Last two hardcore weeks

I have no idea what I'm doing still awake after taking a Benadryl, but here I am. Perhaps it's the post-shopping high I'm still on from checking so many names off my list after some Cyber Monday shopping! What I really should have been doing is grading papers, as that deadline is a bit closer than my deadline for Christmas shopping! But for a die-hard online shopper like myself, Cyber Monday is not to be missed!

We had an excellent Thanksgiving in Kansas, filled with the usual great food, wild Black Friday shopping, four-wheeling (eight in use this year!), Nertz, and kid chaos! We now have FIVE two-year-olds, all born in 2007, so you can imagine what it's like with all them, plus the five older ones, in one basement together on the eve of bedtime! That was my last hoo-rah before Baby Girl Mauck arrives in January, and I came home with a sore back from that six-hour drive, and an upper respiratory infection! My OB put me on an antibiotic today, and put me on a schedule of OTC meds, too, so hopefully I'll kick this thing quickly! It's tough enough sleeping with this basketball on my front (one of the things it was lovingly compared to last week, as well as a prosthetic movie belly), without having to add in coughing and congestion!

The Pannell family will start looking more like that next year at this time, when we will have five new babies all born within a year, too! So exciting! It looks like it will be three boys and two girls, if all ultrasound predictions prove correct!

As always, I have grading AND a story deadline this week! They never seem to stagger just right; it's been both at once all semester! But I'm so thankful to have a great combination of part-time jobs that keeps me busy and fulfilled, but still home with my girl most of the time! Once I get my final grades turned in in two weeks, I'll be in full-on Christmas and baby prep mode, but one thing at a time!