Just One Stop On the Blessing Train!

(I have started running again. And when you run, there is LOTS of time for your mind to wander. This is where my mind has wandered to lately.)

I have a truly blessed life. I have had a relatively easy life full of God's blessings. Yes, I have worked hard, but I am not naive enough to think that I have it rough. Let me share with you just one of those blessings. Bare with me...it a story now!

When I was in high school, I worked at a local grocery store named Randall's. Those of you from the Houston area may be familiar with it. When I went off to Texas A&M, I did not work my freshman year, but starting my sophomore year, I went to work at the Randall's in College Station.

While at work, a mom and her mother came through my line. The mom asked her mom, "How many hours is such-and-such (I do not remember the specific number) minutes?" Being the math minor, I quickly did the mental math and spoke up before her mother could answer. She thanked me and then asked me what my major was. I told her it was elementary education with a minor in math. She said, "You already have a job?" (which was obvious to the both of us.) I, in returned, asked her why she asked. She responded, "I hire elementary ed. students to babysit my kids." I went on to tell her that I would be interested in watching her kids if she so wished. We set up an interview. I went to there house, with the requested references, and met her 2 sweet girls. Margaret was 3 and Farrar was 5. They were dreams!

This lady's name is Tracy. She is an amazing lady who had her CPA's license, but was working on her CFP license through correspondence. I basically watched the girls while she studied. And then there was every Friday for date night. Her husband is Dr. Bob. They would go to dinner every Friday at 5:30 and be home early enough for me to still have plenty of time to go out that night. It was perfect!

Dr. Bob...for the first year and a half, he was the man who read the Wall Street Journal in the front room. He was an oceanography professor at Texas A&M AND he intimidated the fire out of me.

I never would have imagined that after one of those before mentioned date nights, my future would take a huge turn. The first time Dr. Bob ever really spoke to me, this is what he had to say:

Dr. Bob came home and asked if I would be interested in staying on after graduation to work with him on a NASA funded project. Now, before coming to Texas A&M, Dr. Bob worked for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory where he was the lead scientist working on a satellite. This satellite was name TOPEX/POSEIDON. Its job was to produce the first ever global maps of the ocean surface, which in turn gives scientists a map of the ocean's currents. (well, in my words...that's what it does. There is a much more scientific version, but I will spare you the details.). This had NEVER been possible before satellites. Prior to TOPEX/POSEIDON, scientist had to rely on buoys, tide gauges, boats, etc. All this to say, Dr. Bob is one smart cookie! See why I was intimidated. And now he wanted me to come work him?

He was a scientist who wanted to get all this real time data from the satellite into teachers hands for them to use in their classrooms. What a guy, huh? Anyway, I would work for him, while earning my Master's along the way. WOW! Of course I said yes...little did I know that the lady I would be working with was a Presidential Award (during the Clinton years) winning science teacher from Houston who was working on her Doctorate.

Here I am...little ole me working with a way smart Dr. science guy and an award winning veteran science teacher. Talk about marrying up... To show you just how amazing this man is, Dr. Bob heard that Margaret and I were having to get student loans, so he wrote our tuition and fees into the NASA grant. To accomplish Dr. Bob's goal, we decided to build a website. We named it Ocean World. Let me tell you, since its immature beginnings in 1998, Ocean World has come a long way!

When I say I have had a blessed life, I MEAN a blessed life...God is so good! Stay tuned for more blessings...I have a LOT of running to do getting ready for the big race in March.

I write all of this to tell you that we got a new computer. Well, not a brand new computer, but new to use. Dr. Bob has since retired and is now at home doing computer things. This is his 2 year old I-Mac that we bought so he could buy a bigger one! Yeah for us...just another one of the blessings his sweet family has brought me! (Yes Michelle, that is your blog up on my computer screen). Isn't it just pretty. I LOVE it!