Dairy, here it is 2008 in a nutshell.

JANUARY: worked a lot.
FEBRUARY: worked a lot.
MARCH: 1. Me and Lynn attended the North Carolina Baptist Men’s mission conference in Winston-Salem NC and had an awesome time. 2. I saw the brightest falling star I have ever seen and it had such a long tail on it, I thought that was pretty cool. 3. Me and Lynn celebrated 18 years of marriage. 4. 19 people from our church went to Grifton, NC and built a wheelchair ramp for a blind man and we reroofed a house for an elderly couple.
APRIL: WE had a week of prayer at church. The building was opened for anyone to come anytime they wanted to pray. It was nice and peaceful praying in the Lord’s house.
MAY: 1. I was to bring Kimmie home from church and forgot about her and had to go back and get her. I still get jokes about this sometimes. 2. Me, Lynn, Jamie, and Kimber went to Dalton, Georgia to visit friends and do mission work.
JUNE: We celebrated Jamie’s 16th birthday by taking him to Cooperstown and the Baseball Hall Of Fame. WE always visited Gettysburg National Military Park. It was a good week.
JULY: 19 people from our church went to Dalton, Georgia for our summer mission trip. We accomplished a lot of work and was able to minister to several families and we had a blast fellowshiping within our own group.
AUGUST: 1. Lynn gave me a surprise birthday party. It was pretty cool. 2. Had a visit from a good friend who lives in Texas.
SEPTEMBER: worked a lot.
OCTOBER: 1. Worked a lot. 2. Had enough wood to last the winter given to us. 3. I locked my keys in the car while it was still running.
NOVEMBER: 1. Worked a lot. 2. Kimber went away with the youth group for the first time. She had a blast and Lynn survived. 3. Me and Jamie volunteered with Operation Christmas Child by loading boxes at our local association. 4. We spent Thanksgiving at the beach.
DECEMBER: 1. We all went to the Operation Christmas Child warehouse and sorted shoeboxes. 2. Lynn and Kimber had birthdays. We got Kimmie a cell phone and she loves it.

Dairy, we traveled more this year than we ever have. It seemed like all I did was work between each trip but it was worth it. Next year shouldn’t be as busy. All we plan on doing this year is maybe going to Dalton and the beach once. I hope so anyway. Our spring mission trip this year will be a local project so no traveling for that if everything works out. It’s been a good year overall God’s been good to us. Hope everyone else has a great year.

PSALM 19:7 THE INSRUCTIONS OF THE LORD ARE PERFECT, REVIVING THE SOUL. THE DECREES OF THE LORD ARE TRUSTWORTHY, MAKING WISE THE SIMPLE.

I AM VONSTEGALL AND THIS IS MY YEAR IN A NUTSHELL!!!!!!!!

Dairy, I took a load of junk to the dump this morning and then carried off 2 loads of leaves. I’m taking them to my paw-in-laws and dumping them in his garden spot. I think it may keep the soil loose and moist after you till them up into the ground. I’m just glad to have somewhere to take them that’s close to the house, I hate burning them. I figure I’ll get all of the front yard and both sides and just cut the back up with the lawn mower, I’m not sure not. Then again I may not touch them again this year.

I’ve also read two books and watched two days of House while I’ve been off. I don’t get to watch that show a lot but I really like it and they had a marathon 2 different days. Me and Lynn almost went to the video store last night and decided not to. We had talked about getting Lonesome Dove. This afternoon the video store called and said they had checked their records and noticed we hadn’t been in lately and they wanted to “invite” us to stop in. They said we can get one free rental and half off on all rentals for the next 2 weeks. I guess they are trying to drum up some business. I guess people have slowed down on renting videos.

I took the resolution quizz and it says all I need to do is lose some weight. It won’t happen. I just realized something; the famous spelling saying that goes I before E except after C is bullcrap!!! Weight, height, sleigh,their, feign, feint, feisty, being, beige, deign, deify, heifer, heinous, heir, heist, seize, neigh, neighbor, neither, either, and who knows how many more there are. I feel so, so……….so lied to. Lied, now there’s one that actually follows the rule. I’ll never believe(here’s another one) anything I hear from the government schools again. They started all this crap, who knows what they’ll teach next. Probably that we evolved from a single piece(there’s an honest word) of slime over millions of years, which is impossible because the earth is only about 6,000 years old. I can probably sue them for mental distress. Maybe, just maybe, it wasn’t my fault that I flunked 2nd grade. I wonder how many other problems I’ve had that weren’t my fault? I’ll bet the list goes on and on. Well that’s all the crap I have for now.

1 JOHN 3:17 BUT WHOSO HATH THIS WORLD’S GOOD, AND SEETH HIS BROTHER HAVE NEED, AND SHUTTETH UP HIS BOWELS OF COMPASSION FROM HIM, HOW DWELLETH THE LOVE OF GOD IN HIM?

I IS VONSTEGALL AND PEOPLE SHOULDN’T GET THEIR BRITCHES IN A WAD OVER NOTHING!!!!!!!

Dairy, I’ve been off for one week and it’s been pretty cool. We did the CHRISTmas family stuff. Outside of that I’ve had a pretty good CHRISTmas. This is about the only time of year I listen to the radio when I’m in the car by myself. The station we listen to plays all CHRISTmas music from thanksgiving till today. I love the CHRISTmas music.

I’ve been semi productive; I’ve fixed the dryer and changed a water faucet. Both took longer and cost more than I expected, which is usual. I’ve raked a few leaves and me and LYnn cleaned out a closet and took some stuff to Goodwill. Tomorrow the plan is to take some other crap to the dump and maybe rake a few more leaves.

We had a good service at church sunday. WE had some good singing and good preaching but the best part of the service was the preacher reading a letter. This letter came from a guy who is an inmate in the local prison. The association our church belongs to had a party for the inmates earlier this month. Some of our women baked cakes for it and at least one dude from our church went to the party. The writer stated that he really enjoyed and appreciated the cakes. He spent some time talking to the dude from our church and a few days later he accepted Christ as his Savior. He said he had been in prison for 15 years and was being released this spring. He said he would not be able to meet any of us because he was going home several hours from here but he sent $5, which was all he had, to be applied to mission work. He wants others to have an opportunity to hear the gospel. We have participated in several mission projects this CHRISTmas season and it’s always good to hear that it made an eternal difference in someone’s life. I hope he doesn’t just settle for escaping hell; I hope he will spend time with his Lord and grow as a CHRISTian and be the person God wants him to be.

I recollect that’s all I have for now, I’ll talk to ya later Dairy.

LUKE 2:16&17 AND THEY CAME WITH HASTE, AND FOUND MARY AND JOSEPH, AND THE BABE LYING IN A MANGER. AND WHEN THEY HAD SEEN IT, THEY MADE KNOWN ABROAD THE SAYING WHICH WAS TOLD THEM CONCERNING THIS CHILD.

I AM VONSTEGALL AND MY TIME OFF HAS BEEN CUT IN HALF, WOES ME!!!!!!!!!

Dairy, this is going to be my first full day off. It usually takes me a day or two to transition from sleeping in the day to sleeping at night. Which is lousy if I only have one or two days off but with 11 days off it ort to be alright. Yesterday was pretty laid back and hopefully today will be also.

Tomorrow the family stuff starts and I don’t really like that anymore. It seems that me and LYnn have such different views and opinions than the rest of our family but apparently it’s ok for everyone to state their opinions while we are expected to keep our mouths shut. For the past couple of years I’ve gotten use to just not talking a whole a lot. I guess I’ll do the same this year unless I’m feeling mischievious or butt-wholish then I may throw in a few statements just for the fun of it. But probably not.

I’m getting an education in texting since Kimmie has gotten her phone. I guess it can be pretty convenient but I’d rather just call and talk for the most part.

We are having problems with our clothes dryer so I went to one of them reconditioned appliances places and had a look see at what they had. They had a pretty good selection from a $100 and up depending on how they looked and they all had a 90 day warranty. The owner of the place is or was one of our county commissioners and I’ve heard and read some pretty shifty things about him but if he runs again I may just write in to the local paper with an endorsement. I’m not sure which political party he’s with but I think it’s the same one I agree with. Anyway, he didn’t try to push me into buying a clothes dryer he asked what was wrong with the one I had and I explained and he told me what could possibly be an easy and inexpensive remedy, so I’ll try that. Of course, I know he was probably looking at repeat business and word of mouth advertisement, and he’ll probably get it, but I thought that was pretty honest and upright especially in this economy. He may have earned him an endorsement and a vote in less than three minutes; although the endorsement may offset any good the one vote does him.

That’s all I have for now see you later dude. Merry CHRISTmas to all.

LUKE 2:9&10 AND, LO THE ANGEL OF THE LORD CAME UPON THEM, AND THE GLORY OF THE LORD SHONE ROUND ABOUT THEM; AND THEY WERE SORE AFRAID. AND THE ANGEL SAID UNTO THEM, “FEAR NOT; FOR, BEHOLD, I BRING YOU GOOD TIDINGS OF GREAT JOY, WHICH SHALL BE TO ALL PEOPLE.”

I AM VONSTEGALL AND I WISH YOU A MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dairy, ugh!!!!! what a night. My dadblamed work leader laid out and I had to do his and my job and it was kind of chaotic being the first night of the week. I don’t mind the extra physical work but all that thinking just flat wore me out. Dairy, you remember me telling ya about the two young dudes almost getting in a fight a while back? Well the one I pulled away from the fracas got into it again with another dude. I wasn’t about to do anything this time, if he wants to get fired then more power to him. The funny thing was that they was arguing about one of them standing around talking for 5 minutes. They stood around arguing about that for 35 minutes. I thought it was pretty funny, arguing for 35 minutes over one of them wasting 5 minutes. That was a total of 75 minutes when no production was being done. Then after they got through arguing for 35 minutes they went on break.

I had to take Kimmie’s cat to the vet this morning. WE are getting him fixed although it sounds more like damaging him to me. But we won’t have to worry about any more unwanted cats coming up.

I gots one more night to work this year. Dude, I hate missing the pay but I am so looking forward to the time off. Usually they let us work during the shutdown but this year they aren’t. They are going to sign us up for unemployment for the full week we are off. They’ve never that before. I can’t help but think that it’s a sign of things to come. They have said that my department is booked 93% to capacity for the next quarter. I still think they may foresee some short time for some people and they are signing us up to get our waiting week over with. Heck we been through lay-offs, short time, strikes and everything else so I reckon we’ll survive this too.

Lynn is making me a list of things to do while I’m off. I’ll be hoping for a lot of rain. I don’t mind the inside stuff but I’m not a big fan of yard work.

We had our church play this weekend. It was actually an outdoor live drama. It was called The Streets of Bethlehem. Basically they put up buildings like a pottery shop, bakery, blacksmith shop, tax booth and you got to see what it was like to have been in Bethlehem the night that Jesus was born. They was in costume and had angels singing and of course the nativity. Jamie was a prisoner in the jail saturday night. He portrayed a drunk who was put in jail and had a woman tell him that he done excellent job acting like a drunk. He was so proud of himself for being a good drunk. Kimber participated both nights, she worked in the bakery and walked the goat a time or two. We appeared to have a good turn out.

Sunday morning we had a breakfast fellowship before sunday school. We also had our largest turn out for SS in years. We had 201 people and the church was packed for worship service.

Dairy, I reckon that’s my weekend in an entry.

LUKE 2:14 GLORY TO GOD IN THE HIGHEST, AND ON EARTH PEACE, GOOD WILL TOWARD MEN.

I IS VONSTEGALL I HAVE RETHUNK IT!!!!!!!!!

Dairy, I read an article in the newspaper last night about an unborn child being found at a waste treatment plant. The article kept refering to the baby as the fetus. He or she was estimated to be about 3 months premature. A lot of media outlets try to be politically correct by refering to any unborn child, particularly unborn murdered children as a fetus. I recently learned what the word fetus really means. It’s a latin word. It doesn’t mean blob of tissue or a glob of cells. It means little one. That is so appropriate since unborn children are people, they are just littler than born children. So when someone refers to an unborn child as a fetus in an attempt to dehumanize the child they are actually and ignorantly validating the life of that child. How’s that for irony dude?

TITUS 1:10 FOR THERE ARE MANY UNRULY AND VAIN TALKERS AND DECEIVERS ESPECIALLY THEY OF THE CIRCUMCISION.

I ARE VONSTEGALL AND I “BORROWED” THIS TITLE!!!!!!
I IS VONSTEGALL AND I WILL GIVE IT BACK WHEN I’M DONE.

Dairy, our plans for the girls birthday didn’t pan out. We were gonna go to pizza hut with some friends but the daughter has strepthroat so we just stayed home and chilled out.

Dairy, we got Kimmie a cell phone and she was happy as a lark all day texting people. She would text one friend to get another friends number and she was having ball getting replys. She wanted one so bad and we almost didn’t get her one but all her friends have one and she wanted one so we got her one. Jamie has showed no interest in a phone. Of course it’s not gonna cost us anything more because we decided a few months ago to do this. We dropped our home phone service and bundled digital phone with our internet and cable and the savings will more than pay for adding Koo’s line to the cell service.

Dairy, I know it arsn’t the least bit romantic but Lynn is going to have to get her own present. She’s been wanting some sheep skin type of boot and I told her that’s what I’m getting her for her birthday. She won’t buy them just because she wants them so I told her she has a week to get them or I’ll go pick her something out. That ort to motivate her to go get a pair. She tickles me Dairy; we can go to town with no intention of buying anything and she sees a thousand things she would “love” to have, but if we go shopping for a particular item she can’t find a thing she likes.

Dairy, I’ve been extremely blessed to have these two ladies in my life. I guess Kimber is becoming a lady. I’m gonna have to let her grow up, I’ll do it under protest but I’ll do it. The Lord has given me a wonderful family and I’m so thankful that I have them. I think it’s so cool that Lynn and Kimmie share a birthday. I guess that’s about it it’s church night and I have to go to bed early today. See ya later Dairy.

PSALM 115:15 YE ARE BLESSED OF THE LORD WHICH MADE HEAVEN AND EARTH.

I IS VONSTEGALL AND MY GIRLS ARE SO SPECIAL; HAPPY BIRTHDAY GIRLS!!!!!!!!!

Dairy, to answer Jamisinc-No.

Dairy, it’s been a pretty good weekend. I was told I couldn’t work saturday night and while I would have liked to have made the extra money I sure did enjoy my day off. I didn’t do very much. We hung out here at home. I had a good talk with the kids about their weekend, they got to go play laser tag with a bunch of friends and really enjoyed it. I got to watch the Tarheels play which has been very rare the last few years.

Dairy, things are gonna get tough in our department before long. We have lots of people going to new jobs and they are not going to replace the openings, at least they say they aren’t. There are so many they may have to. So far none of the openings are for jobs I can do so it won’t help me any. I keep hoping the dude that does my job on first will get another job, he wants one anyway, and the girl on second can go to first and that will mean I will be able to go in early pretty much anytime I want to. I’d rather go in early than work over.

Dairy, the economy has caught up with us, one of our most important customers has put all most of their orders on hold for a while. That’s one reason I didn’t get to work last night. My job was gonna be swamped with work until they did that. We are right on the verge of elimanating some debt we had incurred during my job transition. I really thought we was gonna get it taken care of around February. So far anytime they tell us there will be not overtime it usually doesn’t apply to me for very long. I’m one of the first one’s they go to when they need it.

Dairy, I told ya about my buddy who hardly works borrowing money. Well he hasn’t worked in two weeks and has paid no one back and I’ve got it figured that he has borrowed at least $80. It seems I keep hearing of someone else who’s upset that he hasn’t paid them back. I don’t why but I seem to be everyone’s sounding board on him; I reckon because I talk to him all the time….when he’s there of course. One dude asked me about him and then in a very mad and loud voice asks “how’s he gonna pay anyone back when he won’t come to work?!!!”. I just shrugged my shoulders but I wanted to tell him that it wasn’t my problem I wasn’t dumb enough to lend a man who won’t work any money. But I didn’t. Of course I’ve done other things for him and now I wish maybe I hadn’t of, it’s more because I see it as enabling him more than helping him and I could have applied that to helping someone else who really needs, wants, and would appreciate it. But he’s responsible for that. At least I don’t have a grudge cause I didn’t do anything expecting anything in return. So when he does come to work I can just shoot the breeze and cut up with him, while lots of guys stew about it.

Dairy, I reckon next week will be a tad bit busy, Tuesday is Lynn and Kimber’s birthdays. We haven’t made big plans, just going out to eat with some friends. Who knows we may add to it before the week is over, but for now that’s about it.

PSALM 40:2 HE BROUGHT ME UP ALSO OUT OF AN HORRIBLE PIT, OUT OF THE MIRY CLAY, AND SET MY FEET UPON A ROCK, AND ESTABLISHED MY GOINGS.

I AM VONSTEGALL AND I ENJOYED MY DAY OF DOING NOTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dairy, Lynn needed a couple of cake boxes so we went to this wholesale paper products place to get them. Whilst there I came to face to face with a dude who pulled a gun on me about 22 years ago. I figured he’d be there since he owns the place but I also figured he wouldn’t remember me, although I was mighty tempted to ask him about it just to see. Me and a coworker(another stupid teenager) was behind a carpet store that we did subcontract work for
and we was throwing rocks. You know, to see who can throw the fartherest and then it became an accuracy contest. About the only thing that presented a good target was the AC unit on the building next door. It was in the very back and we had not idea it would sound so loud inside the building. At least we had no idea until the owner came flying around the corner with a gun in his hand. Then we realized real quick we was disturbing someone.

Dairy, I can remember it like it was yesterday. He told us to up against the wall, and we did, real quick. He asked each of us who our dad’s were and we answered, real quick and with real shaky voices. The dude says “D***** if I don’t know both of them. There real good people, what the h*** happened to ya’ll?”. All we could do was apoligize and promise to never do it again. He let us off after that. After the fact we realized that he was as scared as we were. His hand was shaking something fierce and after further reflection niether one of us say for sure that he ever pointed the gun directly at us, I think he kept it pointed toward the ground for the most part. If we would have made an issue of it he probably would have been in more legal trouble than us. But we was just glad to get out of there without getting shot.

Dairy, I thought that was pretty cool going into his business after that confrontation. Lynn knew about the incident but not that it was this guy until after we left. She thought he was such a nice man. And he is…until you throw rocks at his air conditioner unit. Then you better watch out Dairy.

Dairy, that’s all I have for ya, just a little remins, rimunis, just rembereing older and stupider times.

PSALM 38:18 FOR I WILL DECLARE MINE INIQUITY; I WILL BE SORRY FOR MY SIN.

I AM VONSTEGALL AND I WAS A LOT SORRIER FOR MY SIN WHEN IT WAS POINTED OUT TO ME WITH A GUN BARREL!!!!!!!!!!!

Dairy, it’s been a busy week. The first shift inspector was out and the 3rd shift inspector was out so the inspection work was piled high so I worked over several days. I’d rather get all my overtime on the weekend when there are fewer people in there, it’s nice and quiet and so laid back. It seems like I can get more work done and not be near as tired.

Dairy, tonight or more accurately last night we went to the Operation CHRISTmas Child warehouse and sorted shoeboxes. It’s always fun to see what people will send. Some people go all out and over stuff the shoeboxes with just what the brochures say and others and put all kinds of stuff that’s not suppose to be in them. There arsn’t suppose to be liquids or glass or chocolate or war toys. Even when people send something that has to come out of the shoebox for safety or other reasons they are still helping someone. Everything is saved and sent to a charity that can use it. The trainers always tell us to leave anything that is in the brochure in the box it is sent in; even if it’s a girly looking thing labeled for a boy. You never know, that box may go to a boy who really wants to get something for a sister or mother and that girly item will be what they get the most enjoyment from. I’d never thought of that before. Since every box is prayed over multiple times that it will go exactly where God wants it to go then things like that probably happen a lot with them. It’s just cool to see people get a blessing from spending a little money or spending a little time sorting the boxes and to be able to share the gospel on top of that is awesome.

DAiry, our group was working next to a group from the church I grew up at and a couple of their kids was working with us so I got to ask about a lot of people I use to know. I grew up just a couple of doors down from one kids father. That was pretty cool also.

Hey Dairy, I have to take back something I said last week. I said the young’uns eyedoctor was using unethical practices. I talked to a representative of the company today, no it was yesterday. She said it was a part time lunatic type woman working and that if she would have asked anyone else we wouldn’t have had a problem getting a prescription. I guess that’s what happens when you hire family. I had decided that we wouldn’t go there anymore, but this company representative I spoke to today, no yesterday, she was so professional and intelligent and well informed on company policy. She had such a pleasant attitude and spirit about her, she seemed so wise for one of so few years; if everyone was like her the business world would be a pleasure to deal in(should I spread it a little thicker Jami?).

Well Dairy, I reckon that’s my week, I’ll talk to ya later.

MATTHEW 13:40 AS THEREFORE THE TARES ARE GATHERED AND BURNED IN THE FIRE SO SHALL IT BE IN THE END OF THIS WORLD.

I ARE VONSTEGALL AND THE SHOEBOX MINISTRY IS COOL!!!!!!!!!!