Thanksgiving

I am so glad that there is a holiday that we can take a whole day and show our gratitude for things.  I love that!  I feel so blessed in my life that I don't think a day is sufficient, but it is a nice reminder to be grateful for those little and big things that we have.  "The Lord has promised, 'He who receiveth all things with thankfulness shall be made glorious' (D&C 78:19). Gratitude is an uplifting, exalting attitude. People are generally happier when they have gratitude in their hearts. We cannot be bitter, resentful, or mean-spirited when we are grateful." (See this link for more)  

I have been blessed in my life to be born with an optimistic nature.  I then doubled my blessing when I married a similarly-natured stud.  I can't tell you what joy that trait has brought to our lives.  Although we won't be able to go home for Thanksgiving this year, we are lucky enough to be close to some dear friends who have opened their homes to us.  I am SO excited to see them this week! I look forward to eating my weight in rolls and bread, teasing Cory for the number of times he goes back for "seconds", talking girl-talk with Rachel and Abbey (it's been waaay too long), and having just a 3 day work week!

 I will be missing these folks, though:

I'm hoping we'll be able to get back for Christmas this year and see them.  It's been too long.  

It is comforting to know, though, that I'll be with the two men in my life: 

Can you see any resemblance? :)

I am 20 weeks now and finally feeling some movements from this boy!! We're grateful for all the support everyone showed when we announced our big news. We'll try to keep you updated on everything!

Love,

Cory & Bree  

Stork Sighting

No, we're not avid birdwatchers. And no, we haven't actually seen a stork recently.  But! We are happy to announce....

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...WE'RE PREGNANT!!!!!

We are so excited to share the news and excitement with everyone.  It's  completely a bit  unexpected, but extremely welcome news.  :)  Baby Blomquist is set to come on April 5th, making me 19 weeks pregnant now.  We are going in to get THE ultrasound done tomorrow and we are full of emotions; nervous/excited/giddy/happy/anxious/hungry. (Okay, that last one is just one of mine recently)  

Anyway, since we can't be with everyone to do an amazing gender reveal party (you should see my dreams lately, full of pink and blue and excitement and gender revealing. I wish we lived close to everyone!), we wanted to hear your guesses on what we're cooking up over here.  Here's a little help if you want more than just your gut instinct: 

·         Chinese calendar (based on mother's age and month of conception): Boy 

·         Heartbeat (faster than 150 bpm = girl; slower than 150 bpm = boy): Perfect 150, so… Toss up!

·         Morning sickness (very sick = girl; not so sick = boy): Girl

·         Skin (breakouts = girl; clear skin = boy): Girl

·         Leg hair growth (no more than usual = girl; lots of growth = boy): Boy (TMI? Sorry. J)

Cravings (sweet = girl; salty = boy): Boy                  

·         Feet (hot = girl; cold = boy): Girl

·         Bump position (high and wide = girl; low and centered = boy): Girl

·         Breast growth (lots of growth = girl; not much = boy): Girl

·         Mayan calendar (if mother's age at conception and year of conception are both even/odd = girl; if one is even and one is odd = boy): Boy

·         Sympathy weight (if your husband gains weight during the pregnancy = girl; if he doesn't = boy): Boy

·         Ring test (ring swings back and forth = girl; ring swings in a circle = boy): This was a toss-up!

·         My "mother's intuition" says Girl

·         Cory's "father's intuition" says Boy

·         Totals: 6 Boy and 6 Girl with 2 unsures. 

So there it is boys and girls (ha!), let us know what you think and if you want to join us for a google hangout tomorrow to find out! 

We love you all!

Love,

Cory and Bree...and Baby!! :)

Autumn Magic

October is here and we couldn't be more happy about it. Whenever we go on walks or drives we're in stunned silence almost the whole time. It's so gorgeous!! The trees, which are very abundant here, have all turned into fall beauties overnight, it seems. We are settling in with our ward out here and we're loving the camaraderie that exists already.  Cory was called to be a Webelo Scout leader and Scout Committee Chair.  Of course, he's made lifelong friends with all the boys already.  And I've been called to be the CTR 7 teacher. I have 5 kids and they are a handful already :) Cory just started his new job as a research assistant and is, so far, absolutely loving it. He's an amazing student and took his first mid-term yesterday-which I'm almost positive that he aced it.  I'm super proud of him and brag to everyone about him, so I'm sorry if it starts to get a little out of hand... :) I got a job!!!! I will start next Monday as an administrative assistant for a spinal rehab clinic affiliated with the University Hospital.  It is such a blessing to have and we definitely acknowledge Heavenly Father's helpful hand in that.  We are still slowly making our house a home, it's a little hard with no couches or dining table, but the other rooms are coming together.  You'll have to wait until we get those items to see the rest of the house ...

Cory's office. The one thing we have bought out here so far: his desk off of Craigslist for dirt cheap.  He's obviously studying for his solitaire test...

Sky writing for gameday. It says "HAIL" "133" (for the team number) and "M".

We are loving finding cute little towns around us and their apple orchards!

Before... 

...After! See? This literally happened overnight it seems!

We love you all! 

C&B

Homeless

We are loving it out here in Ann Arbor!  Sometimes I still wake up and wonder where I am, but that's because living in Michigan is still so surreal.  We are slowly adjusting to the humidity.  The weather is pretty unpredictable, but when the sun does shine, it's pretty hot (in fact, as I was writing this, our day of 90 degree hot weather, just turned into a rainy night. Odd.).  Our favorite thing so far about living here is biking/driving around and finding the most beautiful houses down the prettiest back roads.  It is so green and lush here that even not in rural places, you can find some gorgeous roads and sights.  We also just found a pretty awesome nature trail a couple miles from where we live, so we now have a go to running loop.  We have our moments of missing familiar faces and places, but we really are adjusting to our new life here. All we need to do now is move into our home... That's right. We're still homeless.  We bounced around from motel, ward member's houses, and a distant friend, but as of August 31st we will be moved into our place (which is amazing, considering that we moved out on July 31st from our place in Provo).  We hope to get in and make it homey enough by the time Cory has school -in two weeks! Yikes! Can't wait to show pictures!

Adventure Is Out There

We made it!! After 3 days of driving around in a huge 22 foot long Penske truck, we are now in Michigan.  We ended up having way too much space in the truck. We overestimated our boxes, I guess.  But luckily my mom was there to help us pack it up and she, being a truck driver's daughter, suggested the best way for us to pack it up.  It was so nice to get all the help that we did.  My mom rode the bus from Salt Lake City just to get to us and help pack up.  Our friends drove from Heber and Highland to help, even though they had babies and babies on the way.  Cory's brothers and my sister made it down from Salt Lake and helped so much.  We had friends and family come from all over! It was so nice of everyone. We really felt the love, which actually made it harder for us to leave. :(  

Last night at our first home together :(

The week before we had some lovely goodbye parties with family and friends.  We couldn't have asked for more.  There was a slip-n-slide, cookies, sprinklers, pictures, and good memories.  Thank you to everyone who made it such special goodbye.  We miss everyone immensely, but we are so excited to be out here together.  We are currently in a Red Roof Inn about 20 miles east of Ann Arbor while we try to figure out our living situations.  We fit all of our stuff into a teeny tiny storage unit down the road.  It's an exciting adventure and we'll be sure to keep everyone updated.   Can't wait :)

This was a cute little diner in Nebraska and the menu said "Ham & Eggs: A day's work for a chicken, a lifetime commitment for a pig." We liked that. :)

Our first night on the road was a camping spot in North Platte, Nebraska. 

We found the real Mater in Iowa 

Moving

So, as you all might know by now, Cory and I are moving to Ann Arbor, Michigan for grad school.  We are so excited, and people keep raving about the city.  We have put in the time trying to figure out the best possible way to move for cheap, and we think we've found some good options. For example, all of our boxes have been free (yes, actually free).  We went to the liquor store and got some awesome sturdy boxes, and then to Hobby Lobby for some bigger sized ones.  As excited as we are, we both keep falling into funks of sadness.  Packing everything up is sad. I don't like to see our house "deserted" like it's starting to look.  I hate the bare walls where there was once pictures.  I hate packing.  I only get out of the funk by thinking of how fun it will be to start a new adventure together in a place that we know absolutely nothing about.  I think it will be so fun to hang our pictures on new walls, and to unpack in a place where we only can rely on each other.  It's just so bittersweet.

Boxes, boxes, mess. Galore.

Our poor bare walls. 

Any tips on moving for cheap??

Last Moments at Home

After our fun trips to a baseball game, falls, and the lake, our trip home mellowed out nicely. We still got to enjoy the California sunshine, which is always nice, and we even got to visit with friends! I wrote about my best friends in this post, but I have to write a little more about how wonderful they are! I hadn't seen a couple of them since our wedding, so it was quite a joyous occasion to see these pretty ladies and their new lives.  I am really impressed by each one of them and couldn't love them more.  

We celebrated Father's Day on Sunday with a delicious, and huge, dinner.  My brother, Zander, just got braces so we had some soft salmon for him, and ribs for everyone else.  I mean, it was heaven on a table.  Fresh rolls, veggie drink, a beautiful fruit parfait made by my talented mom, and more meat than you could ask for.  Cory really enjoyed it, too, as was apparent by his moans of delight throughout.  He also commented during it that he felt like he was on his mission again, sweating and eating too much delicious food. (Our house is not kept very cold generally, for those of us Mishler's who freeze in anything below 80).  We all learned just how true his statement was when, after dinner, he tried to get off his chair and was sticking to it.  He thought something sticky must have been on his chair, but, come to find out, it was the veneer on the wood that had come up during his aggressive dinner. Hahahaha :) We all laughed pretty hard at that, but my dad enjoyed it the most. In fact, he requested to keep Cory's pants for the times when he would need a laugh.  Poor Cory, but he was a good sport about it. 

Life is pretty good to the Cory and Bree family.