oh, boy! I ended up doing the Walk and Turn test for when someone is stopped for alcohol. I have never been picked up for drinking so I had to walk the 9 steps with one foot touching the other foot on a straight line and count my steps out loud and turn around and go back again counting out loud. Do you think I passed this test? I didn't and I never had a drink. Before I did this I explained to him my situation of my health and they do take that into consideration. So if you have a handicap of some kind then the DRE can figure that into the situation and that is why the breathe test is given to see if alcohol is present. This DRE has been doing his job for quite sometime He has done 140 drug evaluations and out of that he is 95% accurate. That means he knows what drugs a person could be on before the urine sample. The urine sample is the last step in doing a drug evaluation.The DRE told us he has a story for every question someone would ask. Man, was I surprised at the stories he had.
This week's food was, pasta casserole, green beans, bun, banana, oranges or apples to pick from and cupcakes.

Citizen's Academy Communications

This was very interesting this week. We talk about Communications in which includes dispatching. I was really impressed of all the calls and how they have to dispatch. We were given a test and on the test was three columns one labeled Numbers, another Color and the 3rd was the alphabet. What we had to do is listen to the dispatch and write down everything that was being said in the correct column. This was not easy because sometimes the dispatch had 3 things said at once and it came very fast. In a split second and try to write down the info too. I know I didn't pass this test. I now admire those dispatchers!!
Later today my husband and I are going to sit for 4 hours and watch them at work and be able to ask questions. I found it interesting that they are now looking to update the program that can use texting or pictures to send to the dispatchers that might help them out. I also found it interesting that people use the computer to call in 911.
The jail food menu was Hamburger casserole, lettuce salad, hot apples, bun and cookies.

Citizen's Academy

You are probably asking what is this? Our county has offered what is called "Citizen's Academy" in which the Sheriff's Office offers for 10 weeks free a training about the office. Our county hires quite a few citizen's to help run the Sheriff's Office. I thought this sounded exciting so I asked my husband to see if he wanted to go and he did. We also get free food from the jail if we want to. The topics they will be talking about are
1.Administration
2.Communications(dispatching)
3. Support Services
4 DRE/Traffic Safety
5.Field Services
6. Media Relations/Internal Affairs /County Attorney
7. Firearms Special Unit (we get to shoot guns)
8. Investigations Drug Task Force
9. Jail
10 We Graduate

One of these classes we get to ride with the Sheriff car. I can't wait for that. Another class we get to drive the car. So stay tuned every week I will put something new up at what we learned in class.
This week we talked about Administration and how the Sheriff's office runs, what includes the budget, the history of the office, how many employees. Our Office has 82 employess and they hire 18 citizen's to help keep the budget down.
The menu for food was Chicken and rice casserole, bananas, orange slices, assorted cooked vegetables, cookies and brownies. We did eat there and I must say it was good.

Ring and a pendant

I took another jewelry class and made a pendant and ring. I was going to plan on selling the pendant but I liked it so much that I'm keeping it. The ring I planned on keeping already because I wanted to make one and it is my first. I'm pleased with it, but I did need quite a bit of help from my wonderful instructor. She is so patient in class and knows so much. I'm really thankful that she is around here. You will need to start looking in my store soon for some metalsmithing jewelry.

Mustache Birthday Cake

Oh, yes you read that title correct a mustache birthday cake. My son turned 13 this past Saturday and he wanted a mustache birthday cake. Is this funny or what. We have a friend who has been making his cakes since he was two, bless her. She does such a wonderful job. Just ask what he wants and she delivers. The cakes always look great and are so moist and yummy! All chocolate inside this one. I wish I could say I did this but I can't even come close!