Goodbye, Lorna!

We’re so sad to see you go, but so excited for the road you are now traveling on! We will miss you so much, thanks for all the hugs!

Love,
Serenity Assisted Living

Welcome, Tyler!

On behalf of all of us here at Serenity, I’d like to introduce our newest team member! Tyler Gress is a recent Concordia College graduate who has been studying to become a doctor; and because of this interest he is now our newest PCA here at Serenity. He will be helping all of us with whatever daily needs we have – including friendly conversations!

Tyler is very excited to help out here, “Serenity will be an excellent way for me to get experience working with people who need my help. I’ll be going to medical school in the near future so this will be a great way to learn some things about my future career.”

So far Tyler’s favorite part of Serenity is the great conversations he has had with all the new people he has gotten to know (and Jake’s food)! He’s looking forward to playing bingo, being a chauffer, getting to know everyone a little better and all the other fun things that will come up on the way. So next time you drop by Serenity be sure to give Tyler a warm welcome!

Pictured above is Tyler opening his fortune cookie on a trip to a Chinese restaurant.

Where in the World?

Where in the World?! Denise Anderson from Serenity was spotted all over Scandinavia with her grandparents (Erling & Evonne Anderson).

They spent almost two weeks visiting the countryside and researching long lost relatives.

Relatives were found in both Norway and Sweden. The trio spent many hours looking at the headstones of lost relatives in cemetaries that were hundreds of years old, drinking pot after pot of coffee and feeling blessed to be able to go on such a journey in the first place!

Homeless and Hungry

I am writing to inform and invite you to participate in Homeless and Hungry! This is an event is a 30 hour fast where participants sleep in cardboard boxes overnight…all while praying, making blankets for the needy and collecting food and monetary donations for the homeless and hungry of the Fargo-Moorhead area. My brother, Richard, and I will be participating and hosting the event at Serenity. We will take care of everything.

Last year, there were over 1,000 participants and this year, Serenity Assisted Living is a host site for this event!! The overnight in the cardboard boxes will take place at Serenity. We are encouraging everyone and anyone to participate (young and old)!!

You can check out the link below for some more detailed information. If you are interested in participating or could pass this e-mail along to anyone you know who may be interested…please pass God’s word. Please ask if you have any questions at all. There are a few attachments to take a look at regarding the event as well. If you would like to participate, please fill out the survey for registration and get it back to me at Serenity and I can mail you more information.

Thank you for your support!!

Love,
Denise

Grandparents Day Picnic

Join us for lunch and games to kickoff National Assisted Living week and most of all, to celebrate Grandparents Day!

Please just bring yourselves and families…we will provide everything else! There will be a picnic lunch, games for ALL ages and entertainment.

Please R.S.V.P. by September 1st to Denise Anderson at Serenity. We hope to see you there!

Bird Crazy!

Next time you decide to stop by Serenity make sure to bring your binoculars! This summer we’ve made a lot of fun crafts for the birds such as birdbaths and our most recent project – Pinecone Birdfeeders. This afternoon a few of the ladies of Serenity decided it was the perfect day to get started on yet another of their exciting projects. We started by simply mixing a little vegetable shortening with corn meal and oatmeal to make the birdfeed and then we got our hands dirty by rubbing this mixture into the pinecones. Now all the birds around Serenity have food to eat, birdhouses to sleep in and birdbaths to clean up with. You could say that we just completed Serenity’s Bird Hotel!

Take a peek at these fun snapshots of our fun craft! Above is Claryce, Sandy and Henrietta who are all preparing their Pinecone Birdfeeders and to the right is a picture of Lois who is laughing at one of our jokes!

A Busy Afternoon

Here at Serenity it is important for us to keep busy; and did we ever have a busier day!? After lunch today we kicked off the afternoon with some old-fashioned tunes and sit-down dancing. It’s always fun for us to just relax with our friends and have a bit of fun getting a workout! And once we were finished with our dancing we decided to head to the kitchen to take a break; but Nathan was waiting for us with one of his projects.

We quickly started making Chubby Crayon Crafts which was a blast for all of us! First we found some old crayons, broke them into small pieces and then put all the different colored crayons into muffin pans. Then we melted the crayons in the oven and mixed the colors together once the crayons had turned into liquid. Once the crayons had hardened again we took them out of the pans and voila! Our Chubby Crayons were super colorful and fun! When we had finally finished the project we all took a well-deserved coffee break.

Take a peek at these pictures to see the good time we had. Above is a photo of Sandy, Bonnie and Gen getting the crafts prepared and below is a snapshot of Muriel, Henrietta and Lois who were waiting for the Chubby Crayons to melt.

Elvis is in the Building!

You won’t believe who visited Serenity this weekend! Elvis Presley stopped by for an exciting party complete with some of his favorite foods and best tunes. The King brought hamburgers complete with ice cream sundaes for dessert. Aside from a few other fun games there was even Elvis trivia to test our knowledge of Rock ‘n’ Roll! The whole dining room was decorated with fun Elvis paraphernalia including posters and guitars. We even had the chance to get our pictures taken with The King!

Take a look at these snapshots to see the fun we had! Pictured above is John who is rocking out with Elvis and to the right is Muriel who is trying her hand at the guitar!

Candy Bird Nests

Here at Serenity we enjoy bird watching. It’s a fun pastime to see those feathery creatures hopping around in the birdbaths or to watch them eat from our feeders. And today we decided it would be fun to make some “bird treats” for all of us to eat! This afternoon a few of the ladies at Serenity gathered in the kitchen to make Candy Bird Nests out of chocolate, crispy rice and yogurt covered raisins.

First we melted chocolate chips, added crispy rice and mixed these two ingredients to make a mess of chocolate! Then we carefully scooped some of the mixture into muffin trays to create our nests. And to top off the fun snack we added yogurt covered raisins that looked like bird eggs! It was a blast for all of us to step outside the box and make “bird treats” for ourselves!

Just take a look at these pictures to see all the fun we had! To the left is a picture of Claryce getting ready to make the bird nests and to the right is Sandy hard at work.

Congratulations, Maren!

Serenity has instilled a new rewards program for its staff this month. Our wonderful workers have been working hard towards perfect documentation in order to win a mystery gift card plunged in a small bucket of candy.

Our finalists for the month of July are:

- Leonie Borden

- Gretchen Christensen

- Emily Cole

- Renata Krull

- Maren Anderson

- Becky Sallberg

- Linda Wallace

And...the luck winner of a $50.00 Gift Certificate to Target is....

Maren Anderson!

Congratulations to ALL of our finalists on a wonderful month of perfect documentation! You all make us proud!!

Where in the World?

This month, a Serenity supporter has been spotted in Ityehoe, Germany. Brandon Horpedahl spent a month abroad in Germany. He is pictured in front of the school he attended while in Germany!

July Love

Fun With Beads!

Jewelry is always fun to wear, and today we discovered that it is even more fun to make! We started by making our very own beads out of craft foam clay. This was by far the most time consuming part of the whole craft, but we had a blast making the colorful beads! And we had a great time just chatting with all of our friends as we made the beads. Aside from the jokes, interesting conversations and just plain fun, we all loved the final products as well. We made bracelets, necklaces and key chains which can be seen all over Serenity!

Just take a look at these photos to get a better understanding of the fun we had. To the left is Leona who is making her first clay beads and to the right is Gen who is just rolling out her first bead!

Loco Daze Parade!

This morning we all got up bright and early, but not because we had to; we were just too excited to sleep anymore! Today almost all of us participated in Dilworth’s Loco Daze Parade. And we had one of the most fun floats of the day! We all rode in a horse-drawn wagon and threw out candy to all the kids who came to see the procession. Esther Hilger and a few of the boys even rode through the whole thing with Serenity’s scooters! And Abbie Moe was certainly treated with luxury as she rode in style with Richard in Serenity’s golf cart. A few of us even had the chance to ride in a 1930s classic. We also had a blast simply looking at all the other floats in the parade; there were a lot of neat ones there!

Just take a look at these photos to get a glimpse of all our parade fun! Pictured above is our horse-drawn wagon! There were a lot of us that rode on this float: (L – R in rows) Sandy, Maren, Claryce, Henrietta, Simone, Bonnie, Emily, Marilyn, Mary Joan and Elaine. To the left is a picture of the ones who rode scooters in the parade: (L – R) Nathan, John, Jake and Esther. To the right is Tim who is driving Lois, Muriel and Florence in the 1930s classic. Below is a photo of Abbie and Richard in Serenity’s golf cart.