The ABCs of Love: The Yenyos

Editor's Note: This is part three of a five-part series on the families and couples who make up Manassas Park City Schools.

Last spring break, Manassas Park High math teacher Curtis Yenyo stole away and eloped with the love of his life—another teacher.  And to think, his students probably thought they had interesting spring break stories.

His new bride, Michelle, was teaching in Manassas at the time, but has since joined her husband in the school divison as a fifth grade teacher at Manassas Park Elementary School.

“We kind of surprised everybody,” she said.

"We definitely surprised everybody,” he said.

The wedding was planned for last August, but the two decided it would be easier if they eloped.“We went to the courthouse got our papers and eloped,” he said. “It was nice for it to be just me and her. It was very personal; it was nice … I wouldn’t change it.” The couple is well on their way to having another exciting spring—Michelle is about eight months pregnant with their first child—due in the same month as their first anniversary.

She plans to have the baby and get right back to teaching and cheering on the high school track and cross-country teams her husband coaches. “I’m going to come back because I want to get my babies through SOLs (Standards of Learning testing) I want to make sure I’m holding their hand when they take those tests … as soon as the new baby’s travel ready—which will be like, three hours later—we’ll be in the stands,” she said, laughing.When she returns to school, Curtis will take the last few weeks of school off to be a stay-at-home dad.

It’s very apparent that the couple’s shared profession is heavily intertwined in their lives and even played a roll in their initial meeting.

When asked how they met, the two turned to each other and giggled.“I guess you can call it a,’ teacher outing,’” Curtis said. Michelle was out one night with her best friend, an MPES school teacher, and he was out with his then-roommate, a gym teacher at MPES. “There was a band that was playing. We were kind of out on the dance floor,” he said. “Screaming to each other,” she added.

As their relationship progressed, the couple said it took a lot of effort and planning to see each other around their hectic teaching schedules. “Being an adult it’s not like you have a high school relationship anymore, although I work at a high school,” he said. “You have no idea what you’re kind of getting into until you actually sit down and say, 'how is this going to fit my life?' I teach, I coach, I do afterschool remediation ... I ‘ve got to figure out when can I plan time for her. That was kind of one of my favorite parts of the day, to think about when can I meet with her.”

It was tough to make time for growing her relationship with Curtis while spending time with her son, Brandon, teaching her students and coaching junior varsity cheerleading in Manassas. “My days were spent in the elementary school, my nights were spent with Brandon and the cheerleaders or, without Brandon and the cheerleaders,” she said. “I remember times when Curtis would want to see me and I would say, ‘Well, if you want to see me, you get to come sit in the bleachers.”

But it’s also teaching that brings them closer together. “The job is so involved," she said. "The other person you’re with they have to be just as involved to understand it."

The couple spends their Sundays at home grading papers in different parts of the house. Curtis said he tries to sneak in a little football on the tube before relaxing with his wife the rest of the day. They like working in the same school division, because they both have summers and the exact same days off, so it’s easier to plan things, Curtis said.

Many of their coworkers like to pay compliments about one spouse to the other.I’ll be walking through the bus loop and they’ll say, ‘Oh I saw this great thing your husband did today’. It’s nice to get praise for the other person,” Michelle said.

And it’s also great to have a little time apart, the couple said. “I think it’s beneficial that we work in a different building,” Michelle said. "I mean, the job is stressful enough. So if we had to see each other all day long and then deal with each other at home, it might not be so great.  But on the other hand, with this kind of job you really have to have the understanding. It takes so much time and it’s really nice to have somebody who does the same thing.”