Theme Reveal - Let the games begin...

Dear Littler B,

I wanted to write to you here as a heads up.  With everything going on with your husband, you have lost a bit of yourself.  Over a month ago I accepted a challenge that the pre-stroke us could have handled without a blink, the post-stroke me has decided that it is something I MUST do for my own sanity.  I will still keep you up to date here and there with how Toby is doing, however I do know I have messed with the space-time continuum already so much by telling you what I have up to now.

To make good on commitments we have made and to get myself back in the game with my letters to you in a huge way. I have accepted not just 1 challenge, but 2.

Crazy 4 Blogging Facebook Group. COME CHECK US OUT!!!!

My friends (and I most definitely consider them that at this point) who I have met and formed a "Girl Tribe" starting with one of the most wonderful virtual friends I have made thus far Heidi @ WomanPulse, as well as another Miranda @ JKLMNAdventure. These girls will be a big support through all of this when you get through the decades and become me.


After brainstorming in our little group we opted to make a larger, more public writing group (blogging specifically, though you won't hear that term for a couple decades) that focuses on encouragement, help and promotion of each other's writing. (When they develop Facebook, come check it out!!

1. Crazy4Blogging Weekly Challenge - Good Health

2. A Post A Day - A to Z

I have also accepted an A-Z challenge through Blogging from A to Z where my posts each day start with the corresponding letter of the alphabet.  Today is April 3 so I am 3 letters behind, but in the next 24 hours I will rectify that situation and go into maintaining mode.

This is going to push us to the limit of our creative ability thus far in letter writing.  Luckily,  challenge 1 is only once a week, so for that day I will be combining the challenge from Crazy4Blogging with my A-Z challenge for the month of April in letters to you so that I do not divert from my true intent. This should be relatively easy as my intention was to teach you dear younger me about things to come. I will be doing that in teaching you about things that you will go on to teach,  

Herbs - Practical and Metaphysical Uses

Don't get worried dear littler me, I will continue to keep you up to date on the other situations that are happening now. I will make sure to do a couple posts a day when I can so that when you do become me, you will be well prepared in as many areas as I can prepare you for.

As always, the wisest words I can leave you to live by...

"Never stop challenging yourself"

Sincerely,

Bigger Little B.

The Unexpected Holiday

Sometimes life throws the unexpected at you. Our anniversary getaway in a nutshell.

PLEASE HELP - WE HAVE 15 HOURS TO GO TO SAVE OUR HOME AND ARE STILL $500 SHORT.

Dear Littler B,

Instead of writing a letter to you today, I opted to make a video to show you some of the things to look forward to when you become me. What an exciting adventure that March of 2016 will become for you.

Our adventure took place in scenic downtown Nashville, TN otherwise known as Music City, USA.  Watch the video to learn a bit more about this whirlwind of a trip.

"Together, there is nothing we can't get through."





Please watch the video and share with everyone you can.   Enjoy and keep up the faith, hope, courage and strength. 

Counting our many blessings,

Bigger Little B

Please click here to Help Support Toby's Journey

It Takes a Tribe

Dear Littler B,

I am sitting here writing your letter today and feeling guilty that written to you in a couple days. I know I have been (for the most part) productive in the way of education in the world I've gotten us into - however I have been not so productive in content to provide you insight to what life is like when you become me.

Today's wisdom is coming to you across the decades not from me, but from those I have met through (what you will learn about in time) social media.

At times through your life you are going to be intrigued or inspired to try something new.  It doesn't matter if it is the time you decide to branch off into an unknown religion, learn how to cook, become a programmer, become a mother. All of these things carry the same levels of initiation, insecurity, ignorance, education and enlightenment.  Nothing comes to the average - non-savant Joe like you/I without a great big huge learning curve.

Sometimes along the way you are going to get lucky. You will find yourself in the middle of the village as the idiot who everyone is nice enough to help take care of or encourage and educate. A tribe of people who all have been through the same process and are on various levels of
enlightenment and are willing to share their experiences with you.

Be those experiences good or bad, soak them in dear little me. Every story is a learning experience if you look at it correctly. Learn from those around you what to do, what not to do, what to laugh at, when to work and when to play.  Every person is the wisest person. Wisest in how they have experienced their journey and how they experience this joyful and adventurous carnival ride called Life.

Along that learning process you will (when you are not even looking) become the proverbial butterfly from the creepy crawly caterpillar. Sometimes you will be the student, sometimes the teacher. In time you will go from being the village idiot that you always feel yourself to be into being the wise person that someone will look to for knowledge and inspiration.  I can't promise you will have gotten there yet when you become me, but I can tell you we are somewhere on the journey a little less idiot - a little more wise.

Encouraging you to embrace your village, be one with the tribe,

A big PS. Thank you FB Tribe for being my inspiration today.


Dancing & Frivolity Today Provided by:
Phillip Phillips - Home
Lorde - Royals
Rhianna - Stay
Gotye - Somebody That I Used To Know
Phillip Phillips - Raging Fire
Anna Kendrick - Cups
Ed Sheeran - The A Team
John Legend - All of Me
Christina Perri - A Thousand Years

Celebrate The Smalls

Dear Littler B,

First and foremost I need to apologize for yesterday's letter. Fear and panic ruled the day yesterday. I can tell you that even though you have "grown up" (notice that is in quotes), you have not necessarily shed all of your issues. Just traded one set of worries for another. That's part of life. If you didn't worry about something/someone it means you really don't care as much as you think.

You are human. You need to try to remember that. The beautiful perfect imperfection that is humanity. You are going to have days that you doubt, you are going to have (more than your share) of days that you panic, and you are going to have days where you just don't know what to do.

What you need to know is that you are going to have to keep on going and keep on trying.  Things always find a way of working out the way they are supposed to in the end. The results may not take on the shape of the win you expect, however they take on the shape of the win that is supposed to be.  Life is a great big balance. Everything finds a way to even out in the end.

Today, for example it's time to move forward. One of the things that ensures you don't stay stagnant in life is the fact that you adopt early on an attitude of measuring and pushing yourself. You set goals. I can not begin to tell you how well this will serve you over the course of my last 25 years.  Not just the big things like most people do, but the little things.



The most important aspect of these goals is that you let yourself celebrate achieving each one. I'm not saying go spend a lot of money and go crazy because you hit a daily quota but RECOGNIZE!  So many people don't know how important it is to your self-worth to allow yourself to do that simple yet important thing! No matter how small or how large, you set an achievement - give yourself a metaphorical pat on the back!

While these letters have been intended for you, I set myself a goal. I determined that if these letters had fallen into the hands of 2500 other people I would celebrate it by transferring these letters over to a dedicated web site instead of a generic website designed to house letters like this for many people. It is an exciting day for me. I am not quite sure what it is going to look like yet, how it is going to
operate or if it is a wise move but I can't wait to see where the next leg of this journey takes us.

How am I going to celebrate? I'm going to award myself with a few hours away from the computer to walk the trails at the V.A. and enjoy the non-digital sun, the non-mp3 sounds of the birds (don't worry you'll know what that is in a few years) and the non-photoshopped absolutely beautiful people of the town.  In essence, I'm giving myself a day off.

Celebrate, dear littler me. Celebrate the big achievements and the small. You will live a much happier life if you do.

Putting on my shoes and taking off,

Today's Celebration Music Provided By

Kool & The Gang - Celebrate
Toby Keith - Red Solo Cup
Smash Mouth - All Star
Bachman Turner Overdrive - Takin Care of Business
Queen - Don't Stop Me Now
Katy Perry - Firework
Black Eyed Peas - I Got a Feeling
Kenny Loggins - Footloose
Madonna - Holiday

The Bullies

Dear Littler B,

I'm sitting on my bed instead of in my office because I got thinking and the keyboard wouldn't wait.  Coffee is next to me and the sound of the truck beeps from the garbage man are coming from the parking lot outside, Drew Carey from the TV drones on in the background and the puppy is snoring half on my lap. (I say puppy, though he is really a little old man)

I'm not sure what made me think of this subject today, it might have been a commercial half heard in my sleep or just a memory flashing through my dreams but bullies are something that you have had to deal with pretty much before you know what the word means. I'm not sure what advice I can give you or anyone whose hands this may fall in, but I know what is truth for you.  In a way you are luckier than most in that you are the 4th child of 5 so you were able to be primed with a thicker skin than some.

There have been many instances you have already lived through, like getting hit in the head with a pan by one sister and having your goldfish boiled (I know you still remember that, because I do... IT WAS AN ACCIDENT). The years that you got picked on after moving from the belly of the south to New Jersey and having that thick southern drawl pour out of your mouth.

It's truly a double genetic whammy that you were born to be not much taller than the limit of a little person and graced with a name that rhymes with "midget". Even that best friend of yours from the swings that lets you sneak out of class with Helga (her car) to go get pizza for the lunch table started out as a bully if you remember correctly.

Thick skin or no, it still hurts.... THEN.


There are going to be many more instances to come so strap in and get ready for it. Like the time you will be at a dance for Halloween and someone will take the mask off your dancing partner to see "who would dance with her", or the time you are going to be grabbed by your hair and dragged on the old gym floor. (Though I still don't regret it resulting in shaving your head and showing up in combat boots from then on out). It will happen only very rarely when you are an adult, from a woman at work who will jump over your desk at you, from your own children, from people you thought you loved. I won't kid you.

I can't tell you why people are like they are, maybe they feel entitled, they feel better than you, maybe they feel less of a person, maybe they don't eve realize they are doing it. It is a fact of life that is a big topic in popular culture today made worse by the invention you have yet to learn - social media.  In all there is one thing that I can tell you that is very important for you to remember. There is only one thing in all of it that you can control.

YOU

Giving in and being hurt, doing something stupid will only put the champion belt on them. It will allow them to win. I promise you that it gets better, because you do. The immature will mature for the most part, but the best thing is that after school you will leave those people behind and be able to surround yourself by the people you deserve. As dad is famous for saying "This too shall pass".

If that doesn't help, let me from the future let you know.... Social media is also good for something else. I am able to see those people who may hold you down and tell you the beautiful become not so, the ones who got fat or bald or both. (Is that a little evil of me?)

Physical beauty only stays so long, popularity only stays so long but the love and light you have inside you can last forever if you let it.

Lots of love from a stronger and happier,

Bigger Little B



Today's Musical Accompaniment 

Taylor Swift - Mean
Dixie Chicks - Goodbye Earl
Hillary Duff - Fly
Kenny Rogers - Coward of the County
Blink 182 - Adam's Song
Mark Wills - Don't Laugh at Me
Morgan Fraizer - Hey Bully
Survivor - Eye of the Tiger
Matt Kennon - You Had to Pick on Me
Selena Gomez - Who Says
Bars and Melody - Hopeful

That Love Stuff

Dear Littler Me,

Good morning to you from the day of love 2016.  I sit here quietly in the wee hours of the morning on the bed next to our sleeping hubby trying to type quietly so as not to wake him. Today is Valentines day, a day to focus on love and all things mushy. Luckily for me we've been to penny tight to be able to take part in the commercialism of the day so it has for the most part remained about spending time with each other and the "feeling" crap, untainted by the need to ply each other with gifts to "prove" we love each other.

This may not sound like the ideal dream to a 16 or 17 year old (what ever age you are when this reaches you) but I promise you it is. I do know you a bit since I'm lucky enough to have the inside scoop so I know you are not the average teenager. Feelings are more important to you than things. I guess we just got lucky to be who we are.

Where you are in the 1988ish time frame you are no different than I am here. The things that make you happy is to know that someone thought of you and to know you are loved. That is one thing, dear littler me you will never have to worry about. You have been loved by many over the years. The best of them being an amazing father who will be bringing you and your sisters flowers as he does every year. (it will be hard to ever find a guy who measures up to the kind, gentle, giving man that is daddy)

If this letter reaches you during the right year, you will have carnations bought for you at school by a guy who doesn't even attend the same school. You will see him of and on, one of your first loves. Even until you become me you still have the notes from those flowers tucked into a photo album next to a picture of the two of you in Disney.

Your loves, though fiery and exciting and you will love every single one of them, will come and go in your life and will make you feel like you are not worthy of that lasting love like Mom & Dad have. To this day you think back fondly on all of them who have been in your life and thank them for the piece of their life that they gave to you. The one who traded up for your best friend, the one who
joined the Army, the one who joined the Air Force, the one who was in the band, the one who was a gardener, the one who loved his mother more in the end, the one who lit the sky on fire, the one who walked on the wild side.

After a long life of love, none have been better than the one waking beside me in the young hours of a Sunday morning here in 2016 in Nashville. I will not tell you too much about him because I don't want to spoil the meet up or space time continuum and all that happy scientific horse puckey. Let it be said though, you will know him the moment you see him fumbling with his keys after standing him up two times. He is still going to give you a chance and forever think it is you who gave him a chance.




We may not be able to get gifts for each other, but we have the day to give each other and that my dear little me is all you ever need.

Lovingly yours,

Bigger Little B

Today the following entertained my ears:

Liebster Award!

I was very surprised today when I got nominated for a Liebster Award by WomansPulse! This has been such an amazing journey in self-discovery writing my blog and connecting with other amazing writers in the blogging community.

The Liebster Award is given to new bloggers by other bloggers. It allows new blogs to be discovered and encourages support within the Blogging Community.

The Rules:

1. Thank the person who nominated you
2. Share the award on your blog
3. Answer the ten questions
4. Nominate ten new bloggers
5. Ask ten questions
6. Notify your nominees on Social Media

 Questions asked of me

1. Coffee or Tea?
   Without a doubt coffee all day long... IV if it was available. :-)
   
2. Where do you find your content ideas?
   My content ideas for the most part come from life experiences. I sit and play music mostly from the era I am addressing and it immediately puts my mind back into those moments. The fingers start working before the brain even has any idea what they are doing.
   
3. What is your favorite blogging tool?I currently use Blogger/Blogspot. I love the ability to see where in the world my audience is the most. Seeing that someone in a new country has seen my posts.
   
4. Where do you see your blog going?
   I would love to be able to reach and help people who may have gone through similar situations as I but don't know that they are not alone. I would love to encourage self-discovery and encourage people to get in touch with how wonderful they really are!
   
5. Who is your favorite writer?
   This one is such a loaded question. There are so many that I truly can't list a favorite. I love the works of Shakespeare, Bronte, Austen, Alcott, Anne Rice, JK Rowling and Stephen King, but never turn any writing away. My all time favorite story hands down is Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte.
6. What is your best quality?
   This is another hard one for me. Self-praise is not something I do very well. According to my husband, the answer to this my kindness.
7. Facebook or Twitter?
   Yes please! I do use both however I am very new to Twitter and still learning how to use it effectively and not obnoxiously. I am sure anyone who follows me (shameless plug) at @BidyBidyBop will tell you I have a lot to learn.
   
8. Who motivates you? Why?
   Mostly the answer to this would fall to my husband. Upon coming home from work he will often ask me - did you write today? Did you get a new country? How many views did you get? etc. Not because he wants to push me to write but because he wants to encourage me to do something that makes me very happy. He has been such a support in my life no matter what I choose to do. 
   
9. How has blogging changed your life?
   The subject matter of my blog has actually changed my life quite a bit, even though it is in its toddler stage. It has been amazing to reminisce, but it has been even more so put me in touch with who I am today and to be ok with the woman I have become... for better and worse.
   
10. What is your top three blogs your reading?
    I start my day by checking The Keyboard Commentarian.
    Written by the man who introduced me to blogging. He even gave me the greatest gift someone could give by his blogging and helped to find my son during a very difficult time.
    
    I always check in with WomanPulse . I love reading her relationships posts as we have gone through a lot of similar situations in life and are around the same age. I can relate.
    
    I also often check Daily Musings. While sometimes the postings can be religious in nature, Traci always has motivational and inspirational posts. All around "feel-good" go to for me.
    

The following are my nominees - I visit them all regularly though some may not be as new as others. Check them out! 

Sum Of My Pieces  
Blogging to the Oldies
Analysis Worm
One Year of Letters
A Girl of Some Importance
Grace & Giggles
Diary of a New Mommy
Christian Touchet
The Keyboard Commentarian
ReViews by HMF
 



My 10 Questions for nominees:

1. What encouraged you to start your blog?
2. What niche/genre is your blog?
3. Do you post on a schedule or when the inspiration takes you?
4. What are some of your big milestones that you have celebrated for your blog?
5. Do you use social media to promote your blog? Links?
6. On average how long do you find you spend putting together a post?
7. As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
8. What is the link to your favorite post on your blog and why?
9. What is your guilty pleasure in literature?
10. What is 1 piece of advice you have to give other new bloggers?

Thank you Heidi @ WomanPulse  again for the nomination! Happy Blogging everyone! 

 

 

Friends...

Dear Littler B,

It is approaching lunchtime very fast here today and I have yet to get my message out to you.  We had quite an evening of it here. Last week was rent so every penny went to that. Sadly that meant we missed the electric bill by 1 day and had to go without power for the night in 17 degree weather. It was shaping up to be a very long evening. I'm not here to talk to you today about money troubles though (which you will have plenty of thanks to the local job market) but to talk to you about how we still slept in a warm bed with a warm meal in our stomachs.

One of the things that have been constant in your life is that somehow you are going to meet the best people in the world. The people you are going to be friends with over the years are going to have the biggest hearts that you could imagine. They have helped you survive in your roughest times over the years. Some out of the desire just to help, without expectations of reciprocation. You will know them when they come (mostly).

Last night was a great example. I know you will have a long time till you get to last night but, maybe when you get there you will remember what I told you so you don't worry as much as I did yesterday. A gentleman who you befriend about a year before I start writing to you is going to be one of your best friends when you are me.  You will meet him when you are going to the V.A. to visit your son. When he is out of the hospital he will move in with you for a little while until a lot of hard work gets him an apartment in the same complex.

You will have several people move in with you over the years because your motto is if you have $1 you will give someone else $2. Like the time you will make all those Easter baskets for the gang at the VA Hospital yet go without sustainable food for a good 2 weeks.  Maybe it's your belief in paying things forward, but probably not. You give to people not expecting to get anything back except the joy of knowing it makes others happy.  Especially your weak spot of veterans. Keep this trait. It will be the center of joy and amazing memories for a long time.

In all, the most important thing to remember is to be the best kind of friend you can be. Not because you expect anything (though I know you don't - because you are a stubborn mule and don't usually let people know when you are having a hard time), but because they all deserve it. They (the friends you will make) have been such a rock in the storm that is going to be your life. 

Outside of that, the only thing that I give you as far as today's advice is to LET them be your friend. You know how much you like the feeling of helping people? Your true friends also have the right to feel that feeling so when they get adamant (and they will) within reason, be ok with accepting help. It doesn't make you a bad person.

Warmly yours,

Bigger Little B



Today's earworms brought to you by

Cam - Burning House
Kenny Rogers - Coward of the County
Alan Jackson - Don't Rock the JukeBox
Alan Jackson - Chattahoochie
Garth Brooks - The Dance
George Strait - Carrying Your Love With Me
Toby Keith - Should've Been a Cowboy
Kenny Rogers - Lady
John Michael Montgomery - I Swear
Dixie Chicks - There's Your Trouble
Shania Twain - Any Man of Mine
Lone Star - Amazed
Tim McGraw - It's Your Love
Vince Gill - I Still Believe in you
Brooks & Dunn - My Maria
Reba McIntyre - Is There Life Out There
Tim McGraw - I Like It, I Love It
Billy Ray Cyrus - Achy Breaky Heart
Garth Brooks - The Thunder Rolls
Randy Travis - Love Without End Amen
Michael W. Smith - Friends