My Pay It Forward For Today...And I Need Some Help From You... PLEASE!!!

Hi girls!! Boy, today was a very rough day for me for several reasons. First I went to see my counselor who I LOVE to pieces. She is helping me work through many things that I have not dealt with and she is really just a huge gift to me. Never have I felt this way about any counselor before but she IS just a huge huge gift to me!! After my appointment which was over around 1pm Hallie (who went with me today) and I were driving down a well known road. I can't tell you which road it is (to protect him and his kids, he asked me to do this) and I will tell you why in a second. It was about a month ago that I met up with this man who was walking down a major road and I had to stop and give money to. Anytime I see someone who needs help I am always the one to stop. I don't care how they look or if I may put myself in danger. Just a note before I go on, I have never been in danger ever for stopping and giving to someone in need!! Since I met him before I knew he was ok and so I knew I was ok too. So I had to drive about 1/4 of a mile going the opposite direction and had to turn around and try to catch up with him. He was on foot so I know I could catch up with him. But I was determined to stop and talk to him. I finally caught up to him and I got out of my car and had Hallie stay in the car with the doors locked (even though I know this man is virtually harmless but just to be on the safe side I had her stay inside with all doors and windows locked). I got out and I asked him if he remembered me and he did. I stood in the burning heat for over 30 minutes talking to this man (who I promised that I would not give out his name or where he walks because his children are getting bullied and they are getting pretty much attacked anywhere they go. When I heard that it made me SICK! This is wrong and should NOT happen. It is not those childrens fault. Some people are just sick! This is just a very sad situation to me. He has a sign on his back that says this..Exactly word for word this is what is says..

"'I'm Not A Bum! I Need Work! I Have 2 Children 2 Take Care Of. Christian Family" He does not panhandle and refuses to take any sort of pity. I cried for most of my visit with him. Here was this man who walks 15 to 20 miles EACH and EVERY day and he is trying to cheer me up. He asked me about my medicine that is a lollipop and what is was for. I explained about my total joint replacement and what happened and he was doing all he could to make ME feel better. I could NOT believe it. I gave him all of the money that I had (normally we don't carry cash, we use our check card or credit cards). It ended up only being $17.36 and I felt like such a LOSER that I could not give him or help him any more. He said that 1 out of 100 hundred cars will stop and some only hand him pennies some just call him bad names and harrass him! Seriously?? Pennies? Hallie and I were on our way to Chick-Fila and I asked him if I could take him with us to feed him lunch. He said he was not hungry because he just ate 2 hours before. I then asked him if I could bring him some food back to take home. He said no because it probaly would not good in the heat. Then I asked him if he needed a ride somewhere and of course again he said no. So I wanted to look at his sign close up with many many tears in my eyes and streaming down my face and his sign is very old, tattered and in not very good condition at all so I asked him if I could make him a brand new sign. He told me that the one he had was ok and for me not to go through the trouble. Well, I am not one to take No very easily. So I finally convinced him that I would make him a brand new sign. His only worry was that it could NOT be fancy because his thoughts were if people saw him with a fancy sign then he if afraid that they would think that he could afford other things. Made perfect sense to me. I was obviously going to use my Cricut to make it but I wanted to keep it super simple. So I went and bought one of those foam poster boards that has foam in between the layers of poster board. Do you all know what I am talking about? So, I bought him that and then I found some basic black adhesive letters that are made by Art Skills..it has 310 pieces, including 10 of each letters and some numbers. I think it cost a little less then $5.00. I mean, I would LOVE to bling his poster all out but I completely understand why he wants it very simple and plain and that is what he will get. He has a rope with a little hole on each side that he cut with a knife or something so I am going to use grommets, heavy duty grommets so that the board will not rip. Anyhow, I felt so bad for crying because of his situation and here he was lifting me up the whole time!! Amazing! This man is just amazing! He said he did not want pity, he did not want people to think he was a bum, he had dignity and I definetly saw that dignity in him and it was crystal clear to me today!!  I ended up giving him my phone numbers so he can call me if he needs school clothes, school supplies, food or anything that he may need for his kids or himself. I would be so happy to help him in anyway that I can. This man is VERY special but is just very down on his luck. So this weekend I am going to make him a simple sign but that is neater so that people will be able to read it better. I will post pictures of us the making his new sign when Hallie, Casey and I sit down to make it.

This was my Pay It Forward for today. And he was the most PERFECT choice to Pay It Forward!! I only wish you could meet him!! You would be so amazed!!

What I would like to ask of all of you and this may seem, um, I don't know what word to use, But.. I would like to see if any of you would like to donate even $1.00 or $2.00 or what ever you feel you can donate to help him and his children. If you could send it to my paypal account and I will prove to you that every single penny will go to this man. If you cannot donate anything this time, that is 100% okay and I understand!! No need to tell me why you are unable to do this.  This man is NOT a drunk, he is not a smoker, all he really wants to do is get a job to support his family. We all want that! I cannot help him with that right now but I would love to give him a little bit of money when I see him this coming Monday. You can send it to my personal paypal account and my email is Terrico3@ameritech.net. Because I am asking you all to open your hearts I am getting a little giveaway together for you all. Maybe I will have 2 or 3 winners. These will be simple things but it will be a showing of gratitude for opening your heart and helping this man who is so desperate to help his children!! That is ALL he wants. As you can tell I take things like this so personal. My whole counseling appointment today was about my 2 friends who are going through very tragic situations and now I am really worried about him. If each of you could at least donate $1.00 to this man it could add up to be alot (at least for him) and could put some food on the table for his kids for a few days to a few weeks. If you feel uncomfortable about donating it is really OK!! I understand, and I would never be upset at those who choose not to. It is really really ok. My goal is to help him as much as I can. While Hallie and I were at Chick-Fila I talked to the manager and talked to them about this amazing man who is so down on his luck. They agreed to pay it forward and give him some free meals. How AMAZING is that?? It only takes one person to make a difference but if we ALL get together imagine how much of a difference we can make for this one man and his 2 children?? It could be HUGE! I do want to note that I will not and WOULD NOT keep not one single cent. I am a very honest person who just loves to help those in need. I needed help a long long time ago and I will tell you all that story one day, but I had no one to help me. It hurt so bad I can't even tell you!! But we have the power to help him and trust me when I say that he is worth it, he does NOT want pity, he just wants a simple job. It makes me sad that not one other person stopped to help him in the past week and a half except ME!! How sad is that? So if you could find it in your hearts to donate at least $1.00 or what ever you can or what ever you feel you would like to donate by Monday I would be forever grateful and you would be paying it forward too. Please consider this, it does not matter how much you give but every single cent goes to him. If you do decide to donate in the comment section of paypal (if you have paypal) just put that you are helping "The Man With The Sign". Thank you SO much girls.. let's help him in any way we can. Oh how I hate to ask you but I feel like if we all put a little bit in this could really help him in so many ways. If you have any questions please email me at Terrico3@ameritech.net and I would even be willing to talk to you on the phone if you need to confirm it. What ever you need I will do. Thank you so much and I will post picture of his new poster this weekend. Let's rally together and make a change for this man and his children!! By the way, our 30 minute meeting ended with 2 hugs!! He was worried about getting me sweaty..how sweet is he?? Of course I did not care and I asked for those 2 hugs. I know that was a first for him!! So so sad. I cried for a long time today because I feel helpless and I wish I could help everyone in need!! <sighs>

Much love and many hugs to you ALL!! ~Terri

P.S. This picture you see of him with his sign was the very first time I ever met him. I cried for 30 minutes after giving him some money. He looked so sad and just completely beat down. His health is really bad, I mean really realy bad and he needs help. I do not plan on stopping here. My next goal is to help him get a job.  That is all any man wants for his family, a job to be able to support his family. They do not want hand outs or pity. Thank you for reading this and for opening your hearts to this wonderful man who is really down on his luck right now. Let's all get together and make a little difference in his life right now!! Let's Pay It Forward Today!!! Thank you!! Hugs!! ~Terri

Pay It Forward Friday's...

Hi girls!! I know this is coming to you late but I have been busy worrying about my 2 friends, one who has cancer and my other friend who just lost a dear friend of hers. Thank you for your continued prayers, well wishes and thoughts!!

I am and have always been a giver. I LOVE to help those who really need it. I especially hate to see things thrown away when they can go to others who really need them. Like women who are in domestic shelters, or the homeless living on the streets. I told you about digging in the trash and donating those items to those who needed them in a previous post. So I got to thinking about me and how I try to always pay it forward any chance I can and thought well, why don't we all try to pay it forward?

When you pay it forward you can really help change the world little by little. So every Friday I am going to have a Two Pink Peas Pay It Forward Friday's. I would LOVE to see all of you pay it forward somehow!! It can be something so small but to the person who receives it will be very large and will mean a great deal to them. So even though it is technically Saturday think about what you can do to pay it forward to someone, anyone today. It can be something small like to sit and listen to someone who has no one else to talk to, you can donate items to your local shelters for women, men or children...what about donating to the animal shelters? I love to do that too!! What about going to your local nursing home and visiting those who never has any visitors? To them it would mean so much. We need more kindness in our world and this is a perfect way to do that.

So please pay it forward to someone today and if we ALL pay it forward today, just imagine the impact that we will make today!! I would LOVE to hear how you paid it forward and we can all gain inspiration and get ideas on what we can do next Friday. It only takes one person to make a difference, let's rally together and make a HUGE difference!!

Have fun and get your kids involved, get your friends involved but just do something today, anything big or small. It does not matter. Paying it forward it what matters!!!

Many hugs to you all!! ~Terri

Contract Is Signed And Check Was Written!! YAY!! Finally!!!

Tonight at 6pm we met with our builder

Enzo of Enzco Customs Homes  we brought the model that Den had made and boy oh boy did Enzo go crazy. He really loved it!! So here they are talking about the house and the floorplan. Enzo is in the brown shirt and Den my husband is in the blue shirt.

They were taking the house apart and looking all through it. It was really cute to see! Enzo really loved it. He was amazed that Den actually made this.

Enzo taking a picture to show his son who is 11 (I think). He was saying that his son LOVES to build little model homes like this but with blocks and stuff. If this picture does not show how much he liked it then I don't know what will..lol

Here is Den signing the contract. I only took pictures of Den and Enzo not me..but I had to sign the contract too. So exciting!! It took us so long to get here!

Den is writing the check for our house. This is so funny because Enzo asked if he could pay Den to make some of these models for his clients.. how cute is that?? I KNOW that made Den feel so good about himself. I was so happy for Den to hear such a huge compliment from a really amazing builder!! But, we are now just waiting for our house to sell so we can start building and I can't wait. We have So many decisions to make still. What floor are we going to have, what is our kitchen going to look like?, Are we going to have oak trim like we do now or white trim, I mean it is endless but so much fun. I will be taking pictures throughout the whole entire process and then when our house is built I am going to make a special scrapbook for us.

I hope you all have a fantastic night. Before I go, I wanted to thank each and every one of you for your thoughts, well wishes and prayers for my friends. They are both doing well but I really worry for them both. They both mean So much to me and I would be absolutely crushed if something ever happened to them. Please continue to keep them in your thoughts and prayers. Thank you so much!! Hugs!! ~Terri

My Blog Candy Winnings & Thank You's To These Special Bloggers...

Thank you to Donya at Ok Scrappin Mama for this amazing blog candy. This is what I got in this kit  (2) 4x6 DCWV paper pads, 1 is DCWV The Green Stack, the 2nd is DCWV The All Dressed Up Matstack, 3 Sakura white jelly roll pens, MS 36 yds red & white twine and approx 10 yds orange/black Halloween twine, 1 package 9 clear "sayings" stamps from inkadinkado.

Thank you to Andrea of Heart Is In The Details  for this

Your Story kit. I really LOVE it!!

Then I wanted to Thank Brynn at Flair and Frills I won the $50 prize package and just got it today. This is what she sent to me.. what a SWEETHEART Brynn is. I am going to break down what was in this big box of goodies!

In this pakage was a whole lot of great items. Included were these 2 scrapbook kits.. the girl one is from Pebble Inc., the other one is from Top Line Creations. They are both so adorable. I love them both!! So cute!

In this picture is 2 Bubble-A-Bilities really pretty green stickers. I love these! Then from Quick Quotes Scrapbook Company is a package of 3 dragonflies that are frosted with little gems in the center. Adorable!! Also included was an 8 piece craft painting kit with brushes and sponges.

Brynn sent me this great Quick Quotes tote bag that I know I will use all the time. I use these when I go to the store instead of using paper or plastic bags. I have been trying to be as green as possible. So this bag is perfect!!

The Brynn added 10 double sided designer paper from Quick Quotes. I tried to show both sides of the papers.

Then I got acrylic stamps from K&Ccompany and there are 20 stamps in this set. So so cute!! I got 4 Powder Puff Chalking Ink in these colors..Maraschino Cherry, Amaretto, Green With Envy, Tahiti. I also got a package of 6 flowers and these are so cute. I can see so many uses for these. In this picture you see a little purple bucket of buttons. The last thing is from Making Memories and it is a spiral journal book with 30 pages. There are 6 patterns, 5 of each. Really adorable!! Thanks SO much Brynn!! I LOVE it all!!

Thank you so much Brynn, Andrea, and Donya for all of these amazing goodies. I really appreciate it So so much!!

Have a good night!! ~Terri

P.S. Another post is coming about our house.. stay tuned!!

Bella's First Day Home...

Den holding Bella..Look how tiny she was.

Again, Daddy (Bella knows Den as daddy) holding Bella.

Daddy still cuddling Bella.. She already loves him!!

Look how tiny Bella is.. and she has been wearing clothes since this day 1. She LOVES her clothes and goes nuts when she gets new clothes to wear. One day I will video tape her when I change her clothes so you can see how crazy so goes..it is so super funny!! She is a girly girl for sure!! 

Hallie and Casey getting Bella's cage ready to go. They were so excited to have her they did not want us to go home.

So here she is..my sweet, sweet Bella!! This was her very first day home. Well, not home but Den, Casey and Hallie were camping so they were in our camper and I stopped on my way home to show them Bella.

This is the story about how I got my Bella. First I want to start by saying that we always rescue animals from shelters and not purchase animals from pet stores. Casey and Hallie were invited to a birthday party at Chuck E Cheese and after the party was over Den and Casey wanted to go into the hobby shop. They LOVE trains and stuff. So Hallie and I were walking down the plaza and noticed that Pet Land had some kind of thing going on outside in front of their store on the sidewalk. They had cotton candy, snacks and other things. Hallie wanted to stop to get some cotton candy, of course. Isn't that why they have those types of treats and stuff?? It sure got us inside the store!! Well, we don't like to buy puppies or cats from pet stores because of the puppy mill issue. Well, Hallie and I walked into the store to waste some time while waiting for Den and Casey. I have always wanted a yorkshire terrier and we were looking at all of the puppies and I saw Bella and asked if I could play with her in those little closed off play areas they have. Well, not even 2 seconds later I fell in love with her. I played with her, and I recorded her on my cell phone and called Den to tell him about Bella. Yes, I named her right there on the spot. Well, Hallie and I HAD to have her. She was unlike any puppy I had ever seen. I don't know what it was about her but she was very special. Right away Den was NO, no dogs from pet stores. I of course could not take no for an answer but I had to give in, for the time being. Well for 2 weeks I literally cried every single day because I was so worried about her. I was really scared that she would go home with abusive owners. I called the store every single day, several times a day and I would say "Is my Bella still there?" They knew who I was..lol. They would always say "Yes, Terri Bella is still here". So after 2 weeks of crying to Den, my being worried about her I stopped in the store, without Den knowing because I had to see her. I knew I was NOT going to leave that store without her and I didn't. Den finally gave in. It was 1 day past our 10 year wedding anniversary. Bella has been the biggest gift ever. Puppy mills disgust me and I can't understand how people can treat animals like that just to make money. But this was my thinking. Bella was born, it was not her fault that she could have been from a puppy mill and my thought was that I was going to rescue her and I did not care how much money she cost. I ended up spending a little over $1300.00 for her but she was worth every single penny and then some. You all know how much I love her and she has returned so much more to me 100 times over. I believe that things happen for a reason and I really believe it was no accident that I walked into that pet store that day, I believe it was no accident that she was still available almost 2 weeks after I first met and named her. She was meant to be mine. The little pink shirt Bella is wearing on her first day said "Daddy's Little Girl" on the back... how CUTE is that? As you can see Den just fell in love with her right away. I told you all before that I have never felt this way about any animal before but Bella is very very special and I don't know what it is. If you ever meet her you would see how special she is. I am just so thankful that I was able to get her. Anyhow, I had to share these very precious first moments of Bella meeting her family with you all. That is all for today.. 3 blog posts in one day..wow.. that is a record for me..I think anyway..LOL!!

Many many hugs to you all and thank you for visiting

Two Pink Peas. I will talk to you all in a day or so!!

~Terri

The House My Hubby Built... So Cute...

Ok..so as I told you in my last post about my husband Dennis building a little model house out of regular white cardstock paper so I could actually see what our real house would look like. This is what he came up with. He is really really smart, sometimes too smart if you know what I mean..LOL. Seriously though, I found it really super sweet that he spent 2 to 4 hours making this just so I can see what our new house might look like. Here are several pictures of his model.

This will be the front of our house. He made the roof removable so I am going to show you the actual floor plan inside too.

This will be the back of our house. Do you see the little room that sticks out in the middle on the bottom? Well that will be our all season sun room! Then right on top of that is my craft room. He made is where my craft room bumps out over the sun room so I can see our kids playing in the back yard or swimming in our in ground swimming pool. To the left where you see the big rectangle that will be 3 windows and that will be our living room. So we will be able to see the sun room from the windows in the living room.

This is the garage side of the house. Right above the garage is our master bedroom. I will show you the floor plan of that too. But you can see the sun room sticking out better on the left hand side on the back of the house. So cute!! Don't ya think?

This is the other side of the house. Again you can see the all season sun room sticking out of the back on the right. The window you see on the 2nd floor is a window going up the steps from the 1st floor to the 2nd floor. 

This is the floor plan of the 1st floor. It is an open floor plan. We went back and forth deciding if we wanted an open floor plan or a floor plan like the house that we are living in right now. We decided that we want the open floor plan and are very happy and excited with that. Den's office will be in the front on the right after you walk in to the house. Then to the left is our dining room complete a beautiful tray ceiling with lights. On the bottom half of the wall in the dining room will be all decorative wood with a chair railing. We are getting all hard wood floors on most of the 1st floor. If you keep walking straight you can see the living room on the right hand side and to the left you see the dinette and we are adding an all season sun room off of the dinette. To get to the sun room off of the dinette will have doors right now we are not 100% sure what type of doors yet. We will either get french doors or a sliding glass door which I am not fond of. Our current sliding door drives me crazy because it gets fussy sometimes. So my vote is french doors. I LOVE sun rooms and ours will be a 4 season one.. so awesome!!. Besides my craft room I am so excited about the sun room!! Ok, so keep walking to the left and you will walk into the kitchen that will have a desk area. Keep walking straight through the kitchen and you will walk into our mud room with a HUGE closet, a beautiful bathroom and our pantry for the kitchen. Then there will be a door to enter and exit from the garage.

This is our 2nd floor. We will have 4 bedrooms, one will be my craft room and I am going to show you an up close picture of that room and an up close picture of our master bedroom which is half of the 2nd floor. Literally half of the 2nd floor!! Our laundry room will be on this floor too, which will save so much time and doing laundry so much easier. If you look on the right hand bottom corner you will see a room, that is our laundry room.

This is my Two Pink Peas Studio!!! I am SO excited about having my own room and I want to be in it right now and start decorating it. How amazingly sweet is my husband to make this just for me?? He has worked SO hard on this floor plan to make it perfect for our family and I am so grateful to him for that. He has changed our floor plans many times because we want it to be perfect for our family. I just noticed that I did not get the whole picture of my craft room but I can fix that later. I wanted to give you an idea on what it will look like. Beside my craft room is the upstairs bathroom for the kids. 

 This is our master bedroom. It is split in 3 parts as you can see. The first part on the bottom of the picture is our HUUUGE master closet.. I mean this closet is endless. The closet is 20 feet long. This closet equals 90 square feet. Den said that this closet is bigger then some bedrooms. It is long and narrow. I LOVE this closet!! The closet that we have in the house we own now is so little and I NEED lots and lots of room..lol. I have so much stuff and I have no room to store things. So this closet is perfect for us!! Our original plan was to split the closet in half and put my craft room on one side and put the closet on the other side. Well, my craft room was going to be much bigger then the closet but you get the idea. But after thinking about it Den and I decided that it would be better to have a whole bedroom for my craft area and just keep the closet the way it is. I like this floor plan better anyway. Then you see the middle area which is the bedroom itself. The last part is our master bathroom. It is beautiful!! I showed you a few pictures of Bella in the big bathtub that she jumped in all by herself but could not get out...lol. Den did not build the basement for the little model but basements are basements. We currently have a theater in our basement that Den built and it is beautiful!! I should take a few pics to show you. He is quite talented and I am very proud of him!! We are going to have a theater in our new house too. Again, Den just wanted to give me a much better idea on how this house will look and that is why he built this little model. I am not one to look at floor plans and be able to visualize what it will look like in real life. So he did this just for me. I just thought it was so sweet of him to do that for me so that I will feel more comfortable when we sign the final papers TOMORROW!! Lat night he came up to our room around 1 am or so, it could have been later but I was till up and he said "come downstairs, I have a surprise for you" and I said "what is it?" Well, he built the roof for the model. What is funny about that, well not funny but sweet is that I had asked him if he was going to build a roof for the little model house and he said "I don't know" and he did, he built it just for me!! I had told him a few nights ago that I wanted to put this on my blog and I think he finished it so I could share this with you all! What a sweetie pie he is!! :o)

Well, that is about it. I think he might finish it and color the outside somehow. Oh, and this is the 2nd new floor plan that he made. We have the 1st floor plan that looks like this but arranged differently downstairs. I just want to say thank you to my sweet husband Den for doing this for me and our family. You know that I trust you 100% and I am so grateful that you are building our family a brand new house and I want to thank you for working so hard on it just to make me feel better about the floor plan. I appreciate every thing you do and I love you!

 I hope you girls like what Den did and I would LOVE to hear any comments about his model. I told him that I would get some comments and that I would pass them on to him. Thanks for stopping by. I have one more post to show you tonight. I found pictures of Bella on the first day that I brought her home and OMG..she is SO tiny and cuuuuute!! I have to share them with you. See you in a few!! Hugs, ~Terri

Off Topic...Those Who Suffer From Fibromyalgia...

For those of you who do not know, besides having chronic pain from my total joint replacement on both sides of my jaw I also suffer from fibromyalgia. I have had fibro for many many many years. Probably over 11 years now. At least that is when my fibro was really at it's worse. I was pregnant with my youngest daughter Hallie, she is now 10 and right after I had my c-section my fibro went crazy and out of control.

 I could barely walk, move, I mean I hurt everywhere. It was the most pain that I ever had to that date, besides getting my jaw broke but that is a whole other story.

I am a part of 2 fibro groups and one of them is sort of new. We are looking for new members to join. Our fibro group is on facebook and if you would like to join just click here and then friend request the group and we can add you. The owner of the group is Tiffany and she is really really sweet, very caring and very very supportive! Tiffany named me one of her admins just a few days ago and I help her out with several things. If you are looking for a ton of support, others that really understand what you are dealing and living with on a daily basis and new friends that share this condition then this group is for you!! Our groups name is called

Fibro M.O.M. which means Fibro Mind Over Matter and it also is a group for moms that live with fibro!!

 We talk about everything from family, life in general, funny things, sad things, supportive things and this includes having and living with fibromyalgia. I know talking about fibromyalgia is way off topic from what I usually post on my blog but there are so many women that I have met through blogging that craft and they suffer from many different medical conditions one being fibromyalgia.
We would love to have you so if you are interested just let them know that Terri of Two Pink Peas sent you that way we will know how you found out about our group.

I also found some picture of my joint replacement and I thought I would share what it looks like..This is my joint replacement on the 3-D model that they had to make just for me. This was so they could custom build my new joint and it would fit perfectly.

Here are 2 pictures of my total joint replacement after is was built on the 3-D model of my exact skull.

Well, thanks for letting me talk about a subject that I normally would not talk about on here. If you are interested in joining our Facebook Fibro M.O.M. Group please go to this link and we would be so happy to have you.
Have a GREAT day everyone!! ~Terri

P.S. My husband made a real 3-D model of the house that we are thinking of making so I am going to go take some pictures of it right now to share with you. It is SO cute that he made this just for ME because I am a very visual person and I have to see what something looks like and I really cannot tell by looking at a blueprint or a layout of a house. Wait until you see how he did this.. it was so sweet that he went through ALL of this work just for me. Just so cute!! Be right back in a few!