Friday, June 25

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.

Wednesday, June 23

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!

Friday, June 18

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!"

Thursday, June 17

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!

Thursday, June 10

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!

Wednesday, June 9

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!

Tuesday, June 8

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.


Friday, June 4

Fun Friday


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

Tuesday, June 1

Welcome to the World!


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