Graduation

Today I checked my grades again to see if they had finally been posted and sure enough they were all on there. What this means: I AM DONE!!!!!! :) :) :) :) :) Hip Hip Hooray! I am a bachelor now, according to Sherie! I decided not to walk mainly because I would have to do it in the spring and I just really don't care - all I care about it that I am done. I think the most exciting news besides being done is I made it onto the Deans List for my good grades. I had no idea....the funny thing is I had made it on there before last summer and didn't even know it. The semesters I took the most credit hours, the better my grades were. Which means I must have done pretty good this year since the spring I took 18 credits, Summer I took 19 (word of advice: NEVER do this in the summer), and this Fall I took 15 credits. As you can tell, I wanted to be done as fast as possible.

Now it is time to finish patting myself on the back and face the future....which I have no idea what direction to point myself in. I have begun applying to join the Peace Corps and am getting more excited of this being a future possibility as I apply, but even more of a sinking nervous feeling along with it...until today. I was watching TV - something I never do, when a commercial came on for one of the local tiny colleges: Stevens Henniger College. Their ad started off with a person sitting on their couch holding a remote (exactly what I was doing) and the voice of the commercial said: "Do you want to be like this for the rest of your life?" (or something like that) and continued by saying, "Then call this number now to find out how you can earn more money and have better job potential" (Which is a bunch of bologna if you are going to go to school at a place like that). But something about this commercial I am making fun of made me think, "If I don't join the peace corp or do something with my life, I'll be that girl sitting on the couch, bumming around watching TV because I am depressed about my life and not having a job or direction" :) okay so that sounds a little exaggerated, but you get the point. So, feeling all inspired, I got online and read up on the peace corp and that worried, nervous feeling is beginning to go away. Since it takes about a year to apply, I think I will have plenty of time to continue to work on getting rid of that feeling all together.

So after reading this post, now it's your turn to decide: please make a comment and state what you think Serena should do with her life! (really, if this peace corp thing doesn't work out I would like some ideas).

Tuttle, North Dakota

I was blog surfing today and stumbled upon this fancy little website: http://www.tuttlend.com/index.html I couldn't believe my eyes. Here I thought the town I grew up in was turning into a ghost town with it's shrinking size, I'm pretty sure the population is below 100 now. I had no idea that it had a website and was living strong :) It was great to see pictures of home again and hear the latest news from everyone and be reminded of my years of growing up in such a special place. I wouldn't have traded those experiences for something different. I am who I am today partly because of Tuttle and I miss it.

To my friends who have always lived in a big city or who have heard a lot about Tuttle and always wanted to see it, check out the website...at least look at the pictures. Enjoy!

Merry Christmas Everyone! Thank you all so much for your letters and presents and most of all your friendship! I am grateful for my family and miss my Mommy and Daddy and little bro so much and am homesick to have a Christmas like when I was little. I wish I could be with Grandma and all of my relatives tomorrow in North Dakota. Lastly, I am thankful for the Lord and the blessings he has filled my life with and most of all the opportunity to return to him because of his life and sacrafices. I love him! and I love all of you too. Merry Christmas!!!!!!!

10 MILLION bonus points if you guess the movie and who said this:

"Over there in that pigpen, I found a couple of Shoshoni arrowheads."

Impossible Dream - Brian Stokes Mitchell

If any of you ever come out to Utah during the Holiday Season, you will be missing out if you don't go to the Mormon Tabernacle Christmas Concert. The concert takes place every year and there is always a special guest singer. Occasionally there is a speacial guest in addition to the singer who has an amazing speaking voice who will read a christmas story accompanied to music. This year the guest singer is Brian Stokes Mitchell and the guest speaker/reader is actor Edward Herrmann. In addition, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir sings with the Orchestra on Temple Square and lately with the Bells on Temple Square, a new favorite of mine. They are having 80 additional bell ringers joining the Bells on Temple Square this year and i'm dying to go. The music makes the hair on my arms stand up and is so beautiful. I looked up Briam Mitchell to see what his voice sounded like and how it would sound with the choir. I was lucky to stumble across this song, where he is already singing with them. Now I am in love with this song. I never considered how this sing related to Christ - I don't know anything about Man from La Mancha, the story or why they sing this song in the play/movie, but the words are so meaningful to me - if I could pick a theme song for what I wish I could do in my life, this would be it for sure. My favorite line in relation to christmas is, "This is my quest, to follow that star, no matter how hopeless, no matter how far" - I pray that as the Wise Men followed the star that lead to the baby Jesus, that we will consider how to follow the light of Christ in each day of our lives and to make that our quest!

Sweat Lodge

This is a picture of a place similar to where I was on saturday morning. Working with juveniledelinquents, we participate in a lot of activities that allow the kids to release anger, gain coping skills and properly communicate. We take them to a sweat lodge once a month. This was my first time being able to go. I was a little nervous since I didn't know what to expect. I imagined my contacts melting to my eyeballs, my skin dripping off my body and having some weird experience. Knowing it would probably last for about 2 hours didn't help either - I thought for sure it was impossible to spend so much time in a room that was so short you couldn't even stand, crammed in there with about 30 other people and glowing red hot rocks.

We started by meeting in a teepe and talking about what to expect and stating our purpose for entering the sweat lodge. Many stated things like peace, happiness, understanding, comfort, and why we wanted these things. We entered the sweat lodge and the ceremony began. I was amazed by the things I was able to hear the kids express - kids who struggle in communicating without a fight beginning and swear words involved - being able to express in clarity the emotions they were dealing with, where they were coming from and find peace and forgiveness. There were four stages to the ceremony with different topics. The first topic was about women, second about men, then ancestors, and last was forgiveness.

While inside, it is completely dark inside - the only thing you can see are the red hot rocks. As the water is put on them the whole room is filled with steam. Black licorice, cedar, bear root and other things were used on the stones as part of the ceremony and represented different things. One of the greatest parts of the "sweat" was while discussing the last topic, forgiveness. I laid down for most of the "sweat", since heat rises, it was cooler on the floor. I had my leg bent so my toes wouldn't end up resting and burning themselves on the rocks and had one leg crossed over the other. During this last part the leader intensified the heat to the point where I couldn't stand having my leg crossed anymore since my big toe (the part of my body the was highest up in the air) felt like it was about to melt off my body. He had all of us sit up so that we could feel the intensity of the heat. As we felt the heat - and believe me, we felt it! - he told the kids: now when you are out on the street and one of your friends says to you, "here, do this..." (drugs, bad things, etc...) remind yourself of the intense heat you are feeling right now - don't put yourself in those situations again. So.....typing that out it doesn't really seem to make sense, but it makes sense to me - I guess if you want to understand, you can go to a sweat lodge yourself, which I would recommend. Preferrably go to a clothed sweat (not all of them will let you wear your clothes).

Crystal Gayle

So I realize that some of you are offended that it's been a while since i've blogged. Well, the reason is because.....i'm so amazed by this video! So I posted it for you, so you have some entertainment to turn to until I make a real post! :)

Cozumel!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After a long drive to Ft.Collins, Colorado, then to the Denver Airport, with no sleep at all, my friend Rachel Bomsta and I arrived safe and sound in Cozumel, Mexico!!!! This has now become one of my favorite places on earth. We stayed at a place called the Iberostar on the southwest part of the island for five days (it was not long enough). I had a lot of fun before leaving for the trip spending hours on the internet finding out as much as I could about the island and how to do things for a good deal (or at least a reasonable price). After doing that we realized that there were incredibly cheap ways to enjoy the area and see the sites. Upon arriving, we attended a required meeting that was basically a sales pitch to get us to go on the most rediculiously expensive trips to the different sites, we just had to laugh knowing that the trip could actually be done for three times less than what they were offering. If anybody wants some very informative travel information check out tripadvisor.com - I found so many details on things to do, what to bring, what not to do, etc...there are a lot of things we would have missed out on or wasted our time with had we not realized it beforehand. The resort was amazing and had the best desserts - I was in heaven. It was right along the ocean and the staff was amazing, they would do a backflip for you if you asked them to.

This is the view of the resort from the dock.
The rooms were great, with a bungalow style to them. They gave us a room on a second level, which allowed us to have a deck, patio chairs and a hammock.
If you were there to be a beach bum, you had pleanty of opportunities to do it at the resort (we never gave ourselves time to bum around though since we wanted to see the sites more).
A view from the pool.

Each day we had a new towel animal waiting for us, from the swan, to a rabbit or even an elephant. The swan was my favorite. I was very impressed with how clean everything was, at the resort, on the coast, or in the city - Cozumel is very well taken care of. I read that on the island there is only a 1% crime rate, which was nice knowing that I didn't have to worry about watching my back while on vacation and the people were amazing.

Emergency First Aid

This past week I took a 4 credit Emergency First Aid class. It was Monday through Saturday from 8:00 to 5:00. It was a lot of fun and I am grateful to know the things I learned. The most important information was CPR training and knowing exactly (for the most part) what to do and how to handle an emergency until an ambulance arrives. My last assignment is to turn in a First Aid kit loaded with all of the essentials. What would you recommend as a "must" in a first aid kit, or something that you have found handy for yours?

No, a NEW one!!!!!!!!!!

My prayers were answered and the insurance company totaled out my car! I was so worried that I would have to spend millions of dollars to repair the damage done from the deer (yes, it does cost millions to repair a car if you were wondering). So I got a new car and of course, it's another Toyota Corolla! I guess I like them a lot! They get amazing gas mileage and cover all my needs. I thought about getting a natural gas vehicle since gas is getting so expensive, but couldn't find a dual-tank, which is what I wanted. I also decided against a hybrid since they will just end up being a big dead battery when they stop running and it sort of defeats the purpose of trying to be nice to the planet.

More Pictures of Stuart coming home!

Welcome Home Stuart!!!!!

My brother Stuart (Elder Danielson) returned home last night at 11:30 from his two year mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Carlsbad, California. It is great to see him and see the changes in him as well. He seems so different, but he is still the same old Stuart. Thank you, Stuart, for the dedicated service you have given in these past two years to the Lord, and his work!



Notice his home-made camouflage tie!

The Deer won't have the guts to do this again! (Literally)

There have been some requests made to post more pictures of the car. Here they are:

The Deer Died

My brother Stuart is coming home from his two year mission tomorrow from Carlsbad, California. My sister Heidi, nephew Ethan and I decided it would be a great idea to leave for North Dakota today as a suprise to our parents and brother. We were 2 1/2 hours away from our destination when we hit a deer!!!!! We are all safe and were are thankful for the great help we have received in Glendive, Montana. We feel we are definitely being watched over in many ways and are so thankful for it. This is the only picture I was able to get tonight and will get more in the morning.

Happy Mothers Day

I thought this was a good way to show that it can sometimes be hard to get mom just the right thing for Mothers Day!

Stagnant Pond Water: that's my drinking water!!!! :(

Here is a news article from the local news here in Utah. It was a relief for me to find. The story begins when I noticed on saturday that the water stunk - really bad. Then I took a drink and spit it out. I told my roommate about it - she couldn't tell a difference in how the water tasted. So I figured I was just crazy (lots of people do anyway :) and I went on my merry little way. After that I noticed the smell of the water was the new scent in the house each time we showered or ran the dishwasher. But I still thought I was crazy until my friends tried it and spit it out too. That's when we found this article in the newspaper. Apparently the water is still safe to drink but who would want to when it tastes so bad. Do you think we should be drinking this?

Davis County water may taste bad, but it's OK to drink
April 8th, 2008 @ 12:48pm
Marc Giauque reporting
It was bad this weekend, and water officials say some people living in Davis County may taste the after affects of an algae bloom in their drinking water for a couple of weeks.
People from Bountiful to Kaysville tasted and smelled it. "I thought that it was the mug, I thought it was dirty. I washed it three times. I tried different watter bottles, and I couldn't drink it. And I was worried because I use it for cooking, I use it for everything, and it just tasted awful," Davis County resident Scoti Lang said.
Lang described the taste as "chemical-ish." Others say it tasted and smelled like a stagnant pond.
Turns out the Weber Basin Water District says it was due to an unusually early algae bloom on the Weber River. It peaked over the weekend, prompting complaints to water companies in numerous cities.
Water officials say the stuff was always safe to drink, just not necessarily so tasty. Weber Basin says its addressing the problem, but a bit of the taste could linger in some areas for the next couple of weeks.

April Fools from the Museum of Hoaxes

I saw this article on MSN - Top 10 April Fools Day Hoaxes. I was feeling sad that I had forgotten till the end of the day about pulling a prank. So I thought this article woule be something funny I could share with my roommate Tammy while she was still at work at 11:00pm. I thought that was the end of the April Fooling around. But for some reason she gave me a lot of good ideas on ways to fool people. So I decided that since she wasn't home yet and 11:30pm still gave me 30 minutes before April Fools was over - so I took her ideas and used them - we'll see how they go. But for now, enjoy the fun article. My favorite so far is a decrease in earth's gravity. Enjoy!

Hoax #10 - Planetary Alignment Decreases Gravity
In April 1976 the British astronomer Patrick Moore announced on BBC Radio 2 that at 9:47 a.m. a once-in-a-lifetime astronomical event would occur that listeners could experience in their very own homes. The planet Pluto would pass behind Jupiter, temporarily causing a gravitational alignment that would counteract and reduce the Earth's gravity. Moore told his listeners that if they jumped in the air at the exact moment that this planetary alignment occurred, they would experience a strange floating sensation. When 9:47 a.m. arrived, BBC2 received hundreds of phone calls from listeners claiming to have felt the sensation. One woman even reported that she and her 11 friends had risen from their chairs and floated around the room.

Hoax #9 - Hotheaded Naked Ice Borers
The April 1995 issue of Discover magazine announced that wildlife biologist Dr. Aprile Pazzo had discovered a new species in Antarctica: the hotheaded naked ice borer. They had heads with bony plates that became burning hot due to overactive blood vessels. These creatures could bore through ice at high speeds and hunt penguins by melting ice and causing them to sink into the slush and the hotheads' mouths. Dr. Pazzo also credited the hotheads with the 1837 disappearance of Antarctic explorer Philippe Poisson. "To the ice borers, he would have looked like a penguin," she was quoted as saying. Discover received more mail about this article than any other in their history. It was, of course, a joke. And "Pazzo" is Italian for "crazy." — from Museum of Hoaxes

Hoax #8 - The Left-Handed Whopper
In April 1998, Burger King published a full-page advertisement in USA Today that introduced a new menu item: a left-handed Whopper, designed for the 32 million left-handed Americans. According to the ad, the new Whopper had the same ingredients as the original (lettuce, tomato, hamburger patty, etc.), but all the condiments were rotated 180 degrees for the benefit of their left-handed customers. The following day Burger King issued a press release that said the left-handed Whopper was a hoax, and that thousands of customers had gone into restaurants to request the new sandwich. At the same time, the release stated, "many others requested their own 'right-handed' version."

Hoax #7 - Alabama Changes the Value of Pi
An article in the April 1998 issue of the New Mexicans for Science and Reason said that the Alabama state legislature voted to change the value of the mathematical constant pi from 3.14159 to the "biblical value" of 3.0. Before long, the article was being e-mailed around the world. The extent of the news leakage became apparent when the Alabama legislature began receiving hundreds of calls from people protesting the legislation. The original article was intended as a parody of legislative attempts to circumscribe the teaching of evolution, and written by a physicist named Mark Boslough.

Hoax #6 - Nixon for President
In April 1992, National Public Radio's "Talk of the Nation" announced that Richard Nixon, in a surprise move, was running for president again. His new campaign slogan was: "I didn't do anything wrong, and I won't do it again." Accompanying this announcement were audio clips of Nixon delivering his candidacy speech. Listeners responded to the announcement by flooding the show with calls expressing shock and outrage. In the second half of the show host John Hockenberry finally admitted the announcement was a practical joke. Nixon's voice was impersonated by comedian Rich Little.

Hoax #5 - The San Serriffe Islands
In April 1977 the British newspaper the Guardian published a special supplement devoted to San Serriffe, a small republic located in the Indian Ocean. The articles described it as several semi-colon-shaped islands, with two main islands named Upper Caisse and Lower Caisse and a capital, Bodoni. The country's leader was Gen. Pica. The Guardian was soon fielding calls from readers seeking more information about this holiday spot. Few people noticed that the entire San Serriffe republic was named after printing terminology. The success of this hoax is credited with launching Britain's enthusiasm for April Foolery, which has filled the nation's tabloids ever since.

Hoax #4 - The Taco Liberty Bell
In April 1996 the Taco Bell Corp. announced it had bought the Liberty Bell and had renamed it the Taco Liberty Bell. Hundreds of outraged citizens called Philadelphia's National Historic Park to express their anger. Their nerves were calmed when Taco Bell revealed it was all a practical joke. However, the best line of the day came from White House press secretary Mike McCurry, who, when asked about the sale, announced that the Lincoln Memorial had also been sold. McCurry said it would now be known as the Ford Lincoln Mercury Memorial.

Hoax #3 - Instant Color TV
In April 1962 Sweden had only one TV channel, and it broadcast in black and white. The station's technical expert, Kjell Stensson, appeared on the news to announce that, thanks to a new technology, viewers could convert their existing sets to display color reception. All they had to do was pull a nylon stocking over their TV screen. Stensson proceeded to demonstrate the process and thousands of people were fooled. Eventually, Sweden did get regular color broadcasts, but not until April 1, 1970.

Hoax #2 - Sidd Finch
The April 1985 edition of Sports Illustrated published a story about the Mets' new rookie pitcher named Sidd Finch. He could reportedly throw a baseball with pinpoint accuracy at 168 mph (65 mph faster than anyone else). Surprisingly, Finch had never played the game before. Instead, he had mastered the "art of the pitch" in a Tibetan monastery under the guidance of the "great poet-saint Lama Milaraspa." Mets fans everywhere celebrated their team's amazing luck at having found such a gifted player, and Sports Illustrated was flooded with requests for more information. But in reality: This legendary player existed only in the imagination of the article's writer, George Plimpton.

Hoax #1 - The Swiss Spaghetti Harvest

In April 1957 the BBC TV news show "Panorama" announced that, thanks to a very mild winter and the virtual elimination of the dreaded spaghetti weevil, Swiss farmers were enjoying a bumper spaghetti crop. The report showed footage of Swiss peasants pulling strands of spaghetti from trees. Huge numbers of viewers called the BBC wanting to know how they could grow their own spaghetti tree. The BBC diplomatically replied: "Place a sprig of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce and hope for the best."

Johnny

I thought this was a great video - I always know I want to do things like this, so it's nice to be reminded. http://www.stservicemovie.com/

My Beloved North Dakota

Here is yet another video for you enjoyment - again about the great state of North Dakota where I was born and raised. It talks about the person of the week - which is the entire state of North Dakota!

Mario Movie

Not that any of you might be interested - but I wanted to post this so that I at least have a easy way of finding this. This is an amazing movie that my Family Home Evening group produced when I was living in Provo, UT. So it was awhile ago, but we had a lot of fun putting it together. If you look real hard at the end you will see me :)

Funny Commercial - It's the best!

Beaner Baker

You are all invited to visit my new blog: Beaner Baker (http://beanerbaker.blogspot.com/) I love cooking and talking about food and learning new things myself - so I wanted to share what I know with all of you in hopes of you gaining something new, finding a new recipe you may like, or getting feedback from you on things that you know. Hope you Enjoy!

The Three C's

Susan Kobasa is a psychologist who observed groups of people going through the same life situations - some thought their situation was horrible and life became horrible because of those things, others would find their greatest life successes from going through the same situation. What made these people different was that they had the following three qualities. I've seen this in a lot of you, even my own family members. I admire it and am excited to practice it now with more awareness in my own life. (each of them starts with a C, so it's easy to remember)

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1) Control - realize what you can and cannot control - you can't always control your circumstances, you can never control others (even your own kids or spouse or roommates), you can't control what goes on in the world - the only thing you can control is yourself and if you are making a positive impact.

2) Commitment - you are involved in your own life, not a spectator waiting for something to happen.

3) Challenge - make lemonade with rotten lemons - consider that the things appearing to be stumbling blocks in your life can (with a change of attitude) be stepping stones. (I think this is what it means to become stronger because of your weaknesses).

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This is Susan Kobasa's definition of Hardiness - the three C's. I learned about this in my stress management class and the following was an activity our teacher had us do =>


Make five personal life goals, but they must be things you have control over - this can help you realize what you really have the potential to do in your life and the changes you can make.


Next, write down five things that you are grateful to have experienced in the last 24 hours - this gratitude leads to Hardiness.

Beautiful North Dakota

This is my tourist promotion post for Nort Dakota - I really love having grown up here and love the Great Plains! Here are a few pictures I caught while I was home and was able to get quite a few while driving on the highway on our way back to Utah. Enjoy! This is the town of New Salem. The had some funds that the town wanted to use for the community, their options of how to put the money to use were to either build a public swimming pool, or a statue of a cow - they decided on the cow! They have lovingly called her Salem Sue and it's a highlight when you drive by on the highway.

Christmas in North Dakota

For Christmas, my brother Jesse and I drove home to North Dakota. We had a lot of fun staying at our parents apartment in Mandan, driving home to the old farm house in Tuttle and visiting with family and friends. My trumpet has been missing for years and my mom was very happy to find it for me, so now I have a trumpet (but no mouth piece). So maybe you will see me soon playing for a hot rock trumpet band (but don't count on getting an autograph). :) I hope you all had a great christmas and appreciate so much the chance to hear from so many of you.
Grandma Hazel Hagel - my dads mom - we had dinner with her christmas day.
After dinner Roger and Norene Sandberg came to visit with all of us, it was fun to hear all of their jokes and travel stories.
Norene is one of my dad's older sisters.
The day before we came home we were able to spend time with our Uncle Johnny Patterson, my mom's younger brother. It was fun to visit with him, hear how he is doing, and see the projects he has done around his home. He LOVES to remodel.
After visiting with Johnny, we went to visit the Riskedahls. This is Linda getting caught by the camera. They are my second parents. We are very close friends with them and all of their kids. Grandpa Geitzen, Linda's father, was my Santa Clause growing up - he would dress up and I had no idea it was him, until he would give me a kiss, then I knew exactly who it was - I didn't believe there was a real santa, but I loved playing along pretending there was one. All of us Danielson's grew up thinking that we were cousins with the Riskedahl kids, because we spent so much time together. We couldn't figure out why we weren't going to their house for Christmas, so we decided to ask mom why. She said that Christmas is aways spent with our Relatives - we thought it was rediculous to have to remind mom that the Riskedahls were our relatives - but she laughed and said we aren't related to the Riskedahls, they are just our friends. All six of us kids were floored - and we started crying. Now we just have to pretend we are related and call them our second family.