First Week of School

You know those nightmares about school starting and you can't find you class, you sleep in, or miss the whole day entirely? Well I didn't have any of those this year! But after Wednesday night I think it would have been better to get the mortification over with in my dreams rather than in real life. My Tuesday classes went well. Actually, really, really well! I was walking on clouds the whole way home because I made friends. I wasn't feeling shy for some reason and I introduced myself to people, said hello first, and walked from one class to the next with someone. I felt brave and invincible. So I guess it was time for me to be humbled. 

Wednesday nights I have a class that is broadcast from another city to several cities throughout the state. Our distance education building is brand new so they are still working on getting all of the equipment working and synchronized. Also, the table is really high, meaning the chairs are also really high (and I have short legs, so it was awkward climbing into the seat). The regular microphone didn't work, so the four of us in the class had to pass one around the table whenever we were called on. The professor was calling roll and when she said my name I waited for someone to pass the mic to me, then when the teacher marked me absent and moved on to the next, I realized that they didn't pass it to me because they don't know my name. Duh. So I jumped up, grabbed the mic, started talking into it, and fell flat on my back. I felt like a fool, so I did what any fool does best. I laughed. The I.T. guys ran over to help me up and the professor asked what on earth was going on, even though the whole state could see me over the cameras that focus on you when you turn a microphone on. So I very clearly explained, "This is Emily Brinkerhoff. I'm here. Also, I fell off my chair. It has wheels."

This is what happened: because the chair was so tall, had wheels, and my legs are so short, it just rolled away as I thought I was planting my booty in it. So, needless to say, I avoided the mic for the rest of the night and clutched my chair for dear life. 

Squirrel

Today Bekah and I came home from the park to hear a weird splashing noise in what we thought was our empty home. My adrenaline got pumping as I realized that we were not the only ones in the house and I ran down the hall shouting, "Who is in here?!" My answer was some more aggravated splashing coming from the bathroom. I went in and looked for water leaking down from the apartment above, but saw nothing. I then heard the splashing again. Coming from inside the closed toilet. WHAT??? "Is this a prank? Who's here?" No answer except more splashing. Realizing that there was no way this could be a prank, I knelt by the toilet and peeked through the crack, still doubting the validity of the experience. I couldn't see anything, but it dawned on me that Garrett was not expected home for another 6 hours and I was going to have to open the toilet to use it before then. Also, would this thing eventually be able to get out? Would it pose some threat to Rebekah and I? Was it too big to flush? I called Garrett and he didn't answer, so I called Heather.

While describing the situation to her, I continued peering through the crack when all of a sudden I heard myself shriek, "It's a mouse! It's a mouse! I saw whiskers and a paw! It's trying to get out! What if it gets out? What do I do? How do I get rid of it? Why didn't Garrett answer? What do I do? It's going to get out!" (I may have been a bit hysterical. A bit.) Heather told me to flush it. She said, "If it's a mouse, you don't want it getting loose in your house, and mice are small. It should flush easily." I then told her that my toilet is pretty lame and probably couldn't swallow half a mouse, but I gave it a try anyway.

After the noise of the toilet ceased, I listened to the silence from within and decided to be brave enough to peek inside. I did so an realized this was no ordinary mouse. It was BIG! "It's a rat! It's a rat! There's a rat infestation in my house! My house is infested! What if it get's out? I can't flush it!!!!!" (Maybe I was borderline crazy by this point.) Sweet Heather calmed me down and gave me the courage to look again and when I lifted the lid a second time, I realized I was looking at a full-grown-completely-alive-never-going-to-be-flushed-down-my-whimpy-toilet-SQUIRREL!!!!! Uh, weird.

So I hung up and called animal control. No answer, so I left a message. Just then Garrett called, so I put Bekah in the car, we picked him up, and then we waited outside for him to chuck the squirrel out. And we waited. Then I saw the light in Bekah's room turn on. I went to the window and saw Garrett. Chasing a wet squirrel. Around my baby's room. (GROAN) They ran into my bedroom next and I decided it was time to get in on the action. So Garrett and I chased that squirrel around and around and around our bedroom till it ran out the door and into the living room. Fearing this would never end, I decided to just watch again. Luckily, I stood in the hallway so that when Garrett chased the squirrel my way it did a double take and ran the opposite way, right out the front door!! It knocked over a rake, jumped onto the neighbors grill, turned to give us one last look, and jumped into the tree.

That was easy.

Baby

A couple weeks ago I started thinking it was about time to get Bekah a doll. The next day, she started walking around the house with her stuffed snow-man saying "beebee" and rocking it. I didn't really know she knew what to do with a baby, hopefully it's just instinct and she will be a super helper with all my other kids. So we headed to D.I. to buy a "beebee" doll. I was hoping for more of a traditional doll but they were pretty trashed and mostly naked. I saw one that was a character from the tv show "Arthur" but wasn't interested in it so I kept looking. Garrett tapped my shoulder, so I turned around and saw Bekah snuggling that doll. It was clean and in good shape, and she obviously loved it. So we got it. After putting her through the wash, I looked her over and saw that she's one of those dolls that help kids practice zippers, snaps, buttons, etc. So she's pretty cool. Bekah loves to pick her up and kiss her. Lately we've started putting blankets on her and saying, "night-night" which Bekah loves! She's so sweet to that little doll.

We found a burp cloth and a hat she wore last summer. Also, a tutu. :)

What a good mom she'll be!

Bekah

Sometimes my baby gets too tired to eat. Isn't that adorable?

Dynelle gave her a dress for her birthday. These next pictures are her opening the package and then being very excited to be in the dress. She loves the dress!

She loves, loves, LOVES blankets! We end up with about 6 blankets spread out around the house each day.
And each blanket gets an amazing amount of love from her.

She sat there on Garrett's legs feeling like a big girl for about 5 minutes. It's amazing the amount of
self-control a toddler can have when it's something she's interested in!

This week she learned how to go "boneless" as I call it. She will start walking a different way than I want her to so I grab her hand and she suddenly flops limply on the ground. I have to tug on her hand to make sure she doesn't hit her head on anything. 

Rebekah has been laving a language explosion for about 3 months now. My parents came and stayed with us for a week and my Mom decided to try to keep track of all the new words Rebekah attempted while she was there. We lost track after 5 days and 15 words. Seriously, she loves talking! She imitated her first two-word-phrase: "Bye Daddy" and said one spontaneously: "Hi Buppa". She was so cute with my parents. My poor mom was here for 8 days and spent tons of time on the floor reading to Bekah, playing with her, talking to her, but Bekah wouldn't say "Nana" and she took forever to decide to smooch her. My dad, on the other hand, terrified her at first. She didn't want to go near him but by the end of the second evening she decided he was pretty cool and wen to him and gave him a smooch. As she walked away grinning, she decided that wasn't enough so she went back to him for another!

We had a really fun week with my parents. We took them hiking, swimming at Bear Lake, we played lots of games, and we watched the amazing firework show that Logan city provided on the 4th of July. It was so fun to have them here with us!