Chickabiddie Girl

Monday, April 23, 2012

Menu Monday: Thank you Neighbors!

Throughout our whole ordeal this past month, our neighbors and friends have been bringing over meals for us. There has been so much that I have had to freeze most of it for later use. This is what I am pulling out this week.
Monday- Chicken Enchiladas, salad and jello
Tuesday- Pulled pork sandwiches, sweet potato fries and broccoli
Wednesday- Chicken Tetrazzini, salad, apple pie
Thursday- Meatloaf, mashed potatoes, corn
Friday- Beggar's Pizza night (we are going to use a gift card that was given to us)

Saturday and Sunday- Leftovers and sandwiches

We are so blessed to have these people in our lives. It is amazing the generosity of people in this world that seems so messed up. God is good...all the time.

Moving Forward

My husband went back into the hospital for a week to have the bullet removed from his neck and to do more repair work on his arm. He came home on a Tuesday. Knowing that my husband is a HUGE White Sox fan, the Superintendent was able to get us tickets to the home opener AND he was able to get my son Jacob to throw out the first pitch! What an unbelievable opportunity. We could not pass it up! It was a great day, but a long day for Del. He got tired really fast, and paid for our outing for the next two days.

We are trying to get back to some kind of "normal" in our house. I officially went back to work last week. It was heartbreaking and good to get back all at the same time. Heartbreaking because I wanted to stay with him and take care of him, but good to get back into our normal routine. It was good for Del to be home alone because it forced him to do some things for himself that he thought he couldn't do. We decided as a family that if he could stay home by himself, I would go back to work. I am exhausted, but we are surviving.

My only issue is my children. They seem to be handling the trauma very well, but their lazy ways about the house are really getting to me. I cannot do it all by myself, and the fact that I have to ask 10 times to do one chore is really exhausting. I don't know how else to motivate them. We've talked them to death about it. I know part of it is being a teenager, but this event in our lives calls for some responsibility and behavior change.

Sunday, April 15, 2012

Wounded Chicago Cop Goes Home 8 Days After Shooting « CBS Chicago#.T3MGCS7rqhA.facebook#.T3MGCS7rqhA.facebook#.T3MGCS7rqhA.facebook

Sp. Garry McCarthy Awards Shot Officer, Del Pearson: MyFoxCHICAGO.com

Wounded officer returns home after week in hospital

Nightmare: Part 2

Del remained in the ICU for four days. I slept at the hospital for the first two days...well, not really slept. I was there. I never left. I take that back, I left for 20 minutes to go home, shower, and change clothes. Thank God we only live 5 minutes from the hospital. Those four days were brutal. Del was intabated, had a tube in his stomach, a chest tube, a catheter, bags upon bags of fluids, and about 80 staples across his neck and chest. He also had a large bruise on his stomach. This is when I found out that my husband was actually shot twice. One that his vest stopped, and one that his vest did not.

The next few days would be a waiting game. Waiting to be sure that his organs did not fail with the massive blood loss that he endured.

The only thing that I can say got us through was prayer. I cannot tell you how many police officers and people came to the hospital. I was in a daze. My children were there, my family was there, my husband's family was there. I had to remain strong and positive for their sake. I could not let my kids know that I was scared. Scared that it would just be the three of us.

Prayer got us through the first day, and then the next, and then the next. By Thursday, we knew that Del was a survivor. He would make it.