O-B-A-M-M-E-R !

Can we all say President O-B-A-M-A? Say it again, slowly with me. O-B-A-M-A. Okay, it's going to take some getting used to. All I can say is, I hope nobody is planning on making alot of money for the next four years. And um, I'm totally freaking out about healthcare. Being in the healthcare industry, it could very well affect our job. Take a deep breath. I need to relax here, I know. Sorry for the small rant.
On the flip side, I will say I do think it's a HUGE step forward that the country can get beyond it's racism and vote for an African American for President of the United States. After serving my mission in the south, were racism is still VERY, VERY REAL & SCARY, this is AWESOME!! For that reason, I'm stoked for the guy. Guess we'll see what happens.

http://theqfam.blogspot.com/

So my adorable woman, who spends half her waking hours out on Rhapsody creating the playlist for her life, has created a blog. You need to check it out. She waxes philisophical about some of it. It's very cute.

Garth

New Recipe Site

Announcing (dum da da DA!): Quigley Cuisine

A while ago Mom asked me if we could create a recipe site as part of our online good times. I thought it was a great idea, but just haven't gotten around to it...until now. The recipe site is a GO for launch. In fact it already has several recipes on it, so you can get a good feel for how it will work. I hope no one minds (Jana and Jen) that I already posted some of your delicious recipes for you. If you'd like to post some of your own (please please do!), I just need to set you up as an author. Please leave a comment on this post, and I'll send you an email invite. (FYI- I am not making Quigley Cuisine a private blog like I have the rest of our sites. Let's share our recipes with everyone.)

For those of you that will be sharing your recipes (again, please please do), I have a few tips.

First, I encourage you to take a picture of your yummy dish. Is it just me, or do pictures make a big difference when choosing a new recipe? I love seeing those mouth watering photos. As you will see, Jana is very good at this. All her food looks scrumptious. (For those of you that use photoshop/photobucket to size your pictures, the post field is 500px wide.)

Second, put the actual title of the recipe in the title field. This will help when we're trying to search out a specific recipe.

Third, to make our site ultra functional, all authors need to use LABELS. Labels are basically just a way of separating posts into categories. We will be using labels to form a recipe file. I've created a quick tutorial to demonstrate what I mean.

When creating a new post you have to opportunity to label your recipes into
different categories, just like you would file your recipe cards into different categories.
I've circled in red where you would insert said labels.



If you click on "Show all" it will show you all the categories that have already been created for this blog.



Simply click on an existing label (or multiple labels if your recipe calls for it) to add it.
Or, if you don't see the category you need, you can just type it to create a new category.



All labels need to be separated by a comma, but other than that there is really no tricky stuff about it.
If we all use these labels, it'll make looking up a recipe VERY easy.
Now that you know how to use labels, feel free to use them on the forum too.

Now go post something delicious!

Does any one have Harry Potter?

Hey I want to read or listen to the Harry Potter books. Does anyone have the books or the CD's that I can borrow?
And for those of you who have done both which way is better, reading or listening?

Thanks,
Jana

Anyone need a mobile internet card?

Hey I bought a 2nd usb ethernet card for my staff that is never used. Verizon will charge me $150 to cancel early unless I find somebody to take over the contract. You can have the broadband card for free so I don't have to pay the penalty if you happen to be in the market for mobile internet or know somebody that is. The broadband internet costs a little over $50/month. Garth

Following Up

Thanks so much! Keep the comments coming. Greg and I have really been looking forward to this reunion, so we’re glad to hear you are too. We are definitely going to miss the families that can't make it, but we weren't considering canceling for that reason. We just did not this reunion to be a financial hardship on the family at that time of year. Yes, I know we picked the date, but it just occurred to me that maybe we should worry. I will stop now. (That's a lie. I worry...it's what I do.)

The votes are in, and Greg and I have decided that the reunion is ON. We have found a slightly smaller cabin that is AWESOME, and I switched over our reservation yesterday. The Huckleberry Lodge will work fabulously for our family. Check out the link. (FYI- it has 6 bedrooms, but also an additional loft with two queens that overlooks the great room.) The other cabin was going to cost $2485.60 for 3 nights. A great deal for a lodge large enough to accommodate our growing family. The Huckleberry Lodge will cost $1795.00 for the same 3 nights. A considerable savings obviously. We made a deposit of $1242.80 last February so we now only owe $552.20. That will leave $1401.25 in the bank. We also have the additional $599.50 Mignon mentioned that is still forthcoming. The only expenditures I foresee us taking from the fund would be to cover some meals (ie: breakfast), some fun Christmas crafts, and snacks, hot chocolate, ect. (Mmmm...I can taste the vanilla creamer now. Do they make sugar free cocoa? Just wondering.) So as you can see, the fund will not be drained. We will be fiscally responsible and thrifty with our family moola. No worries...we're not going to blow $2000 on eggs, bacon, and molten chocolate goodness. :)

Alright, now that we have that covered…on to the auction issues. Sounds like Mom had the last word on whether or not we’re holding one this year. The answer is no. I think everyone wants to continue fund raising efforts in the future though, right? Let’s discuss it together at the reunion.

We love you all so much. Thank you very very much for all your support and excitement. We're going to have a kick-A time! Woot Woot!!

Where is our $700 billion bailout?

Where to start? Let’s face it, times are tough. Because of this we have been thinking about different options that would be best for the family at this time. I’d like to layout some of these options and get everyone’s opinion on it.

With the reunion coming up in a couple of months, we have realized that situations have changed for many families. We don’t want the reunion to become a burden for anyone so here are the options we have thought about:

1. Cancel the reunion for this year. If this is the case, Melinda & I would like to have another turn at planning the reunion since ours was canceled. We would propose to do this either after Morgan & Bethany or Sharese & Jordan’s year.

2. Not change anything. Stay where we are planning and go from there.

3. Possibly change to a smaller 6 bedroom cabin in Island Park that would end up being around $750 cheaper but still as nice. (We have talked to some families about possible sleeping arrangements in this situation. It would have ample sleeping room for everyone ie beds.)

4. Possibly help with expenses that each individual family may have just to attend the reunion, like gas money or paying for your family’s meal.

5. We would also like to propose cancelling the auction this year since the major expense (lodging) for next year’s reunion has already been taken care of.

We want to get everyone’s input on this. We don’t want to have a large cabin and spend more money than we need to if people are unable to attend. We are fine with anyone of these options, but we need to know and make a final decision by the 12^th of October so we can get our money back if needed or change to a different cabin. After that date, our options will be very limited on what we can do. We realize that there may be other options we have not thought about and would love to hear everyone’s input. We would like this to be a family decision, not just ours.