It's back.

Yes, the C-word.  It's reared it's ugly head again and we're gearing up for the next battle.
We had Scott's routine lab work done a couple weeks ago and were a little concerned when his Calcitonin levels came back at 930 - the highest they've been since his thyroidectomy and radical neck dissection almost two years ago.  So, since it's been almost a year since we last did CT scans and ultrasounds, we decided that should happen.
They did them on Monday and by Thursday morning we had official confirmation that yes, he has another lymph node that looks bad in his neck and it needs to come out.  Meaning it's time to start planning surgery again and it should probably happen within the next month.
His scans are on a CD and in the mail right now, headed to our specialist in St. Louis.  He will review them and we should know within a few days whether we need to go back there for surgery or if it can be done here locally.  So, for now we don't really know anything.  Except the cancer is back and surgery is needed.

We're pretty bummed about the whole thing, but trying to stay positive.  It could be worse - the lymph node is at least in a relatively easily accessible location.  It's in his neck right next to where his doctor in St. Louis took out all the other ones in January 2010.  The timing is not ideal (when is cancer timing ever ideal though, right?) with everything going on with our house, school, and residency. We will get through though.  We just need lots of prayers and are trying to take it all one day at a time.  I'll let you know when we know more.

Final Countdown

We have scheduled the floor guys to come NEXT WEEK!  This means we are on a time crunch and still have so much to do!  Trim, closet doors, fixing windows, installing light fixtures and getting plumbing fixtures hooked up. The floors being sanded down and refinished is huge as this is the last big step before moving in!

After that we are basically set!  We are getting excited, but also feeling the pressure.  Scott starts his ICU rotation on Tuesday (going in almost every day with 30hr days every three days) so the timing is perfect as he will basically be worthless outside of the hospital.  I am so grateful for such a hard working, motivated husband.  He really has been such a trooper - working his shifts at the hospital and then coming home and working 4-8 hours on the house (or working those hours and then going into the hospital at night).  I am just so blessed to have such a stellar dude that I'm married to and had to brag a little at how well he provides for us.
Here are a few pictures.  All the details are coming together and we are slowly scratching off details on Vinnie's final list

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Trying to decide on paint colors...

Erica and Roman in bedroom #1 with the new paint (ignore the shelving to your right - it will be moved eventually)

Bedroom #2 - painting in progress (it's finished now)

Aaaaaand bedroom #3 - still need to scrape that window down and prime and paint it.

Putting our last craigslist appliance, the double oven, in - it was a beast to deal with, but is absolutely beautiful :)  If an oven can be beautiful...

Installing the hardware our neighbor found for us at a garage sale which we painted to coordinate with our kitchen.

Fans and light fixtures going in (don't worry - we'll put the blades on soon)

Sissy Visits!

Erica came to visit for the last 5 days with my sweet little three-month-old nephew, Roman.  She flew all by herself with him and was quite the supermom.  We didn't do anything too wild but had such a good time together, catching up on lots of missed time together.

We spent quite a bit of time over at the new house.  Picked paint colors for the last three bedrooms and painted for several hours.  Roman helped a little.

Inspecting Vinnie's carpentry work

He already has quite the little personality and it was SO fun to be able to spend so much time with him.  Check out that smirk!

Roman with Uncle Scott

I am so proud of what an excellent mommy my sister has become.  It's so beautiful to watch how well she does with him - makes me pretty proud of her :)

They flew out yesterday afternoon and it was hard to see them go.  I miss them so much already!

Fall

I think it is finally here in New Orleans!  Today the temp dropped from high-80's to mid-50's in a matter of hours, and the wind is blowing like crazy.  This weather puts me in the mood for sweat pants and baking!  (It's also a good excuse to procrastinate on the homework...)  So, I quick mixed up some Pumpkin Chocolate Chip bread.  Oh. My. Deliciousness.  I'm trying to stick to only one piece tonight.  We'll see how that goes...

Ariyah's been bugging me for a piece as well.  I just had to get her little face in there for you all to see how guilty she tries to make me feel for not sharing...

We're getting closer!

We're moving right along with the house!

Sorry the video cut off early - I ran out of room on the memory card.  I was about to tell you where the toilet and new double vanity will be going.

This vanity was our find of the month so far.  It is solid poplar, with a granite top and two under-mount sinks. It was originally $1100 at Lowe's and happened to be on sale last weekend so we went to buy it and discovered it was slightly damaged (a little nick I'll never point out to anyone and will be impressed if you can find), so they marked it down some more.  While they were trying to load it onto the cart to take to the register, the manager broke the back-splash and we bargained them down even further!  We ended up getting it for $375 and are so happy about it!

We're hoping to be moving into the house sometime in the first half of November and are getting more and more excited about it.  We're hoping we don't have any big set-backs before now and then and that everything continues to stay on track.

The details that matter

The last two weeks have been full of finish carpentry.  We've been putting up crown moulding, hanging doors, painting, and working on plumbing and electric work like crazy.

A stack of trim - ready to go up.

 Vinnie found us a fabulous deal on moulding/trim at a warehouse and they practically gave it to us.  We're so happy to have someone on our side who knows where the good deals are and who knows how to talk his way into an even better deal before you even know what's happened.

Kinda blurry picture of the crown moulding in the living room

Here's the front bathroom.  We bought the vanity at Home Depot, I painted the walls in Arabian Sands (by Behr), and we're doing the oiled bronze fixtures for a little added flair.  Yesterday Vinnie put a door on that bathroom. Today Scott's putting in the drain on that shower and finishing the plumbing for it and the toilet, which we bought yesterday, so we can finally have a somewhat working bathroom over there!

Scott's dad came down for three days last week (he was a trooper with his recently operated on broken ankle and all).  We set up little work stations with comfy stools for him and he helped Scott figure out the rest of the major electric work.  Scott's been working on connecting everything throughout the house for the last few weeks now.  A big task considering we have about 150 outlets and light switches alone (not including light fixtures) - the more the merrier, right?

Another big project has been the master bathroom shower.  We were originally going to do an Acrylic shower insert which we special ordered through Home Depot.  Three days after it was supposed to arrive, a few weeks ago, they told us it was back ordered for at least 5 more weeks.  Such a frustration.  SO, back to the drawing board.  We decided to go with a tile shower, but were afraid of leaking, due to the fact that we have heard only horror stories of completely tiled showers which crack and leak within a few years.  Because we really like the brand new sub floor we put in throughout that whole area of the house, we decided to play it safe and hopefully avoid leaks and termites and rot and all the fun things that come along with water seeping into places it shouldn't, with a fiberglass insert for the base.

I painted the room last week and we went shopping for the tile on Monday evening.  We picked out a marble tile from our local flooring outlet place for $1.99/sq ft and love it.  

Scott found the glass tile border on clearance at Home Depot.  We have enough to hopefully carry that through to a back-splash for our vanity and maybe around the bathtub in the room?  Details that can be added later as we go. 

Our tile man is over there grouting everything as we speak and will be done with it today so Scott can move onto the plumbing in that room next.