Tawnya,
Above the advertisement box (where the Google adds are) you can see several buttons (Home, Help, Search, Profile, Calendar and Logout)
Click on Profile and when you are in the Profile page, under the advertisement box (the Google one again) you will see on the right side of the screen the options Profile Info, Modify Profile and Actions.
Under Modify Profile, click on the 3rd option "Look and Layout Preferences" and when you are in that page, scroll down and enable the Quick Reply option (choose the show on by default) . Click on the Change Profile button to save your changes and now, whenever you are checking a thread, you will see at the end of he screen the Quick Reply Box and on top of the box, you will see the list of the emoticons.
Melissa, about what I told you of not being able to use emoticons and the options of the other reply box (the scrolling text, etc) I figured out that after using emoticons in the quick reply, if you click on Preview, you will be sent to the other reply box where you can use the other options..
I hope I make sense.
HTH