Oops

In my previous post I mentioned how lame I am at blogging. Well, I still am. I promise to do better. I am going to be revamping both blogs (this one and my floral one). I am hoping to post twice a week but you know how lame I am at stuff. Lots of stuff going on with the Beachs (Beaches? I still don't know). Derek has cancer still. Lately he has been feeling really sick. He gained lots of weight and lost it all within the last week. But you know my Derek, still a happy camper. My Camden is getting huge! He turns 2 next month (can you believe it??). He is the most entertaining child ever. He has a new evil laugh that he does when he does something bad. I seriously can't be mad at a kid who develops his own evil laugh. The picture is of the notorious mad man himself, Sticker Head Boy!

I am still training for my half marathon that is on September 4th. We are making a trip out of it with us and Robin, Caitlin, and Kora. A couple days of Disneyland, having fun, then I will attempt not to vomit everywhere and on everyone while running 13.1 miles. It shall be grand. Have you seen our house? Its beautiful. Pictures to come (maybe, lol). More updates soon.

And the days roll on...

I am so lame at blogging. I wish I was as good as my wonderful friend Ashlee, but alas, I am not. So from hence forth I will be better. Our lives were just getting boring too...
To begin we have been to Disneyland an asinine amount of times this year. First just Derek and I went in March. It was so nice to be there together. Our trip to Disneyland 2 years before prompted the marriage discussion and viola! Here we are all grown up and stuff.
Here is Derek with Captain Hook comparing mustaches. I missed Camden lots though and decided not to go on vacation without him again. Next we went in April for my birthday. Derek, Camden, Myself, and Talon Jean piled into our car, all of us with the stomach flu and went to Disneyland, the happiest place on Earth, and the cleanest place to dispose of your bodily waste. Just sayin'. Next is July, where my siblings, myself, Derek, and Camden surprised my mother by telling her we were going out to eat the day before her birthday, telling her lie after lie (I mean excuse after excuse) of why none of us would be able to come see her on her real birthday. When we get to her house to take her out for a cheap lunch we surprise her with the information that we are actually taking her to Disneyland for her birthday and she better go pack because we are leaving in 10 minutes. It was so fun hearing sputters of "No, what? Joking?" and us intensely looking at the clock and telling her she only had 8 more minutes before we were leaving her birthday behind-behind. Here is my mother getting to ride Peter Pan with her favorite and only grandchild Camden. Then in October we took the perilous journey to Disneyland with the whole (and by whole I mean most) of the Beach family. We all shared a house in Anaheim, just a few minutes from Disneyland, and spent the next 3 days together. Surprisingly we all survived. No injuries or fatalities, it was a Christmas miracle. So unfortunately we used our yearly miracle on that. Dont't be fooled. This is not all of us. That ends our Disneyland trips for a very long time. I have become the master of trips to Disneyland so these trips really cost us nothing. From a psychological stand point, I think we embarked on all of these trips because it was so nice to be able to actually go on trips and not worry if Derek should be around all of these people or can we afford to go? It was nice to do something for us. We also celebrated our baby's first birthday this year! I can't believe how big he has gotten! Or how curious he is. These days he is fascinated with looking down people's shirts. He's a Beach, no denying that. We also bought a house! Perfect time to buy if you can. We bought our house for half of what it was 2 years ago. Sad for the people before us but we do love our house. It's in Chandler and its older, doesn't look like much from the outside but its a huge lot. 1400 square foot house on an 11,000 square foot lot. Wild, I know. The inside has all tile and was kept up real nicely. Our mortgage is less than what most people I know are paying for rent (not to brag). If you can buy, now is the time. By the way, that hummer in the driveway is not ours, that's our realtor's. I am in school full time at ASU. Its so nice to be back in school. I have a full schedule of upper division English classes. I am so grateful to be back in school that I am giving it all I got. In fact, I have 100% in 2 of my classes, I didn't even think that was possible in college. I also have been working little by little on getting my floral business together. We also celebrated our 2 year anniversary on October 11th! I know, I know, you're looking at that picture wondering who those people are. Trust me, that's us. I'm all thin and Derek looks like he might have a hold on his hairiness. My current state of fluffiness means that we have Camden and that i'm too lazy to get rid any extra there is of me. And Derek thought chemo would take care of removing his hair for him but silly him, the dude didn't lose his hair through 9 months of chemo. Derek is doing okay. His cough has come back which is a problem. I am really sick of competing with cancer for my husband. We thought we were doing good, moving on with our lives but here comes cancer. The tumor in his chest on his windpipe is growing and that is why his cough is back. It's getting worse. We are still fighting insurance to get him back on. I have tried everything I can think of. We can't purchase our own insurance policy because he has a preexisiting condition. The new healthcare reform would have us spend $1000 a month on medical insurance, and AHCCCS says I make too much money, which is laughable. He needs a PET scan and no one will give him one unless we pay for it up front which is thousands of dollars that we just don't have. It's sickening to know that my husband isn't getting the medical care he needs because I make $36 over the income limit. It's also sad that he is getting punished because i'm working. I hate playing into this messed up system but i'm doing what I have to do so that he can get his treatments. I stopped working. The upside is that now my house is clean. Okay not really, but i'm trying. Okay not trying as much as just lifting a pile of paper, complaining that I can't find anything and then putting the papers back down. Our ward has been great and really helpful to us. One of the ladies in my ward who lives across the street was talking with us the other day. She said "I don't know how you guys do it. Whenever you talk about your situation you seem like it doesn't stress you out". We do seem that way sometimes. But its only because if we think about it, the despair is just a bit too consuming. Cancer can eat you up and spit you back out. I apologize for the sudden turn of this blog post. On the bright side we are happy and in love! Lately, I think of the couple of weeks before our wedding when we found out about Derek's cancer. We were heading into the temple to do an endowment session to ease our minds.
"You guys should just get married now?" Rochelle said.
"Want to?" I asked Derek.
"No you will regret it" he replied.
He has never been more wrong.

Hey!!

Sorry all. It has been crazy! I apologize for the neglect but I shall update you if you would like. Just in case you aren't aware we (Derek, Kaela, and Camden Beach) LOVE Disneyland. We have gone 3 times this year.
We bought a house, I will post pictures soon. We are moving in right now so we should be into our house this weekend. I start school next week and I am super excited. I am taking 5 English Lit classes at ASU. Derek is doing great, we went to the doctor and he said that he is doing well and doesn't need to see him for a few months. Camden is getting huge. He turned one last month. I can't believe how fast time flies! Sorry to make this so short but we have alot going on. I will post more later!

A look back at 2009

Well it has been some year. This blog post is dedicated to a look back at the Derek, Kaela, and Camden Beach family in 2009. January-March was pretty uneventful. Derek and I were both really tired. I was growing a baby which is horribly tiring. In March we found out we were having a boy! Derek was doing chemo and was scheduled to be done in May. However he developed a cough similar to the one that took us to the doctor in the first place and more scans were done. It was found that his cancer hadn't shrunk any and in fact was growing. Derek went through 3 different types of chemo before it was decided that a bone marrow transplant was necessary if Derek wanted to be cured. In May we went and had a consultation with the transplant doctor and everything was laid out for us. His own stem cells would get extracted from his blood which looks like someone getting dialysis. He had to do this 2 days in a row to get the amount of cells he needs. They said he would have to be in the hospital for about a month. The bad news was that it sounded like he would be in the hospital when I had Camden so I was greatly worried about that. Derek then did some pretty intense chemo where he spent 8 hours a day for a week getting chemo, got 2 weeks off then had to do it all over again. Towards June I was feeling pretty crappy. I was getting huge and thought I would be giving birth to a 10 pound baby. My blood pressure started rising. At the beginning of July I stopped working.

Here's me looking HUGE!

On July 21st I went to the doctor and my blood pressure was really high so they sent me to the hospital to get a 3D ultrasound to make sure my baby was okay. I was already dilated and almost completely effaced so she said I would go into labor sometime this week but to make an appointment for next week just in case. Next week came and I still hadn't gone into labor. I went to the doctor and my blood pressure was crazy high and said that I had preeclampsia and the only cure is having the baby. So she sent me to the hospital to get induced. Everything went pretty quick after that. I got into the labor room and Derek got really sick. He had just done really intense chemo a couple days before so he kept disappearing into the bathroom. At 11am they started the pitocin. At 1pm my doctor came in and broke my water. At 145 pm I got my epidural. Pretty quickly after that I was 10 cm and started to push.

At 501 pm Camden Allen Beach was born weighing 6 pounds 5 ounces and was 18 inches long. Derek was great through the whole thing. Even being so sick he never complained and was there for me every second I needed him.

In September Derek got his first transplant. This one he did outpatient. He did one day of super intense chemo. And the next day he got his cells back. It wiped him out pretty bad. He shaved his head because his hair was falling out but it was falling out too slow for him. Since he started chemo in last November he has kept his hair and wanted for once to look like he actually had cancer.

We were living our life as a happy family. In October Derek and I celebrated our One year anniversary.

That's not a beer on the table. That's an IBC rootbeer. Derek can't have fountain sodas. Two days later he went in for his second transplant which he had to be admitted for. He did a whole week of chemo followed by a day of getting his cells back. I visited him everyday but no one under 12 can go into the transplant unit so Camden couldn't see Derek. Everyday I brought the blanket Camden slept with to Derek so that he had a little piece of his baby. It was really hard for Derek to be away from us and really hard for me to have to chose who I was going to be with Derek or Camden. But 15 days after being in the hospital Derek came home. He couldn't get out of the car fast enough to see his son! Derek got out of the hospital 2 weeks earlier than expected, and then very quickly started recovering. I took a caregiver class on how to care for Derek when he got out of the hospital and I was expecting him to be incapable of doing anything like make his own food or even take a shower but he was fine! It was great and really a testimony to me how our Heavenly Father can perform miracles to those who believe they can happen.

Here is Derek getting his cells back for the last time!

After that it was just a healing process for the both of us. Derek got called as second counselor in the Sunday school presidency. I got called as the secretary in the Primary. I went back to work right after Thanksgiving. We also had a wonderful Christmas. Even though Camden doesn't understand about Christmas yet we still had a blast buying and wrapping his presents and watching him as we opened them for him.

Our Christmas was wonderful! It was so nice to be together.

This has been a tough year but it was made sweeter by the arrival of our little boy. Heavenly Father sure has been watching over us and taken great care of us. Our family and friends have been angels to us and have really looked out for us. We couldn't be more grateful. It has also made us all the more grateful to be an eternal family.

Sorry

Now that Derek is home we haven't had much going on which is AWESOME! We just hang out. Derek is doing great. He has an appointment on Tuesday and I am going to ask if I can go back to work. I LOVE being at home but I feel like I need to go back to work. We are too poor for both of us not to be working. Derek's hair is growing back and I have a feeling it will grow back fast. Camden is a big fatty. I love it, he is so cute. He smiles alot, he is just a happy, content baby. Well that is all that is new with us. I am glad I have nothing more to tell you. A boring life is my favorite.

Day + Not sure

I have alot of pictures of Camden and Derek together but I can't help it! They are just so cute! They were taking a nap and Camden moved his hand over so that he could fall asleep touching his daddy's hand. Precious I know. We are all doing great. Derek is feeling fantastic. He seems totally normal. He has been really helpful. He does alot around the house and does alot with Camden. We went to the doctor on Tuesday and she said that he was doing so well he didn't have to come back for 2 weeks. Plus he got his external line taken out that day so he is pretty happy. Camden is doing great. He is just getting so big, I can't believe it. I am doing okay. I fail at trying to excerise and lose weight so im feeling pretty lame.

Oh Camden, my Camden

This is what happens when Camden thinks he is alone. We are bad parents because we think this is hilarious.