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!