On my birthday we went to Sophia's fifth birthday party, which was just my parents' life group getting together for dinner. We then had cake for Soph. She started to cry when we started singing to her (just like she did last year), so they sang to me instead. Lol! I left there early to go over to my friend Allison's apartment since she was having a group of girls over for HER birthday. It was a lot of my college friends that were there. When I got there, we played some games and then they sang to both Allison and I. Bekah had texted me when I was driving around trying to find a parking space (it seriously took me 15-20 minutes to find a spot since it's right on the edge of campus) and told me that I better be there at some point since she had something for me. Before I left, she gave me a bag. Inside she had handwritten the lyrics to the song "Gold" by Britt Nicole. On the back she wrote the following letter:
Leanne,
I heard this song on the radio and immediately thought of you. Since it is your birthday, I thought it was the perfect time to give you these lyrics. I sincerely pray that this song blesses you and you remember that you are worth more than gold- especially when you feel discouraged.
I believe Britt Nicole wrote this song with 1 Peter 2:9 and Psalm 8:5 in mind, both which talk about us being royalty as sons and daughters of God.
Have a superbly blessed and wonderful 23rd birthday!
Love,
Rebekah
So Kim had this amazingly awesome idea several years ago of doing an entry with a song that represented each year of my life so far. Thank you for the wonderful idea!
Most of the song titles will have a link attached to them that will take you to that song's post. The lyrics to the song and a video (so you can hear it too) will be there in case you don't recognize the name of any of these songs.
1 year old- "I Love the Mountains"- This is the song that my mom used to sing to me when I was a little girl. When I could talk, I would sing it along with her. I find myself singing this to the kids I baby-sit from time-to-time.
2 years old- "The Barney Song"- I don't have a link to this one because I figured most of you know it. Barney was my favorite TV show back then. I had several movies and had to watch Barney as often as I could. (Jen and I had to take turns on what show we got to watch each day.)
3 years old- "Under the Sea"- The Little Mermaid was my favorite movie when I was little. I still love it. This is my favorite song off that movie. I even had a Little Mermaid birthday when I was 3 and had just about everything Ariel possible. It's so fun to play this song on the piano.
4 years old- "Be My Little Baby Bumblebee"- This was the year that I started taking dance lessons. This is the song that we first danced to for our first dance recital. I still have some of the steps memorized since I practiced the dance so much in my excitement. I still have the tiny costume that I wore and even those itty-bitty tap shoes. I'm so bummed that I never kept any of my other tap shoes. I'd love to put on my last pair again and tap some more.
5 years old- "Follow Love"- We packed up all of our stuff and moved away from all of our family and friends this year for the sake of our small family of 4. That is why this song is so perfect for that time in our life. It's one of my favorite FFH songs, and I LOVE to play it on the piano, especially the opening measures.
6 years old- "House Like That"- I picked this song because we were still trying to settle into our new home at this point and were trying to establish ourselves down here in Indiana.
7 years old- "Before All Time"- There is no link to this song because I couldn't find the lyrics or a video of the song online. It was a VBS song that we did around this time in my life. When we got to our new church and I was old enough to be a VBS leader, we did this same VBS at this church. I was so excited, and I grew to love this song even more. VBS has always been a huge part of my life and still is. Jen and I are usually leaders together.
8 years old- "Wannabe"- Now this song does not symbolize anything in my life at that time, other than it was a huge song back then, along with the whole Spice Girls CD it came off of. Allison, Lauren, Jen, and I loved to dance around and sing this song and the others. My mom even joined us one time. Lol. Oh the memories!
9 years old- "Don't Be Stupid (You Know I Love You)"- Again, it doesn't symbolize my life, but our whole family loved the entire album it came off of at that time. I think we had the words to all of the songs on that CD memorized. I remember singing this song from the backseat of our Astro van on the way to Mackinac one time. I also remember when we took Allison and Lauren camping with us one year and we were all squished into the Explorer together. We had the windows down, music blaring, as all 6 of us were singing these songs at the top of our lungs...as we drove through Amish country. LOL!
10 years old- "The Way You Love Me"- Yet again, one that was a big hit in our family around that time. We all loved this song in particular off Faith Hill's Breathe CD. We still have that one memorized.
*Can you tell not a lot happened that was noteworthy during that little chunk of my life? Lol.*
11 years old- "Friends"- This was the year I "graduated" from elementary school. And my best friend moved away. The end of that school year was bittersweet. I have only seen her once since then. But it was also the year I met my new best friend, Alicia. So that's why I chose this song.
12 years old- "Born Again"- I asked the Lord into my heart for the first "official" time when I was 12. I had already been living my life for God, but I had never formally prayed "the prayer".
13 years old- "Dancing Queen"- This was the last year I took dance lessons. I miss dance so much, but I stopped because of the people- not the dances. I also had a solo in our tap number that year, so it was a wonderful way to finish out my dancing career. You have no idea what an honor it was for me to get the tap solo in the particular class that I was in. I still can't believe it 7 years later. Lol.
14 years old- "8th Grade"- I couldn't resist putting this song up since this is when I was in 8th grade. That was a good year for me. I was surrounded by lots of friends and had a fairly good group of teachers.
15 years old- "Princes and Frogs"- This song makes me laugh, but it is so true. If you haven't heard it before, you really need to click on the link and listen to it. I always think of several of the Bible studies that we did when I hear this song. It really relates to some of the topics our books focused on. We held the Bible studies at our house for several years. I loved having everyone over to our house.
16 years old- "Broken and Beautiful"- I was somewhere around this age when I went on one of our January youth retreats, and God really spoke to me through this song and the message that was shared that night, given by both our youth pastor and his BIL. It was truly a beautiful moment in my life.
17 years old- "The Hand that Holds the World"- The summer I was 17, I went with some of our youth group to Nazarene Youth Conference in St. Louis with 10,000 other Nazarene teens. It's our national convention that's held only once every 4 years. The group Starfield was there with us that week, and they played this song fairly frequently. It was a profound week for me where God really spoke to me once again.
18 years old- "I Believe in You"- This is the song Steven Curtis Chapman wrote for his oldest daughter when she graduated from high school. This is the year I obviously graduated from high school and made the big transition over to college. Yikes! This song was a beautiful reminder of how much God supports us every step of the way.
19 years old- "The Climb"- This was a year of great growth for me as an individual. I had...well, a lot of...growing/learning/teaching opportunities through this year. Lots of things- big and little. God just kept shaping me as an individual throughout this past year.
20 years old- "I Promise"- This is a song that Kris originally shared with me. It has really meant a lot to me ever since as I wait for the man God created for me.
21 years old- "Me Against the World"- Teresa, my mentor for many years, first introduced me to this song in a Bible study. It felt fitting last year around my birthday as I was dealing with teaching and all my frustrations. (Or, that's what I said in a comment to Melissa when she asked what the song for the year was going to be. I honestly don't remember exactly what I was referring to there, but the song still fits how I felt/feel in general.)
22 years old- "Someone Worth Dying For"- This year was big in that I graduated from college and moved onto the next phase of my life. Click on the link to read more about why this song is significant to me.
23 years old- "Gold"- As I shared above, this song was given to me as a gift from my friend Rebekah.
Isn't that sweet?! She knows me so well. Seriously, something so "simple" as this handwritten page with a couple scrapbooking stickers on the edge was one of the best gifts I was given. It doesn't take much to bless someone immensely. So, this became my song for this year.
Each year I keep thinking that I should wait until the following year to decide on the year's song, but I never do that. Oh well. I really should do a song more about making the jump into "real life" with teaching, but since this was given to me as a birthday gift, I can't ignore it. 
Most of the song titles will have a link attached to them that will take you to that song's post. The lyrics to the song and a video (so you can hear it too) will be there in case you don't recognize the name of any of these songs.
1 year old- "I Love the Mountains"- This is the song that my mom used to sing to me when I was a little girl. When I could talk, I would sing it along with her. I find myself singing this to the kids I baby-sit from time-to-time.
2 years old- "The Barney Song"- I don't have a link to this one because I figured most of you know it. Barney was my favorite TV show back then. I had several movies and had to watch Barney as often as I could. (Jen and I had to take turns on what show we got to watch each day.)
3 years old- "Under the Sea"- The Little Mermaid was my favorite movie when I was little. I still love it. This is my favorite song off that movie. I even had a Little Mermaid birthday when I was 3 and had just about everything Ariel possible. It's so fun to play this song on the piano.
4 years old- "Be My Little Baby Bumblebee"- This was the year that I started taking dance lessons. This is the song that we first danced to for our first dance recital. I still have some of the steps memorized since I practiced the dance so much in my excitement. I still have the tiny costume that I wore and even those itty-bitty tap shoes. I'm so bummed that I never kept any of my other tap shoes. I'd love to put on my last pair again and tap some more.
5 years old- "Follow Love"- We packed up all of our stuff and moved away from all of our family and friends this year for the sake of our small family of 4. That is why this song is so perfect for that time in our life. It's one of my favorite FFH songs, and I LOVE to play it on the piano, especially the opening measures.
6 years old- "House Like That"- I picked this song because we were still trying to settle into our new home at this point and were trying to establish ourselves down here in Indiana.
7 years old- "Before All Time"- There is no link to this song because I couldn't find the lyrics or a video of the song online. It was a VBS song that we did around this time in my life. When we got to our new church and I was old enough to be a VBS leader, we did this same VBS at this church. I was so excited, and I grew to love this song even more. VBS has always been a huge part of my life and still is. Jen and I are usually leaders together.
8 years old- "Wannabe"- Now this song does not symbolize anything in my life at that time, other than it was a huge song back then, along with the whole Spice Girls CD it came off of. Allison, Lauren, Jen, and I loved to dance around and sing this song and the others. My mom even joined us one time. Lol. Oh the memories!
9 years old- "Don't Be Stupid (You Know I Love You)"- Again, it doesn't symbolize my life, but our whole family loved the entire album it came off of at that time. I think we had the words to all of the songs on that CD memorized. I remember singing this song from the backseat of our Astro van on the way to Mackinac one time. I also remember when we took Allison and Lauren camping with us one year and we were all squished into the Explorer together. We had the windows down, music blaring, as all 6 of us were singing these songs at the top of our lungs...as we drove through Amish country. LOL!
10 years old- "The Way You Love Me"- Yet again, one that was a big hit in our family around that time. We all loved this song in particular off Faith Hill's Breathe CD. We still have that one memorized.
*Can you tell not a lot happened that was noteworthy during that little chunk of my life? Lol.*
11 years old- "Friends"- This was the year I "graduated" from elementary school. And my best friend moved away. The end of that school year was bittersweet. I have only seen her once since then. But it was also the year I met my new best friend, Alicia. So that's why I chose this song.
12 years old- "Born Again"- I asked the Lord into my heart for the first "official" time when I was 12. I had already been living my life for God, but I had never formally prayed "the prayer".
13 years old- "Dancing Queen"- This was the last year I took dance lessons. I miss dance so much, but I stopped because of the people- not the dances. I also had a solo in our tap number that year, so it was a wonderful way to finish out my dancing career. You have no idea what an honor it was for me to get the tap solo in the particular class that I was in. I still can't believe it 7 years later. Lol.
14 years old- "8th Grade"- I couldn't resist putting this song up since this is when I was in 8th grade. That was a good year for me. I was surrounded by lots of friends and had a fairly good group of teachers.
15 years old- "Princes and Frogs"- This song makes me laugh, but it is so true. If you haven't heard it before, you really need to click on the link and listen to it. I always think of several of the Bible studies that we did when I hear this song. It really relates to some of the topics our books focused on. We held the Bible studies at our house for several years. I loved having everyone over to our house.
16 years old- "Broken and Beautiful"- I was somewhere around this age when I went on one of our January youth retreats, and God really spoke to me through this song and the message that was shared that night, given by both our youth pastor and his BIL. It was truly a beautiful moment in my life.
17 years old- "The Hand that Holds the World"- The summer I was 17, I went with some of our youth group to Nazarene Youth Conference in St. Louis with 10,000 other Nazarene teens. It's our national convention that's held only once every 4 years. The group Starfield was there with us that week, and they played this song fairly frequently. It was a profound week for me where God really spoke to me once again.
18 years old- "I Believe in You"- This is the song Steven Curtis Chapman wrote for his oldest daughter when she graduated from high school. This is the year I obviously graduated from high school and made the big transition over to college. Yikes! This song was a beautiful reminder of how much God supports us every step of the way.
19 years old- "The Climb"- This was a year of great growth for me as an individual. I had...well, a lot of...growing/learning/teaching opportunities through this year. Lots of things- big and little. God just kept shaping me as an individual throughout this past year.
20 years old- "I Promise"- This is a song that Kris originally shared with me. It has really meant a lot to me ever since as I wait for the man God created for me.
21 years old- "Me Against the World"- Teresa, my mentor for many years, first introduced me to this song in a Bible study. It felt fitting last year around my birthday as I was dealing with teaching and all my frustrations. (Or, that's what I said in a comment to Melissa when she asked what the song for the year was going to be. I honestly don't remember exactly what I was referring to there, but the song still fits how I felt/feel in general.)
22 years old- "Someone Worth Dying For"- This year was big in that I graduated from college and moved onto the next phase of my life. Click on the link to read more about why this song is significant to me.
23 years old- "Gold"- As I shared above, this song was given to me as a gift from my friend Rebekah.
