We technically met when I joined his science class in 7th grade at Logan. I’d moved here after a short stay in Texas and a PCS from Germany in Oct 1981. He ignored me and I ignored him, but we were the only two people in our class to pass the heart quiz that year, so I remembered his name. In 8th grade we had several classes together and because of our last names and the use of alphabetical order, we sat next to each other in all of them.  I won’t complicate things with too much detail, but we drove each other crazy-and not in a good way (he was mean to me and we were ultra-competitive with each other). 

Fast forward to Junior year and back to having multiple classes together. We were not happy to see each other on day 1, but we took our assumed seats next to each other. The teacher (Mr Roger Kelly) told us to get up, we probably would not be sitting there and we both laughed. Butch told him to trust us. That began a year of the two of us sharing Chemistry & English together. He broke the ice by making me laugh while singing the “Ladybug Song” from Sesame Street. Seems he had a baby brother at home, so it was stuck in his head. We were chem lab partners and close friends by the end of the year, he even tutored me through stoichiometry. We got each other through the year (a very rough one for me)  and the major breakups with both our partners. Mr Kelly actually helped this by never moving our seats apart even though we talked constantly. He thought we were already dating. Eventually I decided I did want to be with him, not the random guys I was focused on. So I told him I liked him and asked him out, in a note of course. He thought about it for a few agonizing days. We still hung out like normal, but neither of us said a thing about the note. Then that Friday night he hunted me down on the strip (Galvin Rd for any newcomers). He caught me at the Burger King while I was looking for the next big party in town, and asked me to be his steady. He even got all dressed up, cut his hair & wore his fancy new varsity baseball jacket. He knew I was a sucker for baseball players. That was April 1st, 1986. 

We broke up a few times over the years, but always made our way back together. I started off my adult career in banking & finance, but switched careers in my mid-30’s.I am now working on my 20th year as a middle school science & history teacher at the place we first met-Logan Fontenelle. I have coached several sports in the district; track, football & girls wrestling. Butch (or CJ as he is professionally known) worked his way up from an assistant signalman as a summer intern to become the Director of Signal Maintenance at Union Pacific Railroad. He coached football at Bellevue East for 19 years until his job hours made it impossible to coach anymore. We have 2 grown children, Tommy & Colleen. Tommy (28) works at Lewis & Clark as a night custodian and Colleen (25) is the Activities Director at The Marquis Place of Elkhorn. Both are graduates of Bellevue East (and Mission) so we have covered all the secondary schools in BPS. We also have a dog, a bunny and a herd of cats. We still celebrate both our first date anniversary (38 years)  as well as our wedding anniversary (32 years). We’ve been through a lot over the years, but there no one I’d rather face it with then my #8.