The Life of Arlene Marshall

God Bless Abbie Moe

Abbie Moe dances with God in Heaven today...please say a warm prayer for her loved ones, that they all know her love for them all.

Potato Days | Stuff for Seniors

Potato Days | Stuff for Seniors

What I Learned at Serenity

WHAT I LEARNED AT SERENITY

When I started working at Serenity over a year ago, I was very excited for my position as a communications intern. Though I probably would never have admitted it then, I remember jumping up and down once I received the word that I had been chosen as a summer intern!

From the beginning, I learned a number of things about my future career interests and was able to use my education for real work experiences. It was great to work on projects such as the Dilworth Health Fair, especially because I was interested in event planning. I also enjoyed having numerous opportunities to work on various projects, especially writing blog and news articles. But my favorite part about working at Serenity has always been working with the individuals who live here.

It’s been an eye-opening experience to be welcomed into the lives of the elderly. I may not have realized it a year ago, but now I truly understand that I am not only a part of their lives—they are a major part of mine. They have shown me how some of the simple joys in life can make a bad day into an amazing one. I have learned so much from them that has helped me learn more about myself. They have helped me develop into the person I had always wanted to be, and shown me so much more about life than I had known before meeting them.

I have sincerely enjoyed my time at Serenity. Needless to say, it’s been an extraordinary adventure that has helped me develop into a well-rounded individual. Thank you, once again, for letting me become part of this wonderful organization. I sincerely appreciate everything Serenity has done for me!

~Nathan Ellering

Other Hat Club goes to Kroll's Diner

“A hat is a flag, a shield, a bit of armor, and the badge of femininity.

A hat is the difference between wearing clothes and wearing a costume; it’s the difference between being dressed and being dressed up; it’s the difference between looking adequate and looking your best.

A hat is to be stylish in, to glow under, to flirt beneath, to make all others seem jealous over, and to make all men feel masculine about. A piece of magic is a hat.”

~Martha Sliter



Some of the ladies and gentlemen met for another gathering of the ‘Other Hat Club’ at Kroll’s diner this month for a 50’s themed get-together.

Next month our ladies and gentlemen will be celebrating a garden theme in an actual garden at Roni’s house! She is opening her home to Serenity and hosting a fun evening around a fire where the flowers will be blooming and birds will be chirping!

June Slideshow

Orval M. Hurner

Orval M. Hurner, 79, Moorhead, MN, died on Monday, June 21, at MeritCare Palliative Care, Fargo, ND.
Orval was born on March 4, 1931, in Moorhead, MN, to Fred and Crystal (Mart) Hurner. He grew up on the family farm northwest of Glyndon, MN. He attended school in a one room schoolhouse in Morken Township, District 22 West, and then attended High School in Glyndon. As he was growing up he helped his parents farm and was very active in 4-H, winning many awards and trips on garden, grain and livestock projects. Trips included county, state, and national club congress in Chicago and Washington, DC. He also served as an adult leader for ten years.

In 1952, he enlisted in the Army and was stationed at Camp Carson Colorado, where he attended cook and bakers school. He was promoted to head cook for army officers mess. In 1954 he was sent overseas to serve in Korea, and was discharged in 1955. In 1956 he started work at the Fargo VA Hospital in dietetics food service for twenty years. He spent an additional ten years as chief of food production and service. He loved vacationing at his lake cabin and traveling the 48 states by car.

After retiring, he and his mother moved from the home farm to his 4 and 1/2 acre lot north of Moorhead. He enjoyed his lawn, flowers, trees and garden and turned a wheat field into a showplace. In the winter he made craft items, tracing leaves onto 1/2 inch oak and making plaques, shelves, and napkin holders and selling them at craft shows. In 1998 he began volunteering at Elim Care Center, where his mother was. He moved to a condominium in Moorhead in 2009, and in January 2010, moved to Serenity Assisted Living in Dilworth.

Orval was also a very active member of North Buffalo Lutheran Church, where he held many offices and loved to do quilting. Recently, Orval had been attending Maranatha Lutheran Church in Glyndon, with his brother Donald.

Mini Golf!

John has always been a golfer. If you ask him about the sport, he could tell you a number of stories of how he used to fly executives around the United States and when they were working, he’d be out golfing the day away. What a life!

That’s why I asked John and Mary Joan to go mini golfing today! After so many years, I could tell that John has always been an avid golfer. He hasn’t lost his touch! It was a blast to see John make the most outrageous putts; and all the while Mary was doing an awesome job, too.

As we continued our way through the course, I should have known better than to compete against John – he’s almost a pro! Needless to say, I lost again – just like last year. Maybe I should get some more practice in before next time!

Take a look at these photos of John and Mary’s putting adventure! Above is Mary and to the right is John who sank this putt for a birdie – which put him yet another point ahead of me!

God Bless, Orval Hurner!

Ladies in Red!

Ladies in Red!

Esther Hilger ventured home this month to celebrate her mom's 90th birthday...what a great looking group of women!

Welcome to the World!

Welcome to the World, Myka Grace!

Meet Esther Hilger's new great-niece, Myka! She has the most beautiful head of hair in the world! What a special "Tweet Heart!"

Fargo Marathon 2010

Serenity racers pushed ahead in the Fargo Marathon this year. There were several Serenity employees who participated, including Elaine and Denise Anderson, Reba Greer, Kristen Huselid, Marissa Strobel and Rachel Mjones.

Elaine, Denise and Reba participated in the 5k event and were greeted by Michele Scheuring with a sign that read, “Go Team Serenity Assisted Living! We are proud of you!” What a great way to keep them motivated!

Kristen and Marissa ran the marathon relay event with a few other friends. They did exceptionally well and finished the relay at 3:51:47. This is a great time!

Rachel ran the half marathon which is 13.1 kilometers. If that is not impressive enough, she did an amazing job and finished in 272nd place out of over 6,000 runners in her category! Her time was 1:39:21.

Take a peek at the photo above to see a bit of the marathon fun that happened this year. Pictured here is the 5k team getting amped before the big event!

Dilworth Health & Wellness Fair

Hip Hop Gramma

Stepping Stones

“Follow the yellow brick road!” Oops; I meant, “Follow the white stepping stones!” If you’ve lost your way to Serenity, hopefully you will find us now. Today we took the time to make personalized stepping stones!

We started by mixing plaster in a large bucket; then we poured it into individual pie tins. Once the plaster was poured, we personalized our very own stepping stones by writing our names in them and placing fun objects into the plaster. We had to act fast because the plaster dried very quickly, but it was a blast to see how everyone made their stepping stones. It was interesting to see how we showed our unique personalities through this fun project!

Take a look at these photos to see what we’ve been up to lately. Pictured above is Marilyn who just finished up her stepping stone, and to the right is a beaming Henrietta!

Fun with Jake!

Eating dessert is one of our favorite things to do; but today our master chef, Jake, took some time out of his day to help us make our own desserts! Though we love our sweets, Jake knows that there can be too much of a good thing; so he decided to help us make a healthier alternative to sugar-filled desserts. He helped us make Dessert Pizza.

First, Jake baked the pizza crust – it was made out of cookie dough! Once the crust was ready, we started working our magic to make some delicious Dessert Pizza. Jake carefully cut pizza slices out of the monster cookie he had made and told us to put the “pizza sauce” on the slices – but it wasn’t pizza sauce at all! We had made the sauce with yogurt.

Next we carefully selected pieces of our favorite fruits – blackberries, strawberries, raspberries, mango and grapes. We then made patterns and decorated our pizza slices as we saw fit. It was a blast to see how creative we could be with food – even though our mothers made sure we wouldn’t dare do something like this in her kitchen! It seems Jake is a little less strict….

After we finished decorating, we couldn’t wait to be done with supper so we could all enjoy our delicious Dessert Pizza! Not only was it a blast to make, it was also the tastiest treat of the day!

Tour de Cure for Diabetes

Tour de Cure Minneapolis...Denise Anderson's team raised close to $5,000 with the event itself raising close to over $200,000!! Denise rode in honor of her friend Quinn Nystrom and many others at Serenity with Diabetes. Tour de Cure Fargo is on June 19th when Denise will ride bike again for 32 miles.

Fun Friday

Take a peek at one of our Soulstice get-togethers. Exercising has never been more fun!

May 2010 Slideshow

Welcome to the World!

Welcome to the World, Calleigh!

Great-Grandpa, Hubert holds the newest addition to his family. Love at first sight.

Fun Friday

Check out this week's Fun Friday picture! Mary is having a blast at the tea party!

History of Memorial Day Video

History of Memorial Day Video — History.com#history-of-memorial-day#history-of-memorial-day

Fun Friday!

Enjoy our picture of the week! Above is Arlene Marshall who was caught playing lawn darts this afternoon.

Mother-Daughter Tea and Father-Son Toast

Today the Other Hat Club held its Mother-Daughter Tea and Father-Son Toast at Serenity! Roni, Michele and Marilyn hosted the event; and they did a terrific job! They served coffee, tea, brownies, cookies and so many other fun tea time treats – and let me tell you, the goodies were delicious!

Not a thing was missed – the tables were decorated with the neatest tea sets and fresh flowers. Even the men’s table was decorated with handkerchiefs and denim tablecloths!

Here’s the best part – it was a blast to see all of our relatives come for a visit! It’s always nice to give them a fun reason to come over and see what’s going on at Serenity!

Take a look at these pictures to see all of the fun we had at our Mother-Daughter Tea and Father-Son Toast. Pictured above is Simone who is enjoying the afternoon and to the right is a shot of the dining room.

Welcome to the World!

Welcome to the World,

Brooklyn Grubb!

Brooklyn is the granddaughter

to John Grubb!

She is certainly beautiful!

“Do You Believe In Magic?”

If we were skeptic before, we certainly all believe in magic after today’s events! This afternoon Magician Jeffrey Salveson paid us a visit and showed us a thing or two about magic.

There were many highlights of the performance, but one of the favorites was the fact that Magician Jeffrey Salveson actually had a rabbit, Sherman, which we all had a chance to pet! But once the show began we were all mesmerized by a number of different things – even the fact that Sherman could read minds!

The show was complete with rope and card tricks, and Magician Jeffrey Salveson even made water disappear! It’s a good thing or else he would have poured it all over Hubert’s head!

Bonnie was especially puzzled by the magic ring tricks. Take a look at the picture above at Bonnie as she tries to figure out how that ring could intersect with another.

After the show, Magician Jeffrey Salveson decided to make us a few fun things out of balloons. Take a look to the right at a very happy Flo and her balloon humming bird!

Hats, Hats, Hats

Despite common beliefs, hats can be worn for other reasons than to cover up a bad hair day! Today we took the time to decorate some beautiful hats especially for our Other Hat Club.

On May 18th Serenity is hosting a Mother-Daughter Tea or Father-Son Toast. Coffee, tea and other goodies will be served. As this is a celebration by the Other Hat Club, everyone is encouraged to wear their favorite hats – and we specifically made these hats with this event in mind!

Take a look at a couple of the fun hats we made today. Pictured above is Leona who is enjoying her creation. To the right is Arlene Tangen who had a blast making her new favorite hat!

Mother-Daughter Tea or Father-Son Toast

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

To celebrate Cinco de Mayo all of us here at Serenity decided to have a fiesta! But before we continue, let’s have another lesson.

Many people think that Cinco de Mayo is Mexico’s Independence Day, but it really commemorates the anniversary of the Battle of Puebla. After the Mexican-American war, Mexico was in major debt to France but had no money to repay the debts when France wanted them. Despite the Mexican president’s compromise to pay the debts back two years later, France invaded.

At this time France had one of the greatest armies in the world and wasn’t worried about being defeated in the least; the nearest country was the United States which was involved in its own civil war. France hoped to invade and rule Mexico with the main objective to halt the growth of the United States.

When the French decided to attack at Puebla, the French army numbered nearly 6,000 whereas the Mexican army only had approximately 4,000 makeshift soldiers (many were simple farmers who were not prepared with the proper equipment for such a battle). Due to the French general’s arrogance, the French army was ordered to attack at the Mexican army’s strongest point. The Mexican army used guerilla warfare tactics and defeated the French army in a major victory.

This story is what is celebrated on May 5th! And our fiesta today was a ton of fun. It was a blast to eat all the different Mexican style food that was prepared for the festive occasion. Take a look at these photos to get a glimpse of the tasty food we enjoyed today – pictured above is Texas Caviar and to the right is a Mexican flag dessert!

Piñata Lesson 101

Here at Serenity, we’re never too old for a history lesson; and it’s always fun to find a reason to celebrate. Tomorrow is May 5, but sometimes it is better known in Spanish – Cinco de Mayo! For the festive occasion we decided to make typical Mexican pieces of art – piñatas.

Though they are famous in Mexico now, piñatas did not originate from this country. These interesting artworks were probably first made in China and then spread through Europe. Once they reached Spain they gained popularity and the people there used them to celebrate religious holidays such as Lent.

In the 16th century, Spanish missionaries attempted to use piñatas to convert Mayans to their religion. As it turned out, the Mayans had a similar tradition in which they would take clubs and sticks and break large feather-covered pots filled with trinkets. These pots were suspended by a string in front of an image of a god. When the pots would break the trinkets would fall to the feet of the gods as an offering. The two cultures mixed together to form the types of piñatas that are famous in Mexico today.

Now that we’ve had our history lesson, take a look at the piñatas we made today! We started by blowing up balloons and mixing together flour and water to make a paste. Once this was done we took strips of newspaper, dunked them in the paste and wrapped them around the balloon.

Once the whole balloon was covered and left to dry for an entire day, we finished by paining them festive colors. Take a look at these pictures to see all the fun we had! Pictured above is Arlene Tangen who is working diligently to make her piñata. To the right is Alice who is also hard at work!

A Minnesotan Delight!

Living in Minnesota has taught us all a thing or two: winter is cold, the Twins are great, and hot dish is a delight! Yes, we Minnesotans stick together when it comes to hot dish (what is casserole, anyway?); and today Tim whipped up a delicious hot dish just for us! Take a look at this picture just to see the scrumptious meal we enjoyed today!

Happy Monday!

Happy Monday Everyone!

For a beginning of the week pick-me-up...check out this funny video!

Evening Stroll

Jackie Perkins & Elaine Anderson go out for

an evening stroll before all

this rain hit the valley.

The took the scooters off into the sunset!

Busy, Busy, Busy!

Chinese Taoist philosopher, Lao Tzu, said it best, “Doing nothing is better than being busy doing nothing.” And we’re sure that Mary Joan would agree! She’s been a busy helper lately, and even took the time to help set up the kitchen tables for supper tonight. Just take a peak at this picture of Mary helping dish out part of the meal!

April 2010 Slideshow

Exercising Outside

Girls Night Out!

It was 'Girls Night Out' on Wednesday...Dinner & a Movie!

The ladies started off at the West Acres movie theater to catch Nicholas Spark's newest movie, 'The Last Song.'

Needless to say, it was a wonderful movie...two thumbs up from all our attendees!

Next was a stop at Village Inn...mostly for the free dessert. If that doesn't say, Girls Night...I don't know what does!

Next trip on the calendar...the Casino!!

Where in the World?

Check out this group of Serenity Supporters spotted this weekend in Scottsdale, Arizona!

Sunday Concert

Arlen Anderson spent the afternoon serenading the ladies and gentlemen of Serenity.

He hosted a mini concert right in the dining room! Thanks for playing Arlen!

Here Fishy Fishy...

Michele Scheuring brought in some friends to live at Serenity. Be sure to visit Betty Prins and Hubert Asplin to say Hello to our new little friends!

March Slideshow

Soulstice Exercise Program

We’ve been having so much fun playing our yard games lately that we’ve decided to start an actual exercise program here at Serenity. Soulstice is an exercise program that involves doing simple exercises all while sitting in a chair. Participants move their arms in legs in simple exercises to help them gain and build muscles. We also do dances and play games. With more strength, we can do so much!

Soulstice participants meet three days a week, on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 4-4:30 p.m. in the formal dining room at Serenity. Once it starts getting nicer outside we hope to meet outdoors on occasion!

Take a look at these photos of our first meeting! Pictured above is Orval as he stretches his arms before playing one of our many games; and to the right is Arlene who is enjoying the new program (Bonnie is to the left in the background)!

Happy Birthday, Lois Seifert!

Not only is today Easter, but we are also celebrating Lois’ birthday! Lois went on a short trip with her family to celebrate in Fargo – they even had birthday cake instead of pie. Lois said, “I like pie even more than cake!” Lois’ family made her favorite – coconut meringue pie; m-m-m delicious!

Once Lois came home to Serenity we surprised her with a birthday cake, too! Let’s just say she had a busy day eating all her scrumptious birthday treats. Happy birthday, Lois!

Jenga!

John and Sandy were putting on the moves today - putting on the moves to carefully remove Jenga blocks! For those of you who may not know what Jenga is, it is a game in which the players remove blocks from the tower and place them on the peak of the tower. As you can guess, once many of the blocks are removed, the game gets rather difficult as the objective is to keep the tower standing. The two definitely had a blast trying to outwit each other!

Take a peak at these photos to see the moves John and Sandy made to win the game. Pictured above is John who is very carefully removing a block, and to the right is Sandy who is ready for the win!

Home Away From Home

It’s high time we finally acknowledged it, but join us in welcoming our volunteer, Orvin Tingum! Orvin visits Serenity nearly every day and enjoys visiting at coffee time. If he’s not enjoying a conversation with Sonny, you could almost certainly find him in Flo’s apartment – he is Flo's son! As we like to joke, and Orvin would agree, Serenity is his home away from home!

April Fools!

Today is a great day – if you’re a trickster! And all of us at Serenity discovered that the Serenity staff is full of tricky people.

Today we arrived at lunch and noticed bright yellow butcher block tablecloths on the table. We figured that it was spring now and that’s not too out of the ordinary. But then the staff squirted ketchup and mustard right on the table! What happened to plates?!

After this we were served a delicious meal of corn dogs and French fries – with no silverware. For dessert we were served dirt. Yes, we couldn’t believe it was dirt. After we summed up enough courage to at least try this concoction, we discovered that it was only pudding and crushed Oreos! What a meal!

Take a peek at this photo of Arlene as she tries to make out what was happening today at lunch!

Spring and Easter Crafts Galore

If you know us, you know one thing – we don’t just sit around! Lately we’ve been letting our spring fever set in – we’ve been busy making lots of spring and Easter crafts.

Earlier this month you could catch us decorating windsocks. It was fun to get out all the spring and summer colors! Though they’re not all outside yet, we’re waiting for the day when we can go out and sit in the summer breeze and watch our homemade windsocks fly!

We also had a blast catching up with our friends while making craft Easter bunnies. Actually, we did several Easter rabbit crafts this month to celebrate the season. With our first project, we decorated small bunny stuffed animals with tutus and flowers. We completed these by attaching wings to make them fairy bunnies! After these were done we decided to make candy holders for when the real Easter bunny would come to visit – take a look at Orval’s picture! In our third project, we took the time to make bunny table decorations. These Easter rabbits were complete with big feet and perky ears; and we used them to decorate our dining room throughout the season.

And what would Easter be without some old fashioned Easter eggs? This week we sat down and dyed a mess of hardboiled eggs every color under the sky. It was fun to remember how we used to dye eggs when we were kids and how things have changed since then – including fun stickers to make the dyed eggs look like monsters!

Take a peak at these photos to really get a glimpse of the fun we had throughout this month. In the topmost picture is Henrietta who is putting her fairy bunny together. To the right is Orval who is showing off his Easter bunny candy holder; and on the right is Muriel who is dying Easter eggs! Below is a picture of the Easter rabbit table decorations we made.