The accident

Until yesterday, Tim, Sydney and I could each say that we had never been in an automobile accident. Not so anymore.

We had just been grocery shopping at Albertsons, filled up the van with gas, and stopped by DQ for ice cream cones per Sydney's request. :) We got back on the road to head home, and within a few seconds, a lady in another car tried to cross the street in front of us and smashed into my door. She said we must have been in our blind spot because she just didn't see us. Tim tried hard to swerve and brake when he realized she wasn't going to move, but there was no way he could avoid her. It was so sudden. BOOM! So fast...

Once we came to a stop, I tried to open my door and get out, and it was hard to pry it open. It was not going to shut again after that. Tim also said that the wheels wouldn't turn right, like he couldn't steer. They had to tow it away.

So many thoughts went through my head as we were filling out the police report and waiting for the tow truck. What if we hadn't stopped for ice cream? What if we had gone to another grocery store? What if we had been going faster? What if I were taken away in an ambulance? What if I had to witness the death of my husband or daughter? That may sound extreme, but I think it was just the Lord's way of reminding me that it could have been SO MUCH WORSE. We all got out and walked away. I will be forever grateful for that.

It was definitely an experience that I don't hope to repeat any time soon. We were definitely on edge for the rest of the evening. It definitely affected my daughter.

I don't know what will happen to the van yet or if it is fixable or how long it will take to get it back. It only had about 3,000 miles on it so far and I just wasted money on a full tank of gas! It really is sad, but I take comfort and rejoice in the safety and protection of my family. They are irreplaceable.

Here are some pics of the damage from Tim's phone. It looks a lot worse in person.

Mother-Daughter Weekend

This weekend was our ward's Fathers and Sons camp out. After a bit of begging from me, Tim agreed to take Jake with the other two so Sydney and I could have a mommy/daughter weekend by ourselves. These are the things you dream about when you first have a daughter. Sweet memories and good times. We had so much fun!

I let her choose where to go to dinner, and it came as no surprise that she chose McDonald's. She was in heaven with her burger, fries, and toy in her Happy Meal. She was also so excited that I said we could sit at the tall stools. Simple pleasures. I love this pic of the two of us!


Next we went to the grand opening of Hastings to check it out. We had a coupon from the paper for a free smoothie and that was a thrill for her.


Next we stopped by Target and I told her she could either pick some new nail polish or we could get fake nails and try those out. She went for the fakies. The funny thing was, though, that she couldn't stand them after about 10 minutes and ended up ripping them off, haha! That night all she wanted was to sleep in bed with me, which is never an option for any of my children. I let her fall asleep in with me, but by about midnight, I couldn't handle her heavy breathing anymore and moved her to her own bed. I'm so mean...


The next morning, we drove to my sister-in-law's to have my niece Daniele give us cute new haircuts. I cut several inches off of Syd's hair a couple weeks ago, but wanted to get her a cute A-line. I love it! I got mine done similar, but with bangs and lots more layers.


After our haircuts, we stopped at Blimpie, since it was my turn to choose the location, and had lunch before returning to our boys. It was so fun to have time with just her. She is such a blessing!


This picture is to show her cute Easter dress. She helped pick it out this year. I thought she did a great job. Ignore her goofy expression. :)


Here is a side view of her hair. It's so dark that it's hard to show how cute it is. It's stacked in the back and just suits her perfectly. Sassy!


Here we are together this morning with our sort-of-matching 'dos. I love this girl!

WICKED!!!!!

I am a music lover. That shouldn't be news to anyone reading this blog. Sometimes I even go around singing ordinary things to my kids as if we are a part of some big musical and everything must be sung instead of spoken. That being said, I had only been to one major Broadway-like production (Mama Mia in Vegas) before Wednesday night. We went to see WICKED. Now I can say I've been to two. And I need more.

It was amazing and I loved every minute of it. My only regret is not forking out a little more money for better seats. Next time I WILL be closer!

Actually I have one more regret. The lack of cheesecake. See, we (me, Tim, his borther Kip and his wife Sabrina, my niece Brittney and her husband Josh, and my niece Daniele) ate dinner at Cheesecake Factory before the show. Doing Weight Watchers, I sure as heck didn't want a whole piece of cheesecake in front of me. I thought surely one of the other 6 people would order a slice and I could have a bite of theirs. Just a bite. I only wanted one bite, people! But alas, no one wanted to order cheesecake. So I had NO BITES! I'm not bitter or anything... Thankfully, the show was amazing and all but made me forget about the missing dessert.

One of the best parts of the night was seeing Tim enjoy the show.

***DISCLAIMER: Cathy: musical. Tim: not-so-much.***

But he enjoyed himself none-the-less and said afterward that he really liked it. Not that he's going to turn into Mary Poppins and start singing everything he says like his crazy wife, haha! But I foresee more shows like this in our future and that makes me happy.

I didn't think to get a picture until after the show, 5 or 6 hours after our night began, so I don't look amazing, but it proves we went. Good times!

Easter

Going through the few pictures I took, I'm realizing I have no pictures of Sydney in her Easter dress. I'll make her wear it this week again and take a picture then. She and I went on a girls' night out to shop for it. She's a size 7 now, which means she is no longer grouped with little girls...her size is in the 7-14 "tween" category. Yikes! I helped sway her a little from the more "mature" dresses, but for the most part, she picked it out on her own and I love it. It's black and white and so darling...pics to come soon, hopefully.

This year we went to my sister-in-law Tammy's since her son Daniel was giving his talk before he leaves on his mission. It was fun to have a mini-Bryson-reunion and the kids loved seeing all the cousins. We had an egg hunt, and Jake had such a great time. I had found these great sand buckets at Michael's for a dollar and used my Silhouette to put their names on them...still love that thing!




Sydney going at it.






A Bryson tradition is the silver/gold eggs. They each have a dollar or two hidden in them and are hidden especially well. This year, Sydney found one and it had a gold dollar coin inside. She was so excited!


You can also see that we cut her hair. About a week ago I was cutting the boys' hair when she started begging me to cut hers "short." I told her to think about it for a while and if she still wanted to, then I would. Once that girl makes up her mind, there is no changing it. So now we pretty much look like twins. I think we'll both get A-lines pretty soon...it will be fun for summer.

Great Goat

As I'm sure you all know, my husband is a hunter. That's the middle name of our firstborn. It is what it is.

He's also a little addicted to getting things mounted and hanging them on our walls.

Last fall, he shot a mountain goat and promptly took it to the taxidermist. Sadly, he finished it last week. It's now in the family room next to the elk. The only good thing about it is that it somewhat balances out the elk and it's no longer quite so all alone. The only bad thing is it's ugly.

If me "letting" (I mean, it's his house, too...) him put it up there isn't proof enough of my undying love and devotion, then I don't know what is. I really don't LOVE it, but I don't HATE it, so I can live with it. It makes him happy.


Here it is next to the elk so you can see just how big it is.



Here is a little more close up. The rock is actually made out of plywood and foam. It looks so real though!



And here she is in all her glory, really close up. I still can't believe this is in my house!