home sweet home?

This is going to be brief, but I thought it'd be good to give a little update.

Currently I am horribly failing at falling asleep with a cold. Things are going well though. Re-deployment preparations are full force (and no that does NOT mean Jon will be getting deployed again already; it's the army's crazy way of saying they are coming home) and I could not be more excited. In fact, excited doesn't begin to describe it.

I miss my family terribly and quite honestly do not think I would do very well living on my own forever. The house is almost done, had it not been for my cold, I would have the flattened boxes out and ready to go to the recycle center and pictures ready to post... but those will have to wait.

Student teaching is complicated.... to say the least but I am looking forward to it. Jonathan is doing well for those that have been asking. He is VERY ready to be home! He even purposefully did not sign us up for the ball in order to spend a romantic evening with me, not the 1,000 guys he just spent a year with.

My camera unfortunately broke, so I will leave with one of my favorite pictures from the drive out to KS.
We stopped at Rocky Mtn National Park.. it was like 12,000 about sea level or something.

on my way...

My room is close to all packed up. The only major thing left is my clothes. It is an interesting feeling; packing everything up for the first time. I am excited because it means I am that much closer to Jon coming home, but at the same time it is scary. Even going off to college it wasn't like I really left home. I mean 3/4 of my stuff was still at home. But now it is all coming with me.

I can't believe it but next month is our 1 year anniversary. I will be in our new home and Jon will be a short 2.5 months away from coming home. These certainly are going to be a crazy few weeks. I am headed out to Kansas on June 16th to look for a place to live. So far, I have a couple favorites, but nothing has been secured yet. I know God will provide us with the perfect home, I just hate the waiting!

I have 2 more days with my 4th graders. I am going to miss them SO much. Today I told them that I will be moving to Kansas next month and they all were very sad. It was really cute, they wanted to me stay and work at Tom McCall (The upper elementary school out in Forest Grove).

Anyway, I know its not much, but its at least an update. Maybe next week i'll post some pictures.

anyone there?

Since no one reads this other than me, I have been less than motivated to write anything. Life has been alright, we are 6 1/2 months away from Jon's homecoming and I can't wait!

I found this on a friend's page and I thought it was pretty cute:

LOVING A SOLDIER

If you’re not in love with a soldier, you can’t know adventure. You don’t know smelly gray PT uniforms that require a daily washing. You can’t understand green and brown camouflaged bags flooding your bedroom floor. They may seem like they are just thrown around, but move one thing the night before an important layout and expect to hear about it.

If you’re not in love with a soldier, you can’t understand the meaning of the phrase "going to the field" and the weeks you spend away from each other.

If you’re not in love with a soldier, you can’t understand what it’s like to have company every weekend that you will soon refer to as your "children" and they will need to be fed, so figure them into your grocery bill. You will need to teach them that you can’t fit 3 hampers of clothes into the washing machine at the same time, and that whites and darks are not washed together.

If you’re not in love with a soldier, you can never imagine the hole in your heart when that phone call comes. "Honey, I am leaving tomorrow to go overseas. I don’t know how long I will be gone or exactly where I am going, but I want you to know that I love you - always!" You don’t know the anxiety that comes with not knowing any specifics until it is already happening.


If you’re not in love with a soldier, you don’t know what it’s like to say that final good-bye, to watch those buses drive away and wonder if you will ever see him again. You don’t know what it really means to be glued to the television watching CNN. You don’t understand fear and you can’t possibly understand the sleepless nights of endless crying wondering if you will ever see the love of your life alive again.

If you’re not in love with a soldier, you can’t understand why a computer must always be on full volume just in case. And why it is necessary to have one of every messenger... because you will never know when MSN messenger might work and Yahoo wont, or vice versa.


If you’re not in love with a soldier, you don’t know the best brand of webcam and all of the features by heart and recommend them to everyone you know. You can fully utilize all of the emoticons on every messenger and even know the hidden ones on yahoo...

If you’re not in love with a soldier, you also won’t understand the importance of always having access to a cell phone charger. Or having that special ringer for "unknown" and 13 digit phone numbers.

If you’re not in love with a soldier, you would never understand the bond that instantly forms with any woman you see wearing anything battalion-related.

If you’re not in love with a soldier, on the nights where we all come together and talk for hours about nothing but our men, and how even those little things that annoyed the crap out of us a few months ago are the things we miss so much. And then compare ideas on how to keep them... "entertained".

If you’re not in love with a soldier, you can’t know the immense joy, the uncontrollable smile, or the butterflies in your stomach when you see your soldier march into the family waiting area upon redeployment or the end of basic training. You can’t understand the self-control it takes to stand on the other side of the room as some higher-up gives a seemingly endless welcome home speech while all the soldiers stand in formation. You don’t know what it’s like to have that second first kiss or what it’s like to experience puppy love all over again. You spend hours and hours getting ready so everything is in perfect place, just to have your hair ruffled and everything tousled up with that first embrace.

If you’re not in love with a soldier, you can’t truly understand how to make every moment count because you never know when that phone call may come again. You don’t understand why a secret bottle of cologne is kept in the medicine cabinet, or his deodorant left on the bathroom sink all year, just to smell when you want to feel closer to him.

If you’re not in love with a soldier, you can never really understand how very delicate life is! You don’t understand how fast one phone call, or a knock at the door can instantly change life for so many people. You don’t understand why the National Anthem will forever be something that we will STAND for and probably well up in tears, no matter where life takes you after the military.

Kansas here I come?

I can't believe that I really only have two semesters of college left. What am I going to do with myself. As long as I can remember back i've been in school. I know I'm going to be teaching and therefore in a school still but it isn't going to be the same. I will no longer be a student in the classroom sense. As a teacher I will constantly be learning but I won't be a student, that's kinda scary.

Anyway, the point of writing is to let everyone know that I am one step closer to student teaching in Kansas. I had a meeting yesterday with the Placement director and my academic advisor at CU and we decided that it is best for me to student teach in Kansas. I have more responsibility when it comes to getting placed than I would if I were to do it here in Oregon, but that doesn't matter. As long as I get to be in Kansas when Jon comes home, I will do whatever I need to to get placed in Kasnas.

Also, We are 4 months down this month! 8 months to go......

R&R part 2

SNOW! SNOW! SNOW! Portland was covered in snow the rest of the time Jon was home. We had a great rest of his leave just hanging out with our two families; playing the Wii and Rockband, Taboo, Spinners, and many more. There was an historic amount of snowfall and the news channels were calling it "Arctic Blast 2008." We are extremely blessed that we were able to celebrate Christmas together as well as with both our immediate families. Jon left on the 26th to head back to Iraq. It was hard to say bye again, but I think it was easier than the first time he left.


Snowed in at the Quick home in Vancouver, WA.

My great comeback during bowling. I jumped 47 points in 2 frames.








It was so cool to be able to have a snowball fight in my parent's backyard!

R&R part 1

To start things off, the 15 days Jon got to be here was great. I am so happy that we got to spend Christmas together even if it means going a longer time apart.

Jon flew in on the 10th. His family met me at the airport to help welcome him home and we all had some dinner at Stanford's there at the airport. From there Jon and I decided to get a hotel room for a couple nights so that we could have some privacy.

We stayed at my parents over the weekend and on Tuesday we headed up to Mt. Hood to stay at a cabin for 3 nights. What and adventure! The first night we were there the outlets for water were frozen so we had no running water (which meant no toilet to use). Luckily the water was on by Wednesday morning. No hot water yet, but we had high hopes that it would be on by the time we were done at the mountain. I had never been snowboarding so I was a little nervous but excited to take on a new challenge. Jon says I caught on really fast, although it sure didn't feel like it at times. We were there from about 9:30 until around 3. Needless to say I was pretty sore that night. But Jon really wanted to go night boarding so after a quick meal we got on all our gear and headed up again.
We had spent the day at Meadows, and now we were headed to Skibowl. Unfortunately, only one side was open, and only one lift of that side was open. I only went down once, due to the fact that it was still my first day at it and well I think it took about an hour to get down the first time. It was fun though, and I really felt like I was getting it by the end of that run.

One of the best parts of the day was returning to the cabin to find we had hot water! From there on out things were pretty good. We did loose power on Thursday for a few hours, but my wonderful hubby made a huge fire that helped keep us warm. We went night boarding again on Thursday on the other side of Skibowl. Oh we had so much fun! I almost made it down the hill with only falling a few times, and Jon was able to land some jumps.

If we get stationed in Colorado ( where Jon would like to go next) we are hoping that we can make this a hobby for us.

and he's off

Well, Jonathan left this morning to head back to Iraq for the remainder of his tour. We are still busy seeing family and stuff so I will write about his time here in a day or so. We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas, I know we did.