Kindergarten students at Laura Welch Bush Elementary celebrated their dads recently with a Father’s Day building project.
“Home Depot partnered with us for the second year to make a memorable experience for our students and their dads,” said Mindy Hostick, LWBE kindergarten teacher. “Our parents loved this activity.”
They worked on the project on May 30, a few days before school released for summer vacation
Vandegrift teacher Martin Wiedenmeier, standing next to his patent, patented his idea for testing heart valves when he worked as a biomedical engineer.
By ASHLEY CHASE, JENNIFER WALKER
Vandegrift Voice
Martin Wiedenmeier, who teaches Introduction to engineering design/aerospace engineering at Vandegrift, holds one patent, has another pending and has sought four other patents in his career.
He worked as an engineer for many years before he started teaching.
“I spent five years working for IBM in the semiconductor path, as a process development engineer, and then 10 years as a biomedical engineer,” Wiedenmeier said. “I liked the 10 years as a biomedical engineer because I was in research and it was something new and different every day; you never really knew what you were going to get into.”
Wiedenmeier spent his 10 years as a biomedical engineer working on making medical heart valves with a company in Austin before he decided to get into teaching.
“We got bought out,” Wiedenmeier said. “I basically didn’t want to move out of Austin. I got some job offers on the East Coast and in the Midwest but didn’t want to take any of those, so I decided to get into teaching.”
By SARAH DOOLITTLE
Four Points News
Mark and Carrie Kudela will soon open the Rock House Bar and Trailer Park near the intersection of RM 620 and RM 2222.
Rock House will feature a full bar and, “a limited menu inside with some salads, sandwiches, heavy hors d’oeuvres. So it’s completely different than (what the food trucks offer),” explained Mark. “We have Mighty Fine… Big Kahuna, Tika Express and then Gebby’s BBQ.”
Though the bar is still undergoing renovations, the food truck court is already open.
The Kudelas live in Steiner Ranch with two of their three children, Taber, 14 and Gabbi, 12. Their oldest, Tanner, 24, graduated from Texas A&M University and lives in Houston.
The couple bought the property in August, as soon as it came on the market. They have no previous restaurant experience but for years, they had been thinking of opening a “dive bar,” something that feels like a comfortable neighborhood bar where the whole family can hang out, they said.
“We’ll have some yard games… horseshoes, cornhole, some different stuff for people to do,” said Carrie. “We’ve always wanted to have a bar, something kind of casual. Shabby chic, that’s what we’re calling it.”
Mark and Carrie Kudela, of Steiner Ranch, are opening Rock House Bar and Trailer Park near the intersection of RM 620 and RM 2222. Already four food trucks are open at the new venue, and the family dog, Scout, enjoys the scene.
A western diamondback rattlesnake at the front door of Birjis Rashed of Steiner Ranch.
By LYNETTE HAALAND
Four Points News
A Steiner Ranch resident came home from work one recent afternoon and didn’t know she put her purse down inches away from a rattlesnake at her front door.
“I set my heavy purse down on the door mat and was just about unlocking the front door when I saw the snake coiled on the door mat right beside my purse,” said Birjis Rashed.
Rashed — a professor at Auguste Escoffier School of Culinary Arts, a blogger at Hot Sweet Spicy Recipes, and a mother of two daughters — freaked out, picked up her purse and ran inside through the garage door.
She announced to the others at home about the presence of the snake and not to open the front door. They ventured back slowly hoping the snake was gone, but finding it comfortable and still sitting by the front door.
Rashed — who hates and fears all sorts of reptiles, snakes and lizards — looked up the brown and white, diamond-marked snake to find out that it was in fact a western diamondback rattlesnake and that it was venomous.
Vandegrift High School had 538 graduating seniors in the class of 2017. Commencement ceremonies were held June 3 at 4 p.m. at the H-E-B Center in Cedar Park. The class is larger than last year’s class of 460 graduates.
Photos by Lela Coker, VHS Journalism & Leander ISD
