Although I haven’t written or recording new music for a few years now, I still get frequently asked to do concerts and lead worship at students events in our region. Back in 2002, I recorded an album called “Elevation” that consisted mostly of songs that I penned while still in high school. If you’re interested, check out the tunes here.

I’m hoping that with our upcoming transition to Duluth and my transition into a stay-at-home-daddy, I’ll be able to find some time again to put into writing.  It’s high time for some new content and I’m itching to get back in my creative mode.  I’m especially interested in writing songs for the church — a.k.a. worship songs.

I was moved as I saw this on the Weather Channel today (watching updates on the hail storms and tornado watch in our area)…

We’ve been making a lot of drop offs at our local Salvation Army lately in preparation for our move.  Visit Salvation Army online.

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SPOILER WARNING! (don’t read, if you don’t want to know how LOST ends)

Deanna and I stayed up a little late so that we could finish off one of our favorite TV shows of the past few years, LOST.  I can say that, personally, LOST is probably my favorite televisions series ever.  I got in late to the game… seeing my first episode at the beginning of Season 4; I was traveling and downloaded the season’s opener to my iPod to watch on the flight.  I ended up liking it so much that I backtracked and watched it from the beginning on ABC.com.  Shortly after, I pulled in Deanna to start watching it with me, too.

I think it was the show’s EPIC beauty-in-the-mystery that drew me in.  From the time the plane crashed and Locke started wiggling his toes, to the polar bears, from the Others, and all the way to the story of Jacob and his brother, the Smoke Monster, I was intrigued by the complexity of it all.

I must have really cared for the characters because I found myself all broken up throughout last night’s two-and-a-half hour closer.  I, for one, was really happy with the way the whole thing was finished out.  I think the writers were brilliant to bring back all the characters and relive so many awesome memories through the flashbacks.  What a way to draw people in emotionally before the white-out at the end.  To quote my Twitter-friend, @LarsRood, “I’m glad Lost ended the way it did. I didn’t need all my questions answered. The genius of that show is [that] it made me wonder.”

I enjoyed watching the last few minutes of “The End” on Hulu this morning…

It was hard not to notice the open arms of the Jesus statue last night.  It was as if He was inviting our LOST friends to come and find their freedom and lay their final burdens down at the Cross.  I know the series wasn’t a perfect gospel message, but I captured by the themes of selflessness, love, and life lived with a “higher purpose” that were woven throughout.

Some of my favorite quotes from the finale…

“Christian Shepherd? Seriously?” – Kate, after hearing’s Jack’s dad’s name

“That’s kinda true, Dude. He’s worse than Yoda.” – Hurley, referring to Jacob

“It’s a surprise.” – when Jack tells Locke of his plan to kill him

“I hope somebody does for you what you just did for me.” – Locke, to Doctor Jack, after his spinal surgery

“I don’t believe in a lot of things, but I do believe in duct tape.” – Miles, as he tries to fix a broken part of the plane before take-off

“Hurley, I believe in you.” – Jack

My favorite tweet of the night came from worship leader/musician, Casey Darnell (@caseydarnell)…

Moral of the story: Stay in church. #LOST

My favorite fake spoiler came from the Simpsons, which aired on ABC right before the finale…

Thank you, LOST, for an adventurous, passion-filled, roller coaster of a journey.  You had me all the way to the end.

I’m sitting in the Rapid City Regional Hospital, 49 hours after I first walked in to check in on Deanna Thursday afternoon.  She had fallen outside of the Destiny offices and hit the pavement pretty hard as a result.  She went home after the fall and started having contractions every three minutes.  When she called in, they had her come in immediately for monitoring.

By 4:00 PM that evening we knew that we’d be in for an overnight stay.  They had tried giving Deanna two terbutaline shots to no effect.  As a result, they started a magnesium drip via IV.  That seemed to start slowing things down.  We were even watching one of our favorite shows, “Survivor”, together in the triage room.

Around dinner time, I left to go pick up Autumn and Cynthia from a softball game to take them to the Skillet headline tour at the Civic Center.  While I was out I picked up a couple of Root Beer Freezes from A&W… yum!

By the time I had gotten back, the on-call Doc had seen Deanna and had mentioned the POSSIBILITY of an emergency C-section.  He said the symptoms pointed towards a tear in her placenta.  With that reality in the realm of possibilities, we decided that I needed to stick close by.  Because of that, we needed to move Deanna to another room with a “daddy-bed” in it.  It was a little surreal hearing babies’ cries coming from the rooms down the hall.  The night was long, filled with lots of interruptions from the nurse checking on Deanna, trips to the bathroom, and beeps and whirs from the monitoring systems.

I don’t want to forget to mention that our friends, the Morgans (Mike and Mischelle), took Autumn and Cynthia to their house for an overnight stay after the Skillet concert, and our dog, Scrappy, was picked up by Melissa Graham.  Many thanks to them!

In the morning, I awoke at around 8-in-the-morning to Deanna having closer and stronger contractions again.  The doc decided to administer the 3rd booster dose of magnesium since our arrival — an un-fun 15-minute process that made Deanna really hot, gave her a bad headache (she described it as feeling like a sinus headache), made her breathing more labored (felt like the air was thin), and took away a bunch of her energy.  After being on the magnesium all night, she was feeling a lot of these symptoms all morning, afternoon, and evening.

Just before noon that day, Deanna went to the ultrasound department to get a better look at the baby.  Long and short of it, the baby looked really healthy.  They were able to confirm that there wasn’t a tear in the placenta and that Deanna’s cervix was closed. Good news!

When Deanna got back to the room and was served lunch, she encouraged me to go and visit Bella at her end-of-the-school-year track meet.  I went home, ate and showered, and showed up just as my Mom was getting ready to leave the track meet with the kids.  I was able to congratulate Bella with a big high-five for a blue ribbon in the softball throw.  They looked ready to go home.  It was good to see them, even if for a short time.  We’re very thankful to have Mom and Dad around to help watch them at times like this.

Throughout our stay, we’ve had SO MANY people on Facebook and Twitter encouraging and praying for us.  In addition, the Morgans stopped in for a visit on Friday afternoon, and Ken Verheecke stopped in on Saturday afternoon.  We also received flowers from our Destiny family.  So nice!

Of course, there were also calls to close family and friends to keep them updated.  That has helped the time to pass.  That and the fact that Regional now offers free wi-fi (grin).

Saturday morning, the Doc wanted to wean Deanna off of the magnesium drip slowly to see what happened.  After she was totally off it, she had about an hour and a half of pretty quick and painful contractions.  The on-call resident, our friend, Sarah Durney, said she was going to suggest to the Doc that Deanna go home with a prescription for procardia pills.  Sure enough, they came in with her first pill to see what effect it would have.  It took another hour and a half, but it finally started slowing contractions down.

As of present, the procardia seems to really be slowing Deanna down.  She’s been really quiet and a bit slurred.  We’re still waiting to hear from the doctor for word on final release.  It sounds like if things continue as they are, we will be going home sometime this evening.  So thankful that both Deanna and baby are okay.

KEVN Fox news featured a story on the SDSM&T’s feathering ceremony and interviewed Deanna for their story.  Click here to view.

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