My Personal History

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 2^nd 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 17^th for five and a half weeks. His second round of chemo started July 9^th, and the third round started September 3^rd. 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 6^th that showed the cancer was still there. On January 10^th, 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 31^st and was qualified for an experimental drug that was supposed to help boost the effects of the chemo. He started this new drug June 15^th 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 18^th. 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 8^th, 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 15^th 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 3^rd grade at Central Elementary School. I had Mrs. Owens for kindergarten, Mrs. Ball for 1^st grade, Mrs. Hawkes for 2^nd grade and Mrs. Yates for 3^rd grade. I attended 4^th through 6^th at the Kershaw Intermediate School. I had Mrs. Johnson for 4^th grade, Mrs. Inama for 5^th grade and Mrs. Loosli for 6^th grade. Junior High School was 7th-8^th and High School was 9th-12^th. 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 7^th, 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 7^th. 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 1^st, 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.