Personal
History of Brendie Hymas Gundersen
Written
by Brendie Gundersen on February 28, 2014
I was
born on February 16, 1986. I am the third child of Denise Quirl Hymas
and Kelly Paul Hymas. I was the third child and second daughter in my
family, and now I have two little sisters as well. My siblings are as
follows; Jason Ern Hymas, born 3 May 1981; Carina Hymas, born 18
August 1983; Amy Hymas, born 30 December 1988 and Makell Hymas, born
10 November 1992. I was born at Madison Memorial Hospital in Rexburg,
Idaho. At the time of my birth my family lived in Newdale, Idaho.
When I was three, we moved to a small apartment in Rexburg, Idaho
while we waited for our new house to be built in Sugar City, Idaho.
We moved into our new home in Sugar City when I was three and a half
years old. We lived in that house until I was a Senior in High
School. When then moved to a house we built just down the road. My
mother and step-father still live there today.
I grew
up in a well-loved home. My parents always showed how much the care
for us as well as each other. I was born into an LDS family, and
religion was very important in our home. I grew up knowing that my
parents both had a testimony of the gospel, and that they loved our
Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.
In
January of 1999 we found out that my dad had colon cancer. He fought
it with everything he had for almost two years. His first step was
surgery on April 2nd where they removed 11 inches of his
colon. They tested 12 of the surrounded lymph nodes, and 9 came back
as being affected by the cancer. Afterwards they knew that the cancer
had spread throughout his body. My dad started chemotherapy and
radiation on May 17th for five and a half weeks. His
second round of chemo started July 9th, and the third
round started September 3rd. Blood worked was done in
October, and the results came back that the CEA was still really
high. They took chest x-rays and CT scans. The cancer was found in
his lungs and liver. They started a different form of chemo November
24 1999. They took more x-rays and CT scans on January 6th that
showed the cancer was still there. On January 10th, they
started my dad on a third kind of chemo in the form of a pill. At the
end of February the cancer in lungs was stable, and the cancer in
liver was going away. He continued the pill chemo, and things were
stable March and April. In May, the CEA was rising, which meant that
the pill wasn't working anymore. They took a new CT the end of May,
which showed new growth. My dad went down to Hunstman's Cancer Center
on May 31st and was qualified for an experimental drug
that was supposed to help boost the effects of the chemo. He started
this new drug June 15th and had the treatment every two
weeks. It was a fusion of chemo and the experimental drug. After
three treatments, the cancer was sable and there was mild
improvement. After four more treatments in Salt Lake, they took a CT
scan on September 18th. The CT showed great improvement,
there were no new growths and all previous spots got smaller and were
less than 1cm in size. My dad went through three more treatments. On
November 8th, his last scheduled treatment, he had an
extreme allergic reaction to the experimental drug and was told he
could no longer be a part of the trail. On November 15th
he was diagnosed with pneumonia in both lungs. Two days later he was
hospitalized and life-flighted to the hospital in Idaho Falls. My dad
then slipped into a coma and passed away November 22, 2000. This was
a very hard time for my family. I remember feeling very mad at
Heavenly Father for a while. How could he take away the father of
five young kids and leave my mom to raise us on her own? It wasn't
until I received a blessing of peace and reassurance from my uncle
Kirk, and I felt and heard my father standing next to me. I knew that
everything would be okay. I didn't know HOW it would be okay; I just
knew that it would be. I'm so blessed to know that families are
forever. I know that I will see my dad again.
I had
some really good friends who lived very close to me; Emily Teeples,
Elaina Law, Sabrina Law (twins), Sarah King, and Hailey King
(cousins). There were a few others that would hang out with us
occasionally, but mostly it was just the five of us. We all lived on
the same street so getting together to play was really easy. One of
our favorite things to do play dress up and put on “shows” for
our parents. We also had a club, “The Babysitters Club” that was
inspired by the books. There was never a dull moment when we were
together. My very best friend was Emily Teeples. We did everything
together and would pretend that we were sisters. Some of my favorite
memories with Emily are the sleepovers we would have. We would stay
up super late playing board games, mostly Guess Who? Emily and I also
took dance together for a while.
I took
dance lessons from the age of five until college. These dance classes
included tap, jazz, ballet, modern, and clogging. My teachers were
Melanie Schwendiman and Wendy Boone. I loved to dance. It was my
stress release and my way of expressing emotions. I also took piano
lessons from age five until I graduated from high school. I really
enjoyed playing the piano. I took lessons from Janette Howell, Janet
Harris, and Marilyn Gee. I wasn't super great at the piano until I
got into high school. Then I started to be better at practicing and
working towards being better. In junior high, I started playing the
clarinet. I have fun playing in the band, mostly because my friends
were there with me. I wasn't very good and only played for a few
years. I liked playing the piano better.
I went
to school within the Sugar-Salem School district. I went to
kindergarten through 3rd grade at Central Elementary
School. I had Mrs. Owens for kindergarten, Mrs. Ball for 1st
grade, Mrs. Hawkes for 2nd grade and Mrs. Yates for 3rd
grade. I attended 4th through 6th at the
Kershaw Intermediate School. I had Mrs. Johnson for 4th
grade, Mrs. Inama for 5th grade and Mrs. Loosli for 6th
grade. Junior High School was 7th-8th and High School was
9th-12th. In junior high, I played on the volleyball team
and was in the school band both years. In high school, I participated
in many different things. As a freshman, I did speech and drama as
well as the school plays. My older sister Carina and I made it to the
finals in State Drama in mime. I was in the concert band and played
on the volleyball team. As a sophomore, I didn't do as many
activities. I tried out for the volleyball team and didn't make it. I
worked a little with the drama department but not as much as before.
As a junior, I participated a lot more with Speech and drama and was
even the stage manager for a couple of plays. Again, I went to State
Drama but didn't make it as far this year. My senior year I tried
out to be a cheerleader and made the squad. This took up most of my
time, and I loved it. We did cheer competitions and brought home a
lot of trophies. I attended college at Brigham Young University from
2004-2007 when I transferred to Eastern Idaho Technical College. Here
I earned my Dental Assisting Certificate and graduated in 2008.
Several years later in 2013, I started taking online classes through
BYU-Idaho to complete my Bachelor degree.
I got my
first job when I was 16. I worked at the local grocery story called
Sugar City Market. I worked as a cashier, I stocked the shelves, and
I bagged groceries. I worked here for two years to help pay for my
car, gas and activities through high school. I had a love/hate
relationship with this job. I loved the owner, Kathy, but I didn't
enjoy working with the manager Becky. She really wasn't very nice to
me and made things kind of miserable. I enjoyed working with the rest
of my co-workers. We always knew how to have fun and complete the
tasks at the same time. There was never a dull moment during that
job. My second job was as a student secretary for the IT department
at BYU-Idaho. I would work there in between classes while at college.
I like working here as well. The guys whom I worked with had worked
with my dad before and were kind of like adoptive fathers to me. It
was always pleasant to go to work. It was so nice to have a job that
worked so well with my classes. After working here I started working
at Upper Valley Partial Care Center. This was a business owned by my
Aunt Becky. It was a place for children to go that had special mental
needs such as; bipolar, ADD, schizophrenia, autism and many more.
There were also kids of parents with these disorders that would come
to the center as well. I worked with social workers to help the kids
learn how to behave and learn with their disabilities. There was also
counseling available. I loved working here; I mostly worked with the
babies (3 and under) and loved every minute of it. My next few jobs
were working in restaurants. I worked as a server at Pizza Pie Cafe,
Lost Creek Steak CO. and Texas Roadhouse. After I got my dental
assistant certificate, I worked in three different dental offices.
The first office I worked in was Drs. Kunz, Toenjes, and Brizzee. I
then started working for Dr. Elison at Elison Dental. My last job was
at Eagle Rock Dental where I worked with Drs. Hammond and Bauer.
I met my
husband, Tyson John Gundersen, just before I turn 21 on February 7th,
2007. His sister-in-law had been trying to set us up for since the
October before when he got home from his mission. Whether it was
school, work, or sickness something always got in the way and stopped
us from meeting. Tyson's brother showed him a picture of me from my
friend's wedding. Tyson thought, “I really need to meet this girl.”
It was set up that he would come into my work at the Pizza Pie Cafe
and meet me on Feb 10 (that Friday). We both happened to go country
dancing on Wednesday the 7th. He saw me and recognized me
from the picture. (Keep in mind I had never seen a picture of him and
had no idea what he looked like.) He asked me to dance. While we were
dancing he asked me my name and I said, “Brendie.” He responded,
“It doesn't happen to be Brendie Hymas does it?” I was
immediately freaked out. How in the world did this guy know me? He
quickly explained how he knew me, and that he was the guy I was
supposed to meet that coming Friday. A wave of relieve washed over
me, he wasn't some creepy stocker. After that dance, we got split up,
and I was afraid that I wouldn't ever see him again. Instead of
taking off a little early I made my friend stay with me until the
very end, even after most of the students had cleared out. I was
hoping he wanted to find me just as much as I wanted to find him. My
friend and I were standing in the middle of the dance floor just
waiting when he finally appeared out of the crowd. Tyson offered to
take us to get some yogurt, of course I agree for both of us. Things
with Tyson just clicked instantly. We spent everyday together, and
the next week was Valentines Day and my birthday. He spoiled me and
made me feel loved and cared for. We went to Valentine's dinner at
his brother Josh's house. The following week we went country dancing
again. While dancing we took a little break just to talk. While we
were talking, Tyson said, “What do you think about getting
married?” Now most girls would probably be freaked out by this, I
mean come on only two weeks! However that's not at all how it was for
me. I responded, “Yeah I'd like to get married someday.” He said,
“No, what do you think about getting married to me?” Of course I
said I felt the same way. (No that wasn't the official proposal.)
Over the next couple weeks, we started making plans. I had my dress,
and the temple scheduled before I had my ring. My mom was totally
supportive; she was engaged to my dad after meeting on a blind date
and dating for two weeks. Like mother, like daughter.
On March
1st, I had just gotten of a long shift at work when Tyson
called and insisted I met him at his brother's house. I complained
that it was late, and that I was still in my horrible, pizza smelling
clothes and wanted to go home. He said, “I love the smell of
pizza!” Finally I agreed and drove to his brother's house. Once I
got there, Tyson and his brother were doing some project with the saw
in the garage, while I sat and talked to Lindsay, Josh's wife, about
wedding plans. I was a little irritated that he made me come over and
then totally ignored me. I was about to leave when Josh came storming
into the kitchen looking for a first-aid kit. Lindsay asked what was
wrong, and he said that Tyson had just cut his finger. Josh left the
kitchen and a few minutes later Tyson came up the stairs with a very
bloody towel wrapped around his hand. Both Josh and Tyson looked very
worried. They thought that the cut was bad enough that Tyson would
need stitches. They tried to get me to look at it, and I had no
desire to. I kept saying, “The hospital is across the street. It
would take you two minutes to walk there! Just go!” They kept
insisting that I look, so I reluctantly agreed. Tyson pulled back the
towel and on his pinkie finger was my ring. He dropped to one knee
and asked me to marry him. I was so mad at him at first for making me
believe that his finger was basically chopped off, but then I looked
at him and was so filled with love that I started to cry. I squeaked
out a yes and jumped into his arms.
We were
married four short months later on June 9, 2007 in the Idaho Falls
temple. It was a very beautiful, sunny day, and everything went
perfect. We had a lunch-in with family and friends later that day and
a reception to follow. We felt very blessed by the love and support
we got from everyone.
After we
were married, Tyson continued to go to school at BYUI, and I went to
EITC. I finished a year later and started to work to help Tyson
through school. Tyson applied to Dental School the fall of 2009. He
went on several interviews and was accepted to both Indiana and
Oregon. He decided to attend dental school at Oregon Health and
Science University School of Dentistry. He graduated from BYU-Idaho
April 2010 and started Dental School August 2010, so we made the move
that summer. He is about to graduate from Dental School. We are
hoping he gets the job he really wants in Billings, MT.
Tyson
and I have two boys; Hank and Luke. Hank was born on April 25, 2010,
and Luke was born on May 1, 2012. They are the love of my life, and I
am so blessed to be their mom. They are such good friends and love
playing together. We hope to be adding to our family very soon.