Hey everyone... my name is Heather. I am from Lockport, NY, right near Niagara Falls and Buffalo. I am a Senior here at PBU in the Dual Degree Counseling Program. Random fact about me... I love to make weird faces at people, especially if there is awkward eye contact!

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October 18, 2008

It was a Robert Frost woods and a Robert Frost wall... fall break continued

Some of the things that I kept saying while we were camping was "This is such a literary campground!", and "We are IN Robert Frost's yellow wood!", or "Oh my gosh you guys, this is like the wall in Frost's 'Mending Wall' poem!"
So, I thought that I would include some of the pictures of where we were as well as the poems that they reminded me of! I wished so much that I had all of the American classics with me to read because it was such a perfect place to read them!

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"October"
O hushed October morning mild,
Thy leaves have ripened to the fall;
Tomorrow's wind, if it be wild,
Should waste them all.
The crows above the forest call;
Tomorrow they may form and go.
O hushed October morning mild,
Begin the hours of this day slow.
Make the day seem to us less brief.
Hearts not averse to being beguiled,
Beguile us in the way you know.
Release one leaf at break of day;
At noon release another leaf;
One from our trees, one far away.
Retard the sun with gentle mist;
Enchant the land with amethyst.
Slow, slow!
For the grapes' sake, if they were all,
Whose leaves already are burnt with frost,
Whose clustered fruit must else be lost--
For the grapes' sake along the wall.
-Frost


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"The Road Not Taken"
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I marked the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
-Frost

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"Mending Wall"
Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,
And spills the upper boulders in the sun;
And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.
The work of hunters is another thing:
I have come after them and made repair
Where they have left not one stone on a stone,
But they would have the rabbit out of hiding,
To please the yelping dogs. The gaps I mean,
No one has seen them made or heard them made,
But at spring mending-time we find them there.
I let my neighbour know beyond the hill;
And on a day we meet to walk the line
And set the wall between us once again.
We keep the wall between us as we go.
To each the boulders that have fallen to each.
And some are loaves and some so nearly balls
We have to use a spell to make them balance:
"Stay where you are until our backs are turned!"
We wear our fingers rough with handling them.
Oh, just another kind of out-door game,
One on a side. It comes to little more:
There where it is we do not need the wall:
He is all pine and I am apple orchard.
My apple trees will never get across
And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.
He only says, "Good fences make good neighbours."
Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder
If I could put a notion in his head:
"Why do they make good neighbours? Isn't it
Where there are cows? But here there are no cows.
Before I built a wall I'd ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offence.
Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That wants it down." I could say "Elves" to him,
But it's not elves exactly, and I'd rather
He said it for himself. I see him there
Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top
In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed.
He moves in darkness as it seems to me,
Not of woods only and the shade of trees.
He will not go behind his father's saying,
And he likes having thought of it so well
He says again, "Good fences make good neighbours."
-Frost


Frost is such an artist, don't you think? He paints such a picture using his words and includes human emotion intertwined into the poem. He write moments, that others can experience as well.

Fall Break for a few days...

Last weekend was Fall Break... fall break is right in the middle of the semester so it is perfect timing for a break, just at the point when everyone is starting to feel a little overwhelmed and needing a break!
Typically I would go home for break, however, this year I had one of my Grad counseling classes on Saturday so I would have been home for one full day, I decided against going home. However I still wanted to do something, get away from school while I had the time off of school.
So, me and a few of my friends decided to go camping!
There is this little campground not that far away from school, and so we went, it was gorgeous!
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It was just so refreshing! Being in the middle of nature I think really refreshes you and helps you to just reconnect with God, it was such a beautiful experience!
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October 3, 2008

Homecoming Weekend/Crimson Celebration

One of my favorite parts about Homecoming weekend is that my cousins always come and it is always fun to spend some time and catch up with them! This year was a little different though because this year they brought their babies too! They have two twin boys, Landon and Nathaniel, so it was a lot of fun playing with them as well! My cousins, Ben and Lindsey both graduated from PBU as well, from the counseling program. So, you know who I go to if I have questions!
Below are pictures of me and my brother Steve (who also goes to PBU!) and Landon and Nathaniel...
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October 2, 2008

revitalizing smoke

Strange title huh? Just thought I would catch your attention. Tonight I went to the fire pit behind the Tennis courts. A group of students were gathered there. They go every Thursday night around 9. It is there that they worship God together through song, Scripture, prayer, and the sharing of each others lives.
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There is something that is beautiful in the smokey smell that sticks on your clothes after you spend a chilly evening next to a campfire, and it is even more beautiful when that time spent around the campfire is all centered on Christ. So tonight I went to the campfire... and it was one of the most refreshing, revitalizing moments of my week.


Worship.


What is it about worship that when it is unified and joined with other hearts it refreshes our hearts and our souls? IMG_5738m.jpgI hope that you love that clinging smoke smell... and I hope that if you don't already, one day you will smell it and think of God, of worship, and community... of being in God's creation, and worshiping Him in it.

I have no words to really express to you what I am feeling, perhaps it is awe. In awe of "my Creator King" who "loves me more than the sun and the stars that [He] taught how to shine" I am His.

Apple Picking...

So today is the beginning of our "Crimson Celebration" otherwise known as Homecoming weekend. That is not all today was though, today was beautiful out! Fall is my favorite season, so really, anything to do with Fall I LOVE! so today, me and a few of my friends went apple picking at one of the local apple orchards, Styers Farms. apple.jpg

The apple orchard was beautiful!
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After the apple picking, we went back to school and went to Donkey Ball and the Powder Puff game in the gym... and then we made applesauce! with the apples we picked! yummy! I still have some... so come find me if you want to try it!

October 1, 2008

smells of fall

So, I think I am learning that baking is a stress reliever to me. This week has been a little overwhelming to me, probably more because of a lack of sleep than anything else. So, how do I cope? Two nights ago I made three loaves of banana bread, tonight I am making 3 loaves of pumpkin bread. I like to share it. I love how excited people get about homemade food... and at college, they get really excited :)

Are you wondering how I am baking it?
I am baking it in the oven in G lounge in Penndel. For those of you who do not know...the PBU Penndel Apartments are dormitories for students, mostly upperclassmen. I think there are 8 buildings and students share an apartment with 3-5 people. There are no ovens or stoves in the apartments, but there are ovens and stoves in the two lounges that Penndel shares, therefore, when you are making food in a public area it makes it very easy to share! And thats the best part!
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Not to mention... nothing feels more like Fall than the smell of pumpkin bread baking in the oven!