Going Private . . .

Well, it's time. We've decided to go private. So please send me an email at brittney.barney@gmail.com so I make sure I get an invite out to you. We plan to be private by May 20 or thereabouts.
So let me know!

In the meantime, we're coaching Summer to start walking, we're making packing lists and to do lists for Brazil, Rhett's studying for finals, and I'm now teaching three piano students. Summer and I had a great time visiting the latest addition to the Searle family: Noah Nelson, and we sure miss him now!

Summer Fun

After an incredibly inspiring weekend of the Get Lit! festival (a festival of published author panels and aspiring author workshops), and a great time with my cousin Deirdre, Summer and I are heading out again--this time to Provo, UT to visit Aunt Jill, Uncle Lance, and new baby cousin Noah. We are so excited! (PS My mission while we're there is to take as many pictures of Noah as possible, then get Jill to update her blog with them!)

A few recent pictures of Summer. I like this one because of the sun coming through the glass door shining on her. It also shows her pretty-much permanent position of crawling non-stop around the apartment these days.
I also like this one because it shows her pretty blue eyes.
And this is my attempt of a new hairdo: pigtails. Yes, I know she doesn't have any hair for pigtails, but it does kind of look like it, doesn't it?

An Eventful Weekend

We had a great weekend! First off, we got our visas in the mail for Brazil. It was an exciting moment, much awaited for. Checking the mail for the visas was the first thing Rhett would do every day when he would get home from school. So it was very exciting when we finally got them.
Rhett's dad (Grandpa Barney) and Andrew and Maria came to visit. We visited the Falls,
saw the garbage eating metal goat (eating Andrew's jacket),
and played on the gigantic red wagon.
When we got back, we realized we had left our apartment key in the apartment. So here's our adventure of getting in. (This is the THIRD time we've done it. Can you believe it? And it costs $20 to get management to open it!)





NOPE! It was locked. And the "slide-the-debit-card-along-the-inside" trick didn't work. Here's Maria trying to pick the lock with her bobby pin.

And here's Grandpa and Andrew working our last hope--Summer's bedroom window. They finally got the screen off and slid open the glass. (Thank goodness we'd left it unlocked!) Andrew climbed through to save the day!





Along with Rhett surviving a punch in the face from me (his "eyeball" according to him), we colored eggs and played "Whoonu" until the wee hours of the morning. We had a great time together!

Summer--ready for Easter Sunday.

BRAZIL

Yes, in case some haven't heard, we are going to Brazil. Rhett got accepted into a four-week summer program to take six credits at a university in Rio de Janeiro, so we're packing up and heading out May 15 and will be gone until June 23. Rhett will take classes for the first four weeks, and then we'll get to tour around for the last week that we're there. This is where Rhett served his mission, so we're really excited to be able to go. We got little Summer's passport, and mine updated to my married name, and now we're working on our visas. Rhett has posted sticky notes all over the apartment with portuguese vocabulary so I can practice up. There are so many things to do and so many preparations to make that it seems a little overwhelming, but we can't wait!

And here are the rest of the pictures I tried posting on the previous post. I thought it was super-cute how Summer had her legs crossed and her arm around Rhett, so I took a few pictures. The funny thing is that after I took them, I looked at them more closely and realized they were pulling the same faces in each picture!

And here's a picture of Summer helping dad string his buddy's guitar. I just love the concentration in that face. What a good helper. She sure loves her dad!

Surprise Birthday and Summer Update

Yes, it has been a very long time since the Barney's have posted (specifically Mom). So here we are now, trying to catch up from the past few weeks.
Rhett planned an AWESOME surprise party for me on my birthday. We walked in, and I didn't see anyone. All of the sudden, everyone yelled "Surprise!" and people started appearing from everywhere--out from under the table, from behind the tv, and around the hallway. I couldn't believe it! Both Rhett and I were really surprised. Here's our reaction:
And here's a picture of the party-ers. Yes--they all fit in our tiny apartment! It was so much fun.
Last weekend, Rhett's mom and stepdad came up for a fun visit. I didn't get enough pictures--I actually spaced it and didn't take any. But that weekend we went to a Music Walk in Coeur d'Alene and browsed through art galleries listening to live musicians--guitarists, singers, and violinists. This is Rhett and Summer on our Music Walk.And the internet is wigging out, so more later!

The Certifying Dives

As many of you know, I did my open water dives over the weekend. And, as many of you have asked, this post is regarding those dives and how they went. I had imagined a nice sunny morning to put all my gear on and jump in the water, experience the peaceful Puget Sound, see the sun's rays shining through the water, and witness incredible underwater life. So when we woke up to the pouring rain, I was definitely not that excited about diving. We had to be there at 8am, so we left at about 7:15 from Andrew and Maria's. I'll try to keep this short because I know that most people don't read long blog posts.

Anyway, I had a hood, a wet suit, gloves, and boots to go along with my fins, my face mask, my air tank, and my BC (the vest that carries the tank). The only skin that was supposed to be exposed to the water was right above my mask on my forehead, and my chin area. However, my wet suit that the dive shop had let me borrow was too small so the leggings, which were supposed to go over my boots, high-watered and the skin just right above my ankles was exposed. Not cool for a dive in 40 degree water.

But I did it. And froze. If it hadn't been for Rhett, I don't think I would have made it through the rest of the dives. He ran to Albertson's, bought some water jugs, emptied them, took them to Starbucks, and had them filled with hot water. Then he poured them down my gloves and into my boots to keep my phalanges warm. He carried my tanks and hooked them up, he held the umbrella for me as I got ready, he put on my weights for me, and then gave me a good luck kiss and watched me waddle back out into the freezing water. All the while feeding Summer breakfast and keeping her entertained. I couldn't have done it without him. But I was definitely dreading the second day of my open water diving.

The second morning of the dives, I woke up to a beautiful, peaceful snowfall. For some reason, I didn't think, "Oh great." I actually thought, "Wow. That is so beautiful. I am witnessing a beautiful part of nature, and now I get to go witness some more of nature." So here's a picture of the snow (from the car) on the way to the dive site at 7:30 in the morning. I'm sitting in the car with my swim suit on. (Now that I think about it, it's actually quite hilarious.)


And once again, with the help of Rhett, a new enthusiasm for conquering the dives, and a little bit of Dave Matthews Band, I geared up and headed out into the water.
This is a picture of the divers I was with. Dan is the one without a hood. He was my instructor. I'm the one looking at him with the blue tank.

And this is my "Woohoo!" cheer after coming up from my fourth dive. My fingers and toes were numb, but I was super excited that I had finished. I hadn't chickened out. I had actually just spent more than 80 minutes total time under COLD water. I didn't know I'd had it in me.

And yes, this is me, sporting somewhat of a smooshed smile from my mask. I had just come out of the water for the last time on this dive trip. I was done!

Every time I came out of the water, Rhett would ask me, "What did you see?" Two problems with that--the first being I had no idea. "Uhm, a white thing with kind of pokies on it . . ." Yeah, he had no idea either. And the second problem was that I couldn't remember. I remembered a few things, but everything was so new and different than what I'd ever seen before, that it was hard to remember exactly what I saw. I realized that the best part of the dives was that I could just live in the moment--I had to; it was the only way to experience the world I was in.

One thing that I do remember, and one of the coolest things that I saw was a BABY SQUID. It was about the size of the tip of my thumb to my first thumb knuckle. It was so cute! The diving assistant I was with had a flashlight on it, and when she stuck her finger out to touch it, it shot a little tiny squirt of ink at her. It was so funny. I chuckled. I also saw lots of NUDIBRANCHS. This is a picture of one of my favorite nudibranchs that I saw.

(Picture taken from http://www.seaotter.com/.)

I loved it. I thought it was so beautiful. I also saw a leopard nudibranch (below). (Picture taken from http://www.hershman.smugmug.com/.) I saw lots of giant star fish (the size of both my hands put together), lots of crabs, and lots of sea anemones.

Although it was uncomfortably cold, it was an amazing experience to be able to be a part of this under water world, and I am looking forward to my next dive that I'll get to share with Rhett.

And what would a blog post be without a picture of Summer?

It's a Birthday!

What a great surprise we had last weekend when Aunt Kate decided to jump in her little Kia Rio and drive eight hours to celebrate her birthday with us. She arrived late Wednesday night and left Saturday morning. We had lots of fun relaxing, working on her English paper, cooking/baking, and exploring Spokane. We also watched a great movie, Australia. (Loved the kangaroo part!)
This is Kate's birthday dinner: Sweet and sour meatballs.This is some pumpkin cream cheese bread that we made. It was delicious!Here's Summer enjoying a hold from her Aunt Katelyn.
We love you Kate, and we are glad we could spend your birthday with you!