Turkey Baster and Too Much Oil

Go graciously provided a car for me to use this year.  During the first two weeks, it was towed twice.  The first time, it started just fine later that afternoon when the auto shop people got around to looking at it.  The next time it was towed, it ended up that the fuel pump had 'died'--a major repair for those like me who didn't know.  So, I am feeling a little gun-shy about my car.

After the second time in the shop, I thought I heard a strange noise in the engine, but not really knowing much about cars and not being familiar with this car I didn't think too much about it.  Last Friday I flew to Portland for the week, leaving my car behind (clearly).  My mom used it one day and mentioned that the noise sounded like the oil was low.  I had checked the oil right before it was towed the second time so didn't think that was the problem---but now I wasn't the only one hearing things.  I returned last night and decided to check the oil before even driving it home.  In the dimness of the parking lot lights, I thought for sure the oil was low--down to the bottom of the dipstick--not a good thing.  As I drove home, I called my mom and brother for advice.  After hearing that I probably shouldn't drive it anywhere before adding oil, I braved using the motorcycle this morning to go get some oil.  I opened the hood this afternoon and dumped some in after spilling some on the engine--funnels are great.  Her I was figuring that it would come up to the top to tell me it's full--like a gas tank, glass, any other reservoir.  But, I've since learned that isn't the way it works with oil--and if I'd stopped to think about it a bit I probably could have figured that one out.  But in the moment, I was so sure this was the right plan of attack that I didn't stop to do much thinking.  I then checked the oil again.  It had somehow jumped to now being over two inches about the 'full mark'.  I knew that wasn't a good thing either, but couldn't figure out how 2 quarts could have made that much difference.  So...I called my mom after doing some reading on the internet (quality information you know) and figured that again, before driving it I needed to remove the excess oil.  Having only once before watched my dad do an oil change, that seemed a formidable task.  So, I decided to try a new technique--a turkey baster from above.  When that didn't yield results, I attached a hose to the end of the baster and tried again.  (I still hadn't spent much time thinking about how far down the oil must be considering the length of the dipstick.)  In case you hadn't already figure it out, I didn't get anything out.  So, I called my brother to ask for his help in removing some of the excess oil.  He arrived on his white horse (cleverly disguised as an aging Volvo with a loud muffler) and taught me about removing the excess oil.  It's now been cleaned up and the oil level is back to normal.  I can only figure that it would have been wise to double check the oil level before adding additional oil this afternoon.  Apparently my initial look last night was faulty or God multiplied the oil that I added today.  Either way, there's still a funny noise that I'll take steps to figure out next week...maybe it's normal, but after not owning/driving a car consistently for seven years I've kind of forgotten what cars in normal condition sound like.  So...I feel like I'm taking a class on car maintenance and failing while trying really hard.  I'm learning there's so much to learn.  I'm almost at the point of being able to laugh at it all...almost.