In 1999, Billy was a senior and I (class of 2001) was a sophomore both at Bellevue East. Prom was around the corner and Billy’s mom insisted he go to his Senior Prom either with a group of his guy friends or take a date. Billy and I started to become good friends around the same time as Prom was. I might have helped Billy write his term paper for Ms. Whitworth’s Senior English class. At some point, Billy invited me to his house and I insisted on bringing my friend/cousin Paula with. When we pulled up to Billy’s house, Paula and I talked about a plan-if Billy’s house smelled, looked weird, or we didn’t feel safe; we needed a secret sign to use to “get the heck out of here” without saying it. (Billy and I still use this secret sign when we want to leave without saying it) LOL Needless to say, the secret sign wasn’t needed. 

A few weeks went by of building a wonderful friendship. With the help of a few girls (Traci and Leah) Billy decided to ask me to Prom. I agreed to go but ONLY AS FRIENDS. Prom was on May 8th. Billy borrowed his mom’s fancy Dodge Durango, picked me up, took me to dinner, and we had a wonderful time at Prom at the D.C. Centre. We continued to hang out during the Summer and then Billy asked me to be his girlfriend. I finally said yes after many hints. We stayed together for the remaining 2 years that I had left in high school. During those 2 years, Billy cheered me on at all my sporting events, drove me to school several times, sent me many flowers and had Ms. Jobes deliver them, wrote out Science vocabulary words to help me get some extra credit, and attended my 2 Proms as well. We were the best of friends. It got a little more serious after I graduated from Bellevue East. Billy would have loved to get married right after high school, however, I had other goals to accomplish first. I wanted to be a teacher. Billy proposed 7 years into our high school sweetheart relationship. I graduated from the University of Nebraska-Omaha and got hired as a teacher at Birchcrest in April of 2005. We got married in 2006 and are excited to celebrate our 20th Wedding Anniversary this year. Bellevue East will always be a special place for the both of us.

Where are we now? I am in my 21st year of education as an Instructional Coach with Bellevue Public Schools. I coach both boys and girls basketball at Logan Middle School. I am also the Youth Director for the Beast Youth Basketball program, which is a feeder program for Bellevue East. Billy is an Inventory Manager for Marking Refrigeration in Omaha. He also coaches Bruins 12u baseball and 3rd & 4th basketball for the Beast program. We have 3 amazing and active boys. Fierce (11th grade) and Blazek (9th grade) attend Bellevue East and Hendrix (6th grade) attends Wake Robin.