This first year teacher gets a "F" in blogging.

I'm not sure if I still have any readers out there, but thought I should update on our busy summer. The last time I blogged was in May after I found out that I got my first teaching job. I'll give you a short version of what we were up to this summer.

At the end of the school year, we celebrated the retirement of both my parents. After 30 years of teaching, they decided it was time to start a new journey. I still can't believe they aren't teaching...even though I have taken over for my mom and teach in what was her room for 15 years. I am happy for them, and sad for the kids that don't get to have them as teachers. I can't keep track of how many times I get complimented on my parents. :) I'm proud to be their daughter. Here's a picture from their retirement party. What a fun night celebrating with all of their teacher friends!


After finishing up the school year, I got to help my mom chaperone her last Washington D.C. trip with a group of 8th graders. We visited NYC, D.C., and Philly. The kids had a blast, and I must say, I did too!
We got home (barely...thunderstorms made it a close call) and two days later, we flew to Colorado to be with my mom's family for the 4th of July. We got some good hang out time in, visited Rocky Mtn. National Park, and got to see fireworks over Lake Loveland on the 5th of July! Yep, they were canceled on the real holiday due to thunderstorms. Notice a theme? All in all, it was a GREAT visit. Just as I suspected, Jeremy LOVED Colorado and proposed that we move there immediately.
Upon arriving home, I started working at the migrant summer school in town. I got to work with 4th graders, which was a nice change. I LOVED my summer job and am really hoping that I can do it again next year.

At the end of July, one of my very best friends, Lindsey, finally married Ethan. She looked gorgeous, as always, and we all had the best time. At the rehearsal...
Getting dressed...
Me and Holly...don't think we got one of the three of us...
The Barskes...holding their name cards. Linds was freaked by seeing "Lindsey Barske" :)
And I had to throw this one in. Us with Ang and Sam and our new friends from England, Gareth and Jenny. These two were such a blast that Jer finally wants to visit England! Can't wait for that! We had such a great time dancing the night away. What a fun celebration!In August, Jeremy took his final class of A & P. He passed and started paramedic school in September. He also now works rescue shifts every third night at the fire dept.

We celebrated our third wedding anniversary, but apparently forgot to take a single picture. We went out to dinner at Portland City Grill...awesome food and an amazing view of the city!

We attended yet another wedding of a high school friend, Grant. More fun was had on the dance floor.

For the life of me I cannot remember what else went down in August besides preparing for my first year as a classroom teacher. Lots of anxiety and stress over that one! Next, updates on the house and my first year teaching.

Life is good.

What a month May has been. It has been quite a roller-coaster and I just couldn't blog about it while going through it. Now that I've made it to the other side, I am able to look back on the past month with a little better perspective.

As most of you know, I spend the majority of my time substitute teaching at one of the middle schools in town. It also happens to be the middle school I attended, and my parents teach at. Both of my parents are retiring this year (which will probably be a blog post all on its own!). They are excited, and I am happy for them (mixed with sadness). The retirement of three teachers in the building meant the opening of positions in the building. I applied for the language arts/social studies/reading positions, and at the beginning of the month, learned that I would be interviewed May 5th.

The interview went well and I had support from the staff, but was told that I was not moving on in the process. This was quite the controversy and I won't go into details, but I will say that I wasn't the only one shocked and upset.

It turned out there had been some miscommunication and I was called the morning of the 12th to come in for a 2nd interview (and hour and a half later!). At that point, I really didn't expect that I would be getting a job, but a week later (the 19th, or last Wednesday), I was told by the principal that he was sending my name on to the Superintendent as recommendation for hire.

So, on Monday, I met with the Superintendent and was officially offered a part-time position teaching 6th grade CORE!! I am hopeful that there will be opportunity to add time to my day, but if not, I'm just happy to finally have my foot in the door.

I should add to this update that during this process I also quit my 2nd job at Pier 1. I wasn't happy there and I felt like I had been burning the candle at both ends for quite a while. Coincidentally, I put my 2 weeks in the same day of my first interview, and worked my last shift the same day I was offered the job. I am waiting to see if I got a position I have applied for for summer work, but either way, I am so happy to be done with retail!

So, that is the update on my situation. I am starting to plan for next fall already. I'm really excited to meet my students and start my dream job!

Fireman's Wife

Here's another post that is long overdue. I apologize!

It is finally official. Jeremy completed his probationary year as a volunteer firefighter with Newberg Fire Dept. last March. In April, he and the other former probies were officially sworn in as members. Here are some pictures of the event.

I got to pin his badge on him. :)
I am very proud of him. He has put in a lot of time and hard work. I am so excited to watch him reach his dream. Jer is currently pulling shifts every 6th night and working hard in paramedic school. He really his blowing me away. His stories are unbelievable. I can't imagine what it is like to be a first responder, but I am so thankful that we have the men and women that we do in Newberg. They are beyond dedicated to their job and the people in this town. We are lucky to have them!

Houston, we have a sidewalk!

This post is long overdue. So long in fact that I can't even remember when this actually took place. Back in April, I think. Oh well, what's important is that we finally have a completed sidewalk and approach to our driveway!! I am in love and super happy with the finished product. This was just another project where my handy husband could show off his talents. I'll let the pictures do the talking.

Here's one last before...
Jeremy and Reese (a friend of ours, fellow fireman, and concrete installer!)


Ta-Da!Ooops! How did that one get in there? You're welcome.

And just because I was outside with the camera...an update on the house behind us (which is already outdated!) and a pic of the new window sign Jer had made for the company truck.
It took over a year to come to an agreement with our neighbor and the city. But the stars aligned and the project is finished. Now, if our tax return would just get here...we would get that front and side yard in!

So, this one time...

our furnace stopped working. We're not quite sure how long it had been. We realized we were making the "it's kinda cold in here!" comments more and more often. After a couple days of the temperature not raising above 62, the husband sprung to action. When something like this occurs, I usually stay far away in an effort to not add to the frustration and/or cursing. So, I was safely inside snuggled under a blanket (because our house was freezing in April), watching t.v. After a good half hour of him banging around in the garage, I hear, "I think I just figured out the problem!" He yelled for me to grab my camera. Reluctantly, I left the warm blanket behind and headed for the garage to see what could possibly need the attention of my camera. That's when I saw it.

When Jer had taken the last possible pipe apart, this is what he found.
So, he grabbed some gloves and pulled it out.And found that a bird had somehow managed to either fly or be sucked down the very small tube on our roof that takes in fresh air for the furnace. And that's where he met his fate and turned our house cold.It was the funniest/grossest/craziest outcome, but the moral of the story is our furnace is now working and we didn't have to pay a repairman to come out and see why!

Egg-citing Easter!

Thought I'd do a quick post with pictures from the Newberg Easter Egg Hunt that the fire dept. puts on every year. The egg hunt is set up at Jacquith Park which is right across the street from us, so I walked down to visit with Jeremy and take some pictures of the event.

Jeremy directing parents and kids on where to go.
Carson and Uncle Jeremy. Notice Carson has his own set of turnouts on :)Carson and Papa searching for eggs.McKenzie brought Hayden down...the boy we've babysat for since before he could talk and now he's 6!Another one of Carson and Uncle Jeremy in front of the ladder truck.

Hope you all had a wonderful Easter Sunday! Ours was busy with church, lunch, and visiting Grandma Quinby, who happened to be celebrating a birthday on that day.

twenty-four

I celebrated my twenty-fourth birthday a week ago today. Actually, it was more of a birthday week. My actual birthday was uneventful as I had to work and Jer was at the fire station all night. I did celebrate with some cake and a bubble bath though, so I can't really complain! :)

Holly was in town for an extended weekend and we had a "girls night" with Linds; except for the fact that Jeremy crashed our dinner. We got cupcakes and rented a movie to celebrate all three of our birthdays.

I rounded out birthday week with family dinner at Chevy's. I got a yummy strawberry margarita and fish tacos....and we had more cake! ha! I've had enough cake to last me quite a while!

With birthday money in my pocket, I made a trip to Ikea with my friend Brittany. We recently purchased a really inexpensive side table at Fred Meyer and I was looking for a cute and inexpensive lamp to place on it. Mission accomplished!

Close up of the lamp shade with the light turned on...I also found the perfect curtains for our master. I'm planning a post on our bedroom updates, but for now, here's a sneak peak of our curtains...I have mixed feelings about turning 24. While I know it is by no means "old," I feel like there's no more messing around. My list of life goals to hit by the big 3-0 is becoming even more real. I REALLY hope to check off a big one on the list this spring/summer and finally get a full-time teaching job.

I've done a lot of reflecting in the last week on where my life is at and where I hope to be a year from now. I am very blessed to be married to my best friend and the most amazing man I know. We are fortunate to own two houses...one of which we are lucky enough to rent out and cover the mortgage payments. We own two vehicles. We have both found the professions that we feel called to do. Now, we just have to get those jobs! I'm really looking forward to the year ahead and knocking out some of those goals!

Jeremy's Graduation

Jeremy officially graduated with his EMT Basic on Thursday night! I'm very proud of him for accomplishing this first major step. Next, he begins his A&P class April 24th and will be on track to start Paramedic school in September. Congratulations Babe, you amaze me!

Probie No More!

As of Monday night, Jeremy is no longer on probation...with the fire department that is! The probies were voted in and are now official volunteer firemen. I can't believe it's been a year of involvement with the fire department. It's been a huge commitment, but a lot of fun for both of us.

Part of the voting in process is that the probies present a gift to the fire department. Jeremy and my dad made a podium for the class' gift. Here's a picture of the hubby and his handy-work before he loaded it in the truck to take it down. I love having handy men in my life...what a blessing!

What's for dinner?

Thought I'd share a favorite recipe in the Quinby house. This is beef stroganoff made in the handy-dandy crockpot. I LOVE crockpot meals! There's nothing like coming home from work to the smell of dinner waiting. :) Okay, here's the super easy recipe...

1. Place 4 cups of beef cubes in slow cooker.
2. Cover with 1 can of cream of mushroom soup.
3. Cover and cook on high 4-5 hours.
4. Before serving, stir in 1 cup of sour cream (I go for the light stuff).
5. Serve over cooked rice, pasta, or baked potatoes.

It doesn't come any easier (or tastier!) than this! Enjoy!

Today = Success

Although I didn't have a sub job for today, I feel really successful. Currently, dinner is in the crockpot. I have completed two loads of laundry and have two more currently washing/drying. I went to the gym and cleaned the main level of our house. Jeremy is out pouring concrete and I'm headed up to make another large dent in the office. Today= success.

Just chuggin' along...

Thank you so much for all your kind words on here and facebook! I really have the best family and friends, so thank you! So far, so good here in the Quinby home.

I cannot believe the amount of time that Jer and I have been able to spend together. It's been awesome and yet productive! I've been working away on the office so that Jeremy has an organized, workable space. There's been lots of filing and tossing. So, hopefully in the next week or so, I'll finally have an "after" picture of the office for you.

Jeremy has done really well in the last nine days with his company and I'm so proud of him. Continued prayers are appreciated though since there is no guaranteed income when owning your own business. <----This is the most stressful thing for me, but I'm really working hard on trusting in God and my husband (who is the hardest working man I know, by the way!). Thanks again for your support; it is much appreciated! xoxo

Well, that was unexpected!

Looks like I've managed to miss the entire month of February in blogland. Wish I could find the time to do more frequent updates, although I'm afraid they would be fairly boring since all we do is work! :) So, I'll catch ya up on what went down in February and the first week in March. February was mostly spent working. Unfortunately, I even had to spend Valentine's day and night at Pier 1 working. Maybe some year we can take a mini-vaca or something...it's a long shot, but maybe! ;)

We did however find one Sunday that month that neither of us had to work, so we ran to the beach with Toby in tow. Considering Bailey's hip and knee problems, we had to leave her at home. The beach is her favorite place, but we couldn't afford another $300+ vet bill. So, she watched over the house while we were gone.We decided to go to Cannon Beach- where we got married. There wasn't a cloud in the sky and it was unbelievably warm for February. We couldn't believe our luck! I cannot stress enough how much this little trip was needed. I was so happy to spend time with my husband! Most of the time was spent with me lounging on the sand while Jer and Toby tried their best to tire each other out. I was so proud of how Toby did. We took him off the leash and he just stayed by us, not minding the other dogs and most importantly the kids (he LOVES kids). He also did pretty well retrieving tennis balls which he's usually too lazy to do!

After beach time, we did some window shopping, grabbed some pizza-by-the-slice, bought Jer's favorite fudge, and stopped in the doggy shop so that Toby could get a treat. It was so relaxing!

In other news, Jim started building a house on one of the lots behind us. We knew it was coming, but it's still a bummer. I'm not so much bummed about the house, but about the fact that the deer haven't been around since building began and I'm afraid they won't come back. :( Here's a look at the house from our back deck a few weeks ago. I should take an updated picture though because as of this week, the roof is on and today they put the windows in. I'm looking forward to taking a tour though. I love the house building process! It's so interesting to me to see how they are put together and since my big hobby is decorating, I love to imagine how I would set up the home.That brings us to March. And the biggest news of the year. We found out Monday, March 1st that Jer was laid off from his commercial construction job. It was completely unexpected, but we feel very blessed that he had the job for as long as he did! We were really concerned back in December 2008 that he would lose his job and luckily, he was able to work more than a year later.

We could have freaked out, but decided to look at this as a blessing. No more crappy job that Jeremy hated. No more working over-time every day for no extra pay. No more 45 min. commute each way. No more cranky husband because he had to deal with one of the worst bosses he's had (and there have been a few doozies!).

We decided that it was time for Jer to focus on Quinby Construction and really put his all into it. I truly believe in him and know that he has all of the skills necessary to be successful at this. One of his biggest stresses the last few months was that he desperately wanted to make his business successful, but just didn't have the time to put into it. Now, he has been given the answer to that question. He has the time, and this week he actually loved his job!

Another benefit is that now we don't have to be careful about sharing his professional goals. Not only is he striving to make his company successful, but I can finally post about his plans to become a firefighter. He is in school now to receive his EMT basic and has been accepted to Paramedic school. Upon graduation, he will be testing to get a job as a fireman/paramedic. He absolutely loves it and we are both looking forward to the day where he has his fire job (on shift every third day) and can do his business on his days off.

While we're scared financially and for the unknown (and can always use prayers!), we are very much looking forward to what's in store for us as a couple the next few months, and the year ahead. So, that should bring you up to date and I hope to be sharing about our lives a little more regularly now!

Downsizing...

Okay, so I mentioned that we are in the midst of downsizing at the Quinby home. So, I thought I would do a quick post about what exactly that entails for us. This has become our New Years Resolution because 2009 was so stressful for us and we needed to take back some control over our lives (or over what we CAN control in our lives).

Step 1: Cars. We traded in our Tacoma (finally!) and actually made money on the deal which was AWESOME! Jeremy and Eric make a great team and basically ran circles around the car salesman...haha! Then, we purchased a '98 Honda Accord for me to drive. It's a nice car and I'm glad to be back in a Honda. The plan is for this car to last three or four years and then I will get some sort of SUV. Finally, we sold our Hyundai privately and again got quite a bit of $ out of what we (and everyone who has ever seen it) described as a piece of junk car. YAY! Now, we no longer have three vehicles, but instead, two reliable ones. :)Here's a picture of the new car. You will notice that it is impossibly close to our freezer. Which leads me to step 2.

Step 2: Clean out the unnecessary junk in our lives. Exhibit A:Our garage is scary. This is what happens when your husband has a construction business and no shop to keep all of his tools in. On Sunday, we plan on re-organizing (yet again) this space. The freezer needs to move so that the car can easily fit in the garage. We also need to go through the tools and extra materials and figure out a better plan for housing everything. Wish us luck cause we're gonna need it!

This cleaning out the junk thing can be seen in nearly every inch of our home. We got a new desk for Christmas, and as a result, my first inside project of the year has been our office. I'm going to be brave and post the most outrageous "before" picture on here simply to provide me with the motivation to finish this task this weekend so that I can post the "after" picture by Sunday night.Oh my word! That's a lot of JUNK! I do have to say that the current state of the office is not nearly as bad, but I'm glad I took a picture at the worst moment so that when it's done, I will be relieved and thankful for my newly organized and CLEAN space!

Alright, so there you have it. The first two steps to our downsizing resolution. I hope to be back Sunday night with some awesome "after" shots. I hope everyone has a fun and/or productive weekend ahead of them!

much needed update

Hey All,

Sorry for the lack of blogging over the last (two?) months. Since I started my second job in November, I have been more than busy! I can't believe Christmas has come and gone already! What a crazy whirlwind this year has been. Even though I was not at all prepared for the holiday (presents were wrapped xmas morning right before they were unwrapped, and while we got a tree, it was never decorated!), we still had a fantastic holiday with all our family.

Christmas Eve (which is also Jeremy's birthday) was crazy busy. I worked that night until 8:30. Jer went to his aunt and uncle's house for his family's celebration and we both met at the Housgard/Hanset house later in the evening.

Christmas day was much more relaxing though! Jeremy surprised me with a Cannon dslr camera and I am really looking forward to learning how to use it along with editing my photos! We spent the morning/early afternoon with my family. Mom made brunch, we opened presents, played around with my new camera's self timer, and watched "Christmas Vacation." Next, we hit up Allison and Ben's house where we celebrated with Jeremy's family. We ate an amazing dinner, visited, and opened presents. I'll include some of the pictures that I took and messed around with on the editing.

Proof of the fun we had with the self-timer:


I can't believe that 2010 is already here! 2009 was a good, but stressful year for the Quinby family.

-We built and moved in to our first house.

-The economy tanked and we lost a significant amount of money that the house was worth between when we started and finished the building process.

-I unsuccessfully searched for a teaching job.

-I continued subbing and took another graduate course on teaching with technology.

-Jeremy decided that he wanted to become a fireman and started volunteering with the Newberg Fire Dept.

-Jer started school to get his EMT Basic (and is half-way through the program...while earning 100% on his final!).

-My friend, Kristina, from PLU moved in and is renting our basement bedroom/bathroom.

-Jer got his construction company off the ground and we have a good friend, Eric, working with him.

-I have taken over the finances...both personal and with the company.

-And finally, we have started taking the steps necessary to down size. (Look for a post about this in the near future!)

We are really looking forward to 2010 and all of the positive changes that are in store! I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!!