Arrival of Special Friends

Tuesday morning we were invited to celebrate the 59th wedding anniversary lunch for park neighbors, Marge and Alfred Johansen. It was at a nice restaurant on a golf course and we had an enjoyable time. People were particularly impressed with the personalized card I had made and printed on the computer.

Then shortly thereafter I stepped on the edge of one of the park walkways and severely sprained my ankle. It is now getting a little better but the bruising shows how bad it was. Our dear friends, Gene and Lynn Liljenquist arrived Tuesday afternoon for a month's stay. That evening we were treated to the talents of a young woman musician and vocalist who was born blind and with a severe cleft palate named Sarah Getto. She is very talented and we enjoyed her concert immensely. What is most remarkable is what she has accomplished in spite of severe handicaps. Much credit goes to her parents. She played the keyboard, fiddle and sang, doing very credible oldies renditions of Patsy Cline, Karen Carpenter, Anne Murray and others to the accompaniment of soundtracks she had previously recorded herself. You might check out more about her at www.sarahgetto.com.

During the week we have enjoyed the pool and spa several evenings along with movies and games. Dad found a web site that streams movies without commercials and we watched "Water for Elephants," The Help," and "Tangled." We especially enjoyed "Tangled." On Friday we visited the Mesa Market and even after seeing the huge flea market at Quartzsite, Gene and Lynn were amazed at the size and variety of this market. We only saw about half of it in two to three hours of browsing. On Saturday we had "lunch" at Costco as we browsed all the sampling stands and finished it off with an ice cream treat. It was a zoo! The place was huge and jam packed with shoppers. We thought it was just the Saturday before the Super Bowl but one of the associates said it was always this way on Saturday and if we thought it was crowded now we should stick around until 4 to 5 PM. In the afternoon we took the drive up North a ways to Fountain Hills and did the hike around the lake there where the man-made "geyser" shoots water up well over 300 feet for 15 minutes every hour in the center of the lake. It was a nice relaxing afternoon with even some atrists and authors showing and selling their work along the way near a playground with a couple of cute sculptures.



We finished the trip at sunset by driving to the upper end of Idaho Rd (where our park is located on the lower end) for some views of the valley and the beautiful desert scenery nearby.

Today our park neighbors, Bill and Carla Dodds are coming to visit our church meeting with us. We hope and pray they will be touched with the Spirit there.