Senior activities as the school year winds down...May 2011

It's May 2011 and it's crunch time...were quickly approaching finals, graduation, and summer school.  Often times it doesn't feel like you even have time to breathe!  Even with all the work related craziness, I think the thing that saved me was my commitment to bootcamp...at this point I was attending the 5-6am class five days a week at Bakersfield Fit and then I also tried to make it to Calvin's cross training class from 5:30-6:30ish a few nights a week.  As much as I hated waking up at 4:30 in the morning or arriving home at 7pm starving, they were a great stress release and ultimately made me feel better!  Back at school, we were planning end of the year celebrations and making constant calls home to remind parents of mandatory graduation events where they will be responsible to transport their students to and from.  Then the rush of having all final exams typed up at least a week early

because seniors take their tests early so that we teachers can get grades into the computer systems in time for the final clearance for the grad ceremony.  Amid all of that chaos, Kim Smith (my co-Deaf Ed. teacher in crime) decided that she wanted the seniors to paint the platform her dad recently built for her. 

You see, Kim is all of five foot and some change and often gets frustrated because in some of her larger classes the students in the back of the room have trouble seeing her.  In a standard classroom this wouldn't be such a big problem because the students can still hear the teacher but in our rooms this is not the case!  Our students are either Deaf or hard of hearing and actually do have to SEE us in order to "hear" us.  The signing space is primarily located in the torso area which for someone Kim's height puts her hands between 4 and 5 feet which isn't much above the head of a seated student.  So her father built her

about a 1 foot by 6 foot stage to put under her white board to teach from which she wanted brightened up!  This was a job for my 4th period art class...so we got to sketching.  Her rules were that it must be bright, must incorporate the school colors of green and blue, and because she is a girly girl it MUST have pink!!!  You be the judge, but I think we mastered it!  :)

A Pink Extension Cord!!!

Ahhh the joys of yard work...it's a tough job but somebody has to do it--oh, wait that's me!!!  It's a bit hard to think back to all the random things that happen in everyday life especially when I'm trying to do so nearly 6 months after the fact but according to my bragging text message that I'd sent to mom this all went down at the end of May 2011 too--like I said, May is busy!!!  I was diligently doing yard work, trying to keep up with the "Jones'" (who all but one have professional gardeners).  I'd already finished mowing both yards and weed-eating around the edges when I decided to go for broke and trim up all the bushes too (at least in the front yard)!  I began by going all "Edward Scissor-hands" on my coast live oak tree out by the sidewalk because that darn thing grows in crazy directions and needed some serious shaping!  Sadly, I'm no arborist and have NO idea how to properly prune such a tree so I got out a ladder, plugged in my Black & Decker Hedge-Hog and started chopping!!!  I finished when I was adequately satisfied with the tree's new proportions and then made my way over to one of my Robellinies (Date Palms).  This is where the mishap occurred, you see the date palms are still pretty low to the ground and they'd gotten pretty bushy through the spring season so I had to either be squatted down or hunched over to prune out the under layers and when I was about 1/2 way done my saw blade snagged my extension cord and gardening was over!  Lucky I wasn't electrocuted but slightly perturbed that I had to stop in the middle and leave a bush partially pruned to go to Lowe's to buy a new cord.  Imagine my surprise when I saw this beauty on the store shelves--PINK!!!  Not only was it a fabulous color, it boasted a beefy 14 gauge, 13 AMPs with a lighted receptacle PLUS it was the perfect length for my yard 80 feet (50 is not quite enough and 100 gives me too much, leaving me with a tangled mess)!!!   I know these things are abnormal to get excited about but when the job always falls to me these things matter!!!  :-)

Belated Easter with Carter...Sunday, May 8th, 2011

So Easter this year was slightly postponed due to the Grimes Family using Easter Break for a MAJOR road trip to Colorado!!!  They left immediately after work on Friday, April 15th in a car headed for Vegas and by Sunday they were well into their 2800 + mile road trip bound currently for St. George Utah.  Then on Monday they drove from St. George to Grand Junction Colorado to pick up Cara Spotts.  On Tuesday with Cara aboard they traveled from Grand Junction to Steamboat Springs.  On Wednesday they went from Steamboat Springs to Estes Park.  Thursday the road trip ventured from Estes Park to Denver Colorado and on Friday from Denver back toward Grand Junction with a quick stop in Golden CO where the Coors Brewing Company is located.  On Saturday after staying the night with Cara in Grand Junction they made their way toward California through St. George UT and Zion National Park.  By Easter Sunday, April 24th they finally arrived back to Bakersfield far to tired to celebrate Easter!  The Grimes family celebrated Easter on Monday because Sherry and Matt had the day off and everyone was feeling better after a good nights sleep in their own beds!  The rest of us were back to work on the 25th so Mom and I brought the Easter baskets we'd compiled for Carter over the following Sunday once things had gotten back to routine.  Carter seemed quite impressed with his loot surrounded by marshmallowy chocolate goodness--not bothered a bit that he belated date!  :-)

The super cute Cars apron and chefs hat featuring Lightning McQueen was given to me to pass along to Carter for Easter by Kacey McNew (a coworker/interpreter at HHS).  He seemed to like it too!!!  :)

Lifehouse Smoke & Mirrors Concert...May 4th, 2011

On Wednesday May 4th, 2011 Sherry and I went to a concert featuring Lifehouse, Daughtry, and Cavo at the Rabobank Arena.  She and I have liked Lifehouse since our college days in Fresno but the icing on the cake was that Chris Daughtry (former American Idol finalist and super cute rocker) was opening for them!!!  We'd never heard of Cavo (the first band that was opening in front of Daughtry) but we were pleasantly surprised with most of their music as well!  I'd have to say that Daughtry put on a equally entertaining show to

Lifehouse (if not better)...especially in the way of sound quality!  Lifehouse's

sound just seemed a bit off--still good, but not as great as we were expecting.  We also wished they threw in a few more oldies-but-goodies along with their new stuff that we weren't as familiar with!  Overall though, it was a good night!!!  :-) 

Yard work and sunburns...April 24th, 2011

The weather had been sunny and warm which leads to lots of outside time.  I was clearly wearing a sports bra under a strappy tank top for my all day marathon event of yard work and the aftermath was a very goofy shaped sunburn!!!  This sunburn took almost 2 weeks to fully snake up and peel off--so gross!!!  Part of the day involved pulling crabgrass for hours which gave me a nasty water blister on my index finger that I had to pop in order to get the water out!  Baylie on the other hand seemed quite satisfied with me being out in the back yard and able to play all day!!!  Sure wish I could teach the girls to eat the weeds then I wouldn't have as many to pull up!  :)

Classroom Upgrades...Spring Break...April 2011

Highland High School went through modernization a few years ago and most teachers were given brand new blue desk chairs...I actually opted out of the order because they really weren't very comfortable and my old hand-me-down chair was actually quite comfy--just a bit of an eye sore!!!  To be honest, I forget exactly when I decided to reupholster my chair but I'm pretty sure it was over my Easter break sometime after I'd run across the most PERFECT (albeit gaudy) plaid material!!! Highland's mascot is the

Scotsman and he dresses in a Royal Blue and Kelly Green plaid kilt and this material was IT...and at a low low clearance price of 70% off (which brought it down to less than $2.00 a yard) a downright steal!!!  For my

first reupholstered desk chair I gotta say it came out looking pretty good!  Thanks to mom giving me the idea to use the old material as the pattern because I was trying to decide how to measure everything out and was a bit

scared I'd get it all ripped apart and never be able to get it put back together again!  Admittedly there were a couple of humpty-dumpty touch and go  

moments where I had one stripped screw and a couple extra parts with no place for them to go, but with a bit of frustration and some creative thinking everything seemed to come together in the end!  Once I got it back to school a bunch of people wanted one just like it!  :) 

Wayne's Job Site...Cap Pour

Today’s pour!... My alarm went off at 1:20 AM.  Ouch.  We started pouring at 4 AM and finished at around 8:30.  It was just shy of 550 cubic yards. (3ft x 3ft x 3ft per cubic yard).  We had two 5” pumps running non-stop with two trucks dumping into each at a time.  By comparison --- Moe you had one 2” pump at your house with one truck dumping.  We had 32 guys involved between pouring, vibrating, managing cord, and directing trucks.  That doesn’t count office and superintendents. (40+)

Glad its done and nothing collapsed.

Crashing after.

Wayne Stonecipher
Project Engineer

cell: (510)502-1510
fax:(510)337-3808 

New Plaster in Mom's Pool!

There has been a few reoccurring rust stains that keep appearing in the bottom of the pool and it was getting so rough especially on the edges of the steps that the only solution was to re-plaster.  Most of the work was done from February 7-10 but due to rainy weather some of it had to be postponed and it was finally refilled on the 25th.  They were also able to fix/fill a couple of spots where the cement had lifted away from the tiles (thanks rogue tree roots) with a special grout--now you can hardly see the problem spots! Anyway, after the pool was drained I had gone over to see the progress...the sandblasting part had already been done. I was a bit afraid of what the dogs would do because they normally sprint to the back yard and immediately jump in the pool...I'm not sure they'd even notice the water wasn't there, so this day I kept them on leashes just in case! Once I led them down the steps I let them play around in the empty pool--I think they were rather confused about the whole thing! The worst part was that all this work kept the girls from being able to swim until spring break (April 2011) because after the new plaster was done it had to be submersed in the water to cure for over a month and I didn't dare risk claw marks in it! This made going to "Gramma's" house a challenge because they would stand at the door begging, barking and whimpering to go out to swim and we couldn't let them! O-well, they've been spoiled (admittedly) and they lived through it obviously! The pool looks brand new again and the steps are no longer pumice stones for feet and swimsuits! :)

My 32nd Birthday!!!

This year my birthday (February 6th) ironically fell on Super Bowl Sunday (ironic because it is my FAVORITE day--Insert LOTS of sarcasm here!)  :)  So anyway, Kim Smith took me out for birthday dinner and drinks at BJ's Brewery (thinking because it was a sports bar it might actually be full of guys watching the game--sadly it was rather disappointing for that)!  We had a fun night though...Angela Westbay was able to join us for a while as well as Sarah Porter...later Kim's sister Courtney and her husband Corey came by for a drink too!  We laughed and just enjoyed good company for a few hours--it was all I wanted--not too much fuss to honor another year of age--Blah!  The next day I was invited over to Sherry and Matt's house so that they and Carter could give me my birthday presents!  Carter helped unwrap everything--he's hilarious!!! At one point he threw a piece of wrapping at me so I of-course, threw it back at him and pegged him right in the forehead!  He laughed, grabbed his forehead and then pointed at me saying "MoeMoe" (announcing blame)!  The paper fight lasted a few throws and then it was back to the gifts! Thanks guys!   :-)