Tender mercies

Well this is a post that I (Gary) have been wanting to write for the last week. Last Friday we went up to Flagstaff to meet with my Academic Advisor at NAU. We were going to go up there the next Friday, but my advisor was going to be out of town so we took a quick day trip up there to drop off some resumes for Angela and to check out our new duplex that we are going to be moving into. So I met with my advisor (who also happens to be the Department Chair) and we talked about which classes I should register for. He gave me some overrides so that I could get into certain classes this semester. Then I asked him for some suggestions for employment while attending NAU. I originally was planning on working as a TA or as a Research Assistant which often provides some good benefits like breaks on your tuition, stipends, and sometimes health insurance. I had talked to my advisor on the phone a couple weeks prior to meeting with him and he made it sound like the program that I am in doesn’t have too many TA or RA positions to offer since they don’t have as many research projects going on as schools like ASU. So they don’t have that kind of funding to offer their graduate students until their final years in the PhD program. So I was kind of nervous about how we were going to finance my education so I brought it up in my meeting with my advisor. This is where the Lord totally stepped in and blessed us. My advisor said that if I was looking for a job he could offer me a position as a TA. He told me that about three hours prior to our meeting one of his TA’s called him and said they couldn’t do it. By taking this position I would a get 70% tuition waiver and a $9000 a year stipend as well as full health coverage! The class that I would TA for would be two sections of EDS 101 (or basically Psychology 101). The professor responsible for these classes already has the class completely outlined with all of the material outlined along with all of the tests already written up. I would be the one who presents the material to the students. So that afternoon I ended up signing all of the paper and got the position secured! I feel so blessed. If we would have gone up there the next weekend the position surely would have been filled already. I really feel like the Lord is looking out for us.

Yeah! The bathroom is done!

So for those of you who don't know..we have been renovating our condo, pretty much from day one since we moved in. We've been fixing up the condo to sell, but we are so excited because we finished the bathroom this week. When I say we, I mean Gary. Our sad little bathroom has needed an update for about 20 years. And Gary did an awesome job. And I have to give a big thank-you to Bob Monroe for helping with plumbing! All in all, we were without a toilet for about a week and a half, which really wasn't so bad because both are parents were really sweet to let us stay with them in our gypsy state.

This first pic is the "before" view from the doorway. That toilet is probably 20 years old. It works. Barely. And the floor is a lovely 60s paisley pattern vinyl. We had already painted at this point and put in the cabinet and mirrors. Now these pics aren't the best because the bathroom is on the small side. But you get the point.

And here is the after....

And the sink/countertop before and after. Gary cut and placed all the granite tiles himself. He did a great job! Isn't the new sink cool?

Gary also put in some new white tile on the floor. It looks so crisp and clean. I also have to tell you how awesome Gary is because yesterday morning I woke up early to go to work. Let me back up, the night before this our shower became clogged and it was too late to get anyone over to fix it. So I was not looking forward to showering in the cold mucky water. So when I woke up the next morning I walked into the kitchen to get a drink of water and saw how disgusting our house was and there were boxes and tools everywhere. I became so stressed that I literally just had to say a little prayer that I could just get through the morning and off to work and not worry about the clean-up that was awaiting me at home. Well, I left to work and when I came home the house was completely clean. Completely. No boxes. No mess. Gary had installed the toilet, unclogged AND cleaned out the bathtub. I seriously almost started crying I was so happy. So Gary pretty much rules! Job well done.

Alaska Cruise

Well, we apologize for taking so long to post the pics from our Alaskan Cruise last week. We have been pretty busy catching up with everything. Angela was tired so she asked me (Gary) to post our pictures.

I apologize for posting so many pictures. There are just too many amazing photos to cut it down more.

Well, before getting on the cruise ship we spent a couple days in Anchorage on a “pre-tour.”

On our first day we went to the Alaskan Zoo. It was amazing! They let you get pretty close to some of the animals. The zoo had mostly animals native to Alaska.

This little Porcupine was so cute!

We also stopped by this cool family-run gold mine. They let you pan for gold and see all of the old tools used by the Alaskan miners.

Look how cute Angela is holding that baby duck.

We took a tram up a mountain and then ate at a restaurant at the top. What a view!

Driving up to our cruise ship. Oh, the excitement!

Look how beautiful the ship is!

Our first port of call, Sitka. There were so many eagles here, it was crazy.

I think we counted 13 eagles (the little white dots) in these trees. How many do you see?

This was an amazing pic (I can’t take credit for it. Troy took it). We got this eagle flying down and grabbing a fish. Our tour guide had never seen such good picture of an eagle in action.

The islands at Sitka are so beautiful. Angela fell in love with this city. She even said that she would want to live here for part of the year.

The food was soooooo good! We could not get enough of it.

Our next port of call was Juneau. We spent some time at the Mendenhall Glacier. The ice was so much more blue than I had envisioned.

This was an old chapel with an amazing view. Can you imagine going to Church with a view like that!

Our next port of call was Skagway. We took an old train up the mountain and enjoyed the view.

This video is funny. Brandon was standing outside of the train on the deck and decided to take a picture with his cell phone. Well he accidently dropped his phone off the side of the train. This is some of the employees on the train getting information so they could get it on the way back.

Brandon describing what happened.

This is one of the conductors preparing to jump off and get his phone. That was pretty nice of him considering the big drop off just a few feet away.

Going through a tunnel.

This is actually in Canada on the train ride. That frozen water actually goes down 60 to 100 feet!

Our next port of call was in Ketchikan. We took a sea excursion in this boat that has a bunch of glass windows below so you can see all of the marine life. We saw some huge Starfish and a bunch of big Jellyfish as well as some Kelp forests.

We went to the deck of the boat and got really close to some Bald Eagles.

Check out these amazing photos we got!

It started to rain quite a bit so we put on some rain ponchos in a hurry. Angela thought it was hilarious watching us Tenney boys squeeze our heads into the little holes the ponchos give you.

Angela thought this shirt was hilarious.

Well that is the gist of our trip. It was a blast. We recommend it to anyone. Angela did surprisingly well with the weather since she was pretty nervous about the cold. It was really sunny the whole trip. We got really lucky. They say that they get about 30 days of clear skies in the year and we ate up about 7 of them. The only day that it was cold and rainy was in Ketchikan. The days were pretty long. I think that the sun didn’t set until around 11:30 and rose around 4:30 in Anchorage.