Tommy's Hut/Shoeboxes

In case you haven't guessed by now, the posts I've been doing aren't in

any particular order :) Just however I end up getting the pictures uploaded on

to here is how you get to see them.

For the month of November, until the weekend before Thanksgiving we go to

"Tommy's Hut" to go and help pack shoeboxes full of toys/candy/school stuff for

Samaritan's Purse/Operation Christmas Child.

We've been involved with this for years, and love it!

There are a lot of pictures, so I won't write too much, but if you aren't familiar

with Operation Christmas Child, or "Tommy's Hut", ask us the next time you see

us, it's an awesome thing and you're missing out if you haven't heard about it!

The plush that always get brought in. Every year they think that
somehow these will fit into the small boxes... Every year, us girls at the end
who get to put lids and rubber bands on the boxes just smile :) And moan...Stacks of lids waiting to be put on the boxes as they come down "the line."

Sorry for the foggy smudge in the middle of most of these pictures...

I think the lens has a scratch :/

Here's where the boxes are getting folded into box shapes, instead of weirdly

shaped flat cardboard...

The rubber bands...

One (or two if the box is bulging) of these get put on both ends of the

shoebox in order to keep it shut, that's how full these boxes get!

A little backup... Us girls on the end can take the blame!

Us 3 and the the couple that run Tommy's Hut's granddaughter have been

involved long enough and are able to work together great so we always get

delegated to work at the very end of the assembly line type of thing they

have going on. We don't mind. Actually we prefer to be at the end :)
Even if we get blamed for being slowpokes every now and then!

The two most important items :D
No box leaves the building unless it has both candy and a ball in it.

Oh look, a hula bear!

And Nemo!

Sorry for the randomality (I know,I know that's not really a word!

spell check hates me right about now...)

And after the boxes get "rubber banded" they get written on, an age

and gender depending on what the box has inside it.

Rach "rubber banding."

"The guys" (unless there aren't any, then its a girl) :P
always get the job of fitting all of the shoeboxes into the shipping boxes and

getting those taped shut and on the semi for when they get shipped.

Stickers!

Letters. Each individually hand folded...

Every box gets a letter from Laverne and Norma and they tell

the kids about how they are special, that they love them, and that more importantly

Jesus loves them. :)

Ray and Herb taking the toothbrushes from the bulk packages and

sticking them in individual baggies.

Some of the boxes after being folded.

They come flat and need to be folded into a box shape.

Crystal and Matt battled to see who could build the fastest box.

Crystal could beat anybody when she was just doing one, but on more than

one she'd always get beaten. We decided that she was a "sprinter" and Matt

was the "endurance" guy.

"The Line"... Sounds all professional doesn't it ;)Full house.

There were two kinds of boxes to be folded. One was easy and

the other was SUPER hard. On the super hard ones everybody would practically

celebrate after just finishing one box.Us girls at the end. :D Ah, good times. We had so much fun all working together!

Some of the other goings on...

Full boxes ready to be shipped!

Candyyyy!

Emily, Bill and I. We had fun working together that night!

It was after Pegasus, and I was so tired, but they made it well worth me going.

Thanks guys!

Another one of the line.

Heh, could this have been after Pegasus too?

We seem to be in crazy moods... Were we overtired?

Um, no, I don't think so :D
There was a very small ratio of young people to older ones so we few

youngsters had to keep everyone else entertained!

That's what we'll go with anyway!

Us 3 and Emily.

Ha, and Matt! He said he'd take our group picture for us because he

had the longest arms... Ah, we'll take what we can get :D

Well folks, I believe that's the end... For now anyways.