from goats to horses.

Hello Everyone! I hope you all had wonderful weekends. Ours was great- Zach still had to get up early and be in the clinic by 7:30, but we were fortunate in that he never had to go back in come evening. We were able to spend plenty of time together in the afternoons, after he got home from the clinic, and Jethro was thrilled to get to spend time with his Daddy. Since I said I started this so you could keep updated on Zach, I'll report on him.

Today he starts his second rotation-- Equine Lameness. Yeah, that's what I said! Essentially, he's said he doesn't expect to be allowed to actually do too much on this rotation because it's a subject that really requires that you know your horse gaits. And Zach hasn't had much experience, so he really doesn't. You put a cat or a dog in front of him with some sort of lameness and my hubby can tell you which leg and which part of the leg is hurting the animal. But not horses. I expect him to learn a lot on this rotation, and I feel bad for him because he never is going to get a lunch break! But he's said that he gets to come home early, which will be nice because for the past week, it was pushing 7pm by the time he'd get home. That's an awful long day when the poor guy is getting up at 5:30 every morning!! Compound the hours in the clinic with the fact that he's not sitting at a desk, he's on his feet the whole time, and you'll understand why he falls asleep every evening on the couch.

Zach really enjoyed the food animal rotation. He loved the clinicians he was working with, he got praised profusely for one of his cases and that made us both very excited. He had so much fun, he didn't want to leave the rotation at all. I know he learned a ton, he got to do a de-horn surgery on a goat or something like that... he described the procedure and let me say, I'm just glad that my only part in it is cleaning the blood off of his coveralls every night. And trust me- there is blood. I suppose most women would be grossed out if their spouse came home from work every day with blood on his clothes, but I already can tell that being the wife of a veterinarian has desensitized me. A little. All in all, though, I think this was the perfect rotation for Zach to start out on. He had numerous patients and the majority were sent home happier and healthier and I know it was rewarding for him to see that his hard work these past six years has not been in vain. I'm so proud of him!! It's less than a year now until I'm married to a fully fledged Doctor! It's going to be so strange to hear people call him Doctor Clark. But I think it's wonderful and, as I've said to him, he'll be Doctor Clark until the day he dies and nobody can take that accomplishment away from him.

On a totally different note: my mother left yesterday for the Happiest Place on Earth! That's right, for a whole week my Mom's going to be living it up in Walt Disney World. She isn't alone, she's there with her younger sister, Leslie who is not only celebrating her first Disney visit, but is also celebrating her 50th birthday! I got a call from these silly ladies last night and they sounded so giddy. Mom's already gotten Leslie into the pin collecting and they were sitting on the curb in the Magic Kingdom waiting for the SpectroMagic parade to start. I know they're going to have a wonderful time, and how special that they get to spend this trip together?

My Dad, if you picked up from the last post, is also not in Houston at the moment. Which, of course, wouldn't be the norm right now anyway- but he's not in Qatar either! He signed up for a training conference in Stavanger, so on Friday he arrived in our former home. I've been rapid fire texting with my Dad and it sounds like Norway is still just as wonderful as it was when we were living there. He rented a car so that he wasn't tied down, and I gave him a long list of things to go and do-- silly little things but things that mean something to me. He's promised to go out to ISS and see what's changed there (I already know that they built a cafeteria-- seriously, the bomb shelter was good enough when I was there! Spoiled new kids!) and he's going to go down to the walking street where we spent our weekends. If I remember correctly, there was rarely a weekend we didn't end up down there at some point, whether it was going to McDonalds (the only one in the city!) with the Duncans or hitting up our butcher's and the one store we knew of that imported Jif peanut butter, Oreo cookies and Dr. Pepper. I'm envious of his trip, but as I've told all who will listen, I want to go back at Christmas time- that's when Norway is at it's best... and darkest but that's no matter.

We also are glad to report that Zach's dad, Roger, has completed another chemotherapy treatment. That means 11 down and only 1 more to go (hopefully!). We're so happy that we've gotten to this point, and that Roger has handled everything so beautifully. He's getting close, the final treatment should be scheduled for next week, and we know Roger's looking forward to RINGING THAT BELL! Keep at it, Rog- we love you!

All in all, I think it's been a rather momentous week(end) for the extended Clark family. I'm just hoping to hear about employment this week so I can get out of the house! I've made plans to go visit Bradley, who's stuck alone in Sugar Land with my mom's dogs. Poor boy. I've also got to start planning for his birthday cake, but unless your name starts with an S and ends in arah and your last name rhymes with Mormon, you're not going to hear details because you don't speak cake decorator. Besides, I want it to be a surprise, I can't have Brad just checking the blog to find out what goodies he'll get when the whole family can celebrate his birthday with him! And on that note, I'll say good afternoon, I hope everyone remembers that the masterpiece that is American Gladiators is back on tonight!!