Steve and I live in a housing development in Surprise called Marley Park. You can Google search it - Marley Park Surprise - and it gives a little bit of an idea of the neighborhood. The Johnson's left their bikes for us to use and we have enjoyed exploring the different streets.
There are bike lanes on many of the roads. There is even a road has a bike lane AND a golf cart lane! I looked on the map and you really couldn't drive a golf cart on this road to a golf course - it is just for folks who don't want to drive their car, I guess. And I have seen a few folks doing this.
As residents of Marley Park (and because the Johnson's pay homeowner association dues), we can use the pools. Last Saturday, we decided to check them out.
Steve is enjoying the swimming pool and below is the lap pool.
the entrance to the pool area...
another view of the building just before the gate entrance. Residents can reserve the pool for private events. There is also a lovely clubhouse that also can be rented.
You can see by these photos that it is a really nice pool!
I think of some of the fellow senior missionary couples whose assignments have them serving in Ghana, Madagascar, or Chile that seem pretty exotic but I can't imagine their living quarters are even a fraction of how we are living. They likely have small rooms and maybe no air conditioning and they might even have to use a filter for their faucets. They wouldn't have a dishwasher or probably even a washer and dryer at their disposal. And here are Steve and I living in what feels like a luxury condominium on a two year vacation! It is sobering and humbling and makes me want to EARN the many blessings we have. Our "trials" are very few.
We had a strong windstorm Saturday evening and it blew down many trees and broke of lots of branches around town. This happened just two doors down...
We also got a very nice rain storm Sunday evening. Probably got an inch. This is the "monsoon" season here. Storms built up in the mountains up north and then come down from the east (NOT the west like storms do in Missouri) into the Phoenix valley. It has elevated the humidity level to ....oh, maybe 35%. Yeah..... nothing like Missouri right now.
Next time, I will give an extensive tour of the house....
35%! You're killing me, Smalls. Weeds have totally taken over all but the water meter garden and we are under a heat advisory for the rest of the week.
ReplyDeleteI wonder, do you think your trials seem less because you don't need the big ones as much? By comparison, I would probably get sent to a shack on the northern Canadian tundra!😸 Miss you!