In 2021, Thea got a text from a very respected local musician, asking if she could play cello in the pit for a musical in February. Standard gig procedure communicates the amount of money you will make, the rehearsal schedule and the rehearsal venue. Thea accepted the job and subconsciously made the assumption it was a pit made up of professional musicians.

The first musical rehearsal rolled around, and Thea walked into rehearsal, surprised to find a group of high school musicians, warming up before the James and the Giant Peach musical rehearsal. She found her place and shortly thereafter the rehearsal began.

Throughout the musical practice, Thea noticed the choir director, Joey, impatiently pacing around while the students were singing through their number. Occasionally, he would yell "VOWELS," or "TALLER." Thea noted at the break, he passionately and emphatically spoke to the ensemble re-emphasizing what he had said earlier. Paul Elder, the ensemble director led Thea on a tour of the fine arts wing at the school and when he found out she was a choir director, made it a point to introduce her to Joey. After Paul introduced them and went back to the podium, Thea tried to continue the conversation with Joey, using the lame line that she agreed with him about the students needing taller vowels. In reality, she thought the kids sounded amazing and were extremely professional, but she was hoping to get some long term leverage out of her comment. Unfortunately, her comment fell flat because Joey looked at her, hair in his face, almost bewildered and politely grunted something that she couldn't fully understand.

About two weeks after the musical took place, Paul reached out to Thea about working at Eaton High School as Joey's assistant, because the current assistant had just put in her resignation. Thea jumped at the opportunity because she was looking at moving closer to where her boys were attending school. Over those two weeks, Joey had friend requested her on Facebook. Thea didn't know whether he was reaching out because he was interested in her or if he was reaching out to see if she would be a good candidate to work with.

The time for the interview finally came around and Thea interviewed as best she could, but she was nervous to interview with Joey. She was excited about the opportunity because it was aligning so beautifully with where she was wanting to relocate. But Thea had spent the past four years working as a high school assistant and thought she wanted to go back to middle school. Even though this wasn't exactly what she wanted, this opportunity seemed too perfect to not be the exact right path for her. She did think it would be hard to work with Joey since she thought he was pretty nice and cute.

The day that she got the call that she didn't get the job, she was devastated and scared. She had already resigned from her current school district to move closer to her boys. And now she had no job and no plan!

Over the next two months, Thea applied and interviewed in different places, including two more jobs in Northwest ISD. Finally, the third interview did the trick! Thea got a job working as the third assistant at the feeder middle school to Joey's school in late June.

The next start to the school year rolled around and Marie Yost organized an Eaton cluster party at her home. Thea was excited to work with Marie, who had welcomed her in so willingly into the group. That night was the first night she had ever gotten to spend time around Joey. After the party was over, Thea and Joey stood in Marie's driveway and talked for a while and realized how much they had in common. Over the next few weeks, they talked more and soon thereafter, Thea got to meet Jude and Hope. And soon after that, Joey got to meet Aaron and Ethan.

Joey and Thea were so excited start a relationship! But the one burning question in Thea's mind that she couldn't shake was, "why didn't he hire me to be his assistant?" She tried to not think about it or brush it aside for about a month. And finally, she couldn't stand it anymore! "Joey," she said one day kind of out of the blue, "if you like me so much, why didn't you hire me to be your assistant? I am a GOOD choir director and a SEASONED musician. In my 12 years of teaching, I have ALWAYS gotten a sweepstakes, and I just don't understand--" Joey interrupted. "Thea. I did want to hire you. I just knew I wanted to have a relationship with you more. And that meant that I couldn't hire you." And the rest was history! Now, Thea works at a middle school that feeds Joey's high school program. They get to see each other professionally on occasion AND they get to be in love and get married!